2012 in a Nutshell

Happy New Year 2013 to everyone !!! I wish you all a great year ahead :)

2012 was quite a whirlwind year for me. If you have read my birthday post or follow my twitter you probably knew that I had been in so much stress because my Dad had to be hospitalised couple times for being sick. Even now as I'm typing this post, we've been in Singapore for one week for daily hospital visit. On December 2, 2012 my father had a stroke from brain hemorrhage (bleeding). We had to rush him to the hospital because he couldn't move his body and was about to lose consciousness. It was just 3 weeks away from our Christmas holiday to Sapporo, Japan. We had to cancel the trip and lost all the money we've paid :(

But I believe that life is about a balance of good and bad times. I had some rough days in tears while my Dad in the hospital. In the other hand I also have some happy days when I feel so blessed for being able to travel some countries that I had been dreaming to visit for a long time.
Without further ado, here's my 2012 travel photography review:


Netherlands - March
Travelled to Amsterdam to help my sister packing all her stuff and back to Indonesia for good. It was during spring so we managed to visit the most beautiful spring garden in the world, Keukenhof.

Amsterdam

Belgium - March
I joined a one day tour to Antwerp and Brussels from Amsterdam. A beautiful day when I stuffed my stomach full with Belgian waffle, chocolate, fries and escargot. Unfortunately the day ended with a traumatising groping incident.

Antwerp

Rome - March
I lost my checked in suitcase during a short 2 hours flight from Amsterdam to Rome by KLM. After 4 days and 100 phone calls later, they finally found my suitcase and sent it to my hotel.....only to find my suitcase lock has broken and lots of my stuff have gone forever (YES! including my precious 5 boxes Belgian dark chocolate!)

Colosseum

Vatican - March 
I couldn't express my feeling when I finally walked through this Holy city.  I had been dreaming to visit St. Peter's Basilica since ages ago. Specially after watching Angels & Demons the movie. I'm so intrigued by the mysteries that's hidden there. I felt so lucky to be able to have a private mass in the basement of St. Peter's basilica.

St. Peter's Square

Dubai - March
A short 3 days visit to Dubai before flied back home from Rome. I had great time exploring this fascinating city, specially during the desert safari.

Atlantis the Palm hotel

Alaska - June
I had a freezing summer holiday by joining a 8 days Alaskan cruise. Alaska has the most stunning nature life that I've ever seen. Oh ! and dog sledding was so much fun too !

Tracy Arm Fjord

Canada - July
A road trip along British Columbia will never bore me. The scenery was just so breathtaking that it looks surreal sometimes.

Peyto lake

Singapore - November & December
Flied to Singapore in November and December to take my father to the hospital. As much as I love the food, I feel like I easily get bored when I stay here for more than 1 week. I don't know, maybe because I visit Singapore mostly for medical reason. It could be a different story if I were having holiday here.

Garden by the Bay

So...that's roughly my highlights of 2012.
How about yours ?

Beijing: The Frozen Summer Palace

Beijing, December 2011

Summer Palace is the largest and most well-preserved royal park in China, situated 15 kilometres from central Beijing. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres, three quarters of which is water. Summer Palace was used as a summer residence by China's imperial family, as the retreat from main imperial palace, the Forbidden City. My first time visiting Summer Palace was about 20 years ago when I was a kid. All I can remember, it was spring and colourful flowers were blooming everywhere.

Last year I visited during winter, it was freezing and snowing quite hard. Thus everything looked totally different. With those thick snow covering almost everything and most part of Kunming lake was already frozen. The contrast of red buildings against the white snow and misty lake, somehow looked mysteriously beautiful. It felt like I was wandering inside a snow globe.

the entrance

corridor

the Heralding Spring Pavilion

it's snowing.....love it !

I spent couple of hours wandering around the Summer Palace. And since the area is enormous, I only managed to explore some parts of it. Actually I'd love to spend more time to admire the scenery. But the weather became too cold to handle that I could barely feel my feet and body.Winter in China can be harsh sometime. Note to self: don't forget to bring  a blanket from the hotel to keep my body warm :p

frozen Kunming lake

The Tower of Literary Prosperity

Hall of Benevolence & Longevity

Before exiting the palace, I passed by the Hall of Benevolence & Longevity. There's some animal bronze statues there. One of most famous statue was Qilin, an auspicious legendary animal that has the power to punish evil and repel the wicked. It's a symbol of good omens, protection, prosperity, success, and longevity by the Chinese. Depictions of the Qilin show a creature with the head of a dragon, the antlers of a deer, the skin and scales of a fish, hooves of an ox and tail of a lion. It's sometimes called the Chinese unicorn.

Qilin

For dinner, we went to a Mongolian restaurant which famous for the roast lamb menu. I'd say that this is one unique restaurant which is a large area with at least 30 white round tents or they call it Mongolian yurts. We were led to one of the yurts, passing by the open kitchen that equipped with modern rotating spit for roasting the lamb. We entered one of the yurt with interesting interior in red and gold colour. We were served 7 kind of menu that mostly were lamb as basic ingredients. There was also a group performance of singer and dancers to keep us entertained during dinner.

Mongolian Yurts

the interior inside the yurt

lamb BBQ Mongolian style

the grilling process in the kitchen

I've uploaded a video of the lamb roasting process. It's an amateur video from my pocket camera, so please don't expect something fancy. I just want to show you the cooking process in the restaurant :)

Anyway, I'd like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas! May joy and happiness snow on you ! HO HO HO HO