Sunday, March 30, 2014

Games of Thrones- Trailers & NYC premieres

2 more trailers for Games of Thrones



The NYC premieres... 
interesting to see the actors / actress in modern clothes


Saturday, March 29, 2014

Games of Thrones

For all the Games of Thrones Fans...
This video is like.... a great music video of clips from Season 1



“There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today.





"The Dworf of Westeros" Is "The Wolf of Wall Street" Parody You've Been Waiting For Watch this video and you will understand why Tyrion Lannister is most people's favourite character in Game of Thrones. The editing in this was impeccable. This guy understands movie trailers.




And trailers for season 4!





Thursday, March 27, 2014

Some Pre-wedding videos!

Soem pre-wedding videos.... which one warms your heart?



something diffierent. mixed of produced footage as well as some real footage.
got damn confused at the beginning though...



cool music video. I wanna do the same, except i cannot think of a better song



something more fun and cartoony cute!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Put your phone down when you are with friends

Something that I have been trying to advocate to my friends...



I know Durex made this for Earth Hour, to switch off lights for an hour.

But I cannot help but feel there is a 2nd message... to turn off our phones when we are with our friends or loved ones.


Put your phone, screen down when you are having dinner with your friends.
Talk to your loved ones when you are with them.

We are so connected to the globe, that we forgot to connect to the one in front of us...

(and to those who are always addicted to their phone games, just keep it away for that session, your character would not die...)
Can't believe we need a Durex condom company to remind us of this.... #TurnOffToTurnOn

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Checking out the Annapurna foothills of Nepal

Hi guys, Its me the Mark the wanderer again.  I've been travelling to Nepal in February this year and to say the least, it was terrific.  It is a land of rich Hindu and Buddhist culture and amazing natural beauty.  Nepal is basically on the highlands, the Himalayans and has eight peaks that are more than 8000m above sea level.

Here are some pictures I took during the 12 day trip to Nepal.  If one travels by AirAsia, your airtickets could be really cheap.  We got a return ticket for less than RM900.  The hiking tour wasn't that cheap though, costs about USD750 per person including meals on during the hike.  You still have to pay for boiled water, hot showers and WiFi.

Angry Hindu god Siva looking for demons to slain!

Boudhanath, a lotus shaped Buddhist temple.  If you are thinking of hiking, its considered good luck to go around the temple a few times.

View from my hotel roof in Pokhara

The famous Poonhill where you can see the Annapurna mountain range.  Amazing view.

Blizzard! Snowstorm!  Otherwise amazing sight.

You know when you have this great feeling you can't describe with words?  Well, that's what I was feeling then.

More pictures at physikality.blogspot.com

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Things guys do that girls don't. May be offensive to some girls haha...



What???.  I mean scratch and win? LOLz.  Made my day bro.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Capsule Hotel in Osaka, Japan

Note: I will blog next week about trying the love hotel in Osaka soon! damn unique experience
_________________________________________________


One of the joys I enjoy in travelling is to experience many different types of accommodations.

Not those boring standardised 3-star, 4-star, 5 star hotels...
but different arrangements such as student hostels, serviced apartments, couch surfing or airbnb (for those sole travellers)...


and I jumped at the chance to try out the famous capsule hotel in Osaka, Japan.

shinsaibashi capsule



Great about this experience is that it is pretty cheap. I paid only a fraction of the usual hotel costs to stay 1 night in this capsule hotel.
At the entrance, you get to keep your shoes in a shoe locker.

capsule first floor shoe locker



You can also rent larger lockers for your other belongings for safekeeping, or after you check out. It costs only about 100 or 200 yens, depending on size. Actually lockers are quite commonly available throughout Osaka's train stations. I see many Japanese use them to often.

capsule first floor locker



Once you registered and paid for your capsule, they will issue you your keys. You can take the elevator to your level. The levels are segregated by gender, 2 levels are for males and 1 level is for females. I supposed this is for a safer environment.
You can leave your luggage and belongings before you enter the capsule area, but for safekeeping, each guest has his own locker, with a towel and hangers inside.

capsule second floor locker


Here is the view of the corridor of capsule.

capsule walkway 1



When I first enter the hotel, there were not many guests. But when I returned at night for my sleep, it was actually quite crowded with many residents, many of them businessmen, judging from their attire and luggages.

There are shower cubicles at a corner. Very clean, pocket sized, with shower foam and shampoo. It comes in cubicle, looks like those ready-made-lego-type shower units that can be fastened. There are 2 areas inside: you first enter a dry area where you can hang your clothes and tower, and then you enter another panel where you take your shower. Very considerable design to ensure you would not get your clothes wet.

