Korea - Seoul

First time to Korea!! It was tiring flight over as we booked overnight flight via Vietnam Airlines to get the budget flight. Headed to the airport straight from work and boarded the 8.30pm flight. Stopped over about 3 hours at Ho Chi Minh City Airport before taking the midnight flight to Seoul.

We reached Seoul at 6 am in the morning and took airport Limousine to our hotel area - Hotel Aropa. Our hotel was located near the City Hall mrt station and within walking distance to Myeong Dong. The hotel didn't have extra room for us to check-in early. Thus we had no choice but to leave our luggage at the hotel and head to the Dunkin Donuts cafe beside Deoksugung and wait for its 11am change of guards. The change of guards was alright, nothing spectacular.

We then walked to Namdaemun market to experience how street markets in Seoul is like. After taking a brief rest back in our hotel lobby at peak of noon, we then walked to a nearby pretty famous Chicken Soup restaurant to try this must-try food. The Chicken Soup was really good. I liked the glutinous rice more than the chicken actually. Finally, check-in! We were exhausted as we didn't sleep for the entire night and headed straight for bed.


Woke up and it's alright 6pm, feeling dis-oriented. Next activity will be going to Myeong Dong for some shopping and street food. Myeong Dong is a happening place with lots and lots of delicious street foods. Too bad our belly weren't large enough to engulf everything.


Day 2 (Sunday):

Woke up close to noon to further catch up on sleep debt, feeling dis-oriented and giddy again. Today is a rainy day, lousy day for trip. We first took train to Anguk mrt station for Insadong. Insadong is a day-time chillax area with a lot of local food, stores and cafe. We went to one of the traditional Korea restaurants and was served with over 20 small dishes of good food. Feeling bloated, we slowly walked to Gyeongbokgung for its change of guards. As the change of guards ended, rain started to pour and we didn't have umbrellas with us. Thinking that going back to Anguk mrt was almost as far as walking back hotel, we braved our way back in the rain.

As expected, we slept through again, waking, only to be woken up by downpour noise at night. Ate some simple dinner right down our hotel, and bought an umbrella at the 7-11. As we slept way too much today, we decided to go Myeong Dong for some late night stroll again. By then the rain had kind of died down and more bearable.


Day 3 (Monday):

Once again, didn't wake up for hotel breakfirst. We headed straight towards Insadong again, but this time by foot. We realized that you can practically walk to everywhere in Seoul as the city is that small and clusters. On the way to Insadong, we passed by the CBD area and saw some really cheap and nice Korea food. Had the queue with the lunch time crowd but it was totally worth it. We then took the early afternoon to stroll around Insadong as we left there hastily yesterday.

We then continue to head to Hanok Bukchon Village to visit this mandatory landmark.

Before we left, we even tried on traditional Korea costume for some photos. In the evening, we continued our journey towards Namsam Park and Mural Village. This time the walk was pretty long and it took us more than half an hour to get there. Namsam Park required a lot of climbing but it was really worth it and probably the best place we visited throughout our trip. The view was amazing up there.

Namsan Park, my favourite place in Seoul

As the sky gradually turned down, we took a quick stroll around the Mural Village before walking further East to Dongdaemun. With our tummies grumbling, had dinner at some looks great but soso Korea BBQ restaurant for dinner. Took mrt back to Myeongdong for yet another night stroll before ending the fulfilling day.


Day 4 (Tuesday):

Finally woke up for breakfast, but the food kind of sucked. After that we went back to sleep. Woke up again at noon and we head out to Cheongbokgung. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the tour in order to enter the secret garden so we decided to skip it.

Ate lunch at the CBD restaurant again because it's that cheap and good haha. After that, we took mrt (finally) to Erwa Woman University for a quick tour of the campus. The afternoon was then concluded with some shopping for clothes at Erwa Street Market.

Erwa Women University, boring place

After taking a brief rest back at our hotel, we headed to Namsam Tower in the evening with the hope of some great night views. The view at the top really exceeded my expectations, it was amazing.

