Some not so popular places to visit beyond Singapore during hoildays!

There are many places(or countries!) you can visit outside Singapore. Many people argue me that there is not much enough places left within Singapore to explore ..yeah! ..I surprise them asking a question "Have you been to macritchie reservoir ?" ..The answer is "Where is that!!". So here you go ..its an myth that being in Singapore for many years you have no new places to go for :).

For the sake of tourists or expats who are here for short duration and want to explore some places around Singapore .this may be a handy list of quick gateways from Singapore !..here is my favorite list !:

• Bintan : I have been to Bintan 2 times and its a good place to start exploring outside Singapore. 45 mins from Singapore you in Indonasia ! ..Its a small Island part of Indonesia and has many many resorts for your to enjoy!. Recommended to at least stay 2D1N to enjoy!. Check out my post on Bintan Island Resorts.
  
• Batam : Less than hour journey in a ferry from Singapore get you to Indonesia again!. Again this is a small Island with just some resorts and places to take stroll around!..Nothing spectacular but good to visit once!. 1 Day visit is recommended.
  
• Johor : Johor is so close to Singapore that you can really walk across a bridge from Singapore :). Lot of people go to Johor for shopping and buying things in bulk. If you have a car and Malaysian Visa already then this is the place you can try as your first adventure outside Singapore !. If you happen to go in mansoon season, plan to visit to Kota Tinggi. A water fall near Johor. If you do not plan to venture out much beyond Johor, 1 Day is good enough.
  
• Pulau Ubin: A small island very near to Singapore. Recommended to go a day trip only. You can do nature walks or enjoy cycle riding around the village!.
• Malacca: Malacca is 2.5 hours away from Singapore. It is in Malaysia. So if you have Malaysia Visa, before going to popular destinations like KL, Genting. You can goto Malacca to experience historical places in Malaysia. Recommended to spend 2D1N at this place. You can also find 1 day tours conducted by Bus from Singapore to Malacca.If you are interested this could a nice drive from Singapore.

I still thinking about more places ..till then this is a draft post but published!

Use Google Maps to rent a most conveniently located Apartment in Singapore!

Well I got this idea recently when trying to explore Google Street View for Singapore. Many readers ask me this question regarding "How to go about renting flat in Singapore?". I believe the most important question for the new comer in this country is to find good apartment for rent which offers best convenience. As you start living in Singapore, you will understand that living with good convenience is the best thing happened to you. Although all over Singapore you will find all necessities of life close to you. Thanks to excellent infrastructure. Still at a times you are pressed for time and you want to commute faster on a daily basis to your office or do not want to put off the idea to go to a park/mall on a weekend just because the MRT/Bus Interchange itself is 20 mins away :).

You got it right!, I am talking about renting an apartment near MRT/Bus Interchange. It makes a huge different when you have an option to MRT which is 10 minutes away or must wait for the bus to take you there!.

So how Google Maps is going to help you here. The instructions are here :

1. Suppose I decide to rent my apartment in Hougang Area.
2. The area is spanning 5 sq kms. So where do you rent the apartment so that you are just 10 minutes walk away.
3. Goto Google Maps. Search for "Hougang MRT, Singapore"
4. Once you zoom in a bit you will see "NE14 Hougang".
5. Ok you know the MRT, now how do you decide how far I should go from this central point in the map to make sure I am not too far from MRT that I need to take a bus to go there or walk for long time!.
6. Make the NE14 Hougang as your center of the map and zoom in so much that you read : 200 ft / 100 m on the scale shown on the down left of the Google Maps.
7. Now this is the area on the map should become a guide to you for renting your apartment in Hougang. So by taking this example itself, I can either look for apartments in Hougang Ave 10 seen on this map or Hougang Ave 7 seen in this map.

Again this just a guideline. Once you see the area you need to consider other factors like the nearest bus stop, super markets like Cold Storage/NTUC FairPrice etc etc. This is where Google Street View comes to rescue and you can take the advantage of that to become familiar with the areas surrounding your preferred location!

In most cases the MRT stations and Bus Interchange will have a Super Market, Shopping Mall and other facilities like Medical Clinics to serve you!.

I hope this helps !

cheers
Sandeep

Moving to Singapore! ..Prepare yourself....

If you have already decided to move to Singapore, this post will help you to plan your move more systematically. What I will share with you all is my own personal experience on moving to Singapore 3 years back. I expect readers share their experience too which will help others.

• Plan things in advance : This is very important. You need at least one or two months in advance to plan things properly before you can actually take a flight to Singapore!. This also depends on whether you are moving as a bachelor or with family.
  
