11 Aug 2018
It was only after knowing Van that I noticed that modern luxury focuses on the isolation of individuals. Before, it was simply part of the background that didn't need to be thought about, but when she refused to let me use my points for business class seats on a flight a few years ago because we couldn't sit together with the armrests up, I realized the more luxurious the mode of travel, the less contact you're meant to have with other people.
This is the same in almost everything - residences, offices, restaurants, hotels, etc.
The implication of these is that we all seem to agree that deep down inside, we don't want to be social; we do it because we need to and, given the opportunity, we are willing to pay through our noses to get rid of this need, even if it is only temporarily.
This conclusion seemed to have incurred little reaction in Van but it overturned some of the things I learnt over the years.
Foremost is the assumption that we inherently prefer to be social, derived from the idea that loneliness kills. Clearly, this is not exactly true - we don't want to be social, we don't prefer to be social, but there are many things we need from other individuals that we can't obtain if we don't socialise.
Is this about control?
If we block everyone out as compared to if we are always close to people, eg living on a private island vs in a shared apartment, it does make it easier for us to determine how much we interact with others.
Does it mean that when we can clearly identify and synthesize these specific needs, we can all live in self-contained spaces for the rest of our lives? So many implications there.
So the plan is to keep a snowboarding trip below S$3000, almost everything included. It will be two weeks long in Korea, and according to the math I did in a Google Sheet, it should be doable, thanks to the soon-to-expire 20,700 Avios from British Airways that I had been having difficulty finding a use for.
With a S$104 one-way flight on Cathay Pacific back to Singapore redeemed with 20,000 Avios, and a S$307 one-way flight on Cebu Pacific to Seoul, the fare has been cut from the lowest I could find of S$565 on Asiana to the current S$411, both options include checked luggage.
However, since I had already booked 13 nights of accommodation on fixed dates based on the Asiana's flight timings that are a night later than Cebu Pacific's, I had to spend another $51 on an airport hotel in Seoul that provides free airport transfers so that I can get back to the airport to take either a long-distance coach or a train.
That is still $100 cheaper, and far more comfortable on the way back. The latter point is very important because I will be tired and the knowledge that that could be my last snowboarding trip for a number of years will be slightly depressing. Though it will not be a direct flight like Asiana's, the service provided by Cathay Pacific is still much better so that will probably help. Spending a few hours in HKIA might also give me an opportunity to get some food there.
I touch down at 6+pm so probably can get out by 7pm. The connecting flight is 2am, so I got to be through the immigration by 1am, so arrive back in HKIA by 12am. This gives me 4hours. 1 hour to get to and from Hong Kong station by Airport Express each way, so that leaves me 2 hours. More than enough time for a dinner.
So anyway, $3k budget, $411 down for flights.
The place I'm staying is a semi-detached house in a pension, so a tiny house with a living room that has a sofa bed, a bedroom and a kitchenette. There is a bus stop for a free shuttle bus that goes to the ski resort I want every few hours, and a grocery store about 15 minutes walk away. Plan B is the pension owner who appears to be very willing to drive guests around, according to the reviews and his replies to my enquiries. This will cost 855,000 KRW total, paid upon check in, and converts to S$1040 today.
At this point, the remaining budget is $1549.
According to past FB posts, there is a season pass that seems to include two-way airport transfers at the resort that cost about S$500, though it rises a little annually so by this year it should hit S$600. This is far cheaper than the daily S$90 pass that would have made my expected 10 days of hitting the slopes cost $900, not to mention there is a chance it will save me about S$60 more on transportation between the airport and this area.
$949 left.
I plan to spend $800 in Canada soon to get the equipment, and I consider this as part of the expenses of the Canada trip. I know, it's a little like cheating. If you want to add in rental, it's $25/day there, so 13 days will cost $325 (return on the penultimate day). If I rent, this leaves $524 for food and unexpected expenses, which is still plenty thanks to the kitchenette that I plan to cook most of my meals in.
