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SUNGSAN SUNRISE PEAK
A peak made by a few volcano. It was so high and we were so tired climbing on and on lah! And this is also one of the 7 wonders of nature of the world!
Okay fun fact time! When I was in the States just last year, my sister and I were randomly stumbled upon a channel on TV that tells you all about Korean divers. It was truly an eye opener because I didn't know anything about it before and the truth if truly... shocking?
On Jeju Island, you can always see women selling seafood like the ones in the above photo. Those seafood are always super fresh because it's personally taken from the bottom of the ocean by the divers who are only woman!
Let me just say that Jeju Island has crazy weather changes. It can be good and sunny in the morning but it can rain like mad in the afternoon or even snow suddenly (heard from tour leader lol). Normally, it's already cold and I won't even think of how cold the ocean is gonna get but the ajumma divers just go to get their seafood! What's even more amazing is that the youngest divers are already in their 50s! @.@
Lol applause for this photo kay
It was suddenly raining so I ran there just for this shot hahah
SEOPJIKOJI
A church built on the top of the small hill. It's not an actual church but it was made specially for a drama (Idk which though) because of the amazing scenery around the area.
JEJU FOLK VILLAGE
This was how they obtained water in the past
After it rains, the water will flow into the huge pot
People would keep frogs in the pot to eat the impurities
Then eat the frogs when they get old
BLACK PIG
Omg it's really super smelly
But then... pigs are supposed to be smelly right?
And knowing the fact that these pigs consume human feces is not helping
And then I saw the black pig in another form in front of me
Omgggg this was lunch LMAO
Pretty yummy though!
A.T.V RIDE
One and only photo of this crazy bumpy ride hahahaha. Do I look badass here? I always see those huge jeeps in America driving through the mud with the driver looking badass with shades right? Well... I think I was the completely opposite there.
I swear it was not easy to operate that piece of thing! My sister was screaming behind but I was trying my best lor. She even told me that the instructor standing on the car behind us was laughing his ass off. Lololol who call me trying to be badass to much that I don't want to go with an instructor. Still glad my sister trusted me with her life kekeke~
SUMOKWON THEME PARK
Consisting of an Ice Museum and 5D theater!
Some of the sculptures are made by ice artists from Japan
such as Junichi Nakamura and Sone Hideyuki
And then this this!
THIS IS THE INTERESTING THING!
Some of the photos do not have the effect cus you know
The walls by the side made it obvious it was just a illusion
Love this one!
Hahahahaa
I love this one
I'M A IPHONE SUPPORTER!
Shoooo Samsung :X
Sorry I couldn't help myself
Looking badass enough?
Opps..........?
Too carried away I think
There was also the 5D theater which obviously does not allow any photography. The show we were about to watch was a horror show (can't remember the name) and I remember my sister was scared hahaha.
Not that I'm completely not scared lah but I think I got braver since last year's Halloween Horror Nights?
So the small clip is just a huge ugly creature torturing you in what looks like a laboratory and then you wake up in an abandoned hospital. So you can imagine 5D effects which means the screen is all around you in a circular way around the room so as 'you' on the screen walk around the corridors, you can turn to your left and right to see all the corridors all around you.
So you walk to this end where you see a little girl crying with her hands on her face. And then a crazy person comes out to cut off her head. Okay wait, why am I spoiling everything here lololol. Okay, moving on~ TO DINNER OMGGG
IT'Z........ GINSENG CHICKEN!
I've heard from so many people that this is a must try because it tastes completely different from the ginseng stuff we have in Singapore and it's true! Omg steaming hot bowl of Ginseng soup would have one whole small chicken that has rice pushed into its stomach by its butt.
The way to eat it is to poke the center and open the stomach to eat the hot rice first before eating the meat and drink the soup. Gosh, it was fantastic but eating one whole chicken is just too much LOL (perks of nutrition student?). The soup was really good and I get what's so good about Korea's ginseng which is because it has a really distinct taste that is really good. All the soup drunk!
