Singapore-based Tigerairways is having one of their early bird promos, with one-way fares starting at only $1.99.

It pays to be early. Book your tickets on tigerairways.com at least 3 months in advance, and get the best real deals in town! And with 1.4 million seats available up till 29 Mar 08, the early bird really does catch the worm!

The $1.99 fare excludes taxes and other fees, of course, and is only available for Krabi and Phuket flights. I tried a roundtrip Singapore-Krabi booking, both on $1.99 fares, and it came out at SG$97.23. Not bad, eh?
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Spotted on top of my Gmail inbox, courtesty of MSNBC.com.

It’s pretty much common knowledge for people who’ve travelled a lot. To those who’ll be travelling for the first time (or other annoying passengers), this is a good guideline. Particularly commandment number 5:

5. Thou shalt understand that the people in the brochure are not going to be vacationing with you. Corollary: If ye seek beachgoers in thongs, ye will likely find overweight, hirsute seniors in thongs — and they will be equally proportioned between genders.

Read all 12 commandments here.

Yay, I’m (very) slowly working through my backlog of entries!

Here’s the expenses breakdown of my Gold Coast 4-day weekend trip last March. I flew via Jetstar, and lucky for me, their Gold Coast segment flies from Tullamarine and not from Avalon airport (which is about one and a half hour from Melbourne).

I stayed the the overpopulated-by-tourists Surfer’s Paradise. Why? Because there are times when I *do* want to be mainstream.

When I was researching for this trip, I was really frustrated that there’s hardly anything online or in travelbooks about the Gold Coast. Usually it’d just be a mention of the beach, the theme parks and the hinterlands. One day in Gold Coast and I see why that is.
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My 15-year old niece took her first flight out of the country last night. She’s due to arrive in Melbourne right about now, but so far, I haven’t received any text messages or calls from either her or my sister. And joy of joys, I’ve also run out of pre-paid credit on my mobile, so I can’t call them.

Naturally, I Googled for flight tracking websites. The biggest downside with these flight tracking websites is that most of them are limited to flights coming in and out of North America.

I did find one that covers Asia and Australia: Flightstats.com. I liked the website because aside from its nice interface, once you register, you can receive alerts on flights you are tracking.

Unfortunately, I’ve refreshed the page a million times and it hasn’t updated the flight status, nor have I received any alert. Worse still, Philippine Airline’s website only track flights that depart and arrive in Manila. Bleah.

Maybe I should just sneak into my sister’s (my niece’s mother) room and check her cellphone, no?
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Dave of GoBackpacking blogged his 5 reasons for traveling, and has tagged me to do the same.

Hmm, why *do* I travel anyway?

1. Something new.
   I’m always eager for something new and different.
2. Take a break from the usual
   I easily get bored and demotivated by routine. I lose focus on matters that need my full attention (i.e. work), and my morale is low. By traveling, I get to recharge my energies and start looking forward to working again (so I can save up money for my next trip!)
3. Photo op!
   Photography really goes hand in hand with traveling. I can’t imagine traveling without any camera. I don’t spend all of my travel time looking through the camera lens, but it’s always great to take photos of the places you’ve seen to share with friends and family.
4. Research and Planning
   I really enjoy reading about new destinations, and updating my spreadsheet. I really am a geek at heart.
5. Shopping!
   Shopping is my downfall. The best thing about shopping overseas though is that you get stuff that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to buy at home (or if it is available locally, it’s too expensive).

I am tagging Christine, Cayce and Christina to share their 5 reasons for traveling

One of the sad facts about traveling is that there will always be missed opportunities. Like, not being able to go to Warner Brother’s Movie World because you’d rather shop, or taking a pass at visiting the temples you haven’t seen yet because of the terrible heat (I’m looking at you, Christine!) As much as we try to take it all in in our limited time abroad, planning your schedule at home or in your hotel is certainly different than being at the actual place.

One of my missed opportunities was not being able to watch The Cat Empire in concert at Phillip Island last January. By some sick twist of fate, I remembered to check their website for their tour info right AFTER their concert.

However, that pales in comparison to what I have just discovered: Marcus Schenkenberg, the world’s first male supermodel, went to Melbourne last March.

@)#$(&@(#&!@(#!@)#!#$*@!!!! T_T <_< doh

I can't believe that Marcus Schenkenberg was in the same city as I was, and I wasn't even aware of it! Graaaah!