k r i s a n d r o

I love rides and even more so when it’s challenging; so I was extremely glad to extend the invitation from MegaZip Adventure Park to a group of  bloggers and go along for the ride(s)!

Huge crowd at the waiting platform for the Sentosa Express

We arrived at the MegaZip Adventure Park after alighting at Imbiah Station (Sentosa Express) and walking past Sentosa’s attractions like the Tiger Sky Tower, Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom & Sentosa 4D Magix. I don’t think it was a long walk but then again, my sense of distance is rather warped because of my hobby.

Apart from the heat, the weather was beach-perfect conditions; sunny with gusty winds to give moments of relief.

The staff at the MegaZip Adventure Park were a bunch of extremely friendly and upbeat people. Their smiles and positivity proved to be important as many participants needed much encouragement through the various obstacles the park has to offer.

MegaZip staff demonstrating what face you should make even when you are scared enough to piss your pants.

First up – ClimbMax!

“ClimbMax is Singapore’s premiere high ropes adventure course. 15 metre high Eucalyptus trees create a formidable course in the jungle hilltops of Sentosa.
3 LEVELS, 40 FOOT HIGH, THE ULTIMATE PHYSICAL CHALLENGE
The views are breathtaking, the thrills are endless and the well-drilled staff ensure that the experience is safe, efficient and highly addictive.”

ClimbMax Level 3 - 40 feet above the ground

Here's Mint attempting to navigate ClimbMax Level 2 with her eyes closed.

Looks easy but if you look closely at my right arm, you can tell that I was hanging on really tight.

Trixy navigated the ClimbMax like a female Tarzan and still had the capacity to camwhore!

This little girl who is barely taller than my waist went for ClimbMax Level 3!

I had to take a long breather after that particular stage in ClimbMax. It was unanimously voted as the toughest one.

Hayley needed some rescuing at the ClimbMax and we watched the staff weave himself expertly to her timely and got her down safely.

Derek - our hero for the day. When he wasn't lugging around the heavy Canon 5D plus 70-200mm lens, he spat on his palms and ran circles around the ClimbMax.

Alton was with Sarah, Ash, James and me on ClimbMax Level 3

ClimbMax Level 3 - Final stage; least effort with a dash of faith

I was drenched in sweat after completing ClimbMax Level 3. It was tough!

The ClimbMax was the toughest attraction of the MegaZip Adventure Park I tried that day. We could feel the ropes sway to the strong winds and even the structures seem to sway a little. It’s definitely still all in the mind, as we were all safely harnessed in the event of a misstep. The staff were very attentive and shouted out tips and words of encouragement if anyone got stuck at a certain obstacle. We were also witnesses to a real rescue that showcased how efficiently they can get to someone who got stuck or needed help.

There are 3 levels of difficulty in terms of height in total with slight variations to the obstacles. Definitely try out level 3 if you are game. The view is beautiful up there!

Next up – NorthFace!

Test yourself on this monster of a climbing wall! The 16 metre wall is one of the highest in Singapore, with three different routes to the top. Under the supervision of our climbing instructors you will be safely belayed all the way to the top. Find your own route, reach the summit, and then lean back, relax, and abseil back down the North Face.

Ruoxuan and Mint attempting to climb the NorthFace.

Only the two ladies in the picture above tried out the NorthFace as we were all spent from the ClimbMax. It’s something I’ll definitely go for on my next visit.

Next up – ParaJump!

At the ParaJump leap point, the views are amazing. Ocean, jungle, palms swaying in the breeze, white sand beaches… and a 50 foot drop to the family below!
A custom made safety wire and harness developed in the UK and controlled with clockwork efficiency by our experienced staff is a first for Singapore and allows you to replicate a freefall parachute jump – without the plane ride!

Here's another picture of Super Derek, scoffing at the 50-foot drop from the ParaJump as he cradles his mega-camera with one hand.

Trixy at her best. Jumping 50-feet off a ledge down to the ground while holding a camera on video mode aimed steadily at her face.

Sarah, my fellow Vibram Five Fingers wearer.

Jiaqi had the most style points coming down from the 50-foot drop.

Finale – MegaZip!

