hello from wales! :-)

hello!

i'm blogging from cardiff (wales)! so fun... it's like a different city each day... so far, i quite like cardiff, it looks small-townish and the people have been very helpful... this is quite different from the big city, activity-filled edinburgh where there is constant creative bustle all around...

the train ride from edinburgh took nearly the whole day (broken by a quick stopover at glasgow, and some minor train stations)... but the scenery and time alone to think was worth it...

it's a pity that i did not manage to go to the scottish highlands... no time... tried going today but the train connections did not cooperate... guess i totally underestimated the size of this country... but guess what, i'm gonna drag the family back to scotland! :-) did my research, got the brochures, etc... it'll be a free and easy but semi pre-planned tour k? haha... the highlands appear to be really nice... and i even figured out the best time to go! summer... cos the days are long... can see more... more value for money! :-)

ok, going for dinner now... starving... just only found accomidation (and this computer to blog from)... maybe will blog again later but with no pictures, cos no usb port again...

cheers,
ping

london, cambridge, york and edinburgh

hello!

i've finally found internet to blog from... haha... happy... didn't bring my card reader out though, so can't post photos...

well, as a quick update, i reached london on sunday afternoon, was picked up by YJ and her husband, went to their house to stay for the night... they were extremely helpful and not only settled me in very comfortably in their place, but also helped to give suggestions and check out train routes for my onward travels...

next day morning, left for cambridge, the famous university town... it was nice and all, but also somewhat familiar, so there wasn't the "wow, it's all so new and quaint" type of feeling that i had quite a lot of in germany... still, it was good to finally see the place that had set all my exam papers up to university... wanted to buy a cambridge sweater (to act intellectual) but unfortunately, there was no size...

then it was to york, that same day... reached york train station after missing a couple of trains (i was in no hurry any way, and was enjoying the lonely planet magazine i just bought)...

york is a pretty walkable town and in the course of walking to my hotel, i managed to cover most of the key sights, and to take photos... the walk took about an hour plus at least i think... will full pack... haha... even i'm impressed with myself... duly rewarded myself with a steak for dinner...

well, york proved more than just buildings and monuments, cos when i woke up the next morning, it all seemed different... the streets were bustling and there was just so much more to see and do... ended up walking around more of the city walls, visiting a shop selling richard III's stuff, visiting a roman bath, going for a viking tour, shopping at oxfam (a charity here, where i picked up a travel guide book on scotland for only £2.5!), etc... was so tired after all this that i decided to give durham a miss (thinking that i'll visit it on my way back if there is time)...

then there's edinburgh were i am now... it's a big city, very historic... took some more photos of big cathedrals and imposing buildings which make up the city landscape... this is the land of haggis (food), bagpipes, tartan cloth, famous authors, etc etc... seems like a lot to do...

oh ya, had pretty nice views on my way here from york... and this means that i'll probably take a train ride out to the highlands area just to look... it's also quite near the loch ness area (as in the loch ness monster that we read about in books) and it's a pity i will stop short of there cos i want to spend more time in the city... tell u more when i'm back from the highlands! :-)

frankfurt on my own

Main River in Frankfurt... there was a fun fair here, so it was especially crowded and festive...


a hen's party (this is a tradition that the frankfurt people observe - about a week before a wedding, the bride's friends get together and throw a party for the bride... the bride is paraded in the streets, with the entire party wearing pointy hats... and the bride has to sell stuff to strangers to raise money to pay for the entire group's night out! this is a v friendly bunch of pp as u can see... :-)


my attempt at art and museums... just thought this looked quite cool...

took this picture at the goethe museum... not sure i understand even a tenth of what the museum was trying to say... the explanations were mostly in german and very brief...

spotted this outside the musuem... a donald duck spoof of the original... was very amused by this...

my lunch... cheap and good fish and chips... by cheap, i mean 4euros... which is like the cheapest meal i probably had in a week... happy... :-)

ok, gonna head to london now... likely to be heading to edinburgh tomorrow morning...

cheers!

frankfurt city + chinatown

delicious chinese soup! this is like headline news for this blog... (see below for more details)


bustling city centre, the Römer area...


