Barcelona

It’s hard to top a location like Barcelona, a city made for stag weekends. Boasting no less than seven beaches along the glittering Mediterranean Sea, you can soak in the sun and enjoy the beachside cafes and tapas bars. Or head straight into the Old City to take in the sights by day and indulge in some bar-hopping by night. Barcelona also offers over 120 kilometers of cycle trails for the adventurous cyclist. With over 35,000 shops in Barcelona’s pedestrian district, there’s also ample opportunity to pick up some fine Spanish goods while you’re there.

 
Cancun

With turquoise waters and sugar-white sand, Cancun makes the perfect destination for the groom-to-be who loves the beach by day and the bars by night. Flanked by two oceans, Cancun is located on the Yucatan Peninsula, known for mysterious Mayan ruins and deep jungles. Those looking for adventure can indulge in world-class scuba diving and snorkeling on nearby Cozumel Island, or enjoy abundant water sports near the beach. For rest and relaxation, try a nearby golf courses, or enjoy Mexico’s most popular mixed drink, the margarita, in a cabana-style bar right on the beach.

 
Aspen

For the groom who wants high adventure, the resort town of Aspen, tucked high in America’s Colorado Rockies, features skiing and snowboarding by winter, rock climbing and white-water kayaking by summer. It doesn’t have to be all about nature, however; Aspen offers fine dining, unique bars, and a truly cosmopolitan nightlife experience. Stunning scenery, endless outdoor activities, and world-class bars and restaurants promise Aspen will be a stag weekend unlike any other.

 
Rio de Janeiro

If it’s a rousing nightlife you love, Rio de Janeiro, on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, offers an endless variety of bars, nightclubs, cafes, and restaurants. The city features a truly diverse music scene, and boasts one of the largest theaters in Latin America. Rio’s beaches are second-to-none, offering stunning glimpses of the Atlantic, but it’s the wealth of nightclub choices that makes Rio a partier’s playground. Check out the music and dance scene, enjoy mojitos in a bar, or even catch a football game. Rio offers a little something for every man.

 
Amsterdam

It’s hard to top a classic, and Amsterdam is just that. Europe’s premier stag party city offers all the cosmopolitan comforts that stag weekends require in a fairly compact city center. Every square mile offers unlimited opportunity for boisterous bars, quaint cafes and coffee shops, or energetic nightclubs. Walk the streets and take in the sights, or tour some of Amsterdam’s historic buildings and museums to feed your intellectual side. Traveling to Amsterdam is quick, convenient, and a good value for the groom with an eye on the budget.

 
Antigua

Antigua offers all the amenities the discerning stag partier requires, while still giving the natural beauty and relaxation that has made the Caribbean famous as a resort getaway for decades. Bask in the sun, golf with the locals, or just doze on the beach and spend all night enjoying the bars and clubs the island has to offer.

 
Bali

Another spot with resort-quality amenities and tremendous local beauty is the Indonesian island of Bali. Long a paradise for the traveler looking to escape, Bali has the spas, golf courses, beaches, restaurants, and nightclubs that will offer a weekend of both relaxation and adventure.

 
Bangkok

If your interest is in all things Asian, Bangkok is a stag party location like no other. With a dedicated nightlife and clubs that cater to Western travelers, Bangkok can offer the perfect location for a memorable trip. The city offers exquisite architecture, excellent restaurants, and bars and clubs that will make your weekend stand out from all the others. Start the morning with a bowl of breakfast noodles on the river, and end the day in the neon glow of Bangkok’s sleek clubs and bars.

Blake Sanders enjoys writing about world-class bachelor and stag party destinations for leisure site Redseven.

Note: Photos courtesy of feradz, navart, mjryall, over_kind_man, aromano, lindzgraham, larsvegas, and livingethically via FlickR Creative Commons.

An interesting site has already sprung up, called Shit That Siri Says. It’s quite funny, really. Here are a few that I really like.

You can ask for the weather, send text messages, do math calculations, ask for directions (women, you’ll be glad your men now ask!), and a whole lot more. It’s full potential is yet to be known, but some videos have popped up that show you the potential.

