korea 25may - 01june 2007

HELLO! haha im back from korea! okay actually i flew in on friday night heehee (: so let me give you a longwinded update on the trip! for those of you who dislike details or long posts, please move on to the next post and come back another day. HAHA. oh you can always tag my board or comment of course :)

25/05/07 (friday)
zoomed home from school and finished packing the stuff before showering and going to the airport! waited for a super long time cos we were early then we finally met the tour group and the person who helped us to check in. my tour group had 12 people, with another family of 4, 2 girls (not really la they're working alr but quite young i think) and a married couple who didnt bring their kids along and of course not forgetting my family! yup so we got on the plane and i was super tired so fell asleep after dinner.

26/05/07 (saturday)
reached incheon international airport at 6 plus am in korea (which was 5 plus in singapore).. got on the bus and picked up another 14 people who were actually another tour group but for some reason they combined us, they flew there one day before we did. yup and the 14 people consisted of a family of 9, a family of 3 and a couple! had to get our own breakfast so we went to this bakery and we totally had our first experience of talking to another person who didnt understand you. haha but by the end of the trip we were good at picking out the keywords and making huge actions in hope that they will understand! >< headed to everland theme park where we had this big 5 ticket thing so my tour guide brought us to 4 attractions. it was actually 3 la cos the cable car ride up and down was counted as 2 -.-" then we took this water ride where you basically get pushed along a river, and you get splashed at various points in the ride but it was not too bad cos there was this plastic sheet that covers your body! then we went into this zoo, where the main attraction was the liger (a combination of a lion and tiger)! dont you thinks its super cute like how in the world did they attract each other! hahaha. then we had lunch at the theme park - pork cutlet rice. followed by a bus ride to gimpo airport where we took a domestic flight to jeju island! went to the hotel where we put our luggage and went for dinner. it was supposedly seafood steamboat but we only saw fish! hahaha ohwell.

27/05/07 (sunday)
had abalone porridge for breakfast but the pieces of abalone was super small. but didnt matter la i dont really like abalone. visited long tou yan which is this volcano rock that is blackish and looks like a dragon head! and they have these two generals called tu di gong and they protect the land cos jeju has more women than men! cool fact: the women and men on jeju are called nengbadi and wangbadi respectively! haha cos the women can do a lot of work so they are neng gan (capable)! and the men basically get waited upon so they're like wang (king)! after that we went to climb up this 182 m hill. its a hill right. hahaha should be la. and the view was quite cool! got some chocolates and orange sweets from the shop nearby. lunch was bbq black pork (hahaha the pig was black. and we ate lots of pork over the next week 0.o) visited this traditional folk village, where some scenes of da chang geum (da chang jin) was filmed.. quite funny haha my sis and i took this photo with a paper cutout of the 4 main characters in the show and if you dont look closely it looks almost like we're part of the cutout too! and we went to the TEDDY BEAR MUSEUM :D:D v cute! i wanted a teddy bear cos a girl can never have too many but yeah okay i do have quite a few. and we ate icecream heehee yummy! the bus driver drove the bus on to the magic road after that. its a slope but when you turn off the engine your vehicle rolls uphill instead of downhill, defying gravity. had ginseng chicken for dinner, and there was ginseng wine too! some of the adults were happily downing the wine but none got drunk hahaha. and it was back to the hotel!

28/05/07 (monday)
happy birthday gugu!! :D ahhh i was quite sad the whole day cos i thought of the people who got to go for ccal camp ): but anyway! we took a plane from jeju to daegu in the morning. and visited dongwasha temple which has a 33m buddha statue! lunch was some tofu soup with a special mushroom thats good for health! haha. then we shopped at jung angro street and i bought socks while my sis bought earrings! went to daegu spa valley where the tour group went for a nice soak while this woman from my tour group and i didnt go ): cos of my wound la haha im sure i go in and share whatever's in my wound with them and the koreans. but the woman was really nice! she walked around the area with me then she gave me a honey orange hee. had korean bbq for dinner at the spa place.. then checked into another hotel!

29/05/07 (tuesday)
second day of ccal camp ): had breakfast at the hotel then took a long bus ride to maisan provincial park. the mountain top was shaped like a horse's ear! okay maybe the whole mountain im not sure. then we had mushroom shabushabu for lunch (mushroom steamboat la basically) before taking a tiny bus up the mountain. visited a ginseng farm after that, the amount of research they put into growing ginseng is quite amazing. then it started raining so it was damn funny cos we were all like oooh ahhh and pointing our cameras at the plots of land and when we felt raindrops it was like RUN RUN EVERYONE RUN. hahaha! i bet the farmers thought we were weirdos. went to the traditional wine museum after that. apparently some of the teacups have a limit to the amount of wine you can pour in (okay i know every one does but its different okay!) as in after the cup is half filled anything else you pour it will leak from the bottom. its to remind them to control their drinking or smth. then had dinner at a cool restaurant, bbq again. and went for our night's stay at this ski resort haha they wanted us to see how it was! and it was super cold. the hotel was quite nice but our room was creepy. if i end up talking to you abt the trip i'll probably tell you abt it.. haha but our parents' room was fine la so we slept in their room heehee.