the band in full gear...


me sipping applewine...

went back to the city centre to roam around for the afternoon... sat around in the city square sipping applewine (which frankfurt is supposed to be famous for -- it must be my tastebuds but i didn't think it was anything that special) and watching a delightful band performing familiar tunes i learnt on the piano when i was young... quite cool...

also accidentally roamed into frankfurt chinatown which i nearly forgot to visit... just had dinner there with a china lady from france whom i met at my hotel lobby (she's born of PRC parents who worked in paris, she married a frenchman and settled in the south of france)... the staff there was v v nice, gave free soup and free desert... free chinese soup!! wow!! in a land where water (esp hot water) is either scarce or expensive... cool man... turns out the waitress was from malaysia (she married into germany) and the restaurant is staffed by mainly malaysians and hongkongers...

now gonna to head back to my hotel and see sights along the way... have a good sunday back home! :-)

p.s: mum now has 3 t-shirts! the frankfurt one was v cute and in mum's favourite bright red... think i'll just buy one last t-shirt from london for her and that's all the presents she's getting... if not, i'll end up v broke and with overweight luggage! (i am carrying around 2 thick sweaters, 1 which i used once and the other which i didn't even get the chance to use! -- who told me it was cold here?! :-) )

new horizons and opportunities

in frankfurt... guess how old she is?


79 years old and so independent... wow! :-)



enthusiastically biting into his fish burger at the frankfurt city centre...

friendly germans who helped me translate for my fish and chips order...

turkish woman at rothenburg...

it really makes my day when the elderly people literally light up when they realise that someone is interested in taking their photo...

germany is an advanced country... on my berlin tour, the walkabout guide took us through a train station that hitler designed... hilter?! that's in 1930+... and singapore was still debating whether we really need a train station in the 1980s... that really stretched my mind: are we like 50+ years behind germany??

think there's so much we can learn from the advanced countries in europe... their poor people and their elderly seem more mobile and have more spending power than asians too... their trains run very efficiently and on time across almost all european countries... and the lives of their middle classes appear more leisurely than the hectic singaporean lifestyle... and their heritage and culture is so rich! plus there is real diversity and seeming acceptance in germany at least (the cities are pretty cosmopolitan, with many ethnic groups working there)... how did they do this?

of course, there are flaws in the system, etc, etc... but still pretty much worth learning...

btw, i thought of a cool and meaningful retirement career for dad and mum... tell u when i'm back! :-)

frankfurt

yep, my colleague just left on the train to catch her plane back and i'm sitting at an internet cafe typing this... feels quite free, with nearly 2 days to explore a new city on my own... 1st stop after this will be to find a decently priced and safe hotel to stay in for the night (which shouldn't be a problem, so no worries)... then i'll go explore the city later (already did a quick round of the city centre romer area main sights earlier this morning: the cathedral was really big and inspiring!)

oh ya, and i had a really expensive breakfast at the hotel i was staying in this morning: s$30! can eat buffet dinner back home already lor... so the cheapskate me packed lunch from the buffet too... haha... 2 pieces of bread thingy... and ketchup...

dunno what's with internet cafes here, they lock up the CPU so i can't access the usb ports and so therefore can't upload pictures... the pictures are nice! think i took more than 1000+ photos so far on the trip... had a minor scare yesterday cos all 4 batteries went dead at the same time even tho i certainly did charge them... but the batteries seem ok today... oh well... hope they remain ok...

anw, i'll be in london by tomorrow evening, YJ will pick me up at paddington train station so should be quite safe too...

dad, mum and wen, if u want any thing in particular from here, do sms me... mum, i tried to get a souviner from each city/town that i travelled to but it's getting a bit repetitious... they are all starting to look quite the same (eg. 2 t-shirts, 2-magnets, some postcards, etc), especially in the tourist areas... so i'll probably only buy the more distinctive stuff from now)... wen, i heard from huifang that longchamp bags here are cheaper than in singapore, will try to get u 1 if i see... what colour u want?

ok, update again when i manage to find a computer that can post pictures... cheers! :-)

reutte and rothenburg

at a delightful little medival town called rothenburg now (alot of well preserved old or reconstructed-to-look-old buildings)... it's a great place to just chill and walk along the alleys and shops, and sit down at the cafes around when tired...

