rookie travel hacks

the first tips and tricks to make your holiday counts in the best possible way. been there, done that.

don't rush in to book your flight and hotel

happened  to me recently. 

i was planning my sumba trip when one of my travel partner mentioned there's a promotion going on in traveloka: 10% off for flight (capped up to 10 SGD) and 15% off for hotel (capped up to 20 SGD), promotion from 28 march until 31 march. not wanting to miss out the deal, i booked my flight right away on 28 march. 

on 31st march, i received an email from asia for 20% off base fare, which means additional 50 SGD off if i had not rushing in. 

lesson learned: wait until the last day of promotion. especially when you are travelling using budget airlines. if it does not state promotion period (like low promotion fare until the seats sold out), do a quick comparison and grab it fast.

checked at least 3 different travel websites, as well as direct airline / hotel websites, including the mobile app

same stupidity, repeated. 

i was looking for a hotel to stay in, and found it on expedia for $124 per night. checked traveloka and it shows the same price. 

since traveloka still having the 15% off for hotel and it was the last day of promotion, i booked it right away. sweet, i got 20 SGD off. 

the next day, i checked on agoda, and realised i can save another 23 SGD if i had booked it using mobile app on agoda. 

lesson learned: website prices and mobile app prices might be different. once again, do not rush in to buy stuffs. if you see a normal price on websites, you can still get it for 20% less at least, especially when it's during low season.

sign up for the right frequent flyer program

different airlines have different frequent flyer program and policy. some might benefit you in a way, while others are not. i signed up with 3 different flyer program: flying blue, kris flyer, and asia miles. 

flying blue award miles does not expire, as long as you keep on taking at least one qualifying flight in 20 months. it suits me more, so i always try to find flights under skyteam first. 

however, i would choose another airlines if it offers cheaper options. 

the other frequent flyer program has miles that only valid for three years. i make sure i check my miles, so at least i can donate it to charity.

lesson learned: it always a good deal. signing up for frequent flyer program is mostly free, and gives you lots of perks and upgrades. on the good time, maybe free flight. 

where magic happens

under the sea

just downloaded windows movie maker, and resized the video and upload it to youtube! 

so as i mentioned in previous post, i went for scuba diving with oliph in bali, and we tried to utilise our gopro to the maximum.

below is a video when we went down. 

and we met marlin too!

it was me feeding those fishes on the second video.

both video taken with gopro 3+, and it makes me want to buy the hero 4 straight away.

first dive

it was never on my mind to go scuba diving in the first place.

we knew we don't want to sign up for any water sports, and so it's off the itinerary.
however, like how crispy potato chips was born out of coincidence, unplanned detour always brings new things and experiences.

and the main reason?

we brought a gopro.

long story short, two of us signed up for scuba diving, changed to diving suit, brought our fins along for a briefing before we went down.

"okay, so this is the oxygen tank."

the guide took a grey tank and showed it to us.

"you need to bite the mouth piece, and breath from your mouth."

he placed down the oxygen tank, and explained further.

"down there, we will talk using hand signals. basically there are four signals you need to know:

• up (thumb facing upwards like a "good" sign)
• down (thumb facing downwards)
• something not right (horizontal palm swing)
• okay (thumb and point finger made a zero, and the rest three fingers facing upwards)

"got it? let's go to the boat."

that's it, and we went down to the open sea.

i told few friends i went for scuba diving, and they first response was,"do you have a diving licence?"

the answer is "no. but they briefed us anyway."

"how long was it? do they make you sign up for a short class or something?

