We are Kuishinbo

Had a post graduation lunch at Kuishinbo. Ever since the last EL outing, we’ve been pretty impressed by both the quality and the quantity of food that the buffet and so this lunch was pretty long awaited.

The glorious food. Lots of Japanese food makes us happy.

Happy Stella. The designs on our tops were similar. Stella bought me my polo as a gift. Thanks dear =)). Just for the record, I’m okay with wearing matching clothes, just not THE SAME clothes. I was pretty impressed with the Korean couples when I noticed that they would dress to subtly match one another, maybe like the top of the female’s and the bottoms of the guy’s. Better than people who wear exactly the same shirt same design and same colour.  :

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Us halfway through the meal.

All in all, we had a wonderful time, with great food and company. We headed to watch Hellboy 2 after a bit of shopping, and I felt that it was a great movie, and it struck a pretty nice chord with me. I’ll be recommending this show to my friends, definitely.

Korea (final day)

For those who have been following our trip since day 1, it’s time where the story is about to end. Day 8 marked the final day in Jeju, and Korea for that matter. As we headed down for breakfast, the both of us felt a little heavy hearted, but we knew that all good things must come to and end, and most importantly, we had a great time together in Korea with many nice memories.

Some shots of the view outside the hotel. The palm trees along the roads gives the whole place a resort-like atmosphere.

Stella and Karen at Jeju local airport before takeoff :

Us and the lovely old couple that have been talking to us for the entire trip. Really nice people.

A top-down view of Seoul just before we landed. Didn’t get to see this on the first day as we landed really early in the morning, but it really made me wish I wasn’t leaving but coming here for the first time all over again.

And finally, Incheon International Airport for our departure back to Singapore after a short trip to a local goods store where we made some purchases of seaweed and other local delicacies. Stella commented that this airport resembled the HK one quite a bit.

Final shot of us and Jackie, the tour guide, before we headed through the gates for lunch, some duty free shopping, and our flight back home :

Well, here ends our 8 day grad trip to Korea. Many may think that a grad trip should have certain characteristics such as going with a group, going with university friends, going to some place ‘western’. To me, that doesn’t really matter, and Korea is just as wonderful a place to explore as any other country. Sure, it wasn’t totally comfortable in terms of communication and the people who shove like there is no tomorrow, but that’s all part of taking in another culture and appreciating it for what it is. Given a chance, I would love to go back to Seoul anytime.

Thanks for reading people! I hope that this blog has served its purpose of providing you with as much information of Korea from my humble point of view. Enjoy the holidays!

Korea Day 7 (pic heavy)

When we woke up the next morning, we were greeted by the beautiful skyline of Jeju Island. Formed out of volcanic rock, Jeju is a low lying island with a small population whose main industry is that of tourism. As such, there are no tall buildings around the area, and where ever one looks, one can see the ocean beyond.

Since fishery, and seafood are Jeju’s popular products, our breakfast was abalone porridge. I have to say that it was most delicious, and a great way to start the morning.

More kimchi, even for breakfast. Koreans eat kimchi for every meal, and they also have rice/porridge for every meal :

Us outside the breakfast place. As expected, it was pretty cool that morning, and even with the jacket and the beanie, it still felt pretty chilly.

Managed to sneak a picture with the pony before its owner came back. Apparently they charge for pictures with the horses, but we sneaked one in when they weren’t looking.

The beautiful view of the sea. In Jeju, it’s probably better to take a look at the pictures than read what I say. I probably won’t do the place much justice with my ramblings :

The dragon head (Yongduam) rock, which is a rock outcropping that is supposed to look like a dragon’s head. Probably great for people who like rock formations, but it wasn’t particularly interesting to me.

While the rest of the tour group were busy taking pictures, we sneaked off to a nearby convenience store and stocked up for goodies for the rest of the day. Bought some pretzels and a packet of Capri-Sun. I got this as I wanted Stella to try something that came right out of my childhood. I remember those days where I saw the Capri-sun advertisements in my comics, and would look forward to trying the beverage. Of course, I was thrilled that I managed to let the girlfriend have a taste of it.

