Gala Pinoy Redux

“It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

Wow. It has actually more wow than one of the previous taglines, Wow Philippines. We like it, well most Filipinos at least, but why does the new tagline of the Department of Tourism work?

Here are some of the my thoughts.

1. It’s simple. Fuckin’ grade A straightforward tagline. You get it immediately. The words are simple too. Well, granted you understand English. But it’s as simple as it gets without sounding dry.

2. You can interpret it in any way you can. Because the tagline’s simple, it can excite a prospective tourist’s imagination, especially the word ‘fun’. Each of us has our own idea of fun. Beaches? Climbing mountains? Seeing the Rice Terraces? Spanish/American colonial history? It doesn’t matter. When you visit the Philippines, expect to have fun. Which is a promise, which is the basic function of a tagline, which still needs to be fulfilled eventually. But more on that later.
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I took up journalism in college, without the intention of working for a magazine or a newspaper. I simply wanted to write. So I put away most of the stuff I learned there in my mental locker and pull them out later on when I needed them. Like how to write a lead paragraph, spelling out numbers one to nine, yada yada yada.

But the trip to Samar was like a refresher course on my journ 101 and featuring writing days. I had to dig into whatever stuff I could still remember and put them to use again. And most of the digging happened when on our trip to the Lulugayan Falls.

Why am I telling you these things?
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With Puss in Boots, Universal Studios.

Last week, I told you how I stupidly booked a flight to Singapore that left us (me actually) scrambling how to cram all the essential activities in the country in just 48 hours. Now, I’m going to talk about our second day there.

Day 2 – It’s All About Entertainment, Baby!

Day 2 was all about theme parks in Singapore. Good thing that they are all concentrated in Sentosa Island, so we didn’t waste any time going from one theme park to another.

Universal Studios

Tourists Entering Universal Studios.

While writing our itinerary, the common request that I received next to visiting Orchard Road was that we also had to visit Universal Studios. So the first order of Day 2 was to go to Universal Studios Singapore.

We already booked our tickets online, so we didn’t really have to deal with long lines to get in, though there weren’t any long lines to start with when we got there.

You could already find tons of information about what to do at the Universal Studios so I wouldn’t bore you with the details of our trip there. But I would recommend that you bring your own supply of water, since water inside the park costs SGD2, more if you want to drink Evian.

Tiger Sky Tower

View from Below. Tiger sky Tower.

The Tiger Sky Tower provides you with a fantastic view of Sentosa Island. Although the whole trip from the ground to the top and back only lasts a few minutes, every minute you spend there is well worth it, especially when you go there around sunset as we did.

Singapore Sunset. Taken from the Tiger Sky Tower.

Jewel Cable Car Ride

Sentosa Skyline as taken from the Jewel Cable Car.

I didn’t originally have this in our itinerary since I thought that the cost of the ride was quite expensive (yeah, that’s the cheapo me talking). But then again, we decided to check it out, and I’m glad that we did. And here’s one useful tip if you’re cheapo like me: go there after 7, since the tickets are already discounted by then. I’m not sure though if the same thing applies during peak periods, so just inquire there. The ticket price already includes your own personal bucket of popcorn and a choice of canned soda or tea drink.

Riding the cable car at around 7pm also gives you the perfect light if you want to add some drama to your photos. The deep blues of the sky contrasts nicely with the amber of the street lights below.

Back to Orchard Road

Gossip Girls. Taken at Orchard Road.

After all the fun day we had at Sentosa, our group decided to return to Orchard Road and finally check out Cotton On, Forever 21, and the nearby shops. Us guys only sat by the sidewalk while waiting for the gals to do their shopping. When asked if I wanted to buy anything, I answered yes, but unfortunately didn’t have the money to buy the new iPad. So I just remained at the sidewalk and kept on shooting photos of passersby.

We then concluded our day with dinner. Most of us still wanted to go out after that, but unfortunately, I fell asleep when I was only supposed to rest and only woke up the morning after.

We had an early morning flight, due to my booking mistake. So you could understand that I was secretly hoping that Cebu Pacific would contact me and tell me that our flight was being moved to a later time. It didn’t happen.

Anyhoo, I’m still kicking my butt over that stupid mistake in booking our flights, but at least I’ve a reason to go back and check out the rest of Singapore.

Next week, I’ll show you how to become an instant travel and transportation expert on Singapore even if you haven’t been there yet!

First, a backgrounder. I was stupid enough to book a flight to Singapore without minding the actual time my family, Trish and I were going to spend there. It was only weeks before the trip–when I was already doing our itinerary–that I realized that we only had 48 hours to enjoy what Singapore had to offer.

So there I was, staring at my monitor and the spreadsheet that lay before me, wondering how the hell I would fit in lots of activities in two days (thanks to Nina for inspiring me to make great use of Microsoft Excel when planning trips).

But I love challenges. Besides, I didn’t have any choice anyway, so I came up with my own 48-hour Singapore Itinerary of which the first day I’m sharing with you below:
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Next to being followed around by stalkers, some of my strangest travel experiences are those when people call me ‘Joe’. For those unfamiliar with Filipino culture, people here often refer to Caucasians as ‘Joe’. Which is strange considering I’m neither tall nor fair skinned. And it has gotten worse by the time I’ve gotten a DSLR. Guess I look too much like a tourist to them. One kid even asked me for money after taking his photos. On the upside, I’m glad that he didn’t ask me for dollars.

How about you, what’s the strangest experience you’ve had while traveling?