US YouTuber visiting Singapore for first time shocked by people picking their noses in public

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A US YouTuber visiting Singapore for the first time was shocked that people picked their noses in public here.

Nose-picking was the last of seven things in Singapore that "shocked" him, which Wanderlust Wellman, whose real name is Noah Boudrie, listed in a nine-minute video uploaded to his YouTube channel last month.

The first six things were:

• the heat and humidity
• the greenery
• the public transportation, specifically the MRT
• the "neighbourhoods" such as Chinatown, Little India and Kampung Glam
• the affordability, thanks mostly to hawker centres
• Gardens by the Bay

When he came to the last item, Boudrie said it was "not as positive" and apologised beforehand.

"But I couldn't help but notice – or I should say Vanessa, my wife, noticed – the people pick their nose in public in Singapore and it's not as big of a no-no as it might be in America or the West," said the YouTuber, whose videos are mostly about his travels.

"She noticed people doing it on several occasions and maybe not to like the same shame or hiding that we might do in the West or might be like socially forbidden which was definitely a shocker and not in a good way.

"But, hey, you have six shockers, one maybe not so good shocker. So, Singapore, you're doing pretty good in my book."

The video has more than 43,000 views.

In the comments, someone claiming to be a Singaporean said: "Regarding number seven about nose picking, note that nose-picking is not done by most of us except the very old folks and foreigners from certain countries. You may wish to know that 40 per cent of people living here are foreigners."

Another wrote: "You are over-exaggerating about nose-picking, Wellman. We Singaporeans don't really nose-pick in public as it is very gross and impolite, but I do admit we do it at home sometimes. What you guys saw could be foreign workers working in Singapore."

Boudrie replied: "Not trying to over-exaggerate, just speaking on what we saw. I now understand that it’s widely viewed to be socially unacceptable in Singapore, but for some reason, I saw several people do it over a few days which might be a coincidence, or maybe they weren’t actual Singaporean citizens. Hard to say though."

The YouTuber also uploaded four other videos about Singapore before this one.