The best night view I have ever seen. Considering I have been too quite a few including the famous Hokkaido night view, this is quite an amazing statement say

Day 5 (Wednesday):

Woke up early to change money to pay for wedding photoshoot. It was an absolute disaster as we could not find a single ATM (including Citibank, Stan Chart) which allows you to withdraw money from an overseas ATM card. This gruesome search wasted us close to 3 hours, until we had no choice but to hastily checkout and take mrt to Gangnam.

Trip to Gangnam was pretty long, almost 1 hour MRT ride. We gave our last attempt at withdrawing in Hansan Bank at Gangnam, and to our surprise, it worked! Left with little time to reach HelloMuse for appointment, we grabbed some quick food from 7-11 and cabbed over.

Ate famous raw crab for dinner, very nice but expensive. Chill out at night in Gangnam, no street food!!!

Day 6 (Thursday):

Wake at 6+am for photoshoot. Tiring day. We ate dinner at some BBQ place beside our hotel. Supposed to sleep early for photoshoot next day but ended up sleeping late again.

Day 7 (Friday):

Chill day. Woke at noon as expected and headed for Korean Fried Chicken. It was FANTASTIC, omg, Singapore needs this badly.

Best fried chicken in Seoul

Went back for nap again and woke up late in the afternoon. Evening was spent shopping at Express Bus Terminal Underground shopping center, followed by short stroll along the Hanyang River.

A pretty boring place, we ran out of ideas

Went Gangnam at night and ate the famous Korean Fried Chicken there but this time it was soso...

Final night in Seoul, getting mentally prepared to go to work.


Day 8 (Saturday)

Home sweet home.

Thailand - Bangkok

Back to Bangkok!
This trip was supposed to be during the Christmas break but we started booking tickets too late and could only find cheap deals after new year. Went straight from countdown Airbnb to airport and took the 11am flight to Bangkok. Arrived in Bangkok and settled down at our Boutique Hotel in the early afternoon. Our hotel is situated at the prime area of Pratunam district.

We headed to Platinum shopping mall for lunch and allowed Kaixin to have a quick peep of her shopping paradise and had our lunch. We then walked back to our hotel for a short afternoon nap before heading to Platinum mall for shopping. Dinner was intended to be at the famous street food area outside Central World, but the stalls were all gone due to New Year celebrations. In the end I brought Kaixin to Nana for cheap local seafood instead.

We ended the night with brief tour of Siam Square, Siam Paragon and Central World.

Day 2:
Breakfast was pretty bad as expected. Started the day with casual stroll around Pratunam market, continued by more shopping in Platinum Mall.

For lunch, we decided to take cab to Khao San to look for good Pad Thai and visit the Grand Palace. We had Pad Thai at a cheap roadside stall though, as the most famous Pad Thai which was a little out of the way.

Walked from Khao San to Grand Palace and the route was shorter than expected, took us around 20 minutes or so.

After leaving the Grand Palace, we had a brief stroll to the river before getting a cab back to hotel. Ran out of idea for dinner on just the 2nd night! In the end, we settled for seafood again at a hawker our hotel. Night activity is visiting the skybar at Central World, the breeze was really good.

Had our long awaited Mango Sticky Rice for supper, and had feet massage to end the night.

Day 3:
More shopping at Platinum Mall in the morning. We went to nearby popular chicken rice stall for lunch and it was really dirt cheap. In the afternoon, went to Kaixin's long-awaited After You café for the famous butter toast. We waited 1 hour for seats but it was totally worth it, would definitely eat again. We then strolled to MBK mall for more shopping. As we weren't so hungry from the café food, only had some casual dinner along MBK street food place. We then walked all the way back to Pratunam area which took us more than half an hour.

We had spa at night and had Mango Sticky Rice again for supper. haha. This concludes our 4D3N trip to Bangkok, memorable experience :)

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

2nd Phase of my job training is at Kuala Lumpur (2nd to 25th November). This is only my 2nd time going to KL and I have never even been to twin towers.

