Korea Trip Day 7,8

Day 7 - 24 Dec 2009

Shopping shopping and shopping. We went back down to Seoul. We had western breakfast at the resort. It snowed that night, so everywhere was snow. At last, a White Xmas Eve. Back in Seoul we had a shopping spree, first was SinCheon Women Street then it was Daidoman. 5 hours of shopping wasn't enough, but we had to go on with the tour to Lotte World. Lotte world was like a Mini Disneyland or a Genting look alike. There was actually a Disneyland castle, it looked like one to me. There were all the theme parks game, roller coaster, arcade food stalls.

Lunch was Duck. Think the last meal was still the best. As long it is not pork, everything is good. Although it was duck shabu shabu, but yum.. Lunch was fantastic.

We spend Xmas eve separated, sad to say, because we could not find each other. It was just Mom and me, while Aunty, Fion and Feli was missing. And to say we were supposedly to have a nice Xmas Eve Dinner, we ended up with sandwich and cup noodle.

On the way to Lotte World, there was this massive traffic jam. And to say, we ran away from the busy hectic KL to Korea, trying to avoid the jams, but Korea traffic was really bad during the eve. Every single road was flooded with cars, all i see out the windows was the brake lights. Got to admit, we were surprised, because i only expected KL to have such bad jams....

Day 8 - 25 Dec 2009

Xmas shopping spree again. We went to the shopping mart again. This time we went crazy, we bought 3 boxes of FOOD, and only FOOD. We didn't managed to buy much stuff throughout this trip, because everything was such in a rush, but that's what going on a tour feels like.

We headed to the airport at 12pm. This time lunch was... fast food and Korean food. The others took fast food but i decided to have one last try on Korean food, and I decided i get better Korean food in Malaysia, or maybe its because I get MSG here in Malaysia. :p

Korea Trip Day 5,6

Day 5 - 22 Dec 2009

It was a really really early morning, we woke up at 6.30am which is 5.30am local time. We flew back to Gimpo and was heading for Mt Sorak. It was a 3 hour journey from the airport. Lunch was pork and shabu shabu again. There was seaweed soup too. Luckily we ate something at the rest area before lunch. So however bad lunch was, we will survive. And pork with shabu shabu was becoming an icon for Korea as every meal was just pork + shabu shabu. ><

On the way up to the mountain, we stopped by the temple, more like a Buddha status, the biggest in Korea. After the long walk to see a statue, we ended up at a teddy bear farm. It was a rather small museum of teddy bears, but it was nicely done. I was amazed with the decoration. They explain every scene with just teddy's, but it was like Teddy's Land.

Dinner was great. It was seafood shabu shabu with fried fish. No pork, yippee. Even the side dishes was delicious. They even served sweet potato, not to my liking, but everyone enjoyed it. The waiter was really friendly and he understood what we were talking or asking for. Another culture shock from this trip was that a minority of Koreans do not understand English at all, while a majority knows just a little. We met some whom spoke Canto and Mandarin but those are like duty free area, where they were to sell duty free products. Otherwise, normal places, there were hardly a handful whom could speak fluent English, Chinese or Cantonese. But they are learning, as they know how to speak certain words. According to the guide, he mentioned that only the younger generations learn English, while the Elderly are less exposed. He even told us, there were some Elderly that was born when the Japanese conquered Korea, could only speak Japanese, as they were forced to learn Japanese only. Then we reached Kensington Hotel. It was really special was the rooms were the Old Era Rooms. There were tatami's plus a bed, and the heater was actually from the floor. It was like living in those Old Korean houses. Nice place, but the only bad part was they didnt provide a bath towel, but only face towel. So we were stranded with just two face towel each for bathing. It was a trend in Korea, where they only provide face towel in hotels instead of bath towel - those older hotels.

Day 6 - 23 Dec 2009

Ski Time. The whole day was just ski ski and ski. I had a bruise from the fall. Ski-ing aint hard, but walking up the slope with your ski equipment was. You have to talk sideways like a crab. If you try walking straight up the slope with your equipments - Skis, you will only end up ski-ing down the slope. But I managed to learn how to ski, brake and turn. Lunch was on our own, thank godness. I had instant noodle for lunch, but it was really nice. I'm not much of a fan of instant noodle, but i needed some change from the usual menu. Lunch had dessert this time - ice cream. It was cold outside, but eating ice cream during winters is really nice. I actually ate ice cream 4 times in this trip, more than my usual diet. Dinner was the best. We went to this restaurant where we were required to sit on the floor, the Korean way, and we had BBQ pork. The food was tasty, but it was pork again. For the night we stayed in a ski apartment. My mom and aunty stole the bed, so we 'kids' were on the couch and floor with tatami.

Korea Trip Day 3, 4

Day 3 - 20 Dec 2009

We started out with the Palace, which was rather similar to the Chinese. According to the guide, the Koreans are rather influenced by the Chinese, their language, food and even the traditions has some similarities, as last time Korea was under China, hopefully im getting my facts right. Then we headed for a place where they showed the ancient houses, like what is shown on the movie - Da Chang Jing, where different houses actually represent the status of a family. Then it was lunch time, it was considered nice then, serving was Hot Stone Bimbimbap - vege only and Pork shabu shabu again. The hot stone was the main, while the shabu shabu was just a side dish.