Hauls of the day
Haters Teddy Bear Hat from Sumokwon Theme Park
'Urban Vintage Life' shirt from TopDong Shopping Arcade
One last fun fact I learnt about on Jeju Island! Google for the Jeju Island signature statue. You can't tell anything about it from the front but it has the shape of a man's ahem by the back.
On Jeju Island, the men go out to sea while the women provide for the family. The ocean can be rough sometimes so the women carved out the man's ahem on the rock and threw it into the sea as they believed that the female sea demon took their husbands when they were lost at sea.
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DAY 3
SEOUL, YONGPYONG
It was a morning flight back to Seoul and also the time I felt that the adventures have just begun! A pretty simple day with little hotspots on the itinerary.
FRUIT FARM
Korean STRAWBERRIES!
They are available too in Singapore but the strawberries fresh from the farm
are just beyond compare from the ones in supermarkets
They are so soft and they have a really different mouthfeel as compared to the ones we have!
BBQ chicken lunch that I can never ever get sick of and what's so special about it was that the restaurant was in the old Korean style which means that we had to sit on the floor as we ate!
HOT SPRING WATER PARK
For obvious reasons, I can't take much photos right there because well... everyone was practically not wearing anything. Maybe because people in Singapore are kind of conservative so I was kind of shy there hahahah. Of course to the Korean women, it was just something normal.
The hot springs are connected to a swimming pool where... something kind of stupid happened?
THIS. Lmao I can never forget about what happened. So the swimming area was kind of small with nothing much but slides and a Jacuzzi to enjoy. Me being really silly, went to try the slide.
Unlike how it looks, the slide was really steep so before I was even fully ready, I was slipping off the top and heading down to the water! And well, I blame it all on my in-proportionate body size, I have an exceptionally longer body so my head actually knocked onto the slide near the bottom.
When knocked backward, you know your heat gets knocked back? And so my nose holes were directly facing the water when I splashed... I think you can imagine how painful that can be lololol. Now when I think about, I cannot help but laugh!
This ajumma by the side was saying "Aigoooooo, that must have hurt!" in Korean hahahaha. And FYI, it really hurt like hell and the pain lasted until the last day of the trip boohoo!
YONGPYONG
3 hours of bus ride and we arrived in Yongpyong! It was really cold there and it was the place where I first see real snow in my life! Before that, dinner was steamboat!
Look at all that meat lololol!
First sight of snow of my life!
Beds of snow laid on the mountains around the small town
Settled down at Yongpyong Dragon Valley Resort Hotel
Yongpyong is actually really famous for snow ski-ing during winter
But it was during spring so there was barely anyone there
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DAY 4
YONGPYONG
Look at this, look at this! It's the view on the way to the breakfast hall and it looks so fun. My dad even said we should come back during winter lololol I can't believe how it would be because it was -1 degree Celsius that morning and I cannot tahan already. I said he was siao!
There were many of such small rivers all about Korea and it was just so pretty!
The water comes from the snow from the mountains that are melting
MOUNT SORAK NATIONAL PARK
Extremely beautiful place that I believe everyone should go to! Our tour leader showed us photos of how the place will look like in Autumn and it was super beautiful. Compared to all the leaf-less trees around the mountains, her photos show all the trees in full bloom with many colours of green and red!
I've seen cable cars in the drama 'Boys Over Flowers'
Simply amazing what I saw on board it
Continue scrolling down~
At the top of the cable car was a short hike up the mountain and the forest around the area was breathe-taking! I was imagine-ing myself in some ancient Korean drama when warriors run through the trees of the forest with swords on their hands hahaha.
I was the first to the top! The first thing I thought of was the Grand Canyon I visited just last year because of the fence-less area and tall mountains. Trying to get up there as fast as possible, I was tired out but the view was totally worth it!
(Click to enlarge photo)
Okay, another funny story now. Going up the mountain, I was first. Going down the mountain, I was first as well. I was alone as I carefully stepped on the stones back to the bottom when... I was stopped.