Took Airasia flight to KL and arrived at Eastin Hotel in the evening. Eastin Hotel is located at Petaling Jaya which is not exactly in KL city, a little remote and empty. The hotel is definitely an upgrade over Salil back in Bangkok but the gain is cancelled off by the poor location. The hotel room is as expected big and nice, and more importantly, with proper working table.

Below is the view from my room window, looking like a village.

One big problem is our meals. There is hardly any food other than a few Malay style hawkers which generally consisted of the same menu. The hotel breakfast was awesome as expected, with a much greater variety than Salil Hotel. I was however hampered by toothache since before going to KL and was only able to bite on one side of my mouth. Thus I could hardly enjoy any food out there. The timing couldn't get any worse.

Lessons would end at 4+ on most of the days so it was very tempting to go out in the evening...until we saw how bad the peak hour traffic was. On the first Friday, we finally managed to head out to Bukit Bintang, a popular tourist district, with a few of our CAPAP seniors. We arrived at this street in Bukit Bintang called Jalan Alor, which is filled with seafood restaurants. Ordered a lot of dishes and the best dish was fried squid.

On the first Saturday, we went to KLCC where the twin towers are. After a bit of brief roaming around the shopping malls, we headed to the garden below the twin towers. I couldn' capture the entire twin towers with my phone camera and this was the furthest I can get without crossing the road.

10th November is Deepavali and there's no work!! Didn't make full use of the day though as I slept through almost all the way until afternoon. In the evening, I decided to be active and join some of the other CAPAPS for dinner at KLCC. The dinner was soso but I was rewarded with good night view of the twin towers.

Batu Caves is one of the only interesting landmarks around KL's vicinity thus it was a no-brainer to go there. On our 2nd weekend, I decided to go there alone as most of the other CAPAPs were in Malacca. I took cab to KL central and transferred a train which brought me to Batu Caves in 30 minutes.

 View from below

View from above

View from the inside

It was a pretty decent half-day trip. I took train back to KL central in the late afternoon and it started pouring. As there isn't much food back at the hotel, I decided to roam around the shopping malls and have dinner in KL central. Below is a photo of KL streets after the rain.

On our final Friday in KL, there was this SPEED day event at some convention center that was really far. As it seemed to be a really boring day there, I sneaked off not long after reaching. The place had a huge shopping mall and some nice scenery though.

Finally was able to go up the Siemens building on the exam day. The scenery is quite good too.

Had my up and downs this trip, due to tooth problems and some late night work. It was still rare experience though, having the opportunity to stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. KL isn't a place like Bangkok with a lot to offer for tourists but no doubt still worth going.

Malaysia - Malacca

Short 2D1N weekend getaway with Kaixin to Malacca. This is actually my second time to Malacca but the first was when I was in primary school so I have forgotten everything about that trip. We signed up a tour with Hatten Group, a property development company, which will bring us to Malacca landmarks, at the same time visiting their projects there.

Assembled at Suntec City at 9:30am and a van took us to Malacca. The other two person going on this trip are serious investors instead of going there for leisure. We reached Malacca at around 1.30pm and had buffet lunch at Hatten Hotel before checking in. The hotel room is really big as compared to hotels in Singapore.

At around 4pm, a tour guide joined to bring us around popular landmarks around Malacca. We visited the project site, several temples, and walked around Malacca old town.

 

In the evening, we took a boat ride along the famous river and visited the Christ Church.

 

Of course, no trip to Malacca is complete without good food. The van took us to some famous seafood restaurant near the coast for fantastic seafood dinner. After dinner, we briefed shopped at the shopping malls before heading back to our hotel.

Day 2: Woke up at 9:30am for hotel breakfast. We then went for some pretty solid Thai massage before proceeding to check out of hotel. A short getaway indeed but nevertheless we got pretty much out of our limited weekend.

 

Thailand - Bangkok

Fortunate to be able to go Bangkok for the first phase of my job training (9th July - 7th Aug). It's pretty surprising to most people that this is my first trip to Bangkok despite spending most of my life in South East Asia.