Siri even has a sense of humour. If you tell her, “I love you”, you’ll get a reply, “I hope you don’t say that to those other mobile phones”. Oh boy, I can see all the men trying this out with their new iPhone 4s phones. *faint*

I guess we’re entering a new era where speaking to your devices will become the norm. Now all I want is, “Siri, do my dishes and collect my laundry” – will that be in the iPhone 5?

Today, TheBackpackr.com is honoured to have a guest writer – Blake Sanders who is equally passionate about all things Creative, Tech, Design & Travel. He is currently a writer for a tech and travel blog.

Traveling should be an exciting and enlightening adventure, but often it becomes eclipsed by budget woes. Between transportation, accommodation, eating meals in restaurants and attraction fees, traveling to a new place can be quite expensive. In order to save money and focus on your vacation, follow these money saving travel tips:

Be Flexible

Most people already know that when it comes to booking flights, flexibility is a bonus. Cheaper flights include red-eye journeys or those leaving mid-week instead of late Friday. However, you should also be flexible with your seasons and destinations. If a top ski resort is too pricey in January, consider catching the tail end of the season in March instead. Or, if you want to spend the summer in Paris, consider visiting the Austrian countryside instead, with much cheaper accommodation and transport but equally beautiful views.

Plan in Advance

When it comes to saving money, some of the best deals can be found a few months in advance. Whenever possible, book your flights and hotels as far in advance as possible. You can lock in great rates and budget around these prices as well, simplifying the financial side of your trip. Planning in advance also leaves more room finding better deals. Hotel and attraction prices may seem reasonable at first search, but with a little extra time you may be able to find better rates and deeper discounts just by extending your search.

Package Your Purchases

The biggest expenses on a vacation are the hotel, rental car, and flights. Whenever possible, bundle them together to save money. If you need to purchase more than one of these “big three” vacation items, you will almost certainly save 10-20% by bundling them together.

Use Sim Only Contracts

When traveling, rates on phone calls can be simply staggering. Your best bet may be to take advantage of sim only contracts. In essence, you can travel abroad with your own mobile device, purchase a sim card when you reach your destination, and make phone calls without the detrimental expense. Sim only contracts come in many varieties, and the benefits are great: flexibility, text messaging, phone calling (often unlimited), no commitment, and a very small price tag.

A Sim only contract means you won’t be stuck with high international roaming fees or unexpected data charges. Instead, you pay a flat rate and can’t be billed for any more than that specific amount. They are especially useful when traveling throughout Europe. Always check their availability in the area you will be traveling to.

Go Shopping

No, not shopping for souvenirs. Instead, be sure to visit the local grocery store once you get to your destination. Purchase a few items that can cut down on your need to visit restaurants or pay for expensive snacks while sightseeing. A few granola bars in your purse or bag, along with bottles of water, can help save a lot. If you have a fridge or microwave in your hotel room, you can even prepare some simple breakfasts and sandwich lunches. Buy some desserts from the store bakery and eat them instead of expensive fancy restaurant desserts after your dinner. With a large family, this can save hundreds over the course of your vacation.

Avoid Airline Fees

Airlines often have a few hidden fees for travelers, including baggage fees and pricey snacks and drinks onboard the place. Make sure you are aware of them beforehand, so you can avoid them when possible. Some airlines charge you to print out your boarding pass at the airport-which can be avoided if you check in on your home computer before coming to the airport. If the airline you fly has a frequent flyers card, consider joining for perks like free checked baggage and free drinks on your flights.

Understand Exchange Fees

Before heading to a new country, have a plan of action for exchanging currency wherever you are. Airports are generally the worst place, as they charge high fees for exchanges. Banks are a great choice, especially if you can find a branch of your own bank while abroad. With proper planning, you won’t be stuck with excess charges just for having the right currency.

By following these top money saving travel tips, you can cut the cost of your vacation without reducing any of the enjoyment!

Blake Sanders is a tech writer at comparison site Sim Only. Blake specializes in writing on mobile phones, sim only contracts, and industry news and information.

