Life Of Budak

Go To LEGOLAND Malaysia Star Wars Miniland You Must

20:35:00
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Dazzling Da Nang 2014: 5 Must-Do Things In Da Nang

#BudakInDaNang2014

Da Nang is a beautiful place. I probably touched on that point in the first Da Nang post. See, Da Nang is a relatively unknown tourist spot due to the fact that before AirAsia, there was no direct flight into the city. What this means is that there are absolutely no signs that tourists have invaded (yet) and everything remains clean and tidy.

But what exactly can you do in Da Nang? Well you can try...

Note: Most of these pictures are taken by Eric and Caroline. Credit where credit's due.

#5 The Beaches
Recommended places: My Khe Beach, Bac My An Beach

The beaches of Da Nang are pristine. That’s probably the best way to describe them, really. The beaches are beautiful, often empty and even if you aren’t down for a soak in the sea or to bathe in the glorious rays of the sun, you can always take the most beautiful beach photos. Kinda, sorta like these.

#4 The Hills
Recommended places: BaNa Hills

If you’re not the beachside bum that most of us aspire to be, you might opt to go for something a little bit cooler. For this, BaNa Hills is THE place for you to be at. The tour guide told us that BaNa Hills was originally named BaNaNa Hills, but the locals decided that the extra syllable was unnecessary.

Take a cable car up, enjoy the beauty of the hills, and soak in the beautifully medieval architecture.

Remember to take a jacket up as well because it can get pretty chilly.

#3 The Countryside
Recommended places: Hoi An Ancient Town

Okay, technically, Hoi An is a town by itself. It’s recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is an example of a city unmoved by the tides of time.

Hoi An is approximately 30km away from Da Nang, a relatively short bus ride away, and has some of the most exquisitely ancient architecture you can find anywhere. In fact, the whole town seems content to stay that way; bustling roadside stalls selling pho and bahn mi (or baguettes) and cao lao (beef on noodles), vendors trying their best to attract tourists to buy their handmade items.

The highlight in Hoi An are their tailors, who can make any clothing your heart desires, within the span of a day.

#2 The Food
Recommended places: Any roadside stall you may come across

A word of advice: if you should eat, remember to always go for the roadside stalls selling pho. There’s just something about squatting down on stools at the side of the road and slurping down massive amounts of pho.

Also, the best Vietnamese coffee places are located out of visible site. We were directed to this hidden coffee place by a local tailor in Hoi An which served some of the best Vietnamese coffee, for only U$D1.

Da Nang is essentially a port town, so remember to try out their seafood as well. The fish literally flops around in your stomach after you eat it*

*Okay it doesn’t because ew. But that’s just to illustrate how fresh it is.

#1 The City

Recommended places: Marble Mountain, Monkey Mountain, Dragon Bridge

Da Nang is a fantastic city. For one, it's incredibly spacious. As the art director Chee Ching puts it, this is like a dream come true for the inner hipster. Da Nang city is exactly as you would find a city to be like. There's plenty to see, people to meet and malls to go, hotels to explore.

If you're into that sort of thing on your trip, then Da Nang city is a viable place for you to be at. But if you're looking for some excitement in the city, go no further than crossing the road. If that doesn't give you enough thrills to last your entire trip, you should be doing something else, like skydiving.

Oh, did you know AirAsia is the only airline to operate 4x weekly direct flights connecting Kuala Lumpur to Da Nang? You do now. So book now and experience #DazzingDaNang for yourself!

Cheerios!

20:24:00
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Dazzling Da Nang 2014: The Skinny

#BudakAndFriends

I usually always write a skinny post (to reflect on my physique) when I go on trips. This is no different. If you are an avid stalker of my social media sites in the past 2 weeks, you may have stumbled upon a lot of nicely taken photos which are not crudely Photoshopped pictures of me with characters from a beloved children's show.

I was in Da Nang, Vietnam during the Merdeka weekend, and man, was it freaking awesome. It's all thanks to AirAsia and the Da Nang Tourism Board for hosting us at various different locations in Dazzling Da Nang, and made sure that we were not in want for anything.

Since this is just a really skinny post, I'll let pictures do the talking for now and flesh it out in the upcoming few blog posts. Also, you may notice that almost NONE of the below pictures are taken by me. These pictures completely belong to fellow #hapsters Eric and Caroline, whose photography skills produced pictures which rival those hanging from hipster cafes around the world.

Seriously.

There's plenty of things to do in Da Nang. It's like a city surrounded by the forests, hills and sea, so you get the best of all worlds. Of course, whenever there's a beach, you'll get people like us rushing over to take jump shots.

Nothing goes better with beaches than bikini babes, and I was pretty much lucky to get 3 (all from Borneo, yo!) to take a picture with me. It was exciting stuff, and while I tried to play it cool, my face probably betrayed me.

And an occasional overhand + creepy pervy smile. I was channeling my inner pervert, so don't judge.

We were also brought to visit plenty of scenic spots around the city. They don't call it Dazzling Da Nang for nothing.

BaNa Hills, which was originally named Banana Hills because reasons. The locals got too lazy to pronounce the extra "Na" and this is what's left. True story

The Dragon Bridge over the Han River shoots freaking flames every Saturday night at 9pm. LIKE REAL ACTUAL "ISTHATAREALDRAGON?!" fire!

