and so it was to Korea!
Tour group was great. Friendships were built. Weather was awesome. Snow was Pretty. Skiing was fun. ..
Really One of my Best Holidays. or rather its the best i've had so far. :)
I felt pretty cheated cos its supposed to be an 8Day tour. But the whole flight there kinda ate up Day 1. So when we finally arrived, it was like Day 2 already. Burgers.
and The saddest was that my mum didnt bring enough money!! Its like whenever we wanted to buy or eat sth, we have to check our wallets to see if its still within our budgets. Boo.
i was quite disappointed. But oh wells! I'm still happy nonetheless.
Besides, there nothing to buy anyways (all winter stuff) and everything is so ex. So yes.. Sorry ppl, no souvenirs! if you dont mind, Kimchi/seaweed anyone?? haha
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and Finally i got my lazy fingers to start blogging about it. heh.
its super Image heavy. So bare with it. :)
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We sat Korean Air. and I thought it was like SQ kind. but BOO! its like errm.. United airlines, Silkair kind. and So for 6hours.. i drank juice, slept and ate peanuts. boring! haha. but i was too excited to do some other stuff anyways. :)
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Day 2.
Our first stop was to this traditional Village where all the rich dudes of the past used to stay. Really pretty place...But i was way too amused with all that mist that is coming out of my mouth haha such a mountain tortoise really.



Look! persimmon tree! and yes its real!

Our First Meal: Ginseng Chicken.
Super filling. Got rice, noodle, and one whole chicken each. why are the Koreans still so slim. HEH!

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Next thing we knew, we're on a 1 hour domestic flight towards Jeju island.

1st stop was to the Seaside. There you find people selling/cooking abalones, squids, shell fish etc.
and to eat there, you'll have to climb through the rocks and stuff.. but apparently my mum and I gave up. haha. so we took pictures from up the "hill".


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Then it was to this strange place called the Mystery Road.
Basically it's a road that objects seem to roll up, rather than down. yup. Cars, bottles, bicycles roll up the hill of their own accord.
Really strange when you see how an object as big as a Bus defy the law of physics. Spooky! haha
Dinner.
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Day 3.
Early morning and it was to another village to visit the earth/fertility God. Some weird Stone it is.
Apparently, Jeju is kinda dominated by females, so women go to this weird looking piece of rock to rub its nose, touch their own tummies and believing that it will give them baby boy. heh.
and I wont say why it looks weird.. haha well, Go figure!

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Then we went to this mountain area.
Okay, i dont really know where i visited cos i cant understand the tour guide's chinese. So all i know is this mountain, that village.. bla bla. haha oh wells


I went up the mountain all by myself cos my mum was too tired to climb. (yay. clap clap! i can still conquer mountains! ) But its really scary when you're nearing the top. The steps are too narrow, and there's like way too many people. i was so worried someone might just knock me off the steps! haha

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We had Black Pig for lunch. The best Meal i've had there.
And we wrapped meat and rice into cabbage leaves. So korean. :)

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Yay! then it was orange plucking. its like pluck and eat on the spot kind. and The best part is that the weather is so cold, it kinda makes the oranges taste so refrigerated and refreshing. mmm

So yes.. because we paid like 5000won to go in, my mum had to steal some back. haha. Super cute la.

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Then it was to this ____? i have no idea where. haha
Its just somewhere really really really cold cos the wind was coming from all direction.


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Then it was to another village. This is where they film the Big Long Gold. (da chang Jin)
The lady who brought us around was hilarious! couldnt stop laughing at her. haha
But somehow all that laughing manage to lure everyone to buy at least one Jar of honey, ling zhi. Heh. waste money.!

Oh. and this is black pig. Ugly, but the meat is good. haha

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Last stop: To Jeju Bear museum!
Does this look familiar?

Its the Bear from Princess Hours!! haha okay whatever. but most importantly, i think I'm standing where Shin Goon might have stood before! haha okay whatever again. BUT..
Awwwwww...

Oops. haha okok. enough already. (he's so charming la)
Right..and so it was to the museum.. they have the World's smallest, biggest, most expensive (the LV bear) most interesting bears all on display.
They even have a display of the last supper. haha
OH OH! and i bought one bear for myself too. Its overpriced, but i like it. It shall be my new smelly baby. haha :D


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Finally Dinner. Steamboat.

