Back from korea! if you missed me then thanks for the concern, if you didnt then... well i cant really ask for much can i? i'll try to summarise as much as i can, but it's 8 days worth of stuff so there's probably still gonna be a whole lot of words here.
the first day was a scam. the entire day was spent in-flight to korea. obviously nothing much happened. i brought along a book to read: george orwell's "1984". it was supposed to be a sec 4 reading assignment, but i think i have enough fingers on one hand to count the number of people who actually bothered to read it. seriously, all of you (especially cat high 2008 batch -.-) should read it. it's a great book.
on the second day, touched down at 6am, and was immediately caught off guard by how cold it was. to add on, there was a slight drizzle. the first stop of the tour was breakfast, then off to a traditional korean bath house, the type where you have to be completely naked in a communal pool of hot water... that was very awkward needless to say.
afterwards we went to the 大长今 filming set. not really a fan of the series so this was a bit boring for me, but quite interesting to see how all the small sets can look so big on TV.
after that was lunch, then we visited an ancient korean palace. interesting to note that all the writing is in chinese because korea was then still a chinese colony with no language of its own.
after that we visited (by that i mean loitered outside) the president's house. it is equipped with offices, conference rooms, even a small park, so that the president rarely ever needs to venture outside his own house, whether for work or leisure. sounds a bit emo if you ask me, but i guess the president can be as emo as he wants.
yet another airplane trip, this time a domestic flight to Jeju island, then it was dinner. Jeju is famous for seafood, so dinner was a sashimi/steamboat feast (haha, i know you're jealous :P ), but the highlight of the meal wasnt the fresh seafood, but the living seafood: abalone still squirming in its shell, and octupus tentacle bitten straight off the living octopus. for obvious reasons, i was a bit hesitant to put living animals into my mouth, but my dad tried a bit and the look on his face was priceless.
checked into a hotel for the night. havent slept for about 36h straight, so i fell asleep immediately.
on the third day, breakfast was abalone porridge (that's abalone for 2 meals in a row, if you werent jealous then i bet you are now :P ), then we went on board a submarine (specifically, a little yellow submarine. beatles revival is happening everywhere, even in korea). the water was so much cleaner and blue-er than singapore, so much more picturesque and postcard-like.
afterwards we started climbing this hill which i believe is supposed to be the tallest of some kind of special geological hill thingy? i dunno, i wasnt really listening to the tour guide, i just ran up the hill. was so hot and sweaty afterwards that i actually took of my jacket for the first time since arriving in korea, and even did the unthinkable and got an ice-cream.
then we went to this orange farm to pluck oranges. Jeju is also famous for oranges, but i dont really like oranges so this part was kind of boring too. a funny thing is that so many tourists have come and plucked the oranges that in some trees the farmers actually hung plastic oranges so that the tourists would have good-looking trees to pose for photos with.
ate lunch, then went to this horse farm for a short horse-riding session (and it was short - barely 5min)
afterwards we went to the southern-most point of korea, this rocky beach, where there were cool-looking hexagonal pillars of rock at the cliffs, and it's all natural.
then we went to a teddy bear museum. saw the world's smallest teddy (barely half a centimetre tall), a 125-carat teddy (the eyes were made completely out of diamonds, and the fur was speckled with gold) and the world's most expensive teddy (a one-of-a-kind LV teddy which sold for more than US$100M).
dinner, then watched this stage show called Nanta, which is a non-verbal percussion/dance/comedy show in the same vein as Stomp. it's about 4 chefs who have an hour to prepare a wedding banquet, and it's really good. would definitely recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to watch it. after that, checked into the hotel for the night.
on the fourth day, took a plane back to mainland korea, where it started snowing for the first time since our trip began. it was really cool to see snow for the first time, and it wasnt what i imagined it to be. i always thought snow would be like ice kachang falling from the sky, but it looks more like cotton which melts on contact.
travelled to Everland, the fourth-biggest theme park in the world. unfortunately, the snow meant that most of the thrill rides were closed, including the T Express which is the world's biggest and steepest wooden roller coaster. luckily, some of the other rides opened up later on after it stopped snowing, but ironically the ride which caught my attention the most wasnt a thrill ride. it's a ride called "Rotating House" which has a brilliantly creative concept. it's sort of like a really small swinging ship housed indoors, but the trick is that the entire room itself is also part of the ride and can rotate as well. when the room and seats rotate in the same direction, it looks like you are not moving but you can feel the direction of gravity changing. when the room and seats rotate in opposite directions, it looks like you are flipping 360 degress when in actual fact you might only be flipping 20 degrees.
