Sunday, November 22, 2009
Without cycling
@11:28 PM
More and more often, I find that my inner feelings of frustration and anger are all vented on the bike. I will feel that sense of rage and will go through imaginary arguments and confrontations, bashing it all out in the mind until, when my feet finally find firm ground, my mental state becomes calm and peaceful. It is an exercise of anger management, a time when I am free to bite and claw and feel gratified in pain. Without cycling, I think I would have become angry so much more often. Without cycling... I can’t quite imagine how life will be without cycling.
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Alarmingly NUS
@10:42 PM
Seriously, I don’t understand NUS admissions policy. I’m developing some kind of grudge against them for systematic stupidity on their part, which is immediately apparent from the “confirmation of course” letter they sent me two days back.
Firstly, on the issue of medical examination: explain to me why must a medical examination be done? Ok, fine, it is out of concern on the university’s part to require students to be medically examined. Even so, how can a medical examination done months before matriculation be relevant, especially when many students will be going (or have gone) overseas before enrollment? They claim that “(admission) is conditional upon you being in good health and free from organic (or communicable) diseases”. A medical examination without a statement of recent travel history is like a political statement made out of context. To a person who has not travelled out of Singapore, or only to “safer” places like Europe and America, this examination is an utter waste of time and money.
A better policy will be to examine only people who have been to certain locations like Africa or Laos or Cambodia up to six months before matriculation. However, such a policy will be administratively tedious to execute, and to implement the original idea will be taxing on the manpower anyway, so why not just trust that we, as young adults, are responsible enough for our own health and well-being? This isn’t army, where spoon-feeding is the norm! Compulsory medical examinations basically scream that their subjects are not to be trusted.
For the second issue, let us assume at this point that we take medical examinations are all part and parcel of the game. Explain to me then, why are NUS students paying $30 for X-Ray and medical at the NUS’s own Health Centre, not including the “nominal fee” for the disposable X-Ray gown, whereas SMU students are paying only $18 for the same deal at Raffles Clinics? If I’m reading it correctly, NTU students do not even need to do the medical, so at least one university is doing it right. If you demand that people do something before their enrollment, you jolly well cover the costs of your own demand, especially since it’s your own medical centre. Granted, the tuition fees are subsidised, but we are not paying 33,000 SGD per year so that NUS can go and charge us some more in bits and pieces! For example, do you know that NUS students must pay $60 for NUS health insurance every year, even though no one seems to know exactly what the terms and conditions are? Basically, the administration here is like a huge money sucking monster, not satisfied in just taking the tuition fees, but also demanding more and more money everywhere that they can justifiably make such demands.
My last gripe with regards to the letter is not so much a complaint as it is an opportunity to poke fun.
“Please note that the Admission PIN is 8 alpha-numeric characters and is case sensitive. You can use it with immediate effect. For security reason (grammatical error), you are strongly encouraged not to reveal the PIN to anyone and
destroy this letter (another grammatical error here)
as soon as you have memorized it.”
Good grief. Admission PINs have a SECRET security classification. Not even SAF ISAC card PIN numbers are granted such a high honour of “destruction upon memorisation".
This sounds like a rant, and perhaps it is, but when I enter university, I don’t want it to be just another exercise in bureaucracy. Universities are famous for their liberal outlook and tolerance, and bureaucracy merely gets in the way of such an open culture. My gripes have their individual basis, and all feedback, negative or otherwise, can help the establishment only if they are listened to.
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Monday, November 9, 2009
Sacrifices to make
@10:28 PM
Thus far, I have yet to see another tour cyclist post his/her finances up and show the exact breakdown for each item. The following is the current estimate of my capital and costs.
CapitalCurrent savings: $3000
Total accumulated savings by February: $6500 (assuming I scrimp every cent)
CostsTentage: $300
Pannier bags: $260
Sleeping Bag: $140
Vaccination: $300
Racks and mudguard: $300
Insurance: $750
Plane ticket (Calcutta-Singapore): $450
Visa (China, Nepal, India, Laos): $250
General living expenses: $20 x 172 days = $3450
Total costs: $6200
(This does not include clothing, camping equipment, daily expenses from now till February and god knows what else. That’s why I am so determined to save every cent; it’s not for no reason whatsoever.)
