Monday, April 25, 2011

Looks can be deceptive !!

One of the favorite pastime of Singaporeans is complaining !!!
These are not my words but those of Singaporeans themselves as shown by a ad promo given below for a quiz show based in Singapore.



Singaporeans complain for not having enough seats in MRT , for increasing property prices(well this one we all do) ,for increasing number of foreign influx,for waiting too long for buses(too long means 10 min , don't compare with Indian standards) ....the list is endless.

As they say when in Rome do as Romans do ,so I decided to complain.We ordered bruschetta with mushrooms in Pizza Hut and look at what we got ....



Frankly speaking I should have complained to the manager but we were too tired that day so I decided to blog it instead .

Saturday, April 9, 2011

My dental nightmare

It started one month before when I went to doctor to get my cavity filled . I estimated that it would cost me 50 dollars and one hour to get everything fixed. I was in for a rude shock !!!!

The doctor told me that the tooth is cracked and the only way to save it would be to get root canal done . Well I am not new to this procedure .I have got it done in India for one of my other stupid tooth . Anyway back there it cost me about 4000 rs including the crown that they place on the tooth . It was way back then but still I assume the price now would be not more than 10,000 rs even with a best doctor at your service
So I was taken aback when I was told the price here . If you have seriously fallen sick here than you should worry more about your hospital bills , that will prevent you from falling sick next time . Ok that was a bad joke !! .

But on a serious note medical cost is very high in Singapore . Even for a common cold you will end up paying $50 .
Most doctors here won't just give prescription , they will give you required medicines too ,hence the increased charge .

Anyway coming back to my dental charges I was told it will cost 800 dollars for treatment and 600 dollars for crown. That's 1400 dollars inturn 50,000 Indian rupees. This was good enough reason for us to hunt around Singapore and even neighboring Malaysia for best price .

The prices throughout Singapore are more or less same . As far as Malaysia is concerned it would take us around two hour to reach the neighboring
town of johar baru . The total rates there was around 900 dollars in a good clinic. So we could have saved around 500 dollars but the weekly trip to that place would be too taxing so finally after a month of pondering and delaying ( I was scarred to get the treatment started ) we decided to have my treatment done here in Singapore .

Had my first sitting last week just can't wait to get over this painful torture .

Sunday, April 3, 2011

World Cup Glory -The day Indians will never forget !!!

We couldn't escape the excitement of world cup final even in a foreign country.Although Singapore is not much into cricket but because of the large Indian population here the fever for the finals was slowly building up . There were some places which were showing the world cup final in large screens yesterday.

They say pictures speaks a thousand words. In this post I am going to let pictures do all the talking.

We are proud of you India !!!!!!!!!!!!

















Image courtesy -collected from different sources

Photos across papers in Singapore



Saturday, April 2, 2011

iPhone Mania

You cannot escape from this if you are in Singapore.You see them everywhere - in MRT , buses , shops , malls etc ... even a three year old kid will be playing with a iPhone .We had a family joke that if 4 people are sitting in train out of which only three are browsing their phone then you can conclude that the 4th one does not have a iPhone .

Singapore is addicted to this touch phenomenon .Although there are many phones available in market which offers this touch sensing feature but nothing can beat iPhone . After months of neglecting and being content with my nokia phone eventually I too got succumbed into this trend .

My main reason for not buying an iPhone till now was that first I am not a gadget freak , second I dint wanted to spend all my time glued to the phone but finally Naveen convinced me to buy one . I first decided that I will be more than happy with iPhone 3 because of the cost of iPhone 4 . But then it would make more sense to buy the most recent release since Naveen already has iPhone 3 .

There are three major cellular providers in Singapore - star hub , singtel and recently M1 . Trust me all three are equally bad -no network coverage in underground areas , slow Internet connections etc etc . You can buy iPhone with any of these three providers and if you want a better deal you have to go for contract . Below is the latest plans of all three providers


M1 Plan

StarHub Plan

Singtel Plan

We bought iPhone 4 with starhub on a two year contract . Total cost is as below

Handset cost - $500
Dataplan cost per month -$38
Caller ID identification cost -$5(this is free for the first 3 months)
Discount for existing customer - $100(we already have cable connection with starhub)
Total cost -$437
Immediate sim activation - free
Face wipe and phone cover - complimentary
Time taken - one hour :)

Now if I decide to break the contract in the first month than I have to shell out $800 which will eventually reduce by $50 in subsequent months .

Below is what you get inside the box - a charger , adapter and headphones .


But my job dint end there I had to buy a nice cover , screen protector and a small pouch for my bag . I felt the need to give my phone extra protection because it looked so delicate . There are lots of variety of covers available here right from classy to funky and you can get custom made design right in front of you .
I actually prefer the sleek look of iPhone 3 since iPhone 4 looks more like a rectangular box . As a first time user of iPhone the main difference that I find between the two of them are -
  • Lookwise iPhone 3 is better but iPhone 4 gives a better grip as it's more thin
  • iPhone 4 has a front camera and a flash
  • iPhone 4 screen has more resolution
  • You cannot change the lock screen background in iPhone 3 and put one app into another unless you have updated OS

We decided to take some pic comparing both and let the readers pick their choice .


Below are the apps that I have added and most of them are useless as I use my phone mainly for browsing and I am not much into games also.If you guys know of any cool iPhone app you are more than welcome to suggest me.