— witsandnuts

Archive
2010 Yearly archive

This is a long overdue post, which I am finally putting ”in print”, especially for those who asked about our executive bus experience when I tweeted about it months ago.

Executive Bus Malaysia to Singapore

We have tried traveling from Singapore to Malaysia by air which was a breeze at 30-minute flight. While in Kuala Lumpur, we were reoriented (I had a first glimpse through KG’s post) by the hotel staff that trailing through the executive buses seems more attractive. Hence, from Malaysia back to Singapore, we jumped in it. We took the 18-seater (3 x 6) Five Stars bus and hardly believed the comfort it offered. It is decent, homey, armed with entertainment (like the in-flight) system, and has more leg room than the economy flights. While I insinuate that it was like being in a plane, you will not see the clouds up close but the refreshing views of Malaysia instead.

Malaysia
(I am not sure if I mentioned in any of my Malaysia travelogues that most of its views and corners are very much like the Philippines’.)

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sebastian_vettel_1761479b
(Source)

Our weeklong break (due to Eid al-Adha) is concluding in few hours. I am glad that I decided not to travel outside the UAE and tried a combination of staycation + never tried stuff. Productivity and leisure rolled into one. I am happy, too, that I gave Abu Dhabi Grand Prix a go last minute and that the tickets “found me” just in time even if it was impossible to source out that hour. Watching a race up close was a new experience. At first, the engine’s roaring was so deafening, despite the ear protection provided to us upon entry to the designated grandstands. It was a thrilling experience. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel, the youngest Formula One champion.

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Prince in Abu Dhabi, unpronounceable symbol
(Prince kicking off by saying “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to get through this thing called Life” …)

I almost skipped going to Prince’s concert. First, I wanted to recover from the consecutive (almost) sleepless nights due to earlier after-race concerts. Second, I thought I will not appreciate it because I’ve not followed his discography and I’m not from his era. Third, I was still very, very high on the preceding night’s mindblowing concert of Linkin Park. Lastly, I was discouraged by the possibility that I won’t be getting a decent spot because we came past the opening of the concert arena gate. We have watched the finals of the race (congratulations to Sebastian Vettel for being the 2010 grand prix world champion).

But despite the hesitation, this reasoning mattered more: there must be something that the organizers let Prince wrap up the amazing weekend of grand prix and after-race concerts. And I am so glad that I went.

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Continued from Kanye West after-race concert

chester and mike linkin park concert in abu dhabi
(Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the primary vocalists of Linkin Park)

As much as I wanted to immediately blog about Linkin Park’s after-race concert last Saturday, I hardly sustained my excitement. I maintain this preference not to write when I am at my highest high or lowest low in order to be objective. If I did, my words probably have just read as screaming praises for Linkin Park. Now that I have gathered enough sleep, I maintain the same judgment that their performance, theirs and audience’s energy was 6 times better than the preceding night (just when I thought that it was good enough).

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Kanye West concert in Abu Dhabi

I am one of those who think that the line-up of performers at the after-race concerts plays a vital role to the marketability of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Last night, the three-day concert kicked off with the priceless performance from Kanye West. Since I have not reached that fanatic level yet, I had to prep up by putting up a playlist of songs from his different albums which I devoured few days before the concert. While he is really good as a performer as publicly known, watching and hearing him up close and personal was another thing. He is much, much better when performing live.

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