MY TAIWAN TIPS

One of my favourite countries to visit is definitely Taiwan. It was always so exciting when I get rostered for Taiwan during my flying days. It is only a 4-hour plus flight, one meal service and we get to stay in a nice 5-star hotel. I love having Shabu Shabu (I love soupy meals) and fried chicken cutlets, taxis are much more affordable than in Singapore, many cheap & pretty shoes in Ximending, I can stock up on my favourite skincare brands For Beloved, My Beauty Diary facial masks and this clinical brand of red wine mask in a tub.

But sadly, I only get to be rostered on a Taiwan flight once in a blue moon. Reason being, there has to be a Taiwanese and a Japanese stewardesses onboard, due to the route the flight covers, so there aren't much vacancies left for local stewardesses. Divide it by the probability that we get a Taiwan flight out of the 5000+ stewardesses...sigh.

Ironically, the best tips I have for those who are visiting Taiwan are not from my flying days. When everything is arranged nicely for you, there isn't much to plan and compare.

I was really happy to be able to go Taiwan again this year for my pilgrimage with my family after a 6-year hiatus. Nothing has changed much in Taiwan. It is still as adorable. Some of its cab drivers are still very angsty when broaching on the topic of domestic politics and when they know we are from Singapore, the politician they remember most vividly is Mr Lee Kwan Yew. 

Not everyone like Mr Lee or agree with him, but I think it is none of their business to comment on how things should be run in Singapore and start putting our forefathers down. I'm sorry but if what you know is from hearsay and misleading media, then you are not more suitable than me to comment on Singapore. I don't see why I should be paying for your taxi service and yet put up with condescending words about my country's politicians. I got into a verbal disagreement that has me raising my voice at a Taipeitaxi driver who dislikes Mr Lee for a particular comment Mr Lee once made and the taxi driver wishes for Malaysia to start a war on Singapore. 就是為他出一口氣. I was like what the fish @$%#*. How many innocent people are going to die because of one puny selfish thought of yours? Do you know how many Singaporeans have relatives in Malaysia and vice-versa? Did you just advocate killing of human beings to satisfy your silly pride??? My mum was pulling my arm, telling me to leave the topic to the men (my Husband who was in the front seat and the taxi driver) and I told my mum that when it comes to defending my country and, for goodness sake, innocent lives, everybody has a duty. I'm not going to let my gender determine that I should always play the damsel in distress. (I must say standing up for what I believe in gets easier with age. Don'tknow why on earth I'm so timid to speak up during my younger days.)

So yes, tip no. 1 will be never to broach on the topic of politics with the cab drivers. Totally spoil the holiday mood.

TIP #2： BEST PLACE TO CHANGE SGD TO TWD

If you think the best place to change Singapore Dollar to Taiwan Dollar is in Singapore, you're wrong. Not even Chinatown has the best exchange rates. As a air crew, I used to change my Singapore Dollars at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after touching down. There is no difference in the rate between the various money changers of different banks at the Taoyuan airport. 

Exchange rate at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, 11 April 2014

The exchange rate was 1 SGD to 23.56 TWD. It was 0.3 - 0.4 more than Singapore money changers. There is also a processing fee of 30 TWD to change money at the Taoyuan Airport. It is not reflected in the receipt above, because just before this transaction, I changed S$2100 and the money changer treated both transactions as one, hence I was only charged 30TWD once.

I went Taiwan twice this year. Once, I touched down at 5plus am. Recently I reached Taiwan at 5pm. Both times, there were money changer counters open. 

So if you are changing more than S$100, then it certainly makes sense to save the commuting to the money changers in Singapore and do it straight at Taoyuan Airport. The rate difference will more than cover the 30 TWD processing fee, and hey, you save the transport fares you could have spent in Singapore!

But ladies, the best is yet to come. During this trip, by a stroke of luck, my mum & the Husband discovered the best place to change our Singapore Dollars to Taiwan Dollars!

Surprise surprise!! Turned out to be our local bank, DBS! They have many branches in Taipei and whole of Taiwan. 