Asias most extreme zip line takes adrenaline junkies from the jungle canopy of Imbiah Hill to the white sands of Fox Finish Point.
75 METRES HIGH, 450 METRES LONG AT HEART POUNDING SPEEDS OF 50KMPH
Singapores first 3 wire zip tests friendships as you race your pals or parents to the finish line. Exhilarating, breathtaking, fast and furious… if you are going to go radical for a day, this is the way to do it.

Jiaqi & Hayley (Jay on the Hay) coming down the MegaZip in tandem.

I was the last to go down on the MegaZip and I was pointing at my crotch. The discomfort to my family jewels was well worth the awesome 450-metre ride down!

Posing for Ruoxuan's camera.

After completing the ClimbMax, ParaJump & NorthFace, the final ride is a cool zip line down Imbiah Hill and across the waters of Sentosa! The view is amazing and would be even cooler if I wasn’t uncontrollably swung around to have my back face the front most of the time. My tip for you is to find someone to go down in tandem if your combined weight does not exceed 140kg. You’ll definitely enjoy the ride more going down as fast as you possibly can!

The bloggers looking extremely cool with their harnesses and a beach backdrop.

Everyone had fun at the MegaZip Adventure Park!

I had so much fun that I am already trying to find a date to go back with KuKuNehNeh and more friends!

Prices for the attractions at the Megazip are as follows:

There’s also a 5% discount if you book online through their website at www.megazip.com.sg

Wear appropriate sports attire that cover your shoulders, waist & thighs to minimize discomfort from the harnesses. In the event that you are not wearing appropriate shoes or shorts that day, the Megazip folks will provide Crocs and shorts for you!

[Disclaimer]: This trip was sponsored by the good folks at MegaZip. All views on this posts are of my own and were made while sober.

First of all, no worries that I will spoil anything about the movie in this post because I hate movie reviews that give away too much about the plot and make me feel like printing the blog post down and marching down to the blogger and shoving the paper down his/her throat.

I got to thank my iPhone and my data plan on instances like this when I was travelling underground in the MRT and received the invitation from Alvin of Omy.sg, telling me that United International Pictures (UIP) are giving away 10 pairs of tickets to the SG Blog Awards finalists watch the VIP Gala Premiere of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen.

KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) was extremely excited when I got news that I was one of the lucky 10 bloggers who got the tickets as she was a big fan of the first installment of the movie even though she can hardly tell an Autobot from a Decepticon much less recognizing who Optimus Prime was when a group of mascots appeared at the Cathay were the premiere was held.

A retro and movie version of Optimus Prime were there amongst the insanely popular Bumble Bee and one Decepticon in the form of Starscream or Megatron. I couldn’t really tell as it looked as though they carefully crafted all the nice Autobot costumes and didn’t know what to do with the remaining material and thus decided to put them together and paint it all grey to make it look like one of the bad guys. I don’t have a picture of that poor dude in that Starscream/Megatron costume but trust me, it was baaaaaad.

KKNN was even more excited after spotting quite a few bloggers from the SG Blog Awards and especially at the local celebrities and came in dribs and drabs like Elvin Ng from Mediacorp.

The picture above summarizes very well what happened: Me before spotting Elvin Ng, KKNN after seeing Elvin, Me after seeing KKNN see Elvin.

So I mopped the remains of the starstruck KKNN from the floor and went up to the cinema theatre where she hoped for Elvin to sit in our theatre while I hoped for Megan Fox to do the same.

The movie was AWESOME! There were more robots and favorities from the original cartoon, longer and cooler fight sequences and the animation was top notch. It was a little draggy in parts because of the over dramatization of certain scences which sometimes involves Megan Fox running in slow motion in a top that left little to the imagination but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the movie thoroughly. I am definitely going to watch it a 2nd time just to check out all the action again.

I do realize that even if I say the movie sucked, people are still going to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen just because of the love for action, the Transformers & Megan Fox.

Thanks to Omy.sg and UIP for the tickets and all the sponsors for the goodie bag!

It was a blast at the “Your Blog” event yesterday at the Open Room. The event is organized by the good folks at Ogilvy and the topic was on “How to market your blog Like a brand”.