Next stop – the filming site for The Legend, which happens to be showing on TV right now. While just another tourist trap, this place was considerably nicer than the Daejanggeum one, with inns set up and various interesting props.

When we entered this store, the salesgirl took one look at Stella and commented how beautiful she was, and started chatting to us. Apparently, she had been to Singapore some time back, and she liked the place quite a bit too. As we were the first customers, we even got some free keychains from her. A really nice lady.

Here’s Stella with a locally made hat, suggestion of the nice lady at the store. I thought that it was beautiful :

The view from the bus. We were heading towards our submarine ride :

When we got there, we saw this lady selling freshly caught shellfish sashimi by the roadside. Oysters, Uni, and abalone galore!
We proceeded to take a ferry ride over to a floating platform that would commence our submarine ride.
As it was raining slightly, no one wanted to be on the deck of the boat. Taking this opportunity, we decided to head up for some pictures, and boy were we rewarded with a great view with a clean and cool breeze. The guide, who was with us, helped us take some pictures.

This rock formation was supposed to resemble a sleeping bull. I still cannot visualise the animal.
This was the point where the ferry ride stopped and we got onboard the little yellow submarine and began our descent.
Some fish found in the mid depths :

Us with lots of fish. Well the fish weren’t really all that interested in us. What happens is that a diver who exits the submarine from the side would circle the submarine and feed the fish while doing so. The fish would therefore swarm around the windows for us to take pictures.

In the depths of the ocean- some corals.I managed to exit the submarine first so that I could capture a shot of Stella coming up via the ladder. Glad I managed to take the shot.

Even before we embarked on the trip, we had decided that we would have to try the sashimi in Jeju, and we were glad that we got a chance to do so. At 10000 won, this plate of abalone and sea urchin sashimi was a steal. The sight of the old lady taking out her carving knife and removing the meat from the shells with absolute precision was really impressive, and it really enhanced the whole atmosphere of eating raw seafood by the sea.

After the fresh seafood adventure, we headed to climb a mountain. I couldn’t remember what the name of the mountain was, but it was really nice. One other thing that was really nice was eating ice cream in the cold. Yes, it was delicious.
Some young horses. One of them was sleeping while the other was heading of to its mom for milk. They use the older horses for horse ride trips around the mountain plains.

View from the top. Wish we had this kind of space over here :


Stella trying to do an SMU :

Here’s a little resort like bar at the bottom of the rock outcropping. Looks like it offers speedboat rides and a place to rest for those who manage to climb down to the bottom of the mountain.

These stone figures are pagan fertility gods. During the war, many of the men in Jeju perished in battle, and the locals prayed to these gods for male children to continue their family lines and sustain their population. Apparently the female would rub the nose of the statue and pray for a male kid.

Lunch : stewed black pork. This was great! Among all the kinds of pork that we had eaten over the past 6 days, the black pork tasted so much better, and even Stella liked it. We later found out that these pigs used to be kept in their toilets and were bred by eating human waste, but thankfully they don’t do that anymore. Scary shit.

Traditional native huts. The locals would use wooden sticks to signify whether or not they were home, due to the lack of a door in their home structures. One stick meant that they were far away from home, two meant that they would be home soon and were nearby, and three meant that they were in. Interesting and useful signifitory system.
This is us at Jusangjeolli – a place with strange hexagon like rock formations caused by the hardened larva. This was where it got really really cold and we were freezing our asses off. This point may be said to be the end point of Korean land, and the vast ocean behind us the great Pacific.

Next up – the Teddy Bear Museum. An interesting place showcasing teddy bears in different dioramas, shapes and sizes.

As Jeju boasts of many kinds of nice plants and vegetation, there are also a lot of parks that are built to take advantage of this aspect of nature. We headed to one that was dinosaur themed. Consider it something like a science centre exhibition, but with really huge figures of dinosaurs in the open. Something quite different.