Words can't even describe how beautiful the city of Da Nang is. It's just...

During our stay, we were hosted by a lot of different hotels who kept us all well fed and fattened. Seriously, this picture below is an example of the Furama Hotel's outdoor dinner concept and holy cruds it was awesome.

But the highlight is undoubtedly the historical city of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Hoi An is one of those places in which you are instantly transported back into the past. The architecture, the people, the sounds, everything is just frozen in an eternal cocoon of unmoving time. I will write more on Hoi An in another post, but here are some pictures to enjoy while you wait.

This trip was also the first in which I became a crazy, emo person of intense emotions. I didn't even know I could pull it off, to be honest. But I did, thanks to Eric's crazy insane photography skills. He made me look GOOD DAMMIT!

Looking good in pictures has never happened to me before in the history of ever.

Oh, and I rode horses. A lot of horses. More details on this will follow in the coming posts. #HorsingAround

Even the Knight Horse chess piece wasn't spared. #horsingaround

Did you know that we were the first ones on the inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur direct to Da Nang? You didn't? Well you do now! Yes, thanks to AirAsia, the bunch of us bloggers were fortunate enough to be the first ones to ever take a direct flight into Da Nang. AirAsia is the only airline to operate 4x weekly direct flight connecting Kuala Lumpur to Da Nang.

And because of this, AirAsia is celebrating by offering promotional, all-in fares from as low as RM97 one way. Insane. You can book now atwww.airasia.com or their mobile site mobile.airasia.com (because chances are you're reading this from your phone)

The beauty of the sea, jungles and hills make Da Nang a dazzling, dazzling place indeed. A definite must visit, especially with the low, low fares from AirAsia. Look out for more Dazzling Da Nang blog posts coming up in the following few days.

Cheerios!

21:58:00
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The Force is Strong at Maybank GO Ahead Challenge 2014 Gala Dinner

#BudakEvents

"Expect the unexpected."

That was the theme for the 3rd edition of Maybank's GO Ahead Challenge this year, and it was definitely unexpected for the winners to pick up the final grand prize of USD 40,000. I say unexpected because this year's GO Ahead Challenge was unlike any other. The organizers promised more complex challenges which required the challengers to adapt both individually and as a team to different situations.

I wrote about the GO Ahead Challenge for 2014 earlier this year, when it was first announced and the "trailer" event certainly gave glimpses of how amazing a challenge this would be to the participants. Fast forward a few months, and the challenges have been completed. Blood (yes, there was blood), sweat and tears have been shed. Fears have been conquered. The winner has been selected.

Wow. So much drama in that last paragraph. Okay. Time to tone it down a little.

If you don't know what it is, Maybank's GO Ahead Challenge 2014 is an exciting international business case competition which melds corporate life and business meetings with It is literally a challenge which makes challengers use both their body and mind. This year, the best and brightest minds from Malaysia, ASEAN and across the globe were given the opportunity to exhibit their potential in a multi-discipline and multi-national initiative with world-class experience.

I was fortunate enough to be invited for the Maybank GO Ahead Challenge Gala Dinner to witness the crowning of the winner of the challenge. A huge thank you to SocialGrooves for hooking me up with this insane opportunity to brush my padded shoulders with some of the best and brightest young minds in the industry, as well as fellow bloggers and social media butterflies.

The group of us bloggers and social sharers from SocialGrooves.com were just standing around talking when none other than Tan Sri Dato’ Megat Zaharuddin, the Chairman of Maybank walked up to us and started engaging us in conversation. He was so friendly and humble that most of us didn't even know that one of the most influential men in Maybank was standing in front of us and laughing about how he wished the doors would open so that dinner could be served.

One of the highlights of the dinner was this sharing session between the young generation and the more experienced generation. The youth proved that it isn't too late to learn new things, and on the way also picked up a few valuable tips in how to succeed in the working world.

Of course, amidst dinner, the winners of the night were announced along with music from the Maybank in-house band, who played a lot of Bruno Mars. Below are a list of all the winners.

Richard Agabus Ocampo picked up the Ultimate GO Ahead Challenger crown this year. He walked away with USD1,000 and an all expense paid trip to New York for an internship program with Maybank's New York office.

"We have a Hulk!"

Team Avengers with members from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines (including the Ultimate GO Ahead Challenger, Richard) won the second runner up place winning USD10,000.

"It’s not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."

Team Dark Knight, with challengers from Malaysia, Indonesia, China and the United Kingdom won the first runner-up award of USD20,000.

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Team Star Wars picks up the grand prize as the Champions of the Maybank GO Ahead Challenge 2014.

All the top 3 teams of the Maybank GO Ahead Challenge 2014 on stage together. No strangling and thirst for revenge was to be found, which was pretty disappointing.

The challenge may have ended but friendships were forged, skills were tested and a champion has risen. Maybe there'll be more of the same next year, when another batch of challengers rise to the occasion. And that will be something worth looking forward to.

For more pictures and updates on the GO Ahead Challenge, check out the GO Ahead Academy.

Cheerios!

13:33:00
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Go To LEGOLAND Malaysia Star Wars Miniland You Must

Dazzling Da Nang 2014: 5 Must-Do Things In Da Nang

Dazzling Da Nang 2014: The Skinny

The Force is Strong at Maybank GO Ahead Challenge 2014 Gala Dinner

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