Foggy...

Was so foggy this morning and freaking cold throughout the night. Even my electric radiant heater can't keep up at its maximum power so I had been waking up every now and then (>.<).

My all time travel tips =D Super check-list!!

I'm back I'm back! As you can see I had been extremely busy... My dad had angioplasty operation to clear and widen his heart's blood vessel (I'll talk more about that in the next entry) but he's all good now =D.

So I now have more time to do lame thing like this =p

Ok, back to serious mode. So it's time for me to prepare for my trip to US =D I've come out with a check list as follow, please let me know if you have better ideas or tips!

Wikitravel
Very very useful - especially for cheapskate who doesn't want to pay for Lonely Planet =p (I got most of my Lonely Planets in secondhand bookstore yo! Tips: look for them early Autumn when most travellers came back from their trip!). Wikitravel might even include something like a 1 Day Travel Plan, for eg. One day in Tokyo.

Collins Phrasebook + cd
Not extremely important but you can see this as an excellent opportunity to pick up another language! Nothing feel better when you spoke in a foreign language and found out that people can actually understand you =D (ok and then the trouble arised when people starts to answer you in foreign language and you understand nothing. lol.). It costs around US20 for a set of phrasebook + very useful cd!

STA for airticket
Based on previous experience, STA quotes the best price if you buy online. But I will always check it with other local and asian travel agencies, and also your prefered airlines. Remember to apply for airline membership to earn points - who knows you might travel so much that you can get a first class seat one day woo!

Train ticket
Buy day-pass, x-day-pass etc - you will save a lot if you are travelling the whole time! And, for some place, eg. in Germany, buying the train ticket months earlier will guarantee at least 50% cheaper!!!

Accomodations: Google map, HotelsCombined and TripAdvisor
Google Map is really convenient to find out which accomodation is at which location. However, it does not have the full listing.

One of the most troublesome task is to find out which hotel booking site provides the cheapest rate for a certain hotel. I recently came across a cool Australian-based site, HotelsCombined that search through the hotel listing sites. So when you select certain hotel from the result list, it will further show you another list of the different rates in different hotel listing sites. This makes thing much easier and you can now be sure that you have booked a hotel with its cheapest rate! Also, Googlemap is embeded to the site so for every hotel, you can browse for the map and photo directly. (By the way, I'm planning to stay in Cecil Hotel found from the site, anyone stayed there before? Or any better recommendations?)

Due to that HotelsCombined is still a new site, the reviews database has not been built up. TripAdvisor is where I would go to read up the reviews after decided which hotel to stay in from HotelsCombined. So if you can't sleep in a noisy room, make sure you check the reviews that the hotel is quiet enough!

Google for (images : select large image size)
Map
- Map with Tourist Attractions
- Metro / Train map
I don't really prefer printing Google Map because it looks ugly =p
But, do find out how to get from one place to another (and how much time you need) with Google Map!
You can normally pick up free maps from the infodesk/train station in Australia, Singapore and Japan. But in some countries especially in Europe, it can cost around a dollar or two. So if you are not prepared to spend more, print them out and bring them along! Look out for map in pdf format! In fact, for non-cheapskate, you can find detail maps in Lonely Planet (I have tried other travel guides and still think Lonely Planet is the best one around).

Google for blogs
Read up the travel logs for the month that you are going to travel to find out more about the climate (what to wear and bring) and what is special for that particular season. For eg. Tulip Festival in spring, Seafood featival in winter etc.

Coupons!!!
Remember to pick up free travel brochures from the airport / hotel / train station etc. And look for coupons!! If you are lucky you might even get buy one get one free tickets! And don't forget to check if there's any online offers =D

That's all for now! Might have missed out some points so will always update this entry. And please leave a comment if you can think of any good points. Domo arigato gozaimasu =D

More donation info

Received an email this afternoon:

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Hi, I saw the request to donate for the relief for those who were effected by the China Earthquake on http://lasilasi.blogspot.com/2008/05/call-for-volunteers.html. I would like to donate but I don't live in Austalia, I live in the U.S. Is there anyway I can still donate without a credit card? Thanks! And you are doing a wonderful thing.

Donna

************************************************************************************

For more info:

You can also donate by

Credit Card
http://www.redcross.org.au/ourservices_aroundtheworld_emergencyrelief_Chinaearthquake.htm

Freecall
1800 811 700
from anywhere within Australia to make a credit card donation.

Send a cheque or money order to:
GPO Box 2957 Melbourne VIC 8060 (China Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008).


中国红十字会总会救灾专用账号和热线：

通过银行捐款开户单位：中国红十字会总会

人民币开户行：中国工商银行北京分行东四南支行

人民币账号：０２００００１００９０１４４１３２５２

外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行

外币账号：７１１２１１１４８２６０００００２０９


Million thanks to everyone who helped! Xiexie!

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Aaaaa... so many things happened these few weeks therefore the lack of updates. Anyway, here's a message:

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In response to the recent Sichuan earthquake in China, a fund-raising event will take place all of this week in the Monash University Clayton campus center. We are calling for everyone to donate what they can to help those affected.

What: Fund-raising for the China Sichuan Earthquake relief effort
Where: Clayton Campus Centre and Caufield campus (location to be discussed)
When: May 19 - 23 (Monday - Friday) 12 - 2PM

Volunteers on foot will also be taking collections from around the Campus centre.

We are authorized by the Australian Red Cross. All funds collected will be donated in full to the Red Cross to:
- Support the relief and recovery needs of individuals and communities affected by the earthquake, including urgent needs of shelter through the provision of tents and quilts, clean water, food parcels, medical supplies and hygiene kits
- Send specialist aid workers to assist in the Red Cross response
- Assist Red Cross in China in preparing and responding to this disaster and to help provide the ongoing support required to rebuild the communities.

Receipts for all donations are available upon request and all donations above $2 are tax deductible.

For further inquiries, please contact Iris Yan:
iris.yan@eng.monash.edu.au
***********************************************************************
Thanks to Nghia for borrowing me his K100D with Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens =D

You can click on the picture for the enlarged version to admire how pretty Iris and Aisha is =p

I'm going to get my Canon 450D in JBHifi this sat! And ordering Sigma 30mm F1.4 + Sigma AF 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 online =D Any comments?

Updates!!!
we have received excellent response from the students and staffs in Clayton campus. We are now looking for more volunteers in Clayton campus and are willing to raise for fund in Caufield campus.

still busy ToT

Busy with experiments...

That's a MacPro Quadcore with 16Gb RAM =.=

Pic took before the cold days. It's sooooo cold these few days... eee...

Busy with guitaring...
I just got a 2nd hand amp from Anthony all thanks to Dennis! And still have to thank Joseph for the guitar =D

Busy with swimming =p
(no pictures lah. bleh.)

(and yes you may stop telling me bout how you don't understand why I can't swim since human can float... It's also due to the fats to muscles/fats ratio; surface area that increases the Buoyant force etc etc k =p)

And btw for everyone in au, if you would like to receive 2 FREE energy saving light bulbs go to the address below and sign up for some.
http://www.greenenergywatch.com.au/freelightbulbs.php
which worth aud20!

p/s: I'm going to SF, LA and Anchorage in end of June. Any advice? =p