Just for scale, consider the height of the dinosaur with the surrounding buildings. You could see it from far far away.

I don’t know what this is, but it really looks like giant penises. haha.

Found a wild rabbit!




Dinner was pork with various kinds of seafood. There was sardine, and another kind of fish that tasted delicious. Too bad we could only have one per table as it was expensive.

This basically marked the end of a very long day in Jeju. We headed back to the hotel pretty early, and as I was craving peanuts, we headed out to the nearby convenience store to get some drinks and snacks. After that, we headed to the hotel’s casino for a look, but it was so empty and the basic bets were so huge so we left to the comfort of our hotel room. Took a bath, and lazed on our bed watching Grey’s Anatomy on my PSP while munching on our snacks. A very nice end to the night.

Korea Day 6

The following morning, we bid goodbye to Lotte World Hotel, probably the best hotel that we’ve ever been in. Packed our luggages, and prepared to head off to Jeju at night.

Our first stop was the ginseng factory. While many of us are familiar with the American Ginseng, the Korean Ginseng is grown in the fields of Korean farms, and is managed by the government itself. It is said that ginseng only grows on the most fertile of fields, and places where ginseng is found rarely have other kinds of plants around them, as they suck the nutrients from the soil.

I wasn’t allowed to take pics within the premises, but then again, who cares if I don’t get caught right?

A budding ginseng plant.

Next, we headed to a castle to take a look. Here’s us trying to imitate the poor guy standing guard outside the gates.

The palace doors are certainly majestic, even from the sheer scale of it. You just feel really small and tiny within its premises.

The courtyard

Another section of the palace. Apparently a place for the emperor to hold his meetings. The stone tablets along the pathway to the place are engraved with names and titles of nobles that are allowed to attend the courts of the emperor during such proceedings.

Some guardians on the rooftops. A taoist/Buddhist architectural influence. Each figure was supposed to represent one of the zodiac animals, placed there to protect the building from evil spirits.
The king’s resting/meditation chamber. Due to the various wars that have left many castles and monuments burnt to the ground, this one is surrounded by a moat – not really as a defensive feature during battles per se, but more for its feng shui function of protection from the fire element. Being here really gives one a sense of serenity.

Us against palace walls :
At one of the courts :

Large palace grounds. Some people just have too much space to spare. Notice the contrast in the modern buildings in the skyline :

Us and symmetrical columns :
School kids on excursion :
Still on the ‘animal pictures’ craze, we took a random bird perched upon a tree :
And we had fun taking random pics with the phone booths :

Lunch was pork bone soup. I didn’t really enjoy it, as it was the 5th day eating pork, but it was pretty decent nonetheless. I didn’t eat so much for this meal. Basically, pork bone is thrown into broth and cooked till its flavour enters the soup. Think about something similar to our mutton soup and you probably get the idea :

And then it was more shopping in the afternoon. This time, it was at Shincheon Fashion Street. This place is located opposite a all girls university, so it caters mainly to the female population. As the main clientèle are usually students, the prices in this street are slightly lower than other street markets. I found a really nice pair of jeans from Evisu, but decided not to buy it as it was a little baggy and I wanted to lose some weight. I’m kicking myself for the decision right now as I found it that it’s almost 150 dollars more expensive in Singapore.

Next was the Amethyst Factory, which wasn’t much to talk about as things were expensive and not exactly very pretty either.

Dinner – ginseng chicken stuffed with glutinous rice. Really nice and light. I loved it, and kept pouring in the ginseng wine that they provided with the meal. Great stuff.

… and we’re off to Jeju Island! Here’s the view of the sunset from the plane window. Flight took us about an hour so Stella and I just snoozed the whole journey.

Probably the only picture I managed to take that night as it was pretty cold and it was raining when we got there. I thought that it was a cool pic nonetheless. Headed to our hotel and had an early night while the rain pattered softly outside our window.

