Most expensive visa for Indian passport holders

Holding Indian passport is probably one of the worst business credentials as this literally stops one from going to places on business without paying :)

Anyway, I am aware of many folks who are proud of the blue passport (one of them) and we have been struggling for years and this is a summary of my experiences. I could be wrong and happy to correct as the fees are pretty dynamic and with India changing the visa fee yesterday, the reciprocal actions could warrant a very quick update of this post.

So here it goes.

Some notes: I took the price and converted to USD; and the cost is per year to have a good comparison. 

Country	VISA Charges (in USD)	Notes
Australia	102.34
China	136.85
Indonesia	169.26	VOA $35/ visit
Japan	7.20
Korea	95.07
Malaysia	23.04
New Zealand	30.25
Netherlands	67.70	Single entry typically
Philippines	139.73
Qatar	54.37
Russia	75.62
Singapore	21.69
Sri Lanka	360	$30/Month
Sweden	105	Single entry typically
Switzerland	69.86	Single entry typically
Thailand	151.25
Turkey	528	$44/mo
UAE	331.32
UK	222.25
USA	16	$160 / 10 years
Vietnam	246	$82 /3 months

Indian barber in Singapore

Not very sure whether it is ever felt to look for an Indian barber but today a friend of mine asked me for one. My friend is working for Shell and visiting from Nigeria. He really wanted to travel to Malaysia if he can't find one in Singapore.

So we started searching Internet but I kind of told him that the best place would be to just go to Serangoon Road / Little India to find out. We first did a google search to find but surprisingly we couldn't get with the search "Indian barbers" in Google Maps or Google search. It showed two places

• Corporation Road, Jurong
• Circuit Road, Macpherson

Another last minute search with " Barber in Serangoon Road"  in Google Maps showed couple. So we decided to go there. Weird enough, we couldn't find the saloon at the location. After a couple of queries around we found the location

• Campbell Lane ( 1.305393,103.852547). 

Don't expect a great saloon with all the nice things around. It does the job and the best part is the nice head massage we got. @ $10 this is great to have the experience and now I know why my friends always miss it in Singapore. I see the Malay barbers around in the corner but the Indian barbers are quite rare.

If you are going there worth a try ;)

Indian food in Changi Business Park (CBP)

Just moved to CBP and yes, I hated the move just like the rest of my colleagues. The place is 'ulu', no good transportation, need to spend hours in public transport, no good food, expensive etc etc.

On the plus side, there are plenty of Indian food choices available, there is a Fairprice extra right next to office. Great. I have an excuse to get a cab on friday :)

Coming to the Indian food, below is a list for future reference.. I'll try to update if I come across any new places and am sure there will be some feedback which I can use too.

I am giving the postcode and building name instead of the complete street address to avoid any clutter.

1. Sakuntalas ( UE Bizhub East, South tower, S-486018)

This is near the fairprice xtra (if you walk further up) and food is good. I've tried few of their items (Dum Biryani, Set Meals & Kadai Chicken) and most of them are good. Only downside is it gets pretty crowded and the prices are a bit on the high side compared to food court prices. But worth for a quick meal, and don't expect it to be a quiet place :)

** Used to be Zaffaran. 

2. Saravana Bhavan (Plaza-08, S-486025)

Same type of food and offers strictly vegetarian. Exec set lunch seems to be popular as I can see many people during the peak hour.

For me, it's unlikely I'll end up as a regular here.

3. Ras Bites (Plaza-08, S-486025)

This is in the building Plaza-8 but towards the end. i.e. Walk past Saravana Bhavan, Sankranti and then there it is.  level. Seems this is one of the best bet for a lunch meeting with Indian guests/food. Place is good, food tastes good too. Prices are reasonable but lately I see this place getting pretty busy around Lunch time.

4. Makan Mumbai Express (MM Express - Teh Tarik) (CITI Bank building, S-486026)

This is the Indian stall in the Teh Tarik food court in Plaza-08 and I've been visiting this place almost every day. Their set meal is great and tastes good too. One should watch how quickly (or the attempt) they serve the thali in the huge steel plate :)

But during lunch hour the place is obviously crowded so one need to plan either a bit early or a bit late. Especially avoid the 12:30 period.