Photo by: mroach / FlickR

Unwanted scenario – on a Friday evening at 5pm, just before going partying:

“Hello vendor, have you worked on my email yet?”

“Huh? Your email? I haven’t received it”

“What? I sent it out 4 hours ago! Is it in your spam folder?”

“Errr, yea, sorry…”

“I expect it done by today. I don’t care”

Save yourself a headache by preventing scenarios like this, if you’re using Gmail. We use Google Apps, which shares most of Gmail’s functionality and more, so we can also create filters to prevent email from ending up in spam.

Login as per normal, then look for the link “Create a filter”, next to the Search box. Click on it.

You’ll now be presented with the ability to create the filter based on several criteria. If emails from only one particular person keeps on ending up in spam, you can enter the full email address in the From field (eg, johnny.bravo@bravocorp.com).

If it is a problem for ALL emails from that same company / domain, then enter just the domain name in the From field (eg, bravocorp.com). In the example below, I entered the entire thebackpackr.com domain.

Click “Next Step >>”.

Now, you can control what the filter does. Check the “Never send it to Spam” checkbox, then click “Create Filter”. Now watch and see the magic happen. Gmail rocks my socks!

Not every country uses the same voltage as your home country, and while traveling in the Philippines recently, I was even presented with a home that used BOTH 110V and 220V. Now that’s bizarre.

To check the compatible voltage of your devices, either turn the device over and look for the label, or look on the plug itself. The location varies. What you need to know is the input voltage for your device. If you see something showing 100-240V or 100-220V, you have a device that is universal (like my Canon battery charger below). My Braun toothbrush however, will not work if used in a country such as the US, as they use a 110-120V system.

Most devices such as laptops and mobile phones are all universal, so you won’t have to worry. Nonetheless, it’s always good to flip it over for a quick check before jetsetting.

Here’s the link to the app in the App Store.

But, when 20 people say the same thing, you start to smell a dead rat… one that has decomposed for 2 months!

To fuel my research (and quench for knowledge), I clicked on it from a secure environment and it led me to a site that seemingly looked like Twitter, smelt like Twitter, but evidently WAS NOT TWITTER! It was trying to get me to login before I could see the “bad thing said about me”. Looking at the address bar, as I am trained to, revealed it was not Twitter by a long shot.

Anyone who logs in, will now have transmitted their details to these “hackers” who can now gain control over your account.

Within a day, I was getting more private direct messages on Twitter with ads such as, “I lost a bunch of weight, this stuff works! look at news article. [link]” and “Lose weight, guaranteed with Ultra HCG [link] i lost 26 lbs!”

These links lead to typical spammy sites like this.

Do be very careful when receiving messages from friends and always, ALWAYS, check the address bar.

If you are already “infected” and have revealed your login details to the “phishermen”, the best thing for you to do now is to change your password.

Follow the steps below to change your Twitter password.

Despite the negative reviews, I decided to stick with Apple and know they can only improve their products from hereon. I clicked the “BUY” button in the Mac App Store and spent $299.99 on Final Cut Pro X, heralded by Apple as the next generation of video editing.

Within a day, I discovered it’s tough to make the transition if you’re well-versed with the older suites. The timeline is vastly different, and audio+video seem to be linked very tightly. It’ll take me awhile before I get used to delinking audio, etc.

In terms of speed, my 3 year old MacBook Pro is not doing a good job. FCP X needs juice, and lots of it, before you can enjoy its full potential. I can see it attacking the Canon 5D Mk2 files that I threw at it, but the time taken to crunch them would have been days! According to a friend of mine who recently acquired an i7-based MacBook Pro, it works fine. Canon files can be edited natively without having to transcode them.

Audio/Video scrubbing is another area I’m not familiar with. It doesn’t seem to work well for me, perhaps because my machine is a tad laggy.

Oh, to end off… I realise the keystrokes are different for some functions too. In FCP 6/7, I’m used to Ctrl-V to use the blade cut tool on the timeline where the playhead is, but in FCP X, it’s now Cmd-B. Why on earth it has to change, I have yet to uncover, but it sure adds speedbumps to my editing process now.

