The recent trip that I have made to Ipoh in Malaysia makes me recognize how blogging is making an improvement to our lifestyle now.

Why do I said that?

My colleagues and I were out on a business trip this week to Ipoh and we were staying for about 10 days.  As my previous trips to Ipoh lasted only about 3 - 4 days, I never had any challenges thinking of a nice restaurant to eat because there are about 5 - 6 restaurants that I know in Ipoh that serves good food.

However, after being here for 7 days, we were running out of places to go for dinner and decided that I should search on the net to see if there are any good recommendations for good food in Ipoh.  I chanced upon a website or blog at www.ipohchai.com where there were a lot of recommendations about good food in Ipoh.

Now imagine, had it not been for the blog, I would have really lost my way.  I am really glad that there are so many people out there right now that shares good information on their blogs.

What about you?  Do you have any good blogs to share?

My family and I were in our brother’s house for dinner on last Sunday and as usual, we had our regular drinking session opening 2 bottles of new age Australian wine for the 4 to 5 of us that were drinking, which includes my Mum, 2 brothers and sisters in law and myself. We had a bottle of Shiraz where my sister in law bought on her way back from Shanghai and the other from the free wine I always have from Shangri-La.

During our dinner session, we had a discussion to conclude where we are going for vacation during the Singapore holidays season in November and December and my brother and sister in law, who is stationed in Shanghai, may also be joining us on our trip to Japan in November.

As you may know, the cost of living in Japan is pretty expensive and we were all talking about ways and possibilities of how we can utilize the number of days and the budget we have to maximize our stay and enjoyment in Japan.

Isn’t that what most people who are at work or even on shoestring budget think about most of the time when they are planning for vacations?

Like what I mentioned on my previous post, I have really made a conscious decision to become a millionaire so that I do not have to be concerned of saving tens of dollars or getting the useless free gift from a travel fair. I know this may pissed some people off and I don’t mean to but unless one changes the state of mind to become wealthy, we will always be stuck in a poverty consciousness mindset.

We should start changing our mindset to a Prosperity Consciousness mindset and from then on, we can start going to vacations anytime and anywhere without having to worry about the cost.

Would you like to have that too?

I am sure you would because I sure will!

To your dream vacation!

Eugene Goh

I was with my colleagues in China in end June and we were near the North Korea border during one of the trip. In my previous post, I had written that I had my first walk in Hunchun and Hunchun is the city that is nearest to North Korea in China.

On the Sunday when were about to leave Hunchun for Yanji to catch a flight to Changchun, we stopped by a place called the broken bridge and that is the closest where I got to North Korea. We could hear the radio playing Korean songs and with Korean commentary and surprisingly there was no border police on both ends but we did not dare to go near as we were fearful of getting shot.

I took a picture of North Korea from the Chinese border and that is the closest I would want to be near to North Korea because up till this point in time, North Korea is a mystery to me.

Having travlled to Thailand since 12 years ago in 1996, I knew that I had to learned how to speak Thai or at least learned how to order food so that I will not go hungry when I am stuck in a restaurant that doesn’t have an English menu.

All these years I have been lucky and conservative too because I always had my friends with me when we are out for dinner and he will normally place the order with the waitresses in the small restaurants, which we go to regularly.

If I am not having dinner with my friends, I would normally eat in the hotel as I fear of the unknown when I step out of the hotel or would have difficulties ordering food.

Last week when I was in Ayutthaya, my friend had something on and couldn’t join me for dinner and I had to eat alone. I had also decided that I would not eat in the hotel because I know that the small restaurants served nicer and tastier food that the hotel’s coffee garden.

I am glad I had learned the ordering of food in Thai 12 years ago as I managed to order something I had wanted to eat and it really tasted real good.

Well, if learning language is something you liked, then maybe starting with the ordering of food in a foreign language could serve you well? At least you won’t go hungry, hehehe….

I was travelling with my colleagues within China to visit the various customers and my boss suggested that we go for a morning walk the next morning at a place called Hunchun.

Hunchun is located in the north eastern part of China where it is very close to North Korea and Russia. I must say that I am really surprised to see all the developments in Hunchun because previously, it always look very grim to me.

Maybe it is also because of the morning walk that has allowed me to see Hunchun from a different perspective and it also teaches me to look at things from different view.

When we were about to leave Hunchun for another city, we stopped by a place where they called it the “Broken Bridge” and that is the closest a person can get to North Korea. We were walking halfway through the bridge and did not want to cross further for fear of the North Korea soldiers shooting at us.

It was a pleasant experience for this trip to Hunchun.