7 of 10 travellers always overspend budget when traveling

Visiting Tonle Sap floating village with the Russian ladies

EnSurvey.com is launching embeddable social poll feature with instant generated engaging infographic results this Wednesday and this is a sneak preview of how it will look like using my favourite context, travel.

The new features also included an upgraded infographics and easy voting that doesn't require sign up using Facebook plugin, with 2 questions of each social poll it provides some interesting reading experience for contributors.

My team and I are very excited about the newly improved experience, which aims to help news/media publishers and bloggers like myself to increase site engagement using social polls and beautiful infographics.

7 of 10 travellers always overspent budget when traveling

Some noticeable stats

• Travellers who choose next travel destination based on currency exchange with 60% saying they will not likely to overspend.
• Travellers who like shopping, 100% claims they will over spend.

We are still experimenting with the features and I personally believe it's going to help many news/media contributors to increase site activities.

Please share if you like it to help my humble startup.

Quick Tips: My Personal Experience As A First Time Actor

Rice Wine

Rolling... ready.. and.. action! Cut! One more! Safety shot! Sorry one more. Lights on, lights off! Smoke! Jump! Good take! 

This is a story of Rice Wine, directed by my dear friend VMin for submission of an international film contest.

Group photo with the crews.

The heavyweight scene was more challenging than I could have ever imagined. 

Both Xavier and Mynn were experienced actor and actress, relaxing and playing with their phones I thought they could not be more bothered with the wildest act in my life. It's different, I was hungry for more, I watched their every move so I could learn. 

I admitted I was bothered and nervous about the crying scene and expecting everyone to look awkwardly at me and it turned out to be unexpectedly smooth. It was just me and the camera, everyone else seemingly not concentrating on my screams. 

Pamela, Kua and Pei Tyng were as ready as ever after a few earlier NGs I was all prepared for my blockbuster act. 

Mom asked me that night what were going through my mind, many asked too, I wouldn't tell I was imagining the worst scene of my life losing my loved ones.

"Once it started you can't stop right?", Mynn spoke to me after that. Tears won't stop I was still catching my breath.

Mynn Lee and her charming smiley face, behind her, Xavier.

Imagining the worst, while paying careful attention to commands from god knows who it went like, "Some more, some more, scream, yell and utter something, more, more, don't stop", all translated and registered as keep going Andrew, don't stop here just keep going. Every "some more" I sunk myself deeper, and deeper into my darkest zone. 

I kept going, I fell inevitably towards my back, screaming out of my lung and crying breathlessly I felt I wasn't acting anymore, I was just sinking and choking in tears in my own little world, darkness closing down on me, I was shutting myself down and giving every bit I had nothing left in me when I heard the word "Cut, good take!".

Crying like a baby needing for my mom, flashes of images of faces of my dad. I was devastated, the world was spinning crazily, I sat down emotionlessly with tears and getting ready for the next repeat take.

Then the second take, had words with Ching Li after that day, she told me the two shots easily took an hour. It wasn't hard to imagine, but I lost time there. I literally had no idea about how long it had passed. 

VMin, Eva and Ah Weng the videographer came up to me with encouraging words about how well I did. I gave no response, I thought they understood, I was trying to recover soonest possible. 

Eva was very encouraging too, she helped VMin to every bit. She was always behind the director screen giving her inputs quietly to her husband, carefully and not to sound too authoritatively reminding the focusing husband cum director about small little things he might have missed. 

His eyes never moved away from the screen, he might not be approvingly about every word that came out from her wife's mouth but he always received it full heartedly. It's the sweetest thing to see. 

I felt safer and regained myself slowly as I saw Pamela walking to me. She gave me a comfort recognizing hug, I forgot what happened next, I smiled and said, "Nothing else can stop me now, I felt I'm stronger.". For a person who doesn't cry, he's weak.

Pamela, my "Kai Ma" and I.

Getting used to my thick eye brows?

I like it with my glasses on. What do you think?

Xavier was really the drama king, he was such an entertainer in his blood, Mynn was a stable and steady lady, unpredictable sometimes too I must say, haha. Both were superb I learnt a lot from them. Ching Li, who came with the sister Mynn on the first day of shooting, was pretty cute. We became friend after that. 

