Welcoming December

The month that I have been waiting for the whole year… is finally just a day away! Normally, apart from people taking leaves, there are not much of other indication of the holiday season in the office. This year, our secretary decided to take it beyond the norm. She actually brought a mini Christmas tree and set it up on the table. Below the tree, she put small gifts, and even filled the table with candies, chocolates, cookies, and (ehem) some chewing gums. Now it feels like Christmas!

The Mini Christmas Tree!

We had lunch at Crystal Jade today and were talking about food. There is a promotion right now at juztoday.com for SGD 27 buffet at Yum Cha Garden. The promotion looks super nice, but alas, I have no more buffet quota for the rest of the year =( I hope someone who read this blog will go and buy the buffet deal and eat on my behalf, so the good deal doesn’t go wasted.

These days I’m really addicted to Tiny Tower. I think after the latest patch, they make the level easier, so I felt that I advanced much faster =__=’’ I have to reduce my addition or I’m risking my social life here.

Tiny Tower screenshot taken with the Assistive Touch. Look at the first comment in BitBook!

I would like to close the blog today by wishing everyone a wonderful Dec ahead! All is well!
ED

5 more days to StanChart Run!

I’m running out of evening slot to practice. Due to daylight savings, all my calls that supposed to end at 6pm now end at 7pm. By then it’s already too late for me to start running =(

My call finished at 6.35pm on Tuesday When I checked out the weather, the rain has just stopped. I hesitated a bit, but in the end decided to go for a quick run. Either today or never! I started to run at around 6.50pm. I guess the monsoon season also means that the sky turned dark earlier. At around 7.15pm, my running path was pitch black. I can hardly see anything in front of me, most of the time I stepped into puddle. The road was also a bit slippery which made me even more cautious. I finished my 5.5km run at around 7.30pm. I’m glad that I made it, but I don’t think I want to do that again next time. It’s a nice weather, but the place around Labrador Park is way too dark to run around after 7pm T_T

My RunKeeper for the day!

At night, I chatted with my roomie about the preparation for the run before we slept. She is taking the full marathon and hence might need to wake up as early as 3am (whew!) That was the last thing we discussed before I finally fall asleep... and had a weird dream on the StanChart run...

I was in the 10km run. I started to run from City Hall. After 10 minutes, I realized that I have an exam to take, so I run into a classroom and start taking exam. My mind was split between the exam and run. At one time I want to do my best in the exam, at the same time, I know that I will be disqualified if I didn’t finish my run within 2 hours. I did the exam for one hour, then run out of classroom to continue with the run. At that time, most of my friends have already completed the run… I was trying to catch up, but somehow I can’t find much direction of the running path… in the end I got lost... I run around to find the correct path and ended up in a jungle.

Then I woke up. Hahaha. 5 more days to go, I hope things will be smooth in the real run!
ED

The Alternative to iPhone Home Button

For iOS 5 user, you can go to Settings > General > Accessibility. Under the section for Physical and Motor, turn on Assistive Touch. You will then see a small button pop up to the screen and seems to float around the screen.

Assistive Touch near the left down corner

That’s my life savior.

For a barbaric iPhone user like me, I always have issue with the home button. Last year I exchanged my iPhone because the home button wasn’t responsive after couple of months. This year, I was thinking of changing to iPhone 4S for the same reason: the home button was getting harder and harder to activate. I have no problem with the battery or lag in response, but what can you do when you can’t press the only button in your mobile? It’s almost impossible for me to switch between apps.

With this Assistive Touch, I can now do whatever you need to do with home button with the virtual button on the screen. I can even double tap! I don’t know why Apple never mentioned about this awesome function in iOS5. Thanks to Chang Hong for letting me know :) This really chased my Monday blues away!

The virtual home button has exact same function with the real home button

Guess I will be able to survive until the next iPhone release now! Hehe.
ED

Rec Club DnD + Last week of StanChart training + Lunch with LadyIronChef

I don’t know which highlight to pick, so I decided to squeeze everything to the title =_=; Lets start chronologically =p

My last weekend ended with me dozing off watching a Japanese movie “Elevator to the Gallows”. Apparently, it’s a remake of a French movie with the same title from 1958. The French’s release gained quite a high rating in IMDB (8/10), so I was kind of expecting the same for its remake… which, well, not the case.

Weekdays in office are OK. There is workshop happening in Germany and hence lots of our weekly calls were cancelled (Yay!) I did my weekly jog on Mon and Tue (the only two days which weren’t raining at 6pm), as well as my usual yoga on Thursday. Now that the weather is not as predictable, I started to see the benefit of having fitness membership – at least you don’t have to depend on the weather to exercise ^^;

On Wednesday, we went to Vivo for dinner. We were deciding between Kim Gary and Superdog, and finally agreed to give Superdog a try. The place was spacious (thankfully we’re not the only customer). The staffs are actually quite friendly and asked if this is my first time visiting Superdog (I didn’t know that I looked so confused).

The Superdog Cheat Sheet

We ordered the Superdog signature hotdog for SGD 9.5. The hotdog was good – the bread was soft and the sausage does taste like different from Fair Price’s sausages, but… the size was a total disappointment =( The size is similar to those $1 hotdog pushcart. I was expecting bigger for that price.

Superdog's Superdog!