came from reutte, an austrian border town... because both austria and germany are part of the EU which does not have border controls, i got no extra passport chop crossing over to reutte... in fact, there wasn't even border control! quite an interesting experince... reutte was a slow-paced town, with v nice mountains on most sides, and it was a good break from all the hectic travelling...

after leaving reutte, did a quick city tour of munich yesterday, exploring rothenburg now and will end up back in frankfurt tonight... will be staying in frankfurt for the next 2 days, so hopefully will be able to find proper internet access to blog more (i'm using the free 15-min access at the local tourist information office now, and this computer does not allow photos upload)...

btw, i'm gonna buy a really nice beer mug for dad from here... considering bavaria (the southern part of germany) is beer country, it's a suitable and useful gift (since dad drinks beer)... dun scold me hor... :-)

trains and the bavarian alps

i'm at a german town called fussen now, in the bavarian alps... it's just next to austria, which is going to be my next destination (a town called reutte) after i go look at some fairytale castles (their designs are apparently nice enough for disney to copy from) ...

spent the entire morning from 6+am travelling from munich, took a wrong train (or didn't get off at the right stop -- couldn't exactly figure out, cos of language problems), but anyway, thanks to a really helpful train inspector, finally managed to get to the right place, after quite a few train changes...

once again, the trains and train scenery here is great! there was even a proper bathroom in the sleeper train last night, and 1st class today was v comfortable as well... and the scenery was just fantastic, making even getting lost a nice experience..

ok, upload photos the next time... going for lunch now... :-)

not prague but munich

ok, latest update (from an internet station at berlin train station)... i'm not going to prague already... no time...

gonna head to munich by overnight train instead... travelling 1st class, with a proper bed and bathroom even... haha... luxury tour sia... u can be sure it's not my idea... but i suppose it would be a good experience! tell u more tomorrow... :-)

berlin city tour

the 4-hour berlin city tour brought me past many buildings like those above... the first few were like "wow!"... then it was like "ok...", and by the end of the walk, i was like "enough of buildings!"

the history of berlin was fascinating and we had a very knowledgeable guide... so that made up for e insane amount of walking...

yesterday was also museum day... i went to pergamon museum (which shows turkish stuff, to make up for my abortive turkey trip) and the jewish museum (which traces the history of Jews in germany)... it's quite cool...

was entirely exhausted by the time i reached back hotel just before midnight...

today, i'm going to wittenburg, where martin luther started the protestant movement... think it'll be cool... may end up in prague today or tomorrow... :-)

water

This was my breakfast yesterday... the cup noodles, i mean... and it cost s$8 even when i already had the cup noodles itself!

cos there was no hot water in the room and i had to ask for room service to send it up and it cost 4euros! *shock*

my colleague paid the 4euros on the spot, but later it was charged to our hotel bill again... as it turned out, the 4euros that was paid on the spot was taken as a tip!!

sigh...

food here is restaurant price and not as expensive as i had braced myself for... but water, that's another issue... think my major expense here is on water... s$6 or more at each meal (beer is the cheapest liquid, coke is more expensive at many places)... and mineral water throughout the day... maybe i should try drinking tap water...

berlin

the welcome message at the berlin hotel (der!)... it's a nice hotel tho, s$130 per night...


glorified italian rissotto (it's like chinese mui fan!) and apple juice


at an "atas" italian restaurant... the bill came up to less than 14 euros tho, so quite ok...

first class train seats... worth every cent extra paid! no need to squeeze with the crowd and u get vip service, like shorter queues at train stations and a service attendant will even offer chocolates and newspapers on the journey!

journey from hamburg to berlin


friendly cafe lady on the port cruise tour who gave us directions to our next destination, the palace



delicious fish and chips + crab salad lunch (hamburg is a seaport known for it's fresh seafood)

no worries about big backpacks, cos can always leave them in train station lockers! :-)

beautiful scenery from frankfurt to hamburg

Hi dad, mum and wen!

