Eshin Direct

Test Post

Test Post from ScribeFire.

Avoid Being Sold at Newton Market

Trader Eyal has a very good post on how to avoid being sold something. In some ways I’ve seen him in action already in the computer marts of Hong Kong and Singapore, so I already know he knows his stuff. I think Rule Number 2 is his trademark where he cracks a joke which sends the poor sales folks laughing nervously back to their corner of the shop.

The post is influenced by another post on how to avoid buying a rug in Turkey. Trader Eyal then offers his own ruleset based on experiences in Asia. I, in turn and in the spirit of National Day weekend, offer that these rules apply equally to that most famous of tourist trap places, Newton Market, in our very own Singapore.

Rule number 1: Never, ever, respond to a conversation or any kind of interaction with those shills or sellers unless you’re already well educated in the area you’re considering a purchase in and are ready to buy right now. Preferably, I try to even avoid any eye contact as this minimizes those “where are you from?” questions.

This definitely applies to Newton Market. Avoid eye contact with the hawkers at Newton Market as this is a sign of weakness. You are indicating that you are unsure of what to eat and leave a nice big opening for them to influence you. Likewise, aimless wandering around “browsing” should be done to a minimum as this also indicates the weakness of uncertainty that can be exploited. Look like a local and this diminishes somewhat - one trick of mine is to carry my motorcycle helmet with me so that I definitely don’t look like a tourist.

Rule number 2: refer to rule number 1, can’t be reiterated enough. If you do nothing else then just observing the above will get you out of most trouble. For “advanced” users, I’m already quite immune to those shills so sometimes I do crack a joke with them, often in such a way that makes them realize I’m not going to buy anything from them and gets (some of) them off my back.

No, don’t joke with them. No conversation until you are ready to makan, as the locals say using the Malay word for eat. Seriously, if you are inexperienced, your initiating into dialogue will have them follow you around Newton Market while you decide what to eat.

Rule number 3: Never, ever, buy in the first shop you get into. If by design or by breaking rule number 1 (tsk tsk) you do get into a shop and start discussing an item, even if you like something and the price seems right, do not buy yet. Why? You can almost always come back later, it’s very rare that only one seller has this item, stepping away puts you in control and the shop owner is more likely to reveal their lowest selling price.

In this case, the first is not always the best or the best value for money. Plenty of tourists give the hawker stalls closest to the entrance their money through not having followed these simple rules. I’m not saying that they are bad but it is in your interests to shop around. Of course, tourists don’t have the luxury of experience to tell them which place is better, but still don’t be rushed into making a decision until you’ve browsed around. Yes, the hawkers are not unique but doing expect them to reveal their lowest selling price. Some leeway might be given when you ask for add-ons to the meal. For example, if ordering something like satay and you want ketupat (the rice cake type thing that works nicely with satay they might charge you for this. Ask for it for free if you are buying plenty of satay.

Rule number 4: Plan in advance for any pruchase worth more than just pocket money. Do your research, start with online shops - almost anything is sold online too these days, with friends who’ve been to the place, travel forums, hotel stafff (depending no what kind of hotel you’re in this is sometimes not a great idea) and multiple shops in the destination. When checking prices it’s best to check in different kinds of shops including those that seem expensive like in shopping malls, main street, and then markets. Will give you some good reference points.

Tough to do here. Do your research for food at Hungry Go Where or ask any local friends which place is good at Newton. Inevitably, you will be told that Newton is probably not the best place for anything. Particularly seafood since it is overpriced and it seems that tourists are inevitably lured by relatively cheap (for them) and fresh lobster. Ironically, someone is paying for the seafood since it seems the predominant fare at Newton and not all consuming our clawed crustacean friends are non-locals at Newton.

Rule number 5: Coordinate with travel partner(s). Discuss in advance with your travel partner(s) on what stage you’re in: checking things out or ready to buy and what items and prices you’re aiming for. It also helps if no one goes into a shop saying: “yes I really love it, it’s the best item I’ve ever seen and we’ll surely never find anything better and cheaper anywhere else”

Good advice. Plan a strategy at least five minutes before stepping foot within the Newton Market compound with more than one person. Discuss what type of foods you both are looking for. Remember, you are the prey and the hawkers are the hunters - even if you don’t show any weakness, they will inevitably zero in on the weaker member of the group. This poor soul can invariably be recognized as the naive and enthusiastic person that spots something they actually like and shouts out “oh, I feel like a fish porridge” in front of aforementioned fish porridge stall.

Rule number 6: Negotiate. It’s impossible to teach negotiation in a blog post. Nevertheless knowing how to neogtiate helps tremendously of course. If you’ve done your homework in steps 4 and 5 you should know what sort of prices to expect and everyone should be on the same page with regards to how to approach the seller. When I don’t feel comfortable in my research of step 4 then if the item is expensive I won’t buy yet but negotiate to find out prices, if it isn’t expensive and/or worth the time then I go for rule of thumb of cutting the price in half and seeing how that goes.

Negotiation at Newton is a fine art and you have several choices in approach. You can either go for Trader Eyal’s rule of thumb and cut the price in half. Chances are you probably won’t eat. Alternatively, you can pummel your way though like an ang mo and try and get something for free like a couple of beers (he’s overcharging you for the lobster anyway). Likewise, you can score moral victory points and get the condiments for free like the previously referred to ketupat. Alternatively, if you’re really feeling cheap for a typical meal that costs $5-6 dollars sing, then overload yourself on the free sambal, chili, soy sauce or take some extra chopsticks.

So there you have it - your handy guide to handling hawkers at Newton Market.

