Earthquake in Singapore?

I was in the 34th storey in my Suntec office today, and I felt the ground beneath me moving. Yes, I was one of those who experienced the minor tremors due to the earthquake that happened in Sumatra, 430km away from Singapore (you can read about it here).

"We have an incident in the building. Please remain calm. We are currently investigating the incident.", blared the PA system.

Huh? What incident? If that was not enough, the message was repeated over and over again over the PA system. Talk about getting people to remain calm.

Eventually, we were all told to evacuate the building. The evacuation point was to be the ground floor of Suntec City (which in my opinion is probably the most dangerous place to be if the building were about to collapse). My manager even asked us to take the day off. Personally, I thought it was not necessary, but anyway .... it was a good excuse to go get a coffee.

Of course, eventually nothing happened. Otherwise, you will not be reading this article.

Really, what's the fuss about the tremors in Singapore? The tremors were so slight that some people in my office were not even aware of it. The Japanese have experienced far greater tremors in their offices as a routine, and life goes on for them. I think we are making a mountain out of a molehill here. The ones who should feel really sad are the victims (the death toll currently stands at 82) of the quake in Padang.

Seoul - Part I

Annyang haseyo!

I have returned from my trip to Seoul, and have finally gotten down to blogging about it after a loooooooong time. But boy, what a trip it was! It was in Seoul where I had the best kimchi, kimbap, bibimbap, bugolgi, galbi ... you name it ... nobody does Korean food better than the Koreans themselves. It was also one of the best new year celebrations I've ever participated in. It was also in Seoul, where I had the most expensive dinner in my life -- to the tune of 200,000 won (slightly over USD 200)!! It was also the coldest place I've ever been to -- one night temperatures just fell to -12°C one night! Indeed, Korea was a very interesting and enjoyable experience for me. Without further ado, I shall log my travels in Korea.

Day 0 (27 Dec 2006) - Arriving in Seoul

I boarded the flight to Seoul from Singapore at about 9:00am. After spending about 4 hours watching the in-flight entertainment, I decided to browse through my TRUSTY Lonely Planet (which I had just bought the day earlier). Figuring that knowing how to at least read Korean would be helpful in Korea, I spent two hours on the plane learning the alphabet from my TRUSTY Lonely Planet for Korea. The Korean language is an alphabetic and phonetic language, so it is actually quite easy to learn. By the end of the flight, I was able to recognize basic Korean alphabets.

I finally arrived at the Incheon International Airport at about 4:30pm. Taking bus 605 from the airport, I arrived at the Vabien Suites (courtesy of Ms. Patsy Wong) in the Seodaemun district of Seoul, where I will be spending my vacation.


The apartment is a pretty cosy place, definitely much nicer than the apartment I have back in Singapore. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say that it is one of the nicest apartments I have ever lived in. It comes with a huge master bedroom (complete with a walk-in wardrobe closet that finally leads to the bathroom), and two smaller bedrooms. No prizes for guessing which room I stayed in.

From my room, I had a nice view of the Seodaemun Police Headquarters. Alas, I do not have a picture of the view from my room.

After that, Patsy called me and we arranged to meet for dinner. She told me to meet her at Exit 1 of "Gangnam" station. Navigating through the maze of the Seoul subway, I finally arrived at Gangnam station. After that, I waited for Patsy. And waited. And waited. When she didn't come after half an hour, I began to wonder if I had somehow arrived at the wrong station. As my mobile phone did not work in Korea, I spent 25,000 won buying an international calling card, and 5,000 won buying a public phone card. Turns out, I must have said the wrong thing to the Korean convenience stall owner, because I could not figure out how to get the phone cards working. Ah well, at least no one can say that I didn't do my part to stimulate the Korean economy.