I forgot to take a photo, so here is the photo of the entrance

capsule shower



Here is what you would see when you peer into the capsule.

capsule 2



Notice the small mirror at the side, for your grooming.

capsule 4




Once you are comfortably sleeping in, there is even a small television and radio for your entertainment.
The capsule is not 100% sound proof too, and this is when you really understand how polite and considerate the Japanese are. All of them tuned down the volume, and there were almost no TV/radio switched on by the time I was about to sleep. Only a few businessmen were whispering to one another at a corner

capsule 1



There is control panel for the TV / radio at the side. There is even a power outlet for you to plug in your electronic device. It was a godsend for me to charge my mobile phone.

capsule remote control 2


capsule remote control 1


And you can pull down the curtain for some privacy.

capsule 3




The whole hotel is clean and decent. In the 1st floor main area, there are a few tables with internet access, for you to use their PC, and even to print out documents. There are tables for you to do some work or plug in your laptop, as well as vending machines for your refreshment.
There are always 2 staff at the reception, and they are really polite. They always stand upright when you are in the reception area, even though you do not need their help, I was just at the area arranging my luggage and wearing my shoes properly, and they waited till I walked off before they sit down and rest.
The japanese are really wonderful in their service.

I just realised (thanks to a reader) that this capsule hotel has a website
http://eco-cube.jp/en/

You can also see it in booking.com
http://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/b-amp-s-eco-cube-shinsaibashi.html

It costs us abt 1000 - 1500 yen per pax, I think. Cant remember the exact figure but it is definitely cheap.


Will blog again soon for the Love Hotel experience. :D

Monday, March 10, 2014

Almost scammed in Istanbul when I was there...

So there was a  blog post on Istanbul.....
just to share, I do have a scam story when I was there.
That is, I was almost scammed off my pants.

though none of the girls who wanna scam me are as hot as the turkey girls above.

Anyway, more blog posts coming up, USA, Japan, etc etc. Stay tuned.
___________________________________________________________



anyway for the scam.... to warn all travellers coz i think this type of scam quite common in East Europe and probably other countries with lots of tourists as well.

my friends and i split up to have some alone time each, as we were travelling together for 3 weeks liao, tot some alone time can be quite interesting
I was sitting alone at the stairs of a large public building, just enjoying the cool air and taking in the people-watching (seriously the air damn comfy, so different from the hot tropical air in Singapore)

so 1 old guy, who look nice and friendly, asked me what was i doing alone, and chit chat with me abt turkey, and where i am from. he didnt know anything abt singapore so asked me quite a bit of where i live at. in abt 10 mins, he suggested we go somewhere relaxing to chill and to talk.
he said the place was only 5 mins away.

with totally no suspicious. i just follow him and walked... the distance was a lot more further than he said, at least 10-15mins away, and he keeps saying its just in front, its just in front...
when i reached the place, i followed him down into a basement into a dark "pub". i said "pub" because it looks like a pub, but on the outside, there was no clear signboard nor business advertisement...

in it, there was a few tables, and he sit himself in the middle of a group, where there were 3 blondes (russians?) that has some nuts in the middle, with a 1 or 2 guys (i honestly can't remember how many guys, i was distracted by the blondes haha) and then just when i sat down, my spider sense start tingling.

until today i also dunno what seems to be the trigger, but i guess everything just snapped together at the right time... haha i stood up barely 1 minute after sitting, and almost bumped into a waiter that just arrived with a large tray of more nuts, many glasses of wines and beer.....
so i said "sorry sorry" and just RAN.
yah it was really funny now that i think of it.... though i was really scared.. i dunno.. watched too many "SAW" films i think...
just ran up the basement, out onto the street, and keep running away... run and knocked onto strangers, think 1 amercian was shouting in concern at me "hey what are u running from!"

lol.

of course now that i am safe and sound, i can laugh... but it was quite creepy. anyway i went back to google "scams turkey" etc etc and found out that it is a a common scam for a "local" to befriend lone tourist, make friends go out and have a drink with other friends... then when the tourist wanted to leave, he would be presented with a large bill on all the wines and foods of everyone at the table, and he would not be allowed to leave till he fork out the cash.
and all the "friends" would turn hostile...

Let's have a drink scam in turkey


so i am glad i saved my money.
and no SAW- The Asian Edition....

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Istanbul the magnificient

Hi there! *wave* I am the co-author of wiseoftheday.blogspot.sg, Mark!
Will be sharing more on my travels here...

As my first post in wiseoftheday, I'd like to make us all a bit more wiser by encouraging more of us to travel to distant nations to dip ourselves in foreign cultures and languages.  In this episode, we bring you my five day travels to the capital of Turkey, Istanbul almost two years ago.
Ayasophia or Hagia Sophia viewed from the blue mosque.
Modern Turkey started after the fall of the Ottoman empire at the end of the first world war by a turkish mitilary officer Atatürk.  Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman empire therefore it is very heavily populated by many different types of people such as Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Kurds.

Visually impaired man playing a turkish traditional instrument in the Metro station.

Inside the Hagia Sophia.  It was once a cathedral which was then converted to a mosque.  Now it is a museum.

I think this is Taksim street.  A major shopping and tourist street in Istanbul.

The only street that has a tram car.



Sidewalk tea and coffee shop.  Very popular with the local populace.


View from Galata tower.  There is the Bosphorus strait.
More pictures available in my own blog at physikality.blogspot.com
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