Acts of God

Happened to spot this under Terms and Conditions at the back of the invoice we received:

. . .

General:

2. The Company will not be liable for any cost, expenses, or damages whatsoever incurred or suffered by the Customer(s) which arises from any of the following events:

(i) Acts of God, fire, lightning, explosion, flood, inclement weather or accidents.

. . .

Acts of God?!

Of course, I do not wish for anything untoward to happen to us during the trip or whatsoever, but Acts of God? That’s quite unimaginable.

I’m amused.

the first door to Holland!

Holland, here we come ~ meisje, Holland en me!!!! =) 

Called Sindy in the morning to confirm our airticket bookings and that we’ll be heading down today to make our payment cos’ KLM’s deadline is 1st of April.

So that’s $1997 each GONE!!! we’re both in DEBT.

Gf came by to pick me up! =) and tried figuring our way out to Telok Ayer Street (near TAT) from my place; though I think I wasn’t much help at all. Frankly I can’t even tell what direction is which from the map, and the flipping to 132A/133/etc for the other ‘part’ of the map to piece the directions together was quite mindboggling.

Gf’s response: well don’t worry too muchie There’s a few months from now to brush up, and 6 weeks with me there to make sure you know how to read maps well. I am quite sure we will need the map pretty often during our time at Holland!

But we made it there fast and safely! =) hahahaha.

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Gf along Telok Ayer Street

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here we are! at 163A Telok Ayer Street =)
The first door that we’ll go through to reach Holland!

and up the staircase we go!

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. . .

Never quite knew that such rustic charm could exist in Singapore. Rows of quaint shophouses adorn quiet lanes and the electic range of shops within, mainly restaurants.

Sindy at P2PTravel was really quite helpful and friendly! =) Our electronic tickets will be issued to us via email on Monday and all we have to do is complete the necessary details and print it out. And off we go! =) 

After all the paperwork, we decided to head to Thian Hock Temple - which was just across the street – to light joss sticks and pray for a safe trip for us and for blessings for our family =)

The temple had brochecures which we could refer to, and a plaque on each individual altar to describe that particular deity, which was helpful cos’ I think in most temples we won’t really know which is which and what to pray for cos’, well maybe I’m very ignorant, but I usually can’t figure them out.  The other gf is equally impressed at their advancement. They even have a website. Gone are the days when temples = boring = old people areas.

Walked along back alleys and across streets to get to the familiar Amoy Food Centre! Was there previously with the C.dancers when we were there for a technique session with Laoshi =)

Was taking this random pic, and gf happened to pop into the picture. So might as well take pic of her … Apparently she nearly trip at this shot. muahaha

Both of us shared mangopomeloice and hotpot chicken chop and rice! Satisfying meal =)

A must try if you love mango, and pomelo. From the store that sells tangyuan

Finally made our way back to gf’s car – only to be greeted with a summon cos’ both of us forgot about parking coupons =S hopefully it can be revoked or something! *crosses fingers*

Figured our way back to NUS, before gf sent me back home. Thanks gf!!! =) GAHHH i really can’t map-read. Neither can I drive so confidently haikkks. I don’t recognise road names or roads! =(

Shall explore Telok Ayer Street and the surroundings e.g: Ann Siang Hill sometime soon! =)

后记： I think its pretty obvious that the literary gf wrote the post while the loves to shoot gf (although most pic are from the literary gf today) posted pic after her post. Hopefully after 6 weeks there tgr, we’d become 1. muahhaa although that doesn’t sound pretty right.

Settling the first stone!

Headed to STA first thing after biotech lab to check out the availability of flight dates; cos’ we checked out KLM’s site yesterday night and there were available seats, though slightly more expensive due to increase in taxes.

And there were seats! But it was $2104 per pax, about $200 more than KLM’s direct bookings. Slight problems with loading one of KLM’s booking pages though.

We’ll get the ISIC card on Monday, so all we have to do is:

• fill in the form
• bring our original IC? passport? and matriculation card
• photocopies of matriculation card and IC? passport?
• SGD15 each

Our original plan was to head down to J3 Travel after pharmacotherapy lecture and enquire about air tickets, Eurail passes etc and head back for biotech lecture, but we decided to ring up J3 Travel and P2P Travel (recommended by Miao Juan – Thanks muchly!) to check out via phone instead.

So we camped outside LT24 at the soccergame thing table; Jingwen tried calling J3 while I rung up P2P.

No response from J3 Travel even after several tries. No one answered the phone.

Enquiries at P2P Travel was much more smooth sailing; we could get the seats (refer to Flight Details, KLM) on our selected dates and the price quoted ($1754 per pax) was much more reasonable, though it was the exact same flight as STA recommendations.

Minor hiccups when we decided to purchase out tickets through P2PTravel:

• Couldn’t book online through P2PTravel’s website as the flight option wasn’t stated, and decided to call to reserve seats
• The lady on the line told me to call back later (and didn’t after 30 min)
• So called the agency again, this time we had this very helpful lady, Ms. Sindy Koh who advised us to send her an online enquiry. And so we did!
• Prompt reply from Ms. Sindy, but the price quoted turned out to be $1995 instead of the other price quoted by her colleague.

