My Vietnam Trip to Ho Chi Minh City (13-16 December 2013)

I went to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam with my girlfriend and friend over the recent weekend, coming back on the Monday evening. I flew in by Tiger and booked my hotel through agoda.com. A brief summary, with photos taken from the internet is as follows.

Friday 13 December 2013

I had web-checked in so I did not have to arrive at the airport that early. Nevertheless, I took my luggage to work heading straight to Changi Terminal 2 after a staggered half-day to catch my 1715 flight. 

The flight to Vietnam took about two hours and I reached the Tan Son Nhat Airport. My previous trip to Vietnam was slightly ruined because we got ripped off by the cab driver. He charged us 400,000 dong for a 250,000 dong trip (10,000 dong ~ USD 0.50). Determined not to get cheated this time, we ordered a cab from the Mai Linh Group but it still cost us 300,000 dong. The journey took about 1 hour plus due to traffic surge. Otherwise, it would have been a 30 minutes journey.

Smoother sailing?

I managed to get my MBA course for the coming school term and the new timetable offered a few more evening classes. However, I am still required to attend 12 seminars and 3 skills workshop and this would mean burning 7.5 more days of leave at least. The bright side is that I can afford to to use some leave in December to go for a holiday in Vietnam. 

On the investment front, Elite KSB distributed 6.6 cents per share as part of a capital reduction exercise. Today, it announced a trading halt and I think the company is either going to announce that somebody is taking it over, or that it is going to delist. Let us hope that the share price will jump up slightly.

A difficult 2013

2013 has been a difficult year for me. A good month was spent for military training gifted with the knowledge that there will be more to come. School (my masters programme) has been very underwhelming while I am overwhelmed at the work front. There is little expectations of a good increment. The upside is that my portfolio including free cash and dividends is up 7%.

Due to the lack of big blue chip stocks, my portfolio on a month-on-month basis has moved somewhat differently from the STI. There have been things that I said I would do, such as selling Noble Group and Wilmar, but I guess leaving under performing stocks in the portfolio gives me some room to grow for next year.

With two more months left, My focus will be building up my savings for emergencies as well as marriage. The stock market has yet to softened and this has left me few chances to buy in. Added to the fact, I have been preoccupied with so many things that I have nothing in mind. That is another story altogether.

A Tree has fallen

I live in Toa Payoh and recently, the neighbourhood's iconic tree fell. You can read the Straits Times' report for some of the background. I used to make small offering on my birthdays at my mother's request. My brother did that only not so long ago. I was thus taken aback when i read that it had fallen.

I discussed this "event" with a colleague who also stays nearby and we feel that the tree was one of those little things that made Toa Payoh unique. She added that the authorities have been a little slow with regard to trees. On reflection, the issue of trees is similar to that of crows and mynahs - issues that cross boundaries within the bureacracy.

Of course you can find more heritage tidbits here but the tree, along with the blue fountain in front of the library were what constitute my sense of the place. As we grow old, we yearn for some fixity in our environment. I guess as time passes, memories fade and a new feature will be built on the site.

Can healthcare be affordable when we are living longer?

My father recently suffered a heart attack and had to go for an operation to open up the constricted arteries using stents. I do not agree with some of the stuff that he eats but he leads quite an active lifestyle. a lot of walking here and there. The only downside is that he is a shift worker, so his sleeping patterns are affected. It was thus a shock when the doctor told me about what happened.

The bill was also another shocker. I had to go through some "financial  counselling" since I was the next-of-kin and the gross bill (operation plus ward before subsidies) came up to S$15,000. After deducting for government subsidies, the estimated bill came down to S$5,000 and the "financial counsellor told me that me this could be offset by insurance, medisave and other means (cold hard cash). The balance was a manageable amount and it will be likely fully covered by my father's company insurance.

My father is about statutory retirement age. The big question is, how is he going to pay for any future hospital stays should he suffer from another heart attack after his retirement? He has a few options such as paying from savings or Medisave; settling from private insurance; his children paying; and may be to sell his house. There are pros and cons to each option and I admit that I am not very clear how insurance can cover you after 65 or how Medisave can offset most of the medical bills.

But the depressing conclusion is that unless you have a big house, a lot of money or children, the older you get, healthcare will not be affordable. Upon retirement, while the range of diseases that may strike an individual increases, the individual's ability to pay, especially if you are less-than-average, diminishes rapidly. It reminds me of a saying I heard when I was young, that you are better off dead than sick in Singapore.