It can be pretty hard to change money upon leaving the airport. Money changers are not available everywhere, unlike in Singapore, where we know there is at least one in a shopping centre. But not for Taiwan. At big department stores like 新光三越, they provide money changing services for currencies like Japan Yen, USD, China RMB, Hong Kong Dollar, but not our Singapore Dollar. Why??

And while in Taipei 101, we went to the bank at the building, thinking that we can change for TWD there. Most disappointed to learn from the bank counter staff that of all the banks in Taiwan, only Bank of Taiwan accepts SGD to change for TWD. What a strange policy when at the airport, there were several money changing counters of other banks!

So my family was walking along the street, looking for Bank of Taiwan with road directions from the hotel staff. When they saw DBS, they walked in, just wanting to try their luck and BINGO!! Turned out DBS has the most favourable exchange rate for SGD to TWD! I'm pretty sure because the bank is patriotic in a foreign land and this is how they show they love Singaporeans! Hahaha!

Exchange rate at DBS Taichung Branch, 14 April 2014

Exchange rate at DBS was 23.92, OMG! Compared to the 23.56 at Taoyuan Aiport 3 days ago and no processing fee at DBS Taiwan!

Things to note: 

1) DBS banks in Taiwan are open till 330pm from Mon-Fri. The banks are not opened on Saturday, unlike in Singapore.

2) My personal experience is, don't rely on the hotel staff to tell you where the bank branch is because Taiwan is really a big place and some of the staff might not be so aware of a foreign bank location compared to their local banks. Check out online where the DBS bank branches are. Then, ask the hotel concierge which branch is the nearest to your hotel.

http://www.dbs.com.tw/personal-zh/deposits/other-services.page

I would recommend reading the DBS Taiwan webpage in Chinese, because the English version will show the street addresses in hanyu pinyin and that will be tricky if we pronounce the road names wrongly to the taxi drivers. If you are not proficient in Chinese, at least you can get the hotel staff to look through and write it down for you.

In the above screenshot, the first 3 words circled in blue indicates the city. So if you are in Taipei, look out for addresses beginning with 台北市. If you are in Taichung, look out for addresses beginning with 台中市.

3) Taxis in Taiwan are affordable, even more so when you are in a group. It cost about TWD115 ( approx. S$4.80) for a 10-15min cab ride for us. We wanted to go to a department store at Taichung, so we went to the DBS branch that was nearest to the department store, to save us unnecessary travelling time and cost. No point travelling to a different direction, if there is a nearer branch to our next destination.

4)  To make a better comparison, you can always check out SGD to TWD exchange rate from DBS Taiwan website: 

http://www.dbs.com/tw/zh/personal/deposits/pages/fe3.aspx

 

There's a warm feeling of home when we stepped into a DBS bank in Taiwan. The familiar logo, the corporate colours and layout...I don't get that homely feeling when I go to DBS in Singapore. Just crowded & noisy. Oh well, you can't take the Singapore out of a Singaporean, can you?

TIP #3: CONTACT LENS ARE CHEAPER IN TAIWAN!

I can't believe all these years I didn't know this from all those years of flying!!! We all know beauty brands from Taiwan are the cheapest in their countries, but guess what??

For years, I've been buying contact lens from Malaysia, mainly bought by the Husband when he goes over for work trips. For Acuvue Define daily disposables, the Husband buys it at 100 Ringgit per box (usual retail price is 110 Ringgit).  But the Husband has not been going to Malaysia for the past few months and my lens supplies were nearing zero. So at Ximending, I walked into a random optical shop to check on the prices. I wasn't expecting much as hey, it was at Ximending, Taipei's Orchard Road. It couldn't be that cheap right? My jaw nearly dropped when the staff said a box of Acuvue Define daily disposables only cost TWD850 (approx. S$37). It cost a deadly S$62 in Singapore and still more than $6 cheaper than Malaysia!!

This is only a portion of the lenses I bought. And it's not just Acuvue that is cheaper. A friend of mine bought another brand from the same shop as I and also remarked that it was cheaper in Taiwan too. I checked out the prices at quite a few optical shops and prices are fixed.　

