The Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards 2009 @ Singapore!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Day 1 - The Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards 2009

It was early on Friday morning that I caught a cab from my place in KL to the Asian Heritage Row, where the bus was already waiting. Yenli and I boarded it, and managed to find spots behind Jolyn (the girl who looks different every time I see her) and Eng Seng, which made the long journey so much more fun.

Yen and I, dying of boredom in the bus.

You know its no longer Malaysia when you see 'Singtel'.

An artistic photo of Spoon, and Eng Seng (credits to Yen).

Jolyn and Simon.

Griza, with Zach looking on from the back.

Jess! (recovered from her illness, and ready to take a million photos in a day).

The room was cosy, contrary to popular belief.

Yen experiments with the amenities.

The toilet bowls are clean, and odour-free!

Jolene Lai had flown in earlier that morning, and dropped by our room to pay a quick visit, before going down to the lobby where the bus was waiting. Look at that headpiece!

Before long, we were done (with commendations to Yen, whom, apparently, had never gotten ready for dinner in so short a time before). The bus was already waiting, and in grand fashion, whisked us to the Pan Pacific, one of Singapore's finest.

Yen and I. This time, not as dishevelled.

Carol at the compulsory Nuffnang registration table.

Zoe, elegant in a black dinner dress.

Finally, I got to meet Chee Kiang in person. After all the events that Jolene and I attended, this was the first that I got to see Chee Kiang at. Although we were both the presidents of our respective Interact and Leo Clubs in our school, strangely enough, we've never met.

Jolene and Chee Kiang, resplendent in front of the backdrop.

Yen and I take our turn in front of it.

After some thought, we might have met during one of the English Essay-Writing competitions that they had back in primary school, at a district level.

Josh Soo, former colleague, uni-mate, fellow nonsense-talker. Likes wearing singlets, and hates wearing jeans.

Jolyn (who looks different again) and Yatz (who looks totally different with short hair).

Kenny Sia (who bagged the Best Entertainment Blog award.. more on that later) and I.

Yen and Kenny.

Jolyn and I.

Julian, the Blogging Doctor, and I.

Josh Soo Kin Cheong and Yen.

Almost every blogger that attended the dinner and posted pics on it has a picture of this jar.

Delicate chicken on mashed potato.

Griza and I!

Yen gazing with awe at Allen Wu, our emcee of the night.

A proper photo of Yen and Allen Wu.

Yen and Ringo, with an interesting hairdo.

Ringo and I.

I wandered over to Jolene and CK's table, to talk, but the music from the band was slightly overpowering, so I just snapped a few pictures, and wandered back.

Here's a snapshot of the nominees.

...and here's a snapshot of the people taking a snapshot of the nominees.

Its Redmummy! Dressed in, of course, red.

Yee Hou, who has perfected the art of camwhoring. The brilliant dude managed to get all of us safely to and from Singapore, and coordinated the logistics of the journey (as well as the dinner) brilliantly. Kudos to you, and thanks for the photography tips. (I will let you know when I manage to get a picture of Megan Fox's ..ahem.. body parts. *cough*)

Xiaxue, Singapore's most prominent blogger, bagged 3 awards on that night, including Region's Best Blog.

Chris Thoo!

Yen, with Jojo Struys.

And now me, with Jojo Struys.

Diese!

Diese, Yen, and Jolyn, in varying shades of green.

Yen, and long lost friend Karen.

Yen's long lost friend Karen, and I.

Anne Marie!

Trying to be artistic and aristocratic and all kinds of tics.

Yen and I proudly displaying our Nuffnang Candy Jars.

Yenli promptly fell asleep, so I went out to meet up with Jolene and CK across the street to do some catching up. Strangely enough, although we all stay in Subang Jaya, we had to go all the way to Singapore to yumcha. It was fun, of course, just reminiscing about old times, and pondering upon highly theoretical situations (i.e. would you let your daughter date a rebel with a good heart?), and stuff like that. Before long, it had turned 3 a.m. , so we bade each other farewell, and adjourned to our rooms to sleep.

CK and Jolene.

End of Day 1.

Day 2 - The Uniquely Singapore Tour

Yen and I woke up at 8, and hurried down to the lobby where the buses were already waiting to shuttle us off to our first destination - The Royal Selangor Pewter Musuem in Clarke Quay. It was a guided tour of the museum, and at end of the tour, we tried our hands at shaping a pewter bowl (surely the highlight of the tour). This was followed by the Singapore Flyer.

Yen, looking bright and chirpy, despite having only 7 hours of sleep.

Jolene, whom we managed to meet in the morning, before the tour began.

The Royal Selangor Pewter Museum, in Clarke Quay.

Old Photo.

If you never knew the temperature that pewter melts at, now you do.

We ran over to a nearby 7-11, to get breakfast.

Yenli.

Yenli putting on an apron, and getting ready to hammer away at pewter.

Delicate hands engraving the pewter.

Pewtersmith hard at work.

Yenli's bowl starts to take shape.

Carol, hammering away happily.

My completed pewter bowl. Can see the names there?

Yenli, proudly displaying her hammers.

Our guide explaining the sights along the 1/2 hour turn around the wheel.

Singapore, from its highest point.

Farah and Peach! Fellow Malaysian bloggers.

After alighting, we made our way to the souvenir shop, where I discovered fake children.

Carlos, the jolly Filipino blogger. (Did I mention that the bus we were on housed the entire Filipino blogger's contingent?)

Carol and Timothy.

The next stop was Maxwell Food Court, where, based on Vern's recommendation, we had chicken rice.

We also had bubble tea.

About 15 minutes later, we disembarked at the Chinatown Heritage Centre.

