Buka Puasa Bersama di Pandan Valley

Date: Sunday, 30 September 2007
Location: Pandan Valley, off Holland Road, Singapore

Another "buka puasa bersama" dinner event, now at Mia and Aci's residence in Pandan Valley, Singapore.

Buka Puasa Bersama di Simei

Dinner event at Trie's house in Simei, east Singapore.

Date: Friday, 28 September 2007
Location: Simei, Singapore

Other pictures from the host can also be found here.

Buka Puasa Kroner Singapura Bersama Budi Putra

Dinner event for Indonesian kroners/bloggers in Singapore with Budi Putra, Asia Blogging Network's CEO.

Date: Wednesday, 26 September 2007.
Location: Lau Pa Sat, Singapore.

Mid-Autumn Festival by the River

Last Saturday (15/9), after breaking our fast for the day, we went to the Central, a new shopping mall which is located just above the Clarke Quay MRT station. Our destination was the Mid-Autumn Festival by the River, which is located behind the shopping mall, along the bank of Singapore river opposite the G-Max reverse bungee site. There are many lantern showcases being displayed along the riverbank, spanning from behind the Central shopping mall until the Read Bridge. There are also some other lantern showcases at Hong Lim Park, which is diagonally opposite the Central on the other side of the shopping mall, but we didn't visit the area.

The lantern displays will be there until 30 September 2007. It opens from 5pm to 11pm on weekdays, and from 3pm to 11pm on weekends, although it's actually best to enjoy the displays after the sun goes down. The best part, it's free :) so it's quite well worth visiting this event, especially comparing to and considering the $12 (for adult) and $8 (for child) entrance fees you need to fork out to visit the Lantern Festival 2007 at Chinese Garden. Of course, the displays here are not as big and comprehensive as the one in Chinese Garden, but since it's free, what can you expect? :)

More pictures can be found on my wife's Multiply site here.

Blogger Indonesia Mau Ada Pesta

Wah, kayaknya blogger Indonesia mau mengadakan pesta nih. Bertajuk Pesta Blogger 2007, acara ini dipelopori dan dirancang oleh banyak blogger senior Indonesia seperti Budi Putra, Ndoro Kakung, Enda Nasution, Ong Hock Chuan dan Lita Mariana. Menurut bocoran terakhir dari Ndoro Kakung, Pesta Blogger 2007 ini akan diadakan di Hard Rock Cafe, Jakarta, pada hari Sabtu, tanggal 27 Oktober 2007, mulai dari jam 10 pagi sampai selesai.

Ajang ini juga akan dijadikan acara silaturahmi dan halal bihalal untuk para blogger, dan menurut Budi Putra, acara ini akan dibuat seinformal mungkin, meskipun akan ada juga topik yang didiskusikan bersama. Walaupun informal, rencananya acara ini akan dibuka oleh Menkominfo dan (katanya) hari tersebut akan dideklarasikan sebagai Hari Blogger Nasional. Bakal ada acara talk show dan breakout session, dengan puncak acara berupa pemilihan blog favorit dengan hadiah menarik. Seru juga.

Sayangnya, walaupun saya sebenarnya berminat banget untuk ikutan datang, saya kayaknya ngga akan bisa karena saya tidak ada rencana ke Jakarta pas tanggal segitu. Saya memang merencanakan untuk mudik lebaran ke Jakarta pada tanggal 12 Oktober 2007, tapi sudah akan pulang ke Singapura pada tanggal 21 Oktober 2007. Padahal acaranya cuma enam hari berikutnya. Coba kalau acaranya diadakan pada tanggal 20 Oktober, pasti deh saya bela-belain untuk datang.

Selamat kepada para perancang dan organiser acara tersebut, semoga acaranya berjalan dengan lancar dan sukses.

More Cars on Singapore Roads

Picture taken from Traffic Camera section of One Motoring website.

Those who drive or often take taxis in Singapore will notice that nowadays, there are more cars on Singapore roads compared to two or three years ago. Last year, I would only take less than 15 minutes to reach my home in around Upper Bukit Timah area, from my office in around Science Park area, during evening peak hours. Now, every evening I would need at least 30 minutes, due to congestion along the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). Last time, the expressway was usually congested only if there's an accident, but nowadays, built-up traffic during evening peak time period is now an every day matter.

And now, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will install more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries all over Singapore, to control the traffic flow. I don't understand why they chose to do this instead of limiting the number of cars on the roads. They can actually do so by reducing the number of quota available for Certification of Entitlement (COE) bidding. Past two years were actually a good time for LTA to review and reduce the quota since there were many cars being scrapped/de-registered. But instead, they chose to use that reason as an excuse to increase the quota, and as a result, COE plunged to a very low rate in the past couple of years. At the end, more people are buying cars, resulting in more crowded Singapore roads.

They should actually reduce the quota much earlier, say one or two years ago, to control the number of cars, instead of installing more ERP gantries now to control the traffic flow. It's not fair to the road users, especially to those who purchased their cars when the COE was on a much higher level (2004 and earlier). They paid higher COE premium at that time, expecting that they will enjoy smooth flow of traffic due to the limited number of cars on the roads. However, they ended up having to share more crowded roads with newer car owners who paid lesser COE premiums, and now they will also have to share the burden to pay for additional ERP charges.

OK, I admit that my opinion might be subjective since I bought my car in 2003, while the COE rate was above $30k. But don't you agree with me that the government should limit the number of cars in the first place, rather than letting people to buy more cars and perform "damage control" by charging them to use the roads?

Trip to Jakarta #4: Jakarta and Bandung

This is actually a late posting of the fourth album of the "Trip to Jakarta" series, taken during our trip to Jakarta and Bandung on June 2007.

Please find below the previous albums on the same series:

Trip to Jakarta #1: Changi Airport
Trip to Jakarta #2: Ocean Park
Trip to Jakarta #3: BSD Plaza

Some of our destinations during our trip at that time include Pondok Indah Mall, Mangga Dua, Mal Artha Gading and BSD City in Jakarta, and Ganeca, Dago, Pasirkaliki and Kebon Jukut in Bandung.