The wait was always long for the setup, lighting was an art, directions were always clear on what to expect not just to the actors but between the crews too. Communication was utmost important, the director was constantly talking to the videographer and the actors to be sure he was getting what he wanted.

When you are bored and have done everything elses, camwhoring is something fun and keeping us awake.

The rest were now becoming part of my history, it's the greatest experience I ever had. 

It's almost 2am, second day at second scene for night shoot, Xavier started again, dancing in every random directions. At the end, just when I started getting used to my make up it's all over now. I liked my make up :)

It's different to look through the screen than to watch Xavier act from a side.

To Ah Weng, my name was Gou Lou (tall guy), Xavier was Ah X, and Mynn was Leng Lui (pretty girl), it's really fun to involve in acting. 

We left around 5.30am in the morning, crews stayed to pack up, then, it's showering and zZ.

The Colour of Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan

I've been extremely focused on schedules of presentations with my industry counterparts mostly from the advertising and media agencies.

EnSurvey, is going to be my key focus in months to come, I'm full of passion for such a web start up since LifeLogger time, a social networking company I worked with in my early work days.

I had to cancel my trip to complete some critical tasks.

Oh yeah, almost forgetting to mention Amily, she's is coming tomorrow, I'm hosting this awesome Taiwanese girl during her stay in Kuala Lumpur.

One that always misses us whenever we are away

Vivi is always the one that everyone of us in the family would miss terribly while we are away, and he would always miss us. Strangely, he acts very differently whenever we are away, good and bad.

Vivi, our precious family member for 7 years 我们家的宝

He would jump on the car and follow us on a 30 minutes journey to the airport every time when one of us flies.

My mom travels with me first time the light backpacking way, I'd use "us"in referring to both of us. I've previously mentioned in 11 days travel Taiwan itinerary that I tried to schedule a more relaxing trip this time and gradually increase the pace but it turned out to be remarkably busy trip. 

Yangmingshan National Park, 阳明山国家公园

It was the second day and we had visited Yangmingshan in hope of witnessing the awesomeness of cherry blossoms at the park.

One of the eight amazing national parks in Taiwan, Yangmingshan is situated at the North-east of Taipei, Beitou District, it takes less than an hour to reach Yangmingshan main bus stop from Shilin MRT station.

When you reach the famous destination, you could have decided to walk up from where the main bus station is, or take another trip of bus that would traverse the mountains to reach the higher spot.

Natural beauty, Yangmingshan national park, Taiwan

There's travel info counter, the handy helper pointed us to the right direction to take the bus near the MRT station exit to our next destination on that morning.

The friendly travel info counter was particularly helpful for tourists, it's stationed mostly at train stations and MRT/LRT stations, easily being spotted.

Foot shot

Yangmingshan National Park

Madam Goo was positioning to try a few camera angles

As she walked to the crowd resting place

The mountain peaks are accessible by a few networks of well maintained hiking trails, we did not attempt to hike the peaks.

We could have witnessed the most beautiful cherry blossoms if we were there a week or two earlier during the Spring season, but we have very little to complain.

Cherry blossoms - Image taken from jenningsandgates.blogspot.com

A warmth feel of the natural beauty

A different feel for the natural beauty

We did not make it to the top as we gradually came to the end of our hike as mom felt the tiredness after the long morning activity, we picked a spot to rest near the waterfall through this what seemingly as the walkway that linked to the hiking trail.

Walkway that linked to the hiking trail of Yangmingshan

Make sure you stop by at the humble restaurant where they serve the unforgettable Yam noodle 芋头面线 and Minced pork rice 卤肉饭 for only $NTD140 include drinks.

Yam noodle 芋头面线

Minced pork rice 卤肉饭

We went on to leave the national park and visited National Palace Museum 台北故宫博物馆, no camera allowed in the museum which housed more than ten of thousands of Asian art collections of ancient artifacts.

Huge crowd could be found at the museum, could be annoying, try to go in the morning to avoid the long queue.

It required some good stamina to stay on our feet especially after the morning hike at Yangmingshan, by this time, mom was already complaining she felt her back aching, me too.

$NTD100 - 180 was the entrance fees before and after discount using the youth travel card I applied at the airport.

These were a few shots of the statues at the long front walkway to the museum, it required tremendous efforts to even raise my hands to keep the camera straight at this point of time.