Read from the box and daily disposables are known as 日抛式隱形眼鏡. Interesting to know its translation in Chinese. 

I bought one box of Acuvue Moist (normal daily disposables) because daily wearing of the cosmetic lenses can be tiring for my eyes. The cosmetic lenses are thicker and prevent more oxygen from getting to the eye, and in comparison, the Acuvue Moist lenses are such a relief to wear. Phew.

The Husband asked if the lenses were made in Taiwan, hence the cheaper price. I checked and nope, the lenses were made in Ireland! Probably higher demand in Taiwan, more brand competition, economies of scales from big optical shops and lower rentals all contributed to the lower selling price? Gaah, this sounds like Econs. My least favourite subject in JC.

Things to note:

1) Your preferred brand of lenses in your degree might not be available. So don't wait till the last day in Taiwan to buy. Go earlier, so that you have time to go check out another optical shop or at least the optical shop can order for you. It takes about 1-2 days.

2) There is liquid in the lens containers. I'm unsure how strict the airport staff will be but if you are buying ALOT, please check in the loots instead of bringing them all onboard the plane.

TIP #4: MY FAVOURITE HOTEL IN TAIPEI

西悠飯店 CU Hotel Taipei

This is the only hotel I have stayed in Taipei during my personal trips. Previously as a crew, I have stayed in Grand Hyatt but the neighbourhood is not as interesting compared to that of CU Hotel. And I would highly recommend CU Hotel in Taipei!

Daily breakfast is provided by the hotel, but when you stay at a food haven, why would you want bland hotel breakfast?

The best thing about staying in this hotel is that cheap & good food is easily available at all times of the day because of the Ning Xia Night Market 寧夏夜市 just beside the hotel and the food stalls all around. The hotel is situated above 雙連市場, a fresh food market.

For me, food accessibility plays a important role. Grabbing some food before starting the day is great, as I can brush my teeth in my room after food (yes, I'm protective of my teeth). After a long day out, it's nice to put down my load in my room and head down for some dinner/supper before calling it a day.

My mum would go to the fresh fruits stall to get her bittergourd juice in the morning, the Husband loves to have the mee sua for breakfast at the stall just beside the hotel entrance and I love to have the baked potato for supper from Ning Xia.

Real baked potato! There are other versions in other night markets that sell a skinless, deep fried potato. It was yucks, yucks, yucks as that version is like some very creamy and buttery mashed potato which is very thick. This Ning Xia version is so much yummier! I always forgot to opt for no pepper and garnish. Oh, Baked Potato of less than S$3, how I miss you sooooo!

It was strawberry season when we went to Taipei in February and I had a cup of these Taiwan strawberries almost every night from Ning Xia. 不輸給韓國的草莓哦！They're smaller than the USA strawberries, just as sweet as their Korean counterparts and it's just so nice!!! At less than S$3 a cup (I think TWD50), it was my comfort 'fruits' almost every night.

Such a poetic chopsticks wrapper. We visited this 滷肉飯 joint - 鬍鬚張almost every other night. It closes at 1am and it was great for supper after a busy day out. The little eatery is lined along the Ning Xia Market.

There were of course lots of other food at Ning Xia Market and the various eateries that line the neighbourhood, like the 古早味desserts stall, a soyabean milk stall, a 四神湯stall and the nearby convenience stores. I'm not a eat-everything-and-try-it-all girl, so as long as the place has food that I like, I'm contented.

CU Hotel Taipei have friendly counter staff. The rooms are small but new (started in 2013), clean, come with free Wifi (yay to usage of Watsapp) and accessible with a 10-15 walk to the nearest MRT station,  雙連 Shuang Lian. While walking to the station, there are lots more other cafes and eateries, a 24-hour Watsons, Macdonald's, telco shops (for you to buy or top up a Taiwan phone card) and optical shops. Definitely keeping you occupied even while walking.