After dinner, we went to the third floor to check out the Christmas tree. The tree was there but the lighting was, well, 90% off T_T Maybe they didn’t turn it on for weekdays… maybe it’s part of the green initiative… or maybe it’s just broken because a big rain just hit earlier on the day. After walking along the tree, we went down to Giant for some snacks shopping, then hit home early.

The not-so-bright Christmas Tree

Friday was pretty packed up with non-work activities. For one, we had the Christmas charities going on during lunchtime (somehow it's very hard to say "no" to your colleagues. Gave 40 bucks in total). In the afternoon, everyone was talking about D&D and not really in the mood to work. I myself started to pack at around 6pm and disappeared from office with the other ladies.

The D&D was held at Raffles Convention Center. The theme was “Crazy Color Crazy Hat”. The organizer predicted well in advance that not many will bother with the theme, so they decided to buy the hats for us ^^; We registered at around 7.00pm, got our door gift (a gigantic DB umbrella), and then entered to see what’s there for us. I chatted with couple of colleagues for a while, and then most of the ladies are drawn into one corner – photo booth!

One of the many photos we took

We were finally asked to seat at around 8pm at the dining hall, then the MC started the D&D with the opening address from Rec Club President. I kind of expecting the speech to be light (It’s RECREATION club!) but it turned out to be very serious with all about bank, chart, numbers, and target. It was almost 9pm when the speech finally finished, and we wait for nothing when they said “Dinner is served!”

D&D Table 18

The food was good. There are different buffets spread for vegetarian, non-veggie, and dessert. The non-veggie table really live up to its name – there was hardly any vegetable dishes there! All I can see was fish, chicken, mutton, squid… @.@

One of the buffet spread

The event continued with report from Rec club secretary and financial controller, then followed with table game (Song guessing – Shazam was particularly useful), stage games, and finally, lucky draws! Called it beginner’s luck (this is my first time attending D&D), I actually won something! It’s the #38 out of 70 prize and came in quite a huge package. I torn off the takasimaya gift wrap and revealed a… bread toaster. An exact similar thing with what my roomie has. Haha.. The even ended at almost 11pm, then Olivia sent me back home (thanks!). I slept at 12+ after a shower.

I woke up at 7am on Saturday, felt super lazy, but decided to get up anyway for my Sat jog. The sun was shining brightly, and started to become unbearable as it hits 8am. Many times I felt the urge to stop. I felt tired after 5 laps, stopped for water cooler at the 10th laps, walking at the 15th laps, but finally managed to finish my target 30 laps! =D That’s my longest run, yet. It was around 9.30am when I reached back home. I showered, dressed up, then go for the next event: Lunch with Lady Iron Chef (Free)!

It’s a monthly event sponsored by SMRT, organized by Nuffnang, in an attempt to promote the eating places around Circle Line MRT. For this month, we went to Botanical Garden MRT and had our lunch at Swiss Butchery Shop (Coronation Branch). We met up at the MRT Control Station at 11.30am. At around 11.40am, everyone shown up and we all walk to the place together. There are 20 of us and guess how many are guys? 4!! And guess how many are older than me? 1!! (That’s Winson). All of them are still studying. I never felt this conscious about my age before.

Anyway, they are all nice (and pretty) people. LadyIronChef himself is really down to earth =) He looks so much taller in real life than the pic ^^; He was really passionate when sharing about the good restaurant and café… I just have be careful with his word affordable (“Prive at Keppel Bay has a nice view and surprisingly affordable! Only around ten-ish per dish”) Sometime I wonder if he ever at canteen. Lol.

LadyIronChef explaining the different eating places

So, back to the Swiss Butchery. We walked for around 10 mins from the MRT and reached there at 12pm. Man, we were treated like VIP there. They have arranged the table for us outdoor, but was happily re-arranged it to indoor when some complains it’s too hot outside. The drink was served really fast (and topped up continuously), and even the food was served within 20mins.

Hidden Gem - Swiss Butchery  

Fresh Meat for sales

We had Salad, Grilled Chicken Burger, Grilled Cod Fish Burger, Beef Burger, Mash potatoes (I love the potatoes), fries, (plenty of) sausages, and last but not least mushroom pasta! No complain to any of the food. It’s a fine western food bistro and I would have loved to revisit it if I stayed around that area. Unfortunately, it’s more than 30 mins travel… so yeah… till our fate cross again! (or the next free lunch, whichever earlier).

Sausage, Sausage, and Sausage. The reddest one was the  nicest (no idea about the name)

After lunch, we were given a goodie bag + quiz about SMRT. I was lucky enough to sit in the smart table, so couple of us got a gift. I got a S.H.E SHERO album. Hahaha.. oh well, my first original album =p We finally parted after some photo takings.

Group of Free Lunchers + Nuffnang's Staff + *GOH* Brat

With Brad! (Still very used with calling him ladyironchef)

Winson and I went to Bugis afterwards. The intention was to pray, but as it was raining quite heavily during that time, we spent most of our time shopping at OG =_= Thanks that we remember to cover the praying part as well. Bugis Junction’s Christmas theme was “Go Gaga this Christmas”, and things are decorated in black and white, which was surprisingly giving the exclusive look =) As much as I wanted to shop, my legs were hurting so bad that I finally raised the white flag. We rested at Swensen, had one of the sinful ice cream, then had dinner at Food Junction before going back home.

