Cost of raising a kid in Singapore.

Seriously lost count on how many posts I've seen in the last 5 years and I reached a point where it no longer annoys me or irritate me.

To give just an example, take a look here. https://blog.seedly.sg/cost-raise-child-singapore/ Seedly, I lost respect for you. So people want to go for 'typical postnatal massage', 'confinement nanny', and what not but complain that kids are expensive. But glad the 'stage' of "conceiving or getting in the mood to conceive' and include another 20-30K for a honeymoon or romantic massage etc. Anyway, I am happy to see the 'wannabe classy' folks avoiding the kids and not adding unnecessary strain on the SG society. 

Primary-1 Schools, Bus arrival times, Smart Watches, Trackers and paying for Data SIM.

Happy new year & Happy Re-opening of schools.

With the schools beginning, it's happy & sad feeling. Your little ones are all grown up to enter in Primary-1 but at the same time looking at Singapore primary school system, and the super long hours you end up having sleep fewer nights.

The schedule from the school & Bus as follows:

• 06:20 --> Bus pickup
• 07:30 --> School start time
• 13:30 --> School end time
• 14:30 --> Bus drop off.

Now one can see almost 2+ hours wasted in transport and making the "school" almost 8 hours which is a typical adult work duration. 

Did I say the school is 2 km from my home? 

Anyway, the wastage is due to the kiasi mentality of us and doubt I can change this anytime soon. But will continue.

Trying to solve one major issue which is the bus arrival time (in the first two days it's between 13:45 to 15:20). So ended up buying a smartwatch with 3G capabilities.

For the SIM card, what we need is a simple Data SIM with >1GB/Mo volume and doesn't need any fancy stuff. 

After comparing postpaid SIM only contract plans, MultiSIM options and prepaid I ended up going for M1.

My criteria is simple. Lowest possible $/Month

M1 Prepaid card costs $15 to buy and comes with 2GB data valid for 120 days. That's ~ $4/month

This is a one-time cost and that can easily cover first 3-4 months to give the tracker a try.

For the monthly recurring cost, I am thinking of two options. One is to go with a 300MB topup which costs $5/Month of simply get a new SIM card :)

30-Day Data Packs
300MB	$5
1GB	$10
2GB NEW + 30-Day Free Incoming Call!	$14
4GB NEW + 30-Day Free Incoming Call!	$21
6GB NEW + 30-Day Free Incoming Call!	$28

I wish, TPG telecom or some new TELCO can come up with plans as "add-ons" to enable multiple SIM cards for tracking purposes. Be it Kids or Elderly or simply a tracker..

Worst taxis in the world. It's Bangkok without doubt.

I am not talking about the Drivers, Taxis, Cost, Infra or any specific thing but the overall experience. The source is nothing but purely on my observation and limited travel experience over a decade mainly in Asia Pac. So here it goes.

• India

Ugly: Hardware, Cleanliness & Safety.

The experience sucks here due to Hardware (quality of the vehicle) but situation improved thanks to Uber, Ola kind. Most of these cars are new but depending on the luck you would still get in to a dirty car with wrapped plastic over head rests.

Seatbelts are either purely for Display purposes or doesn't exist. The built quality of these cars are just a surrounded sheet metal so do not expect grand safety features. Also the Drivers are poorly trained, and the lack of enforcement tend to make the ride scary at times. 

Average: Communication, Traffic & Professionalism

Majority of the Drivers are able to communicate in English, so communication is not a major issue but the accent, variation of address/name tend to confuse but I never had an issue thanks to the servitude nature of many Drivers Still acceptable IMHO. The only issue is the "expectation" of Tips/Gratuities makes professionalism in to average. That's something the society need to change.

Traffic can be terrible but it can be planned to avoid major disruptions and its either on par or better than majority nation. 

Great: Availability, & Cost

Once again, thanks to Uber, Ola & similar apps the availability of taxis are amazing. I never had to wait more than 10 min in any of the places I have been to. Most of the times in less than 5 min, I can get in to the taxi. Cost is not bad and great compared to the other costs in India (India is a very expensive place to live, work, travel)

Tips: Get a Uber Black or Similar Premium version to be sure about Safety, Communication and the 30 min traffic jam bearable. 

