..And Next Seoul...

After the kids and I left Singapore, Paul stayed on for work until flying home Friday night.  But the layover in HK didn't last long, as the next morning Paul and I left for Seoul for five days.  Paul had a work trip and I was also able to piggyback a work trip on top.  So we had Saturday and Sunday to explore (Paul's been to Seoul before, but it was my first time), before working Monday to Wednesday.  Our hotel was conveniently located close to a fun shopping/night market area called Myeong-dong.  Korea is known for its cosmetics (and cosmetic surgery) and this area is packed with cosmetics and skin care products shops.  It's kind of weird actually.  Placenta face mask, anyone?  You can find it here.  Here's Paul enjoying the Korean night scene.

 

There was good street food to be had and Paul snatched up grilled squid on a stick dipped in a sauce and then sprinkled with dried shaved fish flakes.  He thoroughly enjoyed it.  I abstained.

 

A popular item in the tourist areas was crazy forms of cones that they'd fill with soft serve from both ends.  We saw cane shapes, long swirlies, extra long swirlies.  We meant to get one to try it out, but then didn't leave enough stomach.  The internet says the cones taste like Corn Pops cereal.

 

A selfie of the two of us as we wrapped up the evening walking around.

 

The next day we started off with a walk down another shopping area in the Insadong neighborhood.  It's more artsy/craftsy, no cosmetics shops at this place.

 

 

Then after lunch we moved onto the nearby Changdeokgung Palace, which is a UNESCO heritage site.  The palace was built in 1412, but like many sites, was burnt down and rebuilt many times over the centuries.  This pic is of the main entrance gate.

There are many buildings throughout the walled in complex, but this one below is the biggest one, the throne hall.

Our group tour guide told us to stop and take a picture of this corner of the hall because people like to take this picture.  Sure, it's nice.

The buildings are guarded by animal statues on the corners and the more animals there are, the more important the building is.

While I'm more partial to the glitzy Thai palaces, this Korean palace does have really nice painted designs.  These buildings are part of the complex where the royals lived.

Oh fergodsakes, isn't the little pagoda on the hill a little peaceful spot?  It's where one of the kings kept the woman he really loved while the woman he was forced to marry lived elsewhere on the property.

No one lives here now as the royals died out with no heir.  Probably because the last guy horrendously married an American woman for love rather than a son-bearing-Korean like a good Korean royal would do. 

One last pic on our way out! 

 

 

Malaysia and Singapore: Legos and a Luge

Wow, was June busy!  It flew by with three trips in three weeks due to public holidays, work trips and half price plane tickets.  The first trip of the month was to Singapore.  Paul had a work trip and due to a public holiday in HK, the kids and I were off from school and work, so we had to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and Paul's paid for plane ticket.  We arrived in the evening, ate late, and went to bed.....

His beauty sleep mask came from a school activity on blindness that week.

...to rest up for Legoland!  An hour's ride away across the border in Malaysia is Legoland amusement park and the Legoland water park. 

We were happy to find the park wasn't crowded and we hit all the rides and major exhibits within the first half of the day. PE's favorite was the build your own car and race it building.  Mom and Dad enjoyed the air conditioning. 

 

My favorite part was all the major Asian cultural sights made out of legos (I love mini things!).  It was fun to see mini versions of some of the places we've visited already, like the Wat Arun in Bangkok...

 

And preview places we have yet to visit, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia that is #1 on my must-see list...

 

Petronus Towers that were impressively tall...

 

Esme takes a stroll through mini Malaysia and later gets eaten by a Lego lion.

 

 

We enjoyed the waterpark more than the amusement park, but don't have any pictures other than the entrance since cameras and waterslides don't mix.

 

The next day was spent exploring Singapore, which really was mostly spent in Sentosa island resort area for easy entertainment of the kids.  We didn't make it far before three Chinese tourists asked if they could take pictures with our kids. 

 

 

We took a chair lift up a hill so we could ride down the luge.  It was a hoot.  PE was a crazy driver. Esme was bummed she had to ride with a grown up.

 

Next up was the fish spa.  Four years ago when our friends, Chris and David Plaut, lived in Singapore and we visited, Chris took me to this same place. 

 

 

It was fun to bring the kids to it, though at first I worried it may be a waste of money if they were scared of the fish nibbling on them.  The so-called doctor fish nibble the dead skin off your feet and legs.  The first minute is hard to get through with the tickling and nibbling that feels kind of like electrical buzzing.  It's a little creepy, but fun to do.

