Thursday, 26th March 2009
I have only been out of Singapore for close to 2 months and there has been a lot of major developments in Singapore.
Let’s face it. I am a chicken. I dare not fight this government head on. I know in my heart Singapore is not where I want to be. If I don’t want to be there, I have no motivation to fight for my freedom in my own country when I can get it from another country.
Tagged As: Democracy, Singapore, Wall Street Journal
Sunday, 1st March 2009
I have been researching about the German VoIP company, Betamax GmbH & Co KG, to find the right VoIP service for me. I used VoIP Stunt, which is also a Betamax service, but they no longer have free calls to Thailand.
Betamax has a terrible reputation online. If you do a Google search for “Betamax scams”, you will see a long list of customer complaints about this company. It seems like Betamax has a lot of different web sites that offer free calls to different countries. Most of them are almost the same. It would take forever to visit every web site to find out which web site has free calls to countries you wish to call to.
Thankfully, someone create a web site that compares all the Betamax web sites on a single page. You can select the coutries you wish to call to and filter the results.
Click on the thumbnail to see the full sized picture. I found 3 web sites (SmartVoIP, VoIPDiscount and LowCostVoIP) that have free calls to Singapore and Thailand. I decided to go with VoIP Discount since all 3 …
Thursday, 26th February 2009
Cheap and Good Organic Vegetables
I think I am pretty much settled in my new country. I found a shop that sells really good organic vegetables at very low prices. Some of the organic vegetables are even cheaper than the non-organic vegetables in supermarkets. Back in Singapore, the prices of organic vegetables can go up to twice the price of non-organic vegetables. In Thailand, I can get cheap and good organic vegetables at a fraction of the cost in Singapore. I love it!
Bangkok Traffic Jams
Traffic jams in Bangkok are really common at about 6 PM to 8 PM or later. The traffic eases up after 9 PM or so. I was stuck in a taxi during a traffic jam yesterday evening. What should have been a 5 minute ride to the nearest BTS station became a 30 minute ride on a congested road. I should have taken a motorcycle taxi to zip through the traffic.
Motorcycle taxis are not for the faint of heart. It took me a few rides to get used to it. The …
Tuesday, 10th February 2009
So I finally made it to Bangkok, Thailand. The 3 weeks prior to my move were really hectic because I had to get rid of most of my unwanted stuff. The paperwork for my cats was a lot of work. The only pleasant surprise was I got a free visa from the Thai embassy, which I was supposed to pay at least SGD $100 for. I think it was free because of some visa promotion they are having to lure tourists back into Thailand.
I missed out on a portion of my cats’ paperwork in Singapore. Somehow, the Thailand authorities still issued me an import permit. I had no idea I needed to endorse my cats’ health certificates with the Singapore authorities until I reached the animal quarantine office at the Bangkok airport.
The guy at the AQS office was an asshole. He threatened to destroy my cats due to the missing document. He said he could still let me off if I can get the documents faxed over. Lucky for me, I applied for the certificates online and had them faxed over in the nick of …
Monday, 19th January 2009
I called a few transport companies and they quoted me SGD $2500 – SGD $3000 for moving my stuff from Singapore to Bangkok via sea freight. My personal items aren’t even worth SGD $2000 and it would not make sense to pay an extra SGD $2500 excluding taxes when the custom officers go through my stuff one by one.
I decided to pack the essential items I want to bring over to my apartment into boxes and ship them via sea mail instead. I estimate it would cost me a maximum of SGD $300 + to ship over 40 kg of stuff. It will take 3-4 weeks to reach Thailand but I will be spending a few weeks in Singapore before I go back. I think my stuff will arrive at about the same time I arrive in Bangkok.
I pack my items with an estimated value about SGD $100 into a box. Even if the box gets lost in transit, I will get a refund of $100. Some boxes have stuff that are worth more than SGD $100, therefore I would have to purchase extra insurance for extra coverage.
I see 2 probably terrible scenarios for me – Firstly, I might taxed …
Sunday, 11th January 2009
I was standing at a bus stop at the On Nut BTS station waiting for the Bangkok airport bus 552 at about 12 noon yesterday. I was told the bus goes directly to the Suvarnabhumi international airport and only costs 32 THB.
I thought I was going to have a pleasant journey to the airport but I was wrong, dead wrong.
This noisy bus stopped in front of the bus stop and this ruffian came down and snatched my luggage, which was less than 1 feet away from me. I was left speechless and stunned for a couple of seconds. Then I realised this man was running back to his bus with my luggage!
His bus then started driving away. What did I do? I was not going to stand there and let him steal my luggage so I ran after his moving bus and jumped aboard. I asked him what he was doing and where his bus was going. I told him I wanted to go to the Suvarnabhumi airport and he told me it would cost me 80 THB.
I paid him the money and sulked at my …
Tagged As: Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand
Friday, 9th January 2009
I get this question a lot from my non-Singaporean friends. My most recent friends who have asked me this question are from Myanmar and Thailand. Both of them asked me why are there loads of old folks working in fast food restaurants and food courts in Singapore. Although Singapore is above Thailand and Myanmar economically, the way we treat our elderly is a big disgrace compared to most countries of Southeast Asia.
This complicated question can be answered with the following explanations:
…
Tagged As: Singapore, Southeast Asia
Sunday, 4th January 2009
I found an apartment in Bangkok on craigslist.org. I learnt this tip from the 4-Hour Workweek book. I avoided property agents and contacted ads post by apartment owners. Before searching on craigslist.org, I spent a lot of time contacting property agents and browsing Thai property sites that listed apartments at ridiculously high rates.
Amazingly, I am paying about the same amount of rent I am paying back home in Singapore but it is much better here. I’ve got loads of cable TV channels, free internet, cheap utilities, more space and I am allowed to keep my 4 cats here. I think I got a really good deal here and I am really happy with my apartment. I also followed Tim’s advice on living in hostels for a while before moving into an apartment.
Living in hostels in not for everyone. The shared dorms can get rather smelly once they are full. I spent 8 nights at a hostel before moving to a hotel. The benefits of hostels is …
Tagged As: Bangkok, Singapore, Thai language, Thailand, visa
Thursday, 1st January 2009
I bumped into an Indian astrologer/fortune teller/holy man/yogi/director today. That’s a lot of slashes but that was what I was told from this guy.
I was minding my own business at the hotel lobby this morning when 2 Indian men came and sat at the table next to mine. One of them was a Sikh Indian and the other guy looked pretty young. The young guy introduced himself as Rajah or something, at least that was what I heard. We started with a bit of small talk about where I was from and we talked a bit about our countries and occupations.
Rajah said he was in Singapore some time ago to make a movie. I asked him if he was a movie star but he said he was a movie director instead. He said his Sikh friend helps him out.
The next part gets really interesting…
He started talking about my forehead and he made a good comment about it. He said I would receive good luck this month. He said I think too much lately, which was spot on because I have been thinking a lot during my Bangkok holiday.
I asked Rajah if he was a fortune teller and he said he …
Tagged As: Bangkok, Indian Fortune Teller, Thailand
Monday, 29th December 2008
I have updated my WordPress to the 2.7. I just installed the NextGen gallery to display my pictures. Check out all of the pictures I have taken so far!
Here are more of my observations of Thais and their culture.
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