(Above Photo - A handmade Christmas Gift from Kalinda)

2008 has been an eventful and lousy year for many. It is the year when many unprecedented events took place – The Biggest Snow Storm in Southern China, The Worst Hurricane of Myanmar, The Massive EarthQuake of Sichuan, The Chinese Olympic, The Mumbai Bombing, The Financial Tsunami, The Elected Black President of USA, The Tibet Riot, The Chinese Milk Scare and The Fall of Asian Leaders (Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, Thailand and Taiwan).  It is also the year when we witnessed a weakest USA and a strongest China. A year when we have to constantly remind ourselves that lives are indeed fragile - and we were helpless at nature's worst moments. It is also the year when we should wake up and remind ourselves about those dubious donation scandals of many churches, temples and foundations. It is also the year when we learnt the hard lesson how investment can go surprisingly wrong - when you least expected.

For me, it has been a "Vintage Year" - it is the year when I saw change took place. From Shanghai to Hong Kong, I bid farewell to a good team of friends in China and started my new life in Hong Kong. It has been a dramatic year in my career. With a positive mind and the help of my Shanghai team, I bridged the business seamlessly over. Over in HK, I was truly blessed with a new team of capable "angels", we achieved the impossibilities within a short span of 6 months. It is something I am very proud of. We achieved a couple of "world firsts" in the world of Duty Free. And for the first time in the agency's history, our relationships with our clients and performance reached a new peak!

Despite the first half (transisition) of 2008, many painful changes were actually for the better. Alicia is happily married and is now enjoying a fantastic career. Clare has a great home, great career and blissfully married. Lisa just got engaged! And my old pal, Calvin Mao - he is now a happy father! Not to forget my favourite Rebecca, she is now a successful manager in her new job - and I heard good words about her - even in Hong Kong. For Tracy, she scored a couple of "excellent ratings" for her works in GTR.

In Hong Kong, I enjoyed a dynamic second half. My family is happily settled. Elkan is enjoying school and looking forward to go school! Except for the small cozy house, we are overly happy with our new home (yes...looking for a bigger unit next year). Lots of visitors in Hong Kong (double of Shanghai's) and we were indeed thrilled with their presence. Our friends and family members are also doing very well - Echo and Francis added a new kid in their house, Johnny (& Ming) is a father too, Scott is finally attached with beautiful Yiyi, Joanne is running Caffine well, Juliana and Duuk are to-be-parents, Yixi, Gareth and Hovman got their ideal jobs, Yei is getting hitched with Summer finally and my family had their first rare group tour to Taiwan and Hong Kong! (Mmm..same as my in-laws too!)

2008 has been a difficult year but overall, I became a stronger and better man after all the uncertainties and big changes. It takes a lot of courage to face change. Indeed, chao filters losers and winners. And I am happy that we have been very successful winners in this chaotic times.
 

Finally, after a good long 7D6N holiday in South Korea - we are now packing our bags heading back home (to Hong Kong). This has been a fantastic journey - and I have only good words about Korea - it is certainly a city worth-visiting! And it offers more than what I can ever imagined! The "Visit Korea 2009 TVC" says it all "My camera can only captured so much. For the rest of Seoul, I put in my heart." It is just so true!

Korea, coined as the "Soul of Asia", is a great shopping and food paradise. Seoul City is a very clean, systematic and modern place. Most importantly, Seoul didn't lost her Korean identity like most big cities out there (due to modernisation and over-cloning of international brands). The city retains a big portion of her own identity - in food, designs, fashions, handicrafts, architecture and her People. Korea is a pretty affordable travel destination (living standard is about somewhere inbetween Shanghai and Hong Kong). And don't worry, you can't go wrong if you decide to visit Korea the free and easy way - most of the the locals don't speak English (quite a number speak good mandarin instead!) but you should be able to overcome that easily. Simply use hand and body language - you can make almost 80% of what they are trying to communicate. And yes, keep a good faith, big smile and open mind.



Certainly, we (including Tracy, Elkan, Feli and myself) love Korea so so so much! (For my Elkan, it must be the "snow" or "cold white sands" which he was so crazy about.) Felicia loves the things here so much that she is asking me for a bigger house so she can buy back those things to put at home. Tracy is gaga over those local Korean men.. Half the time, she is eyeing those men (instead of watching for the traffic!) For me... food and sex come in a package...the food is great! (Darn, even Tracy can find food to eat - we thought there is nothing for her except Korean BBQ!) But for sex... sigh, I never get any chance to check out the infamous love motels or any pretty sexy Korean babes yet. For most of us, Korea is a little Taiwan-Australia-Shanghai-Singapore mix. It is so comfortable and beautiful that we really wish we can extend our stay here for another month.


Enough said, here are our "Top Must Visit Places" in Seoul:
(Enjoy the pixs! For more photos, please click here to view at my PICASA)


NUMBER 1 - INSADONG STREET
Certainly my favourite streets - lots of cultural, designers stuffs here. Lots to see and many small back alleys to explore!