getting through the day
27/05/2007
In about 12 hours, we’ll be heading for the airport.
In about 15 hours, the plane should be departing for Tokyo.
In 22 hours, we should arrive in Narita.
In 24 hours, we should show up at the hotel.
From now till 3am, we need to:
- Finish packing
- Get KF a haircut
- Organise our notes
- Finish the laundry
- Get toothpaste
I think we’re in pretty good shape.
from this to that
23/05/2007
For the first time in many years, I’m gainfully unemployed, with no job lined up. I’m all in it for deferring enjoyment, but I’ve decided to cash in some of the cumulative brownie points since you know, life is so uncertain. 
I was pretty much set on this resort in Ko Samui, but it didn’t work out, so we ditched that, which isn’t a bad thing because KF decided he wanted to go to Japan.
So we’re off to Japan next week to savour the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka experience for a week and a half. Can’t wait.
Many thanks for Lil’momma, Sharks, Ah Lian + Ah Leongsan for the travel advice.
seoul searching
12/11/2006
Our Seoul faves
- Ulji-ro Co-op Residence
So despite the crazy crowds and if you don’t really mind roughing it out a little – that means not expecting hotel quality service (little toilettries, a luxury room with a view, pretty cleaned up part of town, room service, the service staff to clean your room thoroughly every day) then something like the Co-op Residence do nicely. Hey, how can we argue with free high speed internet access and really smart storage devices? It’s got a great location – five minutes away from the Dongdaemun Stadium Interchange Station, five minutes away from malls like Doota and Miliore, seven minutes away from PyongHwa Market, and just upstairs from back alley local restaurants!Starts from $80 a night, coin-operated laundromat with dryer facilities in the basement. Detergent comes free, bring your own fabric softner if you need it.
- Deoksugunggil
The small alley between Deoksugung (the Palace right in front of City Hall and the Seoul Plaza Hotel) and the Dunkin Donuts hides an amazing calm in the middle of Seoul. It’s a pleasant walk through towards the Chongdong Theatre amidst maple and gingko trees, the side wall of Deoksugung, and the people going to Church.Past the Franciscan Library you’ll find a cute little restaurant called Little Provence. It’s not too bad, fusion Korean, like cutesy Japanese-French. Spaghetti carbonara costs $8 and Kimchi Pilaf (kinda like Kimchi Fried Rice), $9.
About 300m past Little Provence on the other side of the street you’ll find Gimbapgwamandusai, a quaint old-style Korean Restaurant where everything on the menu is between $2 and $5. Try the Gimbap, the mandu and the Kimchi mandu. They also make bibimbap if you need something ricey. It’s opposite a cafe, and they make Gimbap in the window.
- Bistro d°
Famed for brunch, this little bistro is actually a showroom for the special kimchi refridgerators. Amazing. Anyway, after Heesun brought us there for dinner we had to go back.Noteworthy is the dinner Prix Fixe ($38) – pre-appetisers, appetiser, main course and dessert. For the main course you have a choice of Sirloin or Tenderloin. The sirloin is especially good, it comes encrusted with peppercorns and is done just right.
I also had the Black Cod – really good. $18. Grilled black cod on a bed of veggies with a light herb cream sauce. Really good.
And the Fishermans’ Pasta – $34, serves 2 according to the menu, but this platter of seafood pasta was enough to feed four Asians, and the helping of seafood on it – mussels, clams, fish, prawns, lobster, scallop – was really generous. I’m a sucker for marinaras, so this was my favourite.
The pickled veggies were also really good appetisers.
Oh oh, check out neat food reviews (in English) of Korean Restaurants – Mary Eats.
All prices in USD. 1USD ~ 950 KRW. 1 SGD ~ 600 KRW
korea-ed over
12/11/2006
We’ve been busy little tourists in the last few days. We ran amok around Dongdaemun, went for the DMZ tour (with third tunnel sans Panmunjum, unfortunately), flew to Jeju, skulked around Jungmun resort, went down the coasts and had our All In experience, ate at a pier, climbed a hill not because we wanted to, and ate a lot.
