Vlog Ep. 141: The One About Singapore

We pulled another topic from the request queue for this episode of #BaduyPride and ended up talking all about Singapore! It's the first country that Tobie and I have traveled to together and the one we've also visited the most because of the fact that I have family there. So for obvious reasons, the country is very near and dear to our heart.

This was also our first travel-related episode, which isn't the easiest topic to discuss while the country has remained under different forms of quarantine for almost a year now. But as is the nature of Baduy Pride, we focused on the better memories and talked about all the things that we love about Singapore in this rather lengthy episode.

This was a community-contributed topic originally shared by our friend, Karlo! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured in a future video.

Vlog Ep 49: Our Experiences with the Local Queer Scene

We've been taking advantage of using Friday nights for longer #BaduyPride episodes, and our 49th one was all about our diverse experiences with the local queer scene over the years. It was an interesting retelling that started with our solo adventures before we got together and culminated with everything we love about O Bar.

We also took some time to share some of our experiences with foreign LGBT spaces in the US, Singapore, and Thailand, just to sort of compare and contrast those spaces versus the bars at home. This video ran for a good 90 minutes and we really enjoyed all the comments that came in during the stream that made things extra special.

This was a community-contributed topic originally shared by our friend, Kenny! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured in a future video.

Non-Traveling Geeks

So I managed to get Maundy Thursday and Good Friday last week and thus I actually had a lengthy Holy Week vacation with Tobie. And we pretty much spent the long weekend at home with a few friends coming over to play board games and RPGs. It was a lot of fun even though we didn't leave the building this whole time.

The summer time is usually one invested in big out of town trips, as far as Facebook is concerned. This weekend alone we saw a good number of folks who hit the beaches of Puerto Galera, Palawan or Boracay. And yet you have geeks like Tobie and me who just stayed in the city.

And it's not like we're against travel or even against beaches - we have our fair share of time at the beach (even with Yoshi!) But it's just not something that comes up a lot. There is the desire to bring Yoshi back to a beach and see how he might react to the change in environment so many years later.

But the challenge of travel is, well, the traveling. We don't necessarily mind going to Singapore since the trip is pretty easy and then we get to stay with my sister while there. That makes it a nicely homey environment even when in another country. Beach trips, especially local ones, mean making the most of cramped environments and a lot less creature comforts compared to other locations.

But let's see - anything is possible and maybe we'll find the time to schedule something in the future. Although, WiFi or internet connectivity of some sort is rather crucial regardless of where we end up visiting. It's really hard not to have access to the internet, especially since I blog daily.

So We Went to Singapore...

So I put together another #AutoAwesome video using all the selfies we took while in Singapore last weekend.

Note to self: Try to take more actual videos during the next trip.

Singapore Auto Awesome Videos!

So I played around with the Google+ Photos app to see what I could come up with using the photos from our recent trip to Singapore.

Kinda fun stuff!


Return to Singapore River Safari


STGCC 2014

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Tobie is with his family in Singapore this weekend, so it's just me and Yoshi until Sunday evening. It's funny how during such times when Tobie and I are apart, I seem to continue to see things that I want to share with him and such - that's life for you I suppose.

He's not feeling quite well though - I guess his busy week is catching up with him. So I figured it would be nice to get him a little something as a welcome home gift. I ended up getting a pair of the new Coke glasses from McDonald's since the whole bottlecap design is rather cute. :Plus we had also gotten ourselves matching Coke glasses a few years ago when another of these glass promos ran shortly after we had moved into the Sietch.

The little things matter, you know. ;-)

Tobie and Bruno

Sharing a quick moment between Tobie and my sister's dog, Bruno. For a man who was once terrified of dogs (including tiny toy dogs), Tobie has really come a long way. And I'm not just talking about the fact that we're in Singapore now.

I'm so proud.

Four Months...of THEATER!

Marina Bay Sands Theater (Jan 2012)

I've always been rather big on theater - especially musical theater. Jokingly one could say that it's one of my obviously gay traits, if you get the movie reference. And thankfully over the years that I've known Tobie, he's been more than happy to share my enthusiasm for watching plays.

And it's not exactly a cheap endeavor, as you all may well know. So instead of a heck of a lot of travel to remote beaches, foreign shopping destinations and the like, we end up investing a lot in this little theater hobby.

And there's a heck of a lot of theater to be enjoyed - in fact it has become one of the main reasons that we travel to Singapore so much, apart from the desire to visit my sister and such. Yes, we travel to another country just to catch great shows like the recent stagings of The Lion King, Wicked and Jersey Boys.

I know I'm really lucky that Tobie is so supportive of this particular passion of mine - but that's how good relationships work of course. You find ways to celebrate what each of you love and to do so in a manner that is genuinely enjoyable for both of you.

Today is also our fourth month of being back together - a rekindling of our relationship that ironically began with a trip to Singapore last November to watch Jersey Boys. And this year we've already indulged in a few shows with another one scheduled this afternoon!

Pseudo-slideshow time!

Three Months of FAMILY LOVE

Relationships are never easy, and no one ever claimed that would be the case. And for an especially a-typical relationship such as what Tobie, Prince and I share, there's definitely a lot of possible complications to deal with. It's just the nature of human relationships - each come with our unique character traits that sometimes work and sometimes don't when brought all together.

But here we are, still together and still strong after three months of being a family. And I know I keep talking about how conventional terms don't precisely describe our relationship, it seems the term family really does fit us best. We no longer think of ourselves as just boyfriends - we see each other as husbands, true partners in this relationship. We celebrate our passions together, even when we don't necessarily like the same things.  We face life's challenges together. We celebrate love, because that's what families do.

