silent night...

Looking back on what happened during Christmas last year, this year is really dry and dull, reason being most of us seem to be geting sick of the thought of being amidst the Orchard Road crowd getting last minute presents or rushing from one party to another or wrapping gifts and preparing Christmas dinners. Maybe Er Yi's decision to veto out her annual Christmas party at her place contributed largely to the silent night I'm experiencing tonight but not to worry, there's always "Peter Pan" to turn to at 10 later...

Anyway, church always has interesting events lined up to maintain the Christmas cheer [even though we all know that Christmas isn't just about the turkey and the gifts and the merry-making].

Home Christmas at g12 was as happening as ever with more people coming to join us. Food was great, sharing that night was by Yireng and everyone enjoyed themselves...

pictures courtesy of Jasmine and Midori :)

Also, the Christmas Banquet at HOF made me feel all excited for Christmas again. Dresscode:Streetwear.

my sister's cute street hairdo since 1998... Bedok 2!
The "pasar malam" on the first floor was really something. There were street games and food by the various regions, although we mostly tried the food the whole time. If I'm not wrong, Region D's food was nice (fake shark's fin soup, muah chee and fried chicken that resembles that of Taiwan's "Shihlin Snacks." I especially liked the game by Region B.

The game involves the player trying to hit the rapidly popping heads of the Region B members (donned in colourful construction helmets) before they retreat back to their holes (something like the game in arcades where you hit the crocodile's jaw as it comes out of its hole). Midori got disqualified from the game as she hit their heads too hard. :D

Sermon by Pastor Dale was good too and his framework was based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

It's so great to know that even amidst our darkest hours of life, there's a God who never fails...who always lifts us back to our feet again. Being a Christian doesn't mean that our life would be trouble-free. It only means that we would be able to rely wholly on that Someone who loves us so much that He can ease our burdens that Life inevitably brings.

Christmas needn't be about the degree of fun and the thrill we get from receiving and opening presents...

SO, even though tonight may be a silent night for me, I am content :)

the sequel...

I decided to continue the previous entry on a fresh page cos the time spent on scrolling down the entry for ages just to organise your pictures was taking a toll on me so if you have not read the previous entry yet, I suggest you start from there before reading this one.

Moving on, we went to Samsoo Herb Garden the next day after breakfast. I had the most bizarre lunch when we had to munch on pretty flowers and consume potpourri water (I felt like Dino the dinosaur). We had to mix different sauces, add in the rice with the flowers plus chilli and mix them all before eating so these is how it should look like:

Step 1: Everything looking nice and pretty...

Step 2: Add the sauces provided with the shredded chicken and the rice. Notice the potpourri water on the right.

Step 3: Voila! Rojak: Korean style!

Everland Theme Park, owned by Samsung was quite nice too. As we had to complete our Big Five ticket, we had to plan which rides to take, partly cos we had a limited time to complete them. Safari World would be good for animal lovers. We actually could see the bears, lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes up close as we drove into their enclosure and the bus driver cum trainer made them perform tricks. We could not see the Li-ger (cross breed of lion and tiger) as they could not withstand winter temperatures.

Safari World

Took the Ferris Wheel (quite boring, could not feel it moving, that's how slow it was...), some simulator ride which was not worth it cos it was narrated in Korean, the Hurricane (a revolving sphere moving viking style), the Viking Ship and the roller coaster. I didn't realised that the roller coaster was the type that could go upside down until I was happily strapped into my seat ( my brother pointed it out to me then, there were not one but TWO complete 360 degree loops to overcome! Eeeek!) So, I screamed until I felt like vomiting the whole way through. Even though my eyes were closed three quarters of the time, I could feel myself being lifted up when I was overturned TWICE but it was quite a shiok feeling when I reflected upon it later. Both my younger siblings took the ride and I'm ashamed to say that out of the 3 of us, I was the only one who screamed (you must understand that I'm not quite the dare devil when it comes to such things). Headed for Seoul after that.

Changdeokgung Palace was quite OK, learnt a fair bit about Korea's history. Really pity the palace guards who had to stand motionless for at least 2 hours in the hot sun, under the constant, cruel scrutiny of us curious tourists.

Shopping at Dongdaemun followed and lunch was Ginseng Chicken.