Despite the severe language impediment (which only stopped us from ordering food properly) it was easy to get around, easy to find stuff, easy to make arrangements for everything. It was a breeze.
Jeju on the other hand, was not quite what I expected. The resorts in the drama series made it look like a) the island was just resorts and b) it was as modern as Seoul. Strangely Jeju was more countryside, more laid back, but just as expensive! Probably because of the hoards of tourists trying to relive various All In moments. It was an adventure though, since most people at the wet markets didn’t speak any English or Chinese, and we had to get ourselves around the island by car.
All in all (hehee) Korea was a wonderful experience. The city works efficiently, the Seoul fall foliage is stunning, and Jeju has some of the most spectacular natural spots. The weather was mostly pleasant, except for the really cold day at the DMZ where the mercury dipped to under 10° C. Kimchi might be a bit too much every day, but you can still find a good selection of international cuisine to tide you by. And in Jeju, you can just eat at the hotel.
That said, the city is expensive and meals in general would cost as much as a meal in the US. It was terribly hard to find $2-3 dishes, although we managed to find a spot or two through the Lonely Planet guide. Decent accomodation will cost minimally $70 a night in Seoul (the Co-op came up to just under $100 a night) and even then it’s not the best thing ever. The luxury hotels will cost you easily $200 a night and the regular 4 star one around $150.
Oh oh, check out neat food reviews (in English) of Korean Restaurants – Mary Eats.
All prices in USD. 1USD ~ 950 KRW. 1 SGD ~ 600 KRW
kimchi issoyo?
07/11/2006
I expected a really hard time getting around. I expected bad food. I expected the language impediment to be tough to surmount. I expected our travel companions to be dissatisfied with my choice of hotel. I expected to buy a lot of junk. I expected the men to be kinda ugly. I expected it to be warmer.
It would seem that I expected too much.
It’s been a fantastic four days in Seoul. The city is lovely – the autumn colours are fantastic, and their choice of trees that line the street are great – maple and gingko. Right now everything’s a lovely hue of yellow, light green, orange, brown and flaming red. It’s a beautiful city.
It’s been really easy to get around. Armed with the right map (subway map, and a general direction one rolled in one was a great investment – thank you Insight Guide) and a little EQ, getting around has been a snap. Even when people don’t understand you, there are loads of solutions around that. Transportation is relatively cheap – probably similar rates to Singapore, except in USD.
Food has also been good – besides being overloaded on kimchi and selling of garlic. It’s been the most tricky figuring out food – because some menus don’t have English on it. But most of the stores we’ve been to have pictures, and in the tourist districts they’ve pictures. At the very worst, the storekeepers will whip out their mandarin, and everything’s fine.
Besides being on the small side (it’s like someone’s room), the hotel has been great. Not in the best part of town, but it’s right next to the subway, near the Dongdaemun market, malls and loads of food. It’s not a five star hotel, though. They only give you one towel, they don’t exactly offer the frills like a mint on your pillow or free toilettries (besides soap), and it’s kinda small; the bathroom is a 1.5×1.5m cube. But if you can get past that, the upside is great location, a kitchenette with microwave, utensils and a fridge, a coin laundry downstairs, and a daily rate under US$100 a night, which is a steal in Seoul.
My total loot this time: munchies – not a lot, a scarf and 4 souvenirs from Doraesan Station at the DMZ. The rest was spent on visits, transport and food.
The guys are reasonably good looking though they’re mostly the younger ones.
Yesterday we went to Seoul Tower and it snowed. It was lovely. So today when we went to the DMZ tour we really bundled up and good thing we did. It was freezing. So the scarf came in really handy.
We managed to see a lot, experience a lot, and eat a ton. Hanging out with Heesun was great too, she brought us to places that would’ve been hard to get to on our own, so that was great.