Go Gaga This Christmas @ Bugis Junction

My Dinner - Chinese Ayam Penyet

Back home, I rested for a while, then watched a comedy movie “30 Minutes or Less” and slept afterwards.

Sunday is the day for badminton, family, and relaxing at home. The weather was sunny in the afternoon, so I decided to wash my bed sheet. Within half an hour, the sky turned dark and it rained like no tomorrow =__=’ me and my luck. Somehow, I like the rain… it helps to breeze up the dry afternoon. Nothing much in the evening (except me addicted to Tiny Tower). we had dinner at Dawson, got ourselves some fruits, and now… ready for a movie to end the Sunday :D :D

Till next week!
ED

PS: Annoyed with Google for disabling the Sharing function in its Reader v_v

Sing Your Mind Out

Ok the title doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the blog entry. It’s the song sung by Sherina in the closing ceremony of One Young World conference. I found it when I was browsing, liked it, and so typing it here so that I can recall the title in the future :p

At the same week, I found out about Charice’s new album – “Infinity” :D I listened to her single “Louder”, and still can’t believe that such a young girl can have such a marvelous voice. Loving the album ~ How I wish she can be a permanent member in Glee.

I noticed that my music preference is shifting from boy bands to girl powers ^^; Most of them are also younger than myself. I wondered where were all my favorite-seasoned artists now. Where is Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston these days? Christmas is around the corner and I do hope that they will come out with some Christmas songs compilation as usual =)

Christmas lit-up started this week at Orchard, and I’m seeing more and more Christmas trees around Singapore (mental note: to have my camera ready from now on). How can you resist the holiday mood when everywhere seems to be screaming holiday?

Random Shot at Orchard - The theme color seems to be blue this year!

Office has turned quieter these days. I received at least 4 out of office message for every 10 participants I sent to. Our performance evaluation period is over, people start taking turn in clearing leaves, and I can see more and more travels print-out in office’s printer :p Anyway, I passed this week similar to how I passed last week. How do I explain my feeling? I’m excited that December is coming in two weeks now, but at the same time scared that it will come and go before I savor it to the max. I have been waiting for it for 11 months! And now I don’t know what to do as it’s approaching.

It’s 3 weeks to my 10km Stand Chart run. I slept earlier on Friday and woke up at 6.30am for a jog with my roommate. I’m thankful that my roommate is in this together, so I have someone to keep me motivated :) (Not sure about the other way round). We run for around one and half hour (10+km), then I went back, showered, and go for my annual dental check-up.

After my bad experience with Tiong Bahru's Q&M last year, we decided to try out the Red Hill branch this time. Despite being the first client in the clinic, the secretary made us wait for 30 mins because we don’t have any appointment (why all dental secretaries are that hateable?) Having said so, the experience was better than last year. The doctor was kind (apart from all his salesman attempt to sell me implants, braces, and surgeries). He explained things well, and my cleaning doesn’t hurt as bad. Actually, the doctor even said that I have good dental hygiene (smile). For scaling, polishing, and filling, my bill went to the total of SGD 141 (undo smile).

It was around 11.30am when we’re done with the dental affair. We took bus 33 from Redhill to Queensway Shopping Center for… McValue Lunch! :p It has been really long since the last time I had McD, at least 3 months. I had Spicy Chicken Meal with green tea, which cost me less than SGD 5.5 (cheapskate mode on).

Back home, we got our annual aircon cleaning. The guys from AireControl were complaining that our aircons were way to dirty, saying that it should have been cleaned quarterly instead of annually. Knowing their hidden agenda (to get people to sign for yearly service contract), I just shrugged and said that annual is what mentioned in our Flat Agreement.

After a busy morning, my afternoon was pretty relaxing – tidying up stuff, watching my weekly clicknetwork episodes, responding to personal emails, and soon enough, it was time to go to Somerset for evening agenda :)

We had dinner at Coco Ichibanya. It was pretty crowded, I guess because of the 10% discount until the end of Nov. Thanks to Jess who arrived early, we didn’t have to queue at all =P I ordered Mushroom Cream Omelette Curry based on the review I saw in forums. The curry wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t above-average good. In fact, it taste exactly the same with the instant Japanese curry block you can find in Fair Price, which is also the same taste you can have in any coffee shop for SGD 5 =__=’’ Coco Ichibanya is known as king of curry in Japan, so I didn’t regret trying it out. If I ever go there again, it will be to try out its Level 5 spicy curry :)

My Mushroom Cream Omelette Curry (SGD13++)

We went to Cathay Orchard after dinner to catch “You’re the apple of my eyes” Taiwanese movie. The setting was mostly in high school, with last part in university. Oh well, I know I’m – a bit – too old for puppy love story, but the movie was really funny. Nothing really special about plot though, and again, I would have preferred the movie to be happy ending :(

那些年，我們一起追的女孩

This week, we seem to be clearing up the Chinese movies stocks. We watched The Sorcerer And The White Snake, followed by My Kingdom. The first movie story line was well known, so there is no much WOW element. The graphic was good, the girls are pretty, but it still weird to see snakes floating in the sky. The theme of the second movie was quite unique. The movie was talking about Chinese Opera, but the actors are those boy band singers. Those amateur singers were surprisingly quite good actors. The story was nice but the ending was kind of lame. It leaves me wondering of what the movie actually wants to convey :s

My sunday schedule was kind of empty, which I'm thankful of as I don't think I'm on my best of mood. After the morning badminton session, I just stayed at home, watching the weather turned from extreme hot to raining and now windy. I was lazying around playing Tiny Tower for the whole afternoon, and I guess it's time for me to get up and do some home chores... =__=''

Plan to start my year end planning by next week,
ED

PS: Does anyone see elephants all around Singapore lately? I just learnt that it's part of Elephant Parade exhibition - in an attempt to bring awareness and conservation of Asian Elephant.

