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Happiest City in the U.S.: NYC

  • Thread starter Thread starter Centerpiece
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Kingpin said:
Singapore is an interesting entry on the list. From what I’ve read/heard, they basically have a benign dictatorship. Laws are very strict but it creates a Utopia apparently. I’ve never been but would like to visit.
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It’s super expensive, super hot every single day, and boring as hell.

ETA: it is very clean.
 
It's very clean and well manicured. The flowers are quite beautiful. It has some very good restaurants. Traffic and pollution are considerably less of a problem than in other large cities in the area.

Culturally, it is less interesting than nearly any other place you could visit in the area. It is breathtakingly expensive.
 
I hate hot, humid weather... so was not really a fan of Singapore. You basically alternate between sweating your balls off (whether you have balls or not) outside, and going into supercooled malls where the sweat freezes to your body. Not much there IMO unless you love shopping or you have an Asian fetish... and shopping is no better than NYC as far as I can tell (not that I'm an expert on the topic).

Decent food scene if you're into spicy Asian food (which I am), but I can go to Queens for that (actually, I live in Queens already).
 
NYCBlueBlood said:
I hate hot, humid weather... so was not really a fan of Singapore. You basically alternate between sweating your balls off (whether you have balls or not) outside, and going into supercooled malls where the sweat freezes to your body. Not much there IMO unless you love shopping or you have an Asian fetish... and shopping is no better than NYC as far as I can tell (not that I'm an expert on the topic).

Decent food scene if you're into spicy Asian food (which I am), but I can go to Queens for that (actually, I live in Queens already).
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I like their rice noodles.
 
Although I’ve only been in the airport, I do know that Singapore rates as one of the most expensive places on earth. If you’re going that far, you’re much better off, going to Thailand, for my money, at least…
 
heelinhell said:
American blue cities and Western European countries...I wonder why ? :unsure:
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This^

Actually the whole point of the OP.

I’m sure there is a hell-hole of a town deep in the bowels of Alabama which rates at the very bottom of the list of “happiest”. After all, it’s prolly dominated by the Taliban.
 
Centerpiece said:
This^

Actually the whole point of the OP.

I’m sure there is a hell-hole of a town deep in the bowels of Alabama which rates at the very bottom of the list of “happiest”. After all, it’s prolly dominated by the Taliban.
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Red states don't give a tinker's damn about improving the lives of working and middle class people. Red states are a pull up by your bootstraps state.

Only the lazy welfare cheats whine about needing help from the red states...unless they are white.
 
heelinhell said:
Red states don't give a tinker's damn about improving the lives of working and middle class people. Red states are a pull up by your bootstraps state.

Only the lazy welfare cheats whine about needing help from the red states...unless they are white.
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Probably true. And they may be happy as hell, just like some poor soul sitting in the corner in a straight jacket who has lost their friggin mind. But they sit their just smiling away, happy as all get out… sitting there in their own fecal matter.

But I don’t think this London-based index is measuring that type of “happiness”.
 
Clearly this study is biased... after all, they are taking the feelings on non-white people into consideration. How do you expect to get reliable results when you do that???
 
Centerpiece said:
Although I’ve only been in the airport, I do know that Singapore rates as one of the most expensive places on earth. If you’re going that far, you’re much better off, going to Thailand, for my money, at least…
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Yeah, I was never paying my own way when I was there. My employer had a factory on the Indonesian island of Batam so we would stay in Singapore and take the ferry over to Batam when we visited.
 
NYCBlueBlood said:
I hate hot, humid weather... so was not really a fan of Singapore. You basically alternate between sweating your balls off (whether you have balls or not) outside, and going into supercooled malls where the sweat freezes to your body. Not much there IMO unless you love shopping or you have an Asian fetish... and shopping is no better than NYC as far as I can tell (not that I'm an expert on the topic).

Decent food scene if you're into spicy Asian food (which I am), but I can go to Queens for that (actually, I live in Queens already).
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It's a hell of a lot cleaner than New York, significantly better air quality, and a lot less traffic. Food is similar, although New York has greater selection. Singapore's European cuisine is on par with nearly every New York option outside a very small handful. Singapore is definitely hot - but so is every place in SE Asia. At least it isn't miserably cold like NY in February. Rainy season in Singapore is a bit more bearable.

Singapore wins hands down with airports, public transportation, air quality, and traffic. People tend to be a bit friendlier on average in Singapore - but that's variable. Stereotyping - Singaporeans are very organized, educated, and articulate. The same can't be said for a significant portion of New Yorkers.
 