(p.s. since this is such a long-winded post, I decided to publish this first and add on more later, just in case Blogger eats up my post and I will dieeee after spending more than 6 hours on this entry! Will tweet once I add on to this post!)

Metta, 

欣雨 Xinyu

NOW WHO'S GONNA SAVE THE DOCTORS?

A friend of mine worked as a gynecologist in Australia and she shared a blog entry on her Facebook.

I clicked on it, thinking it was a light-hearted article and ended up reading a very genuinely-written article, highlighting the legal & work problems faced by the doctors in Queensland, Australia. The blog entry was written by a Emergency Physician who worked in the public hospital of Queensland.

Ran a Google search today and this came up:

I can't believe what I am reading. A government wanting to sue hundreds of doctors in its state??? According to the blog writer, his reason for refusal to comply was:

"I simply want to be able to do what I have trained my entire adult life to do; To make sick people better, without being told that I can’t use drug x, or device y, or technique z, because they are too expensive. We take the doctor-patient relationship extremely seriously. From day one in medical school, we are constantly reminded of the sacrosanct nature of this bond...I have to be free to do my best for my patients, or I do not deserve the title Dr."

From ABC news, hundreds of senior medical officers in Queensland are threatening to quit over new State Government contracts.

I can't quite fathom why the politicians will resort to such a biased medical contract that affects the morale and welfare of its state doctors so badly. I pray, with such a dangerous medical system in play, I will never ever need emergency care in Queensland. And please, Singapore, don't ever end up like this. Not so chek ark please. Sure will 折福折壽 & 絕子絕孫, no matter how many parenthood campaigns you run.

On another side note, if I ever have the tremendous fortune to be a great doctor (no no, not the aesthetics kind) in my next life, please don't let me be born in Queensland and suffer the fate of 英雄無用武之地.

Below is a re-post of the brilliantly detailed article of a hectic day in the life of the Emergency Physician, who have since resigned from the public hospital. I wish you well, Doctor. May your noble ambitions of serving the Queensland population in the public sector be fulfilled soon.

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It can’t be right!

Posted on 27/02/2014 by hippocratesintheed

Like many professionals, I find myself in my early forties, settled, with a partner and two young children. I’m an older parent than most. My partner and I postponed having our children until I had completed my training since my pay, short term employment contracts and working long hours as a junior doctor in the public health system meant that it was financially not viable for us to start a family earlier. Qualifying as a doctor is just the beginning of a long, long journey. I completed nine years of postgraduate training and moved eleven times, including twice internationally, before I passed my final fellowship and became a consultant Emergency Physician.

That was ten years ago this year. Since then I have worked as a full time Staff Specialist in Emergency Medicine in the public hospital system of Queensland. I vividly remember the Bundaberg and Caboolture hospital scandals, and have no wish to return to the days of skeleton staffing and unacceptable standards of care. I deliver hands on, 24 hour a day emergency care to the people of Queensland in some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Sometimes I am with them as they are born, frequently I help them as they confront a serious illness in themselves or a loved one. Sometimes I am with them when they die. This is the challenge and the privilege of Emergency Medicine.