Condo Swimming

I’ve been lucky for the last couple of weeks to enjoy condo life in Singapore. I’ve been using the pool regularly and perhaps this will help me finally get back into shape. I doubt that wakeboarding each week for two hours qualifies for regular healthy exercise. I’ve taken it easy on myself and organized a leisurely workout that takes me about 30 mins to complete.

In principle, it’s simply circuits of the pool with each set progressively increasing by one with a maximum of 2 minutes rest time in between each set. I’ve started off with 4 circuit sets and moved up to 7 circuit sets by the end. Once I’ve cleared out the arteries a little, I’ll move to starting with higher sets and cutting down rest times.

Taxis Suffer The Worst of It

Apparently, a kid in Thailand decided he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in Grand Theft Auto IV. Of course, the taxi driver fought back to tragic consequences. As a result the game has been banned to stem the potential recreations of in-game scenes.

However, anyone with any experience with the taxis in Singapore will tell you that you do not really need a game to spur you on to violence towards cabbies over here. The taxi situation in Singapore remains one of the biggest shames for a nation trying to position itself as a tourist and business travel destination. And unfortunately, the taxi drivers themselves seem to bear the brunt of a ineffectual policies within the transport system aimed at taxis and a bloated fat-cat quasi-civil service corporate landscape and an unforgiving public. It has even turned violent with attacks on taxis increasing in Singapore.

Thankfully, I have only taken maybe 2 or 3 taxi rides in the last 3 months so my general frustration level with this area of Singapore’s transport system is down somewhat. I suppose that provides a solution of sorts to those frustrated with the Singapore taxi system.

In my new zen-like state achieved through not actually using taxis, I can offer some explanation to the erratic behavior Singapore taxi drivers exhibit in order for people to better understand.

1. No Taxis at Critical Times

This is not the taxi driver’s fault. Shift changes at peak rush hour times should be perfectly acceptable. This fault has something to do with the high-costs of the taxis and the need for taxis to be shared by three shifts of driver. It has nothing to do with them sitting at Changi Airport in mass queues and waiting for hours for the rate band to change to a higher rate.

2. Taxi Driver Not Know Where to Go

Again, this is not the taxi driver’s fault. Printed maps are obsolete so you really can’t expect taxis to carry them in their vehicles. Nifty little GPS consoles are nice but you cannot also expect the taxi company to actually spend money to train the cabbies to use the on-board navigation. Besides, this is Asia so face is quite important, showing that you do not know how to do your job would be very bad, so the best thing to do is ask the passenger to do it for you (note this might be mistaken for not knowing how to do your job but in actually fact it shows that the driver is actually quite smart since he’s passing the responsibility of doing his job back to you.)

3. Eh?

Eh? How can you not fall in love with the common greeting used by Singaporean taxi drivers when you tell them where to go? Eh? I said, how can you not fall in love with the common greeting used by Singaporean taxi drivers when you tell them where to go. This is really your fault because you probably didn’t alert the taxi driver that you were about to speak to him (say, “Uncle!”) and you didn’t use a short throw away line of gibberish just to prepare him for the answer after the second “Eh?”. It also helps helps to talk real slow too.

4. Rude Service

No really, how would you feel driving people around the whole day to where they need to get to? Or just sort of a ten minute walk from where they need to be. Or generally to the nearest taxi stand? It’s not like they are actually getting paid to be nice to you. I once had a taxi driver that told me I was lying about a conversation that I had with another taxi driver (first taxi had refused since he was on shift change, but second taxi just didn’t want to earn his fee for me just sitting in his cab and take me from end of Orchard to another). This completely was my fault so I did ask him kindly to take me to the nearest police station so that we could settle this. He wisely declined.

5. Advance Fee Payment

This is not the taxi driver’s fault if they have accepted an advance job and they don’t arrive on time. You cannot expect the taxi driver to be at a particular time even with 20 minutes warning, despite the fact that anywhere in Singapore is pretty much 20 minutes. It is just not feasible when they need to cram in as many jobs as possible before yours. You are only paying a small 5 buck surcharge on your fare for advanced bookings. It’s not like you are paying them 3.5 bucks for the fare they took before yours.

Okay, to be fair not all taxi drivers are like this. But I have noticed my stress-level with Singapore has gone down with since I have been freed of being held hostage to a taxi service gone bad.

Glove Theft at Suntec

To the person who decided that it would be worth his (or her) while to steal a pair of gloves from a helmet attached to a CB400 Super Four at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday, I have only one thing to say to you. Was it really worth it?

I mean, the lining is all shot, the leather was all cracked and let me tell you, they were imported all the way from Hong Kong where I once left them to dry once and a whole bunch of mold sprang out on them. I hope some of the bacteria survived the subsequent washing, bred with some new pathogens from Singapore and given birth to some offspring who will shortly become well-acquainted with the insides of your stomach as you will inevitably stick your theiving fingers in your mouth at some point (most likely after a nose picking session).

Really, again, I ask you? Was it worth it? I’m probably somewhat unique in that most bike riders do not wear gloves at all in Singapore. So you can’t be a bike rider. And those that do usually ride Harley’s or expensive set ups. I assume that these folks can afford a measly pair of leather gloves. Maybe it was a car driver? Hmmm, driving gloves are all the rage here in Singapore but wouldn’t you have been better off with something a little more stylish for your nifty ah-beng car?

Or perhaps some unfortunate Singaporean just succumbed to the feeling of kiasu and decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. After all, low crime means no crime. If you have my gloves, I’d like ‘em back but more importantly, explain to me why. It baffles the mind.