Let me just say that I was going down wearing my beanie with my shades and I was alone exactly like how I look like in the above photo. A woman suddenly approached me and smiled. This was how the conversation went:
Woman: *in a weird accent* Hi!
Me: Hello...?
Woman: *trying to point to the snow filled mountain while holding her phone on camera mode out to me. She spoke with the weird accent again* Photo...? Take. Take snow!
Me: Snow? Okay okay!
If it isn't obvious, the woman thought that I was a Korean who doesn't know English LMAO. She was speaking really fluent English to her two companions before and after I took the photo. And since she thought I was Korean? I pretended I was.
Opps? Well, not the first time my nationality was mistaken by another.
TEDDY BEAR FARM
Looks weird in photos but I was pretending to peep at the other teddy at the opposite side of the table while hiding behind the 3-tier cake
Couldn't help myself?
Cute max, aren't they!? I've seen a different museum in the drama 'Princess Hours' but this was just so cute hahahah. Just that the huge bunny mannequins were kind of creepy.
NAKSANSA TEMPLE
Not much done here because we were too lazy to climb the hills hahaha. So we just went nearby the entrance where we saw the beautiful sea! The water was so clear omggg you can never ever see this in Singapore lmao.
Sakura! Are they really, I don't know though. Was trying hard to get good shots and I think I did quite good right? Actually this tree can be seen at most places and I can't imagine how gorgeous it would look like just walking down the road with the tree at full blossom!
Tried to get a good shot of myself with the flowers but this was the best I could do
Tried many many times LOL
I actually think it looks quite good!
JEONGDONGJIN TRAIN STATION
Another Guinness World Record. It's the train that is the closest to the beach in the world!
The beach at Dongdaegu station!
See that huge ship?
It's actually a hotel built by the edge of the cliff because they say that from there you can see the sunrise directly everyday!
Really clean and romantic beach omggg
Imagine lying there with your other half while watching the sunrise/sunset!
Back to the hotel. Never noticed it the day before but a popular drama was shot here and they had life size boards and a cafe about it. Don't know the name of the drama though.
One and only haul of the day
A teddy from the teddy bear farm!
Omg mega cute, I got the Dambo elephant from US and this was the one I got from Korea!
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DAY 5
SEOUL
Omg I have never really paid attention to Rain before except for this music but for the first time, I thought he was really good looking. When watching Korean dramas, all the actor/actresses have really good skin right? Flawless to the max with zero pimples or blackheads. Most people in dramas all over the countries of the world at like that but even when walking down the streets of Korea, do you know that even the old woman and men have perfect-looking skin?
So what's their secret? Well, it's the skin treatment brand odbo!
We were brought to a short skin treatment class and these products truly worked wonders! I must admit I fell in love with the products and managed to get two sets of my own omggg! Praying for flawless skin.
DONGDAEMUN
And so, the shopping begins? If you don't know, Dongdaemun is a really popular place to get really cheap items. Like of like the Korean version of Singapore's Bugis Street only that the whole stretch of shops are in 5 different shopping malls with up to 7 levels each with basement levels! Each level can consist of many many rows and columns of shops omgggg
Okay that's my dad who was insistent to be in the picture lololol
Trying out this really interesting churros looking thing. They put in icecream through the two holes of the V-shape tube and the icecream was really soft and smooth! My dad went back to get a second round hahahaha!
TELL ME...
... HOW CAN YOU...
... RESIST ALL THESE!?
Everywhere you go, it's just clothes, shoes, bags and more! I went gaga over everything seriously! It was so straight forward: first few floors for women clothing, then one or two floors for men's, followed by the shoes/hats/bags level. If you know what you're after, just go straight to the level! No more searching through each and every level for it! Shopping heaven please!
Hauls of the day
All from Dongdaemun and there are even more but I don't want to reveal all lah
A little too kua zhang already I think
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DAY 6
SEOUL
This was our only free and easy day and with 3 women in my family, you can predict we would go shopping all day long. Our tour leader gave us a list of interesting areas so we cabbed down to the women's university street!
