Road to Singapore and Cosfest VIII (2009) Part 2

We left early the morning of Friday, July 10. We had a long trip ahead of us as we would be flying from Clark Airfield instead of the traditional Manila International Airport. Tiger Airways is a budget airline and it would be cheaper to fly from Clark. Sese's parents arranged for someone to drive us to Clark. We packed our things and off we went. I was so full of excitement that I could barely take a nap despite my lack of sleep the previous day.

We arrived earlier than we expected so we decided to eat lunch in the mean time. Sese's mom was kind enough to treat us to lunch before she sent us on our way. Cabalen buffet for the win! In fact we were so early that after lunch we still had to wait outside the terminal before they allowed us to check in.

Travel tip: for those flying abroad as a tourist, prepare PhP 1620.00 for your travel tax. Filipinos are required to pay this for all travels outside the country and they do not accept foreign currency so you need to have pesos handy. We also got charged an additional PhP 600.00 for the terminal fee. Customs and Immigration here really make a killing that it's almost unbelievable. After passing through Immigration, all we needed to do now was wait for our flight.

The flight was approximately 4 hours long. Tiger Airways is good but they don't serve meals on the flight as it is a budget airline. Everything there is for sale including additional cups or ice. But the flight was pretty pleasant aside from the slight turbulence here and there due to the seasonal rains. The plane landed at the budget terminal at Changi International Airport. There we were greeted by Ice's uncle. He couldn't stay long but just wanted to say hi to Ice. We then headed off to the hotel which we were later met by Sese's sister who has been working there.

The following day, we decided to do some sight seeing and shopping before we headed to Cosfest which was later this afternoon. Going around was extremely fun especially trying out their MRT and Public Buses. Transportation in Singapore is all interconnected with one easy card called the EZ-Link which kind of works like a prepaid card where you can load a certain amount and then you can use it anytime for the trains, buses and even taxis. I understand that you can even use it at McDonald's or 7-Eleven. We got a bit delayed so we arrived at the event at around 4-5 PM. Cosfest was held at Downtown East which is kind of like a commercial center with shops and resorts.

When we finally got there I was somewhat star struck by their cosplayers. Most of the cosplayers were really really good. I have to say that even their Naruto cosplayers look stunning and don't look like they just bought their costume from the nearest hobby shop. Most of the program was over but we decided to look around inside the convention area. We checked out the booths and the stage. The stage itself was huge, nothing I have ever seen in anime conventions that we hold. It's comparable to Level Up Live in size, probably a bit smaller. We obviously won't have any problems with Ice performing on stage.

After taking tons of photos of cosplayers, we decided to head back to our hotel, ready the costume and equipment and do a dry run of her costume and some of her moves. Needless to say, we barely got any sleep.

The following day, Sunday, was what I called D-Day. This was it. We were finally going to see if our hard work had finally paid off. Mind you, we didn't aim to win. We wanted to compete and wanted to see if people would enjoy the effort that we had put into the costume. We didn't know what to expect in the competition really. And it didn't help either that Ice was the to be the first Singles cosplayer contestant.

Cosfest Graffiti Wall

She was a hit. We encountered many times that random people wanted to take photographs of her. We also spotted what seemed to be a Soul Calibur group who easily spotted her from a distance. All of them wanted a shot with her. They even wanted her to do some moves for them.

She finally performed on stage. It was just a short piece with some moves we had practiced which I think she executed well. What we were not aware of was the fact that individual cosplayers can have a long skit just like group cosplayers. But she was still awesome. It was definitely an experience for both Ice and for us as a group. The cosplayers that came after us were all amazing. In hindisght, I wished we had Ice go around the event area some more but that's an experience we learned that hopefully we can use if and when we come back next year.

Watch out for my review and thoughts about Cosfest in my next blog entry. In the mean time, here is a short video of Ice as she was practicing some of her moves.