Arrived at Bangkok Don Muang Airport at around 4pm and took taxi to Salil Hotel. Salil Hotel is located near Thong Lor BTS which is a really convenient place to go around. Arrived at Salil Hotel at 5+ and realized I was the first CAPAP to check-in. My room was a double room on the 2nd floor, nice and spacious.

View from my balcony

I chilled in my room until the sky was dark before heading out for dinner. The hotel provided free Tuktuk service bringing you to BTS, although the BTS is actually less than 5 minute walk away. Right across Thong Lor BTS is a famous street food place called Soi 38, where I had my first dinner in Bangkok. This place eventually became our common dinner place during our stay.

Bangkok's city center is at Siam. Siam BTS is 6 stops away from Thong Lor which takes you only 15 minutes. Headed to Siam on our first Sunday in Bangkok, after returning from the team-building camp  (12th July). Siam area has many shopping places for shoppers: Siam Paragon, Siam One, Platinum Mall, Central Mall, and so on. We visited the famous 4 face Buddha upon alighting the BTS.

The city center is a very happening place with some serious traffic. For some reason, in Bangkok, taxi cost significantly less than BTS if travel in a group while BTS is a lot faster than taxi due to the insane traffic jams in the city. Spent the night strolling along the city which was filled with street food, tourists, and cars.

Joined some of the CAPAPs for a short trip to Lumpini Park after our lesson (14th July). The park was packed with joggers in the evening. I wondered how they can even run in such hot and humid weather.

Nana is where most of the tailor shops are located at and it happens to be the red light district as well. Walking along the streets of Nana is rather creepy as you can't really tell if the ladies by the street are genuine ladies or ladyboys.

The most eventful day in Bangkok has to be the trip to Grand Palace (25th July). Grand Palace is no question a must-go for anyone in Bangkok. Spend the afternoon touring around Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and had dinner at Asiatique Riverfront.

For the first time this trip, all 14 of us CAPAPs gathered at the lobby to hangout together at the skybar (29th July). Our night was unfortunately ruined by a heavy shower. I was one of the first to reach the skybar and managed to snap a picture before it started pouring.

1 month in Bangkok passed quickly by, perhaps because I had too much fun. I am really glad that I made a lot of friends which made this experience even more memorable. Bangkok is a great place to for budget chill out but I would suggest going in December to escape the heat.

Thailand - Ayutthaya

Day trip to Ayutthaya on the second weekend of our stay there! The historic City of Ayutthaya was so-called the former capital of Thailand and a Siamese Kingdom till the 18th century, when it was destroyed by the Burmese. The city was never really rebuilt and remained as an archaeological site since then.

We assembled at the hotel lobby at 6am as proposed by some overly-enthusiast peers (oh-god-why). As expected, 2 of the girls wasn't able to wake up on time and passed on the trip. The rest of us took the 7am train to Ayutthaya. We arrived at close to 9am and the sun was already pretty hot. Ayutthaya was a lot bigger than I thought and quickly we abandoned the plan to cycle around and instead took up a 4 hours tour ride with one of the local drivers. The tour guide told us that he will drive us to 7 different landmarks covering the main attractions in Ayutthaya.

We set off at 10am after grabbing some food. The driver brought us to various temples around Ayutthaya over the 4 hours span and soon we realized everything seems to be around the same. As the weather was scorching hot in the afternoon, we decided to abandon the final landmark and head back to Bangkok earlier.

Above are some of the more prominent landmarks that we went. Among them, the one that really stood out for me has to be this:

According to its description, the Buddha head fell off from its original statue and landed beside a tree. It was then gradually engulfed by the tree's growing roots and became like this. How interesting is that. All in all, Ayutthaya is worth going if one is already in Bangkok and has spare time. But is it a must? Not really.

Indonesia - Batam

Short weekend getaway to Batam thanks to mum company's family day. Batam is a small island which is a 30 minutes ferry ride from Singapore. We boarded the ferry at 9.20am and reached Batam at about 9.30am (Indonesia time).

