Collin Ng's Blog

On 16 to 18 Jan 2009, we were invited to participate in Danga City Shopping Mall's Chinese New Year promotion. We were given a booth to promote our cruise and resort packages during the three-day promotion. Our very own entertainer, the multi-talented Feri performed the ancient Chinese mask-changing act concorted with his own magic acts - a change from the norm! The crowd was wowed, for sure. And not forgetting, our program manager James who was the MC on stage and he did make a marvellous introduction of Feri and our core products. The guest-of-honour on 17 Jan, Saturday was the honourable Minister for Tourism, Dato Seri Azahari, endorsing the mall as one up coming one-stop destination for Singaporeans arriving by train from Tg Pagar Railway Station and disembarking right at the shopping mall. Later in the evening, the adrenalin rush of the crowd went wild when specially invited Mediacorp artise, Jeannette Aw who starred in the just concluded 'Little Nongya' drama seri...

Held over 2 days on 10 & 11 Jan @ Suntec Exhibition Hall, this is the first ever event organised with senior citizens aged 50 & above in mind. Themed, 50+ Singapore Exposition 2009 has attracted many senior citizens to this consumer fair targetting health and travel activities. Batam View is the only resort in Batam participated in this event.

Presenting New Century Foundation Chingay 2009 float, final touch-up still needed before the big parade on 30 & 31 Jan at City Hall. Our float is the longest by far, 28 metre to be exact and there will be 700 performers around it. The highlight of this float which, by the way is the finale of the parade will end on a high with a illusion show put up by a father and daughter team.

Invited to attend a wedding dinner at Golden View Hotel recently and was shown around the reclaimed land by the owner. The reclaimed land has covered some nearly 200 hectares and is still growing. Sand is readily available, excavated from the hill near the reclaimed site. A big saving vis-a-vis if done in Singapore. The masterplan of this massive reclaimed land includes upscale bungalows/villas, an entertainment park, a ferry terminal and a marina, among others. The downside, I feel is this place is sited in Batam and it takes a mountain of a task to convince Singaporeans to invest their hard-earned money given topsy-turvy governmental policies there. The owner has even bought one Cheng Ho junk cruise from her previous Singapore owner with intention to run harbour cruises when ready. This is one of the many initiatives they have lined up. The space inside and outside Golden View Hotel is abundant, I believe it is only a matter of time they give their competitors a run for the...

Effective 1 Jan this year, smoking ban has been expanded in public areas including no smoking within 5 metre boundary outside a building. While I feel this latest ban is somewhat harsh on smokers who are already finding hard to puff away but there are still some who simply defy such ban of sorts. While heading to office for work one morning, I saw a middle-aged man holding a cigarette about to walk into the lift. There were only two of us at the lift lobby then. Before the lift shut, I told him smoking is not allowed in lift. Instead of heeding to my advice, he gave another puff inside. I was visibly upset. After shutting, the lift door re-opened almost immediately. Two gentlemen happened to press the button and one of them turned out to be the employer of this smoker. He told him that he should not be smoking in the lift. I then chipped in, telling them that I had earlier told him not to smoke but he remained defiant. I further told them that I do not want to die young, appa...