I live a block from the mosque in the picture (Masjid Sultan near Bugis MRT). I walk one block, I can get lamb murtabak or egg prata and fried chicken for SGD 4.50 (USD 3.00). I walk 5 blocks to the National Library and half a block from the library is a street full of asian food restaurants, one of which I just got spicy chicken mushroom noodle soup and a plate of shang hai cai (veggie) with oyster sauce for SGD 6.30 (USD 4.20).

My day starts with coffee and relaxing in the sun (tough, I know ;) to build up my base tan so I can hit the beach at Pulau Bintan. Then I head off to the library, read a whole bunch, and then off to get some food. Evening is for wandering around when everyone's out.

Two things I've learned so far: (i) you can meet girls in the lending library... not in the research library (sample size 3). (ii) street vendors that handle money have a hard time when you pay by rounding up. Like with the SGD 6.30 meal, I gave them 12.00 (10 bill + 2 coins) as I didn't want a bunch more 1 dollar coins. You could see the gears turning in their head. They had to be rescued by a co-worker. I've done this one time before, with a similar result. Would people in the States fare better or worse, I wonder since we have fancy-schmancy registers to do the math.

It might be the fact that you have dollar coins. The math is easier if you're trying to avoid the smaller coins instead of the bigger ones. (In your example, I would have rounded to 10.30 or maybe 10.05 because quarters are useful.) --Rehana
Also, the notes and coins all have a unique size; when you ask about it, they say usability for blind people. --Patrick
Yeah, that's pretty common. Indian coins used to have some cool shapes, but they were small denominations that aren't worth enough to use anymore.