Day 4: Finding Everland

Woke up real early as we had to catch an early flight back to Seoul. We had breakfast buffet in the hotel. The food was quite good and as it was a buffet, I had several servings. Not before long, it was time to head for the airport. Regretted a little for not getting the guardian totem of Jeju, and was hoping that the airport would sell it. Sad to say, no.

Once in Seoul, we took the coach, quite a long ride, to Everland.

A small part of Everland

Everland, what a wonderful place. It's like stepping into a fantasy world, a world that you always thought of as a kid. The people within Everland were very friendly as they kept waving at us. For a start, we took a lift to the animal area and embarked on a safari ride.

Bear-y cute

The ride was unique because the animals (pride of lions, white tigers, and many gigantic cute bears) are free to roam. More interesting animal include the liger (breed of tiger and lion). My favourite is the bear. They would station themselves as the safari vehicle made its way through. Upon the command of the driver, the bears would stand up. One even waved at us. Definitely a photo-taking moment, something that you will not see in Singapore. After the eye-opening ride, we ventured to the rollercoaster, which r-chan say that it's a must, with r-chan joyfully leading the way.

Life is a rollercoaster

As the first time sitting a rollercoaster, I was quite excited and scared. When the rollercoaster began its steep ascent, I was thinking that it was a wrong idea to ride it. Just then, it began its high speed descend. Oh my, the sudden adrenaline rush. I was not as scared as I was as it made its way through two 360 degrees revolution and swung dangerously from side to side. So exciting. There were many other thrill rides, but it's impossible to finish sitting all due to the lack of time, as usual, and the lack of ticket admission (it's only Big 5). With Jay and Swee Leong, we took the ferris wheel to get a better view of the whole place. It was humongous, like Sentosa, and all devoting to rides, putting puny Escape theme park to shame. There was a gigantic viking too, but I didn't go for it because I thought that it was too thrilling. In all, the best ride is actually a free one: taking a tube and sliding down an ice slope on it in Alpine village. It is free, fun and amazing. We took it twice, with each time running up the slope due to the limited time. Not surprising, there was almost no time for souvenir shopping and I bought a keychain just for memory sake. Raymond bought a cuddly white tiger pillow (he's like a shopping-raccoon, everywhere also must buy stuff). After the wonderful afternoon in Everland (sad to leave it), it was time for dinner. Although we had some fast food for lunch (not really as nice as burger king), I was feeling hungry. For dinner, we had steamboat (again), before ckecking in at Pheonix Hanwha hotel.

The rooms at Pheonix Hanwha hotel are very spacious, just like an apartment, with its own kitchen. After a quick unpacking, we went for the hotel's welcoming performance. They even made an announcement throught the PA system. Wow, it made me felt important. The performance was very fun, with many different segments. In the magic show, I was invited up on stage. I felt a little shy, trying to face the audience which consisted mainly on Koreans. The magic show was a little silly, with me trying to follow the magician's dance step, but very fun. Sure, I could not perform the magic trick, but I sure made many people laughed. The one who laughed the loudest was Chris, felt like hitting him, but it was all in the name of fun. Thought that the magician girl looked like the actress in Coffee Prince, a little manish but quite pretty. After the magic show, we began to dance and the mood was really high. It was so hot that we had to remove most of our clothing (too bad for ra's four layered turtlenecks). It was really a welcoming party. After the fun-packed party, we went scouting around the hotel and found the skiing area (the place we were going tomorrow), it was a good place for photo-taking.

After a while, we grew hungry and stepped into the hotel's supermarket to buy the ingredients to cook our supper. Bought instant noodles (the easiest to prepare) and chips. Aaron invited everyone to cook in his room and we made full use of the kitchen. The meal was delicious as it was cooked by ourselves. Running late into the night, it was time for bed.

That night, we slept like how most koreans do in winter, which was on the mat on the heated floor. It was a good experience (hard to find in Singapore), maybe not as comfortable as the bed.

Sleep time