Carlos' Blag » singapore

Singapore Hangover

Chubs — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:47:28 +0000

It feels like a bad hangover. You wake up and your head is aching because of all the fun you had last night. Today you pay for it. But you know it would never last. You take a glass of water and a pill. Everything was a blur. It went by too fast. I missed Singapore. But now I’m back in the Philippines and I am ok with it. For the brief time I was there, I loved every bit of it. The walking without the fear of either getting mugged, assaulted, or robbed at every corner, how everything seemed to work from the clean public bathrooms to the clean everything. (I actually freaked out when I saw a fly!) I love the public transportation. MRT tap card, to how the cabs just instantly pick you up and no need to haggle over the price. (I just spent P200 going home from work!) I loved the food and how you can get Duck at any hawker center. I know I only saw a bit of Singapore, but from the tiny part that I indeed see, I knew I was smitten.

Singapore IR

Singapore in IR

Coming home with so much memories and so little time to blog I cherish these little downtimes. I know the amount of work I have waiting for me on Tuesday and yet I welcome it. It seems a good little distraction to the timidity of life. The new friends I’ve fostered and relationships formed. SG nuffies thank you for everything. I will never forget you guys. I learned alot about how things get done as well as myself. (but that is reserved for another time) Thank you Singapore.

I talk about dreams and how quickly they fade from memory. Singapore seemed like one. It seemed like a quick dream where everything seemed irrelevant and I could just float on by. It seemed like I was in a perpetual cycle of sleep and lucidity and yet at one point I awoke and now I find myself slowly loosing the details of the dream. I promised to return. I will someday. When, that is the question. Should I return? I don’t want the dream that is Singapore to be tarnished by the harsh facts of reality.

And just like that, I start a new day with a hangover. My head hurts, my throat is dry. The price you pay for a few nights of pleasure. And yet, when the opportunity arises again, you know you are going to do it all over again.

Thanks for the Memories!

Thanks for the Memories Guys! Till next time!

Nuffies with Ringo of cheeserland.com

Nuffies Having Fun

Sir Jay, Alodia, and Hannah

Some headshots of Nuffies:

Tim Teoh

Carol Koh

Huiwen

Bloggers Tour (more images)

Chubs — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:34:32 +0000

So my previous update regarding the blogger tour was incomplete. I have a lot of pictures from Royal Selangor and The Singapore Flyer! This will be a mostly image post. I don’t know what to say. Thanks Nuffnang. The PH contingent enjoyed so much. I enjoyed so much. Working so hard was worth it seeing the bloggers happy. I don’t consider Nuffnang bloggers, clients or bloggers per se. I consider them friends already. I hope I did a good enough job for them. But like I promised, here are the pictures. I will caption them so you basically know what is happening!

Robb taking time to pose before the tour

Pinoy Bloggers

Maki trying to be creative and hammer out a design!

Photog Posing!

Judd and Hannah by the F1 Trophy Race

Alodia and Ashley reverting back to Anime Poses!

Ang Kulit tlga. What a fun group!

School of Hard Knocks nga

Even Sago of Let's Go Sago.net made a guest Appearance

Mr. Ramon Bautista Himself Approves!

Frances parang photoshoot!

Alodia says "rawr" and ashley is "nomnomnom"

PH Bloggers making a Pewter Bowl now

Nuffies Tim Teoh and Carol Koh taking pictures of their bowl! AWww

ayan kasi jehz, ang gulo mo! Mica: Oooopsss I missed!

PH nuffies anne and patty making their own bowls!

Free ride on the Singapore Flyer!!

PH bloggers excited to get it on! Mr.Ramon Bautista Approves!

Here’s one cool dude Ming. He’s a Singaporean blogger! Really awesome guy too bad he shoots canon. I like reading his blog though! You may want to check out his blog too.

Cool Guy Ming

Well, that’s it for photos for now. I hope you guys enjoyed!

P.S. I felt bad that all HuiWen knew to say in Tagalog were curse words, so when she asked me to teach her a new one I said Ang Ganda Mo. (She thought it was a curse word when it means You are Pretty!) Here’s the video

Singapore: Day 2

Chubs — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:37:18 +0000

Day 2 was pretty uneventful. Regular working day only difference was working with alot of nuffies with accents. LOL. Still trying to get used to the “lahs”. We go off wandering at night to “explore”. We’ve been eating Hainanese chicken and chicken rice for the past 2 days as well drinking alot of softdrinks to keep us going and avoid the fatigue. Was able to ride the MRT for the first time and I don’t know how I can ride our MRT back home ever again. It was that damn good. I also found my new love.

I finally got my 60mm 2.8 AFD Micro lens.

Here are some shots taken using the lens.

MRT Singapore

Lady on the MRT

boy waiting to get home

Singapore's Country Manager

I love my new lens. I have yet to take it off ever since I bought it. Please refer to Foodie Manila for the food posts and pictures. I have yet to update that due to time constraints. But Singapore, I will definitely be back.