• Indonesia

Ugly: Traffic, 

Major problem in Indonesia is Traffic. Nothing else. So plan your schedule based on traffic and nothing else matters. Don't be surprised if a 5 KM ride ends up you sitting in the taxi for 2 hours during peak hours.

Average: Availability, Cleanliness, Safety, & Communication

Bluebird is everywhere, and majority are Toyota vios kind of stuff or MPV. Seat belts do exists, and if you want to go with Silverbird or Goldbird then you can enjoy the mini vans. 

In the ride sharing, Grab appears to be popular or aggressive, but the cars tend to be old and drivers tend to cancel the booking very frequently. Uber is not bad w.r.t cancellations but cars are much better.  Majority of the Drivers are able to speak few words of English but never expect any mis understanding or problems because of language. the folks are very professional.  

Great: Hardware, Professionalism, & Cost

Typical hardware is Toyota, or similar and large cars are very popular due to "car is for family". So either the normal street hail taxis or ride sharing, the chances are high to get a new, good vehicle. Indonesians are very friendly people and I never experienced any rude behaviour or a driver trying to demand extra money.

Lastly this is one of the cheapest place to ride in a Mercedes for an hour or so for less than 20 bucks. 

Tips: Plan your travel based on "Traffic". Get a Uber Black or Grab Premium or Silverbird to spend some quality time in calls, chit chat with your friends

• Thailand

Ugly: Safety, Professionalism, Cost, Availability, Traffic & Communication.

No meter, and expected to pay double is the norm in BKK. If you get a taxi with meter on by default, just pinch yourself to wake up from the dream. Majority of the drivers are not trained properly (guess farmers trying to make some extra money), can't speak or understand English (or pretend), extremely good at taking long routes, and have no change at all or receipts. 

Thailand has one of the worst road mortality rates in the world and combined with lack of training this makes us to worry about the safety. 

I can go on with the negative experiences and unfortunately I do not have a single positive experience to talk here. Even Uber, Grab couldnt make a difference here. 

Average: Cleanliness & Hardware

Majority of the cars are clean enough and new hardware. Especially those that's going to the Airport (was told there is a rule of max 5 years age for the cars going to Airport). 

Great: ??

None IMHO. 

Tips: Uber Black or Grab Premium or Hotel Car (if you can afford..)

• Malaysia

Ugly: Professionalism & Traffic

Taxis in KL are not that bad actually. Reasonably priced, clean but the drivers can be rude depending on your luck. Rush hour traffic is getting to be close to jakarta/bangkok level of disaster so watch out the schedule, destination. 

Average: Cost, Safety, Cleanliness & Hardware

If there is one market where Uber/Grab changed, then that would be Malaysia. Be it KL or JB or Pengang, the kind of difference Uber/Grab made was enormous. Not only in terms of quality of vehicles, but overall change is great. It's still the same old Perdua or Proton cars with occasional Japanese but the overall quality is much better now. 

Great: Availability & Communication

Taxis are available almost any time of the day. 

It pays to return your tray but to whom? I hate this campaign after realising the outcomes

Source: Strait times


As you can see the Foodcourt owners can implement a system to promote tray return by investing 280,000+. Now the big question is where is the business case for investing. I wish the food court owners are getting the business case from somewhere else.

What I have seen in other places (near office/home) is since the campaign on Say YES to Tray Return, the number of old uncles/aunties been reduced. So the poor cleaner uncle who used to get his pay with dignity is now jobless and getting help from the Gov (Comcare). May be its a coincidence or there was really a retrenchment.

But overall, I don't like the idea of pushing some novelty item or whims of some business person on masses. This is what it is in Asia for centuries and the service culture doesnt need to be changed because of some ideas originated from western world. There could be many reasons why US or EU does this but for Asia/SG - Do we really need to follow the values and norms of western world blindly?

I don't think so.

This is the real FREE Wi-Fi. Kudos to Changi Airport, living up to the credentials and rankings

One thing which frustrates me throughout the world is "free wifi" logo and "unable to connect" or "try after some time" messages.