Next up was Kimchi school. It was a rough briefing on how Kimchi was made, and we actually got some hands on, making Kimchi Bao Choi, which was really simple, spreading the sauce on the vegetable. Then they gave us the traditional clothes, Hanboks to wear and we snapped some photos. Around 4pm, we went to the Gimpo airport and flew to Jeju Island. We headed for dinner. I do not remember what was for dinner, but since i didnt take a photo, it means it was shabu shabu and pork again.

Day 4 - 21 Dec 2009

We had porridge for breakfast. It was rather blah but it was a changed. Then we headed for this scenery place, with a general and lady like stone near the seaside. Then we headed for the waterfalls, we didnt swim in it, it was just a scenery tour. Then we went to this Min Zhu Chun - Folks Kampung to see the lifestyle of the Korean Folks. It was rather similar to the ancient houses we saw on Day 3 but this was real and there were people staying there. Jeju island has a trend or Jeju is famous for 3 Have's and 3 Don't Have's; Have's : Wind, Women and Rocks; Don't Have's : Beggars, Theifs and (I don't remember).

Guess what for lunch, shabu shabu and pork again. But there was a difference with the normal meal though, the pork was actually black wild boars. Next was another scenery tour, mountain climbing to see Jeju Island from high up above. It was a 20 minutes walk, but it was worth the walk. Then we went to see the orange farm and some Mermaid cum Dragon like stone near the seaside again. Then dinner was a change, with curry fish, except the curry is not spicy. Dinner was really really lousy, and we were starting to be getting sick of the meal provided.

Korea Trip Day 1,2

Day 1 - 18 Dec 2009

Boarding the plane to Korea.

Day 2 - 19 Dec 2009

Reached Korea at approximately 7:00am Malaysia time, 8am Korea time. One step out of the airport and we started to freeze. It was -3C, if i'm not wrong, and it's our first time on a winter trip. Our first stop was Seoul city. There were two ways to go to the city from Incheon airport: land and water. We took the boat across to the city, actually it was more like a ferry, and the bus boarded the ferry with us on it. It was like the ferry used in Langkawi. We went up to the second floor of the ferry, grab a drink, snap some photos. The scenery from there was beautiful, there were birds - seagulls (i think) flying around the ferry which was really nice. But the photos of me were horrible, i was dressed like an Eskimo. Into Seoul city, we headed for their War Museum, which was something like our Tugu Negara. The tour guide started to explain to us about the war between Korea and the US. I am not too sure about the details as the tour guide was talking in Cantonese, and my Cantonese which i once considered quite good, is half plus six. I had some trouble understanding what he was saying as he was actually a HongKee whom stayed in Korea for 20 years, so his way of speaking differs from ours. The museum was rather small, there was figurines and statues of the people and weapons from the war, the war between North and South Korea. The guy i remember out of his long story was Douglas MacArthur.

We headed for lunch next. We had Ginseng Chicken soup. The ginseng was really soup, and the chicken soup was more like chicken soaked in water. Differing from the Chinese way, the way they cooked chicken soup, was put all the stuffings, the herbs and rice into the chicken, and boil the chicken, as opposed to ours, which we put everything into the soup to boil. The Chinese way is better as the soup becomes really tasty. The first taste of the Korean Chicken soup was rather blend, as everything wrapped into chicken and you are to cut open the chicken to eat. According to the tour guide, it was because last time in Korea, the ginseng are only allowed for the King, so the ginseng farmers who kept some hidden stash for their own tasting had to eat it discreetly as they get be punished for stealing the ginseng, so what they do is put the ginseng with the herbs with rice into the chicken. It was a smart move, I started to search for the ginseng and it was actually quite hard to find it as the rice was like glutinous rice, rather sticky and the ginseng is wrapped inside it. The next stop was a CAR museum. There was like hundreds of cars inside that museum: Merc, Beemer, Ferrari, Rolls Royce.... One word WOW.

Talking about wow, there was one thing that it was most shocking, culture shock. The last stop of the day was Spa Greenland. The place was beautiful. The shocking part was when we stepped into the changing room, or the spa room. We saw many women... without a single cloth on them. They were walking around like it was normal, but for us Malaysian, it was rather awkward and embarrassing. I felt rather weird looking at them. I didnt strip this time as it was the time of the month, but the rest took quite a long time to be ready for the spa, which is strip strip and strip only. There was also a swimming pool and a sauna place in this place. It was a rather decent place, as the Korean actually come in a family for these spa trips. They have a common area where i see many Korean families lying down on the floor watching this huge TV, sleeping or having a nice hot Sauna, which is 68C. Then there was this few special places where people can soak themselves or their leg only outside in the open air, and all they wear is a shirt and pants or their swim suit. We tried the leg soaking, but we only lasted for a minute, as it was freaking cold outside, and a shirt and pants was seriously useless. Think it was below 0C that time, and there was ice everywhere. Dinner was a nice pork shabu shabu. Hot food in a cold weather was heavenly, and we enjoyed the meal but that was just the starting of the nightmare.

Dec 2009

Last post September, and its December now. I must have been really busy for the past 3 months. But i think all Mechatronics will agree with me. This sem flew past rather fast, without realising it, its already the finals and even now the finals is over and results are coming out *gasp*. So dead, think i screwed up badly for this test.

Well, at last its the holiday, everything is over and i can chill-lax now. It has been a busy half year, and this break is much needed, i was really looking forward for it; more like desperately in need of it.

Although im doing an internship now, its not so hectic anymore, although i feel the working stress - which i really hate. ><>

*Hoping all ends well. 2 more days to go