"er... it's not that long actually. less than 10 minutes to be exact before we hit the open water"

and everyone loses their minds. 

i think it's only in indonesia where you can sign up for open water dive without a licence. they claim it as "fun dive", in which we only dive in to 7 meter in depth. but still, friends who took open water diving class did it in 3 meters swimming pool.

whatever.

i tried it anyway.

because we were two fishes

the grey response

"excuse me ma'am, are you travelling back to amsterdam?"

i was trying to start some conversations with a woman on the window seat, on my flight back to singapore. we were using KLM royal dutch for our short getaway in bali, and i'd like to describe ourselves as "a pinch of asians in the huge bowl of europeans."

initiating a conversation with a stranger is not something that i fancy of. in fact, i would try to dodge the chance whenever i could. dad told me way too many stories regarding strangers with evil intentions, and thousands of wicked ways to get you into unpleasant situations. something like:

• "do not help anybody in the airport. i know sometimes there would be old granny who seems very weak and seems she won't harm you, and she asks you for help to watch her belongings. i'm telling you not to help her in any way. her belongings might contain some drugs and she might be waiting for a way to smuggle it across immigration officer. and she's using you."
• "once you leave your drinks unattended for whatever reasons (e.g. went to ladies room), throw it away. even if you go drinking with your friends, who can guarantee they won't do any harm to you. in addition, keep in mind to not sip a drink given free from strangers. i have read tonnes to despicable stories when a young lady ignores these two."
• "be careful of strangers you met. you never know what will happens next. remember, a kidnapper would always choose kids or young ladies as their target. how if somebody kidnap you and called me for ransom?"

and these are what he told me when i was in elementary school:

• if a stranger approaches you and offer you sweets,and ask you to follow them, call me or your mom ASAP.
• when you receive an unknown call telling you i'm in hospital and ask you to transfer some cash, call me or your mom ASAP. 
• when a stranger rang our doorbell, and ask you to open the door because they need to install something or fix something in our house, call me or your mom ASAP. 

with this, me and my siblings memorized parents mobile number, along with the closest extended family phone number. 

thanks dad. 

however, i have read stories where coincidental meeting could be written beautifully. you met a local, try to see the world in their shoes, sharing cultural stuffs, and somehow it would inspires you in a way. 

like how a simple conversation with this european woman could inspire me to blog about it. 

"yes, young lady. i'm coming back home after 12 weeks travelling."

wow. you made me jealous ma'am. 

"for the past weeks, i have been in flores island with a group of friends to see the comodo dragons." 

as she continues her story, me and oliph begins to listen carfully.

"we need to stay in a boat for four days. they provide everything from electricity, food, water for showers. in the daylight, we went to see the dragons, and they are amazing! they can climb, runs, and poisonous. i can't imagine how if someone encountered the dragons face to face by coincidence."

"from there, we went to lombok, and managed to track the mountain there (i assume that would be mt. rinjani), and there was a beautiful lake on the mountain (yeap ma'am. it's rinjani). from there my group went back to amsterdam via bali, and i extended my trip for two more days in bali. i can say bali have a great food! i mean, you know if you have been to amsterdam the local cuisine is just nothing compared to here."

me and oliph nodded fiercely, showing how much we agree with her statement.

"they sell some indonesian cuisine back in amsterdam, and i loovvvveeeee the nasi goreng!"

"how much they sell it per plate, ma'am?" i asked out of curiosity.

"about 6 euros per plate. and here you can get in just half a euro!"

again, me and oliph nodded as if we're listening to a good song and follow the beats.

"after few days in bali, i realised lots of indonesian words adopted from dutch. taking the example like taxi, pintar, and few kind of herbs and seasoning."

"yeah. the colonisation effect might be the reason behind this ma'am."

"oh, did you learn about the colonisation history before? do they teach you in school?"

"yeah. in fact it was told in every single history book in indonesia, and it comes to the exam since we were in elementary."

