Addresses

Addresses

In the centre Singapore's addressing system is fairly normal ("17 Orchard Rd" etc), but the new housing developments on the outskirts may appear more intimidating: a typical address might be "Blk 505 Jurong West St 51 #01-186". Here "Blk 505" is the housing block number, "Jurong West St 51" is the street name, and "#01-186" means floor 1, unit, stall or shop 186. Note that the first digit of both housing block and street number is the neighborhood's number (in this case 5), making it easier to narrow down the right location.

There are also 6-digit postal codes, which - considering the small size of the island - generally correspond to exactly one building. For example, "Blk 9 Bedok South Ave 2" is "Singapore 460009". Finally, you will also encounter Malay terms in addresses: the most common are Jalan (Jln) for "Road", Lorong (Lor) for "Lane", Bukit (Bt) for "Hill" and Kampong (Kg) for "Village".

A useful tools for hunting down addresses is the free online Streetdirectory.com. Gothere.sg would be an alternative. A word of warning for other sites: Google Maps for Singapore and the many services that use its data look pretty, but the data does not include HDB blocks and thus searches may result in wildly inaccurate results.

Most taxis carry a street directory, which can come in handy in the unlikely event that they don't know your destination. Some are now equipped with GPS navigation systems.

-Information courtesy of wikitravel Singapore travel guide, accurate as of publishing date-