I am starting a ten hour clinical shift in a metropolitan emergency department. Most days we will see around two hundred to two hundred and fifty patients per 24 hours. Every single one of these Queenslanders brings their own unique medical problem in their own personal context. My job is to see that each one of them receives the care that they need in a caring, compassionate and timely fashion. I have a team of young doctors with me, and together we aim to achieve this goal. Today, at the 8am handover, I learn that two of our junior doctors are sick. Since we have a total of 6 juniors on the day shift, we have lost a third of our medical staff before the shift has even begun. The Emergency Department is already understaffed so there are no replacements. We will simply have to “suck it up” as it is known in the trade. The night doctors are tired. It has been a busy night, and the on call Consultant was called in for a critically ill patient at 5am, having only finished the evening shift at 1am. The call, however necessary,  and her departure will also have woken her partner, and probably her two children. We are on call after an evening shift at least once a week, and the nights on call don’t just affect us, but our families too. She is finishing her clinical notes having just transported the patient to the intensive care unit. The patient, a 47 year old man with a young family, arrived with chest pain before promptly having a cardiac arrest in the emergency department. My colleague led the team who administered drugs and an electric shock to restart the patients heart, placed a tube in his airway to allow him to breathe and called in and coordinated the arrival of a Cardiologist and cardiology team to take the patient for an emergency angioplasty in the “Cath Lab”. As the senior emergency doctor, she personally escorted the patient with their life support machine to the lab. She remained with them for the duration of the one hour procedure, whilst administering anaesthetic drugs to keep the patient asleep, before escorting the still unconscious patient to the ICU. She should be back on duty in 5 hours, but has only had 3 hours sleep. Another Consultant, probably on their day off, will come in to cover the first half of her shift. The late notice phone calls to come in to work are just accepted as part of the job, but are disruptive to family life. Our children quickly learn that Mummy or Daddy’s promises to be at their sports day or school music concert actually come with a silent “unless the department needs me” on the end!

The Emergency Physicians and some of the Intensive Care doctors are the only senior doctors who work shifts. We know that a patient who is seen by a senior emergency doctor on arrival is more likely to survive, and we are committed to this concept. If you are sick, we will be there for you – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That is the commitment that we make to you.

The day has begun badly, but it often does. We just have to deal with it. Public Emergency departments don’t close just because they are full or because there are no beds in the hospital or because of staff sickness, so we work on…

I see a 98 year old lady with a broken hip after a fall. She tells me that she is looking forward to getting her telegrams from the Queen and Governor-General. I prescribe morphine for her pain and order x-rays, a heart tracing and blood tests. I can’t just assume that she has tripped. If I miss the fact that actually she has had a heart attack, seizure, sudden disturbance in heart rhythm or any one of a dozen other conditions that could have led to her fall, then those telegrams may never become a reality. I reassure her that all will be well, and that our doctors will refer her to an Orthopaedic Surgeon for surgery.

I see a 27 year old girl who is 8 weeks pregnant and has started to bleed. This is probably a miscarriage, but I can’t assume anything. I need to be sure that this is not something more sinister like an ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilised egg develops outside the womb causing pain and catastrophic bleeding. I ask a female junior doctor to perform an examination on the young lady, and order an ultrasound and blood tests, whilst making sure that a transfusion sample is taken just in case. She also receives painkillers. The possibility of miscarriage is a devastating psychological blow for this patient, and a nurse and myself spend time trying to reassure her and put her more at ease before her partner arrives. I offer to break the news to him when he arrives.

I see a 19 year old heroin user who came in overnight having been found unconscious. The night team saved his life by giving oxygen and medication when he stopped breathing. Since then he has been sleeping peacefully, but now he is awake and angry. I want to x-ray his chest to make sure that he did not inhale any mouth secretions whilst he was lying unconscious in the park. He throws his breakfast pack at a nurse and delivers a stream of obscenities. I intervene and attempt to reason with him whilst security are called. He spits at me, but the presence of three burly security guards deters him from further violence and he relents. The x-ray is performed before he is discharged in search of more heroin.

The scan result on a 23 year old girl in our short stay unit has come back saying that she has a blood clot on her lung. Left untreated, this is life threatening. I prescribe medication to thin her blood, having calculated the correct dose, and explain the implications of her diagnosis and that she will have to be admitted to the hospital for further treatment and investigation. I refer her to a Respiratory Physician.

An alarm sounds, and our team rushes to the resuscitation area, where a middle aged lady arrives on an ambulance trolley looking sick. Very sick. This lady is now my absolute priority. Everyone else will have to wait. She has an abnormal heart trace, but also has back pain and low blood pressure. The resuscitation team, of which I am the leader, quickly apply oxygen, place intravenous drips and administer medications, but she rapidly deteriorates and her heart stops. I coordinate the resuscitation attempt, standing by the patient and managing the team’s interventions, whilst simultaneously alerting the rest of the hospital to events in the ED. I call ICU and a Cardiologist in order to mobilise the resources which this lady may need if she survives. She rallies for a period of time, but sadly dies without regaining consciousness. I ensure that she spends her last moments with her husband, and take time to express my condolences and to offer support. Putting my hand on his shoulder as he cries, I ask our social worker to speak with him, and offer him a telephone if he wishes to call anyone. Even in his moment of grief, he thanks me for caring for his wife.