Red Devil Elephant!

November Rain

So I reached back SG from Korea last sunday. It was 7.30am in the morning as we dragged the luggage across the HDB area. The weather was so good till I had the crazy idea of going for a jog straightaway. Of course in the end my lazy mind took charge and I ended up spending my morning unpacking my stuff.

There was actually nothing much in my luggage except for the cosmetics stuff. I finished unpacking at around 10am, then showered and laid on my bed while reading through my feeds through iPhone google reader. Soon enough, the Z virus hit me and I was unconscious until 2pm. I jumped up, freshen up, then went to Dawson for late lunch. Oh, the food in Singapore tasted like heaven compared with Korean food in Korea (sound weird, I know) After lunch, I remembered doing laundry, catching up with my games, feeds, clicknetwork videos, until it was time for dinner. After dinner, we watched Disney Cars 2, and then have an early rest.

Monday was a public holiday. I forced myself to wake up early and went to jog at Queenstown stadium. Winson joined me for the first time and I thought I could show off the result of my 6 months running regime. As it turned out, he was still able to run passed me effortlessly =__=’ We run + walk until around 16 laps, then went back home to shower.

Afternoon activity was KTV at Teo Heng NTU alumni club. I know that Ten Dollars club is cheap, but Teo Heng is the cheapest one so far. The big room (with capacity of 10 people) is SGD 36 net for weekend. Since there are 8 of us, each is paying SGD4.5 for 3 hours of KTV. Wow! For weekdays, the charge is SGD 22 for big room. It means SGD 2.2 per person for 3 hours KTV! I wonder how they make money. Even the drinks are only SGD 1 / can.

Random Shots at the Future Singers

In the evening, we decided to try out Al Afrose restaurant, which is just couple of steps from Spize. It turned out to be total disappointment =( the bilis in my ikan bilis fried rice was so tough that I can hardly swallow it. The chicken in Winson’s mie goreng was full of bones and no meat :s Oh how I missed the food at Al Ameen =( We might give this restaurant another try for its indian food before abandoning it forever.

Not so good looking / good tasting Ikan Bilis Fried Rice - Al Afrose

Tuesday was my first day going back to office. Apparently lots of people were on leave and just returning on the same day – a lot of greetings and exchange of stories. Things were not as bad as I expected =p I was still able to do my jog before taking a 9pm call and went back at around 10pm.

On Wednesday, work started to pile up once people knows that you’re back in office. I stayed pretty late in office, but still reach back before 12am. Hehe..

The Thursday this week was surprisingly free for me. My weekly yoga wasn’t happening as many members are on leave. I intended to go for another running exercise, but my other call was rescheduled and clashed with my running time v_v. I left home at around 8.00pm after knowing that my weekly 10pm call was rescheduled to Friday.

Friday - Happy 11-11-11, whatever it means! Not sure why, I wasn’t in the mood to work at all on Friday. Even when people are asking me serious questions, I was answering half heartily. Maybe it’s because my boss was again taking sudden leave and rescheduling my performance review T__T I left at 7pm after my call, and spent the evening at Vivocity. The Christmas decoration is everywhere! So does my holiday mood =p We reached back home at around 10pm, then watched “Overheard 2” until midnight.

Saturday, I went for Queenstown stadium for another jog. It’s 3 weeks to my 10km Standard Chartered run, and I felt so unprepared! Out of my kiasuness, I ran and ran and run until my iPhone battery ran out =__= It was a total of 12.44km within 1hr 45mins – my furthest distance so far! (Last record was 11km before the Jurong Lake Run). After running, I was busy with my housework chores until time for lunch.

Lunch was at Sizzler Toa Payoh. We got the cash voucher of SGD 20 for SGD 14, thanks to In Sing. You just have to order one main and will be provided access to all-you-care-to-eat salad table. The salad table is not a normal salad table. It’s comparable to that of Pizza Hut, with free flow of soups, noodle, spaghetti, and even with a booth for yogurt and ice cream. Simply said, Sizzler is actually a buffet for SGD 14. The staffs are friendly, and the quality of the food is also above average. The fruits are all so sweet, and never did I see mushroom soup with mushroom as big as ping-pong ball. We ate from 1.30pm to 3pm, then happily rolling to MRT.

