Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Bali Here I Come!

Its been quite sometime since I updated my blog due to the shuttling between Singapore and Malaysia to do up my house in Port Dickson. You see, I have decided to DIY most part of my house by applying the scrooge as hell attitude of the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. It was rumoured that during his younger days, Ingvar was about to buy some furnitures and was totally surprised with the price of the furnitures and ask the store owner why such simple furniture costs so much. In replying the question from Ingvar, the store owner said that the cost to assemble, store and deliver the goods has already made its way into the total price of the goods, thus the high price and some even to the extend of absorbing the after sales support costs. Disgusted, Ingvar told the store owner that he doesn't need all that and quipped that he could assemble and deliver the goods without any need for after sales support and further asked for a discount for the goods he is about to purchase, to which the store owner said "Then you might as well go make one yourself". Ingvar took this seriously and started to think along this line as a business i.e. to strip the goods bare and let the customer choose whether they would like to assemble and deliver their own goods or pay a premium for someone to do that, thus the birth of IKEA. Also, IKEA provides a simple tag/manual so that customers can understand how the goods work, which in effect allow IKEA not to have an after sales support centre, thus cutting cost for the company as well.



Anyway, I decided to paint my house on my own together with a few extra pair of hands to spare i.e. my wife, MIL, FIL and some relatives. The only thing I paid for is to a contractor to build a basin next to the Barbecue pit (Actually, I seriously think l could DIY this too... albeit not so nicely done). I would refrain from commenting on the contractor's lousy attitude, which left my wife and myself upset. Next thing is, I am also thinking whether I should DIY some wood works. The setback or rather the de-motivating factor is that it will take plenty of time and I don't have that much time to spare to meet the house warming dateline so I guess its a no-go.

Back to the title of the posting "Bali Trip". My wife is under the employment of Marriot Vacation Club Asia Pacific (A travel package dept. of the Marriot Group) and lately, the company has given an incentive to those who has made successful sales and my lovely wife made it. The incentive is a free night stay in Ritz Carlton Bali (Woohoo~) and we most likely be getting another night from her colleagues. So the plan is a 3D2N stay trip in Bali from 28-30th March.



OK, so the destination, hotel and date is fixed, the next thing to go is the air tickets. They sure don't fly cheap to Bali from Singapore. The cheapest flight that I can get travelling on the time we have set costs about S$406 cheapest pax! wow, that means I am going to have to spend S$812 for 2 pax and what, only for a 3D2N stay? Phew, that sure doesn't sounds worth it. If I were to spend that kind of amount, I will definitely want to stay there longer, which also means more amount to be spent on accomodation. Being indecisive between these two options i.e. to stay longer or not, praise God that on the second day of my indecisiveness, He has answered me via Airasia's new route from Singapore to Bali. Wanna guess the price? S$50 per pax for a return flight inclusive of tax and all from Singapore Changi T1 airport. God is good!

After everything is planned, I realised another thing. My colleagues are planning for a Bali trip also or rather should I said they have planned a Bali trip, which they don't intend to include yours truly. Most of them are going but yours truly seemed to be ostracized. Why? I don't know and wished to know too. Oh well, I guess one can never please everyone everywhere. I don't have such problem in all my previous employment except for this one. Wonder what's the "WORD" to get into their click. I managed to know their budget for the trip and it was a disaster for them. Their budget flight is cheap at S$150 pax, but hey, who can compare to mine at S$50? Their accomodation is far from the Ritz but still cost a lovely S$180 for 4D2N for Quad sharing i.e. S$180/day. Yes, by now you should have known that I am sour that I am being ostracised but thank goodness, l've got better deal and that squares things off. To make things better, S$ to Indonesian Rupiah rate now is good at S$1 to IDR7,400.

Bali, here I come.
*Lord, give us good weather in Bali during those period!

**Note: All rights reserved. If you like any photos found in this blog or would like to engage me in any assignment, please e-mail me for more details at seage79@gmail.com.

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