My usual favorite moments post from 2019. 2019 was kinda interesting, got a MBA from INSEAD and also moved to a new country where I cannot speak the main language. Rather rough at times, learned a new language but overall having a pretty awesome time. Anyway here's the more fun parts of it, I guess 2019 was pretty awesome. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2020! 메리 크리스마스! 새해 복많이 받으세요! Shall let the pics do the talking.

DECEMBER - Graduated from INSEAD and spend the remaining time of the year in SF and Portland. got all drenched but was a good morning in San Francisco, California

DECEMBER - San Francisco, California

DECEMBER - Mount Hood, Oregon

JANUARY - Good Morning Istanbul, Turkey

JANUARY - A hike to Yushan in Taiwan

JANUARY - Taipei 101 framed with currently the most expensive building in Taipei where you can drive ur car into ur apartment. how cool is that.

JANUARY - Mount Fuji under the stars

JANUARY - Hello snow monkeys, we meet again. Nagoya, Japan

FEBRUARY - Greetings from the Land of Thunder Dragon #shotoniphone

FEBRUARY - The Tibetan style stupa was built in memorial of the 3rd king of Bhutan. Interiors were really nice and cool, but alas, photography was not permitted inside all stupas, temples and monasteries. We had this blessing ceremony inside a temple and was really cool; Lama was reading the prayers off an iPhone, room had really cool light beams but sadly no photos. More on this Stupa, surprisingly lots of local Bhutanese walking around the Stupa at 5am in the morning when I got here. Walking around the Stupa 108 times was said to bring good karma. Off to start my morning rounds, collecting good karma for the year

MARCH - One of my most memorable days in 2019 was in Gokyo, Nepal. Snowstorm Day 6: Machhermo (4470m) to Gokyo (4790m)
Started the day white out and snowing pretty hard. Conversation between me and the guide.. Guide: I think weather is bad we should turn around
Me: 1 inch of snow overnight at Machhermo probably 3 inch of snow up at Gokyo?
Guide: Probably waist deep at Gokyo..
Me: (in disbelief) Let’s see :P

Weather was crappy but I decided to go towards Gokyo anyway. Terrible snowstorm total white out conditions with strong winds and snow. Haha total bad idea. In the end my guide was right, waist deep snow at some parts and my guide also fell into a snow hole that was deeper than him (ie maybe 2 meters deep). The 3 hours hike ended up taking 11am to 5:30pm. Barely shy of 6.5 hours. Got to Gokyo Namaste Lodge at 5:30pm and probably sat by the fire till 11pm. Tried to dry my really wet shoes by the fire but accidentally slightly melted it as well. Great.. Probably the toughest day in the trek.

MARCH - Nuptse standing at 7861m is by far my favourite peak from the entire trek

MARCH - My fav peak in Nepal, Nuptse standing at 7861m on a super cold night with so much frost on my camera and my fingers doesn’t really want to work haha. Earlier in the day, we saw a porter carrying 70kgs worth of 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola along the hike and probably walking way faster than me. So ridiculous..

MARCH - on the route to Everest base camp when we hiked up the ridge when the storm cleared the following day and saw a pretty awesome sunset.

MARCH - Everest Base Camp (5364m) Probably about 160km and about 3310m elevation gain. The hike itself wasn’t too rough as it was broken down over a period of time with acclimatization days (ie rest days) inbetween but what I found challenging was probably how the indoor room temperatures were also at a ridiculously low -15C and there isn’t heating in the room haha. #firstworldproblems

APRIL - Cherry Blossom in full bloom in Korea #벚꽃

APRIL - Foggy freezing cold morning after camping a night in Daedunsan. #대둔산 #shotoniphone

APRIL - X marks the spot

MAY - First time to Busan. Gamcheon cultural village in Busan often known as the Santorini of Korea or Machu Picchu of Korea but I thought it looks a little like Cinque Terre from the pastel coloured houses. We went around the labyrinth like alleys looking for the little prince with the little fox and found a huge line waiting for a photo op with him.

JUNE - Ran up Inwangsan again at sunset, took about 25 mins this time. Tried a slightly different comp and loved how the old fortress wall (bottom left side of pic) somehow forms a leading line into the city.

JUNE - Spend the weekend in a city far south of Korea with some pretty cool bamboo forest and monkeys looked a lot like Arashiyama in Kyoto just without people #고창군

JUNE - Teleported back to Singapore

JULY - Got all soaked at golden gate bridge. San Francisco, California

JULY - Quick stop in Tokyo, Japan

AUGUST - One of my favourite views of Seoul

AUGUST - After many many attempts, finally got a pretty awesome sunset at Gangnam. spend way too much time in the middle buildings LOL. 즐거운 주말이었어요

SEPTEMBER - Spend the long chuseok weekend in Fukuoka and drove around abit. Pretty cool place and probably will be back again very soon haha. 후쿠오카에 여행갔어요. #추석 잘 보내세요!

SEPTEMBER - Visited many waterfalls along the way.. this one felt a lot like Gorton creek in Oregon

SEPTEMBER - Haven’t been to so many waterfalls in a long time.. feels pretty happy walking up to it. That’s me for a sense of scale haha Ramona falls, Oregon

SEPTEMBER - Fukuoka itself wasn’t very memorable other than the yatai food carts which had really awesome mentaiko, the canal surrounding it which was also really nice and this apparently famous long wait dumpling place that was absolutely rude and definitely served mediocre dumplings (sorry not sorry) but the area around Fukuoka was really nice and filled with pretty nature stuff.. running out of Oregon proxies. This one probably reminded me of Portland japanese garden?

OCTOBER - Spent the night and morning in some eerie looking pine forest with Nate

OCTOBER - Back to Busan again. Marina One, Singapore. Pretty popular sunset spot in Busan I believe but I kinda liked how the 우신골근스위트 in the middle stood out amongst the blueish backdrop at sunrise

OCTOBER - Made another quick stop in Singapore

OCTOBER - Fall colors in Korea was pretty awesome

OCTOBER - Tiring fast paced hike up Dobongsan (도봉산) prettily peppered with fall colours over the weekend

NOVEMBER - Attended my first Korean wedding.. thought the traditional Korean tea ceremony with hanbok was really cool and they serve soju instead of tea.. :D

NOVEMBER - Was standing by this pond in winter 2016 and thought I will be back here in autumn for fall color. so fast forward 3 years later.. here I am and yasss it looks amazing. #shotoniphone

NOVEMBER - Minoo falls was a little out of the way from Osaka but definitely worth the trip, the hike up to the falls was peppered with fall colors and looked awesome. probably my favorite combination for photography; autumn + waterfalls #shotoniphone long exposure on iPhone

NOVEMBER - Window of reflections. #shotoniphone From a temple that I had to wait hours to get into haha. I did a simple cash flow for the temple while I was waiting and was pleasantly surprised how much they would make yearly. Only in Japan

NOVEMBER - Back in Singapore for exactly 24hours. Chop chop. on INSEAD campus for the day. Went to gym. Interesting convos in BOR. Lunch with folks. more interesting convos in BOR. Dinner in Dempsey. Back to airport. Always awesome to be back on campus. Till next time, 싱가포르

Singapore latest 1.7 billion bucks gem. Honestly the 40m waterfall with the surrounding 3000 trees and 60000 shrubs in the giant greenhouse looks pretty amazing. It’s like walking into a sci-fi movie. Definitely the coolest airport I ever been to

DECEMBER - to be continued..

And finally Happy Holidays and Happy 2020, looking forward to my last trip of 2019.. I promise..