Travel tips from my trip to Sydney, Australia

It was my second time to Australia in two years but i have forgotten most of the tips i gotten the last time during which i visited Perth. I'm glad though i have blogged about some of my experience back then from my week-long trip.

So I have listed down all the travel tips I have acquired during this short trip to Sydney. I stayed at Travelodge Sydney along Woolsworth Ave.

Gifts and souvenirs 

• Tim tam,  macadamia nuts are my top recommendations to buy back from australia.

Taxi

• Use Uber. A ride to the city from the airport is about AUD 35-60
• Go to the "express pick up" area near p9 car park, there will be signs guiding you there.

Accommodation

• Hotel may not offer drinking water bottles
• Buy your stuff from supermarket, it will be much cheaper. Still, expect to pay about AUD2 for a 500ml bottle of water
• Convenience stores are expensive (3 bottles of water and 3 bottles of coke costed my AUD24.60... GAHHHH) 

Traffic

• Traffic is generally smooth even during peak hours. (Probably very smooth compared to the likes of Indonesia and Philippines)
• There was a prolonged rain during the afternoon on our way to the airport, but we managed to get there in under an hour.

Currency

• Smallest note is $5. Comes in 5,10,20,50,100
• The $2 coins are gold coloured and are the smallest of the coins. A 20cent is so much bigger.
• Refer to my previous post on changing SGD to AUD... It matters where you change!

Immigration

• Singaporeans will need an ETA to visit Australia, even for a short travel. 
• The process is fairly simple and can be done at the singapore airlines customer service area on the spot for $50. (Will verify if you need to be flying SQ to be able to apply through them) 
• And yes, we can use the smart electronic immigration gate.

Learn tips, share tips

EUFASS

Uber or Grab or Taxi (bluebird) in Jakarta indonesia

Was in Jakarta a few days back again and once again traffic was a nightmare (Welcome to Jakarta!)

Made a few notes about my ride experiences when using uber, grab and bluebird taxis.

Do also look at my previous post on taking taxi from the Jakarta airport as well as my experience on blue bird rides.

Some notes when choosing to take uber or grab in Indonesia:

• When taking uber, problem encountered: GPS is spotty
  
  As such, the uber car icons may not be showing accurately where the driver location is. There are times where the car has arrived but the uber app still shows the car being few minutes away.

• So, do we wait and trust in the drivers?
  No! Some of the uber drivers in Indonesia do not know the way, does not come if there is police, and they do not cancel the ride. They wait for you to cancel the ride and you get hit by the cancellation fee of RP30,000 once you have waited more than 5 minutes.
  If there is still no sign of your driver, please make alternative plans or book again.
  
• Please remember to claim back your cancellation fee if it is not your fault.
  
  Yes, although it might be a small amount from your perspective. But lets not condone with the drivers who are abusing this system.
  
• So, what are some tips to mitigate this?
  
  There is the call driver function to let the driver know where you are and if he is really coming or not. Only thing is, the drivers are usually not well versed in English and speak Bahasa. What you can try is to pass to a local next to you to help explain your pick up location. The locals are generally friendly and helpful.
  
• What else can I do?
  
  Another alternative to consider is blue bird. They are generally available but you will have to live with the advantages uber and grab gives, which is their GPS-enabled navigation to your desired location.
• That is a sacrifice to bear in time-sensitive times, until the system and driver pool quality of uber and grab taxis improve in Jakarta.

Learn tips, share tips

EUFASS

Which number to see when changing money?

A beginner's guide to we buy we sell in currency exchange

Confused when comparing currency rates? 

Not sure how to interpret the two column of numbers : we buy , we sell?

I have not travelled for a while and found myself asking this question when changing to Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) in my recent trip to Jakarta. I thought it will be useful to share this information since I believe this question will be encountered quite frequently by people like me who does not do currency exchange often.

Click here for the best place to change currency in Singapore

Here are the 2 tips to remember when you are exchanging currency.

• Always look under "we sell"

>We sell is the amount that the money changer will charge you for 1 unit (or could be 100/1000 units) of the foreign currency.

• Then find the lowest number among the shops you are comparing

>Think as it from this perspective

: you are looking at the currency selling price and the smaller, the better.

Now, an example

I wanted to change SGD to IDR (Singapore dollars to Indonesia Rupiah) , there were 2 banks at the airport (Why change at the airport? Reason here )

So i looked under the "we sell" column

1st bank offered 0.109 the other offered 0.112. Which one should i go for?

I should choose the one offering 0.109, which means I will receive 1000 IDR for $0.109 SGD

To exchange for 1,000,000 IDR, I will hence need $109. (It will cost $112 if I went for the other bank)

So remember

look under we sell, and 

the smaller the figure, 

The better rate you'll get

Hope this was useful for you

EUFASS