"that made me curious, what actually they taught you about the dutch?"

for a moment, we were in silence. 

we are having a conversation with a dutch lady, discussing about colonisation, and she was asking about how indonesian see the dutch during that period.

and remmeber, it was taking place in KLM, where we were the "pinch of asians in the huge bowl of europeans." 

or the dutch to be exact. 

i know a straight and plain answer might not be appropriate.

in fact, how can i say "it is because of your country that indonesian became like this!! give back what you have took for three and half centuries!!"

if there is something i can learn from watching "mata najwa" back to back, amidst of the complicated bureaucracy and fun facts that they found numerous used condoms in parliament house, it would be how good politician gives a grey response. 

not too black, not too white. 

"i would say even though dutch colonisation lasts for three and half centuries, all my teachers said it was far better than japanese colonisation for three and half years. you know what i mean, right?"

she nodded.

and our conversation continues discussing how her friends having nightmares every night, our jobs, autumn in amsterdam, awesome food in indonesia, how similar indonesian words which were adapted from dutch, and other miscellaneous stuffs, until the air steward gave us a hot towel.

adieu, my dear fellow stranger. 

although we will not meet again, now i know a plate of nasi goreng in asmterdam would cost minimum of 6 euros. 

where it took place

panoramic visuals

was scrolling through previous posts, and i realized i'm missing some of city icons.

so here we go:

some kind of park

pyrmont bridge

can't remember what's it called

where little sister and i imitated the saints

one cathedral in melbourne

a day in the park

my balcony view, goldcoast

beach view in street style

where we had our sand tobogganing time

sunset, tangaloma

sweet escape

took two weeks break away from hectic mumbo jumbo and office stuffs, went back to see beloved and had a fun family trip! well, apparently this was planned quite long, i mean to have a family trip before little sister goes china for her uni. she took 4 years program, and parents thought it would be troublesome to arrange family trip when 2 of their children were overseas. we had different schedules, public holidays, and yeah... we come up with australia on our mind. not to mentioned they changed it several times from taiwan, korea, thailand, and elsewhere.

this probably the most hectic trip i've ever had. i had 8 flights in 10 days, which made me think i should grab a frequent flyer program from at least 2 different airlines. i'm sick of bacon and eggs for breakfast, definitely no more black mushrooms, toasted bread, or other western - european kind of breakfast. this time round, i didn't get a chance to eat the most favorite indonesian nasi padang in home country. instead, i had it in sydney! ironic.

we went there by tour, so schedules are pretty much fixed. we only get free time about a day or two, so we thought we didn't get the best out of it. fyi, we planned to go there once more, this time round we'll go by ourself. no tour, no morning calls, no hectic flight schedules, and there we gonna enjoy ourself like locals.

the tour program is quite standard, we visited tourist places, went for tourist attractions, snap group pic in national landmark. nothing special to be honest, however there are some of them which kind of out-of-topic experience:

• a drunk blonde girl went inside our bus, greeted us in french, and talked to us in english plus french before police went down to catch her. she managed to escape anyway. 
• as this is first time i visited winter country, it feels unique and enjoy it loots! it feels like you have your 24/7 aircon turned on. 
• we brought lots of cameras with us, so we ended up taking our own pics for the first day, and didn't get a chance to took family pics. since this was meant to be a family trip (before little sister goes china mainland), we made a "deal". once we reached the landmarks, we'll gather together and ask tour guide to snap a pic for us. 



near the beach

family pics

sunset

not much cars there. no wonder kei said she could see night stars with bare eyes. well, when i mentioned night stars i was referring to thousands of stars which looks like a mini milk way. it's simply breath-taking.

our first snowman

i made my first snowman! we went to mount buller in melbourne, and got into snowball war with siblings. then we sat under a tree, start making our first snowman. jojo came up with his philosophical theory while making his. he said "the happiest children in the world are those who can make snowman". then, our snowman was complete along with the eyes, hands, and nose! 

hello kiddo!

she will become a graceful lady someday

you can see loots of wild birds there. i'm not sure whether we can feed them or not, but we did it anyway. little brother purposely went to mcd and bought some french fries for birdies. i simply took one of it, waive my hands in the air, and... it was gone! enjoyed it very much. :D

french fries traded for good pic

on a street in goldcoast

notice an odd thing in right pic?
my dad wrongly button up his sweater.

