Sunday, October 18, 2026

Singapore - To Do (Mandai Rainforest Adventure East & West, Airforce Museum)

Singapore - To Stay
Singapore - To Eat
Singapore - To Do

Mandai Rainforest Wild Adventure - East and West
ABBATips:
- Wear Covered Shoes. The East side did have shoes for those who didn't but the West side did not. Many of the activities require covered shoes.
- Expectations vs reality. The Mandai Rainforest Wild Adventure is more off jungle trail hiking, thrilling outdoor activities and 'chance' encounters with animals. About a 50-50 balance mix of everything. The routes encourage exploration for those seeking a more adventurous off trail route or the 
- Lots of IG worthy spots and now they've set up Photo spot stands for easy photo taking.
- Tickets grant you entry and activities to both sides of the park with a free internal shuttle (Still to come) within both parks. Weekdays gets you 5Activities per pax while weekend 3Activities. Three is plenty and can fill up a good half of the day once you add in looking for animals and some leisurely hiking in the beautifully curated landscape.
West Side
(First to open)
(I'd say an equal balance of animals, walking trails and variety of high energy activities to do.)
*Visited 01Jan26

*One of their signature attractions where you get to scale the side of the rocks to see the animals as they watch you. Now you can do the activity at no additional charge.*

*Another Star attraction here.*
*Plenty of trails and changing environments. For those who really enjoy walking in and around nature. There are also elevated routes for ease of accesibility.*


*The cave at Mandai’s Rainforest Wild Adventure is modelled after the Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo — a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its enormous limestone cave*

East Side
(Smaller than the West side and not as much animal enclosures
as compared to the West Side)

Visited 04Oct26
*The Okapi is the star here which its closest living relative being the giraffe.*

*Just as beautiful landscapes in this newly open wing. A little smaller and not as many varety of animals over here as compared to the West Side.*
*The various activities that we could do with the revamped ticketing. Weekday allows up to 5 activities across East and West side.*
A shift in what a conventional zoo maybe, which incorporates a more natural approach where one is able to 'hike' in the curated paths and chance upon these animals up-close. You still can spot them and there are a sprinkling of fun exhilarating activities for the pure outdoor types. Fun for all and a variety for all ages. Food options are plenty and serving OWA coffee which supports local coffee farmers in Java and contributes to conservation efforts.
Click here for official Mandai Rianforest Adventure details.
You maybe interested in these other attractions as part of the Mandai area.
Singapore Zoo River Safari
Singapore Night Safari (Highly recommended but surprisingly didn't put an entry in.)
Singapore Bird Paradise
Singapore Mandai Boardwalk (Free to Explore)

Singapore Airforce Museum
Free for citizens to enter. SGD8 for adult tourist/visitors


The newly revamped Singapore Airforce Museum is a two story experience, with a decent amount of static displays and a quite a fair amount of interactive gameplay activities on the second floor. The star to me was the light and sound show on the second floor which was a thrill. 

*Augmented Reality pics and amazing show on the 2nd Floor.*
A nice variety of static displays on the outside and the inside. Unfortunately pretty much all of them are locked up and you can't get inside. There's a short seven min film on the ground floor and a fantastic aircraft model shop with really decent prices that's way cheaper than that often seen at the Airshows.
Great for aviation enthusiast or a pseudo indoor activity. Lots of details plagues to give you details on the 

Saturday, October 10, 2026

NYC - To Do 08Oct26 (NYCC 2026 Comi-con, Flushing Meadows Sunrise)

New York - To Do
New York - To Eat

NYC - To Do
 Check out Instagram @ABBATRAVELS
USD93.09 for New York Comic Con 20yrs 2026
(Thur Opening Day One Ticket)
Opens from 10am-7pm

Thursdays are great if you wanna get first look and have much more wiggle room to roam around the alleyways and check out the tons and tons of Merch spread across the floor. Plenty of cosplayers but the show stoppers and much more would appear together with the weekend crowds. 

However, if you go probably on the weekend, that's when the really amazing and creative cosplay gatherings, meetups and photoshoots happen and they're all within the showfloor.

*Fellow queue goer. All waiting about 1.5hrs before doors open at 10am. Death note on the L and Ghost Rider on he right.*
ABBATips:
- If looking to pre buy Merchandise, do it before hand. You can queue but it takes about 20mins or more. The crowds varies throughout the day so you probably can swing back again when it thins down by half at times.

*Pic L to R Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister),
Shaquille O'Neal 4time NBA Champion, Idina Menzel (Elsa from Frozen and Broadway's Wicked.) As seen in the Autographing and picture taking located at basement level.*
- Download the app prior to note which Celebrities are appearing for a signing or taking pictures with. Gives you a great idea of where to be at to meet or even catch a glimpse of your favorite artists. Some mentions apart from those seen here, Peter Weller (Robocop), Grant Gustin (The Flash) , Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier) just to name a few. The celebrity line-ups change daily so remember to note who's coming and when!