that day was the first time that the temperature consistently remained below 0 degrees the entire day. as if to prove it, my younger brother plucked an icicle from a small hut and carried it with him for about half an hour, and it didnt even get wet, which obviously meant that the temperature had been below freezing all the way. i couldnt talk fast because my facial muscles were literally numb due to the cold.
day 5 had a more relaxed pace than the others. in the morning we went to rent ski equipment for the following day, then hiking up a snowy mountain. the view was great, but it was quite scary walking up and down with all that slippery snow and ice lying about.
then we arrived at an indoor water theme park. once again i felt like i got scammed by the tour agency. they said that the theme park was indoors, but in reality most of the exciting slides were all outdoors and were closed for the season. however, there were a few heated outdoor pools that were still open and it was quite interesting to see the heated water evaporate, then immediately condensate into a thick fog.
day 6 was skiing! this was my favourite part of the trip. i wouldnt mind going for another trip purely for skiing. i started out really shaky, but slowly i started to get the hang of it; it's really not that difficult. a few minor falls and bruises here and there, but nothing serious.
after that, we went to seoul for a kimchi appreciation course -.- ok it wasnt that bad, and i have to admit that cuttlefish kimchi is quite nice, but on the whole i still think kimchi is severely overrated and extremely disgusting. there was also a session where we could dress up in traditional korean clothes and take photos. im not really a camwhore, but my dad thinks he's some professional photographer (keyword: THINKS) so he forced me into a set of clothes and started snapping away -.-
afterwards, we went to sinchon for some shopping. sinchon is supposed to be the well-known "ladys' street" for all the women's apparel and cosmetics they sell, but im not really interested in stuff like that. while all the other tour members boarded the bus with bags upon bags of clothes and make-up, i was the only one with nothing in hand except a hotdog.
the seventh day started out really, really boring, because it was mainly a day dedicated to shopaholics, which i am most definitely not. first we went to a ginseng shop, then an jewellery shop specialising in amethyst. my mom was adamant that i at least get something from all the shopping, so i got a little amethyst scorpion thingy to dangle on my phone (im a scorpio so i've always had an affinity with them). afterwards we went to a Face Shop for cosmetics, and i was amazed at how many different types of BB cream there were. for the uninformed, BB cream is a supposed miracle make-up/skincare cream that korea is famous for, and there were at least 10 different varieties in that one shop alone, and i saw even more later on while roaming the streets. it's crazy how one single product can have so many wildly different incarnations.
afterwards, we went to dongdaemun (not sure how to spell it), the fashion capital of korea. once again i was bored out of my skull. ended up trying more roadside snacks lol.
finally, we went to Lotte World, another famous theme park in korea. this time most of the rides were open, so i was able to try more of them. most memorable was the Gyro Drop. it would slowly ascend while spinning, so that you get a 360 view of your surroundings as you slowly climb to the top (im not sure how tall it is, but was the tallest ride in the entire theme park), then stop. you stone for a bit, then without warning you are dropped all the way to the ground. roller coasters may have loops and helixes and corkscrews, but nothing beats the thrill of plain simple free-fall, where you slowly float above your seat and your legs dangle in front of you. awesome.
day 8, the last day. the morning was spent buying stuff at a local produce shop. my mom bought, among others, a set of "laundry balls". apparently, these balls were invented in korea, and you can just dump one or two of these plastic balls into the washing machine and you wont even need washing powder anymore. i have no idea how the hell it's supposed to work, but either way i guess it makes a funny oddity to have around the house.
after that was all the usual airport admin work, and we finally set off for singapore. watched "Up" for the first time on board, quite a nice movie, touching and funny at the same time. it's amazing how disney manages to keep the magic going with movies like Up and Wall.E. i bet i'll be watching disney movies all the way into adulthood and beyond, and i'll never be afraid to admit that i love disney movies.
holy crap this is a long post. oh well i wanted to post this yesterday when i got home but jet lag and laziness (more of the latter) persuaded me to procrastinate.