Ohwells, the prices would be comparable to direct booking online through KLM, but decided to go ahead and reserve tickets with P2PTravel, and we’d have to confirm our booking and payment by 1st April.

Decided to get the Eurail Select Pass (Youth): 15 days for 463 Euros from STA instead, as they had a promotion (1 day free when purchased before 31st March). But we’ll have to pay in full before 1pm on Monday. So it’s down to STA on Monday again!

. . .

To Do:

P2PTravel:

• Call before heading down (tentatively tomorrow) to make payment of air tickets 

STA on Monday, meeting at 11am to:

• Cancel seat reservations
• Purchase ISIC
• Purchase Eurail Select Pass (15 Days)

. . .

Still have much planning to do!

The first stone in the journey

Went down to STA travel in sci coop today to enquire about airtickets with Gf.

And we got the shock of our lives!

the earliest ticket back to Singapore is 12 Aug night holland time, which mean we will reach singapore on 13 Aug. And, school has already started. Even worst, we have to take the Tube and go under English Channel to catch a plane from London back to Singapore. Sounds cool.

Seriously if there’s no school, no FYP ,  no dance matters to handle , I would be glad to stay there for a longer period and maybe tour London at the same time.  Never mind the fact that living expenses in Europe will be expensive. I mean, how many times do i get to go over to Europe? But, I wanna come back to Singapore quick and have a good break, some time with family before year 4 begins…..

Hence, we had a 3 hr Emergency meeting in my room right after school. And after much deliberation. here’s the final plan.

We will only visit Netherland (where we would be based in Utretch), Belgium, Luxembourgh and Germany. Scrapped Switzerland off our plans although we would very much want to visit The Alps. But guess money and practicality rules above anything else. At least that leaves us with one more options for our honeymoon destinations in future.HAHA.

After much contemplation with the airlines, we’ve decided to check whether J3 tours still has flight by KLM. Hopefully with the dates that we want at 1180 bucks for a return trip. Good thing with KLM is the direct flight to Amsterdam. no transit. no worries of being late in catching our flights and what other problems that WE DO NOT want cropping up.

If not, we will haf to book direct from KLM website at $1420 per pax with airport taxes accounting to $517. Expensive. arGh.

As for Eurailpasses to travel around Europe. We’ve decided to invest in a 15 flexible days in 2 months to 5 countries package. Not that we would be going to 5 countries. But more so for the days that it allows us to travel. And with it, we can also go to Switzerland and buy a Swiss pass there if we were to decide on a last minute that Germany’s too boring for our liking.

known cost for the Eurail pass is Euro 463. Unknown costs include the citypasses within the different cities. Apparently they have 1 pass for each city or so. But our host has told us that there’s a pass for 20 trips within the whole of holland for just 20 euros. That would be very beneficial as compared to what we read in guidebooks, where each pass is for a duration of 24 hours, 48 hours or 72 hours for each city.

For now, there’s tests and loads of lab reports to do.
But things that we need to do include:

• a detailed plan on where we want to visit
• how many days to spend at each city
• where do we stay? Tentatively, we would be travelling throughout Netherlands, and part of Belgium. Find a place at Belgium and use it to travel to Belgium and Luxembourgh. And two places, preferably based in Frankfurt and Berlin, where we will explore Germany.    

No visas are needed on this trip. Yays. Save on cost. 

Assuming that we’re booking direct from KLM website, then the known cost for now will probably be around SGD$2909.30.

Shocking.

Guess we have to live on breadcrumbs already in order to spend within our $5k cap. 

Hopefully there would be no more problems cropping up and that this journey will be smoothsailing. Although I guess a valuable experience gain from SEPs would be the problems that crop up out of no where and the process of solving them and reaching our final destination.
 

recent updates

1. Trip to STA at the NUS Co-Op on Tuesday (during the 2 hour break) to enquire about related matters (see previous post)

2. A probable change of plans to scrap France, our last pitstop in Europe, reasons being:

• Rather not compromise quality for quantity, as travelling between places to visit will certainly take up some time (it’s not like Sg where we can travel almost everywhere within the hour by bus, 30 min by cab…)
• Room for more exploration and indulgence – we’ve plans to LIVE IT UP! in every country! *waHAhaha*

3. Check out the YMCA Card

• supposedly with this card we can get discounts on YMCA youth hostels all over the world. Every single bit of saving counts, cos’ we’re working on a realllyyy tight budget here (approx. $5K for the entire trip…)

4. Check out J3 Travels! (thanks Maggie for the recommendation!)

• Airfares: http://j3travel.com/Airfares/Student.htm
• Eurailpass: Unlimited travel in the 17 Euro countries for 15 consecutive days – 315 Euros! http://j3travel.com/Eurail-Rail/ER_Eurailpass.htm
• Recommended by Maggie: Germany and Benelux pass (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg): Flexi 10 days pass, 264 Euros! (But will have to acquire Switz pass separately)

5. Official Letter

• Email Iris (Holland SEO) about official letter stating thatwe are indeed going on SEP in Holland
• Letter from Department (thanks Michelle, our own SEO!)