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Day 4
We got up really early and caught the morning plane ride back to seoul. and then headed down to EVERLAND Where we spent an entire day there.
Everland is like the DisneyLand of Korea. actually i think its better than HK's DisneyLand. More magical looking, + got more things to play and to see.. But it would be better if i went with friends cos i had to sit the rides myself! hah




We had a safari tour inside Everland and we saw really cute Bears. They actually do what ever the safari bus driver tells them to do. Almost like Dogs already. haha
oh and guess what else we saw...

heh. they're not lions. okay, at least they are half lion.
Their dad is a tiger and mum a lion.
Seriously. Humans are sick.
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oO? Dinner again. yup you guessed it. Its steamboat.

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Meet Rayna.
She like the cutest little girl around that is forever calling out for me everywhere i go and making me eat her "not so appetizing looing sushi" for dinner.
only 3 years old but she's really loud, smart and sensible. I hope my daughter is like that too haha.

She actually made me take these pictures of her making funny faces. haha so cute.
ANYWAYS.

At night we went to the local ski shop, rented ski stuffs and spent the night at yongpyong Ski resort.
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Day 5
This is my favourite day cos we went skiing! haha

okay, of course i didnt attempt to go up that steep steep slope. i mean, of course i would have if they allowed me to. haha (yeah right)
Skiing is not as easy as it seems. you can barely walk in those ski shoes. haha and the skis are really heavy and the ice is really slippery. heh. But i think i was not bad for a first timer haha. zhey.

The jacket makes me look like some fake Team Singapore representative or sth. haha.

hahhaa. my mum is fake skiing. super funny la. she didnt skii but she said that she has to take at least a picture looking as if she's skiing. zzzz

Then we had a snow fight! we were putting ice into each other's jacket and runing around with those heavy boots haha

I felt like an oversized/overaged kid there. but who cares. it was fun anyways. haha.
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Oh and this is the best part.

Then we took a cable car up to the mountain top where they filmed the show Winter Sonata.

Oh my gosh.. i fell in love with that place can... ugh!!! now it inspires me to go watch Winter Sonata. haha (anyone got DVD to lend?)

Its so beautiful it makes you emo.

okay i know. doesnt make any sense. haha its like everything is perfect, only with the wrong company! haha but oh wells! i will go back there again. :)
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Oh and here is Rayna again at lunch. haha

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THEN, it was to the national park. Surrounded by mountains and all..

There they brought us to visit a HUGE buddha stone.

Why must every tour bring us to see buddha. haha zzz
but i was glad cos i think 3/4 the tour group were christians. so no one really paid attention to it. haha

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Off to dinner.

YESS. STEAMBOAT AGAIN.

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Then it was back to our cosy hotel.

The concept is really intresting. Almost like a house by itself already. :)

After that, everyone got changed and went for a swim at the "outdoor and indoor swimming complex".

haha so cool to be swimming in winter.

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The actual itinery was for us to go in to the hot spring. but everyone has to go in naked! (of course men and women seperately la ) my goodness! so, being typical Singaporeans we are, everyone gave it a miss. haha

But still, you find naked people walking around the toilet as if they are the only ones around.

What's worst was that there was a group of kids on an excursion or sth like that.. So when its time to bathe, The kids (boys AND girls, aged about 3+) and their teachers, were all NAKED running around the toilet. !!!
Major culture shock man. haha

OH YA. and a man walked into the woman's changing room by accident. haha. jiu wo.
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Lunch.
funny. they made everyone wear aprons. haha :D

And instead of cabbage, we had mint leaves! haha oh thats mummy btw.

