Because I Travel

Travel Updates

2009-03-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

1996 - Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway
1998 - Australia
1999 - Australia
2000- S. Korea
2003- Australia
2004- Japan, Italy, Thailand
2005- France, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco
2006-China, New Zealand, Australia
2007-Turkey, Egypt
2008-Philippines, Italy, Switzerland, France
2009-Indonesia, Philippines, France, Switzerland, Vietnam,
South Africa
2010- Taiwan, USA, Canada, Germany
2011- USA, Canada

Boracay

2009-03-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

Ubud - Bali

2009-02-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

High Tech Flushing

2009-01-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

Went on duty travel to NICE in Oct 08. Here's a video clip of the toilet in Amadeus Conference Facility.

STAC Amazing Race 2

2008-06-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

STAC ran Amazing Race 2 today. Couldn't have asked for a better weather. Twas much fun amidst all the laughter, smiles and cheer. Heartening to see all the young ones working with the seniors to run the race, getting lost, finding checkpoints and working on illogical clues together.

Red Team - Michael, Reko, Berenice, Brian

Yellow/White Team - Leonard, Beatrice, Isabelle, Ignatius

Brown Team - Bernard, Ivan, Shirin, Eunice

Green Team - Bryan, Nicole, Teresa, Rena

Blue Team - Amanda, Daryl, Louise, Matthias

Orange Team (Organizers) - Amanda, Jasmine, Selene, Isabelle, Sharron, Jason, Jeremy

Videographer/Mobile Water Point/Lunch - Dom, Sam

The organizers had the most fun torturing the players, Selene especially; I laughed so much seeing them do their victory jump. It was the best.

A job well done to all the organizers and a race well ran to all the participants; your enthusiasm surely makes a difference. Keep it up.

and here's the medal which all of them deserved...

Treasures of Europe - Part One

2008-05-07T05:24:00.000-07:00

So we lifted off SQ366 on 25th April at T3. Brand new terminal, great facilities, it was a nice way to start the trip. Whats more, we were to travel the next 12 days with the most funny tour guidewe had ever come across.

First stop. Rome, Italy. Arrival time, 7:30 am. Weather was cool, sun was great, sky was absolutely clear Blue. That's what I love most about the mediterranean weather. We were definitely tired after the 12 hours flight, which zipped past surprisingly very quickly. Nonetheless, it was equally exciting to start the trip with such wonderful weather.

St. Peter's was swamped with tourist and they only gave us 1 hr: 30 mins for the queuing and the rest for visiting the Basilica. It was simply too short to visit the Cupola, Scavi and Sistine Chapel as I did before, no time even to sit down and experience the awe within St. Peters. Zipped in and zipped out.

The day passed quickly with visits to the Colossuem, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Del Popolo and finishing off the day with a good night's rest at Holiday Inn, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise as the hotel was located in suburban Rome where you can experience the real Italy.

Day 2: Sienna & Pisa.
Haha. Pisa was real good fun. We left Rome early next morning and arrived in Sienna, a UNESCO Heritage Site, little known to most tourist from this part of the world. Again, it turned out to be another surprise, walking through the charming streets of the old medival town, savouring my fragola gelato along the way. Simply charming. Lunch cost us EUR 57, since it was a sit down in one of the many restaurants littering the city. Uncle D got lost in the throng of people, prompting Jason to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation. Damn funny that Uncle D managed to spot J's prominent umbrella.

Pisa was a whole lot of fun. We were taking pictures of tourists making the usual pose with the tower. Have a look below. We also had our own fair share of fun taking lots of hilarious pictures.
Laughed so much on that funny day.

Venice was simply too hot for me, and it was surprising considering that it was spring time. Again, the crowd was crazy, but we loved the glass blowing demonstration and the ride on the Gondola. Personally, I didn't got the chance to experience the walk among the quieter streets of venice as I did before. Perhaps next time when I am there by myself, I shall do so again. Simply loved the 1st time I was there. We had a great authentic pizza that night, ended it with a drink at a local bar, downing local beer. Nice place. Small, cozy and very local.

