Alright, just came back to Singapore not too long ago from my Korea vacation trip. It was really good and fun, but I shall not bore all of you with the details of the trip, I will use pictures to tell you my whole trip. Just to warn you all first, most of the pictures are all people-related, so don't expect so many beautiful shots, and there're more than 100 photos in this entry, so it'll be extremely long. Hahahaha, this is only a fraction of what I took throughout the whole trip, I alone accumulated about 740 photos, 400 more came from my aunt and Pam combined, so total of over 1000 photos for this trip. Hahahaha, over 1GB of shots, muahahahhaha, really fun to just snap snap snap photos,hahahahaha. The photos are not in any order of sequence, so the photos might jump around fomr place to place, hahahaha, too many to organise well.
On this trip, I went with my mum, my aunt, Calvin, Pam, and Patricia, my mum's old friend.
It's winter there, but fortunately, it's almost the end of the season, and when we were there, it was the transitition period from winter to spring, so it wasn't snowing badly, but the wind and air were still just as cold, so all of us had to wear a lot of layers of clothes, so we all look fat in the photos, hahahaha, oh well, it was an experience la, to wear 5 layers of clothes to keep warm. LOL, ok, enough bantering, enjoy:
.Group shots.
Ok, so my tour group consisted of 19 people, and all I can say is that it's a really interesting group to be in. Honestly, this tour group is the most quiet group I have ever been with on a tour. But anyways, we still got to know each other and talked, so it wasn't a total drag. This shot was taken at Everland, an extremely huge amusement park in Korea. You can say it's the asian version of Disney Land.
Ok, this is taken at the base of Mount Sorak, which is the highest mountain in Korea. It was a really cool place to visit, and more pictures will be shown later.
The last group photo we took was at YongPyong Ski Resort. As you all can see, its snow! Hahahaha, it's only the second time I'm seeing snow, and it was a great experience there, snow-skiing and all.
.Beautiful scenery.
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These are shots of one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Jeju, but I forgot the name of it though. Clavin and I went closer to take a look and to take better shots, and we were greeted by a beautiful mini rainbow at the base of the waterfall.
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These are 2 different places, but they're sea-side shots, and of course, Singapore doesn't have these sheer cliffs and huge waves, so it's nice and relaxing to look at. But all of us can't enjoy the view for long, because the wind is just so strong and cold that we all have to keep moving, hahahaha.
Very nice mountain, and of course, I also cannot remember the name of it, but we were supposed to pay for the entrance, but on that particular day, entrance was free, so it was a really good thing.
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These shots were all taken high up in the air, in a cable car. Really nice right? All the snow-capped mountains everywhere you turn, such a beautiful sight. Sadly the trees were all leave-less, if they were all in bloom, it would be an amazing sight to behold:mountains covered with beautiful trees in bloom. Very nice image. But nonetheless, the scene of mountains is still breath-taking to us Singaporeans.
A row of trees, hahahaha, 1 point perspective eh.Really nice, and again, if the trees had leaves, it would be much better, but the bare branches are still just as stunning.
.Everland.
Ok, as mentioned earlier, Everland is a massive theme park in Korea, and it's the first time I've been to a theme park, and it was really great. All of us had a tremendous time there, but it was only 3 hours there, and it's definitely not enough for such a big place.
This is one of the most scary rides I have ever seen, because this contraption uses the force of gravity combined with momentum, and they combine to be a really mad ride. People sit down,strap in and wait to be tossed into the air, spun 360 to 720 degrees upside down, and at the same time, going up and down. This machine will slowly go either up or down, and suddenly rotate the seats at least 360 degrees. It's really insane, and while we were watching, someone's glasses flew away when the thing was spinning, hahahaha, very unfortunate.
Just opposite the crazy ride, I found my new vintage ride, hahahaha, and it's very nice as well. Parked nicely at the side of the road for me, what more can I ask for? LOL. Probably get a hippy outfit and drive around shouting "Peace!Not war!", hahahahaha, that'll be the day.
