Singapore

Is it true that chewing-gum is not available in Singapore, or is this just a joke?...

oh dear, you have been terribly mis informed

you can bring in chewing gum into singapore
you can chew gum in singapore
but the catch is
you cannot buy or sell chewing gum in singapore

you can buy chewing gum in pharmacies
if
you're trying to kick your smoking habit
those nicotine gums are part of the FTA we signed with the US coupla years back
hootie

Just don't stick the gum you're chewing on a seat in public transport.

There was never a law against chewing (used as a verb here) gum in Singapore, but it was law that chewing gum could not be manufactured in Singapore, imported into Singapore, or sold in Singapore.

I understand that the law was changed a few years ago, and gum is available in pharmacies.

swallow it.

chewing gum makes you look like a cow chewing her cud.

give it up.

This is a real sticky matter, proceed with caution.

heh heh heh. good one

and to add

you can give chewing gum
and you can receive chewing gum

you can chew gum in public
however
you should not chew gum on the trains
there are plenty of cameras and SMRT staff walking around
ever ready with the "Fine for eating on the trains" summons

hootie

I know a guy who can hook you up with some prime quality Trident over on Joo Chait Road.

Is that anywhere near the Ah Chew Hotel on Liang Seah Street?

#7, well Singapore is a "fine" city.

#9, no need to bring my uncle into this.

You can get "therapeutic" gums at Singapore pharmacies.

Things like Orbit - which is touted to as good for teeth (presumably whitening) - and Nicorette, a nicotine gum aimed at helping smokers quit their addiction.

But Singaporeans need to submit names and ID numbers before buying. Assuming it's the same for tourists too.

Actually, I am quite curious why Nicorete which has "therapuetic" nicpotine doesn';t have the arse taxed out of it like normal cigeers which have normal nicotine.

What the hell's the difference? NONE.

and is it really in Nicorette's best interest to actually get you off the smokes? NO.

people who chew gum come across as a little Kansan for me.

Harry, they could insert some of that Nicorette into a rolled up banana leaf and smoke it..."electrical banana...gonna be a sudden craze." Oh wait, that song was about something else...also banned until recently in Singapore...but now legalized as a "therapeutic item"..."they call, me Mellow Yellow..."

But this is all a Chicle-ish Subject.

Someone mentioned that "importing" chewing-gum is against the law, and I have also read this on some website (which was perhaps outdated). If I bring chewing-gum in my suitcase, for my own use, is that O.K. or is that considered "importing" chewing-gum?
I'm talking about "therapeutical" chewing-gum like Orbit/Xylitol, which is indeed therapeutical (no, it's not whitening...), though I'm not going to get into that now... Anyway I am more or less addicted to it, and I'll only be staying a week in Singapore, so I can bring it in my luggage. Or is that against the law and will I end up in jail for attempting such a crime?????????
Please advise, as I have never been to jail in my life and I am desperately trying to avoid that...
Many thanks.

The govt will not put you in jail as they will have to feed you and give you free lodgings.

No, the practical way is to impose a fine so huge that you will only be left with bus fare to go over to Johor Baru.

When I was in Singapore last year, I still saw signs warning people of fines for chewing gum. Until they remove those signs I would not dare suggest you chew gum in Singapore. Just bring some for your personal use and ask the hotel desk if such law has been repealed.

it is okay - just chew and swallow. :)

just joking... but seriously, the best (and true) answer so far is #1 and the exception of food in the MRT as in #7.

The anti-litter regulation is more dangerous,,, and no spitting, no jaywalking, no cycling the wrong way, no driving/biking without license, flush after pissing, no smoking... my gawd so hard to relax lah...

No smoking? That's wonderful. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke.
And the rest is also wonderful... I only asked about chewing-gum (which I'm not planning to chew in the street anyway...).