Day 4: Milan

Milan isn't the nicest place to visit. We had a pretty good tour of the Duomo, but other than that, it is just another commerial town. The afternoon was spent among the company of Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Not particularly exciting. The saving grace was the exceptionally delicious Mango and Hazelbut Gelato that I grabbed after dinner. Simply Bravo! I was looking for mango the whole time in Italy, only to find it on the last night in Italy. Orgasmic. Ooohh lala...... To top it all, we went out to drink in another local bar in Milan. Interesting setting with larger than life furniture. Had my beer, feeling satisfied for the night and that, marked the end of our night in Italy. The next day, we would pass by Lake como where many of the houses are owned by Hollywood stars. Lake como is right next to the Italian-Swiss border. Foxtown, here we come.

Wedding in Baguio

2008-04-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that this was the most exciting wedding I had ever attended. Having not been able to get on SQ 910 in the morning, I ran around T1 and T2 trying to catch a flight to Manila as they were waiting for me at the airport. Nothing else was flying out in the morning, but I was lucky to finally get on SQ912 at 13:25pm, arriving at Ninoy at 16:55pm. Some lucky pax was upgraded to J class just so I can get on the flight.

Well, when I finally arrived, I sped through immigration and out of the airport, towards the exit of "M to Y" as instructed before. Honestly speaking, I wasnt sure if they would still be waiting for me as I was sending them emails to update them of my flight status and whether I would even get to Manila. I was even prepared to get to the city, buy my bus ticket and head to Baguio on a 6 hours bus ride. However, that proved unnecessary when I finally received Shareen's call, but not when I had already left the airport and made my way to the nearest internet cafe, when I did not see them amidst the throng of people at the waiting point. I finally met them at KFC.

Ok, now that the first leg of the trip was done, I was up for a 6 hours ride from Manila to Baguio, winding through mountains and arriving at the "City of Pines" at 1:30am. This summer retreat place of the American army is vastly different from Manila. While the latter is busy, BKK like in nature, polluted and lined with huge advertising bill boards, Baguio is blessed with a much cooler wheather, fresher air up on higher grounds and quieter. But I could only appreciate it all the very next day, for the whole day of travelling made me K.O instantly.

Friday, 28th March, 7:30am. I woke up to fresh air and familiar faces. I was greeted warmly by Mr and Mrs Nato and it was so good to see them again after 3 years. The warm smiles and big hug all made me feel welcomed and to top it all, we had a great day of visiting Baguio.

I think I enjoyed my time in SM Baguio the most. It sits nicely on top of a hill and has a great view overlooking the city. Wheather was great, cool and the sun was warm. You can sit outside the numerous cafes and enjoy the sun over a cup of coffee and company of friends. Nice place.

All this was done after settling my return ticket. Though I managed to get to Philippines, I was less sure that I would get on a flight back home on Sunday as 919 was already -20. Managed to find a flight back, coincidentally on 919, and of all places in a small little travel agent in SM Baguio. I still couldn't believe that it could offer me a seat on a flight that was already heavily overbooked. I must admit that I had my doubts, very dubious arrangment by the travel agent just to issue an e-ticket. But at least, it was better than my sub-load ticket.

Having settled all of that, we began preparing for the wedding with a rehearsal at St Joseph's Church. The couple was rather stressed out and kept thanking me for being there for they were not sure if the choir would turn up.

That proved unncessary as the three man choir did a great job the next day. The duo sang beautifully and I was pleasantly surprised that they pulled it off with only 2 people. It was quite a dramatic mass cos the bride almost fainted. Shareen kept fanning Edlyn just so she could breathe more easily. Good thing that Edlyn made it through , but it was apparent that she was very tired by the end of the mass. What moved me most were the vows that were exchanged. I got to say that there were some emotional points throughout the wedding day. Lots of emotionsa and love floating around the air, and I just had to take it all in. It's not everyday that you get to feel that way, and it felt very special as I have not experienced this in a long time. Felt love.