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Of course, what would a theme park be without a carousel, and this was called the Grand Royal Carousel, and it was actually quite fun although it might seem childish, and knowing me, nothing is too childish for me, so of course I hopped on and took a ride on a horsey. Hahahaha, it was a short ride, but something new, so it was good.
A big book of bedtime stories to last you a life time. =P
Sweepers in the theme park all have roller blades to travel around the park quickly, and it was really cool to see sweepers on skates. Must be really fun to roll around and sweep stuff up, I think people don't mind doing this job as long as they're on skates.
Most of the staff in Everland wear such costumes, because they look colourful, and most of the visitors to the place are young children, and the whole place is full of colours and sounds, and it's really a fun place to be in, even when you're an adult. A lot of the staff here are all teenagers, and they are all working part time to earn money over the holidays.
Of course, I couldn't resist taking a picture with one of these colourful characters, this was a last minute decision just before we all left Everland, and I managed to squeeze out this shot at the exit. Hahaha, really glad I did.
.Lotte World.
Ok, so what is Lotte World? Well, it's from the same people who run Everland. They are all under the same company, and they are big in the entertainment business of course. This was taken in Lotte World, and I love the castle behind, very nice effect at night. This is found outside the main building of Lotte World, and the activities are all outdoors, and it's really cold, so not a lot of people took the rides there.
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Inside the main building is a huge enclosed theme park as well. Here, its simply packed with people, and queueing for rides can be as long as 30mins, really insane and packed with people. But I like the balloons in the air, they're not real, but the give you an overview of the whole place, and it's really cool, but when we got to the entrance of it, it was already closed for the final event of the night: the laser show.
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The lasr show was an amazing show with lasers of course, hahahaha, but there was a whole lot of lasers going around, and it makes those laser shows in Sentosa look weak, hahahaha. They even had fireworks indoors!! How cool is that!? It was truly a big bang to end the day at Lotte World.
This shot was taken outside Lotte World, and 5 new people are inside, which most of you have not seen at all. Aunt Patricia is the one with the red beanie, dressed in black. Pam is the tall female on the extreme right, she's my aunt's best friend and a family friend as well. The guy on the extreme left is our tour guide, Xiao Ma, which translates to Little/small horse. Hahaha, he's half Chinese, and half Korean. So basically, the whole trip was in Chinese, and sometimes I felt that I was in China, because his Chinese accent is exactly that of a mainland Chinese. He's one enthusiastic guy, and the whole trip would be boring without him, because he just talks on and on, and sometimes it gets a bit unecessary, but I'm cool with it. The little lady on his left is our photographer, Sharon. She's quite a shy girl, and shw only knows how to speak Korean and English. She's a photographer because she wants to earn money to go to the USA to be an English professor. Hahaha,and Xiao Ma told us she's actually 35 years old, but I don't really believe him. The guy on my left is Daniel, a new tourguide, so for our trip, he was our assistant tourguide. He's also half Korean, half Chinese, and understudyng Xiao Ma, so he can lead his own group in the future. A very quiet guy, but very friendly as well.
.Teddy Bear Museum.
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Hahaha, yes, a Teddy bear museum exists, and can be found in Jeju Island. It was really nice to look at so many kinds of bears and what they can be made into. We saw a lot of famous figures in the museum: Snow White, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jordan, Elvis, The Beatles, and a lot more which I didn't include. The bears from Princess Hours were new additions to the museum, and it attracted a lot of people. The world's smallest bears can also be found there. and they're as small as a 1 cent coin. Of course there are bears which are also as big as humans, and really lovable as well, hahaha.
.Snow Snow Snow......... and more snow.
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Group shots at the top of the highest mountain in the snow area, called Dragon Peak. It was extremely cold, and the red suits really helped. Hahaha, it really makes us look like astronaughts, but only without helmets, but it was a really cool experience literally. The frigid wind was blowing directly at me, and my ears and fingers were almost ready to drop off. They all felt very numb and there was this weird sensation, hahaha.
