Why I cut my Singapore trip short

I booked a cheap ticket with Air Asia to Singapore. Cheapest ticket involved me staying 3 nights in Singapore, and thought I'd have a look around, then I read this thread ...

Help - Juice in Sgpore | Thailand Vapers

Basically vaping is illegal in Singapore. My stay would have meant going back to cigarettes for 4 days, plus paying duty on any cigarettes I brought with me and in the end I decided my health comes first, and quite frankly 'uck Singapore if they are so narrow minded. Plenty of other places in Asia to visit like phillipenes, Indonesia, Malaysia etc.

Managed to get a flight back from Singapore next morning with lionair, on sale, for sub 2000THB. Probably wasted 2000THB on the return leg with air Asia, I can live with that, with less than a day back on cigarettes, should be survivable.

I contacted Changi airport to see what their stance was, even at the time considered going to Indonesia instead. But Singapore basically want duty on any tabacco products, and will probably confiscate your vape gear. And air Asia you can't connect without customs/immigration, so same rules as if you visited Singapore.

My email to them :

I sent a reminder after no (useful) reply after a week, and eventually receive this :

Feel sorry for the Singapore Vapers, but decided not to stay in your country any longer than necessary. There's also a few 10000s of THB I won't be spending on accommodation, travel, tourist attractions, food etc, singapore's loss really for being so greedy and short sighted. Next trip will be to a more vape friendly destination, maybe Manila. I will not willingly visit Singapore again, whilst they are so anti-vaping, would rather pay more to go elsewhere.

**Updated**

Ps, I'm also ditching Arab airlines for long haul back to UK, in favour of direct flights, usually slightly more expensive, but no risk of confiscation of vape gear at Abu Dhabi or Dubai ... And actually no need really for stopover, as I don't smoke (much) anymore, just increases journey time ... Patches and gum generally work for me on flights anyway

 

Smart thinking eh? Throw you in jail for using an Ecig, but its perfectly fine and encouraged to kill yourself with cigarettes.

Idiots

 

I understand your actions very well. I know it is to over simplify things, but since I'm a cynic on this topic, fact is that the tobacco industry is big money - real big money. And that is probably the answer to most of the problems that vapers meet around the world.

But I follow the same policy. I travel with Qatar Airlines since they have never given me any grief with my equipment and visit places where I'm not regarded as a criminal for vaping.
At least I'm still able to choose were to spend my money.

 

If a few people do something bad, they will probhibit / ban / /fine/ punish everyone. That's part of the menthality, as I see it.

Vaping gear has being misused to consume Codeine / Promethazine. Some people have used glue on coils. 2 examples.

Indeed there are some people here so utterly stupid, with actions so far out of this world, you would never believe it until you see with your own eyes.

If you try to import vape gear it can cost you a fine of SGD 5000 for first time offenders, and SGD 500 for being caught vaping. Until the 14. of December last year it was just the sale of vaping items which was banned and heavily fined. From 15. of December there is also a ban on vaping itself. At the moment there is some tense situation, as it happens with most new regulations here, but after 1 year nobody really bothers anymore. I hope.

But I admit I've gotten more and more tired being nannied with every day more, from wake-up to beddy-time.

 

Agree with the sentiments entirely.

I do think in these days of "anyone's a journalist" social media, that more than likely customs at Singapore most likely would confiscate if one went down the red lane or got pulled over in the green lane. I can't see that they'd want to risk jailing a journalist, who then writes a story about Singapore jailing vapers ... But I could be wrong ...

And yes, idiots sums it up, perfectly.

Just a little bored with hearing of restrictions, bans, prohibition etc, since I've finally found something that works for stopping smoking. So time to put my money where my mouth is and take my own direct action, and publicise it.

I travel a lot on Qatar, and have great experiences with them. However my most recent flight I booked with BA, as they were cheaper than Qatar, and it's a direct flight with no stopover in Doha. Dunno the regs regarding vaping in Doha, but I heard vaping is/was banned in many of the Arab countries, so factored that in when booking. And also to complicate matters it's not a full security screen or any customs at Doha for connecting flights, so vaping gear may well pass through there no problems, or not !

PS Etihad emailed me that they have a sale couple of days ago LHR-BKK return from £425 if memory serves ...

**Updated**

I think you're in Singapore Peter, so interesting to hear your take.

The drug abuse is hardly an argument, people make crack pipes out of tin foil and spliffs out of rolling papers and tabacco, and glue sniffed out of plastic bags ... Are those banned in Singapore ? My guess is not ... Can you imagine a country banning tin foil, paper and plastic bags, they'd be the laughing stock of the rest of the world I think, and wouldn't a country grind to halt without those things ?

As for those heavy fines seems more police state than anything. When preparing for my trip I was aware of fines for littering, chewing gum etc ... Cultural differences and obey the rules when you're a guest, I thought to myself. But the vaping ban is a step too far I think.

I like the Singapore rules cited in the email Changi airport sent me, items pretending to be cigarettes ... Well my kanger subox mini looks nothing like a cigarette and doesn't use tabacco ... So that's just dumb, really dumb, spinning some old regulation into something it was never intended to cover.

Fingers crossed things will improve for you there, and sometime soon I can cross Singapore off my boycotted countries list and revisit you guys.

