Bangkok
Thailand has been called the Jewel of the Orient, and Bangkok is the biggest facet of that jewel. As the capital city of Thailand, a flight to Bangkok is not to be missed when visiting this unique and breathtaking country. The city is serviced by two top-rated airports, Svarnabhumi Airport and Don Muang Airport, both of which are approximately 30km (19 miles) from the city itself. Here in the city, magnificent ancient temples and palaces sit astride modern buildings, and the entire city constantly buzzes with life.

This city of 11 million is divided into 50 districts. Many consider the Siam Square district to be the most modern and commercial center of the city. Siam Square contains many of the city’s delightful hotels and wonderful shopping malls. If you are looking for more of a party atmosphere, visit the district of Silom by night, and if bargain shopping is your thing, check out Pratunam and, on the weekends, the district of Phahonyothin.

Bangkok is known as one of the most traveller-friendly cities in Asia, and it contains many gems to visit hidden beneath its initially chaotic-seeming exterior. Foodies will find Bangkok to be a delightful experience as it is well-known for offering up a wide variety of spicy Thai dishes.

Phuket Island
While visiting Bangkok, you must make sure to save a bit of time to visit Phuket Island. Getting to this delightful location will necessitate a half day bus trip to the island through the beautiful Thailand countryside. Once there, you can experience a wide variety of water and beach activities such as swimming, snorkeling and diving. Other activities include parasailing, freediving and kite surfing. The island contains many breathtaking grottoes, which can only be accessed by sea canoeing, making this a popular activity as well.

Chang Mai
Another great city to visit by plane is Chang Mai. Chang Mai is one of the most popular tourist destinations within Thailand, so much so that most Thais will often ask if you have visited the city yet when discovering that you are visiting the country, especially for the first time.

The reason that Chang Mai is such an exciting place to visit is because the old city centre has over 300 temples, giving an awe-inspiring and breathtaking view. Like Bangkok, however, this city is quite dynamic and works to balance its traditional and modern sides.

Ko Pha Ngan/Koh Samui
Ko Pha Ngan and Koh Samui are two separate regions, with Ko Phangan around 10 years behind Koh Samui in terms of modern development. These islands are reachable by boat and are most famous for their so-called Full Moon Parties.

The Full Moon Parties take place on the beach and are essentially a monthly all-night dance party. Between 10,000 to 30,000 people are estimated to attend each party each month. As the night continues, a variety of music is played, ensuring there is something for everyone. Other entertainment during the party includes jugglers, fire-eaters and impromptu fireworks displays.

For more information on the Full Moon Party, visit here.

Thailand is a Beautiful Land
Whether you are a seasoned traveller to the Orient or this is your first trip, you owe it to yourself to visit this wonderful and breathtakingly beautiful nation. Whether you are looking for ancient temples, a modern nightlife experience or a hedonistic beach romp, Thailand has what you seek.

Image Courtesy of Doug88888 | Flickr

Millions of people flock to Orlando each summer, not only to experience the amazing entertainment, but also to take advantage of the warm weather. Additionally, there are a number of wildlife sanctuaries, zoos, and marine centres to keep your children amused as well, so if you’re looking for some advice on your first trip to Orlando, here are some trips to make your journey as enjoyable as
possible.

Theme Parks

Theme parks may be associated with children, but that doesn’t mean that adults can’t have a great time too! Although an adult’s idea of fun would usually include a beach chair and a cocktail instead of a roller-coaster, there are a variety of ways they can join in with theme park activities to ensure the entire family has a great holiday.

Luckily in Orlando, there are loads of ways the older generation can enjoy themselves, and the theme parks are able to easily incorporate different needs as well as different ages. Because there are so many however, you’re going to have to prioritise your time in order to experience everything. For example, your children might want to visit Gatorland, but you’re looking for something a little
more relaxed in Seaworld.

Before you get to Orlando, it’s best to do some research on the size of the theme parks, and what’s included in your ticket price. Year after year, Universal Studios is voted the best theme park in Orlando, so it’s always a safe bet to begin your family holiday there. However, there are many more exciting things to see and do in the surrounding area, from marine centres to wildlife parks, so make
sure you know what’s around you in order to save time. Even when you’ve finished your holiday and are ready to head home, book flights to Orlando at cheapflights.co.uk for next year!

Where To Stay?

