Seoul, South Korea 2024 (First Leg)

 Our year end trip was to South Korea in the second half of December.

Started the first leg in Myeongdong and visiting the Gyungbokgong Palace, Gwanghuaimun, and the whole City Hall area.

Here’re some pictures.

Tesla Model Y

 A new year resolution.

Will it become a reality this year?

Look at its massive trunk!

Her New Room Setup

 Rearranged her new room.

It’s more conducive for her now to study and have her own little personal space.

10,000 Steps A Month

 My target is to average 10K steps all of 2025!

Managed to clock that in Nov and Dec!

Let’s do this!

Building His Own Cupboard

 The boy is going from strength to strength.

Last November he’s begun taking charge of the furniture in his own room.

So fun, love him to bits.

Hello 2025, Goodbye 2024

 Wow, what a year 2024 has been.

All things considered, it’s been a relatively good year. Not overly superb, but still quite good nonetheless.

Definitely a year fraught with uncertainties, so a lot of expectations that there was disappointments to come which never really materialized. And like I like to say these days, the more you expect to be disappointed, the less disappointed you’ll end up. So maybe the slightly more positive outlook for the year that’s gone by.

That said, we go into 2025 with reserved optimism. Seems like the year is going to be good, but kinda prepared for some less positive things to happen that might taper the over optimism.

Here’s a quick look back at 2024.

Off the back of one of the best family trips ever to Niseko, Japan for snowboarding, I kicked off January with two nights of Coldplay concert, which was awesome. I even cried during Fix You. Twice.

In February we had a quieter CNY, which seems to be the way from here on out since the relatives are all getting a lot older.

By early March is. Was two nights of Taylor Swift, possibly  the best concert I’ve ever been to. I went one night with the daughter and one with the wifey. Then we went to Ipoh for a nostalgic cousins’ trip and to see some old places I remember when visiting my grandparents in Malaysia.

April was Bruno Mars concert with my son, he was pretty good too but imho not Taylor Swift or Coldplay level. Then the kids and I had a short staycation at the W Hotel where we had a room with a terrace pool!

Nothing much in May but in June I had my boys trip with Jinde and Yp to Hanoi, Vietnam. Not too bad but it’s gonna be our last boys trip for a long time to come. Sigh. Then it was a father and son trip to Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. We went to see the Komodo dragons. It was such an awesome bonding trip with the boy.

Nothing much in July but we had a lot of birthdays as always. In August was another boys trip with David and Keng Leong for golf to Vung Tau, Vietnam. It was nice and good bonding with these bros as always. Hopefully another one this year. Also I captained the Saxo futsal team to the semifinals in a Capitaland tournament which was a really fun run. We also had another staycation at the W Hotel again to celebrate the wifey’s birthday.

In September we had a change in CEO and I lost Adam, possibly the best CEO I’ve ever worked for. Quite sad but it is what it is, as he’d have said. In October I got to meet up with Jim Rogers in our annual macro event, also ran a PB at the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay this year. Then Eugene and I went to Copenhagen, Denmark, together which was such an awesome trip. Even had a round of golf together.

November was my father daughter trip to Taipei, Taiwan. It was awesome and we went to Shifen to release the sky lantern to ask for good results for my girl’s PSLE, which she did! Also really good bonding time together all round. We walked so much and talked so much.

Finally in December we went on our annual family holiday to Seoul, Korea which was super fun.

Health was relatively good all year. I should try to lose more weight and drink less though.

Family relationships were generally positive. Need to spend more time with my aging parents though.

Personal finances could’ve been better. Had a few berserker rages which I ought to have cut out completely by now. Was quite painful if you think about it.

Work was not the best with more changes over the course of the year, and even more expected in the new year. Hopefully I’ll still have a job by end of this year.

So as with tradition, here’s last year’s review as a good reminder.

And here were my 2024 resolutions.

And below are my 2024 resolutions review.

1) Pick Up A New Skill PASS

I will mark this as a pass since I got myself accredited with digital video editing and also learned to ski properly this year, among other things I guess.

2) Exercise At Least An Hour, Twice A Week FAIL

Ok this one will be chalked off as a failure since I didn’t convincingly surpass this target even though I did try to exercise as regularly as I could.

3) Go Somewhere New PASS

This was easy, whether it was Labuan Bajo, Vung Tau, Hanoi, Pyeongchang, I had a lot of new experiences clocked this year.

4) Increase My Investing Portfolio Significantly FAIL

Another fail year for me on this front. I need to stop gambling, I need to focus on sound investments or just hold cash rather than keep risking on high risk gambles that do not pay off.

5) Lose 3kg FAIL

Surprisingly, I came back from my Korea trip clocking weight at between 83-84kg! So I lost weight but not to the 82kg that I was targeting. Will try again this year and eat and drink healthier.

———

Ok so 2/5 passes which isn’t a very good showing.

Will have to try harder in 2025.

Let’s hope 2025 will be an even better year for us all!

HUAT AH!

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.