How about a thanks, eh? The extra info on other matters is out of concern and human kindness to a lost soul who at first seems to want to buy chewing-gum in a 7-11 and then changed to "therapeutical" gum (and now chewing in complete privacy)... and appears confused on personal consumption and importing for commercial usage.

I think you are the confused one, nyamukhunter... As for myself, I have never been a "lost soul" in my life... Everywhere in the world you can buy therapeutical gum in any 7 Eleven store/supermarket/pharmacy/you name it...
I assume Singapore is the only exception!

well, good luck to your trip to Sing... and don't get too confuse and lost on legal matters on desperately staying out of jail and don't generalised stores everywhere in the the world as if you been to all 7-11s on the planet, eh.

#22, what are you ravign on about?

sound like YOU need nicotine.

hahaha

think of singapore as a huge performance art stage
how far can you push
without going over the edge

my new favourite piece now is the 'official' flirting point
located right outside the singapore art musuem
by local arts group, Vertical Submarine
has to be seen and experienced to be believed
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_475665.html

hootie

Talking about arts, can anyone recommend a good shop where I can buy Chinese classical music? I mean REAL Chinese classical music, not the commercial instrumental stuff you can buy everywhere in Asia... I bought two wonderful CDs in Taipei last year, but I must have listened to them 50 times by now... Hopefully I can find something new in Singapore!

chinatown now is a bit dodgy.
you can find it but its harder

i can recommend some of the shops on the ground floor of bras basah complex
http://bras-basah-complex.com.sg/bbc/2_shops/en_level.asp?sel=01
they're quite old school. so they might be wat you want

there's also a new age-y joint there
http://www.awarenessplace.com/

hootie

Chinese music?

save yourself the money. buy a cat and strangle it.

Thanks, hootie. And how about good bookshops?...
BTW, I'm a big cat-lover, so strangling a cat is out of the question... I'd be happy to strangle a few stray dogs instead... but they're too dirty...

Hi sujata1983

Here's the official stance from the Singapore Customs:

http://www.customs.gov.sg/leftNav/trav/Dutiable<i>Controlled+and+Prohibited</i>Goods.htm

I took a school group back through the Johor-Tuas checkpoint a couple of years back. A few students had packs of gums stashed in their pockets, bags, etc. The customs officer stopped them and got them to empty the stuff into a trash bag. Our group was held back a good one hour.

O.K., so what is "oral dental"????? And "medicated gum"??????
Thank you, GabrielTan. But I have the feeling that what I'm chewing is, uh, one of the above...

this is mightily swerving off topic

but ok.
there are 2 kinds of bookshops in singapore
bookshops and good bookshops

the bookshops are the usual suspect.
the big chain ones like
Borders, MPH, Harris, Popular Bookstore
they have everything you need and you can google for more info

the good bookstores in singapore are few and harder to find
here's 3 of my favourite

Cat Socrates
http://www.catsocrates.com.sg/
3rd floor of bras Basah Complex
bohemian type joint with plenty of cuteness, owned by folks big on swedish indie folk music

Basheer
http://www.basheergraphic.com/
4th floor of bras basah complex
this is an institution. must visit if you're a design freak.
come here for cheap old issues of iD, Monocle and Wallpaper

BooksActually
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4087859131
it is hard to find, it is tiny but this bookshop packed to the gills with love
highly recommended.
do a google blog search for the packed list of events, book launches, writers meetups and hard to find books

hootie

If I understand correctly, just about everything in Singapore is in Bras Basah Complex? Which is located where?

hey going back to the 'main topic' :) my friend was caught eating mentos in a train 2 days ago and was fined 30 sgd..it really is a 'fine' country

That has absolutely nothing to do with the main topic. Who ever asked about eating on trains???

Bras Basah Complex is across North Bridge Road from Ralles Hotel and next to the National Library.

#28, understand the joke when told.

Jesus.

The old saw is "Chinese music sounds like a cat being strangled", nothing about dogs in the old saying, so your comments are flat.