 

They found my feet far tastier, or less wiggly most likely.

 

I loved catching the kids' first reactions in this video.

 

Later that night we had fun meeting up for dinner with Paul's college friend Byron, his wife Anne and their daughter who now live in Singapore. 

The next day there was only time for a quick walk around the Marina Bay area before the kids and I headed to the airport back to HK while Paul stuck around for work for a few more days.

 

We had a dramatic ending with a taxi cab chase to the airport when Paul realized my phone was in his pocket.  OK, it wasn't super dramatic, but enough drama for us.

Next stop Seoul!

Beautiful Coron

For Easter weekend,  we took a long-anticipated trip to the Philippine province of Palawan.    The province actually stretches over many islands,  with 1200 miles of coastline, so we had many options for our visit.   While the capital city of Puerto Princesa and the island of El Nido were tempting options,  we chose the region of Coron as the best combination of convenience and beauty. 

Our stay in Coron consisted of a Coron city tour and a Coron Islands tour surrounded by lots of lounging around the hotel (swimming for the kids,  drinks for Mom and Dad).   

Our hotel was right in the middle of town,  which was great for some local culture but poor for sleeping due to the 5 AM rooster wakeup call. 

Our Coron town tour started with a visit to the pier.   Here is where we caught our private longboat to see the islands the following day.   After we saw the local church and a souvenir shop,  we hiked up the hill (Mount Tapyas) you see in the background of the picture below.

The hike up Mount Tapyas was good exercise and a great view.  You can see the town below,  as well as some of the islands we would see in the next day's Island tour.

Our hotel is the peach colored building in the middle of the picture,  near the water.

Here's a panorama view of the other side of Mount Tapyas.

The last stop on our Coron Town Tour was the Maquinit Hot Springs.  It was getting pretty dark but that actually yielded some pretty cool pictures. 

 Paul Eli jumped right in the water and Esme was hoping that she would "accidentally" slip in as well.

After a dog and rooster-interrupted night's sleep and a hearty Filipino breakfast,  we headed out for Coron Island Tour.  

First stop was Kayangan Lake on Coron Island.   It is one of the few bodies of water that the public is allowed to view.   It is also said to be the cleanest lake in the Philippines (maybe not after Esme swam in it).   Take a look at our view as we climbed up to the lake:

Once we got to the lake,  we did some swimming and cave exploration.  I tried to remember how to snorkel while Paul Eli worked on his cannonball:

We heard there were some really nice beaches on Coron Island so we planned to relax on the beach and let the kids swim and play in the sand.   Unfortunately, millions of tiny jellyfish arising from a recent downpour convinced us that wasn't a great idea.

While we weren't able to spend a lot of time at the beach,  we were still able to have a delicious Filipino picnic lunch.   Chan loved the big plate of local crabs.  Everybody tried the unripe mango and bagoong (see bottom of picture).   It was one of my (Paul) mom's favorite foods,  but it's doubtful the tradition will be passed on.   I actually thought the bagoong was considerably better than other ones I've tried,  but at the end of the day it's still fermented shrimp paste.

After lunch we did some more snorkeling, starting with the Skeleton Wreck and moving on to the Coral Garden.   The Skeleton Wreck is one of the many Japanese warships that were sunk by the Allies.   Here is a video of us snorkeling over the shipwreck.  

The coral near the Skeleton and in the Coral Garden were very impressive for newbies like us.  There was also a lot of beautiful fish including numerous bright blue Dory fishes (from Finding Nemo fame).

  Unfortunately I don't have an underwater camera so I wasn't able to capture the beautiful coral but here is a quick shot of the fish underneath our boat right before we jumped in:

We finished up our day with another swim in another beautiful blue pool surrounded by more limestone cliffs (sigh).   This is Twin Lagoons.   Somewhere within that cliff is a small crack with a ladder you can climb or a tunnel you can swim through to reach the second lagoon.  

After our long, successful day we had some surprisingly good pizza at the hotel and visited the local market for some delicious halo-halo.

Here is a close-up of one of the best bowls of halo-halo I've had.   For me,  the key to a good halo-halo is all of the variety of flavors, textures, and colors.   Every bite should be a little different.

Bye Bye Coron!   It was worth the wait :)