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This was inside the cabin at Dragon Peak, and it was our prelude to the ski experience down the mountain.
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These are aerial views of the ski slopes of the mountain. The whole area is called Yong Pyong, which is also the name of the resort we stayed at. The slope on the left is one of the gentle slopes which we ski-ed on, there are more advanced slopes, but of course we didn't go up at all.
A shot with our ski equipment, hahahah, and I just noticed that my skis alone are as tall as most of the people in the shot, LOL. Honestly, skiing is not really difficult, you just need a lot of stamina to keep going up the slope to ski down, and strength to carry all the heavy equipment up the hill. The boots alone weigh in about 5kg, and it's really not easy walking around with them,I almost fell over when I first wore them, hahaha. But I can say it's a real experience to play around in the snow, and just a side note, I perspired quite a bit just by walking up and down the slope, I had to unzip the red jacket just to let the cold wind cool me down, hahahaha, high metabolic rate I guess.
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Hahaha, I didn;t edit these photos, Sharon did. We had to buy photos from her, because she took quite a lot of shots, and it was part of her job, so we HAD to buy photos. So all the photos with the blue border around them were all taken by her, and I scanned them into the computer.
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After a whole afternoon of skiing, we went sledding. It was really fun, you just have to sit down in the middle of the board and use your weight to go down the slope. The higher you are, the faster you go, and even more so if you weigh heavier. Hahaha, it was really cool and the fun factor was comparable to skiing.
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This was what greeted us when we returned back to Seoul from Jeju. Hahaha, it was just after a snow storm, and it looks more like icing than snow on the cars. Hahahaha, really hilarious, and it was simply a scene of white all around.
This is one of the best photos of the trip, with all 6 of us, and the backdrop is really incredible.
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These were taken high up on one of the mountains, and the view is also amazing. The winds up there were really strong, and one almost blew Pam over, hahahaha. The view was also very nice and it was really nice to just sit there and admire God's creation bit by bit, and the wind just made it that more cooling.
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Group shots with snow, hahahaha, we took quite a lot, but I only put up a few, just the few nice ones. Of course snow is really cold, and can numb your hand in a matter of seconds, trust me, hahahaha. You'd think that we hada snow fight, but sadly we didn't because like I said, my tour group wasn't very enthusiastic, so I just threw a snowball at Daniel and got one back in return, that was all, hahahaha, oh well. Next time I guess.
Hahaha, cannot get rid of the aborist inside of me. =P
A shot with my mum in the cable car with the white snow as the background, nice.
.Dearest ones.
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All these shots were taken by the seaside in Jeju only, because it's the only island we visited. The views there were all magnificant and it was really beautiful to see something which Singapore will never have. The wind was cooling and something new to all of us. Hahahaha, I like the shot with my mum and aunt in it, I call it Red and Blue Riding Hoods. =)
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I met up with Ryong in his hometown Jeju, and it was great to see him after 5 whole months. Hahaha, we just talked and talked while he drove me around the island to see more of it at night. He brought me to tour his church, and it was amazing that 20% of the island population attend his church, hahaha, amazing. He then brought me to the southern tip of the island with a beautiful waterfall, and by the way, the waterfall wasn't in our itenary at all. We only met up for about 1.5hrs, because it was already 10pm local time(11pm in Singapore), and we were both tired. But it was nice to see him once again, and I'm really grateful to have known him, and was able to be driven around the island and catching up with each other.
This is at our very own Changi Airport, and we're all waiting to board the plane, so we took a few shots before boarding.
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Of course, photos in the bus were inevitable, and they were all crazy shots, hahahahaha. Really nice photos though.
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These were taken in the Gondola(big cablecar) ascending Mt Sorak;boredom took over, so we just snapped away.
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The next few pictures were taken in a field of Canola flowers. They are used to make cooking oil:Canola Oil. A very nice plot of land, and the flowers were in full bloom, very beautiful and nice to look at.
