Local traditions and culture in Singapore

You will encounter lots of Signage or phrases that sometimes you can't understand easily.

Take away - To go or take out
Eat here - Dine in

You will encounter this when you are buying your food from a food chain. I read an advertisement saying " Take away noodles won't soften"

No money - sometimes means no load or credit left from a prepaid cellphone

Pleas clear the steps - I read this on a escalator maybe it means don't block the escalator or something.

Just smile and don't laugh if you read this "Please lower down your voice volume"

Lantern Festival (also called as mooncake festival or mid-autumn festival) is a chinese traditional festival. On the night of the festival, decorative lanterns depicting birds, beasts, historical figures, and any one of a number of different themes are carried by children or adorn temples. At Singapore Chinese Garden, there is an special event to celebrate the lantern festival (most probably on mid August to mid September). I was there at the right time to share the great moment.

Yes I agree with Lynne.

Try and be in the longbar when they have peanut tapping--it is so much fun drinking singspore slings--shelling fresh peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor--when people walk on them it sounds fantastic.The crushed shells are then used as mulch on the beautiful gardens at Raffles.Also check out the marble staircases in the main foyer.High tea is a nice experience. Enjoy.

The dynamic atmosphere of Singapore makes time even more valuable each day. You can find barber shops doing haircut in 10 minutes for 10 SGD. There are many outlets all around Singapore. QB House and EC House are two main haircut saloons having many branches.

Since visiting Singapore I have fallen in love with Nonya food. This is a term used to describe the delightful fusion of Chinese, Malay and other Southeast Asian flavours and cooking styles. My personal favourite is Mee Siam (spicy tangy noodles), but other outstanding dishes are Laksa Lemak (rice noodles in coconut gravy), Nonya Mee (nonya noodles), Itek Tim (duck and salted vegetable soup) and Ayam Buah Keluak (chicken with keluak).
Singapore is also rightly famous for Char Kway Teow, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Chili Crab.
Treat your tastebuds!

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Yes, in eating places, especially around CBD, tissue paper put on tables or chairs can act as a scare crow or should I say scare people from taking the place.
It's a common thing in Singapore as most offices have similar lunch time (around 12-2pm) and there is simply not enough seats in hawker centres to cover for everyone during those 2 hours.

Some other common items that can be seen to "chop" the seats are: umbrellas and newspapers.
Interestingly, there are other non conventional "chopping" stuffs too, such as: name cards, handkerchiefs, ballpoints, lighters and even body lotions.

I wonder if we'll see wallet in the list soon :D

Today's Economist, dated 3 june 2008, had an article on the etiquette of singaporeans and the cultural peculiarities of this Asian island.
you can read it at:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2008/05/continuing_our_weekly_series_o.cfm?Fsrc=glvrnwl
The comments following the articles are also entertaining..

Singapore's population is approximately 75% ethnic Chinese, and therefore many traditional Chinese customs and philsophies are observed in Singapore. Feng Shui is the concept of being in harmony with one's environment, and it is applied on both micro (e.g. decorating one's home) and macro (e.g. city planning) scales. Examples of Feng Shui can be found all over Singapore, such as the placement of trees and plants all around (and even inside or on top of) buildings and the many koi ponds found in public places.

But Feng Shui can also work in a negative way, as illustrated by this photo. The buildings shown were designed with a sharp edge on one side. In terms of Feng Shui, this is very negative because it resembles a knife that could slash and do harm. As a result, there is a totally empty lot directly across from the sharp edge of the building. Despite this being prime downtown real estate, no one will build on it because of the negative Feng Shui directed towards it by the sharp building.