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.