The tour guides first brought us to some place where there are flying fox, archery, shooting and other games. Didn't play flying fox as the sun was way too crazy. After playing some archery, they brought us to eat seafood lunch. In the afternoon, we visited some shopping place, a temple and a mall, before finally driving back to the hotel at 5pm. Omg, the whole trip was so boring and I was dying to check-in the hotel. Guess the hotel was the only bright spot of the trip.

The hotel is Harris Resort Waterfront Batam. Had a forgettable BBQ dinner beside the pool. The tour guides brought us to cheap massage place next morning and the foot massage was really good. It's a free trip nevertheless so nothing to complain about.

Japan - Hokkaido

Last grad trip before I start work. This time we are took up the tour package with Hong Thai to Hokkaido. This will be a 7 day 6 night trip but the actual tour only consists of 5 days. Woke up really early in the morning to catch the flight to Tokyo, followed by transiting at Narita Airport for evening flight to Chitose Airport, Hokkaido.

Day 1: First stop of day 1 is to Lake Shikotsu-ko, the deepest natural volcano lake in Japan. We enjoyed a breezy cruise ride on the lake.

We then visited the Shiraoi Ainu Village, here we experienced the culture of the Ainu minority race in Hokkaido.

After lunch, we continued to embark on our bus trip to Hakodate (函馆). Stopped by Konbu-Kan to see how the Japanese harvest the Konbu (seaweed) from the sea. Upon reaching Hakodate in the evening, we visited Meiji-Kan to look at some souvenir and seafood and then had a really satisfying Japanese set dinner. The main attraction of Hakodate is it's panoric night view that is ranked top 3 in the world. We took a cable car ride to the top of Mt. Hakodate and the view was indeed spectacular.

Day 2: Time to get used to daily morning call at 6:30am. After buffet breakfast at the hotel, we visited the Hokodate seafood market. We then toured Fort Goryokaku where my sis, Kaixin and I dressed up in traditional Japanese costume for some photo shoot.

We had lunch at the base of Mt. Uzu and took the cable car to the top of the mountain for some great view.

We then drove by Lake Toya for a brief visit before reaching Hell Valley. The Hell Valley is a sulphurous boiling spring valley where a lot of hot spring hotels are located there.

Our hotel was located near the valley and I had a satisfying hot spring experience at night.

Day 3: Another long morning bus ride towards Sapporo. Along the way, we visited the Sapporo Beer Factory for some free Asahi beer. Reached Sapporo and bought some White Lover Chocolate and then had lunch.

After lunch, we toured the Ishiya Chocolate Museum. The bus then brought us to Otaru where walked around the romantic city and its famous canal.

Stayed in Otaru Grand Park hotel and had some great buffet dinner with panoramic view of the sea.

Day 4: Another long morning bus ride towards Furano to see lavender (薰衣草). Along the way, we stopped by some Cheese Workshop for a short visit. Had pork cutlet rice for lunch and we continued our ride to Farm Tomita at Furano. The plantation at Farm Tomita is indeed a great place to chill and relax.

After leaving the farm, we drove by Biei for great views of wide fields and hills before reaching the Ice Pavilion. The temperature inside the Pavilion is kept at -20 deg all year round and we were given winter jacket before entering. Stayed in a Japanese style hotel for the second time and experienced the hotel spring again.

Day 5: Last day of the tour. We will be heading back to Sapporo to visit the city. The tour guide first brought us to the waterfall beside our hotel for some morning breeze. Upon reaching Sapporo late in the morning , we visited Hokkaido Shrine, a traditional Japanese worship place. After an awesome Shabu-Shabu with Long Legged Crab buffet lunch, we headed to Odori Park located at the main streets of Sapporo. This time we checked into our hotel early, then our tour guide walked us to the JR Tower building, which is the city center. We finally had our famous Ramen at Ramen Republic for dinner. After feeding our stomachs, we went up the JR Tower for one last glance at the city.

Day 6: Woke at 4.45am to catch our 7.50am flight to Tokyo. Visited some premium outlets near Narita Airport before flying back to Singapore. Guess everything has to come to an end and it's time to start work.