Inside MSA: Inside PR Agency

Just because we love you, we put together a long list of great restaurants and fun activities for kids and adults for the Chinese New Year celebration in New York City.

This ain’t just any list. This list comes from personal trial-and-errors of our staffers who searched for the best places in the city that would be perfect for both: entertainment, spa/relaxation and food/drinks, and that could still be considered authentically Chinese!

Please pass it along to your friends and family if they happen to be in NYC between now and end of the February. If you’re out of town, check with Millennium Broadway Hotel Times Square / New York, they offer a special Chinese New Year package of fun. For information about the celebrations in Singapore, go to YourSingapore.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

(Source: 4sq.com)

One of our favorite leisure (weekend) things to do in New York City - being that we live here - is to browse through winter holiday window displays at the New York oldest department stores in the city, like Bergdorf Goodman - an iconic NY department store. Most likely you’ve heard about this store at least once - perhaps, even in one of your favorite NY shows/films, like The Sex and The City. It’s just  hard to imagine if you haven’t… Either way, we are here to share this kind of things with you - the local things and places that only a local might know.

So, last weekend, when the first snow finally came upon New York City and many New Yorkers flew to the parks and countryside to take advantage of the snow activities, one of our colleagues ended up taking a stroll down the 5th Avenue along the Central Park in hope to capture some snow activities. As a result, she did, but she also took some photos of the window displays at Bergdorf Goodman.

Bergdorf Goodman has been always known for having very creative, stylish and colorful window displays. And as you can see from the photos, they do have beautiful window set-ups. This year they’ve even decided to reflect on the Chinese New Year / Lunar Calendar by including a dragon figure along the mannequins wearing haute couture.

It turned out to be very beautiful and eye-catching images.You can see the full set of the photos either on our Facebook page, and/or here.

For more on the Year of Dragon, visit: Singapore Tourism Board and/or plan YOUR customized trip to Singapore via YourSingapore, which, by the way, has a very good compilation of the Chinese New Year celebration photos and other visuals on the site.

You can also get more information about the travel and local airports here at the Changi International Airport.

“JUST look around,” said Malcolm Lee, a 27-year-old Singaporean chef, as he gestured toward the dozen or so street food stands surrounding our table. “I doubt that one of these hawkers is under the age of 40. When this generation is gone, their recipes will probably go with them. Their children want to be bankers or lawyers. Who wants to slog it out six days a week, morning through night, in a hot, dirty environment?”

The author Gisela Williams reflects on her visit to the Singapore Food Trail at the Singapore Flyer, a huge Ferris wheel that’s a top tourist attraction. The Food Trail is a new spin on hawker centers, a Singaporean tradition in which cooks sell their signature dishes to admiring customers for low prices. Loving essays have been written about hawker centers; food enthusiasts come from around the world to sample them.

Williams states that even though the hawker culture might die out anytime soon, she feels strongly about preserving it.

(If you’re planning on visiting Singapore, here’s a good point to start from).

(Source: stb.com.sg)

Do you know what is A380? For the hint, click here. 

Since the first A380 flight took off from Singapore to Sydney in 2007, Changi Airport has handled more than 20,000 A380 flights. Today, Changi Airport is the world’s busiest multi-carrier A380 hub, with more than 200 weekly A380 flights operated by Lufthansa, Qantas and Singapore Airlines connecting to 10 cities worldwide…

Congratulations to Singapore Airlines that are commencing its A380 services to New York this week!

How Much Time Do You Really Need Before Your Flight?

You’ll be surprised or - not to learn that it’s the “endless debate of air travel: Do you bite the bullet and trek into airport hell a solid three hours early? Or do you take your chances and go for broke, arriving at the last minute possible?”

According to Dane Steele Green, President and CEO, Steele Luxury Travel and Huffington Post contributor, today we do have variety of ways to minimize the time you need to arrive at the airport in advance to make your scheduled departure.

Steele says:

Arriving two hours before a flight isn’t always necessary (provided you don’t require extra time or aren’t a part of a group).

And that there are “some excellent strategies you can implement to skim that two hour-protocol down to one. Nonetheless, for anxious travelers who would rather be safe than sorry, many airports now offer a bevy of pleasureful amenities that can quickly pass hours of waiting”.

Then we discover that one of the airports he talks about as best to kill the time airports in the world is our client - Singapore Changi Airport, which won a Skytrax award for best airport leisure amenities, which has a butterfly garden and nature trails, a Balinese-themed swimming pool, luxury shopping and a world-class Crowne Plaza. 

The airport is not far behind is Hong Kong International, where travelers can enjoy a show at its 4D Extreme Screen theater, sneak in some golf at SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Course or shop and eat endlessly at the airport’s fabulous establishments.

So even if you have to show up early, live your indulgence… in an airport!

What’s your best airport experience?

“Despite its diminutive size, Singapore is second to none when it comes to eating street food. With four official languages (Chinese, Malay, English and Tamil), Singapore is a melding pot of people from around the world, and it shows in their cuisine,” - writes Marc Matsumoto, a popular food blogger and photographer, who spreads his passion for food through his websites norecipes.com and wanderingcook.com.

Matsumoto has just come back from his foodie trip to Singapore, where he had quite some local food sampling to do. Here’s what he has to say about it.

If you are planning on visiting Singapore, check out Singapore Tourism Board and YourSingapore.com.