Happy 35th Birthday To Me

35 is a turning point in life. With life expectancy at 70, 35 is exactly half of that. I woke up this morning knowing what matters in life to me. Life is about picking up friends along the way and sticking them to you forever. This is my 35 year old timeline.

High School wouldn't have been the same without special friends who I still contact regularly

2007 Company Trip to Korea: Part 5 (final) - Hi Seoul!

Date of Travel: 21-26 Feb 2007

View of Dongdaemun gate

Day 5: To the heart of Seoul

Today was supposed to be about visiting the Seoul Royal Palace, Gyeongbokgung, followed by a Folklore Museum, a Ginseng Factory and Amethyst Factory, and shopping at Myeongdong. It finally ends with a show called Nanta. BORINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! True to my spirit of being adventurous, HH and I decided to skip all of the above with the exception of the Nanta show. Prior to the trip, I had printed out an Indemnity Letter to exclude us from all activities of the day, and we happily woke up late and explored Seoul on our own!

Alleys of Myeongdong - still early, no crowds

 

The hi-tech toilets of Korea

In some toilets, there's a button called "Courtesy Sound" that mimics the sound of water flowing - to mask your *ahem*

2007 Company Trip to Korea: Part 4 - The Child in Everyone

Date of Travel: 21-26 Feb 2007

Day 4: Everland and Kimchi

Today was all about being a child again. We got to scream and giggle with other kids, and got to play masak-masak. That's right, we went to a theme park - Everland! Lotte World was closed at the time, but I was quite happy with Everland as it was well rounded.

AirAsiaX Flies to Sydney From April 2012

Ahead of the potential rival Scoot Airlines, AirAsiaX will begin flying KUL-SYD from April 2012 onwards. TheStar said that a senior official of the group, quoted that ticket sales could begin as early as 17 Jan 2012.

It is also said that AirAsia will soon decide whether to X its Europe, Christchurch and India routes.

Read the full scoop here:

AirAsia X (AAX) seems all set to start ticket sales for the much-awaited KL-Sydney route next week and will begin mounting flights to the Australian city by April this year, way ahead of rival Scoot.

The airline is also said to be in the final stages of rationalising its route network where it would cut some routes which it deemed to be unprofitable and add Sydney and some routes to China (provided it can get slots there) to its network.

“We want to do that (Sydney) well ahead of the competition," said a senior official of the airline group.

Scoot is Singapore Airlines' long-haul low-cost carrier that has named Sydney as the first city of call out of Singapore and plans to begin flying the route by mid-year. Competitive: AirAsia X offers reasonable rates for its Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast flights/

The official declined to elaborate, but market has it that AAX will begin selling tickets for the sector next Tuesday and a team is planning to launch the sales from Sydney.

The first flight is slated to take off on April 1. However, all is subject to its internal planning, though the airline may be looking at daily flights for the KL-Sydney sector.

2007 Company Trip to Korea: Part 3 - From Mountain To Sea

Date of Travel: 21-26 Feb 2007

The view we saw when we woke up this morning - simply breathtaking

Day 3: Skiing!

Today's the day where we all learn skiing for the first time.
It turns out that today is also the last time I will ski again. Ha ha ha.


Full of anticipation on what skiing is all about, we all had bright smiles on our faces on this morning. Parts of our gear were rented at a shop prior to arriving at Phoenix Park Ski Resort. Our guide said they are cheaper here compared to the resort, I unfortunately cannot recall the price. Snow shoes were rented from the resort itself, and unfortunately for me, all the bigger sizes had run out. I was forced to use a smaller shoe size, and tie the laces tighter. Big big mistake of the day.

Fitted up and ready to go!

2007 Company Trip to Korea: Part 2 - Off to Korea

Date of Travel: 21 - 26 Feb 2007


6 Day / 4 Night Company Trip to Seoul


Day 1: Flying on board

Before AirAsia started flying to Korea, most airlines plying the KL - Seoul route will fly at midnight and arrive Seoul in the whee hours of the morning. People like me who cannot sleep on the plane, will end up being a zombie for the rest of the day.

Good Morning to you too. Oh look, who brought a full-sized bedroom pillow along?

2007 Company Trip to Korea: Part 1 - Planning

Date of Travel: 21 - 26 Feb 2007

In 2007, my company had it's inaugural company trip, and it was to Korea! This is also the first entry on this blog for a fully organised tour, which is never my style. All of us in the company were given a chance to nominate a destination of our choice, within a RM3000 budget. Our boss then picked a destination he thought was most suitable, and we then sourced for a travel agent to handle our crowd.

We naturally went to the big players at the time, including Reliance, Orange (big competitor to Apple then), and several others. The company my boss found by himself, has remained quite low key to the public as they do mostly company events. I have to say that this was the best organised tour I have ever been on. I've gone on many to China and twice to USA, Korea, HK. This Korea trip had the best food, entertainment and hotels.

Europe 2011 - Day 14 & 15 Going Home

Date of travel: 20-21 April 2011

After having stayed 2 weeks in Europe, it would seem like we have overstayed our welcome. This morning, it was as if we woke up to a different season. Everywhere was packed with people and made visiting tourist attractions difficult. Today involved buying all the things we missed out on and left for the last. They involved:

• Fridge magnet souvenirs from Notre Dame
• Macarons from Montparnasse
• Possibly some ham/cheese from Bastille Market

Flea market at Bastille

Best of Travel 2011 with CrazyDigest

A summary of the best of 2011 with Crazy Digest

1. Best city to go for sightseeing:
Nominees: Munich, Chiangmai, Paris

Winner of Best city to go for sightseeing: Paris

Paris offers an all-rounded experience of having many sites to visit in a small area, with an easy-to-access transportation network. Rental bicycles are the best!

2. Best single sightseeing spot:

Winner of Best single sightseeing spot: Deutsches Science Museum, Munich

We had 4 hours of great fun in this place. Models are life sizes and split in half for you to see inside.