I just finished reading Rework by 37signals and have written a short review over at SGEntrepreneurs.

This is a fun video I cam across with some really interesting statistics about technology trends, enjoy.

For my birthday a couple months ago I received a Garmin Forerunner 50.  It is a watch which comes with a chest strap type heart rate monitor which wirelessly connects to the watch to give you your heart rate.  Over the past two months I have been experimenting with exercise regime to improve my mental performance as recommended in the book Spark! As part of that have been going for a morning run at the running track. The Garmin device is useful as it tracks my heart rate throughout the run and allows me to make sure I am keeping my heart rate in the recommended zone. The best thing though is that when I get back I can upload the data to my laptop and see a graph. This means I can now compare my performance with my past performance and see the improvement which is great. The PC link was a bit unintuitive to figure out at first but now I love this little bit of kit.

During my short time in Singapore I have now accidentally dropped a note from my wallet on the street three times. Each time immediately someone has very politely said excuse me and handed it back to me.  I am impressed with the honestly although I could of course have dropped money more than three times and not noticed

Vietnam Visa

This weekend I went on a trip to Vietnam.  I really enjoyed the trip but one thing I did find hard to get information on was the visa application process. Therefore I thought I would do a write up here of my experience.

As I was not keen to visit the embassy or more precisely leave my passport there for a few days while my visa was processed I decided to try one of the online “visa on arrival” services. Visa on arrival is misleading as there is no such thing in Vietnam. You can not arrive in Vietnam and then get a Visa in the airport like in Bali for example. What you have to do is apply before hand and receive a visa confirmation letter saying you have a visa waiting for you at the airport in Vietnam. You then pick the visa up at the airport. You will not be let on the plane without a visa or a visa confirmation letter.

There are many companies online that provide this service. I used one called My Vietnam Visa. Their process although a bit convoluted is quite painless. I paid $25 for my application and $3 for credit card charges. I applied on a Thursday morning and got my visa confirmation letter e-mailed back by the Monday evening.

When I arrived in Vietnam it is a bit confusing as the process is not explained but it is quite straight forward.

I went to the landing visa desk with three officials behind three windows. There were a lot of people hanging around waiting but no real queue. I approached a window and gave my passport and the printout of my visa confirmation letter both of which the official retained (I also had a landing card with me but this was not required for the visa). I was then given a form to fill out and went away to complete it. The official did not speak at all or explain anything.

When I had filled out the form I approached the window again and gave the official my completed form and one passport photo (no special size).  I then took a seat and waited 5-10 minutes before my name was called.

I then approached the window a third time, paid my visa fee of US$ 25 in cash (no change available) and my passport was returned with the visa stuck inside.

I was then able to go to passport control and proceed as normal getting my passport and landing card stamped although the offical did not take the landing card.

So the total cost of the visa (up to 1 month single entry) worked out at US$53.  Hope that helps