Hey, It's Vacation Time! (2008-11-09)
Long time readers know we usually go on vacation around Fall every year. At first I didn't think it's possible for us to go away this year for I thought KL couldn't get annual leave so soon after he started his job. Turns out there's no policy on the minimal time a new hire has to work before they're eligible to apply for leave as long as the boss approves it. Well, well, so KL put in a request and he got the approval to have a week off in mid November.
Which city did we choose this year? With just a week off, it's
not practical to go to multiple cities or faraway places (like Europe)
or go home, so we thought we'd go somewhere close. With the recent
gifts of
laksa pre-mixes
(which makes me crave the authentic stuff)
and my love of mud crabs and Chinese food, one place fits the
bill. Singapore it is! Before you say "But Singapore is so
small! You'll be bored after one day!", we go there mostly to eat
and to catch a break from the rut in Tokyo. We don't care if
there are enough sightseeing spots in Singapore to entertain us, as
long as there's plenty of Chinese food, we'll (at least I'll) be quite
happy.
This will be our third visit to the island nation, but the last
couple of
times we didn't stay long and it has been ten years since we last
went. This time we plan to just relax, stroll around and take
all the time we need. There'll be no schedule to meet, no
timetable to follow and no shopping lists to fill. We'll be
taking it
slowly
to eat what we feel like eating and see what we feel like seeing and
then may be just go back to
the hotel to stay out of the sun and heat!
P.S. Rant Rant Rant:
1) Every time oil prices rise, airlines lament about rising operation
cost, followed by increased fuel surcharge slapped on to the
plane tickets. The higher the oil increases, the higher the fuel
surcharge. I don't know what's going on with those airline folks
and what they are whining about, looks to me the passengers
are the ONLY people eating up the rising crude oil prices.
2) Oil prices have fallen dramatically the past few months, like HALF of what it was at the all-time-high of over $147 a barrel back in July, but how come the fuel surcharge REMAINS THE SAME now as it was three months ago??
3) This is how out of hand fuel surcharge has gotten these days=>
Tokyo to Singapore, JAL economy class round trip ticket is 31000Yen
(US$310) and fuel surcharge is 43980Yen!!!!
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