Sunday, November 01, 2009

Uniquely Singapore: My first trip to the Lion City-State was amazing!

This week will be all about my trip to Singapore last weekend. That will be October 23 to 25. If you recall, an all-expense-paid trip to anywhere abroad (but near enough since I dislike long hours on a plane) was on my birthday wish list. So imagine my surprise when Nuffnang Philippines invited me to Singapore for the first Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards

I was excited to visit the Lion City famed to be progressive and beautiful. Of course, when it dawned on me that the trip would mean leaving Vince and the rabbits behind, I wasn't so excited anymore. I should have specified on my wish list a trip abroad for us both! Anyway, being despondent, I didn't pack until a few hours before the trip. This is never a problem with me, by the way, since I'm a very light packer. Yes! I know I look vain and shallow but believe me, I can live with a few clothes and just the barest grooming essentials. I don't even bring toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and lotion because I know the hotel has those (and if it doesn't, then it's a very bad hotel and that means off to the convenience store for me!). While I can live without the silly stuff, I am a worrier when it comes to health so I bring all sorts of medicines--asthma meds, anti-allergy pills, migraine meds, fever and colds meds, alcohol, antibacterial creams, diarrhea tablets--you name it, I have it! 

Anyway! I'll post just the departure and arrival photos here. Special thanks to my blogger friends for some of the photos!
The meet-up time was 4:25am. Since I had a radio tour the night before and only did my packing at around 1am, I assure you I had not had a good night's sleep. But thanks to my over-eager new friend, Jehzeel Laurente!!!, we were the first to arrive at the airport... at 3:45am! Of course, everybody else, being Filipino, was late! Before we boarded our Cebu Pacific plane, we all stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. Here I am with Erica Paredes, beauty writer for Metro magazine, and Hannah Villasis, analyst for Deutsche Bank. I tell you, people, I was surrounded by really smart and amazing women on my trip! P.S. Happy birthday, Hannah! The entire Nuffnang foreign delegation was housed at Link Hotel on Tiong Bahru Road. Yes, we occupied the whole hotel because Nuffnang gathered bloggers from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and, of course, the Philippines. I hear we were 400 in all. That must've been frikkin' expensive! Here we all are, milling in the hotel lobby. Sooo many cameras (hi, Hannah and Ada!). Kick-ass cameras, too! Goodness, Vince and I need to upgrade asap! Oh, and this is what they were taking pictures of: That's me with Erica again and cosplay maven Alodia Gosiengfiao. Photo taken by her sister Ashley Gosiengfiao. This is Ashley: I just want to say that Alodia and Ashley are two of the most fascinating women I've ever met! I've recently lamented the dearth of amazingly talented people and then I met these two. They are artists through and through--they're not just fabulous at making costumes, they also play musical instruments, draw beautifully, sculpt, art direct photoshoots, are fab at makeup and take fantastic photographs! And they're nice! I am inspired to do more with my life really. I feel so dumb after meeting these two sisters. All I can do well is write and cook and eat. Pathetic! While we waited for our rooms to be ready, we left our luggage and hunted for lunch. Oh, the food post will be later this week, okay? And, boy, do I have a story on that! After lunch and still waiting in the lobby. Still without our rooms! So what do bloggers do? Take photos. The next few days will be filled with the incessant clicks of cameras. Outfit details: pd & co dress, Gucci shoppers bag (I won it in a Nuffnang contest so of course I had to bring it to the Nuffnang event!), and Schu beige flats (yes, the very ones I want for my birthday!). More photos and stories tomorrow! I would like to thank Nuffnang and the Singapore Tourism Board for this Uniquely Singapore Series.

7 comments:

  1. looks like i missed out on a lot of fun!

    i guess i should take blogging seriously now. caching! caching!

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  2. wooot! hello new friend! hehehe.. :D ang aga natin sa airport! buti nalang hindi tayo dumating ng 2AM doon. :D

    teka.. napansin ko lang ako lang ata walang backlink sa mga names na may kulay.. sila meron... :( hehehehe...

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  3. Daphne, did Patrick tell you about the income these bloggers get? Insane! I think it'll make you--with your super popular blog--a millionaire blogger!

    Jehzeel, sorry! I forgot! Updated the link na =D

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  4. i've seen the cosplay girl's site. she's really something else - the photography, the designs - galing noh! she went to school with my sister, and every day she dresses like that, i heard. i saw her in a cosplay convention once, and i must say, it's amazing, all that creativity.

    P.S. I love singapore - and galing the nuffnang event!

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  5. Anna, and the best thing is she's nice! =)

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  6. Hi Ms. Frances, Is Patrick Paez now the owner of ABC 5? =)

    *Pa3cia

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  7. Anon, no haha. He's head of news and current affairs =)

    ReplyDelete

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