A holiday observation.

I was out of the country last week for holiday. Although I do enjoy myself oversea but I never really like the journey especially at the airport. 

I do not mind being on a moving object like the plan, train or bus but I absolutely hate being in a long queue at the airport. I can never understand why the custom has to take so long every time. In fact the only country I find the custom is fast and efficient are in Japan and Singapore. 

Maybe Singapore welcome all foreigners so they don’t really care. I personally has not seen a long queue of foreigners waiting to clear custom at Changi ever.

A dumb thing I observe at the airport was why the airline allowed the frequent flyers to board the aircraft first even though they are flying economy.

Boarding sequence are there to speed up the boarding procedure so it is logical passenger sitting at the back rows are boarded first so they do not hold up the aisle. 

Children and old folks are ok to board first as they are slow and need assistance. Business are First Class traveller are ok too as there are less seats in there so they should be quite fast.

But letting a frequent flyers sitting at the front of the economy to board first to hold up the aisle is damned stupid.

These cheapo are the worst lot of traveller. If you want to board first please buy a first class ticket. They want to be treated as frequent traveller but yet are too cheapo to buy a business class tickets.

Pre National Day thought.

I enjoy travelling.

I love the taste of the food and drinks, the smell of the air in a foreign land, observing the behaviour of the locals and I do treasure all these experience.

After been an avid traveller for so many years, I could help to compare the countries I have been to with my county by birth Singapore.

Every county has its pros and cons, including Singapore.

I must say the little red passport is indeed one of the best in the world where you are saved on the hassle of visa in most country in the world. (Trust me those that still required Visa are countries I certainly will not like to end up in)

When I was younger I realised Singapore has more pros then cons when compared to the countries I visited.

But I gradually began to see the scale is being tipped.

With decade of economy growth and policy change I realised the Singapore of today is totally different from what it was.

Yes we may be one of the richest, safest, cleanest countries in the world but do we have a high quality of life?

How to make your money worth.

Spend last week in Taipei.

Weather was typical spring, unpredictable.

Temperature ranged from 13C – 30C and most day it was raining. But nevertheless I had a great time there. Bought lots of comics and ate till I drop.

I seem to enjoy myself when I am oversea. Call me a bias but I don’t really like the fake concrete jungle Singapore is today. Things are expensive and people think they own the whole countries. Only think on the gahment mind is nothing but $.

In Taipei, cabs are everywhere! It is really quite competitive to be a Cab driver in Taipei.

Also the cab don’t have out super complex fare system too, not peak hours surcharge, no midnight surcharge…. etc.

On the train people actually reserved the Priority Seats for the elderly and people do STAND ON ONE SIDE on the escalator. Try teaching a Singaporean / FT in Singapore to do that is like ramming your head into the wall.

Foods are cheaper and are of better quality then those you get in Singapore. I guess Singapore food are all frozen and imported cheaply so the merchant can survive. Therefore to get good quality food in Singapore you have to pay a bomb.

Comics and clothes are much cheaper then Singapore too.

I guess the killer in Singapore are the rents and the shop owner has no choice to sell their stuff more expensive to pay the landlord.

Conclusion – Singaporean are being short-changed with the quality and services they get from things they buy here. As a big percentage of what you pay for are channeled to the gahment.

My advice, save you money and spent in oversea. You will not regret it.

New Year In Japan

Spent my Chinese Holiday abroad for the first time in Fukouka.

Weather was cold and I truly enjoy the holiday, even got 2 days of snow and Rahmen taste extremely nice in winter.

I am back!

I am back in business!

One of the reason I didn’t blog recently is because there seem to be some technical problem with the blog site. There are days that I could not log on.

Looking back it had been a year since my first blog on 28th Feb 2006!

I find it quite interesting to read my old blog. It is really nice to have read what you have written. You find certain part of you may have changed and some things still remains.

The other reason I did not blog for weeks was I was busy traveling!

I went to Taipei from 23th-27th Feb, back in Singapore on 28th Feb and flew to Hong Kong on 1st March and only came back yesterday.

The trip was tiring but fun! Will try to post some of the interesting toys and comics that I bought.

A word of advice: Spend your money oversea people! It is more worth it!

More to come……….

Travel Log France Part 1

Some of you may know that I have just spent 6 weeks in Southern France due to work commitment. It had been awhile since I was away from home for such a long period of time. Being me, I know most of the time I tend to over-packed my luggage, so this time I took in extra effort to bring only things I really really needs. Which still bring my check in luggage to 27kg. Mmm…

Think mostly due to the food I am bring up there. No I am not lugging rice and can food, I am not those "die die must eat rice every meal" people.

The journey was long and I ended up in economical class for the 12.5 hours journey. Goss I am getting too old to travel that far in economical. I was put on stand-by till the 30min before boarding. So had to do a 300m dashed to the DFS shop, do a 30sec transaction and another 200meter quick march to the boarding gate. Flight was terrible. End up in a window seat next to a French couple. It was indeed a bladder busting journey.

Finally reached Paris Charles De Gaude Terminal 1 at 7am local time. As I checked through my luggage to Toulouse, I don’t have to cleared immigration and went through the Apron to terminal 2F. I must comment Paris Charles De Gaude was one of the most confusing and user unfriendly airport I have even been to. Luckily I did my researched before I come so I board the transit bus from under the aero-bridge for 10min ride to Terminal 2F. Just as I was worrying about whether will they send me luggage to the correct terminal, I saw this luggage cart overtaking the shuttel with my luggage on it and I also saw my luggage strap was broken and it was dragging on the tarmac. %$@$#@!#@^%#@$#

Anyway at Terminal 2F after clearing immigration, I went to the transit counter and boy, there were at least 30 people in the queue. Luckily an Air France guy ask a few of us at the back to go the VIP check in queue and I got my transit boarding pass rather quickly.

Got 2 hours to kill and then was bored to death in CDG.

Reached Toulouse Blagnac airport at about 12noon. My pick up was surprisingly there waiting for me. Got to give it to the French. The driver which picked me up was a women and the way she dress was stylo milo man! Leather trench coat, sunglasses and all that. Gosh can pass of as any top management. Went to collect my luggage and found my luggage strap gone (which I know already) and there are quite a few scratch marks on my luggage. Think the luggage handling people should go for anger management classes.

Met up with my colleagues who were there already for dinner 7pm.
Weather in Toulouse at this time of the year is great! In between cool and cold. It was a good change from the hot and humid weather in Singapore. Went back to my room and fell asleep not without waking up a couple of time in the middle of the night. Most probably due to jet lag I guess.