Yongfook

The speakers came from very different backgrounds; we have Yongfook, the handsome-enough-to-make-me-question-my-sexuality CEO of Egg Co., who produced cult favorite projects like Open Source Food (now known as Nibbledish) & Sweetcron;  Arti Mulchand, who has spent much of her career life in SPH and probably regards words as any guy would regard porn; Design Sojourn,  a serious award winning industrial design leader who still has enough humor to tweet this; and not forgetting Andy from ToysREvil who made me laugh so hard from his Singlish and subtle hand-wanking gestures that I teared up.

All of the speakers (apart from Arti who owns a small personal blog) have very successful blogs in their own right and the amazing thing is that none of them made money directly from blogging. The success I am referring to is of course the niche traffic that they have built up over the years and it was the personal branding in their blogs that led them to other opportunities. All these happened because of their blogs; Yongfook dated a hot girl (he also got a job in a big media company in Japan but I like to emphasize the ‘hot girl’ part), Design Sojourn is working for a huge electronics giant; and Andy has… toys. (You guys will never understand how important that is to him)

The great thing about the speakers is that they shared their own experiences on how they evolved as a blogger through the years and it’s exactly what I am or what most of you bloggers are going through. I started off writing in 2004, just wanting to have a voice and not caring about what I say because who is to judge me on my own space? Soon the readers rose from one (myself) to a couple (colleagues, friends) and I found blogging tools like wordpress that relieves me of my lousy html skills. Soon, strangers started popping out of nowhere because of search engines and referrals and I found my voice becoming restricted. I could actually hurt somebody and thus hurt myself from the things I say! I came soon to accept that true opinions (the ones with FUCK YOU! ALL YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!!!) are not meant to be on the web especially when I am not very anonymous.

I soon turned to the ‘dark side’ and got into the hype of putting ads on my blog so that I can eventually strut around in my berms in Orchard during daytime, scoffing at all the stressed out peeps in suits and ties while checking out my adsense account.

It didn’t work. So now I am back to where I started, and realize that not everyone can make money through blogging directly (certainly not me).

Their blogs were a brand. People who knew of Yongfook, Design Sojourn & Andy knew what they were about and their success were built upon shaping their blogs to their strengths for a niche audience. Getting success in terms of traffic hits are not much of a secret these days considering how much information is out there. Barring bloggers who cannot write coherently or has no opinion whatsoever, we all can succeed in our own right.

So what’s my niche to work on. Humor methinks.

It’s a little on the ‘Lame’ side of humor but I’ll get whatever laughs I can get.

Don’t make me come over and tickle you.

(Check out the key take aways summarized by Brian Koh of Ogilvy)

(Oh and Arti, if you are reading this. You were shaking so bad throughout most of your speech but the points that you put across were definitely a lot of food for thought.)

This is as close to a modern day fairytale romance as it gets. Four years ago, Italian guy meets Singaporean girl in a virtual 3D world and was besotted with her avatar. Guy relentlessly pursued her but she was resistant to his charms. Girl finally found a side of him that makes her fall unwittingly in love. After months and months of knowing each other, girl takes the plunge and accepts a ticket from guy to visit him in Italy. Cartcart, the Italian guy and Rinaz the Singaporean girl are married on 18th of December 2008, exactly 4 years after they got married in the virtual world, Second Life. A marriage that transcends continents, distance, race & culture; the rest of the story of Rinaz and CartCart would be best read at her blog or at ST.

It reads "Krisandro & KKNN". WAHAHAHAAHA!!

I had the pleasure of being invited to this lovely Muslim wedding and it was my first Muslim wedding of a friend that I have ever attended. Rinaz is very active and well loved in the local social media scene and throngs of bloggers were seen at the wedding, furiously snapping away at the couple. I don’t know if it’s a normal thing but I had to actually queue up to give them my blessings and once again to take a picture with them.

KKNN cam whoring in the car

Absolutely cute wedding cupcakes

The suave looking CartCart and the SEXEH Rinaz in a beautiful gown

Rinaz will soon move over to Italy and she will be sorely missed in Singapore but I’m happy, knowing that they will live very blissfully over there! And besides, we will always see them online.