Of course for me, this was one the most memorable places, beacuse I simply loved it there. It was atreat for the senses, and very pretty to look at a whole field of tiny yellow flowers.
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A shot of the ladies on the left, and the right photo is the macro version of the previous photo. Hahahaha, just playing around with the camera.
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All these were taken at an orange farm in Jeju, and they are very famous there. The oranges are bite size, sweet and full of juice, so it's something that I don't mind eating everyday.
Taken at one of the meals where we had BBQ beef, and it was really delicious. Yum!
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Hahahaha, Calvin made a new friend at a local village which produces famous honey, both healthy and delicious to eat.
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Hahaha, taken by Sharon when we were making our very own kimchi. We didn't bring back our creations, but it was really interesting to learn and make kimchi. Hahahaha, we had a blast there, and there was a photo shoot where all of us dressed up in traditional korean clothes and we could take pictures.
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Hahaha, the clothes felt funny, and the headpiece felt a bit uncomfortable, but it was the experience I guess. Lol, the big group photo is really nice to see, because the uncle(we don't know his name, so we just call him uncle) really looked like a realy korean official, and we're like his royal family, hahahahaha. Really really cool.
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These were taken after the waterfall. The one with Calvin and I posing was really a spur-of-the-moment thing, he did the lame action first, and I quickly followed just in time for the picture to be taken, hahahaha, so much for looking cool.
I like this photo because the tree form is really nice and it's really solid and big. If it was warmer, and leaves and flowers were on it, it would be a great picture.
Hahahaha, Calvin, his mum, and pam all each behind a palm(Roystonea?), yours truly came up with this creative idea. =P
We attended this Korean cultural show and it depicted all the traditional korean music and dance of the major branches in the korean community. It was really an eye-opener because I didn't know that the music in the pass was played mainly by farmers.
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These were taken in Lotte World,the one on the left is while we were waiting for the monorail ride, which took us 20mins to get on. The next photo was when we were going up to the balloon ride, and I had my half-eaten ice cream cone in my mouth, hahaahha.
Taken just outside the ski resort, where Winter Sonata was shot. I didn't watch the show, but I guess it was a really big hit with everyone.
The typical street in Seoul, and from the picture, you can tell the air around is not very good. I don't really know how to describe it, but it just doesn't look right to me though,hahahaha.
.Misc photos.
Ah yes, our trust-worthy bus. You can always count on a good bus and busdriver to get you around Seoul quickly and efficiently. Hahaha, along the highway to Everland, the bus was going easily over 100km/h, and I don't think it's that fast, because other vehicles could overtake us easily. But the streets in korea are horrible, traffic jams occur very often, and at any one point, 1million vehicles are involved in the jam, so it's really massive. Horning other vehicles is the norm in Korea, and getting horned at is also very common, hahahaha.
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The before and after photos of my kimchi. Its actually very easy to prepare, the soaking takes up most of the time, about 8hrs, but that's the hard part. After that, just put kimchi paste into the cabbage and you have yourself well-made kimchi.
Hahaha, I was looking up while we were travelling, and I noticed this. Powerlines were lower than the tree trunks, hahahahaha, crown reduction? Lol, I guess it'll be a big problem when the trees start to produce leaves again.
I like the creativity of this chain of convenience stores, hahahaha, very well done.
One of the very few McDonald's in Korea. Basically, Koreans don't really like fastfood, and at one point of time, fastfood was almost extinct in Korea. They don't like oily and overly-sweetened foods, hahaha, and honestly,after going through 7 days of korean meals, they really eat healthy. Very little fired stuff, and a lot of boiled and steamed foods, which actually taste better than Singapore food.
24hrs Burger King anyone?
This seating really caught my eye. It's just a single sheet of metal, but it's bent to become a bench of sorts, and they even took the tree into consideration, really cool concept. I like.
Just a shot of how crowded and congested a sidestreet of Korea can be. This is the equivilant of Bugis Street, only on a much larger scale, with more people and more shoving around, hahahaha.