Then we made our way to this forest looking place. Which happens to be another filming site of winter sonata.

another romantic place. :)

It was really funny over there cos i made my mum snap a picture of me while i threw the leaves up into the air (to give the authum leaves falling look) haha. and it wasnt long before the whole tour group started taking pictures like that too. So when one family is having their picture taken, the other families stood at the side with a bunch of leaves. And at the count of three, every one threw it into the air. haha

This is our photographer. Peter. haha I forgot his Korean name.
Anyways..He's already 29, but really gentlemanly and charming. haha Not like other Korean guys i assume. (3/4 of korean guys are super super MCP! as in seriously.) :)

He just came out from Korean NS can.. Jiu wo. So old. their NS is like 3 years. So Singaporeans, DONT COMPLAIN. ours is only 1 yr 10 mths! haha

Oh and I was telling my mum, if i didnt have a boyfriend, and a guy 9 years older come asking me out.. i might consider! as in when you're 20, a guy who's 29 doesnt seem that old? haha but if i'm 11 and his 20 then thats wierd la. But yeah. come to think of it. Age really doesnt matter much to me. but a gap of 10 years might be the max la haha.

anyhows. Not applicable to me anymore haha.

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Then it was to Kim Chi School! :)

We learnt how to make their national dish and wore their traditional costume haha.

Everyone looked really dumb. but all for rememberance sake... haha

So thats the female, male and kids costume. haha. actually quite nice what. :D
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Then we caught JUMP. a comic martial Arts performance.

THey are really really gooooood man.. haha Now this inspires me to learn some kong fu. haha

but they are really good la.

Thats us with the some of the cast.

The guy on the rigght in that tank, is really really super funny haha.

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That night's hotel felt like you know Ocean 13 kinda hotel/casino haha. really grand and nice.

It was at night and the lighting wasnt good. so too bad. cant see how it looks like. haha

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Day 7
This is the most Bo liao day. Cos they brought us to all the Ginseng, cosmetic stalls and stuff. heh.

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Then it was shopping at myundong!.
They're well known for their imitation goods. haha. One Imitaiton LV bag can cost up to SGD$100. siao. i was so tempted to buy. but sadly.. no money! haha.

anyways. their "bugis street-like" shopping area are priced almost like our departmental store can. tsk tsk ! its like Bugis street prices in korea is almost non existant. haha. so yeah. only can see cannot buy.

oh ya. Eh that LV behind me is the real one. haha.
look! ppl doing Street evangelism. haha so cool.

Bottom right: 3 storey high Krispe Kreme!

apparently all their donut stores are all 3 storey cafes la :)

Oh ya..we were suppose to leave the shopping district by 630pm. but 3 old ladies from our tour group got lost! aiyo haha. everyone was quite nervous. so we dispatched ppl out to find them. and by time we found them, it was already almost 8pm. haha boooo so we were late for our tour to Lotte World which closes at like 1030pm.

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LOTTE WORLD.

I wish i had more time there tho. haha it super nice. even better than everland. its like indoor and outdoor themepark. Really really nice.


Picture below: i was trying to take a picture through a water fall. and somehow it turned out like this. haha :)

anyways, Lotte world was super fun. my mum and i tagged along the Wong family. so we sat all the rides together etc. haha

then Ivan and i went for the rollercoster but He came out with his hair all standing and he was laughing like he was crying. haha super funny.

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Then it was to our last hotel for the trip.

heh. 8Days and we changed 6 different hotels. jiu wo.

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I was seriously the moodiest person that day. i didnt want to go home!!

I wish i could stay there forever! haha okay maybe not forever, but a longer break would be good.

and it wasnt so much about staying in Korea. I just needed to be away longer.

but oh wells, back to reality!

Bottom left: Peter and I. :)

Bottom Right: Driver and I - he freaks me out like anything can. haha everyday he grabs me, tells me i'm sexy, and calls me mummy. ????? heh. I didnt ask to take a picture with him actually. all my mum's fault haha. I said i wanted to take a picture with peter, she turned around, saw the driver and thought the driver was peter so she asked him to take a picture with me instead. and he got so excited and grabbed my hands..AHH! that explains the expression. haha

Bye bye Korea. :(

Tour Guide, and Tour Leader. :) + my ticket home.. BOOO

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Back in SG.

Guess what happen! haha Dajie came to pick us up and we met with an accident. haha

or rather a newbie driver buang us la. silly lady. oh wells. they paid for damages so all is well.

Oh and turns out to be that indian lady is Dajie's neighbour! haha

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Okay good night world.

This is like an never ending post. I'm way too lazy to type properly. so maybe some parts might not make any sense! haha