Korea Day 5

The next day, when we woke up, we didn’t have breakfast at Lotte World. I guess that the agency probably couldn’t afford us having breakfast in that place. Due to that, we set off a little earlier to another place for breakfast and crossed one of the great bridges leading from one side of Seoul to another.

And this, was our breakfast destination – a parked yacht that now houses a restaurant by the river side. While the food wasn’t particularly fantastic, it was something different for a change, and together with the nice sea view, it was a nice breakfast all in all.

View from one of the windows. I think they have little ‘duck tours’ around the river for those who are willing to pay for it :

Us along the walkway to the yacht :

Although I mentioned before that there is nothing really much to see in terms of scenery, this was a rare shot of a field full of flowers.

Next destination was the Daejanggeum Theme Park. This was basically the set at which the popular Korean drama Da Chang Jing was filmed. Apparently it was going to be torn down but some clever people decided that it would be a valuable cash cow and decided to leave it there. Tsk. Now it has daily performances and is open for tourists to take pictures with the settings.

Here’s Stella trying to cook like Chang Jing :

For sneaking into the Imperial Kitchen, Stella and myself were due to be executed…

But we found a magic frog which helped us escape from the clutches of death…

…by pretending to be chickens and squawking the heck out of there.Here’s a semi top-down view of the premises. Some of the tiled roofs are actually made of styrofoam. I couldn’t even tell when I was standing right beside it.

And here’s a random shot I took just as we were leaving the premises. The expression on the guy’s face just doesn’t help the whole composition of the image. Haha.

Lunch time! Here’s Kimchi Hotpot with Korean vermicelli. This is what they do with kimchi that has over fermented and gotten a bit too sour for direct consumption. They throw it into soup with other vegetables and leftover meats and cook a hotpot out of it. This was also eaten by the US soldiers that were stationed in Korea for a while. The hotdogs that were placed into the soup shows a more ‘Western’ influence to the dish.

Another kimchi shot. I was getting a kick out of taking the different kinds of kimchi that we found all over Korea.
This is after we added in the kimchi – the soup immediately turns a bright orange. Looks daunting, but it’s actually quite nice.

After lunch, we made a stopover at the presidential office . We weren’t allowed to take direct pictures of the building itself , although we could take the surrounding parks and mountains. This location has been said to be the most auspicious location in Korea. It marks the original location of the imperial palace, and boasts of the best feng shui in all Korea, being surrounded by 3 mountains that ‘protect’ it from evil.

The statue behind shows a phoenix – the symbol of the Korean emperor.

I also noticed that there were various kinds of police in the area. There were those in suits – something like the secret service, guards on roller blades – in charge of general behaviour, and guards in uniform. Talk about overwhelming security man.

Some of the guards in the vicinity :

Guards dressed as olden-day constables :

Next door to the ‘istana’ was our next destination – The Nanta Show. To keep it short, this was Stomp with a Korean twist to it. I have to say that this was surprisingly good, and I was really impressed. All the drumming and music making with kitchen utensils were great, and the various antics by the actors were hilarious.

After the wonderful show, we headed down to Insadong for some shopping. Insadong is basically the equivalent of ‘Little Korea’. Most of the shops sell traditional Korean gifts and antiques, and even some of the restaurants are decorated in a way that looks traditionally Korean.

Us in Insadong :

Bustling with people:

A cafe decorated to resemble a traditional eatery/innhouse :

This was Starbucks :


Stella with the various kinds of rice products that may be found in Korea:

After purchasing our little gifts, we headed for dinner. Bimbimbap! As mentioned in Day 1, I was already looking forward to eating this, as the one that I ate on Asiana was wonderful. I have to say that this was pretty good too, and the stone pot that was used to contain the rice and keep it warm really adds a nice touch to the meal.

