Athens and Mykonos Islands, Greece ( 8-12 April 07)

My upcoming trip to Greece was really one of the trips that I was seriously looking forward to especially after hearing of the amazing stories of the Greek Islands and of Athens; where the birth of civilization and democracy started.

Prior to the trip, I had planned to visit both the Acropolis in Athens and one of the islands during our 2 day stay, therefore, the moment we reached our hotel in the morning, we inquired of the ferry timings and accommodation available at Mykonos Island. As soon as I reached an agreement of the cost, accommodation and ferry timings with the travel agent (The apt word would be bargaining ), I managed to convince three of my workmates to join me for a little excursion to Mykonos for the night before departing back to Athens in the evening the next day.

After a little rest and some lunch, all of us headed of to the Acropolis. Along the way, we trudged through the shopping area, Plaka, bustling with tourists and locals from all walks of life. The shops consisted mainly ubiquitous retail outlets such as H&M, Loccitane,etc with the sidewalks lined with street peddlers selling everything from seeshas, Greek paraphernalia to unique puppets. Similarly to Italy, the street floors were of white marble stone, and once in a while, you would stumble upon ancient ruins amongst the modern edifice of the city. Unfortunately for us, as it was the long Easter holiday, all the shops were close, therefore we could only literally window shop there.

After getting lost through the maze-like streets and of course, detouring into the endless rows of little shops selling Greek souvenirs, we finally reached Acropolis to find out that the place was closed at 3 pm due to the Easter holidays! Therefore, all we could do was to take pictures outside the historical site and to savour the atmosphere of the rest of the city before heading of to the jetty.

The journey to Mykonos took 3 1/2 hours, and upon reaching the island, it was already nightfall. As agreed by our travel agent, we would obtain complimentary transfer from the jetty to the hotel. Unfortunately, there was no transport waiting for us when we alighted the ferry. The scenery at night was certainly breathtaking, however, the experience of getting stranded in an unknown area plus the constant gust of wind blowing at our faces at the temperature 14-16 Celsius was not something we enjoyed. Using the auto-roaming function of my mobile phone, I immediately took out our travel documents and called the hotel to pick us up after roaming the jetty for about 20 minutes.

Note: If you happened to travel to a country for work and decided to book a tour via the hotel/travel agent nearby in the last minute, there are a few things that you need to do:

1.) Get all documentations, especially addresses of phone numbers of your hotel and transport ( i.e. airline/ferry/speedboat) in case there are complications. In my case, they forgot to fetch us at the jetty.

2.) Name card of the travel agent. According to our travel agent, the tickets back from Mykonos to Athens would be provided by the hotel. However, the hotel was not aware of this and no tickets was bought even on the early morning of the day we departed! Luckily, we checked earlier and with the aid of our travel documents and the name card, the hotel managed to get a ferry ticket for us to go back to Athens.

3.) Don't totally leave the travel arrangements to the travel agents especially if you are pressed for time. Always check if the documents are ready and whether your transport is waiting for you. Do note that things do go wrong and miscommunication do happen, just that you don't want be the one who suffers from it!

Back to Mykonos: Upon checking into the our seaside hotel at Platy Gialos, we decided to head down to city, Hora to check out the night life available. Even at 9.30 pm, the shops were filled with people with eateries and night clubs opened till dawn. The night scene at the waterfront was simply stunning, the crashing waves onto the shore reflected bright azure upon reflection of the city lights.

The next morning was spent savouring our breakfast whilst embracing the crisp morning air, cloudless sky, white sandy beach and azure waters at our seaside hotel. As soon as finished our meal, we headed out to the city only to be greeted by a row white windmills and the sight of houses literally suspended over the sea (Dubbed 'Little Venice').

The rest of the city was filled with gleaming white cubical houses (All not more than 2 storeys high and with colours painted only at its doors, windows, railings and stairs) and never ending white narrow alleys. At the waterfront, sight of the innumerable white houses at the hills was simply breathtaking; even the ships and boats were white based!

The morning was spent roaming around the white filled alleys, enjoying the sights and scenery of Hora. We finally ended the day at a cafe (Near Little Venice) overlooking the sea and enjoyed a round of beer and crepes before heading back to the hotel.

In the evening, we took the ferry back to Athens and safely reached our hotel. The trip to Athens/Mykonos Island was definitely something to remember and we hope to go there again in the future!

Vancouver Via Seoul (17 March to 23 March 07)

In the middle of March, I had the opportunity to visit the Land Of The Maple Leaf, Canada.

The denizens of Canada are pretty friendly bunch! I was actually taken aback when a local approached us just to have a little chat with us. Being Asian, i was not comfortable initially as we were in a foreign country for the first time and we weren't really sure of his intentions. Slowly we warmed up to him and listened to his stories of his life in Vancouver and prior to that.

Sight seeing wise, in Vancouver, we headed off to Grouse Mountain and the Capilano Suspension bridge. The suspension bridge was definitely breathtaking, just below the bridge were lush Canadian forests divided by a gushing river gurgling below. Right above the tips of the trees was a misty backdrop to complete the enchanting experience.

At Grouse Mountain, it was my first time seeing snow, therefore, I was definitely estatic the moment that I alighted from the cable car ( Which we had to use to go the mountain). As it was a skiing resort, the sight was not as picturesque unless you climb out to the tip of the mountain and start skiing there yourself. We had a ball of a time having snowball fights, lying on the snow and just savouring the beautiful scenery and weather around us.

My highlight of the trip was actually in Seoul. I had 2 and a half days there. The first night was spent hanging out with my journalist friend who happened to be there on the same day. At the bar, we could not get any waiter/waitresses to attend to us. And when we finally got the attention of the staff there, the manager immediately knelt down to apologize profusely to us before giving more thorough attention to our requests. After a few rounds of drinks, when we wanted to settle the bill, the staff came to explain that since we weren't attended to initially, the drinks will be settled by the hotel( Westin Chosun, Seoul was the hotel, btw). This is the first time I had such excellent service rendered to me.

Day 2 consisted of shopping. We spent the day strolling down the streets of Myeoung Dung and Namdemun for good buys esp Korean skincare and fashion. If you are a Korean skincare fan, you can get items from the Face Shop, Skin Food and Laniege at much cheaper prices compared to Singapore.

Btw, in Myeoung Dung, there is this American Donut shop that sells the tastiest donuts ever, Krispy Kreme. I love the original glazed donuts sold there. Lets hope Krispy Kreme will head down to Singapore soon!

At Day 3, which is the highlight of my Seoul trip, I booked a tour to Panjamun, this demiliatarized zone between the North and South. It was certainly an eye opening experience for me. You could actually see the North from observation tower. All the tree were cut at the hilly areas, from the video shown to us, it was speculated that the trees were for fuel and to prevent ppl from escaping as it increased visibility from the North military. There was a barb wire to fence up the area, with electricity as high as 10,000 watts in case anyone intended to escape( 250 watts was enough to kill a normal human being)

Lastly I got to visit the demilitarized zone between North and South, you can virtually step into the North if you want to, though you might get a risk of getting shot at! And of course, the Freedom Bridge, which was also the starting scene of the Bond Film ( when Pierce Brosnan was still Bond) in Die Another Day.