Chinese lion statue found in front of the National palace museum

Google translated this as tripod for Chinese word 鼎,  4 legged tripod? Whatever =)

I did not bother whether I had taken enough shots at the museum, was eager to head home. That would conclude our second day in Taipei City with my mom.

Now, the fun part had just started as the night got closer, I was invited by my Taiwanese host to a private party at one of the pub at Zhongxiao east road 忠孝东路...

EnSurvey - The Online Survey Community That Pays Your For Your Opinions

www.ensurvey.com

If you are wondering why you haven't heard from me for some time I have a perfect explanation for my readers. I have an extremely important milestone to complete this time around.

This is going to be pure business blog, the business side of me for many of you probably won't be seeing. But I can assure you, I have the same passion for web business as much as for traveling and meeting new friends around the world.

It's been two remarkable years of conceptualization since the day I was with the advertising agency and finally EnSurvey has gone live. 

I could use some of your blessings, cheers! =)

What is it all about EnSurvey?

For many, it's going to be interesting to know that EnSurvey pays you to answer to some quick and fun surveys. Suitable surveys will be shown to you as your profile matches the client's requirements.

For others, EnSurvey is my latest venture, we help clients to gain quick market intelligence to justify business ideas and marketing initiatives, our clients are the marketeers (business owners, executives of brands, the advertising and media agencies, human resource and business units). You can work all within your budget and control.

Key features to EnSurvey

We are an online survey community where anyone can launch survey and target our respondents. You can target your private group too. Meaningful real-time results are generated real-time to assist you in achieving goals to deal with your industry.

Our model is pretty straight forward, our clients pay us, we pay our respondents. Think of us as the AirAsia or commonly known as the low price budget model, now more people have the opportunity to survey the market at higher frequency compares to when there’s no EnSurvey. 

We believe findings are very important to businesses where the strategy is built on, and we are the source of getting them in the most efficient and fastest way possible.

To put them into perspectives, I've included a findings below about a survey of Malaysian's Environmental Awareness in an attempt to understand the level of commitment from Malaysian people generally aged between 18 - 45 years old in doing their part saving the planet Earth.

EnSurvey Malaysian Environmental Awareness Survey - Aug 2012 from EnSurvey.com

Snapshot of EnSurvey

Surveys listing

Creating survey 

Targeting and setting up questions

Sample report

There are many great features such as:

• The Question Bank that would assist first time surveyor
• Incredibly powerful real-time analytics
• Precise targeting from day one to eliminate the unnecessary market noises
• Stay anonymous to survey the competitors
• Bidding for survey to achieve maximum result (this has got some similarity to bidding for keywords in Google Adsense and Facebook advertising)
• And many more

Alright, time to wrap up and I will definitely spend time blogging my next trip and clearing some of my backlog travel posts.

Until then, cheers and stay well, leave a comment of blessings for support! Thank you.

Couchsurfing in Taipei, Taiwan

It was not until the very last week before traveling to Taiwan I started arranging things with some of the CouchSurf hosts who's staying in Taipei City.

I have made a few contacts and thankfully the response was positive and very quickly, a few hosts were confirmed.

There are couple of things to communicate with the host before you leave on the plane.

• Date - it's important to communicate your arrival date accurately so the host can get prepared prior to your arrival.
• Time & place - while the arrival date is important, it's also crucial to know what time and where is the place to meet your host. The meeting place could be a famous landmark or MRT station located nearby your host's house.

Communication is the key, grab a local sim card with data plan from the many service providers, start communicating with your host either through voice call or there are a lot of handy apps you can use to make sure the couch is available.

While email is usually good at earlier stage of communication such as brief introduction between you and your host, and a check briefly if the dates are available for hosting, I use mostly Whatsapp and Line messenger to communicate directly with my host on further arrangements.

It's essential to check with the host a day or two before your arrival to avoid miscommunication. You don't want to end up without a place to stay.

Yi-chun, our host in Shida, Taipei - 师大, 台北

It's unthinkable that Taiwanese have such lovely characters with them, they are extremely friendly and polite, Yi-chun is no exceptional!

