To me, only other places that compare to NYC are Singapore and Sydney. Great food in Singapore, great weather (usually) in Sydney. The people can be a bit busy in Singapore though.

Certainly no NYC, but they ticked all my recreation, arts, food, people and transport boxes.

Unfortunately, they’re all so goddamn expensive to live in.

Singapore?? To New York????? Sorry what? Singapore is fine as far as a hot place with incredible food and good hotels to spend a few nights, but it’s also quite possibly the most boring major city I’ve been to outside of that and there doesn’t seem to be any cultural life beyond shopping - based on my own experience and that of friends who’ve lived there.

I could also take issue with comparing Sydney to NY, but I’ll let that one go ;)

In defense of sg, the only reason you said this is you never left orchard rd. You can experience worlds of culture just eating food at any given neighborhood coffee shop or going to a wet market in the morning. It just is a different culture, one that doesn't try to emulate America too much (hipster shit like live music or public art or things like that).

> hipster shit like live music or public art

I think these are just human things done since... before civilization?

> hipster shit like live music or public art

Yes, those things are definitely recent "hip" phenomena, not found over the entire millennia of history

There is a certain kind of live music and public art that (honestly) tourists are looking for which the person I was referring to didn't see. There is "music" and "performance" that fit into the guise of culture but it isn't really for tourist consumption.

That said, there is live music and public art too, just since it isn't Singapore's culture but an import from the west, there's less of it (see my rant on western food).

EDIT removed "white" qualifier for tourist, my brain still thinks in US but really all tourists from wherever go to the malls and idk promenade but miss the kopitiams and markets because it's just not in the touristy areas.

Not American, live in London. Not to get into a pissing contest, but I can go to Ridley Rd for a wet market and still have any amount of cultural stuff to do. SG does have the food, but it’s a company town entirely driven around (conspicuous…) consumption. Less shit Dubai.

All that said, I like spending a few days there - again, the food! - but I’d rather be in Bangkok or KL for longer, e.g.

If you're comparing NYC food to Singapore I don't know how you could say sg food is great.

The staples (Chinese, Indian, Malay) are good and probably better, but western food is not great. A few are mediocre and some are great, but the great places lack variety and selection, that is you usually get only one good thing from a given stall or restaurant.

My girlfriend, the first time she went to the US was blown away by the food. She even swooned over freaking gas station pizza I picked up once. Now that I live in sg I understand what she meant by the food in the US having flavor, the staples are great but the western food is pretty mediocre and just is either off or just lacks the proper seasoning, or if it's good, it's easily twice the price (after conversion!) of similar quality food I ate in Ohio.

I seriously miss creole / cajun food for example, but the SG experience of the west is freaking British food which is the bottom of the barrel (fish and chips anyone?) seriously.

Another thing (sorry for the rant but it's fresh in my mind). Good luck getting any amount of vegetables in your meal.

This is pretty true throughout Asia. Bangkok’s probably best for western food. But nothing like NY.

SG has a few decent options once you get over the fact that you’re paying four times the price for a slice of pizza (or, god forbid, cote de boeuf). Ironically the best Cantonese food (IMHO) is in the American club.

Having lived in both New York and Singapore, I can’t say I’d recommend Singapore to anyone who loves NY for the aspects you mention (but there are other reasons to love SG!). I think the scale of opportunities for recreation, arts, and really just a diversity of experience is vastly different. In APAC, I’d suggest Hong Kong (where I’ve also lived) instead, though that is even more like London than NY.

Yeah, HK is (or was) way better than SG, and much more NY-like. Even more beautiful than NY, actually. HK's inevitable destruction by the CCP is a fucking tragedy. There are very few cities in the world like that.

Have you lived in Sydney? I spent a day there recently and I loved it, but I got the sense that things tend to wind down in the evening (at least around Surry Hills where I was staying). Curious if I got the wrong impression: my recollection of NYC is that there's something going on at pretty much any hour, day or night.

> I got the sense that things tend to wind down in the evening

this is true in sydney everywhere. May be except thursday nights, some shops open late.

I lived in Sydney for five years! Great city. Lived there before I came here.

My partner and I are looking at Madrid. But yeah, there is no other city in the world that's going to be like NY. Maybe London but of course that has the same problems.

* less guns.

* not specifically talking about London, either.