Travel

It’s been months since I last went out of Malaysia for a vacation and this time, I chose somewhere closer to the South Pole: New Zealand!

My first stop was Auckland. For the next 4 days here I stayed in James Allen‘s apartment. The last time I met James was in Fukushima, Japan in 2008.

James, his wife Yuko and their kid Hanna moved here in April after the unfortunate tsunami and earthquake disaster hit Japan, not to mention the radiation leak in Fukushima that occurred as a result.

James had been really hospitable and generous while I was here; his apartment is smack dabbed in the middle of the city and most attractions were within walking distance. He also introduced me to some of the people he’s been working with on some really awesome Internet projects.

And guess who else I met?

I also met up with Delia while I was here! She and her sister Dulcie moved to New Zealand to further their studies since February this year. (I would later meet Dulcie in Dunedin)

So I finally caught up with Del months later. Meeting her was surprisingly convenient as her student’s apartment was about 15 minutes walk away; practically Queen Street connects everything here. LOL

But we sure did heck a lot of walking to find the Auckland Harbour Bridge! A nice gentleman offered to drop us there on the way. 🙂

We walked up and down the Harbour Bridge here. 🙂 It’s however comparably smaller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Saw some people doing the bungee jumps; would had tried but cold weather really scared me let alone dipping into the freezing waters.

But hey, I did jump off the Auckland Skytower!

192 meters. Falling down at the acceleration of 85 km an hour. Totally exhilarating? Check this video out:

Too bad I couldn’t join any airsoft skirmishes, I must had picked the wrong weekend to come. The rugby world cup was going on and the All Blacks were to compete against the French team on Saturday. The weekend came to life and when the All Blacks won, the streets were high!

Even though there’s just slightly over a million population here in Auckland (4 million + overall in NZ) night life is big here over the weekends.

I made full use of my last day in Auckland by visiting as many as 3 tourist attractions on my own. First stop was the Auckland Museum.

Plenty of amazing relics, artifacts and things from the past. Learned the background of New Zealand and how it came about. Undeniably of course, my favorite wings within the museums are the WWI and WWII wings.

Next stop was the Auckland Zoo.

The zoo is huge, and I mean like REALLY HUGE! It was spring so some animals – notably the turtles – had been moved elsewhere. Some parts of the zoo were under renovation. Still, there was plenty to see.

Near the Auckland Zoo is MOTAT – Museum of Transport and Technology. Since it’s just a stone’s throw away, I went to check it out before it closes.

Visiting museums today really felt like going back in time. So I went through exhibits after exhibits, vehicles and aviators that blast from the past all the way through fairly recent history.

After spending a nice 4 days in Auckland, I caught the flight to the next destination further down south: Dunedin!

To Be Continued…

5th – 8th January 2011: London
8th – 15th January 2011: Las Vegas, US

After so long, I finally set foot on American soil! 🙂

Before going to the US, I stopped by London for a couple of days. This would be my second time here. It was cold, just like the last time I came here 8 years ago.

I rendezvous with Dylan Loh and together we caught the subsequent flight to Las Vegas, US. (I must mention we narrowly missed the flight… twice!)

I spent a full week here…

– The first 3 days at the West Affiliate Summit 2011 conference,

– Met my marketing heroes Jeremy Gislason and Simon Hodgkinson face to face finally! (too bad no photos tho, they’re very private people)

– A line of other marketers as well like Jeff Dedrick, Steve Iser, and of course the newly acquainted ClickBank marketers

– Went around The Strip for shopping and catching shows with Dylan, Sherrman Cheow and his wife Lisa.

– Met my PLRGold: Videos partner Stephen Luc (finally too!) and we shot some guns at the range. 🙂

Tell you what, just watch these videos. Heheh.

Me using my beginner’s luck at one of the slots at the casino:

Stephen and I firing guns at the Vegas Gun Store:

Almost exactly a year ago, I was crafting my dream board (I’m looking at it right now). One of the places I must visit was Egypt.

Going there wasn’t a problem. Finding a companion to go with was the real challenge.

And we did it… finally!