Forgot which university this was but apparently we went the wrong way because the taxi driver dropped us nearby but we went the wrong way. Wrong way or not, there were still so many shops to shop!
EWHA WOMANS UNIVERSITY SHOPPING DISTRICT
Then off the the famous Ewha woman's university which is super beautiful. Why isn't there a single school in Singapore that can look as wonderful lololol. Their shopping district was so long with so many stores omgggg. My mum said she see so many cosmetic shops everywhere until she giddy already kekeke~
!SHOPPING TIP!
For shoppers hunting for good looking and cheap bags, catch them all at the women university shopping district! There was a store that sells woman's bags for 10,000 won (approximately SGD$12.00) regardless of shape and size! Most probably because the products there are all local. Knew about this as I went to Dongdaemun before the woman university shopping district!
MYEONGDONG
If you have watched dramas like 'You're Beautiful' (the scene where Shinwoo was following Go Mi Niu around directing her over the phone) and 'Princess Hours' (the scene where the crown prince and princess kissed in a public street), you would have seen pieces of Myeongdong!
Many people say it's the must go in Seoul and it was really crowded that day! Its really the town area of Seoul because everything was so expensive! Even the pushcart stores were expensive, like 25,000 won (SGD$30.00) for a simple necklace. The cheapest stuff I got was from FOREVER 21 LOL!
No more photos but we headed back to Dongdaemun because the 2 hours given the previous day was just not enough! Actually the prices are Dongdaemun are not really as cheap as I thought but I think I think this way because I really expect things to be really cheap like SGD$10.00-$20.00. The price range for most items are SGD$25.00-$50.00.
But still, they're fashion are all on a new level as compared to Singapore's so I guess it was kind of worth the money than in Singapore. Telling that to myself everytime I made a purchase lololol.
!SHOPPING TIP!
Some of the shopping centers say that the prices of the items are fixed but you can always suggest a reasonable lower price and normally they will oblige if your mode of payment is cash!
Hauls of the day!
Not all here of course ;)
ANNA SUI from the plane
Others are all the makeup I got for the entire trip
And just noticed everything I bought was from clubCLIO
Come to think of it, I didn't buy much makeup!
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DAY 7
SEOUL, SINGAPORE
The final day. We packed and we overweight suitcases lololol. Visited some local stores for yummy seaweed before we embarked on the final journey back to Incheon airport.
Last but not least, trying Jajangmyeon that I always see people eat on variety shows like 2NE1tv and it looked really yummy so I had another first time at the airport before leaving for lunch
Really delicious bowl of noodles and glad I tried it before I left!
Last discovery before leaving: STRAWBERRY OREO MCFLURRY!
IF SINGAPORE HAS THIS, ENLIGHTEN ME PLEASE
Because it was super good omgggg
I had this right before the flight
Thank goddddd!
Trust me when I say, this is even better than Matcha Mcflurry
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And so... that's the end of my trip! A well spent week in a really cooling weather where I never had to sweat while shopping (best thing ever!?). Now that I'm back in Singapore, I no longer can survive without being in front of the fan and my air-con does not make me feel cold anymore.
There were so many first times during this trip and somehow I felt that it is one of the most meaningful ones I have experienced. Wait, let me list down all I've done for the first time:
1. Made Kimchi
2. Food
Mandu, Fried Chicken, Black Pig, Melon ice cream, Ginseng Chicken, bibimbap, Churros, Strawberry Oreo Mcflurry, Jajangmyeon, Shabu shabu, Daboki (spicy rice cake)
3. Mini bungee (first time)
4. Sungsan Sunrise Peak (7 wonders of nature of the world)
5. Ice museum (first time)
6. Picking strawberries (first time)
7. Hot springs (first time)
8. Playing with snow (first time)
9. Mistaken for a Korean (first time)
10. Jeongdongjin train station (Guinness World Record)
Of course I miss Korea and I can't help but smile at the pictures taken there. A really good experience and I would really love to go back one day. All pictures would not be able to fit here on my blog so head over to my Facebook as I will be posting all the photos up real soon!
