New Year Eve in Batam 2017/18

2 day 1 night with nanny’s family. Parked our car at office season carpark and then took cheap Uber to HBF ferry terminal. This is the second time bb took ferry. There was no Tom and Jerry show onboard. So she still prefer taking aeroplane.

Hired a van for the whole trip. The driver brought us to all the usual places. Hotel is not bad. Bb was entertained by both 三姐 & 四姐 almost all the time. Swimming in hotel pool, shopping at Nagoya, visiting The Illusion Batam.

Ate some seafood, bought some groceries and layer cake. Batam is good if massage is the main purpose of visit and some cheap groceries and jersey.

Bintan staycation on merdeka day

Brought bb took ferry. Cassia is Relaxing and comfy. Weather was good and bb seems to enjoy the place. The beach is clean and beautiful .

FSC value airline

1. Finnair - Europe ard 600 sgd
2. Cathay pacific - hkg 200 or Bkk 200
3. Qatar - 2500 for business class

Sometimes Thai or SIA could give good discount like Brisbane for SGD 470 or Ho chi Minh 170

Dental Treatment in SG

I had a bad premolar.
It has been filled multiple times and constantly infected mildly.
The infection was so bad in 2015 that it was swollen for a few days.
I finally made up my mind to "repair" my premolar in June 2017.
So 2017 pricing for root canal, S$850 and porcelain crown, S$800.

I did braces back in 2008 and removed them in 2011. It costs ~S$2,400. It probably costs ~S$3,600 today for the same treatment.
Retainer has definitely doubled the price. S$200 in 2011 and S$400 in 2017. Mine broke. sad...

It is worth to take good care of your dental health.

Before braces

After braces

Payment type

Cash n cheque

Debit card or nets

Stored value card - cash card or flashpay or ezlink

Visa pay wave, paypass

E wallet- alipay, paypal, masterpass

Fund transfer - paynow

Mobile wallet by top up - dash, Paylah, pay anyone, liquid pay

Mobile wallet via nfc - Apple pay, android pay, Samsung pay

Bkk sin kl hkg only one will emerge as champion

Sea has 2 main hub singapore and bkk. Both are trying to suck traffic from one another.

Hkg has 70 mil pax
Bkk estimated close to 90 mil pax

SG changi airport current capacity stands at 82 mil per annum after T4 opens in 2017

KLIA current capacity 70 mil per annum

As 4g becomes more common, rise of 5g is going to end telekom monopoly

Maxis digi u mobile currently offer 4g wireless broadband access. However their speed in 2017 is currently at around 10 mbps with 20gb of data. By 2022, with 5g Malaysian can finally be free from using unifi fiber if fixed wireless access is launch. 5G speed I estimate will be around 100 mbps good enough for most people.

Actually 5G only became common in Malaysia in 2023. Now besides fibre, 5g wireless broadband is a real alternative with the price drop of 5g router and 80% coverage in Malaysia. 3g services ended in 2021 and 4g speed has improved to around 40 mbps since 2022.