Maiden Speech from the other girlfriend

Let’s put our hands together to welcome the other girlfriend of this blog..

*drum rolls*

*Jingwen waves excitedly*

My maiden post in this blog. Simply because I have a wonderful girlfriend,traveller,companion who loves to do secretarial work and has efficiently summarized details of our 1st official pretrip meeting Kudos to the other girlfriend for setting up this blog, and decorating it and stuff. Im blessed to have her as my fellow traveller!

Guess probably will hear alot from Xuefen with regards to the details of the planning. I’ll help out with finding information and providing good pictures while on the trip!

Looking forward to a great 6 weeks ahead while will see alot of my 第一次。

1. 1st time travelling with 1 girl only
2. 1st time visiting the Europe Continent
3. 1st time travelling to so many countries at one go
4. 1st time doing work overseas
5. 1st time taking train (Eurail system)
6. And many more 1st time to come.

It will be an exciting journey ahead and hopefully the 2 girlfriends will not end up as enemies after the trip. Hoho!

But for now, alot more work to be done.

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2 girlfriends ..

Or when this girlfriend has more stuff to blog about.

Currently, I will begin a series of To-visit places in the various countries that we will be visiting. Check out the side bars for more!

Our first step!

After weeks of proscrasinating – not really, I have to justify our perpetual absence;  we were indeed overwhelmed with Psyche preps and all, not including our half-hearted attempts trying not to flunk our CAs in between rehearsals/performances and after, and the mountainload of lapreports and projects….

Okayyy. I’m wayyyyy too off-topic.

So, we decided that we’ve got to meet and really, really talk about our actual plans though we see each other on a near daily basis, it gets pretty hard to iron out details without getting distracted online and getting sidetracked. SOON.

This afternoon, in the 2 hours break between Pharmacotherapy tutorial and Biotech lecture, Jingwen and Grace went to the STA Travel branch at NUS Co-op to check out what they have there, and Jingwen came back armed with a STA Euro Travel guide? and some pamphlets regarding travel insurance, the STA Student Card etc.

And I was just sitting at my lil’ corner of the LT(24), munching on my apple/Spin’s breakfast roll, effectively minding my own business when I was ambushed! by Jwen and hence began our travel planning – PROPER!!! =)

In short, short summary, we’ve decided on:

1. the countries that we’ll be visiting besides Holland, namely: Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, and perhaps Luxemborg!
2. THE checklist: i.e. stuffies that we’ve gotta do, and do FAST
3. and the start of our travel expense calculations =(

. . .

 THE Checklist

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1. Air Tickets

• STA: availability, pricing and airline of air tickets
• Difference in expenditure should we decide to return to Sg from another country (not Holland, cos’ it’s a tad silly ro travel all the wayyyy back to Holland from whichever country on the last stop of our itinery to catch a flight)
• And which country would it be cheapest to fly back from!

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2. SEP related matters

• Transport to work: cycle? walk? public transport?
• Accommodation: token sum needed or no?
• Possibility of language barrier/ problems during our preceptorship?
• How do we get from the airport to Mrs. Tijoe’s place?
• Will we have the same working days, and on which 3 days of the week? (It’s purportedly a 3 days workweek for us)

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3. Getting around in Holland

• From city to city -  car rental? train?
• Note to self: gotta settle on a travel itinerary for Holland so we can fix a date to meet up with Joris!
• Emergency contact numbers, contact numbers in general

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4. Eurail Pass Purchase

• Eurail Select Pass Youth:
• 15 days within 2 months for 5 countries will cost 463 Euros! (horrors!)
• 10 days within 2 months, 5 countries: 363 Euros
• 10 days within 2 months, 4 countries: 339 Euros
• NOTE: deciding if we’ll need the Eurail Pass to get around Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

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5. Itinerary for Countries!

• Countries we intend to pop by: Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France and perhaps Luxemborg
• NOTE: deciding if we’ll need the Eurail Pass to get around Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg
• Our attachment starts on 30th June (Monday) proper, and should we get our tickets, we’ll arrive on the 27th (Thurs) so we’ll have 2-3 days to explore our city, Uretcht!
• Another weekend or 2 to explore the rest of Holland (kinda short, but we’re trying to make the best out of our miniscule Europe trip!)
• Trips to Belgium and Luxemborg will most likely take place during the 4 non-working days
• Travelling to Germany (perhaps we can drop by and visit Xinyi) -> Switzerland -> France -> Holland? (pending)
• Read up on places worth exploring in all the above mentioned countries!!!

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6. Other Travel Related Matters

• Visa applications! (Applicable to all the countries we are planning to visit?)
• STA Student Card application
• Travel Insurance
• Submit Bank Acct form to NUS PharmDept =)

. . .

(awaiting pictures)

. . .

 Estimated Travel Expenses per girlfriend (to date)

1. Air Tickets: $1500 ++

2. ISIC (STA student card): $15

3. Visa: (est) $100

4. Eurail Pass (5 countries, 15 days): $1000

4. Travel Insurance: $200

Total: $2815 -> HORRORS!!!

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xoxo,

Xue Fen! =)