Traveling is no doubt one of the best activities to experience of all time. But it’s important to have some quick, useful tips with you as a traveller (no matter where you are visiting). Here is a guide to help you stay off trouble and help you prepare for a smoother travel experience.


1. Plan, plan and plan

• Do your homework- do a search on your travel destination or read up on guide books and even travel reviews on Koolred
• Familiarise yourself with the customs and surroundings of the country before stepping foot into the country
• Get to know a local from the country beforehand and connect with our Travel Hosts and Travel Advisors on Koolred- they’ll simply be happy to help you out

2. Prepare for a Disaster

• Be prepared in case of emergencies. Imagine you left your passport at home when you’re already at the airport, what are your options?
• Make copies of your passport details and visas in case you lose your travel documents.
• Leave a copy of your travel itinerary with someone back home (so they will know your whereabouts just in case) while you’re overseas.

3. Book in Advance

• Book your first and last night’s accommodation before you leave.
• Some tourist locations and activities require months of booking as well, for instance the waiting list to climb Mount Kinabalu in Sabah may take up to about six months of booking.
• Booking also ensures you a confirmed spot too (be it for transportation or a leisure activity), so best to find out before hand.

4. Take Care of Yourself- Inside and Out

• You can let loose when you’re on holiday but make sure you take good care of your well being. Check out some healthy diet tips you can adhere to while you’re on holiday.
• Drink lots of water to stay hydrated but be sure that the water is safe to drink first, if not you’ll need to buy bottled waters.

• If you’re concerned about the cleanliness of your pillow in your hotel room, you’re not the only one. You can use the insides of your shirt to slide over your pillow to sleep on.

5. Be a Local

• This is what raw travel experiences are about! When traveling in a foreign country, eat like the locals and get a heads up on where to find the best food in that country.
• Most Redsters are foodies and have contributed food reviews in the best foods in Asia which you can check out if you’re in that region.

• You may also get the best bargains when you shop at local markets like the floating market in Thailand, rather than departmental stores.

6. “Say what???!!!”

• It’s good to learn a couple of basic languages when you’re out and about.
• Know simple greetings like "Hello" and “Thank you”:

• Being able to speak the language in a foreign country is a great way to connect with local culture.

7. Write it down

• Even with a city map, you might miss a turning and you find yourself not knowing where you are.
• Have a notepad and pen with you at all times so you can get a local to draw you directions if needed.
• If you have somewhere in mind, get your hotel concierge to help you write down the location in their language which you can then show to your cab driver later on.

8. Better be safe than sorry

• There are some tricks to making sure that your money and valuables are safe and sound.
• Pack your valuables in regular pill boxes- your rings, necklaces and earrings can fit inside them so you won’t end up losing them in your luggage.

• When you’re out shopping, carry a small calculator with you as you can easily find out how much the items cost after conversion right on the spot.

• Be wary about your money and consider carrying a dummy wallet. Make sure not to store all your money in your bag or wallet, but stash some in your own pockets too.

And there you have it! Some key tips that all travel bugs can hold on too.
Have any handy travel tips that you use as a rule of thumb when you’re traveling? We look forward to hearing about tips for travellers themselves around the world.

Like these travel tips? Then  this post!

Here’s your chance to win free hotel vouchers with our new and exciting Koolred Travel Video Contest!


What to do to win:

1. Create an original video (1-3 minutes) promoting interesting things about any city around the world.
2. At the end of your video, the special “I ♥ Koolred & Tune Hotels” image must be showcased. Download the original image from the contest page.
3. Gain votes for your video entry by sending the link to your friends so they can vote for you via the   button. You can vote for yourself too!
4. Contest open to Koolred community members aged 18 and up.

Let your creativity be your guide!

Tips:
Start with a theme for your video. Here are some examples:

• Top 3 places to go
• Great hotels to stay
• Popular places to eat
• Different types of food
• Best places to shop

You can check out some simple tips we have on how to shoot and edit a travel video!

Kool Prizes

Check it out! This is what you can win if your video entry was our 1st Prize:
A complimentary 3-night stay at Tune Hotels Double Six, Legian, Bali, Indonesia!


There will also be two more winning videos where both winners too will receive complimentary hotel vouchers:

2nd Prize: 2-night stay at Tune Hotels Downtown Penang, Malaysia
3rd Prize: 2-night stay at Tune Hotels Danga Bay, Johor, Malaysia

We would like to give a big thank you to Tune Hotels for their generous sponsor and support in this video contest.

So how will the videos be judged?

Submitted videos will be judged on these criteria:


So take out that camera and shoot your own travel video entry for Koolred. You never know, your creative work might just win you superb hotel voucher giveaways!
All entries should reach us by 17 November 2011.


Just like the video entries, remember to  this post if you like it!

We’ve gone through all entries of the Koolred Colourful Photo Contest that were submitted from all over the world. With more than 900 qualified entries, judging was no easy task. Contestants had to submit a colourful photo entry and answer three simple questions correctly in order to qualify. Nonetheless your entries were wonderful and we enjoyed exploring the colours of the world through your pictures.


It is our pleasure to announce our winners of those enticing AirAsia flights! Here’s what our top winners had to say about their contest entries:

Winners!
1st Prize
“Exotic spices at Spice Bazaar, Istanbul Turkey” by Halwani Abdul Kadir


Beautiful! Who knew even the most basic things in life such as cooking spices could bring so many colours to this world? Congratulations Halwani, as you’ve just won yourself an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou, China!

2nd Prize
“Colorful and intricate pattern of a traditional female flower hmong dress in Sapa, Vietnam” by Suzairi Zakaria



Translation:


What a quirky photo, Suzairi’s colourful entry truly puts a smile on our faces! Nice touch, Suzairi. We hope you’ll be back with more interesting photos as we’re flying you to Kochi, India from Kuala Lumpur!