The classic beatles photo frame nicely hung on the wall

The fragrance pot, whatever you want to call it =)

Yi-chun and friends are seemingly well-organized persons

A view into the dining area and the kitchen, the couch was ours for the night

It's clearly having an advantage to stay with the native host, the excitement of meeting new friends and understanding their cultures aside, they are usually very helpful when comes to giving you some travel advices.

Their suggestions are very helpful knowing where to go, when to go, and how to go about the local travel hotspots, sharing things you can't miss. It's going to be really interesting and fun.

Exchanging cultural and travel experience are always the most fun part in our first meeting. We got a lot of travel information that night from Yi-chun and her boyfriend.

My mom was very shy at first, but she settled down quickly feeling the warmth reception from our lovely host.

Yi-chun, our Taiwanese native host in Taipei in Shida

The Next Day

The next morning we were up early for Yangmingshan national park and National palace museum at the north of Taipei city.

Morning walk on the street to the Technology building station

As we walked towards the nearest Technology building station, we found our little wonder at the cross of the housing areas.

Resting at the garden, yeah resting before we even started our trip haha, this cup noodle, 面线, together with pork sandwich enlightened our day for only $NTD 60!

Sweet time at the relaxing garden

Mianxian 面线, irresistible noodle soup

The unforgettable pork sandwich!

They were just two of the many irresistible and humble-looking food we'd definitely recommend anyone to try it, it's unbelievable!

And we could defnitely use a little time for planning our route to our next destinations.

Rock n' roll!

It's a quiet morning, it's always good to start the day slow to enjoy every moment of the details before we got busier later.

Next up,  The colour of Yangmingshan national park.

Taiwan: 11 Days Round The Island Taiwan Trip Itinerary

My blog's traffic has increased significantly after my last post on Taiwan trip sampler, I should get busier with more Taiwan posts for the obvious reason.

Synopsis of my Taiwan trip

I was originally expecting a slow start of the trip and gradually increasing the momentum to allow time for my mom to adjust to my pace in my previously proposed 11 days Taiwan northern central-west trip sampler.

It turned out to be the opposite way, it was a frenzy start and gradually slowing down at the end of the trip.

Again some very last minute rearrangement of my trip this time I traveled East coast and went all the way down to Southern side of Taiwan after being convinced by Willy, the backpacker hostel owner in Taipei, that we should get more out of the journey to the East at this time of traveling.

Taipei 101

The weather was unpredictable, we got a Sunny warm morning with about 25 Degrees of Celsius, all of sudden the sky turned gloomy and the temperature would drop to below 20 Degrees with strong breeze of cold wind.

We spent a few great nights in Taipei, then setting foot in Hualien and Taitung along the East line before finally settling down in Tainan skipping Kaohsiung and Kending for some reasons.

A few places we covered while we were in Taipei City 台北市.

• Taipei 101 台北101
• Ximending 西门町 (Young & trendy district)
• Longshan temple 龙山寺
• Natinal palace museum 台北故宫博物馆
• Dihua street 迪化街 (one of the oldest street in Taipei)
• Zhongxia east road 忠孝东路（东区 Shopping heaven）
• Wufenpu 五分埔 (Best shopping place)
• Yangmingshan national park 阳明山公园
• Xingtian temple 行天宫
• Raohe night market 饶河夜市

There's no particular reason why some destinations were skipped from the original plan, it's just my own preference and last minute decisions from the optional travel list.

From the sight of the buzzing cities with the third tallest building in the world to the magnificent of the natural and historical landmarks, Taiwan never came short of my expectation about her.

I'm amazed especially by Taiwanese's rich culture and politeness, their extraordinary friendliness electrifies me, the people are full of love and most are highly spirited!

Ilha Formosa, The Beautiful Island, claimed by the Portugese sailors centuries ago when they first saw Taiwan, is truly one of the most beautiful travel destination you can not miss!

These pictures will tell us how diverse is Taiwanese cultures are.

Zhongxiao road, one of the most concentrated & busiest streets in Taipei

Xingtian temple 行天宫

七股龙山庙 Qigu Longshan temple near Tainan

Yangmingshan 阳明山

Jiufen old quarter, 九份老街 is the reminiscent of Sapa in Hanoi, about 1.5 hours away from Taipei city centre by bus, Jiufen old quarter is an old quarter situated at the far hilltop near Keelung city. Avoid any weekend trip, this place is flocked by travelers!

