Updated by: June 3, 2026
Somewhere Else
I have researched Singapore with the kind of dedication I have never applied to anything useful.
I know that there are over 400 bird species on the island. I like to look at birds, not with binoculars, that would be weird, just enjoying watching them fly overhead. The idea of 400 species doing so, including something called the Oriental Pied Hornbill, which looks genuinely prehistoric, appeals to me more than I can reasonably explain.
I know that a cold beer is expensive in Singapore. The government taxes alcohol heavily as a public health measure, which is admirable and deeply inconvenient. Many expats do their weekly shop across the causeway in Malaysia, thirty minutes away, where everything costs a fraction of the price.
I know that the Royal Shakespeare Company performs regularly at Fort Canning Park. Outdoor theatre under a tropical sky. Watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream in thirty-degree heat sounds like exactly the right way to spend an evening.
I know that my country taxes you at every stage of life. When you earn, when you invest, when you build something, when you finally sell it. It doesn’t exactly encourage you to dream bigger.
I have looked at condos. I have studied the districts of Singapore — Bishan, Ang Mo Kio and others. Read about the hawker centers and the extraordinary food and the fact that it is the safest city on earth and that you can let your children walk to the train station alone.
The only thing standing between me and Singapore is my wife. She is French. She is a high school teacher. She is extremely good at her job and completely happy doing it exactly where she is doing it now.
“Hello, International French School Singapore. Feel free to headhunt her.”
In the meantime, I have decided to do the next best thing. I am going to spend a week in Singapore staying in a condo, eating at hawker centers, watching whatever birds fly overhead without binoculars, and getting as close as I can to living there.
For now.
Have you ever dreamed of living somewhere else?
Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder
