The Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards Experience!

As you guys probably know by now, I travelled to Kuala Lumpur a couple of many weeks ago for the NAPBAS! My companions for the trip were Miss Goh Seizure and Samsung’s NX200! It was combination that resulted in 300+ shots (88 usable ones) over the span of a weekend. Herpes me.  

However, because it's my first time doing a ~What I Did Today~ post, I only realized how many important photos are missing after I got back. Like photos of things other than my face, for instance.

Day One: The Ceremony and Zouk!

Indulging in some "self-portraiture" on our way there. If I were Noel Boyd, who was sitting nearest to us in the coach, I’d be judging us.

The journey there wasn’t very eventful, but we got to befriend/play catchup with a bunch of fabulous bloggers, including Leon from Open The Toy; Issac and Marco, whom I always bump into at fashion-related events; and Sochii, whom I’ve known for some years now!

Things became kind of crazy upon our arrival at Marriott Putrajaya. We (the Singaporean bloggers) arrived behind schedule, and a bunch of us were immediately ushered into a makeshift hair salon by number76.

(I forgot to take photos. Sorry. Imagine a swanky hotel. Or just use Google.)

Whilst waiting for my turn, I made friends with the lovely Thiang! I think that her name sounds like a sound effect, hahaha. (I mean that in the best way possible.) We hit off almost immediately, and discovered that she’s actually a senior from school~ I was assigned to Deji-san, and the terrible compulsion to sprout random, broken Japanese hit me like an arrow to the knee.

I have no idea what you're supposed to see in this photo.

I’ve been very inspired by sideswept hair as of late, and doing something like that for my unruly hair proved to be a terrible challenge. However, gettin’ my hair did by Deji-san was nonetheless a pleasant experience! Thank you for being so accommodating :’D

I was one of the last to leave, and there was barely any time left to put my fake face on. That said, Seizure and I never have difficulty finding time to camwhore.

Outfit post tomorrow, I promise!

A hundred photos (give or take) later, we finally headed down to the awards~~

Marco and Issac!

 

This is a special shoutout to Jayne and Gabby from Nuffnang Singapore, for patiently accommodating my requests and ensuring that our trip was a smooth and pleasant one. I can’t thank you girls enough! (Especially Jayne, who saved Seizure’s passport in the nick of time. Phew.)

 

With Alexa from Pixiekrane!! Fashion blogs unite ☮

 

The hilarious/lovable Yina, who's also the owner of The Velvet Dolls! Her blog's really interesting, and I particularly enjoyed reading this post.

 

The gorgeous Alicia from Sea of Ghosts, and the amazing Liz who sewed a dinosaur tail(!!!) to match her dress! I don't know why I don't have photos of that :'<

 

The gala dinner began shortly after, and I only managed to snap 3 photos during the ceremony itself- was way too busy pigging out.

The effect’s pretty cool, ey?

I wasn’t expecting to win, so I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t. Isn't that a terribly defeatist kind of attitude? Haha. It was during the ceremony that I understood for the first time what a Big Deal this was to some people, even if I wasn’t one of them, and I think that was when I was finally done feeling undeserving and simply glad to be there.

My only resolution for 2012 was to be less bitter and more gracious, but we can talk about that later~

Edit: I forgot to mention that I didn't manage to meet any of the other Fashion finalists besides Alicia! I'm actually still a little disappointed about that >:

A photo with Sochii after The Ceremony!

After the gala dinner, it was time to (after) party at Zouk KL!!!!!! (Yeah, you can totally see how misplaced my priorities are.)

Sochii didn’t make it down in the end due to a bad case of stomach pains (sadface), but her friend Stella, who's a Gyaru blogger from Indonesia (who wlll later also be crowned The Oracle) joined us.

I reunited with Thiang, who introduced us to Ivy and Charlene! We all bonded during the ride to Zouk, and Seizure and I would later spend some pretty fantastic time with these girls ♥

(Kindly imagine a bunch of incriminating photos from Zouk here~)

Day Two: Shopping and The View!

I’m really awful at this thing that people do, where they wake up in the morning and stuff, which resulted in Seizure and I missing the tour. (I’m sorry!) We adventured to Bukit Bintang on our own, and there’s not much to say about that adventure, except that we were as energetic as zombies, and we spent many monies.

Then night-time happened and I came alive again! The finalists were invited to dine at The View@GTower. The view was stunning, but it reminded me a liiiiittle too much of Singapore’s Ku De Ta. We spent the earlier part of the night engaged in an intriguing discussion on politics, tai-tai culture, and economics (!!!) with Leon, and the later part of the night drinking with the girls. Yay!

Leon!

 

Sochii!

 

From Left to Right: Priscilla, Charlene, Seizure, Stella, Ivy and Me~

Thiang!

 

   

Motion blurs are uncapable of stopping a Camera Whorus in its natural habitat.

On the way back to the hotel, we had the pleasure of chatting with Caz from YTravelBlog, who might just be the coolest mom ever, as well as Steve (@Melburnian), a social media demi-god of sorts.

From Left to Right: Ivy, Charlene, Seizure, Thiang, Steve, Caz, Me!

 

 

Then morning came, and it was time for us to go home.

 

 

It just occurred to me that I haven’t thanked Nuffnang, the organizers, properly. Thank you so, so much for giving me an opportunity as amazing as this. I had a fantastic time, and the event was a real eye-opener!

I say this all the time, and every time I say it, I worry that my words will lose its value: Thank you for reading my blog and sharing a piece of my mind. It’s (somewhat) like that Vienna Teng song: “I am nothing without you, but I don’t know who you are.”

In any case, thanks for having me around ♥

(All photos taken with an NX200 courtesy of Samsung. With the exception of some colour experimentation, most images are unedited!)