After two years, we were back in Bangkok couple weeks ago. This time we decided to indulge a little more and took SQ instead of Tigers. And we stayed in the Space Zone at Baiyoke Sky Hotel instead of Tango Vibrant. It was a very short trip but one of the best we had in Bangkok. Thanks to the surprising nice weather while we were there. The cool breeze outdoor resembles the winter afternoon in Hong Kong and the shopping malls were all blasted with coolest air-condition! Some shoppers were even in thick jackets, which was a little over IMO.
View from our Space Zone room at Baiyoke Sky Hotel
We took the trains in Bangkok for the first time, and it sure did help speed up on transportation time; skipping the heavy traffic jams on the roads. If only they will soon figure out a way to have one standard ticket for tourists to use on all the different trains instead of having to buy tickets at every single interchange.
Single trip token for train ride in Bangkok
Highlight of this trip was to visit their newest shopping mall at Asok (right at the foot of the train station), Terminal 21. The shopping mall is HUGEEEE! The stalls at every level matches the country that level is themed after. There’s Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul, San Francisco and Hollywood all in one mall! Even the toilet (and its cleaners) were furnished and dressed as themed! Every corner you go to (yes toilets too) you’ll see shoppers taking photos and camwhoring. Great mall for photo opportunities if you’re heading there. Sharing some shots I took with iPhone 4s at Terminal 21.
Japan themed level - Fortune cat
FRANKly speaking, I’ve never been to such chic place to pick up my plastic! Thanks to OCBC, I had my first plastic shopping experience at their third FRANK store at Vivo City. The first thing that caught my eyes was the huge touch-screen at the entrance. It resembles one of those vending machine where you pick your favorite snacks from. This lets you pick your design for your FRANK card!
If you are not the touchy touchy kind of folks, get into the store and pick up some real cards then slowly decide which design to use for your FRANK card. Pick from over 130 designs with designs from cute and cuddly, quirky to wild and bold. I had a tough time picking mine that day!
For FRANK Credit Card holders can choose to exchange their reward points for cash rebates or vouchers. They can also use the all-in-one VISA payment card to take a ride on trains and buses as well as withdraw cash and sign or tap for purchases.
For those who would rather not spend too much “future” money can opt for the FRANK debit card which comes with a FRANK account. One key feature that attracted me to this FRANK account is the savings goals sub accounts where we can apportion our savings for different purposes. I’ve yet tried this out at this point since I only just received my FRANK card and pin. Will update again when I’ve time to explore this further.
Go check out the cool designs for FRANK card at FRANK by OCBC website. Be warned! They are too hot to resists! *ahem!*
Oh and join them on Facebook too!
He has been my greatest inspiration and will always be. His speech given at 2005 Stanford Commencement, the three stories of his life, is my most watched video when I am in need of an inspiration boost.
He indirectly changed my life and made my life more efficient with Apple OS and the powerful and well designed gadgets. Without his vision I may not have done and accomplished what I have today.
Steve Jobs will always be remembered. RIP Steve. You’ll have a better life where you are now. And go kick butt up there! Help them revolutionize their world with great technology ok!
A great tribute piece on Gizmodo – Steve Jobs is dead.
After last night’s Let’s Talk iPhone event, I’m open to trying out new mobile phones again! Ever since I got my 3GS, I’ve been rather stubborn that no other phone can replace the iPhone, but having used iPhone for two years now, I’m beginning to get bored of it. Not that I’ll not consider buying the 4GS, just that I think I should give other brands a chance.
My lifestyle for the next one year, in wait for iPhone 5, I’ll need the following features in my phone:
- great camera (8mp and above) to capture shots of kids in action with good lens, light sensitivity and macro shots
- email access
- good UI for access to Facebook, twitter, instagram, flickr, wordpress, google apps, dropbox and whatsapp
- good photo editing apps equivalent to camera+, photoshake and pictureshow on iOS
- at least 16GB storage
- good speakers
Anyone has got a better alternative than the iPhone 4S for my needs? If not I’ll have to join the queue on 28 Oct! -_-”
One of the Japanese restaurant at basement 1 of NEX, under the big umbrella of Shokutsu 10, a Japanese food street concept outlet by the people behind Kuriya and Shimbashi Soba, otherwise known as RE&S.
Kabe No Ana claims to be THE original Japanese spaghetti house established since 1953. With over 80 varieties in their menu, you ought to find something you would like to try in there.