I will try to take some screenshots from places like SFO, LAX, HKG, NRT where the WiFi experience  is killed by unnecessary advertisements, and clicks. ICN is different but plz take note my korean friends that very few travellers transiting /traveling in ICN international can read korean. Places like CGK, BKK, DEL, BOM, MNL are as good as trying to get free wifi in an US motel. So no point talking about them.  Out of these, CGK used to be the better one but recently the lack of maintenance or increased user traffic started to kill the experience. BKK is shine and shine outside and no substance inside so no comments on that. DEL, BOM: they are interested in your money, so never ever pay for the WiFi (which I did so naively) after the first 30 min free wifi. It doesnt work and they can double charge your credit card.

As always, Singapore is different. Here is a screenshot taken sometime ago at Changi :) Only downside or improvement they can make is the removal of OTP. It can be a registration or certification issue for past visitors (device ID/MAC may be or SIM authentication)

Too much over action by Prime Minister Tour organising committee

See the below list. Now, I am not sure I even want to read it. Forget about going to the event. I am expecting a total chaos at the meeting and venue with the too much over action. Is this happening in Singapore? We have various country leaders meeting people in Singapore, and never see such laundry list. Anyway, no food allowed and expect people to sit for 5 hours inside the expo, or you can't even leave the place. Good luck with that.

Thanks for wasting tax payers money, but no thanks Mr. PM.

1. Entry Passes/Invitations are NON TRANSFERABLE
2. Please bring a print out of the Entry Pass bearing your name.
3. Please bring the identification that you provided upon registration for the event i.e. NRIC/FIN/Passport to the venue. We will require original identification card for verification. Photocopies will not be permitted.
4. Please note that only individuals with Entry Passes/Invitations and the relevant ID will be permitted to enter the venue. NO ID = NO ENTRY.
5. There will be airport class security at Singapore EXPO and all the rules that apply for airport security shall apply here as well. 
6. Please arrive early as the event has free seating and the average screening time could exceed 30 mins.
7. Please do not bring any of the items listed as “not permitted” on your Entry Passes/Invitation:
a)     No outside food and drinks or water bottles are allowed. Water and snacks will be provided free of charge inside the Halls.
b)     Umbrellas, sharp objects, cigarette lighters are NOT allowed.
c)     Still Cameras and Video Cameras will NOT be permitted.
d)     Mobile phones are allowed. No selfie sticks will be allowed.
e)     Small ladies’ handbags are allowed.

8. You will be asked to dispose of any items that are not permitted before being granted access to the Halls.
10. There is limited food available at the EXPO and as mentioned, food and drink will not be permitted inside the Halls. Water and snacks will be provided free of charge inside the Halls however we advise you to eat and come!
11. Once you enter the Hall, you will not be able to leave until the end of PM Modi’s speech. Restrooms are accessible from inside the Halls and additional portable toilets will be available towards the rear of the Venue.

Income tax collections: A very good lesson India can learn from Singapore

Source: CNA

Singapore shared that in FY2014/15 the Income tax collections grown by 16% and hit SGD 8.9 Billion. This is close to 2.1% of the nations GDP.

On the other hand, India tax collections for FY13/14 it stood at 242856 crores or SGD 53.9 Billion and budgeted for FY14/15 are at 63.1 Billion. From GDP point of ratio this is approx 3.3% of the GDP.

If we see the maximum income without paying any tax in Singapore is SGD 20,000(after deductions), and in India it is INR 250,000 or SGD 6,000.

However if we take the median income of a person in singapore, the effective tax rate is less than 10%. For the same, in India it is higher than 20%. By the way the common man on street in Singapore get "potable tap water, fresh air (except the few weeks of haze contributed by Indonesia) and never go hungry". On top of it there is heavily subsidised healthcare, education and scholarships. I didn't even have to mention the safety & security in the country.

I can easily say (my deduction could be challenged and I am no way posses any insider knowledge) the problem in India is the tax system itself is designed to be backwardish and not for an asian economy. We have to keep it simple and we have to make it easy, and transparent. Unfortunately the people who are honest and paying income tax will end up paying from their noses while those so called business man, big industrialists, and many other unorganized industries end up paying zero tax.

Finally the IRAS (Tax collection body in Singapore) shared another interesting fact.

" It cost 0.8c to collect $1 in tax revenue and they owe this to using technology and simplifying the process".

That's probably the best every anybody could hope for. But knowing Singapore, they would reduce it next year by few percentage points.

Extremely important day for Singapore and millions of people living, working, visiting the amazing nation.

11th Sep 2001 is an extremely horrible day for the world. But fast forward to fourteen years and today it is crucial for millions of people in this tiny nation Singapore.