Tomorrow we head over to Cheju. More from the volcanic island later!
through the barricades
06/11/2006
Korea has been really kind to us. We’re getting by with very little korean, but it’s been unexpectedly easy. Most shopkeepers we’ve met speak to us in mandarin (when japanese fails), which is great.
We saw two palaces – the pic above is from Gyeongbukgong, but the Biwon one we visited yesterday is so much prettier. We even ran into some Singaporeans there.
And in the afternoon we hung out with Heesun, who very kindly brought us around Insadong, which is very cool. We ended off the night with dinner at a really good Italian restaurant in an cool, hip area (forgot what it was called) south of the Han River.
Suffice to say, I’m liking it so far.
Annyonghoseo!
03/11/2006
Hello from the land of the morning calm!
Am tired, but spirits are high. We left our country bright and early at half past six on Friday morning, got to Incheon Airport at half past four local time, picked A & R at the same airport at half past seven, and found our way to the hotel on the Airport Limousine bus by about half past eight.
Nine o’clock and we’re off on the streets again, sampling the wonderous array of street food.
Anyway. Tired, from waiting, walking and not enough sleep. More later!
Goodnight Saigon
23/09/2006
I’ve put my finger(s) on why I’m enamoured with Ho Chi Minh City. It’s more than the rice rolls, pho and the Park Hyatt Saigon.
It’s like an old dame who’s stuck in time waiting for someone while the world went on and grew up around her here and there.
The buildings and homes are a throwback from a bygone era, and technology is slowly rearing its ugly head here and there. The people on scooters swerve around to try to avoid you, because the traffic doesn’t stop.
The expats can still savour the last remnants of colonial indulgence. While the locals capitalise on the romance of the baguettes for afternoon tea and white linens lifestyle and dream up some really inspiring ventures.
I like the personality of the city.
Of course, the food and the hotel room are dreamy so there’s no complaining there either.
Tons of thanks to our lovely host Hamtoro Nguyen, without whom I won’t be able to ask for another pair of chopsticks for my fresh rice rolls. I guess I’ll have to stop annoying him.
filipino life
08/09/2006
I’ve been trying to find a photo that would sum up life in the Philippines, and this was the best I could do.
Well. We completed our last assignment last night, and will be leaving PH in the day. It’s been a fruitful trip work-wise, because we now realise how wrong our assumptions have been. It’s always a good thing, and that in itself has paid for the trip.
I could start on the whole, as a Singaporean we take our way of life for granted bit. But it’s been done.
After our FGD tonight, Sharks and I ordered some in-room dining (we were starving! our eating schedule is seriously out of whack), and the guys joined us with some cake. It was a pleasant surprise, I was a little too zonked to really think about doing anything. So thanks, guys. It was really sweet.
Other than that, I am glad to be going home tomorrow. The Philippines reminds me a little of the Jakarta I visited in 1990. It’s a little painful to see the disparity in the lives the different stratas lead.
The people are also a conundrum, and while their hopes and dreams lie outside the Philippines, they still hang on to their roots and hearts in the hinterland. Their sense of community is overwhelming.
I can’t profess to know them inside out now, but some things are clear. Like I don’t think I can survive in the Philippines, because I’m a wuss. The jeepneys are cute, but hard to catch a good photo of. The malls are nice, and when a fire breaks out no one panics. Their supermarket prices are like ours. The mangoes I had were a little sour.
Will be home on Friday evening. In the meantime, birthday greetings go out to: Sid Caesar, Peter Sellers, Martin Freeman, Antonin Dvorak and Patsy Cline. I’d say they make pretty good company.
I’m back, and tired
16/05/2006
It was a looooong flight. And pretty full too.
And I was completely off about the prices of stuff at Narita Airport. Like one zero off. So everything was ten times more expensive than I imagined it to be, and I had to politely decline buying two pairs of earrings I’d already picked out to these Japanese girls who first didn’t know what I wanted, and then were going to wrap my stuff up when I told them I changed my mind. Hahahhaha.
Hope I wake up in time for work later.
