About Singapore

Contrary to a fairly [but hopefully not] common belief, Singapore is not in China. Singapore is an island-city-state that is located in South-East Asia at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Neighbouring countries include Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

The national language is Bahasa Melayu (related, but slightly different from Bahasa Indonesia) although the majority of inhabitants, all official documents and all road signs are in English (UK). The currency is the Singapore dollar (S$) which is what J. uses when he lists any prices on the blog and has an exchange rate of roughly S$1.54 to USD1 as of December 2006. (S$1.39 to USD1 as of March 2008)

There are two major public healthcare groups: Singapore Healthcare Group (SingHealth) and National Healthcare Group (NHG). The medical care here is fairly advanced and as is the case anywhere in the world, healthcare concerns are not infrequently mentioned in the local newspapers.

Medical students here study at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Recently, a new Duke’s Graduate School of Medicine has opened at the Singapore General Hospital campus.