As the tour ended early that night, we decided to make another trip to Dongdaemun. We thus headed to the train station to take a train down to Dongdaemun shopping district. I have to say that in general, taking the Korean subway isn’t difficult, as most stations are in English, and there are English voiceovers to let you know what station it is when the train arrives. What is confounding however, is the 8 lines that criscross all over Seoul. We made the mistake of going down the wrong side of one of the lines and had to buy another ticket to get on the correct train. Minor gripe aside, it was a fairly pleasant trip down to the shopping distict.

Here begins the shopping frenzy. We shopped for almost 3 whole hours, and in the midst of squeezing among the people there, we couldn’t stop to take any pictures. However, we came back with bags of stuff, and we had to spend the rest of the night packing our bags and thinking of ways to stuff our things into our luggages. By the time we had finished, it was almost 2am.

Stella says goodnight!

Korea Day 4

Alright, so it was already day 4, and we woke up and headed down for breakfast after our baths. As the restaurant was mostly full, we were ushered into a back area which looked almost like a classical Victorian setting. Doesn’t help that there was some march music playing in the background. I have to say that while the setting was beautiful, it didn’t really fit the idea of a restaurant.

Us with the nice Victorian wallpaper after breakfast :

Our main trip for today is Everland Theme Park. Basically, this place is a theme park built into a mountain. Originally a zoo, it was located in a location that wasn’t easy to get to from the other parts of Korea, so it eventually went bankrupt. Samsung stepped in, and to cut the long story short, decided to incorporate rides and theme park ideas into the existing zoo. Today, it is one of the world’s most famous theme parks.

It was freezing while we waited for the guide to get our tickets.

Here, you can see some parts of the themepark stretching into the horizon. It is that huge. And the huge throng of people – it happened to be Sunday.

Lots of kids on school excursions. What did you expect? A theme park probably won’t be one without a couple of kids here and there.

Taking a picture with a make shift background. Pretty nice.

Next, we headed to the chairlift that would take us to the bottom of the mountain so that we may begin our journey. Here’s a picture of some of the tour group – the oldies gang. Take note of the old guy in the beanie. He looked funky.

Stella on the chairlift:

Me on the chairlift :
View from up here. The little wooden structure in the background is a rollercoaster. One of the newest rides in Everland. It boasts a 77 degree drop. That’s much worse than the Jurassic Park one in Universal Studios that I took many years back.

Our first stop was the Safari World. Apparently, Everland had managed to get a lion and a tiger to mate, and their offspring called a ‘liger’ It has the general face shape of a lion, yet striped paws and tail. Since it was the ‘must see’ of this place, we decided to queue for the safari ride, despite the horrendous queue stretching to the back of the building. Apparently, once inside, there’s another queue. Urgh.
Bought some snacks before we started queueing. Stella with her churros :

Me and my phallic thing :

How encouraging indeed. haha.
And here’s the inner queue that I mentioned earlier :

After finally boarding the safari bus, we were taken through the compounds. Stella sure was excited as she hasn’t been on a safari ride before, and I was really glad that this trip gave us the chance to experience that.

A pride of lions :

Here’s the liger. Note the slight stripes on its paws and its face that resembles a lion.

Huge black bears. The driver would feed them in exchange for some form of performance. Here, I think the bear was supposed to sit down and clap or something.

Stella and the safari bus

Me and the safari bus :We headed next to the Safari Ranch area where we got to see various strange and unique animals.

Here’s one little fox that reminded me of diesel :

A baby leopard that was kept in a crib. They have this thing where they dress up a small little room like a baby’s toy room and rear a baby anima l in it. Frankly the cub looked a little cramped up within that small little space.

Guinea pigs. This one goes out to Panty. This pic is for you from Stella and Banana!

Coatls

Seals. There’s something hauntingly attractive about the way constantly repeat their swim routines and pop out their heads at the exact same spot. Thankfully, I managed to get a good shot of them.

A polar bear that kinda gave me a funny look when I tried to snap a picture.

Here’s Stella trying to eat some Polar Bear Fur. See how much fun she is having by ripping out chunks of bear fur a little bit at a time and munching on them? It’s actually quite sweet and fluffy.