In Everland, everybody went on a Safari ride of the place, and it was really exciting, because we all got to see lions and bears up close.The animals are allowed to roam freely around the enclosure, and the safari vehicles just drive pass these creatures. This is a shot of 4 females, with the male at the far end .
Ligers, hybrid between a lion and tigers. They do not exist naturally, because their genes have been genetically altered, and according to Xiao Ma, they only exist in Korea. Very cool and interesting to see genetics at work.
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Hahahaha, what I am about to tell you about the white tiger will be funny to some of you: Did you know that the white tiger is actually a recessive trait? HAHAHAH, when Xiao Ma told us this, I was like:"what?! hahahahaha". Now I'm really glad we took PBG, and I could understand what a recessive gene was. And because its a recessive trait, the white tigers are not as smart as their orangey-brown counterparts.
The bears were also impressive, because they were trained to walk on their hindlegs, and one was almost as tall as the bus we were in. It was amazing how big the bears could get.
Just a very interesting toilet sign after the safari ride.
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The ski goggles really made all of us look cool and look like real professionals, hahahaha, but of course we all still need to practise to get the hang of skiing.
Green Tea Latte, a very delicious hot drink to have in cold weather. Sweet and the design is simply beautiful.
This is the BEST banana milk and strawberries I have ever eaten in my whole life. The banana milk is thick and rich with the banana taste, and the strawberries are big and juicy and sweet. I already miss them, and I'm thinking about them now,hahahahaha.
The BBQ beef dinner we had, and it was really nice to cook and eat it. The marinate was well done, and the portions were big, and honestly, after every meal in Korea, I feel very bloated and full. Surprisingly, I only put on 2kg after all that heavy eating in Korea,hahahahaha, not too bad.
The utensils used to eat are all made of metal because germs do not like metal substances, so the bowls, spoons and chopsticks are all metal. The chopsticks need a bit of getting used to, but after a while, they become easy to use, a very different eating experience.
Just in time to take this forlift travelling along the road, hahahaha. Never seen it in Singapore.
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Those long tubes along the ground are actually make shift greenhouses, with monocrops in each of them. Hahahaa, so when winter is over, they can just be removed and growing can still continue. They also have apartments, but the amount is nothing compared to our little island. The apartments there are sparse, and those near the city cost a lot, but still cheaper than those in Singapore. But the standard of living in Korea is very high: a big mac meal can cost close to S$10, and an average meal can cost over S$10 easily.
Our very first meal in Korea: Bi Bim Bap(rice with mixed vegetables, and a delicious sweet and slightly hot sauce) and vegetable soup.
BBQ meat, one of the best meals I had in Korea. Very sweet and tender meat, extremely delicious.
Saw this painting in Jeju(the island of love).
This is the best hot chocolate I have tasted so far, those in Singapore cannot compare to this small and innocent cup, hahahaha.
Look closely at the label of the can. Hahahaha, HLM people will know what I'm talking about. I have no idea what drink this is, but then name of it is hilarious.
Oh yes! This automatic toilet is really cool! It cleans your butt after you have done your big business. Really nice, and the feeling is unique, that's the only word I can use to describe it, hahahahahahaha.
Old school vending machine, hahahaha. The coffee and tea only cost S$0.40 each. But the cup is only half filled, but still, for such a price, you can never get it in Singapore.
Hahahaha, ok, so we've finally come to the end of this extremely long entry. It took me 5hrs to do this entry, dragging photos here and there, hahahahahaha, now I'm really tired and I still need to go out tomorrow,ah man, need to sleep! Hahahaha, hope you all enjoyed reading this entry as much as I enjoyed my trip, now my com and blogger are both lagging badly from all the photos, hahahahaha. Take care everyone!
~moey out~
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All these shots were taken by the seaside in Jeju only, because it's the only island we visited. The views there were all magnificant and it was really beautiful to see something which Singapore will never have. The wind was cooling and something new to all of us. Hahahaha, I like the shot with my mum and aunt in it, I call it Red and Blue Riding Hoods. =)
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