Took a 5-minute journey by ferry to Nami Island, the filming site for "Winter Sonata."
this really made me feel a sense of liberation...If you watched "Winter Sonata", I'm sure you'll be familiar with the following scene.If I had watched it beforehand, I may be able to better appreciate the place even more...Dinner was nice as usual...

Ray, my aunty's friend's son was really very adorable...played with him for the whole 2-hour journey by coach to the ski resort.



Vivaldi Park's Pine Hotel was much better than the hotel in Seoul which we bunked in for a night. Slept on tatami mats...

The other highlight of the trip was definitely the skiing. At first it felt weird but after awhile, the feeling is just indescribable: imagine the feel of the cool wind against your skin as you rush down the slope...

This is the only time during the trip where I actually saw my brother stealing a grin at the camera...

This is also the first time which I witnessed the vulnerable side of my brother. As he fell down quite a couple of times, he could not get up (it was really quite challenging for a beginner to get up after falling) so he had to wait until Richard had to go over to him and give him a hand (in the meantime, he would just sit in a mermaid-like position and grin at us, who were watching him in his helpless state which was quite cute...heh heh....). The adults left for lunch after 2 hours of skiing and so my siblings and I embarked on our arduous journey of trudging uphill for the umpteenth time (you had to pay to use the ski lift). Upon reaching, my sister could not attach her boots to the skis and we spent half an hour to an hour trying to figure out the problem (the ski patrol was utterly useless cos he just stood there watching us and skiing away after a moment). In the end, the poor girl had to make her way downhill by foot...

Took the gondola ride after that to the expert slope (they are really good man...otherwise they can't be called experts right...) The slope was really steep as you can see...

The view there was magnificent too...

ski lifts and gondolas to overcome the arduous climb uphill for the experts...

The next day we passed by the presidential Blue House and had a steamboat cum stone pot lunch.

Kimchi-making was not bad...tried on Korean traditional costumes after that...

I'm Back!

After more than a week away from Singapore, it's great to be back but I certainly didn't miss the food in Singapore. The meals I had in Shanghai and Korea were so good that I actually dreaded coming back to Singapore to think of what my next meal would be (probably Mixed Vegetable Rice again...)

But one thing that I missed about Singapore is the cleanliness and pollution-free atmosphere. (You should have seen Shanghai man...) Korea was not so bad...they were actually quite environmentally-friendly.

Now, on to my task of uploading photos.. I spent the whole afternoon yesterday editing the photos, all 641 of them (plus many others that I deleted..just imagine...) Pardon the writing cos I really dread the task of re-capping everything again, especially since I've already told my tale repeatedly to quite a number of people and it's tiring to write in flowery language so this is just for educational purposes...

Overall, the whole trip was quite rushed cos we had so many things to do in such a limited time. We rushed from hotel to hotel, took long bus rides, woke up super early every morning and ate and slept and walked and shopped and bought many things but after awhile, I got accustomed to the rush...

view outside my Shanghai hotel room

typical road of Shanghai

We travelled with my aunt's friend and her family, as well as my aunt's friend's sister's family so we formed the bulk of the tour (in fact, we were half the strength of the tour group!).

Shopping at Nanjing

Mini-feeders at Nanjing Road for the weary shopper

I saw Jackie Chan

After that was shopping at Chen Huang Miao which was more fruitful. Bought a nice purse there.
Chen Huang Miao seems to be another foodie paradise...saw snaking queues for Xiao Long Bao.

The scenery there was not bad too, only that there were so many people that it spoilt the picture.

Getting my brother into the picture is equivalent to asking a pig to sing man...(maybe even the latter would be easier to accomplish)

Dragon Beard Candy Stall

Street stalls near Chen Huang Miao

Outside the Song Qing Ling Memorial. No photos allowed inside as a form of respect.

After that was Xin Tian Di. Things were quite expensive, night was getting colder so all we did was shelter ourselves from the chilling wind in the shopping mall, nothing much done here. Buildings were quite nice though.

After dinner at a floating restaurant, we headed back to the hotel. My aunt managed to contact her Shanghainese cousin and his wife, who met up with us to have supper near the hotel. The dishes that he chose were super good that I think I over-ate. (Had mild indigestion the next morning!)

The Peking duck they ordered was really good...had not eaten it for 9 years since I went to Hong Kong...