Uniquely Singapore: Day 1 Touchdown

Chubs — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:13:23 +0000

We arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 shortly after 11:00 AM. We checked-in our baggage and after some minor drama we barely made it to the plane. The plane ride in was a bit bumpy. There was quite a bit of turbulence. The flight felt like an eternity! Aside from the noisy couple who had a friend come over every time the fasten your seatbelt sign was lifted their kid either kept shouting at such a high pitch that those should be banned within any confined space. The friend of the couple on the other hand kept blabbering about the most inane things. Little bits of conversation I picked was…

Guy 1: “so sandali lang ako eh. 5 days. tapos lipat na naman. buti nga nakapagleave eh.”

Girl1: “talaga? Daan ka lutuan mo naman ako!”

Guy1: ” Sige!”

Singapore!

I mean the plane didn’t have the largest cabin space and they had loud voices. With the kid crying and shouting at me or rather us to break our sleep, the 3 1/2 hour flight felt like an eternity. Did I mention I wanted to smack the kid for waking me up at least 3 times by shouting?

Terminal

We finally touched down at SG and were greeted by the CM Hui Wen! We took a cab to our hotel located in Little India. It was the Perak Lodge at Perak St! We quickly unloaded and headed on over to our office. The building was the most modern looking in the entire neighborhood. Boss Ming’s family owned the building. We were introduced to our fellow Nuffies, Raine, Wen, Elise, Robb, and of course the Ripplewerkz people Lionel and our fellow Pinoy Mark. Ming quickly asked us to talk to Mark in tagalog which we gladly obliged.

Nuffnang SG Office

Ming took us out for dinner. For the food the shots I will be posting them on Foodie Manila.

After eating, Ming took us for a drive through Orchard road. The malls looked so…. expensive. Oh did I mention I’ve never seen so many Mercedez Benz S and C class cars as well as Porsche’s, Volvos, Audi’s (I saw an 3 R8′s!) and Austin Martin’s parked along side streets. You know how Hyundai or Kia’s are parked along any street? That’s how they parked. Waiting to see a Lambo and Ferrari.

Hallway to our room

Back at the hotel we were so restless that we (Judd and I) decided to go shooting at night. A bit apprehensive at first because of safety concerns (talagang pinoy parin ang puso) but was reassured that crime rate in Singapore is almost at zero percent. So at first we shot nearby but then went exploring. Even using a tripod for long exposures. We bought a liter of Pepsi because it was so damn hot. I saw a guy on scooter get side swiped and he flew off his bike. Somethings never change no matter where.

Singapore at Night

Going back to the room I decided to check the company e-mail and in my inbox I saw a little surprise. I decided then to work and by the time I semi-finished it was 3AM in the morning. After drinking both coffee and pepsi at the same time, I couldn’t take it any longer. My head was spinning. I could feel my eyelids closing on their own. My body was screaming for rest. But how could I? Singapore is a great place. I’ve had thoughts of actually moving here! Maybe someday? But for now I leave you with my Uniquely Singapore Experience on Day 1.

Some random pictures:

Perak Hotel

Hotel Design

Hotel Dining Area

Cebu Pacific International Flights

Singapore at Night

Decor in the Office

SG here I come!

Chubs — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:42:26 +0000

I finally was able to get the final piece of equipment I was hoping to get my hands on for this trip. A NIKON D200. I know it’s NOT the latest camera, but like all good photographers tell me,

its not the camera its the photographer

and I promise to make good on that mantra. As for Canon’s camera being lent to me for the event itself, my proposal was deemed too HIGH-END and was offered a “lesser” package. I know, right?

Here was my list:

2 5D MKII

1 70-200 2.8L IS

1 24-70 2.8L

1 10-22 f4L

1 580exII

batt grips for the bodies.

Too excessive?

They then decided to demote me to a 50D with no flash and 24-70 2.8L lens. =(

Anyway here is what I’ll be bringing to SG and KL!

Macbook + tablet

tripod + filters

d70s with 18-70mm

d200 with 50mm 1.8 and 60mm micro

I hope to be able to find a wide angle lens soon!

Nikon D200

D200 c/o Alvin! Thanks!

Peso to SG to Ringgit

Chubs — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:44:52 +0000

As I’ve earlier said, I’m leaving in a few weeks and flying off to Singapore. It just dawned on me that it is very costly to go on trips. Aside from the currency difference I have to watch where I eat very closely or I end up finishing my entire savings! As a lover of food, sometimes I just can’t help myself. So I have to say goodbye to my Latte’s and Cappucino’s for awhile and just stick with regular coffee. No more eating at fancy restos for the next 2 weeks. Why is this trip sounding more and more like a burden?

But to be honest, I’m actually really psyched to go. First time I’m leaving the country without parents or relatives. First time I’ll be going to Singapore and Malaysia. New sights, new experiences, this should be an interesting trip. With my camera in-hand, I am ready to take on Singapore. (minus a few luxeries of course)

Of course its sad that I couldn’t bring along some people with me as I would have loved to share this experience with her or them. Maybe next time? Hopefully next time. Definitely next time.

Roughly 9 days before I fly off. Gotta get to my checklist soon. Anyone want to help me pack?

Piso-Ringgit-Singapore Dollar