Oh, hootie, what happened to the blowfish?

fish are best served with chips
hahahaha

and going off topic yet again
there is an excellent aussie style fish and chips joint,
just down the road from bras basah complex
fisherman's wharf
http://yum.sg/?component=view_restaurant&restaurant_id=1738

just don eat em on the trains
hootie

"Generally, there are 4 types of dutiable goods in Singapore as follows.
Intoxicating liquors, including spirits, wine, beer, ale and stout;
Motor spirit; and...." What the hell is "motor spirit"? Booze for your automobile?

And I notice that you can't bring in cigarette lighters in the shape of a gun...a gun is okay, or any other item in the shape of a gun, but pray no...absolutely no..cigarette lighters!

And I think the way out on the chewing gum issue is that "Oral-dental gum" is allowed. I would suggest trying to chew gum without using ones "oral" (=mouth) and "dental" (= teeth).

On the gum issue...dazzle them with THIS!

http://journals.lww.com/nutritiontodayonline/Abstract/2008/03000/Benefits_of_Chewing_Gum__Oral_Health_and_Beyond.9.aspx

On the location of the bookstores (and place to find Chinese opera) in the Bras Basah Complex (no it doesn't men Brassieres Bazaar...I think it has something to do with 'rice market")

http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_928/travel_site_12997/

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/singapore/expat_guide/537/the_book_lovers_heaven_for_everyone.php

Chinese humour at its best.

.

strewth.

Thanks for the link, RedApe... I am well aware of the benefits of chewing-gum - there are other articles about this on the Internet, including on Wikipedia.
Of course the "oral dental" thing is ridiculous, and would imply that virtually any chewing-gum IS allowed into Singapore! I was thinking of printing that page and taking it with me to Singapore... But there's obviously some language barrier involved here... And if the people who wrote the law (oral dental... motor spirits...) are so confused, who can tell about the people who are there to enforce it???...
I'm still hoping to find "oral dental" chewing-gum in Singapore pharmacies...

What if I enter S'pore with a parang in my bag ? Its not on the list of prohibited articles !

LR

43: Yep, nothing will happen. Please do it. :)

If you are bringing one or two packs of gums, the customs are unlikely to give you any trouble. If questioned, just feign ignorance and let them confiscate the gums.

It might be interesting to note that one of the favourite sourvenirs Singaporeans like to buy from overseas (esp those who drove to Malaysia) are chewing gums.

sololo are you so sure !

On my part I did it ! But it was confiscated by the customs officer at the border. I bought it in Malaysia seeing it was like useful for camping. It is sold free in the local Malay shops but S'pore officers said NO ! They confiscated it even when I told them that I am only transiting and have a further on ticket out of the country for the same day.

LR

Sorry, I was joking about the parang.

Uh, sorry, what is a parang?...

a parang is a local version of the machete

Here is a parang

LR

Well, I am safely back from Singapore, I was not fined, arrested or jailed!
In fact I have found Singapore to be a fine-free city... Singaporeans seem to be very fond of crossing roads at red lights (no I didn't do that), and nobody ever fines them...
For those of you who may be interested in the subject, "oral dental" is just about any sugar-free chewing-gum (just as I had expected). It is available in pharmacies, though somewhat over-priced (but then that is true of a lot of things in Singapore.... but that's a different subject). I'm sorry I didn't bring chewing-gum with me from Thailand, as that would have been perfectly legal (and nobody checked me for chewing-gum at Changi airport anyway, I suppose they have more important things to do...). As far as I could gather, it is mainly bubble-gum which is banned in Singapore these days - and that's a good thing, too...
Thanks hootie for the information about the Bras Basah complex and the music shops. The best bookshop in S'pore is probably Kinokuniya in the Takeshimaya shopping mall... it's even better than the Kinokuniya bookshop in Bangkok!!

Bravo! bravo!! bravo!!!