3rd Prize
“A group Chinese Opera Artists performs in Beijing, China, giving foreigners a backstage sneak preview and an introduction to their craft” by Christian Adam Espiritu


A great photo captured at the right moment! Our 3rd prize entry exhibits a movement-like attribute in the rainbow-coloured picture. Well done, Christian. Pack your bags as you’ll be hopping on a free flight to Myanmar.

The winner’s list doesn’t end here as we have 47 Consolation Prize winners who each received official AirAsia merchandises. Do share with us some of your Kool shots of the exclusive merchandises and yourself on Koolred when you get them!

Lest we forget, kudos to AirAsia for their generous support and sponsor for the awesome prizes! Many thanks for making this colourful contest such a great success.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Koolred Colourful Photo Contest and congratulations to all of the fantastic photographers who made it into the winner’s list! We truly can’t wait to read the fantastic yet colourful travel blogs by Halwani, Suzairi and Christian on Koolred as well!

We have a lot more coming soon on Koolred so if you’re not a member yet, sign up today!
Congrats again to all our proud winners.

If you like this post,   it!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a day of family reunions, joyous celebrations as well as ancient legends closely associated with the occasion. The auspicious affair is celebrated in most countries in Asia on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival takes place on 12 September 2011.


Mooncakes

The Chinese believe that the moon is the roundest and the brightest on this day which symbolises completeness and abundance of one’s life. There are many names for this special event such as Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, varying from country to country. Some of the countries have unique customs when it comes to this festival. During the Tuan Yuan Jie or Reunion Festival in Taiwan, the Taiwanese celebrate with a lively barbeque cookout with family and friends as they gaze at the bright moon.

In Vietnam, the Tết Trung Thu or Mid-Autumn Festival witnesses an important custom before and during this festival which is the performance of lion dances. Much like during Chinese New Year, the “lion” will come to homes to dance for best wishes, luck and fortune as the host of the house shows their gratitude by giving back lucky money.


Colourful Chinese Lanterns

Although they bear different names or different rituals, most countries celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with the same annual and cultural rituals.

Mid-Autumn Festival Foods & Festivities
The traditional foods are mostly red as the colour represents good luck such as lobster and salmon. Other favourites that accompany the meals are apples, pomegranates, roasted peanuts, pomelo, chestnuts and fatt koh (sponge cakes). But the Mid-Autumn Festival wouldn’t be as delightful without the colourful lantern displays as well as indulging the variety of yummy mooncakes during this festival.

Lanterns
Lanterns or tang lung are so inextricably linked to the celebration that it’s often called the Lantern Festival. Some countries decorate the town with large red lanterns during this day. Traditionally, children are allowed to stay up past midnight as they parade the streets with colourful lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The traditional tang lung is made of paper and celebrants will light up the insides of the lantern with a candle. Children will carry these paper lanterns on the end of a stick as they illuminate the streets on this beautiful day.


Traditional Tang Lung

Today, the modern tang lung is made from all kinds of materials such as fabric cloth and plastic. Candles are replaced by battery-powered lights and some lanterns make music when they’re switched on too!


A furry tang lung indeed!

Quite a number of creative manufacturers have also created lanterns in shapes of popular cartoon characters. This year, the Angry Bird design is one of the more popular ones as we stumbled upon one made of paper and another made of plastic. The display of these various designs result to a fantastic and elaborate display of captivating colours!



Mooncakes
Families and friends will assemble together to eat mooncakes (round pastries with a thick lotus seed paste fillings) under the bright harvest moon. These delicate little ‘cakes’ are stamped with the Chinese character for “longevity” and some mooncakes are filled with a whole salted egg yolk which symbolises the full moon.


Traditional mooncake without egg yolk

While most people enjoy the traditional mooncakes, many other flavours have surfaced in the market that varies in flavours and designs. We’ve seen mooncakes made entirely of ice cream and even jelly.



We’re so intrigued by this Caramel Macchiato mooncake as well! Much like cartoon design lanterns, today’s mooncakes are also stamped with the face of cartoon characters. Check out this Doraemon mooncake!



In the spirit of the Mid-Autumn Festival, we at Koolred have mooncakes and colourful lanterns Koolgifts for you to send to your friends!  



Tell us how does your country celebrate this festival? Share with us your stories!

From all of us at Koolred, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Get ready to rev up your engines because we’ve launched a brand new contest with limited edition Cars 2 merchandise to give away – courtesy of AirAsia Megastore! The contest will be held from 5-9 September and 12-15 September 2011 ending daily at 5pm (GMT +8).


Every day we’ll post a question about this new Pixar production movie on our Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/koolred. Simply answer the daily question correctly while retweeting the tweet posted by @Koolred.

Can’t wait to join the race? Here’s what you have to do to win:

1. Be a follower of @Koolred and @AAMegastore on Twitter.
2. Look out for the daily contest tweet
3. Retweet and reply us with the correct answer:

It’s as simple as that. Wanna know what’s waiting for you at the finish line? Well, everyday one follower will walk away with free, original Cars 2 merchandise such as sunshades, t-shirts, jigsaw puzzles, watch, toolkit, water tumblers, car stickers, key chains, iPhone 4 skins or a studio art set.


The daily winner will be chosen at random and announced at 5.30pm during the contest period. Only one Retweet/RT is counter for entry and all entries should be preceded by the correct answer, followed by the full contest tweet posted by @Koolred.
Please be sure to read the contest Terms & Conditions here.

Kudos to AirAsia Megastore for sponsoring the awesome prizes in this contest. Do drop by airasiamegastore.com for more original Cars 2 merchandises which you can purchase with a 10% discount online.

Wanna be a star winner? Get ready, set, TWEET!