Own-picked salad + Superb Cheese Toast

One view of the Salad Table (before the waiter told me that pic is not allowed)

On our way back, we stopped at Raffles Place to meet up with Citra. We walked around Raffles area, then stopped at Rotisserie for lunch. The lunch looks good (even when looked at with full stomach). I ordered coffee but it doesn’t seem to help my after-lunch-sleepiness. We left the place at around 5pm, and I was unconscious until 7pm. My sister called me right after I was out from shower. We chatted for almost an hour, then I spent the rest of the Saturday continuing the “Overheard 2” and big-bag theory. “Overheard 2” is a disappointment compared with its first movie. The story was predictable and it doesn’t show much of wits =(

Sunday I woke up at 8.30am and then went to JE for badminton (there is no chance to sleep until late these days!) There are 12 of us – lucky that Inche booked 2 courts. What I waited most is the after badminton treat – Sarawak Kolo Mee! Lurve it max. We celebrated Inche's B'day as well at the coffee shop. Happy Birthday, Che! Stay innocent always =p

Happy 17th B'day to Inche :D

The weather turned weird once we reached home. It was unbearable hot for couple of minutes, then raining like no tomorrow, then stopped in 10 minutes, and then started to rain again =_= It’s now 5.30 and song of thunders are still playing outside the window. What a nice time to nap... :p

Fighting against Z virus,
ED

8 Days Korea Discovery + Jeju

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 – Day 1 - Singapore - Seoul

After an unexpectedly easy Friday in office, I finalized my packing on Sat morning, and then went to airport after lunch at around 11am. I reached the airport just in time to meet the tour leader, grab my ticket, and then go to the departure hall to join my parents. They have been waiting since their flight reach Singapore at around 11.30am. We had a quick bite at coffee shop near by, and then proceed to the gate for the 2.30pm flight.

Our flight to Seoul!

The flight was smooth. I had “Singapore style” Kimchi fried rice and finished two movies: “Captain America” and “Planet of the Apes”. Captain America was surprisingly good, and Planet of the Apes was boring as expected. It was a 6 ½ hours flight to South Korea, and we reached before I even got a chance to feel sleepy.

Delicious Kimchi Fried Rice for lunch! 

My Entertainment Guide

A quick walk around Incheon airport made me wonder how it could beat Changi Airport as the best airport in the past. The airport was indeed huge, but it’s not anywhere close to Changi in terms of convenience and service offered. Changi is the only airport so far that I see offering free massages chairs, napping area, as well as free mobile charging. Oh well, maybe there are more criteria which are not visible to the end customers. At least Incheon has free wifi and I’m already happy enough with that =p

It was around 10.30pm when we finally met all our tour people. There are 23 tour guests + 4 tour agencies people– the driver, the tour guide, the Korean representative, and the tour leader. In total, we’re travelling in the group of 27people most of the time. Our tour guide is Annie (a bit disappointed to get an auntie as our tour guide T_T) and she was rambling more about her family history rather than what to see and eat in Korea (complain mode :p)

We reached Harbor Park hotel at around 12.15am after making a quick stop at convenience store. We had our supper: 2 cups of Korean delicious instant noodle, then went to a soundly sleep.

Eating Korean Noodle in its country of Origin! Nom Nom...

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 – Day 2 - Seoul - Yasan Farm - Deoksan Spa Castle

We woke up at 7am and had our breakfast at the hotel premises before starting the tour. A bit different from other hotel, the breakfast location is at the top 15th floor rather than ground floor. We got a nice view, but at the cost of 10 minutes waiting just for the lift (I’m complaining too much, aren’t I?)

View from the dining table

Our first itinerary for Korea was Ice Gallery. Despite being quite small (10 mins for full ice gallery tour), it has quite some interesting ice sculptures. There are things from living room, computer, piano, and ice toilets!

Icy Living Room - Complete with the TV!

After the tour, we were invited to create our own ice glass. The presenter did a demo for us before leaving us to sculpt our own. Out from the 23 participants, mum won the first place!! Ha. I never know there is art blood in my family.

They gave gold medal, ice flower bouquet, and even the head trophy ^^;

The second destination was… Korean Shabu Shabu Buffet lunch “Mor Mor”! I was quite surprised that there is only such a short break between breakfast and lunch. We had breakfast at 9am and now lunch at 11am? :( I wasn’t able to really savor all the food there, but at least I finish the premium pork / chicken plate which was not replenishable.

Korean Shabu Shabu Buffet - Steamboat #1

Third destination was Yasan Agroland Farm, where we got the change to do calf feeding and cow milking. The weather was warm and I confirmed beyond 28 degrees! Who told me about 10 degrees during autumn in Korea? I want breeze!!

Feeding Calf - The bottle was indeed huge!

After a tractor ride tour around the farm, we proceed with ice cream making. Well, the experience was ok, but I still prefer to buy than make my ice cream. Hehe.

Strawberry, Banana, and Chocolate Hand Made Ice Cream - made and eaten

 Fourth destination was Resom – Spa Castle. Too bad I didn’t bring my camera there, so no pic as such =( The Spa Castle deserved a WOW. The place was huge with indoor and outdoor spa. The indoor spa was further differentiated between mixed spa and naked spa. The outdoor spa was something like Sunway Lagoon, complete with the various attractions, all for free, and gosh - there was almost no queue! I went for the mixed (Swimming suit) spa as well as the outdoor adventure. The warm water was so relaxing, and it was soon time to get ready for dinner before we realized it.

We concluded our second day with steamboat at the Resom Hotel. After a quick shop for mineral water at convenience store, we went back to hotel to rest. That day, I got to sleep with the Korean style tatami =) That night, I felt like Nobita.

Tatami!