• Create a task list of all MUST do things before you move : I am not big fan of task list, but this one helped me a lot. I used task list to manage all my tasks I had to do before I moved out of India. To start with just list down all things comes to your mind as things you need to manage. This could include things like bank accounts, rental agreements, billing arrangements, selling your stuff or moving to some other place etc. Once you make the random task list go through it to make sure you categorize into 2 labels : Must DO and Optional. Tasks which are must do are the ones which requires your physical presence and important like Bank Accounts, Selling your Car, Settling Employer dues or incoming funds. Optional are stuff which can be managed even if you are not living in India.
  
• Money matters first! : Yes give importance to money matters first. If you are leaving your current employer make sure that you give them a date 5 days prior to your actual leaving date from current location. This way if things gets delayed, you have some days to manage those things!. Settle all current bills such as Utility bills, Telephone bills etc. Take stock of all your bank and investment accounts to see what things you need to do.
• Internet Banking is superb!: Till date if you were not having your bank and other investment accounts internet enabled, please do so immediately. Most of the banks are pretty fast in enabling accounts for internet. So just go to your bank and make sure you accounts are accessible from anywhere in the world!.
• Selling or moving your stuff : If you are not living in your own house or you do not have anybody taking care of your house then you need to decide on moving or selling your stuff on a immediate basis. There are many ways you can sell your old stuff like eBay, craigslist etc. If you are moving some of the household goods to some other city, keep sufficient time in your hands to manage that as well.
• Book your Air Tickets in Advance : This is more important if you are paying yourself for your relocation. There are many airlines now fly to Singapore from India like Kingfisher, Singapore Airlines, Air India, Malaysian Airlines etc. Instead of just looking for cheap tickets, look at the value provided by the airlines like check-in baggage allowance, cancellation policies, date change charges etc. I would prefer Singapore Airlines anytime for their flexibility in terms and conditions. One must check the T&Cs before booking. As these keep changing.
  
• What to carry to Singapore from India : Well this depends on whether you are moving goods using Air Cargo or just trying to manage stuff with your check-in baggage allowance. As a guideline I will suggest following things to carry if you are a family :

-- Basic Kitchen Utensils : For Indian specially Kadai!
-- Clothes : Formal as well as casual wear
-- Some Kitchen Appliances you are used to : Like a Grinder, Blender etc
-- Avoid carrying woolen clothes except a jacket or 2 in case you need to travel out.

• School Admissions in Singapore : This one is the most stressful part for parents back in India. Once you have decided, make sure that you make all arrangements with your school in India to get all documents and date finalized with school to get your deposit back!. In Singapore you need not worry too much about admissions in Indian International Schools as there are 3 of them and most cases your kid will admission in any one of them depending on your location preference.

I hope this helps everybody who is looking for some tips while moving to Singapore!.

cheers
Sandeep

Cost of living in Singapore for Bachelor not sharing Apartment - 2009

So here I am with another post for my bachelor friends who do not want to share apartment. Which is a preference of many I know. Well it is a personal choice and it does works out well for the convenience and privacy one prefers for herself or himself.

In Singapore as you know that Rental expenses make most % of the your salary. So when you are not sharing apartment, all the things like utility, internet, grocery etc is also not shared. Another observation I made in these years is that one who do not share apartment as bachelor with others, generally stay on Condo’s !. So there you go …..

As you can see not sharing apartment does increases your rent as a major expense. You should notice that again these are some of the basic expenses you need to incur for living. You can try and squeeze the budget for sometime, but understand that once you have spent sometime in a country your expenses will gradually go up. 

The biggest assumption in all my calculations here is that no annual expenses or large medical expenses are budgeted. They are important and you must add those to the monthly cost of living figure. For a bachelor if you are flying to any Indian destination from Singapore, you would need to pay around $400-$1000 as air fare for single trip for economy class. You must add these expenses in your calculations in case you want to build a plan for yearly savings calculations!

Taxi is another expense which you need to manage. As you start living in Singapore, you will get used to taxi. That’s when you need to budget more for Taxi expenses. Most of the time depending upon your lifestyle and where you stay in Singapore taxi use can be avoided. Singapore offers good public transport.

Lot of people ask questions regarding 1 Bed Room Apartments in Singapore. Unfortunately there are not many 1 bed room HDB flats and I have not see any 1 BHK Condo’s. So your best bet is 2 Bed Room Condo. The Rent given is just an estimate, it does changes depending on economic conditions and area.

