Singapore Credit Bureau

Wondering whether you have any bad record in your past that may hurt you in your application for a loan or credit card?  You can check your own credit worthiness from the Singapore Credit Bureau.  It is essential to maintain a clean track record if you are thinking of making loans from banks for your business or house-purchase. 

I had recently had my credit card application rejected by HSBC(as mentioned in this post), which made me wonder what has been recorded by the credit bureau, especially I don't remember anything bad. 

Out of curiosity, I went to the Singapore Credit Bureau website, and paid S$5.35 to purchase a record of myself.  You will need to have your SingPass and a credit card ready for the purchase, as you can only purchase your own record for individuals.

After the payment was made, immediately I could access my own record online.  At the same time, they also sent me a copy in pdf format. 

There are many different sections in the report.  The first section is your personal details.

The second section is your account status history, which lists all your credit card and credit facilities such as EasiCredit, Creditline, etc, etc.  It shows your payment history, whether you have any outstanding bills, etc.

The 3rd section shows your history of balance transfer and cash advance, the 4th section shows your payment status, the 5th section shows overdue balances. 

The credit bureau sends you a copy in pdf format with password protection.  However, the problem is, they didn't tell me what that password is!  How am I supposed to open the file then?  You can email them to ask for the password.  :)

Ok, having looked at my own report.  Everything is pretty clean, nothing shows that I am not credit-worthy, the only thing is that I don't have any history of balance transfer, nor cash advance.  They should be pretty disappointed that I am not going to give them any business for their legal loan shark operation.

Zuji Photo Share

Travel portal Zuji.com is running a travel photo share contest at its facebook page.

Basically it is a kind of photo contest.  You upload your travel photo to the facebook fan photo page.  If Zuji likes it, you get some credits.  If other visitors to the Zuji facebook page also like your photo, you get more credits.  When the contest period ends in March, the top 10 photos will get a $100 travel voucher from Zuji, isn't it great?

But, a very large but, the catch is, if you want to get the $100 voucher, you have to give up all your rights to your winning photo.  Zuji then can use your photo at their website, promotional materials, and whatever form and channel they deem fit.  You just kiss good bye to your photo.  It is not yours anymore. 

It is a very cheap way of buying photos from the public, exploiting to be more exact.  Such practice should not be encouraged, and the public shall not support such demeaning gimmicks!

Nepal Day 13: Boudhanath Stupa

 

Boudhanath Stupa is the largest Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu Valley as well as Nepal.  It is also one of the 7 world heritage sites in Kathmandu.  

The stupa has a very broad base, which signifies earth; the round dome represents water; the spire is the embodiment of  fire; the umbrella is the symbol of air; and finally, the pinnacle is ether.  The five elements that form the entire world are all included: earth, water, fire, air & ether.  

There are many different names of Boudhanath Stupa in English.  There are many different spellings, too.  The admission ticket to the stupa calls it BOUDHANANTH, Lonely Planets calls it BODHNATH, while there is one more name or variation of its spelling.   

Surrounding the stupa, there is a wall with 147 niches, each niche houses 4-5 Tibetan prayer wheels.  You will see lots of Tibetans, young and old, walking in clock-wise direction, praying, rolling the prayer wheels.  

The outer ring of the stupa is basically all kinds of shops and restaurants, cafes catering mainly to the tourists.  There are some Tibetan temples too, which they call 'gompa'.  

There is a temple that is directly facing Boudhanath stupa, and it seemed to me they are forever having some praying ceremonies.  The music, or noise from their drums, bolts, bells, can be heard all over the stupa compound.  The lamas there speak Tibetan and English. 

Young Tibetan lamas maybe are also receiving their education at one of the many Tibetan temples in the area. 

Boudhanath Stupa is a very popular place for tourists from all over the world, including those from India.  Local Nepali students seem to come here too.  So you can expect quite a bit of shoulder rubbing.  

Kathmandu's weather is very bad in December.  It gets very cloudy and foggy after 2-3pm, but to have a good view point of the stupa,  you need to wait for the sun to go west.  However, by the time the sun does go west, the fog will ruin your photo by adding too much mystery.  It is not an easy subject to shoot.  If you have the time, try to search for a vintage point at one of those building encircling the stupa.  That might give you some nice shots.

Admission to Boudhanath is Rs200 (~USD3.00).  The taxi fare to Boudhanath Stupa from Thamel is around Rs200 too.  

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

Nepal Day 12: Kathmandu Durbar Square

Kathmandu's Durbar Square is one of the 7 world heritage sites in Kathmandu.  It is famous for the elegant architecture and wood carvings decorations.  Durbar Square basically means 'royal square'.  It is right outside of the old royal palace of Kathmandu.  There are many 'temples' around Durbar Square.  I said 'temples', but Nepalis definition of  a 'temple' is very different from that of Chinese.  When we say 'temple', we would expect a couple of big or small halls with Buddha statues.  In Nepali context, a temple can be just a single structure with any Buddha statue or image. 