Steamboat dinner at Resom Hotel - Steamboat #2

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 – Day 3 - Deoksan Spa Castle - Mt. Sorak - Yongpyong Dragon Valley

Our morning was kicked off with American style breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we proceed with 4 hours bus ride before we reach our next destination – restaurant for lunch =__=’’ By the third day, I realized that I haven’t been doing much rather than eat, sit, and snap. It was a steamboat lunch, and I started to consciously counting how many steamboats are we having in for the tour.

American Style Breakfast 

Yet another steamboat lunch - Steamboat #3

After lunch, we proceed with our first and only destination for the day – Seoraksan National Park. We visited the Shinhungsa Temple, then took a cable car to the top of the mountain and walked up to Kwon Kum Seong Fortress. After awhile, we went back to the park and were given one hour to walk around and enjoying the park. The autumn red leaves were indeed very beautiful. I learnt that there are different leaves colors for different trees. The yellowish leaves are Ginko tree (remind me of a story in Conan!) and the red leaves are maple tree. The park is kind of romantic, and would have been perfect if the weather was not so hot T_T

Love the color of Autumn!

Kwon Kum Seong Fortress - mostly rock and stones

Infront of the Entrance Gate of Seoraksan National Park

Our dinner was another steamboat. Fish steamboat to be exact. The soup was a bit too salty even for me, but the rest of the things are ok. We stay at Yong Pyong hotel for the night, and I finally got a bit of breeze. It is a skiing resort for winter, and the only resort that has free wifi. Kudos, Yong Pyong! I got to do video call with sis and bro before we slept soundly at night. Oh, we also went for a quick look at the Winter Sonata Café across the hotel. I didn’t watch the drama so I don’t know much, but apparently it’s true that all aunties are crazy about the lead actor Bae Yong Joon – proven by aunties in my tour and confirmed by the auntie tour guide. Anyway. Halloween for whoever cares!

Fish Steamboat - Steamboat #4

In the Winter Sonata Cafe

Our hotel room at Yeong Pyong Dragon Valley - There is another bed behind the wall for me

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 – Day 4 - Yongpyong Dragon Valley - Jeju Island

We had our buffet style breakfast (yay!) at the resort. After another round of walk around the resort, we took bus back to Seoul, and had our lunch before proceeding to domestic airport for Jeju Island.

My breakfast plate! Basically the whole menu they have in the buffet spread 

Posing at the not activated ski train 

BBQ for lunch! 

The souvenir shop beside the lunch place - cute dolls! 

The price for Face Shop mask in Korea! W1,500 is less than SGD 2!!

I felt that Jeju’s itinerary was so much more happening than the earlier couple of days. We reached at around 4pm, then proceed for our first itinerary of the day – Teddy Bear Museum. I heard that it’s a filming site for Princess Hour, but again alas, I didn’t watch the series, so I was just enjoying the teddy bears… I don’t find them extremely cute, but I guess it worth a visit. They have bears miniature for famous movie / animation like Alice in the Wonderland and the Shrek! The Shrek Bears!

Happy Shrek Bears Family!

Our dinner was a normal rice dinner (thankful for no steamboat), and then we proceed with our second and last itinerary of the day – Nanta Show. It was a one hour non verbal performance based on the rhythms of samullori (traditional Korean percussion). The show has been there since 1997! The show was quite engaging, and it was soon the ending before we even realize it. After dinner, we proceed to our hotel T.H.E hotel, which is our hotel for 2 days at Jeju Island.

Tour Guide "Come come eat, all are replenishable, except the egg" O.O

At the Theater for Nanta Show

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 – Day 5 - Jeju Island

The morning routine was a bit different for Day 5. We didn’t have to pack our stuff, so we just showered and got to the bus for our breakfast destination. Finally, a breakfast outside the hotel! We went for so-called Abalone porridge. “so-called” because the said abalone was chopped until nothing was really visible in the porridge… and the abalone porridge simply taste salty.

Excited over porridge

After breakfast, we proceed with first itinerary of the day: Seongsan Sunrise Peak. It supposed to be a place to watch sunrise, but since we reached there around 10am, we were just wandering around the area without specific purposes. I went all the way to the top of the peak (around 500 staircase steps!) but was disappointed to find the place fully packed with nothing much to see =( There are lots of tourist at Seongsan Peak, mostly from Taiwan, China, Japan, and local Korean. Despite being all asian, I can easily tell which country the group of tourist are from based from their behavior. Japanese are all so politeee!! They will let you pass through first and queue even for taking pics. The rest acted like it’s the world of their owns, blocking you from taking picture, pushing around, and conveniently blocking the road to take 50 different poses pics. Roar!

Long queue for going up and down the peak T_T

For the second itinerary of the day, we went horse riding nearby. It was not actually a horse, but a pony. Well, it still looked quite huge, and it felt quite high to be on its top. The session was more of photography sessions rather than real horse riding experience. We were on the horse for around 15 mins. There are 3 mins when the horse actually walked, the rest was standing still and horse trainer asking us to pose for picture. We spent 45,000 won for 3 bad quality printer pictures. I won’t have taken the pictures if the quality is that bad! What a waste T_T

On a Pony - The Ponies are all well trained!

We went for BBQ lunch at a restaurant called Yetjeoungui Gol (It’s very tough to find any English name for restaurant since most are conveniently written only in Korean). By that time I was so sick of Pork and Chicken BBQ ^^; I had mostly salted fish to compliment the rice during the lunch.

