Our Korea 2024 Travel Itinerary

 Korea 2024

SG > Seoul > SG

Travel Insurance FWD

Day 1 Saturday 14/12/24 Seoul

23:10 (Friday) Departure Singapore T3 Asiana Airlines OZ752

BookingNo. 29968709279 Trip.com 

06:50 Arrival Incheon International T1

Check in Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

• Explore Myeongdong

Day 2 Sunday 15/12/24

Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

• Walk the canal
• Gyeongbokgong Palace
• Bukchon Hanok Village

Day 3 Monday 16/12/24

Check out Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

08.45am Bus Transfer at Myeongdong Station

Check in Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

Day 4 Tuesday 17/12/24

Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

Skiing and Snowboarding Lessons AM 

Day 5 Wednesday 18/12/24

Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

Skiing and Snowboarding Lessons AM 

Day 6 Thursday 19/12/24

Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

Skiing Lessons PM

Day 7 Friday 20/12/24

Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

Skiing Lessons AM

Night Skiing

Day 8 Saturday 21/12/24

Check out Holiday Inn & Suites Alpensia Pyeongchang

12.30pm Bus Transfer at Alpensia Pyeongchang

Arrive at Seoul, Myeongdong Station

Check in JSM Studio Hongdae

• It is Winter Solstice (longest night of the year)

Day 9 Sunday 22/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Gwangjang Market Brunch

Day 10 Monday 23/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Nami Island/Alpaca/Railbike - booked

Day 11 Tuesday 24/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Lotte World - booked
• Christmas countdown in Seoul

Day 12 Wednesday 25/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Celebrate Christmas in Korea
• Christmas Market
• Seoul Lantern Festival 

Day 13 Thursday 26/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• DMZ Tour - booked

Day 14 Friday 27/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Namsan & Seoul Tower

Day 15 Saturday 28/12/24

JSM Studio Hongdae

• Starfield Library - COEX Mall
• Ktown4u - COEX Mall
• Statue of Gangnam Style (near COEX Mall) - 524 Bongeunsa-ro, Gangnam-gu
• K-Star road - 407 Apgujeong-ro, Gangnam-gu
• Kwangya Seoul - 83-21 Wangsimi-ro, Seongdong-gu

Day 16 Sunday 29/12/24

Check out JSM Studio Hongdae

16:20 Departure Seoul T1 

Asiana Airlines OZ751

21:55 Arrival Singapore

Alpensia Ski Resort

 Merry Christmas from South Korea! 

Quick recap from our earlier leg in Pyeongchang. Alpensia is a very nice resort, definitely not overly crowded with international travellers, it also caters to a very local crowd with schools going there for skiing and snowboarding training and lessons (like pool lessons), so its a good location to take all the lessons you want. Food selection is rather limited like almost everything is Korean gojujang type food eeks. Crowd is definitely far less than what we’ve seen in Japan and that’s something much appreciated. 

First few days we went with snowboarding but the bruises piled up and the falls kept reminding us we were not getting younger, so we switched to skiing. If anything, basic skiing is much easier with less falls so that’s nice. There wasn’t so much natural snowfall and the snow on the slopes is quite hard, but on the last day it dumped very heavily so that was quite nice to at least get some South Korean powder for once. Also we all tried night skiing for the first time and it was exhilarating, cold and exciting! 100% will do again! Will need more skiing practice next season to up our game wherever that may be.

Haven’t Blogged This Month

 Because we’re in Korea!

Super cold.

Skiing and snowboarding here is quite a different experience compared to Japan, but still something to treasure.

Preparing To Ski & Snowboard Again

 This time in Korea.

Just hope the snow isn’t as bad as when people compare with Niseko.

English Chess

 This is also all the rage now.

And both kids are quite good.

Taipei, Taiwan 2024

 Had our first ever daddy-daughter trip.

I chose Taipei as she’d never been before.

What a whirlwind trip but we did SO much together!

It was great and I really loved it.

Must do with them each annually liao.

Here are our top thirteen pix from our super fun trip!

Somehow the pictures are from back to front so read it from bottom up!

We played Scrabble at cafes just for the sake of it. Just lovely bonding time.

We visit Taiwan’s famous night markets every single night. This is our last night at Raohe Night Market.

At 九份 (Jiufen), it was beautiful walking the old street in the clouds.

At 十分 (Shifen), we released the wishing lantern into the sky. Wah her wish came true.

Yehliu Geological Park. See it while it’s still there.

She was really keen on this. At the night markets there were food, retail and then these games run by YPs. Still it was quite fun and we won some silly toys.

National Palace Museum. I enjoyed it and she didn’t haha. Lots of historical stories to soak in and spent almost three hours there.

Taipei 101 - we went to the top and the clouds cleared for us. Damn fun and was good to see Taipei from the top once more.

Elephant Mountain- we climbed to the top, took us 20mins and can see Taipei 101 from the top.

Ningxia Night Market - the smallest of the night markets we visited. This was the first night.

Dinner on the first night was at Addiction Aquatic Development. We actually walked an hour to get here for no reason other than we wanted to walk. The sashimi here is super awesome and it’s still the same as I remember it from almost ten years ago.