30/05/07 (wednesday)
last day of ccal camp ): had breakfast in the hotel again, we thought that there was only bread cos when we sat down there was just one plate of bread in the middle of the table. then suddenly when i was really happy with the bread, they served a plate of other stuff! like sausages, hashbrown, egg and tomato. hahah. visited sangsoo herb land after that.. the old man in charge of the place is super cute! and he was like.. singapore's nice but korea's nicer! hahahaha -.-" and there was a stone in there, if im not wrong if you touch the front you'll give birth to a boy and touch the back a girl. or maybe the other way round. haha OOPS :$ there were nice plants there! and two cute little bears. hahah. like literally bears! lunchtime! fried niangao, potato, veg, meat and rice! sounds like a lot but it wasnt really. i liked the taste but i felt slightly cheated even though i was just cheating myself la hahaha. cos when they say niangao i had this nice image of the brown sticky one we have during chinese new year! visited nami island after that - the filming site of winter sonata. haha didnt watch the show but the place was nice la. the trees were in super straight rows! and we went to seoul land which is this amusement park for little kids. haha we didnt take any ride la. my parents didnt look entertained. hahaha we took alot of photos though. and we had fried chicken for dinner! bought donuts from dunkindonuts after that. korea has many branches i wish singapore did too! the donut i got was DAMN NICE. went shopping at coex mall after that, but we didnt shop much cos we were quite tired. the stuff there are quite expensive too! stayed at ritz carlton :D super nice haha and its located south of the han jiang (river if im not wrong). yeah and there's like a great difference between the status of people who live on the different ends of it. like jiangnan (the south) is where the highclass people live and jiangbei (the north) is just like normal standards. yeah and our hotel was in the south! :D hahah. it came as part of the tour package la haha.

31/05/07
had breakfast at this chinese restaurant which has been open since the 1800s. we ate mantou, youtiao, vege, tofu and porridge and it came with soya bean milk. in one word, YAY! visited the ginseng monopoly showroom after that. haha monopoly just reminded me of econs but yeah anyway, its called that cos the government controls the ginseng production and sales in the country to ensure quality control! then we went to the place that sold dongchongxiacao (another herb) and i didnt know that it was like, literally worm in winter and plant in summer 0.o then we went to the amethyst factory but i think my tour group was out of that place like super fast. hahah. went for lunch! its the kind where you have to sit on the floor and eat like quite a number of dishes most of which were vege >< there were traditional performances too! but my sis and i couldnt watch while eating cos firstly we were facing the other side of the room and secondly we were blocked by a pillar -.-" saw abit of it after lunch la hahah. then the 12 of us got onto a diff bus from the 14 people, they were heading to the airport and back home.. went shopping at dongdaemun market, ended up drinking coffee and eating cake on the 8th floor of doota building! hahaha with another family :D walked abit around that building and the small stalls around.. then went to kyongbok palace which if im not wrong is the filming site of da chang geum too! it has over 600 years of history and it was quite nice la (: had a very historical feel. shopped at myeongdong after that, bought earrings again! there was lots of food around haha but we werent hungry! oh in the end we ate this cuttlefish thing. and there was this guy standing in the middle of the street offering free hugs! haha quite amusing. dinner was ban fan (mixed rice) and steamboat soup.. the photographer helped me to mix the rice :D:D after that he helped other people also but that was because they didnt know how to okay! hahaha i've no idea why he offered to help me but my sis and i concluded its probably cos i looked like i wouldnt know how to ): hahah but its okay PHOTOGRAPHER ROCKS! went back to the hotel before going out again to walk around the place with my family. my sis and i could find our way despite not understanding the signs okay! bought biscuits heh! and on our way back to the hotel, we saw this cool caucasian man just outside the hotel! haha he gave way to us, cos the path was really narrow. wanted to let him walk first but he was being really gentlemanly! (:

01/06/07 (friday)
last day of our korea tour ): for the first time in the whole trip i felt sad abt leaving korea and returning home. we had buffet breakfast someplace in seoul. then went to make kimchi! haha which we didnt bring home >< i think they threw it away hahaha! and we got to try on the traditional costume! i thought it'd be more elaborate or smth but i guess they made it in such a way that the tourists can just try v quickly and take it off even faster after that. hahah there was just like velcro here and there and the people just stuck the costume on. then we went to shop at sinchon [woman/girl] street (its called xinchunnvrenjie in chinese you see). yeah apparently the uni students shop there alot.. the clothes were super nice but my sis and i concluded they're too skinny for us. haha! and there was this university located nearby! went back on the bus after that and we were all quite amused cos my tour guide went to get a new hairstyle. hahaha. exchanged email addresses (: then on the bus ride to the place where we had lunch we bought photos from our dearest photographer (: i think he was really happy cos everyone bought all! had korean bbq for lunch then shopped at the store in the same building. we bought sweet, pillows, seaweed and sashes! haha. went to the airport and took a group photo with our tour guide and photographer yay! and our moisturiser got confiscated at the customs omg. ask me abt it i'll tell you more. safer not to put here haha! then it was home sweet home. my left knee was cramping at the end of the flight. but im glad we got home safely :D

conclusion: KOREA 2007 ROCKS :D i wanna go back!