Another BBQ Lunch

After lunch, we proceed with our third itinerary: Seongup Folk Village – where the famous Dae Jang Geum series. Mum and Dad know the story, so they explained to me the main story line. The village itself was quite small. After a quick tour, they started to sell honey, ginseng, and some-five-flavors like the usual MLM sales. Mum and dad got a pot of honey (W 40,000) while I refused to try anything after my experience with Ling Zhe at Taiwan.

Seongup Folk Village

Fourth itinerary was Trick Art Museum. It's similar to Ripley's Believe it or not - Korean Version. In door was filled with 3D painting on the walls, while outdoor was filled with animals replicas.

One of the 3D pictures at Trick Art Museum

I got a pair of wings!

Fifth itinerary was Chocolate Museum. Despite voted as top ten Chocolate museum (#7) in the world, it’s a far cry from Penny’s Chocs Museum (#3) at Phillips Island.

The Chocolate Museum & Statue of Jeju's God

Sixth itinerary was Glass Castle, which was more fun for me – maybe because it’s the first glass castle I ever visited, so no comparison as such. It was around 5pm when we reached there and the sky has turned a bit dark. We had less than an hour to look, see, snap, then proceed for dinner.

View of Glass Castle Park

The seventh and last itinerary of the day was a visit to TopDong Shopping Street. Mum wasn’t feeling very well on that day, so we just have a brief walk around before going back to hotel to rest. Mum got a flu that day. All started because there is a Korea policy that hotels are not supposed to turn on AC during Autumn period. Our hotel room was very warm, so we requested for a fan and voila – mum caught flu because of the fan T_T so sorry mum…

Dad and I went to the Casino in the hotel, which was pathetic as there are only 2 people playing :s. Afterwards, we tasted some Choya's like drink (which was recommended by tour guide), along with snack from Paris Baguette (which is really famous in Korea)

Seafood (Abalone) Steamboat Dinner - Steamboat #5

Jeju's Choya & Tofu Chips from Paris Baguette for supper 

Thurs, 03 Nov 2011 – Day 6 - Jeju Island - Seoul

The story for the rest of the tour was a bit short as we skipped some of the activities so that mum can have more rest.

Our 6th day started with breakfast at the hotel, then we packed and proceed with the last two attractions at Jeju Island. First is the Mysterious Road, where we experienced the phenomenon of going uphill with the vehicle engine turned off. I wasn’t really interested with the explanation, so I went to shop nearby and snap some pictures of the souvenirs. Second itinerary was Yongduam Dragon Rock – just another rock for me who can’t appreciate the nature beauty. We spent around half an hour there, then proceed to Domestic airport for flight back to Seoul.

Buffet Breakfast at the T.H.E Hotel

Cute version of Jeju's Gods

Yongduam Dragon Rock - Not sure where is the Dragon though

Seoul was all warm and shiny. We had (tasteless) Ginseng Chicken Soup for lunch, then proceed with spending the rest of the day at Everland Theme Park. Samsung Group apparently owned the park, so the tour guide started to tell us the history of Samsung, which was pretty interesting (please google if interested). We were given 4 hours at the theme park (from 4pm – 8pm) I spent the first one hour queuing for the famous T Express 3-minutes roller coaster ride. It was worthy of every single second of waiting! Apart from the ride, I only managed to catch the Safari tour + Everland Parade before leaving for dinner.

Korea Ginseng Chicken Lunch - very disappointing =( Tried once at Crystal Jade Korean in SG and it tastes so much better

The T Express Ride view from Sky Train 

Korean "Night" Safari =p View from the bus

The all light shimmering parade 

Dinner was yet another BBQ at the seashore. After dinner, we went back to hotel – Lotte World Hotel, where we’re staying for our last two days. That was definitely the best hotel we ever got in Korea! Where all the rest only have blocky soap at the toilet, it has complete range of amenities from shampoo, conditioner, liquid body wash, comb, even razor and body foam! I know that this might be a common amenity in other countries’ hotel, but it’s a real luxury in Korea.

Pork BBQ Dinner

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 – Day 7 - Seoul

There were 2 days left and my parents and I were already counting down the day to home sweet home ^^; the rest of Day 7 and Day 8 were spent in Seoul. Our energy was pretty much used up, so there were less of asking people help to take family shot, and more time spent sleeping in the bus.

Breakfast for Day 7 was 4 types of porridges. I can’t really remember the different flavor now; I guess there were chicken, seaweed, ginseng, and one more that I can’t recall.

Four Type of Porridges for breakfast - quite nice!

First itinerary after breakfast was tour to Kimchi school, where we learnt the different types of Kim Chi, and also practice to make Kimchi. Boy, the instructor was very strict and direct. Couple of times we were busy chatting while she was explaining, and she scolded us! Haha.. Good teacher indeed. After making purchase of 6kg of Kim Chi (I don’t know why dad is so crazy about Kim Chi), we went to downstairs for Korean traditional costume sessions.

Kimchi Making Class

Family Snap in Korean Traditional Wear

Second stop was Ginseng Monopoly Showroom – another scary MLM-like practice. It’s hard enough for me to stay away from their sales pitch, but then it becomes triple hard when I had to remind mum and dad about the scheme and convinced them not to spend US 2,000 on a pair of ginseng root. Well, I did it afterall. I guess the sales person must hate me to death. Actually, I’m really impressed with those sales person. They seem to be able to speak any language required. They presented in perfect Chinese, understand English, and even started to speak in Indonesian when she knows that we’re from Indonesia. On top of that, of course they know Korean and Japanese since those are the majority of tourists there. Kudos!