As for being nannied, I got a bit fed up with it in the UK too. There are positive apects of government looking out for it's citizens, but punishing people who're trying to quit cigarettes, forcing them to smoke overtaxed cancer causing tabacco products, well that's just a little too much ...

 

Singapore government had never cared for being the laughing stock of the world, they did their things their way.

There are people here yo can say whatever you want, you educate, you can train, be patient ... whatever, you can be nice to them and explain 3 times, 5 times. No use. Then they leave the room and in the second they step outside they do precisely the same shit again. Please do not piss in the lift, it's not a toilet. Please do not spit onto that Persian carpet, it costs 20,000 dollars. You can't stick your chewing gum onto light sensor of the train's door, it will bring the entire system to a halt until someone found your chewing gum. Etc, etc.

The one and only language these people understand is pain. You can say police state, it does not really matter to them, as these things and more are just fact. Overall the country is lesser a police state as compared to some others who call themselves a democracy.

In the end the Singapore government was mostly right. But that with the vaping is a very big mistake.

It is impossible to create flawless people. Unless you want to have robots.

 

Those are in my opinion the best thing that big pharma produced for quitting smoking, my dad and I both quit using them, my dad's still a non smoker ...

However, for me, on flights patches work best, and I supplement with gum when nicotine levels drop. Something about not doing or seeing anything cigarette like during the flight seems to work ... Out of sight, out of mind ...


LOL, and yeah Singapore selling a nicotine device that you put in you mouth and looks a little like a plastic cigarette, who'd have thought it given the legislation they cited me !

 

The law says banned are items and toys that replicate or resemble a cigarette. Now look at this inhalator. This example shows it not about vaping. Yea, not even about the health of Singaporeans.

 

@peter-k , I understand UK introduced fining for littering, but I don't think it's policed as heavily as Singapore, nor does one get a public flogging if one doesn't pay, probably just eventually jailed for a couple of days.

Singapore has also a British heritage from empire days. Although history not my forte.

Dunno whether I agree outside of compliance with local legislation, and cultural differences with such harsh fines for non compliance, seems rather like pushing with the stick rather than leading with the carrot. However, stupid people, and criminals need boundaries, otherwise no one would be safe or comfortable to live peacefully. So sensible laws and enforcement are needed, most universally agree on this, however the measure of punishment is often not, there's been no hangings in UK for a long time, whilst certain other places there still is death penalty.

Zurich and Stockholm were two of the cleanest cities I visited in Europe. I got the impression that people kept those places clean by cleaning them, and taking pride in their home, rather than fining, but I could be wrong, I was always there on short visits, and no one ever told me I get fined if I inadvertently dropped something/anything in public. And have no current reason for looking up vaping rules there.

Also, as with certain London boroughs, powers that be who're raising a lot of money through fining, for instance for parking enforcement, run the risk of it seeming like it's no longer about enforcement and all about the money raised. Camden council I believe raises £2M plus from parking enforcement, and at one point in time I had first hand experience of traffic wardens on each and every road intersection, all partially paid on commission. My eventual solution was to sell my car and use public transport, car sharing, car hire or taxi instead.

**Updated**

Exactly

 

very funny that you mentention the Nicorette inhalator. I mention it in my letter to the Danish parlamentary health commission, and told thenm that i would not use a Nicorette inhalator. The idea of inhalating hydrochloric acid, was not what i would like to do.... Here a list of ingredience of this Inhalator thing.:
6.1 List of excipients
Propylene glycol

Anhydrous ethanol

Trometamol

Poloxamer 407

Glycerol

Sodium hydrogen carbonate

Levomenthol

Mint flavour

Cooling flavour

Sucralose

Acesulfame potassium

Hydrochloric acid

Purified water

As i know it's about 10 percent that is Hydrochloric acid.

 

@Dieter. wow, agreed hydrochloric acid isn't one of my favourites either, how the hell did Nicolette get away with that !

interesting that pg and VG are on the list too ...

 

It's a medical company, big Pharma you know, and they can get away with a lot. They nearly run the Danish health authority. Here the link list of ingredience i copied is 6.1 .
Nicorette QuickMist 1mg/spray mouthspray - Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) - (eMC)

 

Nowhere heavily policed, even the opposite. You will never see as little police in your life anywhere else.

If one person doesn't pay a fine he will go into prison. Caning is not public and also not for this sort of issues. What is public is a person ordered to clean public areas, which is applied for repeat offenders.

**Updated**

Most of it ingredients commomly used in the flavour industry.

So what they do is making a plastic vaping device of lowest quality.

 

Thanks, your local knowledge is more accurate than what one hears, so happy for you to fill in blanks in what I know, apologies for inaccuracies. I'm not anti-Singapore, I'm anti-anti-vaping, which I think you are too.

Bottom line for me is that I don't want my stuff confiscated, and was relatively unhappy about double duty on tabacco into Singapore anyway. Other than that was looking forward to engaging in Singapore culture and experience, even if a little odd to a visitor - Thailand has been just that many times for me, but I understand the people and place now much better having lived here for a while. And actually prefer the Thai way to western way, a lot of the time.

And yeah, totally, a crappy plastic vaping device they charge nearly as much as vape gear for, profit margins must be astronomical