I went with Elle Wong and Colleen. 8) Colls is the latest member of our “work from home” gang. 😛 And I should thank my lucky stars, not all the time I get to travel with two beautiful women LOL 😛 (oh, and I got to know another one during the trip too!)

So we joined a tour group, Globalite, and went to Egypt for 10 days 8 nights (27th November – 6th December).

A total of 28 in all, we Malaysians were joined by Egyptian tour leader Haytham Mostfa (pronounced ‘Haisem’) and we covered several places.

From the temples of Luxor and markets of Azwan, cruising the Nile River, to the city of Alexandria and the streets of Cairo. Of course, the best saved for the last, we also had been to the Great Pyramids of Giza! 😀

I uploaded a bunch of photos on Facebook, the other bulk is also on Elle’s photo album.

I have to admit: ever since I learned to compile videos, I got a lot more lazy uploading photos on my blog.

Check out my video – it sums up the trip in 5 minutes. I only wish I bought a Federer hat and leather jacket before the trip. Enjoy!

To see more photos on Egypt, check out my Facebook profile or Elle’s. 🙂

25th – 27th June 2010.

When I saw the weekend holiday package at http://summerbreak.com.my/ it came about the right time. I could use a little weekend getaway. So I rounded up my friends for the trip: Foo, Gerardine Tan and Desmond Ong.

The Summer Break Volume I tour was organized by Youth Asia. Since the cost of the travel was subsidized by the Tourism of Perak, for only RM380 we could enjoy:

– 3 days 2 nights stay at a 5-star hotel (at least that’s what the website said when I saw it)

– welcome dinner + 2 breakfasts

– bus travel from and back to the Subang Airport

Since the idea of this group holiday travel conceived originally from the yearly Leisure Camp my scout troop used to organize last time in school, participants get to do anything they want once they arrive in Pangkor. The whole idea is leisure and relax.

Well thing was, this became too much like the Leisure Camps I’ve been to last time. TOO MUCH, haha.

For one, it was NOT a 5-star hotel. Far from it. LOL I should have known. From the looks of it, more like a 3-star hotel. With premium price and terrible room service to boot.

Not to mention the horrid bathroom. I spent one hour trying to take a bath because the cold water knob didn’t work (only the hot water knob worked) and the technician took forever to come.

But the company I was in made up for the cons. 🙂

Foo introduced us to the “girls next door”: Li Yi, Selina Ng, Christine Lee and ETeng.

The first night we were here, we had our dinner in the open field. Would you believe the name of the place? Joetan. lol

There was dancing and I got myself into a one-on-one breakdance battle against another dude, who has got impressive footwork and toprocks. Got a little hurt, and definitely got very dirty doing power moves on grass. Was out of touch as it was a long time since I was breakdanced, but I’m glad I could bust some windmills out.

So next day, we went for jungle trekking. But the morning started with some “kerja amal” (voluntary work). Haha, it was a good con job from the hotel management to get tourists to clear the place. We could use the warm-up nonetheless.

This was also the first time we went jungle trekking… in a tractor. More like jungle tractor, heheh!

Even after the jungle trekking, our group decided to become more adventurous and we took our own journey deeper to the other side of the beach.

Unfortunately, the surprise leech attack stopped our extended jungle trekking journey. 🙁 The girls were screaming and the leeches started falling from the top of the trees! I was the only one lucky enough to escape without a pesky leech on me. 😛

So yeah, that killed our adventurous spirit. LOL

Next up in the evening, we hit the beach! My first time riding a jet ski too. And guess what? 30 seconds into skiing, I was capsized. Good thing I was still near the shore. *cough* damn salt water

Played football on the beach, napped under the coconut tree (sounds like what you always read in a typical Internet Marketing sales letter?), getting hit by roaring waves… aaah 🙂

Night came, and we played foosball… room match! Room 144 vs Room 146! 😀

This is like “high school” for adults. We even went to the beach at night. Played some lighting effects (forgot the name), and Truth or Dare. lol

The holiday won’t be complete without the “magic vending machine” though. Something only our group of friends will know better. 😉

Until the next group vacation together, perhaps? How about year end? 🙂