Thanks SamPan!!! I promise to do even better next time!!!
Uh... I'm not so sure that there's going to be a next time, though... Singapore hotels are so horribly over-priced and poor value... And there's not much to see in Singapore, either... I mean, if you've been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia, there's really no point in spending money on Singapore... I was sorry I had booked my hotel for a whole week: three days would have been more than enough...
Not to mention the heat/humidity level, which is almost intolerable (much worse than in Thailand). For an outdoor person like me, it was not a good experience...

oh, bullshit.

Dont chew your cud in public transport.

Glad you found out that it's not that easy to get fined in Singapore. Singapore does have budget guesthouses which cost about $25 per bed.

Edited by: sololo

Thanks sololo, but I have never stayed in a "budget guesthouse" in my life, and I'm not going to start now that I'm middle-aged... For $25 I can stay in a lovely three-star hotel in Thailand, with a swimming-pool, too... What I was saying was that I had expected more from the Ibis for the $80 I had paid for the room (I'm talking US$).
I would say that the only tourist attraction in S'pore are the local people, who are quite interesting. And the fact that English is widely spoken is also a plus. That doesn't justify a one-week stay though...
Oh, and the Buddha tooth temple in Chinatown is also lovely (especially for me, as a Buddhist)... The daily ritual is rather quaint... Methinks the Buddha would collapse with laughter if he could see all those nice elderly people worshipping his tooth, LOL!!!

Oooooops, sorry anshjain, looks like I'm still chewing my cud in public transport... Are you really a Jain? Nice to meet you. I am very fond of Jains.

For a new traveller, less jaded than you, one could easily soend a week or two in Singapore.

The zoo, the shops, the orchids, the Botanics, The Military theme park, the bird park, the night safari, FOOD, and plenty more.

hey hey sujata

yeah, hotels here are over priced.
its the fall out from all these property mad singaporeans.
so you cant compare singapore and bangkok hotels

and yeah kino in taka is good.
there used to be a public library on the 5th floor of taka, which makes the deal all the more sweeter.
hootie

@ no 57- yes i am, are you? where are you from?

Hootie, I'm really grateful to you for recommending those shops in the Bras Basah complex. I bought a lovely CD there - Chinese bamboo flute and piano, exactly what I like best... It's actually a concerto called "The White Snake". I don't think I would have found it anywhere else. Thanks again.
The two HMV shops (in 313 Somerset and CityLink) are also good. I found some great Yo-Yo Ma and Lang Lang CDs there. Just buying music makes the trip to S'pore worthwhile for me...
No offence Harry_Mudd, I'm not that jaded, but I'm not much into shops and definitely not into food... The botanical gardens are indeed lovely, but it was so hot when I was there that I thought I was going to faint...

you are 1.5° above the equator, what did you expect?

I am a Singaporean and I don't even know there is a Buddha tooth temple in Chinatown and to think I visited the Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka. But I believe I know which temple you are referring to.

It's unfortunate that you are unable to find much things to do in Singapore. We could have given you some suggestions. If you like to hike, Pulau Ubin, Henderson Wave, Sungei Buloh and Matrichie have some trails. The farms near Lim Chu Kang and Kranji are worth a visit as well. Qianhu fish spa can be quite fun for those new to it.

Thanks, sololo. I have walked the trail around the MacRitchie reservoir, it was great and I even saw some cute little monkeys... I don't think I would have ventured on much longer trails, considering the weather... I love to hike, but I'm just not used to the Singaporean climate... Perhaps I picked the wrong time of the year to visit Singapore?...
The temple in Chinatown is beautiful (especially the museum on the third floor - if I remember correctly), and I even liked the daily ritual... Although, like most western Buddhists, I'm not much into rituals, I'm more into meditation. Hey, it's great that you visited the Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy...!!! Congratulations... I have always found Sri Lanka a bit scary... I bought the LP guide once, but in the end I didn't go.