As usual, if you have any questions do email me and I will be glad to answer if I can!

enjoy

Sandeep

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Cost of Living In Singapore for Bachelor Sharing Apartment

Cost of living in Singapore for Bachelor Sharing Apartment - 2009

So finally I am writing the post which many readers of mine were asking for!. I thought its a good idea to update the Year 2009 estimates for cost of living in Singapore for Bachelor’s. Again as previously explained, this is my own estimation and should be taken as guideline only. Cost of living does differ for everybody based on their lifestyle. So please do care while taking any decision based on this figure.

As you can see above, the estimated cost of living for a bachelor who is sharing apartment with 3 people works out very well. As the rent is the major part of the living, sharing makes you save a lot!.

As these expenses are on moderate side. For example if you add Alcohol in your list the total will be something else!.

This would give a good idea for a bachelor about expenses in Singapore. Sharing the expenses and apartment is not for everybody, I know many people who do not like to share the apartment or cook at home. So in that you need to read my next post!.

enjoy

Sandeep

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Cost of Living in Singapore for Bachelor not Sharing Apartment

Pune Flu Capital of India ..for now!

Well I was in Pune just before it was declared Flu Capitol of India by our reporters. I remember Prem Chopra’s dialogue from movie “Badnaam Honge To Kya Naam Na Hoga!” :). Coming from Singapore which acts too fast for any Communicable Diseases. Which is very much required Singapore as the population here is very dense and wide spread can be tough on people as well as economy.

I was in Pune in Last week of August-09 and what I saw that many hospitals are just unaware of the fact that someday the H1N1 or Swine Flu will visit their city too. In 2 of the major hospital’s I visited in Pune, right from receptionist at OPD to Consulting Dr. no one was wearing mask!. Well now you already know how mask is the possible key for avoiding the spreading the flu.

Now you will see everybody is looking for a mask in the city.

I know people will always give this excuse about too many people and stuff like that!. Reality is that there was no plan in place, people in India would have just copied what other countries did when the outbreak started few months before it came to India. People somewhere on Internet were also seen quoting that due to hot weather in India the virus will not sustain!. I believe everybody know that India has all kinds of weather!

I came across this post from Amit Paranjape, to which I agree ..specially the point about the people wearing masks but not wearing helmets ! ..

When I was travelling from Singapore to Mumbai, I had mixed opinions about how the situation about H1N1 will be handled at the airport. The scene was like this. Reaching Mumbai Airport at midnight, after a long walk from the Plane to the Immigration Checkpoint there were bunch of people sitting to scan the group of 20+ people using a small digital camera. I doubt whether it was serving its purpose. There was 1-2 staff carrying a H1N1 declaration form, distributing to people. Many of the people were unaware about what to do with that form and what is the next from here. When I looked saw around 3-4 desks organized to collect those H1N1 Forms. Well by the time people understand what to do and how to proceed, in that small area there were just to many people in close proximity and talk to each other and exchanging pens to write on the forms!. So there you are mingling with someone probably having H1N1 already! . Also for some reason during my flight the airline did not provide me the Immigration Form which usually they provide. So after filling that Form which had those usual questions I passed on to the desk and went towards the Immigration clearance.

With new airport terminal at Mumbai I was expected better management of space for these special occasions.

The important point to note in above is that only 1-2 staff from the airport I could see wearing masks!

After the immigration clearance when I went to Pre-Paid taxi counter, the person behind the counter was telling me to hurry and run after paying the money to him. The reason was that they were expecting all taxies to go on strike that night!!

I would suggest following precautions during air travel :

• Use mask(preferably N95 Mask)
• Use of Mask helps in too ways, possible infection from others and when people see you wearing mask, they stay away from you! – Double Protection!(I actually observed this when I was flight!)
• Carry Alcohol wipes with you always and use them frequently during the travel.
• When you reach your destination, do make sure to use hand sanitizer before touching other places in your house!
• Take bath at transit if you have time between flights.

I hope people develop more awareness after these situations.

Cost of renting a Car in Singapore!

Well after long time I plan to write something!. This time about cost of car rental in Singapore. Renting a car in Singapore is expensive affair given the fact that there are costs involved other than just the rental for the car!. Which offcourse applicable to other countries also. But here in Singapore it is more during peak times in a day when the ERP is higher.

Most of you would be interested in knowing about the car rental rates. Recently I visited a car rental shop and got its rate card. Now its the time to share it with others !

here you go :

Update : Some problem in updating the image of the rate card. Will do so when blogger allows me to!