Random shot at the Ginseng Showroom

Third stop was Nature Republic and Skin Care course, where I spent most of my Korean won on ^^; Everything there was really 1/3 the price from those in Singapore. I can’t help but fall into buying almost everything that they promoted. The worries hit me when I realized that the brand – Odbo, wasn’t really a brand that we saw anywhere in Singapore, even in other retail store in Korea! When I did a search on google, I realized that I can’t really find the connection between Odbo and faceshop or nature republic. I started to wonder if this is another MLM trick, but at least, there has been a lot of compliments of the products and no complain seen so far.

The Odbo Sales Person explaining the products

After the crazy shopping, the next stop was Bibimbap. It was so far the best meal I ever had (tear of happiness). Fourth stop was a shopping at Dongdaemun Market. As we were quite broke after the cosmetic purchase, we were just wandering around without nothing much to buy.

Bibimbap lunch! My favourite for the whole trip, comes with Steamboat #6

8 Floors of Fashion stuff at Dongdaemun Market *faints*

Fifth and last stop was evening at Lotte World Adventure Park. It was conveniently located near the hotel (or to be exact, the hotel is inside the park), so we were told that we can come and go as we wish. Mum was not feeling well that day, and we decided to leave early at around 7.30pm after parade. In the hotel, we chatted and started packing for tomorrow’ last day.

Parade from Lotte World Adventure Park - 3x smaller than Everland

Our last Korean noodle Supper :( 

Purchases from Nature Republic! =_='

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 – Day 8 - Seoul - Singapore

We checked out at 8.20am and went for breakfast at Taiwanese Restaurant. Another day with porridge =) The itinerary for the day was a bit boring for me. We started with a visit to Amethyst Factory – yet another hard selling that I hate.

Taiwanese Porridge for last day breakfast!

Random shot at Amethyst Factory, which looked abit laid back

Second destination was Seaweed Showroom, which showed us the processing of seaweed from beginning to packaging. The seaweed doesn’t taste anywhere near Tao Kae Noi, but we bought it anyway.

The seaweed maker Machine =D

Third destination was another attempt to sell some medicine – Bo Kan Showroom. Everyone was so bored that we actually stormed out the showroom after 10 minutes. The unity of tour members! Yay! 

The only picture before the sales girl dramatically said no to photography

When we went back to the bus, it was yet another hard selling of photos from the Korea Representative T_T He prepared a DVD + album photos for each family, which price tag attached to the cover of the album. Mine has 45 photos!! He charged W 5000 for each photos, so it goes to whopping number of W 225,000 for photos! Or SGD 270 if converted to Sing Dollar. I refused to spend so much for photos (plus I was already broke la) so I told him that the photos are nice, but I can’t really afford all, so I gave him W 50,000 and return him the rest of the photos. Guess what, his warm attitude change right after the incident (Apparently, I’m the only one who didn’t buy the full set). He didn’t even want to talk or respond or serve my family food anymore. Oh well. Lucky I’m trained for Self Service in Singapore. 

Pork Ribs Steamboat - Steamboat #7

After our steamboat lunch, our fourth and fifth destination were not other than two shopping destination – Myongdong Fashion Street and Sichon Fashion Alley. I wasn’t really in the mood to buy anything, so we were trying hard to kill the rest of 4 hours. In the fifth destination, I given up walking around and decided to go to coffee shop and wait for the time to pass.

Look what I found at Myondong Fashion Street!

One of the last attraction listed in the itinerary - Star Avenue which filled with Korean star's pictures 

Random shot from Coffee Shop at Sichon Fashion Valley

Dinner was dumpling steamboat, and we had our last round of duty free shopping before proceeding to the airport. We were early. After an easy check-in, we said farewell to our tour guide and money-driven Korean representative, then proceed to take internal shuttle bus to departure hall. We walked around and it was soon 11pm where we’re requested to board the plane.

Dumpling Steamboat - finally, last steamboat! I swear I got steamboat phobia now - Steamboat #8

Mum & Dad luggages - from 2 to 4 pieces ^^;

Trying out the Korean Fastfood Chain - Lotteria Burger for supper - It's very very similar to McD. Taste good, too.

Unlike the outbound flight, the inbound flight to Singapore faced lots of turbulence. Lucky that I was too sleepy to notice most of them. I slept before the plane took off, and only awake for breakfast, before concussed for another hour till the arrival in Singapore.

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 – Prolog 

Well, the plane arrived 25 mins earlier. It was around 5.45am when we walked out from the plane. Oh how I missed the familiar Changi scent. After sending Mum and Dad to terminal 2 for the connecting flight to Medan, I took MRT back to Queenstown.

Changi Sweet Changi - Bit blur as I was still half awake

Conclusion: This is the first time I was taking SA Tour (normally I stick with Five Stars). The experience wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. There is few “additional” cost – tips for tour guide, driver, tour leader + 5 meals of pre-arranged meals + hard selling photos - in the end we have to spend another SGD 600 for three of us. Well, maybe it’s also dependent on where you go :)

Till the next post!
ED