*Walter Jones, (MMPR), James Saito (Shredder from TMNT),
Mick Foley and Kane from WWE. As seen around the main show floor.*
- Explore the various, alleyways to spot some of your favorite movie, tv & wrestlers personalities are located in discreet booths, corners located all over the huge hall. You can just go up to them and have a chat for free. Signing and selfie pics usually costs extra. 
- Bring a water bottle and stay hydrated. There are water top up locations sprinkled all over.
- Want to see the best cosplayers come out, come on the weekend!

ComicCon was pretty much the Main Hall which spread across the huge space, and the basement level where the queueing begins along with Artist Alley and Autograph signing were. The top floors at the corner, 4 and 5 are largely utilized for panels and major announcements.

Basement
Largely Artist Alley and Autograph Signing

*Opportunities to meet & greet with Artists of your fav comics like Ryan Ottley, the primary long-term artist who joined with issue #8 and illustrated the vast majority of the 144-issue run*
Main Floor
This spans across the whole length of the building which roughly groups comics, merch and some large standout displays.

This is where you'll get most of your merch, discover celebrity personalities spread throughout at sometimes in discreet corners and loads of cosplayers everywhere even on day one!

*Costumes from the upcoming and much anticipated Avengers: Doomsday with Robert Downey Jr. taking on the role of Victor von Doom. *
*All 3D printed live sized X-men 97 display and the creator behind it. Amazing work!*

*Meet and greets with voice actors like Cal Dodd (pictured here), who voices Wolverine in X-Men 97. There were many other famous voice actors like Jim Cummings who voiced Winnie the Pooh for over 30years and much more spread out throughout the show floor.*
All about the Merch. There's ALOT to get through. 
Retro classics to modern creative tongue-in-cheek ones as well!


*Retro classics and prop replicas.*
*All those Saints thou. Darth Vader the Redeemer.*

*Quirky pop culture.*
*Throw back with Johnny Number 5 from Short Circuit shoes pictured on the left.*
Embracing 20years of Pop culture in NYC with cosplayers who brings the fun and creativity to these events.
@thepaparazziboys

*From L to R (X-men, Polaris, Xena Warrior Princes and Adam West Batman.*
*Gym Bro Skeletor, Ramona Flowers, Yzma and Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove.*
For couples
For Families

*
Pic L The Invincible Family and Brother Sister Team ,Johnny and Sue Storm.*
For Group-ups

*Gotta give it up for Handsome Squidward.*
*The Han Solo does have some resemblance. Forest Gump in the middle and spiderman from Brand New Day bath house scene.*
*Pic L, Rufio from Hook, Ghostbusters 2, and Agent Smith from Matrix.
*The Incredible Hulk and Sauron*
The quintessential of the Comicon experience. What caught me by surprise was the strong anime presence as well so there's a mix of everything. Also that there weren't a lot of Jaw dropping huge booths or plenty of swag that they were giving away. Swag yes, but often involving long queues as well as those grab and goes were largely anime carded headbands from various shows. 

The amazing thing here were the opportunity to chat with, meet and greet many of your favorite voice actors, tv and movie stars personalities and the artist! One for the memory books to have such a large concentration of Celebrities, creatives all in one area.

The cosplayers are always a huge crowd draw and unlike at Los Angeles Anime Con with more hired professional models, this is all fan driven. 
You maybe interested in some of these other pop-culture events:
Melbourne - Supernova 2015 (George Tekai, Dolph Lundgren, Jason David Frank, Christopher Lloyd etc.)
London - LFCC 30July2016 (RVD,Jon Heder,Carl Weathers,etc)
London - MCM 28Oct2017 (Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell,Andrew Scott, etc
Perth - Supernova 29Jun2019 (Elijah Wood)


Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Sunrise about 7am
The 1964 World's Fair Grounds
It was here the Mustang was publicly unveiled and became one of the most successful new car launches in American History.

*The reflection pools and the quiet in the morning at 645am*
Unisphere
*World's Fair 1964*
*Built for the 1964–65 World's Fair, this giant stainless-steel globe represents Earth and symbolizes humanity's hopes for peace and global unity. It stands about 140 feet (43 m) tall. It weights about 408tons in totally, about 2 Fully loaded Boeing 747s.*
*The changing of the colors as the sun rises.*

*MIB Filmed on location featuring the Unisphere and Observation Towers.*

New York State Pavilion &  Observation Towers
*The three towers were designed to give visitors panoramic views of the World's Fair. The tallest rises about 226 feet (69 m), and the towers are now iconic remnants of the fair's futuristic architecture.*

*As seen in Ironman 2 opening sequence.*
Enjoying the morning glow

*Capturing moments*


*All the feels.*