5. Sri Shubham (next to MM Express @ Teh Tarik) (CITI Bank building, S-486026)

This stall opened around Oct last year and steadily improving the food quality. This is Andhra / Telugu food so supposed to be more spicier compared to MM Express. However I found it's not the case. Food is acceptable but their vegetables need improvement. Actually a lot of improvement.

6. Sankranti (Plaza-8, S-486025)

Food is not bad, prices are ok (Set lunch ~ 8; Buffet ~12) but the biggest issue is "service'. They seems to be busy walking fast across the place and you've to be lucky to get their attention without getting up and standing on table.
Update-1: Since my original comments, there seems to be some improvement. Will try few more times.

7. Tandoor Curry Club (Eightrium @ Changi, S-486035)

Food is acceptable and they deliver too. So can't miss this place. Phone number is 9118 7234. Delivery took around 40 min on a busy monday so I guess these guys can be trusted/counted on.

8. Kinara (UE Bizhub, S-486018)

This is a rather new opening and the food is good but not the bill :|. So you need to be 'prepared' to pay >25 for lunch; double for dinner with drinks. Somehow it doesn't appear in their website but I can assure you the place is open and running for a while.

9. Indian Curry House (Expo near Hall-4, S-)

This is a place near Expo which operates during lunch & dinner hours. Strangely the dinner hours are till 11.00 so after a late meeting @ office, you can jump in here.
Food is good but a bit on the high side for the quality. I loved the butter naan. Fish cake/cutlet wasn't that great. Rest of the items like butter chicken, tandoor etc are acceptable.

10. Indian stall @ Basement food court, Changi Citi Point

There is a stall in the Changi Citi Point. When you enter the mall from main entrance just take the downward escalator at the right hand side. That's the small food court or food area in Changi Citi Point.
Food is good but the place is damn crowded during the lunch hours. Good to give a try if you are not in a rush during the lunch break or if you can beat the peak hour crowd.
Breakfast or Evening tea / snack time is great at this place as the variety of snacks are pretty good. i.e. you can most of the items like Dosai, Samosa, Kachori etc.
Update#01: Heard that this place is an extension to one of my fav and most frequented Indian restaurant at Serangoon Gardens - Garden Kadhai. Have to find during my next visit when I am back to work :)

11. Ananda Bhavan, UE Bizhub East (It's opp Fairprice or near the Nanyang coffee)

No need introduction. Not too crowded (may be not many people know this place??).

12. Vegetarian Food, The Signature Building Food court

This is a 'Indian food court", and to the far left you can find the vegetarian stall. Good food and the lunch set menu seems popular. They are offering South Indian set & north indian set (i.e. same stuff but with buttermilk in south indian set)

13. North Indian Food, The Signature Building Food court

Same food court, and variety. Naans are pretty acceptable

14. South Indian Food, The Signature Building Food court

Same food court, and variety. They do have some 'special rice' i.e. lemon rice etc. 

15. Nepalese Food, The Signature Building Food court

Not Indian per say but pretty close. This food court should change to 'indian food court' :) great place for Indian food lovers and trust me guys/gals, you need to start jogging to keep your weight under check.

16. Muthiah Restaurant, UE Bizhub East

This place is at the back side of UE Bizhub (after NTUC towards the Expo mrt via the old route). After an year or so, I managed to visit this place and I am quite surprised to see a huge crowd. Guess I was wrong to expect people wouldnt go there at the corner but people love to walk across in rain or hot sun to have a good meal. Food is good, and variety is great. Only down side is the waiting in the queue to place order, wait to get the food, wait to get the bill. They are extremely slow in the service and that's creating long waits..