Durbar Square is also a big market place for both the tourists and the locals.  The tourists come for the souvenirs, while the locals use another part of the square in the early morning as their flower market as well as vegetable market.  The above is the Basantapur Square, which is part of the Durbar Square, in the afternoon, filled with souvenir stalls.  

   

Lohan Chowk is one beautiful structure at one corner of the Durbar Square, with two elegant towers.  As usual, everything is covered with a thick layer of dust.  

Near the entrance to the old Royal Palace, stands a 3-story brick building, with magnificent windows and a long bronze ribbon hanging down from the roof, signifying this is a residence of a living goddess.  Here is Kumari Bahal, the official residence of the most powerful, & most respected living goddess of Nepal.  

Inside the building, the corridors are dark, the courtyard is small and depressing.  Behind the intricately carved windows, I could see nothing but darkness.  

Kumari Bahal is a place where touts are abundant.  When I entered the Kumari Bahal, a guy waved to me as if he were my long time friend, then he tried to explained to me about Kumari Bahal.  My interest was totally turned off, as I knew he was one of those 'guides'.  

 

Durbar Square was the center of Kathmandu, and it still is.  A political debate was hosted right at the Durbar Square.  

I visited Durbar Square 3 times during my stay, but I was stopped and asked to buy admission ticket only once.  The time when I was stopped, I had my camera hanging on my neck, a Lonely Planet guide book on hand, planning to spend some leisure time in the square and admire its architecture excellence.  Out of no where, a lady came to greet me in Nepali.  At first, I thought the people here were so nice, then she continued to ask me to buy admission ticket.  I was totally turned off, turned my back immediately, and left.  

I quickly stuffed my camera and guide book into my bag, made another turn and entered Durbar Square from another place.  Nobody stopped me for admission ticket!  If Durbar Square is properly maintained, then I will be more than happy to pay my dues, but it is not.  The whole Durbar Square is in an appalling state, going to look more like ruins than anything.  Well, that's a bit out of topic.

The image of Kala Bhairava in Kathmandu Durbar Square is often seen in travel books.  

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

Uniqlo Global Recruitment

Attended Uniqlo's global recruitment talk this afternoon at Concorde Hotel.  The talk was just normal, nothing very special, but the package they offered is really not bad, for fresh graduates.

They offer monthly salary of ~S$3000, plus transportation, overtime, & housing allowance, but you have to spend about 4 years in Japan. 

This kind of package is really attractive to me, if I were a fresh graduate.  Your career basically is planned out for the next ten years to the top executive level.  The only variable is your own capability. 

However, they obviously have some kind of age bias, they are only interested in fresh graduates, a little bit of allowance for people who had graduated for 2-3 years, and max 5 years.  More than that, you are not really welcomed.  Ok, at least that is the message from their HR head. 

For those who might be interested, you can visit their recruitment website to apply:
 http://www.uniqlo.com/jp/recruit/global/en/

Silver

It has been bad days for silver recently.  Looking at the daily chart, a head-and-shoulder pattern has been formed.  This pattern has been confirmed by yesterday's price action.  The price has gone below its 200d MA and invalidates the assumptions that it is in a consolidation phase.

Based on the projection of the neck line, it is expected to see the price to go down from $16 plus to $13 thereabouts.  This coincides well with the support level that we observe from the chart.  If $13 breaks, next level is $12 thereabout.  It is less likely it will break $12. 

Nepal Day 7: Snow Storm

Thanks to Y who managed to capture the snow storm we experienced on the way from MBC to ABC, I can share with you how bad it was.  Well, actually it was not that bad.  Just another snow storm which is pretty common in countries such as Japan or Switzerland or Denmark, etc.

I was lucky to have put on my raincoat before I got myself wet and cold. 

 

In that vast open space, with a gray sky, snow flakes dancing around, and a boringly gray footpath, that was me walking alone, bravely :P

Our guide, Abi, also had to brave the strong wind and the heavy snow, and the heavy burden on his shoulders and walked with joy and courage...

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.

Nepal Day 6: Himalaya - Y's Perspective

As I had expected, I did have some photos of myself in Y's camera, with me walking through the heavy fog.  Courtesy of Mr Yamaguchi, I got the chance to show you how heavy the fog was, and how steep the path that we walked on was.  WJ looks like a solder who just lost a battle, walking with his head down.  I was looking up for a bright future :P

 

This was when we were about 50m before we reached our guest house in Himalaya.  Can you see the visibility was so bad.  I didn't experience such poor visibility even when I did my scuba dive in the sea.  

This photo was taken after we finished our coldest ever shower.  I was wrapping myself with my dear down jacket, and yet I was trembling.  It was only around 5.30pm but it was already completely dark, dark with heavy fog.  Air had such smell that irritated my throat.  

You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.