Chang Kai Shek Memorial 

We stayed here the whole trip. Awesome hotel and right in the heart of Ximending. Super good choice of accommodation location.

Singapore Fintech Festival 2024

 Another year, another power booth by Saxo.

This year wasn’t as crowded as last year, but still a very large event for everyone.

Copenhagen, Denmark 2024

 Spent a week in Copenhagen for work.

It’s been almost five years since I’ve been there.

Here are my ten best pictures from the trip.

This was my humble abode for the whole week - Fairfield by Marriott at Nordhavn. Beautiful place to stay and soak in the trendy CPH vibes.

Did the touristy walkaround of the city and had to pay her a visit once more. The Little Mermaid based off the book by Hans Christian Anderson.

Tivoli, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, in the heart of Copenhagen. We actually went to take on swirling swing ride at height and I totally regretted it.

Did two jogs and this was the shorter one. The weather at 9°C is beautiful and damn shiok for jogging.

The mothership.

Our building in Copenhagen.

Managed to squeeze in a golf game at the oldest golf club in Copenhagen! Royal Copenhagen Golf Club!

One of our F1 cars in the office.

Went to Roskilde on the weekend. It was really nice to visit.

One of the original Danish Viking ships at the Danish Viking Ship Museum. Quite a sight to behold.

Bloomberg Square Mile Relay 2024

 It’s that time of the year again.

Ran my lungs out and set yet another new PB for the single mile! Sub 8mins!

So proud of myself!

Straight Outta Maxwell

 With the new TEL, which I really love, we’ve been exploring many of the stations there.

One of them is Maxwell, which pops out straight to Maxwell Food Centre.

It’s in Chinatown and the views are great and the food is amazing.

Farewell To Adam

 We had a farewell to Adam, our third CEO of Saxo Singapore office.

It was a good celebration for the ten years of service he has contributed.

Possibly the best CEO I have ever served under.

Wishing him all the best in the next leg of his sterling career.

Three Musketeers

 We’ve known each other for more than 18 years liao.

Here’s to many more years of excellent friendship!

Trump Has Won

 And Donald Trump has won the 2024 US Elections.

By quite a landslide somemore!

In fact the Republicans have won the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives!

Not really looking forward to the circus to come in the next four years, but in warped way, we could all see this coming from quite a mile away. The world has been getting too woke and it is time to straighten up again.

Good luck to Europe that’s what I’ll say!

No Time

 Been travelling a lot last few weeks, first to Denmark for work and then Taiwan for a holiday with my daughter. And between all that a very busy work schedule.

Will definitely find some time to blog a bit more,

Just need to close out the rest of this properly can liao.

Trump Might Be Winning

  As much as the mainstream media hates to admit this, it seems like Trump winning the coming US Elections is a very real outcome.

Bookmakers are pricing him to win.

Many Financial Institutions appear to factor the chances of him winning is higher than that of Kamala Harris.

All this while most mainstream polls show them neck and neck.

In my mind if the bookmakers are giving him shorter odds to win at almost all swing states, then I think he’s got this in the bag, short of a monumental fuckup by Trump’s team.

The problem is that this guy is so shocking that there’s not much else that can shock the markets.

Much as I hate to say it, we should position ourselves accordingly where we can control things.

Short Europe

Short China

Short Allies

Short EVs except TSLA

Short Tech

Long Authoritarian 

Long Gold

Long Crypto

Long TSLA

Long Energy

Who knows markets might take a short plunge but rally heavily again like his first term.

This is going to be a REALLY long four year for the rest of the free world if he wins the US Elections come Nov 5th.

God bless us all.

Crazy For Magic The Gathering

 It just came back suddenly and the kids are interested in it again.

Really fun and engaging to play with the kids.

They’re older now and are able to strategize better now.

My Son’s First Guitar

 Proud dad moment.

My son’s first guitar.

Bought it from Yamaha at Plaza Singapura.

He’s already so musically inclined, able to play the Gu Zheng and the Er Hu. Wonder how quickly he’ll pick this up?

Crazy Dim Sum

 Went for an interesting dim sum breakfast at Nam Kee at Plaza Singapura.

The smallest bao is the Char Siew bao.

The medium sized bao is the 大包.

The largest bao is the 叶子楣大包.

Super filling!

Neck Ache

 Jialatz.

Having a neck ache the last two weeks.

Have gone for two sessions of neck and shoulder massages now.

Am I too stressed from work?

Saxo Unfiltered 2024

 Last week Saxo Singapore held our fantastic annual macro event, Saxo Unfiltered 2024, for our VIP clients and partners featuring the famous US investor, Jim Rogers! His insights into the markets ahead were really interesting and enlightening, peppered with his signature cheeky humour. Also great to hear the different speakers’ views and takes of the upcoming US Elections. A huge kudos to all our staff helping to make this monumental event in Singapore 🇸🇬 possible and special mention to our partners at CME Group for their strong and constant support.

#saxo #beinvested Saxo Bank