After meeting Patsy (she was just late, of course), we went in search for a restaurant that sold galbi (which Patsy declared was the best Korean food). I tried to use my newly learnt Korean to search for one such restaurant, but alas ... the language had mastered me, and we finally just relied on pictures to find a galbi place. After a while, we managed to find a decent-looking galbi restaurant with a decent looking crowd (I'm guessing that the more people there are, the better the restaurant must be). It was here that I had my first taste of galbi. It was absolutely delicious!! Alas, my vocabulary with food is limited, so I shall take the easy way out and illustrate how delicious the food was with this picture:



There are two ways to eat this. The first way is to simply just pick up the beef, dip it in sauce and eat it. Personally, I prefer the second way which involves wrapping the beef / pork in Chinese lettuce and then adding kimchi to it.

After the meal, we walked out into the cold dark night (it must have been something like -5°C then), where we went to a cafe called The Twosome Place which Patsy claims, serves "the best Bailey's Irish coffee" in Seoul. Indeed, the Bailey's Irish coffee was excellent -- one of the best I've ever had. At least the Koreans make good coffee. After coffee, we headed back to the apartment where we retired for the night.

Day 1 (28 Dec 2006) - Freezing in Seoul

I thought I could handle cold weather well, but the weather was really, really cold today. I'd reckon that if I had placed a bottle of water on the street, it would turn into ice. No surprise -- the weather report said that the temperature would range from -10°C to -5°C today. It was so cold that I had to wrap my ears, nose and mouth with my scarf to even begin to be able to tolerate the weather. If all the photographs I have taken today seem of poor quality, do forgive me because I could no longer feel, nor control my fingers on this day.

I was originally planning to go to Bukhansan (北漢山), a hill 840m just north of Seoul today. Following the instructions of Lonely Planet, which said that I should first head to the Sejong Cultural Centre and then take bus 156, I did so. When I reached Sejong Cultural Centre, I searched high and low for bus number 156, but failed. Finally, I gave up. With broken Korean, I asked a police man for directions to get to Bukhansan. Alas, it was like a chicken and duck talk. He was very helpful however, and walked me all the way to another bus station, and helped me ask pedestrians for directions to get there.

Anyway, by the time I managed to figure out how to get to Bukhansan, it was too late to attempt to go there. This is the first time Lonely Planet had failed me. Grrrrrr. On hindsight, it was a good thing I didn't manage to get there today, as I already had difficulty coping with the freezing temperatures on the ground.

I started off my day by venturing out of the hotel and heading towards Gwanghwamun (光化門), where the Gyeongbokgung (景福宮) palace was located. Along the way, I walked past several government buildings and saw several policemen in black uniforms and coats standing guard with their batons in the open. They were obviously not too comfortable, as a lot of them were just shivering and rubbing their gloves.

According to my TRUSTY Lonely Planet, the Gyeongbokgung palace served as the principal palace of the Joseon Dynasty until it was burnt down during the Japanese invasions in 1592. It was rebuilt in 1865, where it became the seat of power until the Japanese invaded again and destroyed a large part of the palace. What you will see here today is in a large part, a restoration and reconstruction of the palace as few of the original structures remain at the palace.

These mean-looking guards will prevent you from entering the palace until you buy an entrance ticket .... just kidding (about the ceremonial guards, not the ticket which was a princely 6,000 won). I must say that I feel a little sorry for them though, having to stand out there in the freezing cold.

While walking around the palace, I came across a pagoda:



After venturing through the palace, I went to pay a visit to the National Folk Museum of Korea, which illustrates the lifestyle of feudal Korea. The picture below is a re-enaction of a wedding. The "girl" in the yellow and red blouse is the bride who is about to get married:



The Gyonghoeru Pavillion (shown in the picture below) was used to host foreign dignitaries who paid homage to the Korean king in Seoul.



After Gyeongbokgung, I went around searching for a place to go for lunch. According to my TRUSTY Lonely Planet, there was Witch's Table, a small New York style sandwich bar and the Goryeo Supermarket Food Court nearby. After walking around for about an hour in search of these places, I finally gave up and walked into a small shop and ordered a bowl of bibimbap. The weather was just too cold to be walking about too much.

