Had dinner with two of my colleagues after our trip to Sim Lim... one is Indonesian and the other Burmese. Wanted to know more about Indonesia and Myanmar so got them to share during dinner. We arrived at a consensus that people tend to complain about Singapore too much. My Burmese colleague suggested that these folks be sent to Myanmar for a day to cure them. Hahahaha!!! I also suggested that those who constantly bitch about the cost of buying and maintaining a car be sent to Indonesia to experience the traffic jams there. My Indonesian colleague agreed totally as he's spent countless hourless getting stuck in traffic back home.
5 comments:
No huge traffic jams in Hong Kong and cars are reasonably priced. It's all about providing proper infrastructure not charging three times the price for a car here.
Also Myanmar is a third world country with a different political system so you're not comparing apples with apples.
I think your rational is very biased. Comparing Singapore and HK isn't comparing apples with apples either. HK has a larger land area than Singapore so they don't have to control the car population and can afford to let people buy as many cars as they like without fearing ridiculous jams. Secondly, the cost of taking the MTR, buses and taxis are pricier as well so they counter it with cheaper car prices. Petrol there is not cheap though so it counters the initial cost of purchasing the car.
I wouldn't dare comment about Myanmar because I have never been there or lived there so I leave it to the native, who has lived in both countries, to comment about conditions in both countries. And if conditions were the same, we wouldn't need to send people there as "punishment" right?
I also sense an obvious preference for HK over Singapore *wink*
HK land area may be greater but the majority ie. New Territories is farm land and not inhabited. The traffic is centered around HK island and Kowloon. Sure prices are more expensive in HK because the cost of living is more expensive and people earn a lot more. So in relative terms public transportation is the same price. I've not been to Myanmar but from all accounts it has a "unique" political system.
Speaking from personal experience, I stayed close to the Shenzhen-HK border before and getting from that accomodation to a place like Central was painful because I had to take a bus to the closest train station, take a train and change trains before I got to Central. Not to mention that it isn't cheap so it makes sense to have affordable cars as an option. My GF is from HK and coming from "the horse's mouth" as they say... though wages are lower here, she actually can save more $$$ here because the cost of living is lower too. Her brother works back home in HK and though he earns more, he works longer hours but can't save as much.
Thanks for your feedback regarding censoring... would you like to give me your blog URL so I can post uncensored comments. I would be more than happy to.
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