Sunday, January 10, 2016

2015 Year of Travels (Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok, Melaka, Surabaya, Jakarta, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur)

Kicking off 2015 in the city of Taipei!  Well, it was kinda a cheat since I was already there since 2014 for Christmas.  But nonetheless, it was a nice chilled start to the new year!

My first flight out of Singapore for the year went to a place I have been longing to visit: Japan.  Although it was a business trip, my virgin trip was filled with anticipation for all things Japan.  Tokyo was eccentric and great and I loved my seafood, but I was down with this irritating fever (which turned out I contracted the petty E-coli virus).  Well, I did make the most of my sickly self!



Just 1 week after my short 4 nights trip to Tokyo, I jetted off to Bangkok for my CNY holidays!  It was a 6 nights affair and that meant I should be able to explore a lot of Thailand.  But the E-coli virus acted again, and I was down with 6 days of high fever instead!  Still, had lotsa great local food thanks to my local friend, Tour!


March came and I returned to Shanghai for another 2 nights for work!  It was a nice cool weather and I saw a few plum trees dotting the city.



I returned to Melaka for my birthday in April!  The 2 nights' stay was shorten to only 1 night due to an urgent request of a travel companion, which totally downed my birthday spirit.  But it was still a nice break in a few ways.


May saw me visiting Surabaya for the first time, but it was for work.  It was a one night stay, and it essentially was more than sufficient as there was nothing much to do in the city.


I returned to Indonesia again in June, this time to Jakarta, and also for work.  Oh how I do not miss the snarling traffic!!  The Ritz Carlton was nice though! :)


End of June until early July saw me returning to Sydney for the Hillsong Conference, as well as catching up with Edward, Eliss and Ernest!  It was nice 7 nights trip that saw me visiting the Blue Mountains and a few coastal townships!




A month later, I returned to Bangkok again in August for yet another 6 nights stay.  Almost a revenge make up trip for the one I did not enjoy in Feb, this time it was great fun and relaxation, with lots of massages and great food!


September saw me flying twice for business.  First stop was Seoul (5 nights), and I returned to my favourite Siloam Sauna for that much needed Jimjilbang!  Two nights was spent there!  It was also a much welcomed trip as I escaped the hazy Singapore air.



Just one week later, I flew back to Tokyo!  6 months since, and it was a nice autumn breeze greeting me this round.  6 nights of stay, with a side trip to Nikko, oh what a great trip it was!  This was probably the best leisure cum business mix trip so far!



After an almost monthly travelling, there was none for October and November.  Well, I had to do my ICT so I still managed to escape office for a week.

Come December when I was ready for my Christmas holiday, I was jetted off back to Jakarta again for a 1 night business trip.  This visit was worse than the last in terms of traffic.  I supposed due to the year end holiday season.  The main highlight was meeting up with an ex colleague, and it was so much fun catching up!


Just one day after my return, I drove up north to Kuala Lumpur for Christmas.  4 nights there of essentially lazing around, sleeping 9-11 hours each night, strolling the malls for cheap bargains, and stuffing my tummy crazy with tons of food!!!  After Kuala Lumpur, it was a 2 hours drive south back to Melaka.  What was supposed to be a 3 nights stay was again shorten, this time to 2 nights due to my sudden fever and weaken system.  But still, it was a very resting time in Melaka where i slept so many hours, and ate so much great food!




So in summary, 2015 has more work trips (7 of them) than leisure ones (5 of them).  Probably the first time work trips exceeded leisure ones.  I had a total of 12 holiday stamps to my passport, 1 lesser than 2014, but the leisure trips were much longer than before.  2016 is looking to be another year of over 10 stamps to my passport, hoping more leisure trips this round.



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