As Orlando is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, you can imagine that there’s lots of accommodation to choose from. No matter what your budget, or your family size, there’s always a hotel, apartments or bed and breakfasts that will cater to your needs. If you’re looking to stay close to the theme parks, then we would suggest booking into the Nickelodeon Suites Family Hotel.

Not only is it a stone’s throw from the entertainment district, but with over 700 rooms, there will certainly be lots of space for you and your family. Furthermore, if there’s a day where you’re not looking to trek to the theme parks, there are swimming pools, tennis courts, cinemas and many other activities in the hotel itself!

If it’s too difficult to find a gift for someone because he or she seem to own everything or simply can’t decide what they want, have those personalized ones and you can never go wrong.

One example would be those statement shirts that can be customized according to the personality of the person you’re giving. Just make sure that you know their shirt size and if you don’t know their favorite color, choose those neutral ones like white, brown and black.

Another would be those things that a person frequently uses like mugs, tumblers, makeup kits, pens and a whole lot more. These things can be customized or can be placed with holiday or personalized messages.

If you’re miles away from your love ones, you can perhaps engage to printing postcards and just simply mail it to them few weeks before Christmas day. They are much cheaper to send compared to those bulky and expensive gadgets. There is also a possibility for the latter on not being handled properly and end up broken when it reaches its destination.

If you are new to this site, then you might be new to postcrossing and postcard collecting. Your being here tells me you are interested in this activity though, perhaps because you want an extra hobby to add to your Cheekybingo or blog writing activities. So I figure it would be helpful to let you know what benefits can be felt from collecting postcards from across the world.

Memorabilia – While postcrossing means gaining postcards from places you’ve never visited, many people who are fortunate enough to travel, collect postcards from every place they go as memorabilia. Looking back at them later gives them a sense of nostalgia that sometimes can’t be matched.

Patience – It can take a very long time to find the perfect postcard to send. Likewise it can take a long time to build up your own collection of postcards. It takes a lot of patience on your part, but eventually you can look through the collection and feel a special tug, knowing all that time and effort produced such a diverse collection of postcards.

See the world – Postcard collecting is an opportunity to see the world, without ever leaving the comfort of your own home. You could look at pictures on the internet to see the world, but nothing quite beats the knowledge that the postcard in your hands was once halfway across the world.

Wistful – Receiving postcards from places you will never see in person, can make you feel a little wistful. Even though you’ll probably never go though, it feels better to have a small token from that place, than top not have one at all.

1. PickyDomains.com

It probably wouldn’t require a business doctorate for an intuitive entrepreneur to know that a good business name should speak volumes about his product or service, that a counterintuitive name entails extra branding and advertising efforts to catapult his business to prominence. Branding agencies, for sure, know this, and thus, the reason they’re still in business. But be warned, these agencies can charge up to thousands and thousands of dollars.

PickyDomains.com is a crowdsourcing service that’s been in the business of providing catchy, easy-to-remember, unique and relevant slogans, domains and names to anybody who has any need for them. Established in 2007, PickyDomains now has a contributor base that’s comprised of over 50,000 registered individuals from different parts of the world. To immediately start receiving naming recommendations from this team of creatives, become a client by registering with the site, pay $50 if it’s a domain or name you need (or $75 for a slogan), and set out your parameters. If none of the suggestions you receive is fitting enough for you, you get a refund.

2. Bitrix24.com

Nowadays, a business that’s still stuck in the technology of the ’90s, i.e., MS Access and Excel, to get the most basic of back-office work done is lacking in the efficiency arena. Cloud-based computing is the way to go, and if you think cloud-based can cost you an arm and a leg, you’re most definitely not where you’re supposed to be looking.

Bitrix24.com is a social enterprise platform that’s 100% free for small businesses consisting of up to 12 employees. Bitrix24 is an all-in-one work station comprised of an intranet, live streaming, CRM for sales and transactions, document and file sharing, calendar and activity planner, workforce management, and so on. Cloud-based, Bitrix24 requires no installation of any kind and can be accessed anytime, anywhere as long as you’re connected to the Internet either via a smartphone or a web-based browser. For companies with more than 12 employees, an upgrade to unlimited users starts at $99 a month.

3. JetRadar.com

If your business requires frequent travel, low-cost carriers and online travel sites are here to save the day on the expense front, but you would have to individually check out several flight and airline sites for the best deals being offered, a time-consuming task, if I must say so.