A long haired dachshund. Really tame and cute.
The golden monkey. Apparently this is the main mascot for Everland

Next up, we decided to head towards the main parade that happens only twice a day. Due to that, throngs of people gather by the lanes just to watch the parade come by. I tried to take a shot behind me to show how many people there were. It was pretty insane.

Shots of the parade passing by :

Next, we headed for lunch. We headed towards the flower garden area and ended up in a ‘Little Amsterdam’. It was a pretty interesting place dressed up with a mainly European feel to it. Many shops were selling beer on tap and various foods like sausages and meats.

Our lunch – A chicken leg and sausage with cold beer. We didn’t have much food as we had been snacking so much up till this point. It was blazing hot during the day and the cold beer really helped refresh us.

Love the backdrop. Really makes one feel that one is in some city in Europe.
After lunch, it was time to head to the flower garden. In a bid to get more pictures of ourselves taken, we decided to approach strangers to help us take our pictures. Here’s one right outside the garden :

One of many roses in the area :

A really nice shot of us. We approached this young lady to take our pictures with us, and we only realised later that she might have been deaf. When Stella first called out to her from behind, she didn’t turn around and we thought that she was being rude or something.

children playing in the fountains :
We later went for a ride in the Rotating Room, a pretty lame ride which we waited over an hour for, but after that, we had a bit of time left, so we went back to the animals to take a final few pictures.

Nilly and the billy :

Me and the sheep :
Me and me2. heh heh.
We quickly realized how late we were and how long it would take us to get back to the bus, and we started walking. Very quickly. And we took a wrong turn. And we desperately asked around for directions to the exit. Thankfully, after a while, we managed to get back to the bus, panting and freezing from the cold.

Hungry and tired, we next proceeded for dinner, which was made of bbq pork (again) and the usual of placing it on a lettuce leaf with other condiments before munching down on it. I thought that this one was quite nice though, and ate quite a bit. Stella had to remind me about eating unhealthily.

After dinner, we proceeded to our final stop – Dongdaemun shopping district. Originally a wholesaler’s market, this place has grown in reputation to find cheaper clothes with tons of variety. What you see in the picture is Doota shopping centre, which approximately spans the space and size of Takashimaya, and it’s only one out of many such wholesaler’s markets in the area. As we only had about 2 hours, we rushed through Doota, but failed to find anything much. I bought a chain for myself, and Stella bought one or two tops. Since we would be staying at LotteWorld hotel, we decided that we would come back the following night and shop into the night.

And talking about hotels, man, Lotteworld really lives up to its name as a 6 star hotel. They had toilet bowl warmers, a ps3 just for us to play, a really nicely done up room with cute sheet covers depicting their theme park mascots for the children, and many amenities within the hotel itself. I think this must have been the best hotel that I have ever been to.

As usual, after admiring our beautiful hotel room, the both of us could not stand ending the night without some exploring, and we decided to head down to take a look at some of the food places located within the hotel. We settled on this microbrewery for beer and pizza. It was really nice to get to spend some quiet time together at the end of the day, and despite the horrible band that was on, we had a great time just chatting and people watching.

Thus ends our day 4 in Seoul.

Korea Day 3

The morning call was supposed to be at 730am, but Stella and I woke up to hit the gym at around 630. I have to say that the gym really ’spoilt market’ as it was the most high tech-ed gym i’ve seen to date. With treadmills having their own television consoles attached to them, you really can’t go wrong from there.

View from the window in the morning. Congested skyline :

All ready for breakfast :

Again, the breakfast was another ’spoil market’ affair. After the Taiwan trip, I was half expecting rice with kimchi or something along those lines, but having a full American breakfast spread certainly did the job for me. I even ignored the annoying Sesame Street that was playing on the big screen for the kids.

More funny pics in front of the camera before we took our luggages and left for Incheon
Toilet break – eating ice cream in the cold is really great

Another favourite Korean snack is the grilled cuttlefish, but this one is warm and soft. It’s delicious. Had it for the first time here, and another time at Everland on day 4. I really like it.