Anyway - as for the "if you are going that far" point - I'd skip Thailand and visit Kuala Lumpur and Penang...maybe check out Borneo in Kota Kinabalu and then head to Indonesia and visit Jakarta and Bali (among other places). I love Thailand, but it's saturated with tourists. KL is a better visit than Bangkok unless you are going for specific sights and attractions.
 
p5mmr9 said:
It's a hell of a lot cleaner than New York, significantly better air quality, and a lot less traffic. Food is similar, although New York has greater selection. Singapore's European cuisine is on par with nearly every New York option outside a very small handful. Singapore is definitely hot - but so is every place in SE Asia. At least it isn't miserably cold like NY in February. Rainy season in Singapore is a bit more bearable.

Singapore wins hands down with airports, public transportation, air quality, and traffic. People tend to be a bit friendlier on average in Singapore - but that's variable. Stereotyping - Singaporeans are very organized, educated, and articulate. The same can't be said for a significant portion of New Yorkers.
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To me Singapore is an oppressively hot/humid, sanitized version of NYC. I would not necessarily disagree with anything you said, except I would not really focus on air quality as a major difference. I'm sure Singapore has better air quality, but that's not really one of NYC's primary issues. Right now my phone says the air quality index is 27... that's fairly normal here.

I like NYC's grit. It's part of the city, part of the culture. To me Singapore lacked the soul the NYC has. I definitely prefer their subways to ours, but here I'm happy to walk a couple miles to get to where I'm going. I tried it once there... and paid for it.

To me Singapore was nice, clean, friendly... and boring as snot.
 
p5mmr9 said:
Anyway - as for the "if you are going that far" point - I'd skip Thailand and visit Kuala Lumpur and Penang...maybe check out Borneo in Kota Kinabalu and then head to Indonesia and visit Jakarta and Bali (among other places). I love Thailand, but it's saturated with tourists. KL is a better visit than Bangkok unless you are going for specific sights and attractions.
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I liked Bangkok and Chiang Mai... CM more than Bangkok. But I arrived first in Bangkok, and was getting over jet lag. Bali was ok, but I had poor timing. It was in that post Eat, Pray, Love era, so it was full of annoying/ obnoxious people trying to find themselves in all the wrong places. I'd like to go back now that all the fad travelers have probably forgotten it exists again.

I've never really thought about Jakarta, but now you have me curious. Kuala Lumpur is high on my list. My ex-FIL spent the last 10 years of his expat career there. He used to rave about it. He almost bought a second home there when he retired back to Lebanon. Speaking of which, Beirut is a really fun city... when it's not being bombed.
 
p5mmr9 said:
It's a hell of a lot cleaner than New York, significantly better air quality, and a lot less traffic. Food is similar, although New York has greater selection. Singapore's European cuisine is on par with nearly every New York option outside a very small handful. Singapore is definitely hot - but so is every place in SE Asia. At least it isn't miserably cold like NY in February. Rainy season in Singapore is a bit more bearable.

Singapore wins hands down with airports, public transportation, air quality, and traffic. People tend to be a bit friendlier on average in Singapore - but that's variable. Stereotyping - Singaporeans are very organized, educated, and articulate. The same can't be said for a significant portion of New Yorkers.
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And how’s it stack up for culture/art/music/film/sports/nightlife.
 
NYCBlueBlood said:
I liked Bangkok and Chiang Mai... CM more than Bangkok. But I arrived first in Bangkok, and was getting over jet lag. Bali was ok, but I had poor timing. It was in that post Eat, Pray, Love era, so it was full of annoying/ obnoxious people trying to find themselves in all the wrong places. I'd like to go back now that all the fad travelers have probably forgotten it exists again.

I've never really thought about Jakarta, but now you have me curious. Kuala Lumpur is high on my list. My ex-FIL spent the last 10 years of his expat career there. He used to rave about it. He almost bought a second home there when he retired back to Lebanon. Speaking of which, Beirut is a really fun city... when it's not being bombed.
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I had the worst jet lag of my life in Bangkok. 16 hours from LA with a stop in Taiwan. Slept all day and was wide awake all night. Tried as hard as possible to stay up during the daylight hours and absolutely could not. Woke up on the 4th day at 2 PM to my wife screaming "Go Seabiscuit" at the end of the movie and was able to start getting back on schedule after that. Something about that Bangkok humidity makes jetlag even worse.
 
p5mmr9 said:
Anyway - as for the "if you are going that far" point - I'd skip Thailand and visit Kuala Lumpur and Penang...maybe check out Borneo in Kota Kinabalu and then head to Indonesia and visit Jakarta and Bali (among other places). I love Thailand, but it's saturated with tourists. KL is a better visit than Bangkok unless you are going for specific sights and attractions.
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Food is better in Bangkok, imho.
 
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