See the photos above? It's in reverse order of what i did yesterday... (poor i.t skills... haha...)

going to eat the nissin cup noodles dad bought for me now! then will join a walking city tour of berlin...

update u again! :-)

cheers from berlin,

ping

hi from changi airport... again! :-)

yesterday was Ping's first time arriving at changi airport to take a flight out of asia... and it was also the one and only time in my life that i missed a flight! dad will be remembering this for a long time to come... sigh...

but family has in general been really great and supportive...

and here i am, again, one day later at changi, trying to get to frankfurt... reached the airport at a really kiasu timing (3+pm for a 11.20pm flight) and hung out here half the day... figure that i cannot miss today's flight! plus i wanted to explore the inside of changi airport!

europe here Ping comes! :-)

Seoul --> Suwon

Hi Dad & Mum,

Hello from Suwon! :-) Travelled 1hr from Seoul via subway...

We are using the free internet access in the tourist information centre so this will be a brief post only...

Yesterday was a fun day. We didn't get to sit the submarine coz there was a thick fog and strong winds... our plane back to Seoul was delayed for about half hour.... but that was good already coz hundred plus other planes were grounded...

Though we didn't get to sit our submarine.... we did manage to see an interesting mongolian horse show, a miniature world park and a "mysterious" road where the taxi we were in could roll "uphill" with the engine off... show you the photos next time...

oh... guess what... our Somerset accomodation in Seoul was upgraded.... FREE... :-) good stuff... free breakfast too.. hehe...

Going to grab lunch now before we head to Suwon's Korean folk village and Hwa Seong Fortress.

Happy Valentine's Day! ;-)

Cheers.

p.s. we haven't started our shopping yet.... ;-)

Sunrise Peak a.ka Seongsan Ilchulbong (Jeju Island)

Hi Daddy & Mummy,

We made it to sunrise... just barely.... ;-) It was really funny...

The lady owner of the place we were staying at told us last night that the sun usually rises around 730am and it will take 20mins to climb up to the peak... being kiasu and unfit Singaporeans, we decided to give ourselves buffer time... Left our rooms at 645am....

We were in for a good workout! My gosh... it was 182m high.... and VERY VERY STEEP! (or at least it felt steep...) Our legs are still aching from the climb.... :-) Almost didn't make it up... but we were inspired by the old aunties carrying walking sticks who climbed up.... ;-)

Here's some snapshots that we took from the peak.... not the best coz we trottered along too slowly.... Ping was saying we have not even seen sun rise at East Coast... ;-)

Will be going to watch a mongolia horse show today and prob also squeeze in another folk village visit later in the day... We will also be checking into our 5* Lotte hotel (Jangmun resort)!!! Whoooeee.... a good change after so many days of cheap (but safe) accomodation..... ;-) Suppose to be very good....

Will try to blog again soon....

p.s. our flight back is SQ17 1130pm on Sun

Volcano Island -- Jeju! :-)

Ping & Wen took a domestic flight to Jeju from Busan today (Gyeongju --> Busan --> Jeju)...

hello from Jeju! :-)

this is the room we are blogging from...

For the price we're paying... it's a cool room, big and spacious and with good heating and it has a tv, computer with internet, cooking area, fridge, etc... plus a great seaview... stylo milo sia... it's like a studio apartment! haha...

we took very long to find this motel though... our guidebook recommended it but we took hours to find it cos this place didn't seem to have an address, only a name... in the end, just as we were about to settle for a normal motel, we decided to ask the police station officers... they were all watching the Iran vs South Korea football match and the senior officer told his junior to call the motel for us... and so we got chauffered to this motel in a big car... :-)

this motel is in Seongsan-ri, which is 20 minutes walk away from Sun Rise Peak... this is supposed to be a VERY beautiful place to watch sunrise from... tell you more about it tomorrow... if we can wake up... :-)

oh yes, today's food was not bad: we had rice crackers (like our keropok but made from special Icheon rice), abalone porridge (but not much abalone and which had a fishy taste) and some seafood soup... and Ping really enjoyed the ikan bilis (not fried but prepared in a very nice Korean way)... we had a free refill in the restaurant and when we were about to leave, Wen went to ask for somemore, offering to pay... but the auntie was very nice and offered us alot of it free, wrapped up in aluminium foil... so we felt pai seh and were trying to find something to give her since she won't take our money... guess what we gave her in the end? haha... it was the green tea that we brought from home... :-) the auntie was so happy with it that she offered us the Jeju tangerines (supposed to be very nice and famous in Korea)...