Heck, if I include the cost of equipment here, it still leaves S$149 for 14 days. Technically still possible with the kitchenette and if I bring some canned food over that I can buy in Malaysia and some of the close-to-expiring food from home. It's not like I need all the luggage space for a trip like this, just one full bag of 23 kg for equipment plus another bag of less than 10kg. For the way there via Cebu Pacific, I get a check-in luggage allowance of one bag that will be completely taken up by the snowboard bag, and from some preliminary calculations, they won't take up more than 10kg overall, otherwise I can carry my boots in my carry-on luggage. With 20kg as their limit for a checked bag, I have roughly 5kg for miscellaneous items, a very healthy margin. The carbs and fresh vegetables/fruits can be bought there (not to mention you can't bring into the country fruits, vegetables and seeds), and I can bring a few cans of soup and fish over, maybe also some pork floss and that Japanese rice seasoning. Plenty of options.
You know what's scary? The fact that real wool is now close to being fully in the realm of luxury. It seems that nobody offers 100% wool sweaters at decent prices now, and consumers are satisfied with synthetic fibres that feel very nice but
a) have poorer insulation
b) are heavy
c) both of the above
At the moment, I'm reluctantly moving on to synthetic cashmere which feels seriously smooth and solid, but ultimately it's still acrylic, so despite the comfort, it's not as warm and it weighs a ton compared to wool. Don't get me wrong - it is still warmer than a t-shirt, so for the current prices it is one of the better options.
If you don't plan to spend a lot on warm clothing, then you're going to need to be willing to wear heavy ones, and what I'm talking about is thick jackets with polyester filling, because the sweaters aren't going to be doing much for you. Without the wool stuff already in my winter wardrobe now, I'd be opting for t-shirts and jackets, maybe a polyester-filled vest in between, because to be frank, unless it's incredibly cold, the insulation isn't worth the effort, money and weight.
13 Aug 2018
Currently considering alternatives for our ISP since our contract is ending soon. Viewqwest has been great but their reliability is still not the greatest, mainly due to the hardware. To be fair, as a household, we are definitely a heavy user with 5-6 phones and 2 laptops on Wifi, and 3 PCs on Cat 6 cables. Having burnt through plenty of less adequate routers provided for free by VQ over the years, we have reached the point where we acquired two ASUS dual-core routers from our own pockets to establish a stable mesh Wifi network in our home.
And even that has proven inadequate because now that the routers can handle our traffic, we found a new bottleneck in the modem. Occasionally dying and needing a reset once in a while, it probably needs to be replaced soon, and it's definitely the source of our current network problems because my bro monitors the data from the devices that shows that the two routers are not even reaching 50% of their processing power, thus cannot possibly be even heating up to any noticeable degree.
There is a major obstacle in needing flexibility in our contract with VQ though - the ISP only offers 24-month contracts, and early termination will incur a charge equivalent to what we would have paid for the rest of the contract if we didn't cancel it. Basically, we have to pay for the entire 24 months; it's just a matter of when and whether we get the entire period's worth of their services.
Otherwise, we need go without a contract and this raises the monthly charge from $40 to $70. It looks high like this, but we have been paying $60 a month in our current contract, so from this perspective, we are only paying a little bit more for the flexibility and hence, bargaining power - we can actually threaten to switch ISP if they take as long to help us as they sometimes do.
15 Aug 2018
So the Riviera Maya is turning out to be a great place to watch turtles nesting and spawning, and the way everyone including my Airbnb host is describing it, it looks like it will be better than doing it in Malaysia, even the Perhentian islands.
Rejected a friend's invitation to visit Hanoi. I'm not signing up for any trips but snowboarding ones, excluding little trips to Malaysia and etc.
23 Sept 2018
So Van moved out after a big quarrel when I was away in Malaysia for the long road trip to Genting, Perhentian and Cherating.
We're still together though.
I'm so out of shape, I've hit 100kg for the first time since I lost weight, and a trip to JB gave me an ache in the calves. Too much food in Malaysia and then Phuket, then too little physical activity in the 2 weeks since.
This is time when I have to really exercise. Snowboarding is a physically strenuous activity that can be considered an extreme sport. Not sure how that is because as far as I can tell it is not much tougher than surfing and skateboarding.
One thing I noticed is the constant need for balance making everything much more physically demanding. Simply standing up for a prolonged period of time is an exercise because even when you have found a flat spot to balance your left and right, you're still going to balance your forward and back, unless that is truly flat ground, and most of the time you have no reason to lock both feet in your snowboard on such an area.