Lunch time : Toufu hotpot. Simple and healthy, except for the unlimited refills of pork.

This picture looks nice, but in reality we were in a lot of pain sitting on the floor and eating from the table in that position. Probably due to the fact that we weren’t socialised from young to eat that way. And you don’t have lowered platforms like the Japanese do for their dining tables.

Next stop- Strawberry farm. We were told that the season for the sweetest strawberries is already over, but well, I’m not a strawberry fan but I found the strawberries at the farm really sweet. We got to handpick 5, and were given another full box, which we finished in the hotel at night as it was too early to bring them back to Singapore.

Next – Traditional Hanbok trying out.
Damnit, I look hilarious – the King and I

Stella and Maybellene


Both of us in some made up setting. Kimchi pots. Well I think they were kimchi pots at least.




Here’s the student photographer, Mr. Hong, who followed us throughout our stay in the South. At the end of the trip, he would sell us his photographs as a form of pocket money to fund his own expenses. He was a really helpful guy, and he even served us food and assisted the guide in refilling our dishes throughout the tour – things that he needn’t had done. A really nice guy, but unfortunately he could only speak minimal English. It was pretty difficult communicating with him so Stella and I missed the chance of getting to know him better.

And here’s the guide, Jackie. Korean by nationality, but a third generation Chinese. His insights and commentaries throughout the tour was most invaluable, and he’s a pretty funky guy to boot.

Us making kimchi. We were at a factory which manufactures ‘branded’ kimchi. Of course, our amateur efforts would not be added into their stockpile, but would be eventually donated to the temples and orphanages to feed the needy.

Jackie making Korean rice/kimchi pancakes :

Lots of snacks :
After the kimchi making, we proceeded to our hotel, which coincidentally was also a spa resort. There, we tried out the Korean hot baths, which are another popular recreational activity for men and women alike. These traditional baths are segregated by gender, as it required one to be totally nude before entering the various baths. Stella and I opted to try out the traditional baths. I mean, since we were already in Korea, why not immerse oneself into the culture? needless to say, it was a good experience. Got kinda told off by someone when i tried wiping myself with a towel in the hot bath. Apparently you’re not supposed to try to dislodge any dirt into the pool. That should be done with the showers that are provided just beside the baths. Lesson learnt.

After dinner, it was more self activity again. Stella and I headed out on our own to a shopping district just outside the hotel. Well, technically, it wasn’t really just outside- we had to walk in the freezing cold through a dark park and eerie carpark before reaching our hotel. The roads were relatively safe at night though. Anyway, this was our first shopping trip in Korea, and it was interesting, although we found out that things aren’t exactly cheap here. Ended up buying nothing for the night.

I think we probably look more dangerous than any of the Koreans on the streets. We looked like gangbangers.

After the shops closed, we returned back to the hotel, took a bath, and lazed in bed watching some dance competition on TV while munching on sausages and strawberries till late in the night. A nice end to the third day =)

Korea Day 1-2 (warning : pic heavy post)

So Stella and my journey to Korea begins here – at around 8pm in Changi Airport’s terminal one. We’ve just finished our exams the day before and after a flurry of packing and stuffing in last minute stuff, we were off to the airport.

Us on the plane to Incheon International airport:

Damn the airplane food was good. We had the ‘korean traditional’ dish which turned out to be bibimbap. Rice with vegetables and kimchi, mixed together with a traditional pepper hot sauce and sesame oil. Great stuff, and does the job of filling my hunger nicely, although it kinda gave Stella the gastric. Must have been the spicy pepper sauce that they provided.

Once we’ve touched down and collected our luggage, it was breakfast time, and we had some time to ourselves. We promptly headed to a croissant place for some simple pastries to start the day.