(MBC - one of the tv stations in Korea recommended this restaurant)

Gyeongju's UNESCO sights were so-so only... quite hyped up but we didn't enjoy it as much as Andong... but the process of finding the places and taking pictures along the very scenic way was fun...

for this Jeju part of the trip, Wen will be planning the schedule... we'll try to fit in a submarine ride tomorrow (it's about S$80 but we figure this will be a once in a lifetime experience and should be fun... other than this submarine trip and watching the sunrise at Sunshine Peak (a UNESCO natural site), nothing is firmed up yet... Wen will do her research tonight and tell Ping tomorrow... it'll be an adventure! :-)

adventure day

today has been an interesting day of trains, traditional houses and being on tv shows! :-)

first, we woke up at 5.30am (overslept) and rushed to catch our 6am train to Andong... we reached the train station (at Gangneung) at exactly 6am and the station officer was nice enough to walkie talkie the train not to go off before we got on... haha... sounds familiar right? just like us in Singapore... :-)

anyway, Andong turned out to be a really nice place... it's supposed to be a very traditional place and we visited the Andong Folk Village and the Andong Folk Museum... the Andong Folk Village was the shooting location for one of the Korean dramas we watched and Wen liked the film set alot... on the way back to the main road, we walked on Korea's longest walking bridge which was 300+m long and which was over a very nice and scenic river...

our original plan was to take the 12.15pm train from Andong to Gyeongju but we did not manage to get a taxi... there were no cabs in sight for quite a long time! so we decided to go eat and chose a restaurant where we saw some MBC (Korean TV station) crew walking out... we figured if that restaurant was good enough for the stars, it was good enough for us! :-)

and guess what, it turned out that the Korean crew was shooting something (we guess it's a travelogue) and they filmed us too... they posed for photo with us and asked us where we are from and where we are headed to next... so fun! Wen was in her ming xing mode for quite a while after and even jokingly suggested going to look for them in the Folk Village (where she wanted to take more photos)...

instead, in the end, we cabbed to Hohoe Folk Village... it was quite expensive but worth the trip as the scenery was very nice and it was a real village with real villagers staying in there (buildings preserved by the Korean government)...

and we caught the 5pm train to Gyeongju...

checked into a place called Sarang Chae at about 7+pm... it's a cool guesthouse where we met a Singaporean lady travelling on her own (she works for an insurance company too and we swopped work stories and travel tales with her), a Japanese lady with her 2 year old (very cute and friendly) daughter and a Belgium lady...

oh yes, then we went to the Tumuli park... the attraction there was grassy mounds like little hills which were supposed to be the excavated tombs of some dead kings... there were exhibitions on what the diggers found in those tombs...

overall, travelling has been fun with some unexpected moments (like missing our train but then meeting the MBC filming crew, etc)... but we have met many nice people who have really gone out of their way to be nice to us...

like the old couple, especially the auntie, at the motel we stayed in last night who helped make calls to find out what time our train to Andong would depart... this is even though there was a big language barrier...

like the train officer at Gangneung who made the train wait a minute for us...

like the taxi uncle who drove us to Hahoe Folk Village and took the initiative to do a free guided tour for us...

like the Sarang Chae lady owner who went out of her way to show us directions on the map and give us travel tips when we just wanted to tell her that we would be going out...

like the Singaporean lady traveller who shared her travel stories freely with us...

and like our dear parents who are reading this right now and thinking what their kids are up to... but still give us their blessings to go and experience life outside... :-)

tomorrow, we will explore more of Gyeongju (which used to be a Shilla kingdom) then go to Busan to take a flight to Jeju...

hope all is well at home, cheers! :-)

p.s: weather here is ok, can be chilly outside sometimes but we are well prepared with our thick clothes... and the insides of all buildings and transports are all warm...