So as we officially mark our third anniversary together, allow me to go through a few of the events in the past month that mark our journey to this point.

Two Months of Being a Family

Today marks our second full month of being in one of the more unique relationships around. Instead of calling what Tobie, Prince and I share a "threesome" or a "ménage à trois", it seems the term family best suits us. In fact, we've started to refer to ourselves as the ASA Family, given ASA is an acronym of our last names Abad-Sunico-Angeles. This sort of replaces the old Pamilya Egg term, especially since Nico is now coming to terms with the fact that he now has an additional "dad" to deal with, hehe.

So what have we been up to over the past 30 days? Let's breeze through the photo memories, shall we?

Last Video From Our Clark Adventure

Tobie, Prince and I had an amazing time at Clark, Pampanga for the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. It was a weekend of many new memories plus new home videos for our Baduy Pride memories!

Remind me to write a more formal post to discuss the different terms we use to call ourselves. Baduy Pride is still the name of the blog and that's just the tip of the iceberg, hehe.

Baduy Pride at the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

Our time at the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta was AMAZING! So, so, so glad that Prince helped put this whole trip together.

And to get a taste of what happened this morning, here's our little "home video".

Enjoy!

Baduy Pride at Clark, Pampanga

Here's a quick video consisting of highlights from our first day at Clark, Pampanga for the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta! Our thanks to the Maharaja Hotel for great accommodations and very good service as well!

Prince Singapore Diary 06: Chinatown

I originally planned to have a lot of shots in Chinatown as we toured the various shops, looked for interesting deals and all that good stuff.

But then we found the Tintin Shop and that just ate up all our time.

So instead we ended up with this short 2 minute video. And I hate myself for not taking a video in the shop, but dang we had a lot of fun there.



And that was our Singapore trip. Hope you enjoyed the videos, Prince! And for the rest of you, well, hope you enjoyed sharing in our baduyness.

Prince Singapore Diary 05: Botanic Gardens

For our last day in Singapore, we didn't have much planned at first, which was rather boring. And since we wanted to make sure we made the most of the trip and ensured that Prince had a fun video to enjoy, we opted to add one more itinerary item to our agenda - to visit the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

But we hadn't expected the park to be that big or the paths so winding and twisty. So a simple walk became a major hike.

But it was still a lot of fun and totally worth the following video:

Prince Singapore Diary 04: Marina Bay Sands

Image via Wikipedia

The bulk of our Sunday was spent at Marina Bay Sands since we had mapped out a trip to see the Titanic Artifact Exhibition at the ArtScience Museum and to catch Wicked at the Marina Bay Sands Theater. We also made sure to take a lot of videos to give our Prince a quick tour of the area and so he could enjoy things with us.

It's a shame we couldn't take video inside the museum or in the theater, but I think we did a pretty good job with what we were allowed to.

One more day in Singapore to go! Can't wait to get home to our baby!

Prince Singapore Diary 03: Up and Down Orchard Road

Most of our Saturday was spent at various locations along Orchard Road. Starting with the National Museum of Singapore for the Dreams and Reality exhibit to the 1 million shopping locations on the famous street, it felt lime we visited almost every one of them.

We bought geek stuff at Paradigm Infinitum, a book at Kinokuniya, some DVDs and of course some gifts for Prince along the way too. We failed in our original objective to buy ourselves some clothes - but the end conclusion is that we'd be better off going shopping at Greenhills with Prince to find stuff we'll like.

Missing our baby Prince so much! But hopefully these videos will act as a great way to both relive our memories of the trip and make sure Prince feels like he was right there with us apart from all the roaming text messages we keep sending him.



Stay baduy people! And if you bump into Prince, remind him that there are two geeks in Singapore who love him beyond belief. =D

Prince Singapore Diary 02: Hawker Morning

Continuing our efforts to document our Singapore trip through videos for our baby Prince, here's the next installment as we finally get around to having some breakfast. Pardon my shirtlessness...LOL





NomNomNom, baby! Wish you could enjoy all the crazy food with us!

Prince Singapore Diary 01: Departure

Last September, Tobie and I mapped out our second trip to Singapore even though we had just finished our first one. It coincided with the announcement that the Marina Bay Sands would be staging a run of the amazing Broadway musical Wicked, which I had managed to catch in LA a few years ago and yet Tobie had not seen. Another of those Cebu Pacific seat sales had come along with the right travel dates and thus we booked the very trip that we're on as of this weekend.

But since then,Prince happened and we've reached a new level of Baduy Pride, but sadly it was far too late to figure out a way to bring him along. Plus the fact that Prince had gotten sick just before the trip, it really wasn't an option.

But just because Prince isn't physically with us doesn't mean that we can't find a way to have him experience the trip with us. Given the wonders of technology, we had decided to put together a little "surprise" for our baby.

So here is the first in what will be a series of videos documenting our trip to Singapore. And yes, the videos are addressed to Prince and are not meant as general travel videos, so you may feel a bit awkward watching it when you happen to NOT be Prince.

But this seemed like the perfect baduy thing to do for our baby. We're going to have many fantastic trips together, we're sure. But for this one, we're going to be creative.




We miss you baby! Hope you enjoy your surprise! Obviously, this is the "staggered" version of things, hehe.

Love you so much.

Heading Back to Singapore!

By the time this post publishes, Tobie and I will be on a plane headed for Singapore! Exciting!

Given this trip had been planned out since September of last year, it's a shame that we couldn't bring Prince with us just yet. But I'm sure we're going to have even more wonderful adventures together with him very, very soon - in fact we already have such a trip mapped out for this February.

We'll do our best to post updates regularly! Otherwise, catch you next week and continue celebrating the baduy life. =D