It’s interesting that they have this high tech-ed thingy which buzzes when your order is ready. Sure beats having the stupid flag thing that we have over here. Eh…something wrong with teh engrish though. you can deserve it :

So here begins the real journey – a 3-4 hour drive to Gyeongju. What you are going to read from henceforth is my own impressions of South Korea, and is by no means representative of what the South is really like.

Incheon has vast spaces of land covered by marshes, rivers and rice fields.

At the same time, South Korea can be said to be a pure capitalist country. It almost seems like everything there were built and owned by large corporations like Hyundai and Samsung for example, and these included the apartments. As you can see from the picture, even the blocks have company logos emblazoned on them. As the demand for housing is really high (the guide explained that the size of Incheon was approximately that of Singapore, but the population size almost 2 times), housing is really expensive – the kind of houses one sees below can fetch up to 1million sgd.

Us on the bus:

Had a toilet stop on the way and we got to do a bit of snack shopping while stretching our legs a little. Taking a 4 hour busride after a 7 hr plane ride isn’t funny at all.


Korean food courts. I don’t know what they were selling.

Korean health drinks. Another interesting observation – they are really into the whole health thing : it’s reflected from their diet, to the kinds of products that are sold in the supermarkets. They even have ginseng tonics and vitamin infused products. It’s almost obsessive.

But man, that ginseng tonic was GOOD. Perked us right up immediately and quenches your thirst at the same time. This would spin off our little quest to look for the tonics again later on in the tour.
Lunch time! Lots and lots of kimchi. Not only the usual cabbage ones that you get here in Singapore, but other things from beans to chillies and even fish. I bet everything can be preserved in some way or another. This was going to be another staple at every dish we were going to have throughout Korea. However each restaurant has its own kind of house kimchi, and some better than others even.

Stella eating from the hotpot. Pretty delicious.

First destination : Cheomseongdae. This is the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia. It was used to document the stars and is one of the structures left standing despite centuries of war which has left the country with almost all its cultural structures destroyed or stolen by its captors.
A roadside store
tombs of kings and royals. No one knows whose burial mounds those belong to, and there hasn’t been any attempts to excavate them as of yet.

Next stop : Bulguksa Temple

The four guardian deities guarding the temple from evil spirits.

Here’s a view of 1500 year old stairs which survived the fires when the Japanese razed the temple. It’s now regarded as a world cultural asset by UNESCO. The rest of the temple were rebuilt about 150 years back, so its relatively newer than the stone steps.

Two pagodas within the temple premises – the Dabotap and the Three Storied Stone Pagoda :


A broken qilin. One of four stone statues that was left behind by the Japanese when they tried taking them out of the temple and it broke. The other three are now missing (probably somewhere in Japan).

Stella amongst the vast space of the temple grounds :

Bomun lake – pretty nice with a man made water wheel.


The Wind Tunnel – a defunct train tunnel that is now used for the storage and manufacturing of persimmon wine as it maintains a constant temperature of 15 degrees all year round.


I think we had a bit too much wine – felt a bit woozy after that, but it was a good feeling nonetheless. Here’s Stella with her first glass. I found the wine a bit too sour for my liking though, so I decided to stop after the second glass.

More street stalls – I love taking pictures of street stalls as they give me some idea of the kind of lifestyle that the locals have. They seem to be full of meaning of the culture there.

Dinner – Korean BBQ. A popular food choice for families and businessmen alike. It’s somewhat similar to the BBQs that we have over here, except that you take the meat and place it on a lettuce leaf, add some sauce and kimchi, fold it, and munch on it. Even better if you have it with some beer.

After dinner, it was finally back to the hotel for the group. Although we were dead tired, we just felt that we had to have some night time activities, so we headed out to the nearby mart, bought some candy and other eatables for the bus rides, and then headed to the hotel bar for a drink. It seems like Koreans don’t like to use ice. I don’t remember being served ice throughout my time there. Well all the better, because that means that I get more booze for my buck :

And that’s all for the first day. Phew! back to the room for a bath and then we just collapsed into bed.