Kabe No Ana - The Restaurant
I’ve been a customer with Standard Chartered Bank for 2 years now, and there hasn’t been much complaints from my end. But our recent encounter with the bank hasn’t been a satisfactory one. Its either a lack of service standard by the staff (a Relationship Manager, Preferred Banking) who served us at Marine Parade branch that day or a lack of support at the backend of the bank. After 3 weeks, we have yet received what we were supposed to 7 working days from the opening of account.
Here’s our experience; anyone else shared the same experience before? Hope not.
It was on Sunday, 14 August 2011, when we visited the Marine Parade Central Standard Chartered Bank. Our intention was to open an account for savings with cheque book service and look at potential investment opportunities. After approximately 15 minutes of waiting, staff returned from their break and we were served by this young lady. After explaining our needs, she recommended us to take up a long term endowment plan (with Prudential) where we were eligible for a special short-term Time Deposits promotion where we get high interests return for a 3-month period. After calculating and discussions, we took up her proposal and signed up for the endowment plan, started two Time Deposits accounts and started an XtraSaver account.
As it was a Sunday, the bank were not able to deposit the cheque and all transactions had to wait till the next working day, which was the NEXT day. We asked when the ATM/Debit card, cheque book, Internet banking details and other documents will reach us, we were told the ATM/Debit card will be sent to us the NEXT working day and the rest of the documents and stuff will come in 7 working days. After all is signed and done, we left.
The first thing that arrived in our mailbox was the cheque book, followed by the bank transaction slip for our cheque deposit. A week passed and that were all we received. Then another week passed, still nothing was sent. We called the Relationship Manager who served us (whom also upgraded us to Preferred Banking status on 14 August 2011), she said she will check and the other documents should be on the way. After couple of days, still nothing received from Standard Chartered Bank. So I tweeted @stanchartbreeze hoping someone can help look into the matter. Private messages were exchanged and a phone call was made to clarify the situation. We were told they will send out the outstanding items the next working day, which was the day after Hari Raya. So by now, we should have received our ATM/Debit card, Pin for the card, Internet Banking information and documents for our endowment plan right? Sadly, only the card was received and it arrived on Friday! Without the pin number, the card is technically useless, except for purchasing it as a debit card; not what we needed.
From a verbal assurance that the card will reach us the NEXT working day, to a delay of more than 14 working days! This is NOT the kind of service standard we’re expecting from a bank, and for a preferred banking customer some more! Throughout this period of time, the only way we can access the money was to go to the branch and do our withdrawal over the counter. Much time would have been saved if the necessary stuff came in time, as mentioned by the Relationship Manager.
Several times we wanted to go straight to the branch to request for a card and the IB token, but was afraid the bank had already mailed out to us. So we waited. When we called the bank and when they called us after the tweet, neither of them suggested for us to have our problems solved at the branch. Wait was what we did.
If we had opened the account on a weekday, would all this have happened? If not, then is it a failure on the bank’s side to have weekend banking hours yet not able to deliver the standard that should have had for weekday banking? Is this considered a weekend banking fail?
We were looking forward to using the other banking services and products by Standard Chartered Bank before this happened, now we are seriously considering otherwise. If such simple transactional standards cannot be met, how can we trust that a long term property loan or even a CDA with Standard Chartered Bank is what we should take up? Hope something can be done about the bank’s service standard and SOPs. No point having a good range of products/services, great internet/mobile banking tools and nice website, but service standard isn’t satisfactory.
Let’s see how long more we’ve got to wait for the card pin, IB details and other documents pending to reach us. Haiz…
Representative from SCB called to provide assistance and someone from the Marine Parade branch contacted us too. Before their call, we had already went to the branch to reset the card pin and that gave us access to the Internet banking.
Thanks to the two representatives for contacting us to check if things are fine, however the point is, why such a long delay in the first place? No answer was given.
Come to our own understanding that firstly, the ATM card wasn’t issued on the day of account opening (a Sunday) was because we banked in a cheque instead of cash. If we had known this at that point of time (representative assisting us didn’t tell us this option), we could have made a deposit in cash in order to have things processed on the spot and prevented all these from happening.
We’ve got most of the stuff settled, and the last thing pending is the documents for the endowment plan. Receipt sent to us from Prudential but not the policy documents. Guess that’ll take more time.
Powered by 