We traveled by light rail to Shihlin station and transited with public bus to Jiufen. I'd recommend to spend a few nights staying at Jiufen to use some quiet moments, there are many cheap and remarkable B&B (Bed & Breakfast local house converted hostel, 民宿) providing comfortable accommodation.

Jiufen old quarter 九份老街 is one of the signature of Taiwan

Temple at the entrance of Raohe night market in Taipei 饶河夜市

My favourite Taiwanese signature food is no other than the minced pork rice, 卤肉饭.

Minced pork rice 卤肉饭

It's not until we reached Hualien 花莲 we found out about how magnificent it was about Taroko National Park 太鲁阁国家公园, one of the great wonders in Asia according.

The park is located towards North of Hualien Country, a full day tour to Taroko gorge, 45 minutes from Hualien township with bus or motorbike, is the favourite destination for many hikers and cyclers.

The stunning gorge is known for its sheer marble cliffs, deep, winding tunnels, and the Liwu River which flows through the craggy landscape.  We stopped at the Swallows Grotto, where the section of the highway runs through tunnels carved into the marble vertical sides of the gorge.

One of the few highlights are:

• Taroko Skadang Tracks 砂卡当步道
• Swallow Caves 燕子口
• Tunnel of Nine Turns 九曲洞
• Eternal Spring Shrine 长春寺
• The Bridge of Kind Mother 慈母桥
• Tiansiang Lodge 天祥

Entrance to one of the Asia wonders, Taroko, it means magnificent and beautiful in Truku

Taroko Gorge's remarkview from Skadang tracks 砂卡当步道风景

The East line train has the panoramic views of the East coast beaches and agriculture farms, mostly are paddy fields.

Paddy field along the East coast line

We stopped at Tainan 台南 after Taitung 台东 and traveled out of town to Taijiang National Park 台江国家公园 for the marine life of the famous lagoon.

The dense of mangroves and salt fields near the inland sea of Qi-gu 七股 are also the highlights where we unexpectedly met by troops of locals celebrating the God's birthday where the locals marched and danced their Gods out from their respective temples to greet the birthday of another God.

Celebration of God's birthday

Taijiang roadside where the gentle wind welcomed us

Fort Provintia 赤崁楼 in Tainan

Taiwan Round The Island Trip Itinerary

It covers the Northern, Central-east and Southern part of Taiwan.

Day 1 - Arrival in Taoyuen > Taipei
Day 2 - Taipei
Day 3 - Taipei > Jiufen
Day 4 - Taipei
Day 5 - Taipei > Hualien
Day 6 - Hualien
Day 7 - Hualien > Taitung
Day 8 - Taitung > Tainan
Day 9 - Tainan
Day 10 - Tainan
Day 11 - Tainan > Taoyuan > Kuala Lumpur

Main Attractions


View [Taiwan] Backpack itinerary sampler in a larger map

Overall Expenditures

Living standard in Taiwan is considerably OK, Taiwanese beer is as cheap as TWD$450/500ml per can! Well that's my simplest correlation, haha!

• Accommodation - TWD$400 - 700/night/person
• Motorbike rental - TWD$500-600/day
• Food - TWD$250-500/day/person

We spent most of the nights at backpacker hostels, they are generally clean and with highly passionated hostel helpers sharing all the tips required for your trip. 

Information about a city is easily available as the travel info center usually being setup at train or MRT stations.

Rental of motorbike at certain cities are highly recommended to save traveling time, the providers are all over the place near train stations. 

Resourceful Reference

One of the handiest reference site I've visited frequently when I was studying about Taiwan is Kafkaesque's blog, the 30+ year-old European blogger who moved to Taiwan couple of years ago is really thorough about Taiwan.

There is a great Chinese forum giving every little good tips about the best deals and hot travel spots in Taiwan, Backpacker Taiwan Forum. Forumers are very helpful in recommending amazing places for visit, best deal of your packages and accommodation with humble reviews through their own experience, the discussion goes beyond Taiwan to other regional countries as well.

Well, until we meet again in my next blog, I should say that Taiwan is truly remarkable, a livable place as described by my good friend, Derek. And no doubt, Taiwanese is one of the warmest people on the planet you'd want to meet.