I paid a visit to Insadong (仁寺洞), which was . I was reminded of the time when I walked up Kiyomizu Dera Temple (清水寺) in Kyoto with all the little shops and stalls selling Japanese trinkets and items. It was freeeeeeeezing cold that day, that I had to walk into several shops. Not to shop mind you, but just to defrost my poor frozen ears and fingers.



Awwwww, what a cute little girl. Don't you wanna hug her too?



After this, it was time to meet Patsy again at Gangnam. When I arrived at Gangnam I thought I was late, but apparently Patsy was even later! Hahaha. Anyway, we had galbi for dinner once more (we had to wait for about 20 minutes to get a table -- but it was well worth the wait!). After that, we proceeded to The Twosome Place again for coffee before we headed back.

Day 2 - Bukhansan

Elton arrived in the morning. Amazingly, he planned to head off to meet our customer that day. I thought he was on vacation?! Hmmmmm. Anyway, I made breakfast for both Elton and Patsy, and for the very first time in my life, used a frying pan! I'm quite proud of my first effort ... at least both of them did not grimace too much when eating my scrambled eggs and luncheon meat. I thought it was quite delicious myself.

After they left, I proceeded to head to Bukhansan, after double-checking with the concierge on how to get there. So this is how to get to Bukhansan. First, take the subway to Gupabal station. Next, come out at exit 1, and then take a bus to Bukhansan, and get off at the Bukhansan-seong (北漢山城) stop. Voila! As simple as that. I sure wish the Koreans could speak English.

On the way to Bukhansan, I encounter some stone tablets. Its strange that I see these stone tablets at another mountain in Busan as well. What do they mean, I wonder?



Arriving at the city gates of Daeseomun (大西門). Apparently, in bygone days, Korea was split into three kingdoms -- Goguryeo 高句麗 in the north, Baekje (百濟) in the west, and Silla (新羅) in the east. These city gates were built by Baekje to prevent the southern expansion of Goguryeo.



Since I never made it to Namiseon Island (南怡島), where the popular Korean drama Winter Sonata was filmed, I suppose these two rows of trees would have to do.



At last! Baekundae, the mountain peak!

I think the red sign means You are here. Now, all I need to do is figure out where here is.



I'm glad that on the way down, I met an experienced hiker who also spoke some English. Without him, I think I would have to spend the night in the mountain under sub-zero temperatures.

The path downhill was extremely treacherous. Due to the slippery ice, I slipped and fell several times. Like they say in Snakes on a Plane (whoever wrote the script for that movie oughta be shot!), I was going down faster than a Thai hooker.

Watership Down - The Prelude

The Prelude

It all began on the night of the 6th day of the Lunar New Year (23 Feb 2007) when I was back home in Ipoh, and could not get to sleep. It was frustrating just lying down on your bed with your eyes closed, willing yourself to sleep, only to discover an hour later that you are still as mentally alert as ever. Never shall I drink two cups of coffee again in a single day.

Anyway, since I could not sleep, I decided to read a book. As I rummaged through the bookshelf (this was my parent's house, so my regular reading material was not with me), I came across the book Watership Down. It was a book that I have heard much about, but never really got down to reading it, as it looked like a rather thick and boring tome. Actually, it was not so much the size of the book (500 pages) that intimidated me, but the mere thought of all the flowery descriptions a la Lord of the Rings. More often than not, many authors like to write long flowery proses about the flora and fauna of the English countryside, which to me is really filler material to increase the author's word count (if they are paid by the number of words). I am really quite happy enough if the author says "The rolling hills were beautiful", and then end it there. No need to describe the dandelions, the cowslips, and the strawberries. In fact, it would be even better if they could write it in the format of a play (which I usually prefer due to its economy with words), and then intersperse it with prose that serve to advance the plotline.

Enough digression already. As I have said, I could not sleep, and had all the time in the world, I figured that reading a thick and boring tome might help me to sleep, and that was where I was wrong. I found myself reading 10 pages, and another 10 pages, and then another 10 pages until I had finished almost 100 pages.