one more thing, little sister and i found a new thing to do. every time we found a statue, we tried to imitate them and snap a pic. it started when we went to a cathedral in melbourne, basically nothing to do there. so we got bored and this idea popped out. it's epic if you realized those are the statue of saints, one of them is holding thorn crown, and i'm holding a samsung galaxy note. sent this pic to zjw and he came up with a theory that my pic actually had something in common. long time ago, thorn crown was the thing placed in Jesus's head and hurt Jesus in His crucifixion. meanwhile in the present moment, technology is one among many factors which drifted us apart from God. 

new hobby

on one night when we were in hotel watching tv, mommy spotted my tiger cartoon wear and asking about that. so i asked her to wait a while for my "transformation" and... tadaaaa!!

daddy with stitch and tiger

it was a fun trip! i feel refreshed and the first thing popped to my mind is not about work nor office stuffs, but to plan the next trip. setting my next goal:  i should visit at least 1 different country every year.

at least i should read a page a year

welcome back, june

time flies. it seems like just yesterday i hoped to get a job, and now i'm working for around 6 months and still counting. it's june here, and so my birthday is coming soon! this would be the second birthday ever which I celebrates during weekdays (and not in holiday period).

i had awesome time with yuju eonni few days ago. i just knew her birthday was in june as well, so we planned to hit uss at first. but then hazy situation strikes on singapore, and messed up the big plan. when plan A failed, it's time for plan B. we decides right a day before to went for S.E.A aquarium which is located in sentosa as well. since it's indoor attraction, so it wouldn't be affected with those haze. 

the june girls

talking about haze, it does hit hazardous level in singapore for reaching more than 400 PSI rate, which is the highest since ever! people are wearing whatever masks they can find (surgical mask, N95 mask, napkin mask, tissue mask, you name it). fortunately, situation has been improving the moment i write this. i can see clear blue sky, and opens up my door and windows. 

hazy situation near office

about the aquarium, it doesn't impress me much. i have seen those types in better places which definitely larger, with more fish and coral species. so they don't worth to claim themselves "the world's biggest aquarium".

the stringray just in moderate size. when i was visiting seaworld in jakarta, i saw stringray which i so damn big until it can cover the upper size of aquarium tunnel. they don't have any mermaid fish, whales, or dolphin show. in jakarta we have those, even killer whales for the show.

 i pay $33 per pax, and it's not worth it. 

some visuals taken from my phone after struggling here and there for snapping these pictures: 

those pics are digitally enhanced anyway, or else, it's impossible to get those vivid colors. 

we went for chinese steamboat dinner afterwards at le le pot in tiong bahru area. it's in walking distance from global residences, but then you have to walk through a small alley until reach the restaurant. 

the owner is a part time mediacorp actor, and he was there when we went. he pasted lots of his pics on the wall, most of them with chinese actress/actors. 

some other miscellaneous items:

like jesus turned water into wine, ovomaltine turned bread into cake!

all we can do is to improve

back from deadback island camp! current condition: mad tired.
mel and i stay overnight in school. we gotta wake up about 7am in saturday morning, but we went sleep 3+ am. quite surprising mel woke up earlier than me (cos.. you know.. she's such a sleeping beauty), and it took me seconds to make sure i'm not dreaming.

my skin tanned up, regret for not applying sunblock on my face and neck area. :(
promise not to go beach for months!

some pics taken during camp:

the next day after camp, i woke up 11 am. had my brunch and went back to sleep til 4pm. i skip church, skip musical meeting, and refuse to had dinner with buddies. i just stayed home the whole day to recharge myself, to be prepared for tomorrow assessment, and meetings. it's less than 10 days time til musical day, and these are the times where props team works the most.

gotta go study for tomorrow's assessment!