Many Chinese surnames, and their origin.

Typical Chinese breakfast.

I become a rebel.

Emo photo of Yen (which would eventually become her Facebook profile photo)

Emo photo of me (which would eventually become my Facebook profile photo)

Yen is very proud of taking this picture.

We were supposed to both sit at the sewing machines. However, after setting the timer, I ran and sat ont the wrong chair. I had no sewing machine to pretend to use, so I just held some scraps of cloth on the table.

After the intense session on Chinese history, we made our way to the Mint Toy Museum.

The owner of the toy museum. I've never seen such passion in a man for his toys.

Yen and I, dead tired from the walking around.

Alodia, Filipino blogger. She and her sister, Ashley, were tiptoe-ing about on the glass floor, and taking photos.

Beatles Memorabilia.

It was about 5.00p.m., and the busload of tourists were feeling tired, so a majority of them opted to head on home and rest. For some of us however, we simply couldn't go by without stopping at Orchard Road for a spot of shopping, so the bus dropped us off there, and promised to return for us slightly later.

The Die-Hard (Kiasu) Contingent.

Alodia and sister reminds me of the Powerpuff Girls, for some reason.

The Filipino Bloggers, Peach, Alodia, and Ashley.

We split up, and Yen managed to procure some stuff, before we met up again at the bus pickup point, and headed back to the hotel. There, we freshened up, and watched The Eye, before we walked around the block to find food. We ended up at the same Hongkie Store that Jolene, CK, and I had supper, and sat there for hours, just talking and catching up. Good fun, indeed.

The Eye.

Dinner at the Hongkie Store.

End of Day 2

Day 3 - The Trip Home

Yenli was rather unsatisfied with the round of shopping the night before, so we made plans to return to Orchard Road the next morning. I went out for an early breakfast (Yen was still asleep) at the nearby market, and came back to find Yen already ready to shop. The shuttle bus to Orchard left the hotel at 9.55 a.m., and the 2 kiasu Malaysians were on it, with plans to buy cloths, and eat MOS burgers. Sadly, when we arrived, most of the shops weren't even open, so we travelled down the street, in hopes of finding a shopping mall to go into.

Here's the pork rice I had for breakfast.

Orchard Central.

This is the closest to the Merlion that we got.

Sex shops don't open before 11a.m.

Yenli wanted to walk into Carrefour, just for the sake of it.

Since we couldn't find a shopping mall, we looked around for an MRT station to take, also just for the sake of it. The ride was SGD2 per person, and we happily paid up to travel to Somerset, which was only one station away. Talk about jakun-ism.

The station has many escalators.

Yen looking very touristy.

Mirror photo.

This can never work in Malaysia.

We ended up back in Orchard Central, where we were MOS Burgers' first patrons of the day.

The brightly lit sign.

Rice bun with savoury meat patty.

With that, we took a cab back, and quickly checked out from the hotel. Before long, we were on board the bus, and on our way home. Besides several stops at various rest areas, the journey (again) was rather uneventful, and comprised mainly of sleeping and eating snacks. At the very late hour of 9p.m., we reached KL, and all the bloggers went their separate ways.

At the Yong Peng rest stop.

Of special note, of course, were the delightful conversations with Yenli, and the whole trip served as a bonding session with a very good friend, whom I got to know just a bit better over the 3 days in Singapore, including several strange and hilarious moments, i.e. being freaked out in the middle of the night (I will never see Teluk Intan in the same light again). Thank you, Yenli, for being a gracious (and highly amusing) guest. =)

Lastly, many thanks to Nuffnang, for the opportunity to be part of this historical occasion. It couldn't have been easy (or cheap), bringing all of us together from 4 different countries to a singularly special event, but somehow, you guys pulled it off with nary a hitch. My hat goes off to the people at Nuffnang Singapore, Australia, Philippines, and of course, Malaysia, for a job wonderfully done.

For more photos, click below, to view the Facebook albums;

Day 1 - The Nuffnang Blogger Awards 2009 @ Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore
Day 2 - The Uniquely Singapore Tour
Day 3 - The Trip Home

Posted at 12:33 am by IsaacCheah


	Simon Seow November 23, 2009 05:45 PM PST Ah, my funny looking shot. lol


	soon seng November 4, 2009 06:24 PM PST liping: Actually, its quite ok wan ler.. haha.. i think, in person will appear more real. Hard to notice if i didn't point out, right? haha.. but i remember the scraps of paper i was holding were blue.


	barbiesoo November 2, 2009 10:18 PM PST xx looks damn unreal! not in a bad way, just like literally. hahaha. oh and the sewing machine thing was a good one!


	soon seng November 1, 2009 11:47 PM PST Julian:of course you didn't bore me.. that probably made the trip even shorter, haha... Jolyn: Thats why! dem nice ler, can just catch up liddat. if only we'd gone on the same tour.. Soon Seng is glad to meet Eng Seng too =) and, i think its a mix of green AND blue. Dylan: Harlo Dylan! haha.. we were on the same bus! =) and the Chinese museum was quite creepy, actually. Chui San: Apa khabar! yes, i was laughing to myself when i sat there.. and the MOS burgers were quite good! but its basically rice ler..


	Name October 30, 2009 10:56 PM PDT Singapore was fun~! dropped by to your blog from Jolyn's. ;]


	soon seng October 29, 2009 11:53 PM PDT kenwooi: Thank you, thank you.. bow Jolene: Harlo there, Jolene! terima kasih, but still cannot compare with your incredibly concise one.. =) and, thank you! i'm really glad i finally got one.. haha...

Filed under: friends, nuffnang

Leave a Comment: