So if you get the drift this trip was actually born out of the desire to travel on a premium class flight on my birthday, to extract even better treatment than usual. Considered Suites, then later expanded the criteria to First so that there are more destination choices, eventually settled for Shanghai. The A380 schedule for Shanghai was a bit limited though, and had I chose to fly later in the month I would have scored a Suite, but I weighed my options and decided that the birthday aspect was more important and I had not tried F yet so I went for an F Saver redemption. And kept fingers crossed for an upgauge lol but anyway spoiler alert, it did not happen. And for the return leg I went for a J redemption, initially was contemplating just forking out $200 for a Y flight back since it’s only about 5 hours, but a couple of weeks of procrastination and the prices went up so it didn’t make much sense anymore so I just redeemed the J ticket. 

Will detail the flight experiences later on as usual but let’s just say the F didn’t feel like a major step up from J, or maybe I didn’t milk hard enough hahaha. It was still a beyond comfortable flight but probably won’t spend the extra miles on it anymore in future (in this case it was an extra 15k miles). First world problems lol. 

So, Shanghai. China. 10 years ago it was probably not somewhere I would ever consider, I think that attitude softened a bit a few years later when the gang talked about a Beijing trip that didn’t work out eventually. Then in recent years post-COVID with XHS the popularity just exploded so I did think about it…and given that my Asian destinations are starting to run dry I thought I would give it a shot. I’m still quite concerned about food options and general hygiene practices but I figured that this should be less prevalent in major cities like Shanghai. But in general there’s this apprehension that I can’t explain, so much so that I decided that I didn’t have to do a solo trip and opened invitation for people to join me. 

And lo and behold the BFF took up the offer haha. That happened pretty last minute though so I did have to adjust my rough plans slightly, for instance I had planned two day trips out of Shanghai to Hangzhou and Suzhou respectively, in the end I cut Suzhou away and eventually even Hangzhou didn’t make it because the weather was not the most desirable. 

But for someone who took didn’t like the idea of traveling in China for the longest time, I must say I enjoyed the trip more than I think I would. Food was mostly good (maybe also partly because I went for things that I knew I definitely would enjoy, didn’t particularly tried new things), I thought things were mostly cheap though I didn’t shop much nor did I maximize Taobao deliveries. Everything was so convenient on app - payment, reservations, private hire etc, everything went smoothly when I was setting them up and worked during the trip, and for the first time in my life I didn’t have to exchange foreign currency when going for an overseas trip. 

The biggest downside was the weather - aside from the first day I arrived which was really warm (but I only reached late afternoon so I didn’t have to endure it much), it literally rained everyday. Which I surprisingly wasn’t mad about, even cancelling the Hangzhou day trip because the main attractions (西湖 etc) are all outdoorsy which demanded better weather than what we have (and for some reason I was a bit tired at the beginning of the trip where this was scheduled and the idea of traveling on a train sounded very draining for some reason). So partly because of the rain our pace is kinda slow and we (I) didn’t pack much into each day’s itinerary so that was a pretty relaxing trip. I only regret not stopping for more cafes etc because oddly traffic congestion was an issue and it took very long to get from point to point (and for the Didi to arrive to begin with). 

But yeah, I saw mostly what I want to see, and in fact I really don’t mind going back again because there are things that I missed out on - though maybe I’d explore other Chinese cities. If it goes well there may just be another one coming up at the end of the year….

Hatched this idea last year one random night at a Coffee Bean - thought I wanted to have another go at cherry blossoms. The Japan one in 2023 was a lukewarm success only, and I wanted to see it in full bloom. These days, flights are part of the whole travel experience for me, but by the time I had this idea, the redemption tickets for Japan had predictably been snapped up. So I switched to Korea instead, which is also pretty famous for this, and I had seen very good photos from past years on it. A quick check showed that tickets are still available, but as usual, a bit of indecision meant that the best options (day flights, utilizing public holidays) had gone, and I was left with less ideal options, or shelve out the advantage rates, or (gasp) go for layovers including partner airlines. 

Not that I couldn’t afford it, but stingy me didn’t want to fork out the extra miles, so I dug a bit deeper - with the help of a bit of brainwave - and I ended up with a rather convoluted itinerary. My flight to Seoul will start from KL instead (which, for some reason, the SIN-ICN leg was still under saver rate as compared to if I omit the KUL-SIN leg), which meant I had to fork out an additional repositioning flight to KL. The return leg, while it was direct, would be a red eye, with the idea that I will head straight to work (!) after landing. 

So with that, I get to experience a few things in one go - a day trip to KL, a short-haul business flight, lounges in KUL and SIN, and sleeper service on a business class seat. All things considered, it was a pretty novel experience, and having gone through it, I can now say I have no regrets, but nonetheless, I might not want to do it again if I had the choice - will share more details in the usual trip posts. 

So, Korea. Not a new destination, and in fact, ten years ago, I would never have envisioned liking this place that much to the extent that I would want to return multiple times (and I think I am not done yet!). And I sort of placed quite a bit of emphasis on this trip possibly being my trip of the year (which is saying something because I have quite a number of trips planned this year), possibly because it would be my longest trip of the year (the rest are mostly short ones requiring only a couple of leave days each). So much so that I even started learning Korean on Duolingo lol, only to eat a huge piece of humble pie because while I can (sort of) read and have a bit of vocab, I can’t really understand most things, let alone converse in it hahah so much for the 224 days learning streak. 

Budgeted five leave days, so this meant a 9D8N trip, enough to cover two cities at a leisurely pace. A bit of strategizing involved also because of the unpredictability of cherry blossom season, so I decided to place the Busan leg in between two stints in Seoul, just in case flowers bloom late in Seoul. I think this largely worked out in the end, although I would still say it wasn’t blooming completely in Seoul even by the time I left, or maybe I just didn’t visit the correct places. 

 

Have grown to like the food in Korea (gasp). I think there are still a fair bit of gems that I have yet to get to, which would warrant a trip back lol. There are a couple of places that I almost revisited but struck off in the end due to time constraints (and there I was saying this was a leisurely pace). Mostly explored new neighbourhoods that I have not been to. I loved the modern outlook and elements of the city despite obvious traditional aspects. And let’s face it, it’s a really nice city to people-watch and I was quite conscious of my fashion choices lol. 

It’s a solo trip if that is not obvious by now - which sort of contributed to my excitement because it’s been a long ten months since my last one. And I was really invested in this idea of a solo trip, to the extent that I panicked when Stel half-heartedly hatched an idea of a Seoul trip during the same period, and when KH April fooled me by announcing that he is joining me for my second Seoul leg lol. It was a similar feeling I had in HK last year when I pulled out stops to prevent my solo trip from being intruded upon. But yeah, again, had to find ways to work around dining alone in Korea because the portions mostly are not intended for solo dining, and mostly successful. 

And I came back with just a weight gain of 1.1kg! Surprise. And I was diligently cutting in between CNY and this trip, with the plan to get started on bulking phase after this so quite chuffed that I didn’t get set back as much. 

The weather was rather temperamental though. It went from -2 on the day I arrived to 20 on the day I left. In between, temperatures were mostly high single digits or low double digits, which was okay for two (thicker) layers, but the killer was the wind which was aplenty in Busan - a coastal city - so I did end up catching a cold and not feeling 100% during the second Seoul leg. It would take me some time to get going in the morning, but surprisingly once I headed out I was still able to function and taste things that I wanted to - with it only failing once at ICN lounge, but recovered in time for the sleeper flight. And by the time I got to work I was back to normal hahaha I don’t know what this is tbh. 

So this was a very fruitful trip. Very enjoyable. And if my mantra this year is to do more short trips (I have been very inspired by a few travel accounts on IG)….you might even see me back there sooner or later.

Few things aligned for this trip - first, random discussion with BFF duo about going for another trip together since it’s been a while we traveled in this combination, figured that New Year PH seems like a good time for us to utilize. Then we landed on HK on a possible destination because it’s good for a short getaway, it’s not extremely cold and in fact an excellent weather for traveling. And despite me having been to HK not too long ago I was all for it because I came to realize that HK food is right up my alley and I do quite like the vibes there. Still, discussions like this don’t usually make it out of a group chat and so there’s still a bit of push needed, but we eventually bought our tickets and yes we’re on our way! 

So definitely starting the year right by going on a trip on the very first day. Ladies (Stel’s sister Vivien joined) and KH flew directly from Bru and my SQ flight (was hoping to fly Cathay but they are dirt expensive, not that SQ was very much cheaper but oh well) landed about half an hour later. Since we’re traveling in a group we decided to just save the hassle of train travel and just Uber-ed to our hotel at Tsim Sha Tsui. 

There’s been a bit of talk about accommodation prior to the trip with a budget of not more than $75 per night per pax, which landed us here (after eliminating a few others due to reasons like transparent bathroom lol). And here’s a first hiccup of the trip - KH, for some reason, double booked our accom - he had spotted a cheaper price a few days after he first booked and re-booked, but somehow forgot to cancel the first one and never realized that his credit card was charged twice. So imagine our surprise when the hotel told us we had 4 rooms instead of 2, and couldn’t cancel one of the bookings on their end because we booked through Agoda so we had to honour our booking - they quite bluntly told us even if we don’t take the two extra rooms they would be left empty anyway coz they can’t resell it hmm. So KH and I ended up having a room each, the ladies continued to share one room, and KH managed to get a friend who was also traveling in HK at that time to come in and take the 4th room from the second night onwards. 

And actually as usual photos to tell the story of the trip, and injecting in some snippets as we go along. (Good luck then this is going to be a long post)

Anddd story time.

Landed in SG a bit late as expected. Cleared immigration, went home without Grab price hike, thinking all was fine, mentally preparing myself for first workday of the year, actually preparing for it too by packing my laptop and souvenirs, thinking how come I only got these few boxes, wondering what is off, and it came to me.

I left a whole bag of hand carried goodies in the place. Placed them underneath the seat in front of me, the whole trip I was very conscious of it shifting around and when I finally landed I completely forgot about it. It was all perishables - two boxes of egg tarts, a bread item from Vission, polo bun from 紅茶, I think there’s a 老婆餅 from 奇華 too. Immediately live chatted SQ, was redirected to SATS lost and found instead and duly left my details in a report. I was somehow hoping that since it can be easily found by the crew and the owner is easily identifiable, I can get it back the next morning and maybe they can even send it over to office and I can still have my egg tarts! Omg such wishful thinking hahaha the next day I called and they said it will take a few days to process the case and I told them to just cancel the report altogether because by the time the report was processed the egg tarts would probably have fermented or something. So that was literally a sour end to the trip and I was very bothered by it to the extent that I had to fight off an urge to book another ticket to HKG lolol. 

But that aside, to be frank I enjoyed the trip and most of all the company. I was revisiting a lot of places that I’ve been to in my last trip, but with the benefit of significantly nicer weather this time round so I no longer have to use my imagination. The weather was so so enjoyable - sunny, cool - that I almost wanted to make it a point to travel at this time of the year from now on. And there’s more mouths to share food lol so can try more. And these few are always good company! So yes, that was a really solid trip to start the year with. 

Plotting a next trip at this time of next year as we speak - but haha looks like quite a bit of push needed.