k r i s a n d r o

[Advertorial]

As the end of the year approach, I’ll tend to see friends and family disappear for days and weeks on end. Not hibernating in a monsoon drain in Singapore with instant noodles of course, but actually flying off to various destinations in hope of a good holiday to reward themselves for a year of hard work.

The economy has just begun to pick up and it’s no surprise that the choice destinations for Singaporeans are the South-East Asian countries like Thailand and Indonesia. For those who have money to burn and a great imagination can even head down to Sentosa and forget that it’s actually an island just 20 mins away from the city centre by car.

For the rest of us who are bored with visiting Thailand for the XXXth time and have dwindling bank accounts to be considering Sentosa for a getaway, why not consider the Philippines as your next holiday destination?

Philippines, being an archipelago, has thousands of virgin and enclosed beaches just waiting to be explored.

Not to mention the lakes, waterfalls and nature trails for the slightly more adventurous.

I personally know a few Pinoys and boy are they friendly, humorous and passionate people. No worries about any language barrier if you are there as Philippines is the 3rd largest English speaking country in the world.

Seeing that the monsoon season has just passed in the Philippines, the time between now till the first half of next year is the best time to visit the country and you can expect cool weather while enjoying a tan at the beach or exploring the islands. Check out popular destinations like Busuanga the Paradise Island and Puerto Princesa the City in a Forest for inspiration!

Cebu Pacific Air, being Philippines leading domestic carrier, provides cheap flights to the country with all year-round low fares that is affordable to everyone. I have been informed that they are going to have an all destinations big sale soon and if you intend to travel to Philippines with them, you can even consider using Philippines as a hub to travel to other countries with their cheap flights!

There are two ways to monitor the great deals that Cebu Pacific Air gives and they are the official website and their .

Don’t miss out on good travel deals!

Find out more about Philippines at their Department of Tourism’s portal.

Nokia has officially launched their ‘Comes with Music‘ service in Singapore on the 27th February.

The service brings you unlimited downloads of music for 12 months from their ‘Comes with Music’ store, which boasts an extensive library of 4 million (and counting) tracks from huge music labels and even some asian labels such as Ocean Butterflies and Rock Records.

The catch for such a good deal is that you must own one of their ‘Comes with Music’ handsets. There are 6 of them as of now and they are the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 XpressMusic, N96, N85 and N79. Users can download from the ‘Comes with Music’ store right off most of the mentioned handsets or on their PCs through an application.

There is no subscription fee or download limit to speak of if you are wondering about that. Users can also keep their music after their 12 months of free, unlimited downloads.

I got to attend their media event held at Zouk prior to ‘Earn Your Stripes’ party thanks to the awesome folks at Text 100 who remembered that I am was an avid user of the Nokia N95 8GB. It’s kinda ironic attending a Nokia event based on that fact, seeing that I have move to the Apple iPhone after a decade of using Nokia products like the indestructable Nokia 3210.

Pictures of the event.

Funny Hosts – Vernon and Justin

The All-American Rejects who sat 3 feet from me!

 

The issue of DRM is pretty important for users like me and unfortunately, Nokia ‘Comes with Music’ isn’t DRM free. The good news is that Nokia is working to change that. If this is materialized, users will definitely benefit seeing that there isn’t even a hint of the Apple iTunes music store being made available to Singapore.

I still love Nokia and seeing Nokia bring a legal music download service to Singapore ahead of Apple, brings much joy to a Nokia fanboy.

Apart from the fact that the National Geographic is on channel 11, Starhub Cable TV; my knowledge on National Geographic was poor to say the least. It was with great excitement that I was invited by Pat Law of Ogilvy PR to the exclusive preview of Asia’s first National Geographic Store in Singapore!

 

Never have I ever thought that the National Geographic would have a physical store and much less open one in Singapore.

The bloggers were told to meet at Newton Food Centre and were chauffeured by a grand convoy of 17 SUVs from the great volunteers at www.suvec.org. A personal SUV for every blogger! How cool is that? The royal treatment was only marred by the traffic jam at the town area, but we arrived safely at Vivocity, where the store is located.

 

Stepping through the boarded doors of the National Geographic Store was like stepping into another dimension in Vivocity. The mood of the store mirrors that of an art exhibition but with the promise that one can actually afford the cool ‘exhibits’ that the store showcases.

 

The National Geographic Store provides a ‘one stop’ experience for shoppers that sells stuffs ranging from books to the likes of apparel and photography equipment. Even if you don’t fancy the stuffs that are sold there, one can always be reminded of what to buy for your trip by walking through the store. One of the interesting facts about the store is that almost anything can be bought, even the furniture! The sold furniture and items like the photographs are replaced and it gives the store a different look and feel from time to time. Just note that I said, ‘almost anything can be bought’ and not ‘everything can be bought’. The cute store attendants cannot be bought (amongst other things), so do ask nicely if you fancy anything from the store.

 

Asia’s 1st National Geographic Store is located at Vivocity 1st level. Visit it if you haven’t already!