JetRadar.com is an airfare search engine that methodically looks into hundreds of flight and travel sites and 700+ airlines for the best and cheapest airfare tickets (at prices that normally can only be availed of through airlines’ official sites and/or partners’ sites), and makes the data publicly accessible in one online address – all in a matter of minutes. This greatly limits the time and effort it would normally take to find the best possible promotional airfare offers.

If you asked such a question more than a decade ago, people would not tell you that their idea of fun would include playing online games. That would not be possible because online games were not yet a common thing then, or perhaps I should say, still unheard of then. They were not yet an everyday reality in our world then.

Today, online games are as available as the internet. In the past decade or so, few people also have internet access but now more and more people are connected to the World Wide Web. And that connection also means online games are that accessible to people now.

With the accessibility of online games and with more and more people hooked up to the net, then it is not a surprise really when people would include playing online games as one of their fun activities.

Some people might still prefer grabbing a new book to read or getting a new DVD to watch. I do agree that there is something about reading a book or watching a movie that releases us. The experience takes us to another life really, another setting and in the end, this can be very refreshing. But some people would prefer “getting interactive” and playing online games can fall into that category. An online game that is getting quite popular is the online Bingo game – Onlinebingo.com click here. Some include it now as their choice of a fun activity. Well, how about you?

Going to Manila is one of the good things in life for me since I am in Cagayan de Oro. One of the things I do is to meet with other people, fellow bloggers and postcrossers! Eyeballing with them is like putting a face on the blogs they own or on the postcards they sent. I’m sure a whole day is not even enough just to know about them.

Last time I was in Manila, last year, I had a hard time looking for a place to stay. I had my whole family with me. I had to consider the distance from the airport to the hotel and the place should be accessible to most of those who will be joining the event. It was quite heavy on the pockets too, sad to say, but we all went anyway. The date had been set many months prior.

This time I want to be wiser. I will find a place to rent which will allow me even for just a week’s stay. It would be like living in a house. Domesticated. It feels better than a hotel where all I imagine is I’ll be paying for all the supposed luxury which I do not even maximize. That is why it is good news when I learned about Manila sublets available which I can roughly see online from ibilik.ph. I can have an idea of what to expect and where. Also, the space is surely bigger than any room a hotel can give. Food preparation will not be a hassle also since I do not have to stress myself in computing and worrying about hotel restaurant prices, which I’m sure is a lot more than any carinderia nearby. If I will, I can cook for my family too, which opportunity the hotel cannot give.

Now, my only problem is the opportunity to get a SALE from leading airline!

1. UNESCO Heritage Sites – Just like other countries, Philippines boasts a lot of beautiful natural and manmade tourist worthy spots and one of them is the Puerto Princesa Underground River.

2. Waterfalls – There are many waterfalls in the Philippines. In Iligan City alone, there are 23 waterfalls!! But not all of them have their own postcards.

3. Folkdances – Since Philippines is composed of 7,107 islands, then it also means we are a country of different cultures thus almost every ethnic groups has their own folkdances.

4. Beaches – And because the Philippines has a lot of islands, we can’t deny that we are hugely blessed with a lot of beautiful beaches like Boracay, Dakak and many more!!

5. Tourist Spots – Aside from the UNESCO Heritage Sites, we have many tourist spots and most of them have postcards of their own. Not massively produces in some places but can only be acquired by local stores.

6. Churches – The Philippines was colonized by the Spaniards for almost three centuries, so having many Catholic Churches is not a big surprise.

7. Cultural Heritage – We are fond of saying “Only in the Philippines.” Why? Because there are a lot of customary things and attitude that can only be found in our country just like the “pagmamano.”

8. Map Cards – We have different map cards. Though not many but we can brag a few!

This is only a quick list. On my next posts, I will give you more ideas on each! Hope you enjoy my post. Please share!

Anyway, whatever the reasons my fellow postcrosser’s had, for me, last Friday was special. Why? Because it was my Mail Day!! My last one was last September, so I was relieved that I was able to send postcards again after a long long time!

Here is a picture of all the postcards I sent:

And here are the list of people to whom I sent them:

Not so many as the other time but enough to keep the ball rolling.

To check out the official announcement, watch the video:

After validating and checking all the billion votes, they will announce and inaugurate the final New 7 Wonders of Nature early next year. But as early as right now, I am sure Puerto Princesa Underground River will definitely make it to the official and final list of winners! I can’t wait for them to be inaugurated!!