It's the elections day. I don't think I can sleep tonight and I am eagerly waiting for the results announcement.

There are plenty of blogs, websites, forums, facebook chats but in a nutshell this is the day when 2.6 millions of voters going to decide whether a pragmatic, future looking and hard working party vs other parties who just behave like the parties in India, Indonesia or any other developing country (i.e. focusing on emotional needs, creating the fear of US vs THEM etc).

Singapore is a miracle nation, and it's success can't be attributed to one person. A minor chunk goes to a handful of visionaries led by Mr.LKY, while the rest which is the major portion to goes to it's people who backed Mr.LKY ideas of hardwork, perseverance and pragmatism. But this time, I am hearing some disturbing comments from highly educated, successful and nice people. Which is "preferential treatment based on birth, and most importantly FREE stuff". Unfortunately no person, family, town, state or nation can rely on FREE distribution. Someone need to pay for it.

So looking forward for the people of Singapore to use brain vs emotional hearts, and decide the future of this miraculous nation. 

Goodbye Hello Card: No cheap calling cards from Singtel anymore

Source: Singtel

There goes another product which I loved a lot. This time it's Hello card. Basically it is a prepaid international calling card to make cheap (It's ~1-2c / min to many nations in asia pacific) voice calls. On top of it, the icing is you can let it call you back to minimize your outgoing minutes usage.

This is by far the most popular card for many of my friends who still use this as a backup on top of Skype/Facetime/Whatsapp. As most of us experienced, sometimes the plain old voice call using mobile CS is better than blazing fast LTE or WiFi.

Guess one of the reason is the popular Hi card from Singtel which is the mobile prepaid card which bundles cheap voice calls to specific countries and offer custoimzed top-ups based on subscriber country. e.g. topup a package to get 100 min to philippines or something.

Wish Netflix to come soon (they have announced that it's early 2016) and kill my other hated service which is MIO TV :)

Changi Automated Clearance System: What software it is using..

I am quite impressed with overall infrastructure in Singapore. The Government and some great guys planned it in that way, and the 'first impression' which is Changi Airport counts a lot. Recently I was a bit disappointed with the so called "random security checks(which are not really random in my experience)" and "random return security checks" but overall I am quite happy and I must say this is probably the best airport. Be it the ease of reaching/getting out, immigration/custom clearance, security checks, amenities, food (Ofcourse ,except the horrible, and super expensive indian one), crowd for takeoff/landing and the shopping options.

Out of all, the best part for me is the immigration. After the auto gates / automated clearance /  IACS/ eIACS/  deployed in 2011the whole experience is a breeze. I have never encountered any issues, and it works as it supposed to be.

Yesterday, for the first time I had an issue. After clearing the glass barrier with my passport, the system stuck. It's like you can't go back or forward. The officer came in seconds, and we noticed that the system started rebooting itself. So while waiting there, I saw the system OS. You wouldn't believe... and it's...

Now I seriously admire the developers, system integrators or programmers who executed it. They did an amazing job to go with Windows and the systems are running 24x7 with almost zero down time. I must say they are meeting the telco standard/grade availability as this is the first time in years I saw a system booting/hang. There were plenty of post logon scripts after the booting process and GUI and I guess the front end is a simple VB or HTML code with plenty of back end scripting.

After 3 minutes, the system is back and there goes it. Happy traveller, and a very disappointed looking officer who couldn't believe that Changi made a passenger wait for 3 min. Kudos Officers, you guys are really amazing to take it so personally and apologising as if this is even a 'delay'

Wish our American, Australian, EU friends or neighbours like Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai & Viet friends lean something. I love their job, especially sitting in a comfy chair on a raised platform and looking at the herd who are standing in front of them for hours. Unfortunately I always end up in the herd. Anyways, thanks to Changi once again.. the frustrations from the travel will be gone once you land up in Changi..

Lack of any insurance provider for iPad, iPhone or Smartphone in Singapore

I have subscribed to Zurich / Mobile cover, and had some sort of peace of mind. Especially with a thousand dollar gadget in my two young kids hands. Unfortunately they stopped renewing the contract, and I couldnt find any similar insurance options for the iPad.

I have tried my best to child proof by getting a survivor case (not exactly same but similar), but today the unfortunate thing happened.