All in all, FCP X does seem rather raw, but I am certain the next update will address many of the issues video editors face. Don’t let me down, Apple!

Bersih 2.0 is a movement for the people, by the people to fight for reform of the Malaysian electoral process. It is independent of political parties and it strives for fairness.

On the media front, it was amazing to see hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tweets, Facebook posts and forum engagements generated around the event to rally for a cause – a cause that transcends race, religion and status in life. It just goes to prove that a notable cause will rally together people, and they will use whatever medium necessary to support it.

Though I was not able to be at the protest in person, I was able to follow along via my mobile phone and notebook. It was true to life and I loved every moment, being able to be in the centre of action, though I unfortunately wasn’t. It was much better than the World Cup, Olympics or Royal Wedding. Combined.

It’s amazing to see the power of social media added to the on-ground activities and how it was able to mobilize the thousands of people. The mobile Internet has empowered the masses. It’s proof how much we need our mobile telcos. We could see reports live, or slightly delayed, appearing on the Internet in the form of text updates, photos, videos and even streaming! Totally amazing.

As a tribute to the Bersih 2.0 efforts, here are some photos collected over the course of the day. None are mine, and I’ve tried to give credit as best as I can, but I may have missed a few credit. I offer my apologies in advance. Fact is, the photos were flying everywhere, embedded on various sites.

PHOTOS BY

ahmadhusni, Bandar Kuala Lumpur, BBC, beritaharian, cyberred, danielkong, dansemacabre
evilickle, fahmi_fadzil, freemalaysiatoday, j_rubis, jasurin, johnhansoei, KeadilanDaily
kenhong, khalids, kyspeaks, limbenji, bilviva, curicuriwangmsia, pratamad, kkling, liingpeh
ngkaychin, ryudiculous, plgan, premesh, RAKYAT MARHAEN, randyhew, theonlinecitizen
zhenyanglee, skidolma, ygren, terence7, wordsmanifest, alfredhean, behlihyi

MUSIC

The Weather Is Changing by Fred Winterbottom

For long enough, Apple has lagged behind Grass Valley’s Edius offering, or even Adobe Premiere, but the loyalists have stuck with their stunted versions of Final Cut Pro and found workarounds for what they needed, not with the cost of time or money, though.

Today, I opened the App Store and was presented with an extremely oh-you-will-not-miss-it eye-catching pane that highlights the new offering from Apple. It also has links to the Motion and Compressor packages. Price-wise, it is simply fabulous. Final Cut Pro X is priced at USD299.99, while the other 2 products are USD49.99 each.

From the official Apple press release, it states:

At the heart of Final Cut Pro X is the Magnetic Timeline, a trackless approach to editing your footage that lets you add and arrange clips wherever you want them, while other clips instantly slide out of the way. You can use Clip Connections to link primary story clips to other elements like titles and sound effects, so they stay in perfect sync when you move them. You can even combine related story elements into a Compound Clip that can be edited as a single clip. The groundbreaking new Auditions feature lets you swap between a collection of clips to instantly compare alternate takes.

Professionals in the industry seem to like it, and one of the comments heard is:

I’m blown away by what Apple has done with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro X is incredibly modern and fast, but most importantly it lets you focus on telling your story in the most creative way, while it actively manages all of the technical details.
Angus Wall, Academy Award-winning film editor

Features I’m going to love about FCP X are:

• Auto-syncing of audio files (goodbye PluralEyes)
• Background rendering – do you know how much time this will save???
• Image stabilization – woohooo…
• Audio clean up – eliminate rumbles and hums upon ingest. Wow!
• Color matching - Select a clip, pick another to color match it to. Boom, it’s done!
• 64-bit capabilities – time to stock up on more RAM to juice up the machines!
• Multi-processor support – simultaneous operations can occur, and save time!

Here are some screenshots taken from the Apple App Store.

To have a sneak preview of what the software is all about, take a look at what user FinaCutKing has to say in his YouTube video.