yeah....Things will only get better

Yeah... what about it you may ask.

Picked up a copy of that , the one published by Tourism Web Services (TWS). Another abbreviation, not again.

It has many colourful pictures , maps and of course advertisements. It's small enough to fit into all handbags, some may even put it in their pants pocket. I guess it's real handy. Flipping through the pages, you do find some information that unless you belong to STB or some torusim related industry, otherwise it's highly unlikely that you will know or even pay attention to it.

What I find most convenient for tourist is this particualr page of telephone numbers that one might need throughout their stay here such as the weather forecast, taxi bookings, embassies or in the event of an emergency, the number to dial to contact the police is "999" instead of "911". This ain't America.

However, being the entreprising people, what do you see is that this particular number, known as "City Search " or otherwise known as an operator-assisted Yellow Pages, being published. For those interested, the number is 1900-7777777. Call at your own risk and cost. I'm sure Singaporeans are aware of numbers that begin with "1900". It usually comes along with an asterisk, informing you of the cost of the call and informing you that you have to seek permission from you papa or mama if you are underage. Some friend making lines even gave you advice to be caution when you meet up with people that you never met before and so on.They are just short of telling you to bring condoms with you, just in case you really need them.

Back to City Search. I don't think you will ever meet up with the telephone operators, so I don't think there is a need for them to indicate on any form of publications of such " beware" lines. Yeah.. and defintely you won't need to carry any form of condoms. But well.. you do need to pay them right? As in pay for using this service, not the condoms. Hmm.. why are we into the subject of rubber??

ANyway... my point being, this publication should indicate that this number.. is charged at a certain rate. You pick up a 10 cents coin, you can have 3 minutes of call on a normal number. But with a 1900, 10 cents won't get youy anywhere.

There's no need to cheat travellers right? And please don't tell me it's an honest mistake. I'm not a tourist.