Unfortunately have no choice but through it off. The repair from apple store costs me almost the price of a new ipad 16gb, while the other shops quoted me slightly lower than that. Wish I could have got something like endsleigh in SG.

But this reminds me once again of the dangers with gadgets and kids :)

Is Uber-X cheaper than Taxi Service - I dont think so

Uber is great and it helped me atleast dozen times in Singapore, few dozen times overseas. I really love the overall experience but recently I started to feel the fees in Singapore are getting a bit expensive. So I put together a quick comparison of taxi bills vs uber and the comparison does shows Uber is cheaper.

When I compare $ / Min or $ / KM, it clearly shows Uber is cheaper than regular taxis. But the weird part is my journey route is almost the same. So when I looked a bit deeper, the evidence started to surface. Some how Uber calculates the "distance" a bit longer compared to other taxi services. May be Uber is more accurate or whatever it is but if you look at the trip on 22-Apr-15 (last row), vs 30-Apr-14 (first row), or 15-Jul-14 (5th Row), the source-destination-route is exactly the same. Barring some deviation due to traffic, the fare should end up cheaper for uber as the claim.

So for me, it's very simple. I am happy with the level of taxi service in Singapore and I would go back to Comfort or other regular taxi service. Ofcourse, I would still need Uber in SFO & SYD. 

HDB Lease buy back extended to Four Rooms

Source: CNA

In a summary, its no longer applicable for 3-Rooms and 3,000 income criteria. Now it's applicable (from tomorrow) for 4-Rooms and 10,000 income.

I seriously wish this should be applicable to all HDB and not 3-room, and 4-rooms. With this approach, elders can have a more stable income during their late years. After all it is the same HDB, and same HDB payments all people paid :)

Stereo type - Is it true that many things happen based on 'profile' or race?

This is one of the most sensitive topic but I am deeply saddened by an interaction with one my  close friend (who holds masters and Dr from world class schools). We are having a conversation and there are few words came out of his mouth that gave me his views about the social class system in even developed economies.

Believe it or not, or blame it on conspiracy theorists or matrix, the conclusion I ended up is we humans need to evolve lot more. Whatever assumptions we make, and whatever masks we wear, end of the day the real feelings (heart truths ??) can be quite different.

For example, one of the basic assumption in Singapore society I encountered is alcohol and Indians. Similarly laziness and malays, money and chinese. All these are quite funny topics over a meal or bear. But it is not when we see it on a serious note.

Indians are not alchoholics and probably one of the lowest consumers of alcohol in the world barring muslim countries. Per capita consumption of alcohol is quite low and based on the WHO report , the lifetime abstainers are ~82% and including stoppers are ~ 92%. So the 8% are the one who are consuming lot more and probably creating the misconception. Similarly, I have seen dozens of my malay friends who are much more hard working than any other race or nationality. In fact the productivity of the friends is much higher given the balancing act of family and community they do.

Nevertheless, I am not trying to defensive or show some examples and jump to conclusion (or stereo type ;)) but recently I had enough of these things and the horror to me is its happening in Singapore. Not with friends but even at work.. One of the most sickening conversation I ever had is with an executive in an MNC (HQ in USA and Fortune 100 firm). The view shared was it's good to keep a Chinese person to handle local customers. I am flabbergasted by that view, and hearing from a company which talks about equality, and global view. So all the materials and so called CSR topics are just for publishing and the decisions are made based on specific views.

I really wish that we can move on and put these behind.

Taxi Confusion in Singapore - Varying flag down fares, distance charges and models

Probably the most complaining part about taxi is the 'non-availability' when one really needed. For example, during peak hour or when its raining. However I have another issue with taxi which I encountered during my trip from Changi couple of days back. 

The challenge is the different models and the fare difference. I remember Straitimes did a great job trying to put things together in single file (I've uploaded here) and appreciate the effort.

What I did is to do a quick comparison with Excel assuming three different routes. I have taken plenty of assumptions and please don't ask me that how come your fare is much higher :) Reason is I've excluded any ERP charges, late night charges, location based charges, Peak hour charges, booking charges, waiting charges and all other stuff. A very basic and simple calculation for the distance.

As you can see the price difference between the most common taxi (I guess Sonata) vs the most common Merc is huge. It's almost 38% difference.  That's excluding Crowns and the notorious Chryslers. 