These are the items already purchased:
Bicycle: $2150
Tubes and tyres: $200
This adds up to a total of about $8550, which is about the minimum capital required to build up an entire overseas bike tour from scratch. Remember, folks, I am living on $20 per day out there, and this means I will camp out, cook my own food whenever possible, generally scrimping like mad for the inevitable rainy days. European trips will cost at least five times as much as this per day.
How do I save up such that such cash is actually available? My pre-army savings is around $2,500. Between BMT and Commissioning, I have spent about $6,000 on books and a titanium bicycle. Army gives you a total allowance of $18,500 if you are an NSF army officer through enhanced BMT batch. This means that for the entire army period, I spent about $6,300, about 70% of these expenses going to my time in OCS (I have no idea how I spent so much). And during my time as an officer, I must have spent less than $1,200 for the entire seven month period so far. Moreover, for the past three months, I have certainly spent less than $350 in total. You can observe an exponential decline in my daily expenses. This month, I spent $50 on MRT concession card, $40 on laptop repairs, $20 on my social life, and $0.50 for MacDonalds’ Meal (it’s true). The previous month was limited only to transport.
Thriftiness is really a way of life that you must ease into, with an iron will and discipline to enforce. In the SAF, having a cookhouse obviously helps to drastically reduce the burden of food costs on the wallet. I have taken measures as extreme as walking from Tuas Naval Base to Joo Koon MRT simply to save the $1.05 required to take the bus to Boon Lay Interchange. I drink plain water, stay in late to eat at the cookhouse in order to avoid buying dinners, forcing myself away from the tempting fruit juice stall, and I would stare at breakfasts when my fellow colleagues munch on their food in the canteen. Thriftiness is painful, but I have a financial goal that must be fulfilled no matter the cost.
Ah, the things that I do for what I love...
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Sunday, November 8, 2009
Travel insurance
@12:36 AM
Recently, I’ve been on quite a hiatus, partly because of laziness to blog.
Last week, I was doing quite a bit of research into insurance in Singapore, and it seems that Singapore travel insurance has very limited options. Almost all insurance agencies seem to offer basically the same deal without any variation even in the minute clauses, which to me suggests that competition in Singapore is almost non-existent. Moreover, the prices are sky-high, definitely not student friendly, and this is something I hope will change sooner rather than later as gap-years become the new trend.
I am searching for an insurance that will cover emergency flights, injuries and theft, valid even for coverage of adventure sports like the cycling trip. Thus far, I have been disappointed by AIG, AIA and Great Eastern in the fact that all these three “greats” offer a policy valid up to 6 months or a year,
but only for trips lasting less than 3 months. The same issue applies to HSBC and Standard Chartered insurance. Now then, what if there are people who need to take sabbaticals overseas for half a year or people who want to travel the world either in their youth (e.g. me) or in their retirement? Only travel insurance covers them and if they want a proper insurance, the next best big name is Prudential, who demands an astonishing $700 USD for a half annum insurance (Prudential’s travel insurance has recently been withdrawn, so the above figure is recalled from memory).
AIA is another intelligent agency when it comes to travel: they offer a $160 plan for half a year, but with the inevitable 3 months trip limit. To extend the trip limit, you must pay $120 for the first month, and $60 per week extension after that. So, for a 5.5 month trip like mine, it costs about $880, which is around $630 USD.
World Nomads is an Australian based travel insurance agency that provides insurance to all, regardless of country of residence, although the cost differs based on nationality. I have touched on Prudential and AIA; World Nomads offer $602 USD for 6 months with unlimited cover (expenses paid for no matter the circumstances, unless done illegally), and 100% expenses covered for hospitalisation, return trip, evacuation, emergency visit, etc. With Hostel International discount, I can lower the cost down to $542 USD, so this is around SGD $755.
Admittedly, the best option is still AIG Student Travel Assist plan, which is $360 for 6 months, but this plan demands proof of full-time enrollment in an overseas educational institution.
Finally, although World Nomads is good, but I don’t understand why the same policy costs USD602 here, but costs only USD260 for US residents, and only GBP193 for UK residents. The difference in price is absolutely ridiculous, and if you have read this far, I challenge you to deny that there is insufficient competition in Singapore, thus allowing prices to sky-rocket to such levels.
I will not be surprised if potential gap-year candidates are either put off from their plans due to the prices of insurance, or if they simply ignored purchasing insurance altogether. Either are damaging, the former being that a great opportunity is lost, and the latter being dangerous if any problems occur during the journey itself. Travel insurance companies should think above their own petty earnings (which is pretty damn substantial), and look more towards benefitting the people themselves.
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