So anyway, I left Manila on Sunday after a nice journey on the bus, watching a funny movie and admiring rural philippines from Baguio. I was rushing to the airport, just so I can check in early and confirm a boarding pass for I desperately needed to get back, not least HDS tore me apart the next day if I was not back in ALH. Bade farewell to Rochelle and Harold, passed immigration and headed straight to boarding gate 6. Felt relieved just to be there, waiting for the return leg of the journey.

Loved the trip, thinking of heading up to Boracay soon.

Travel Updates

2008-01-20T06:55:00.000-08:00

1996 - Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway
1998 - Australia
1999 - Australia
2000- S. Korea
2003- Australia
2004- Japan, Italy, Thailand
2005- France, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Austria,
Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco
2006-China, New Zealand, Australia
2007-Turkey, Egypt
2008-Philippines, Italy, Switzerland, France

2008-01-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

Quick update of events since September.

October - A380 welcome event, got to go onboard the aircraft and sleep on the suites.

November - SIN Sales Attachment

December - Standchart Marathon, STAC Retreat, Christmas carolling at Grand Roxy, 2008 count down

Been a great year, so many things to be thankful for (in no particular order) :

Grad Trip
Graduation
Job
STAC
Family
Close friends
God
Challenges

Thanks for all the laughter. In retrospect, it has been challenging, but it is exciting and rewarding to have been part of it all.

More challenges ahead, looking forward to 2008.

2007-09-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

e-Champs meeting is finally over. Have been kept busy running around the place; taking minutes, preparing for presentations, meeting guest speakers, catering for meals, arranging transport for our overseas stations, you name it, i've covered it, and it ddn't help that the big bosses were around, watching you the whole time. I guess I did what I could without getting too affected by their presence, just making sure that the event ran as smoothly as possible. I definitely could have done with more food, felt so tired after the first day, only to realise that I still had to run the one-man show despite running a temperature. I totally K.Oed on Friday night, having missed the Novena. Just couldn't find the energy to pump it up, not when I was having a splitting headache and had to take the hour long bus from ALH, after clearing up the event and heading back to office first to dump all the stuff. The coming week will be filled with more follow up actions, need to prepare to fight another battle.

I wanted so much to just say home on Saturday morning to rest, but had to play for this wedding mass at Sacred Heart. Haven't played in so long, felt good to be able to play again, especially when people come up to you and tell you that they appreciate your music. I managed to pull off Pachabel's Canon in D without any score, I totally forgot that it was supposed to be used for the processional wedding march. Phew! Otherwise, I will have to ask Melvin to sing it out which i'm sure he can since he is so drama rama. Funny that Selena Tan from Dim Sum dollies should come up to me and ask me where the toilet was located. So funny to see her in person. Everything well went for the mass, and I believe I deserve a bonus, I shall charge more in future. Saturday night was nice, finally had a time to chill after a long week. Bliss is a nice chill out place to unwind, dont have a picture now, but will post next time when possible. Weather was good, company was fun, food and drink was yummy, what else can uncle sam ask for. Pity that Geri couldn't join us, I wanted to check out her flat tummy, cos Anne said that she lost her "tum tum". Drank "Sacred Hill" wine with Leonard and Anne, not bad. Twisty beef was out, so we had to settle for deep fried chicken skin, thanks to Leo. Funny that Anne should say eating that would go straight to the thighs, she is one funny character lah. Was telling her that she should consider running for MP in her constituency, and we will get all those of voting age from STAC to go vote for her, considering that she always has something to say, otherwise she will suffer from internal injury if her opinions are not expressed.

Feast day. Mass was good, felt quite high during the principal mass at 11am.

It's been a good weekend. Kambate for the coming week.