The worst thing is the price difference between Sonata and Premier Kia. That's a 5% difference but in my experience taking this last week was a difference of 30%. Normally I pay 21-23 for a trip using Sonata and this time I ended up paying 26 which is quite huge difference. The traffic was smooth and the route is the same. No idea why and that motivated to write this in the first place. 

Even if we take the difference between Sonata - i40 from Comfort (largest operator) that's a difference of 50C but 5-8% higher depending on how long the commute is. No idea why and how the operators decide to charge, rise the fares. I recall LTA controls the fares just like the PTC for public transport but it seems these days the taxi operators have a free hand :|

I wish there is some commonality. Just remove the so many versions and keep two or three versions. 

1. For regular usage - Sonata, i40, Prius and all can go here
2. For Exec or Sedan - Merc or likes of it
3. MPV's - Larger groups .

That would simplify the fare confusion up to some extent. Ofcourse this doesnt answer the "peak hour surcharge, mid night surcharge, and location surcharges.. 

Singapore budget airliner Scoot gets its first 787.

Source: CNA

This is good and I must admit, I love the Scoot Biz class any day compared to the cattle class which I am used to travel on official duties. Thanks to 'cost cutting' of enterprises, and 'profit' of airline industry, we end up with comparing 18" vs 18.5" seat width, or 2" difference in pitch. I can see the discussion in lounges, about how Asiana 21" width is great, or SQ 32" pitch.

Scoot is a bit generous and gives 38" pitch and 22" width which is quite comfortable and at the same prices of what other economy fares are at. So for a trip to Perth or Sydney this makes more sense.

With dream liners (I enjoyed my journeys to Japan on ANA few times except their horrible seats) I have to say the overall experience going to be much better.

They are flying to Perth from this thursday and wish to see more 787 in other routes too.. 

Singapore Gov using IPv6? Atleast ICA seems to be...

Since yesterday/the day before upgrade I couldn't open ICA website. I tried to ping the FQDN name and then realized they are using IPv6.

Here is the screen shots and good job guys. By the way, it would be great if you could 'make it work' :)

Still appreciate their effort and moving in to the next phase.

Security - You can't take it for granted. Over 1,500 SingPass accounts potentially accessed

Source: CNA

It is really amusing that the Singpass is not using 2FA. OneKey, which is a Gov backed initiative is active and I believe many people received the Key. Even without onekey, Mobile phone can be a good 2FA device, and if SMS costs are huge (which is not the case but still), Googla 2FA or other software based 2FA can be used pretty safely.

Remember, SingPass let's the user access almost all kind of personal, confidential and private information. So I am disappointed with the SingPass provider. Wish there is some change soon and we can start to use 2FA. Atleast optionally.

Fibre to the home - Thanks to the Gov vision in 2010.

200/200 Mbps Download/Upload speeds and unlimited data volume. For a price of SGD 39/Month. This is what Singapore managed to do with Fibre to the Home. I was a bit sceptical originally in 2010, and the project itself went in to many challenges (still ongoing with lead times to install fibre, or change operators) but end of the day it is a great boon to house holds. I've checked my bills and I found out that in year 2003, I paid SGD 58 to a cable operator for 3 Mbps broadband connectivity. Followed by SGD 41 for 6 Mbps ADSL, then SGD 39, and SGD 72 for 20 Mbps before I subscribed at SGD 31 for 30 Mbps Fibre to home in 2011.

It's a good experience overall and I know I can't ask for more given my current services comes with free residential telephone with unlimited local calls, and a free WiFi router.  

World tallest Ferris wheel - It's not Singapore Flyer any more. Las Vegas got a bigger one now..

Source: Here

The world’s tallest Ferris wheel opened on the Las Vegas Strip on March 31, 2014. Standing at 550 foot tall, the Ferris wheel named “High Roller” sports a 520-foot diameter giant wheel and is taller than the previous record holder, the Singapore Flyer by 9 feet and almost 100 foot tall than the famous London Eye. The wheel is located across from Caesars Palace, adjacent to Flamingo Las Vegas and The Quad Resort & Casino.

Looks good and I am not sure if soon the "ferris wheels" will be removed or scrapped. I don't understand the business case and I still see no business here in Singapore, and many other places.