17. Manchurian Club, UE Bizhub East (486015)

I missed the manchurian club and this is infact considered indian :). They offer the popular 'chinese food' customized for indian palette. The place is towards the hotel (from NTUC Fairprice, you can see Cheers - Shenton Clinic and - Manchurian Club) and not very crowded. Food is average for me but service is much better. You can have a spicy bite here during the upcoming rainy season :)


**That's all for the time being and will explore and update if I come across any new places**

*** Thinking of putting in the map possible with some pictures. Time to plan my next trip :).

Price difference between delivery menu vs dining @ Anjappar

Here is the attached pic showing the price difference between home delivery menu vs in store dining. In this case this is Anjappar. I am not a great fan of it due to the 'service' and the attitude.
You can see how these restaurants can deliver "free of charge" to your home. Simply hide the cost in food items and jack up the price by ~ 30%

1x Vegetable Biryani TAKEAWAY- SGD 6.50
1x Vegetable Biryani DELIVERY -  SGD 8.50

That's a 30% difference and if you are ordering for a family, you may even make a cab trip to near by location. ;)

One thing is the prices displayed are exclusive of GST. This is of an interest to me as this is supposed to be 'illegal'.

Update: About my wording 'illegal', realized that for Food items exclusion of GST is allowed and IRAS gives waiver if service charge is applicable. But I haven't seen service charges with Indian restaurants so the price should be inclusive of GST.

I still prefer Brindas for Indian food delivery.
http://srichakrak.blogspot.sg/2012/05/indian-food-delivery-in-singapore.html

Roku Player - No more FREE Indian Channels, No more FREE News Channels

Recently the Yupp TV & other free channels were found missing from ROKU channel store. Seems like ROKU is simply ignoring the content part. When they lost the Youtube access I thought that's the end of ROKU.

They survived almost an year thanks to the loyal customer base. But now I believe with Apple TV & Google Nexus coming soon in to the markets at similar price points, ROKU will be facing a tough battle. Unless they start doing some modifications to their content offering I see this is the end for ROKU.

Today most of the LED TV's are coming with smart tv capabilities and they do not need an external player to simply connect to youtube/streaming content. Roku need to do much more. be it entertainment or games or whatever. Prefer not to through this cute little box but I guess no choice if they don't improve their offering

Philippines allows visa-free entry for Indians from Singapore, USA, UK, EU, AU, Canada, Japan

Source: Philstar

A decision in the right direction. Perhaps one of the best decision by Philippines government and this improves the business travel tremendously and reduce the problems faced by tourists/businessman from these countries.

Today it takes approx 5 business days to get a entry VISA from Philippines consulate in Singapore and two trips (you must go yourself and no agents) which is a waste of time and resources. For multiple entry it may take 20+ days and again three trips to the consulate.

A simple decision will remove all these limitations. If Phil government feels that it might lose $ from visa issuance, they can charge a flat fee (say $250) similar to multiple entry visa/year.

Wish to see more nations following suite. If money is the issue I'm sure people are willing to pay for it.


Update: Comments from Immigration Philippines

Also managed to capture a photo of the circular (not very clear though, but the content is same as above)

Indian Food Delivery in Singapore

The title says it all.

1. Brindas 24 hour
This is my first preference due to their service quality.

Food - *** (3/5). Not too great and standard items such as naan, chicken curry are acceptable quality.
Value - **** (4/5). Value for money
Service - **** (4/5). I'm happy with their service.

2. Anjappar

Food - ***.(3.5/5). Tastes the same as in Anjappar.
Value - ** (2/5). Its "CHEATING". They don't show the prices with GST (Against LAW) & Some how the bill prices doesn't match with online menu prices due to 'recent price revisions'.
Service - * (1/5). This is the sad part. Food is better than Brindas but service sucks.I've the food delivered with 'leakages'.

3. Komalas

I don't think I've to add any stuff here. :)
Food - **** (4/5)
Value - *** (3/5)
Service - ** (2/5). Delays. delays delays.. Other than that it's quite good.

I've tried other options like Hungrydelivery, CurryXpress in the past but stopped due to the 'price'. Most importantly the hefty delivery charges & high minimum order.

2011 - Sumptuous beginning

I think first time we've started the year with 4 back to back get together/birthday parties. Yesterday & today we're having our lunch, dinner outside and I guess I need to exercise to shed these extra calories. All places food is great and I particularly liked the "Indian Times" @ East Coast Road. Food is great and more importantly the place is pretty spacious. They may have removed some tables as the crowd is ~30+ but I enjoyed the scene where kids can run freely and elders cramped with poking occasionally with their elbows.
Will have to start the year with two major works personally and about four major tasks in the office. From tomorrow onwards I'll be busy with these tasks.