18 Nov 2018
Just got back from a month-long trip with Van, a friend, her boyfriend and her nephew. Covered Toronto (because of course), 2 days in Montreal (lovely as before, brought Van to try the same Montreal Poutine place that I visited myself a while back), Mexico (totally changed my impressions of the Mayans and their neighbours), Miami (boring) and several Caribbean islands (good for a cruise, not so good to fly there specifically for).
Montreal is probably the busiest city in Canada that I have visited, so much so that the pace feels like that of Hong Kong and Singapore - people walk fast, are impatient and rude.
Of course, they're still nicer than the Parisians, though these days I don't blame them.
Most importantly, bought the entire set of snowboarding gear for about C$1.3k, or S$1.4k. It is higher than my earlier expected budget of S$800, but would you call this expensive?
The board itself is a Nidecker Play going for C$300, so that was cheaper than the Lib Tech Skate Banana I was hoping for initially. Problem was that beginner all-mountain boards my size (157W-161W) weren't that easy to find even in Canada, so I just went for whichever the stores had, especially since so many snowboarders had recommended newbies to get second-hand boards in the first place.
Then again, I did add C$100 to get a cool pair of mitts that had a removable inner lining that was touchscreen-compatible, and a zip at the finger area that the lining can go through.
And the C$180 wheeled snowboard bag aka "wheelie" that can hold everything plus Van's smaller board with bindings, and still has space for more.
Yes, it could have been just C$1k.
The store fixed the bindings on the board for me, which was great but now I think they may be a little off for me. Not really an issue since it is just a tiny difference in angle. Helmet fits nicely too, which is fantastic.
Can't wait to try them on in Feb.
Speaking of which, Korea does NOT have a good reputation for snow. In fact, most forecasts for it say there will be ice, not snow, so it will be all about the snow machines - there goes any hope for powder days.
No wonder a snowboarding trip there costs half of what it would take in Japan.
Also took a Caribbean cruise on Carnival which showed me that cruises are nice when we become adults. All the free food, especially the burgers from Guy Fieri's Burger Joint, were awesome. Now I'm more open to cruises, though most options are really boring over here. What sounds like a good idea here is to use it as a reward for my staff because it's something we can all appreciate, like a HK-SG cruise on Royal Caribbean, since I can stop by Vietnam for some coffee and a bag of beans, and I'll only need to cover one flight.
Mexico was eye-opening. Chichen Itza's guided tour showed me how incredibly advanced the Mayans really were, and the things a society can accomplish by focusing most of its resources on an elite segment of its population. Seriously though, over half the Mayans were not allowed to eat meat or fish as these were food for the upper class, and hence the peasants tend to die by 40 while the elites could hit 60 and beyond. Yet without wheeled carts or animals for transportation, they were able to build cities and pyramids like the one in Chichen Itza, calculate accurate calendars for the Sun, the moon and various planets, create engineering feats like the ball court depicted in the Disney movie "The Road to El Dorado" that was designed to make sure everyone nearby could hear each time the ball smacks the wall, and structures designed to let anyone observe the solstices and equinoxes through the angle of the Sun.
Even if all these aren't impressive, keep in mind they built cities that are still standing after a millennium despite the erosive powers of weather and nature.
Montreal was pretty nice too, as expected. Mainly just for the food and the snow. Some day I really have to organise a snowboarding trip to Canada. Which season though? This season's out since I've already booked Korea, and 2020 is definitely out too, which makes the earliest possible winter to be the 2020/2021 season.
But we miss Mittersill too! Oh man, it's so unlikely she'll have enough leave and off days to cover two two-week trips by then, especially since she's going to need all the days she can spare to cover our trip in the 2019/2020 season.
They were incredibly sweet though. During our stay over the New Year's Eve, they invited all guests to write their New Year wishes in a form to be deposited in a box. We had no idea what to expect and when nothing actually happened, we forgot about it.
They've just mailed it to us with a neat handwritten card asking "Have your wishes come true?" (in German, of course).
No hotel has ever done that, for all my trips over the years. Absolutely never.
We are SO going back.
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