The day continues. At 3pm I realise how hungry I am and that I really, really need to go to the bathroom. Time pressure has meant that food and bathrooms have not been an option until now. I have limited time, so the bathroom wins. Lunch will have to wait. There is always one more patient to see.

The last time I checked, if I chose to work in a private ED then I could earn two to three times what I do now. It’s not that I can’t work in the private system. The two fellowships I have completed during my training mean that my qualifications are as good as, if not better than many of my private colleagues. It’s simply that I don’t WANT to work in the private hospital system. I see my job as delivering high quality, compassionate and timely emergency care to the WHOLE population of Queensland, not just those lucky enough to be able to afford private insurance. I also value my role in helping to teach the next generation of Emergency Physicians, a responsibility taken on almost solely by the public hospital system.

Work pressures in Emergency Departments are increasing, as are emergency attendances, while at the same time budgets are being cut. We are constantly being told to do more with less. What is expected of the staff in this high stakes environment continues to increase. I work at least one evening shift and night on call a week and every third or fourth weekend. This has a significant impact on my home life, my partner and my children. I have accepted all of this without complaint. Emergency Medicine is not glamorous and rarely makes the headlines. I accept this. I just want to be able to do a good job and take good care of my patients.

My employer is now asking me to sign an individual contract with them, which removes all of the rights and protections which I currently enjoy under the award. My right of appeal to the QIRC has been removed. If I sign this contract, my ability to protect YOU from bad decisions by bureaucrats is massively compromised. I can be fired for speaking out over important issues, or for “refusing a reasonable direction” from a manager. This could include being ordered to not prescribe a particular drug or to open the Cardiac Cath Lab out of hours on the grounds of expense. At the moment I have the right to fight them, to fight for you, but I have a wife and two children to feed and clothe. I can’t afford to lose my job.

They have also removed the existing fatigue provisions from the new contract. Tired doctors make bad decisions, and these clauses protect us from being forced to work excessive hours by an organisation who’s own report into fatigue in doctors, produced at significant taxpayers expense, concluded that we should just drink coffee! The contract now states that fatigue will now be managed “locally”. I think we all know what that means.

The worst thing about the contract is that any aspect of it can be unilaterally and retrospectively changed by my employer without my consent. Half of the doctors leave? No problem, we’ll just flog the rest harder, they can cover the extra shifts. No need to employ any expensive new ones. After all, they can just drink coffee, our own report says so, and the patients will never notice. If the doctors complain, we’ll change their contract and put them on the minimum wage, or just terminate their employment. Try to open an operating theatre for a sick patient in the middle of the night? The bureaucrats might think it’s too expensive. Argue with them? You are terminated with immediate effect. That will make you think twice!

One leading employment lawyer described the contract as the most one sided contract they had ever seen. Like many emergency doctors, I have a mortgage to pay and a partner and two children who depend on me as their main bread winner. It will be a cruel irony indeed if my employer, the Queensland Government, forces me into the private hospital system by its insistence that I sign a contract which fundamentally shifts the balance of power in the health system away from those who actually care for patients, and towards accountants and bureaucrats, who only see the financial bottom line.

I work for the organisation which employed Jayent Patel, and then flew him out of the country when it all went wrong. It closed Caboolture Emergency Department by letting the working conditions become so hazardous and unbearable that all the senior staff left. It left us unpaid for weeks at a time by its incompetent management of the new payroll system, but now I am being asked to trust it, and put my employment rights and YOUR health in its hands.

The public health system is sleep walking into a disaster for patient care.

Queensland, I need your help!

I have always been there when you need me.

Will you be there for me?

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Metta,

欣雨 Xinyu