Headed for Suzhou the next day. Tour guide told us that it was renowned for its beautiful women and language.Suzhou courtyard

Took a 3-minute boat ride to the tune of the local boatwoman's singing.Visited a silk factory after that where we bought many pillows. My aunt bought the whole set of bedsheet, bedcover and pillow. Many credit cards were swiped that day...heh heh...

Next, headed off to Tong Ren Tang, a supposedly established medical hall. Those aged 18 and above had a foot reflexology so my aunt, mum and I tried. We had to immerse our feet in 42 degrees Celsius medicated water and after that they would massage our feet. I was quite pai seh cos my masseuse was a young, suave 20 plus years old Chinese lad. My mum complained and said he did a better job than the female masseuse working on her.

We were supposed to have dinner there but my aunt's and mum's cousins invited us to join them for dinner so we got a lift from them to Hai Yang restaurant where they booked a whole function room just for the occasion.

We learnt how to eat hairy crab...super complicating but after awhile, we got the hang of it.

It's really much nicer to go sightseeing with the locals as they seem to bring you to more inaccessible places and you get to try nicer food. :D


Headed for Jeju Island the next day...

First meal in Korea left a good first impression of Korea

The highlight of the day was the ATV Ride and I can safely say that this was one of the best moments of the trip. We each had our own ATV to operate. It's like a mini 4-wheel drive with our own accelerator and stuff. We rode the terrain which had many uphill-downhill rugged courses. Fun to the max!

Visited a Folk Village after that. As it was getting darker (in winter, days are shorter than nights so by 5 plus, it was as dark as 8pm Singapore time), my lousy camera couldn't capture nice shots so these are the few nice ones.

We were supposed to see the tangerine plantation but then by the time we reached, they have already plucked everything so we had to make do with the circumstances.

Emo picture of bro with the tangerines

Scaled Seongsan Sunrise Peak, which was a dormant volcano according to Richard our tour guide. Really tiring to get up there but the journey down was worse. Almost had a nasty fall on the way down. Dinner after that was certainly welcoming. One thing I particularly liked about the trip was that they try to make each dining experience different. They really made a conscious effort to let us try a wide variety of Korean food and not have the same thing all the time.

After settling in to our hotel, we went to explore the underground mall (unique feature of Korea) near the hotel.

Next morning, the view during breakfast was really breathtaking. We could hear the crashing of the waves and the sound of the wind.

Just look at how strong the wind was at that time...

Went to the famous Yongduam Rock aka Dragon Head Rock. After a long period of weathering, the resultant rock is amazingly shaped such that it resembles a dragon head.

Entrance of Yongduam Rock

Next was the Mysterious Road. It's mysterious cos vehicles that travel up the mysterious slope would move on its own with the ignition off.

One hour flight to Daegu on Asiana Airlines. Lunch there was one of the best meals I had during the trip. We had to remove our shoes and sit on the floor (Japanese style).

After a short shopping stint at a street bazaar, we headed for Dongwasha Temple. Temperature was colder, the grounds were much quieter and the place was very tranquil.

The next event was really an eye-opener for me. We went to Spa Valley, which seemed to be one of the well-known places to head for to enjoy a warm soak especially during winter. The building comprises of 3 levels with the Sauna facility at the uppermost level followed by the swimming pool and Doctor Fish Spa on the ground floor. Unlike saunas in Singapore, the sauna there requires one to be completely clothed in their birthday suits so all of the people in my tour group did not go except my aunt and me (I went for the experience only, in case you were wondering cos I will NEVER do that in Singapore!) At first it was quite awkward and both of us covered our essentials with the miserable strip of towel (provided to wrap our hair) but when we entered the sauna, everyone was walking freely without feeling embarrassed so we were the weirdos actually. My aunt explained that this scenario is also quite common in Finland where they even go one step further: having family saunas where the whole family (males AND females) soak stark naked in the same place together (The sauna we went to was not as bad as both genders were separated). Felt a little giddy cos of the sudden change in temperature (when we soaked in extremely hot water before plunging ourselves in icy cold water). They even had an infrared tanning area which was quite cool.

Doctor Fish Spa was also a unique experience cos the feeling of having a hundred over fishes sucking the dead skin away from your feet was really ticklish and the overall image of a whole school of dull-looking fish attacking your feet together really isn't a pretty picture. Dinner after that was really welcoming, by then I was so hungry and exhausted.