Cleaning up after ourselves wherever we go and having a penchant for not littering are some of the habits Singaporeans are known for.
And apparently, we bring this good practice with us whenever we travel overseas too, according to one homestay operator in Johor Bahru.
In an Instagram video on Aug 31, a user known as Xiaoge gave a tour of one of the guesthouses he operates in JB, showing the aftermath of a booking by a group of Singaporeans.
Speaking in mandarin, he starts off by introducing Singaporeans as “one of the highest spenders in the world”, before saying: “Let’s take a look at how messy it is after Singaporeans stay in a guesthouse”.
The tour starts at the house’s front porch, where Xiaoge points out that it looks exactly the same as before the guests checked in.
Moving to the living room, he asked: “Am I mistaken? It looks as if no one came to stay.”
He then pointed to a couple strands of hair on the floor as clues that someone had spent time in the guesthouse.
“Someone definitely stayed here, I’ll get my workers to clean the house thoroughly before guests arrive. Not a single strand of hair will remain,” said Xiaoge.
Meanwhile, the coffee, mahjong and pool tables in the living room also appear to be untouched.
In the kitchen, he was impressed by how the crockery are spick and span.
Going into the karaoke room next, he asked himself: “Will I be surprised or scared?”
Again, he exclaimed: “It’s as if no one used the premises!”
He then headed upstairs.
In one of the bedrooms, he finally found something, pointing to a bed with messy bedsheets. “Someone definitely slept here,” he said.
Outside a bathroom, he also found three used bath towels left hanging on a rack and laid on a dressing table.
As the clip reached the end, Xiaoge came to a conclusion: “Singapore is not just one of the highest spending and most developed countries in the world, even their people have such quality”.
“People from other countries should learn a thing or two.”
Not all Singaporeans are the same
While some netizens agreed with Xiaoge’s remarks, some gave alternative views.
“It’s our education system. We are trained to be orderly and considerate since we are born,” one commented, while another said: “Singapore boleh!”
Meanwhile, one netizen raised the point that not all Singaporeans are like that. “Thank you for your kind words and praising Singaporeans. You happened to rent out to some considerate ones. But remember that there are always some bad-mannered ones,” they wrote.
In another video posted by Xiaoge on Sept 17, he once again gave a house tour after a group of Singaporean tourists checked out of his guesthouse.
This time, it wasn’t left as pristine as the last group.
He spotted car petrol leaked onto the front porch, beer cans and glass bottles littered about, as well as opened bags of chips left on tabletops.
Still, he appeared to be unfazed in the video, saying that these are minor issues.
Jokingly, he even thanked the guests for leaving behind unopened cans of beer, packs of his favourite childhood snacks, a $1 coin and seven ringgit for him as “tips”.
AsiaOne has reached out to Xiaoge for more information.
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dannon.har@asiaone.com
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