We are still on board Asiana OZ752, it was still a couple of hours before we reach korea. I have to say, it's quite comfortable and the air stewardess were quite pretty, a pity that I didn't take photos with them. Before long, we touched down in Seoul (Incheon), a smooth and successful touch down.
Annyong Haseyo (hello in korean), we have finally reached the land of the morning calm. After the 6 plus hours on board the plane (Korea is GMT +9, Singapore is +8), my body was starting to feel hungry. Oh well, it's time for breakfast anyway. After collecting out luggages, we were given an hour to hunt for our breakfast. Even though Korea is a tourist haven, with so many tourists visiting, it is not exactly tourist friendly. As we scout around the incheon airport, most of the signs were either in korean or confusing. After trying to look for the cheapest (cos we were on budget...) and best (duh) breakfast, we settled for ... Mcdonald. No choice as we were running out of time and Macs seemed the safest bet. Comparing Singapore's macs to korea's, I still prefer Singapore's: Korea's one is quite bland (no salt or pepper) and they don't have tea, and it's not cheap. In the end, I was drinking coke for breakfast. After the rush-rush breakfast, we were ready to board our coach. Up till then, I was still wearing only two layers of clothing. That's why, as I stepped out of the airport, I was almost freezing. It was so, so cold. I regreted laughing at raymond, who wore like four layers all the time. We hurried boarded the coach.Sean, our local tour guide, welcomed us to korea. He's very humorous and did his job well in explaining. As the coach breezed its way through seoul, I realised that all the trees were barren (duh, it's winter) and sad to say, it wasn't snowing. After an hour and a half ride, we reached our first destination: Nami island.
Annyong Haseyo (hello in korean), we have finally reached the land of the morning calm. After the 6 plus hours on board the plane (Korea is GMT +9, Singapore is +8), my body was starting to feel hungry. Oh well, it's time for breakfast anyway. After collecting out luggages, we were given an hour to hunt for our breakfast. Even though Korea is a tourist haven, with so many tourists visiting, it is not exactly tourist friendly. As we scout around the incheon airport, most of the signs were either in korean or confusing. After trying to look for the cheapest (cos we were on budget...) and best (duh) breakfast, we settled for ... Mcdonald. No choice as we were running out of time and Macs seemed the safest bet. Comparing Singapore's macs to korea's, I still prefer Singapore's: Korea's one is quite bland (no salt or pepper) and they don't have tea, and it's not cheap. In the end, I was drinking coke for breakfast. After the rush-rush breakfast, we were ready to board our coach. Up till then, I was still wearing only two layers of clothing. That's why, as I stepped out of the airport, I was almost freezing. It was so, so cold. I regreted laughing at raymond, who wore like four layers all the time. We hurried boarded the coach.Sean, our local tour guide, welcomed us to korea. He's very humorous and did his job well in explaining. As the coach breezed its way through seoul, I realised that all the trees were barren (duh, it's winter) and sad to say, it wasn't snowing. After an hour and a half ride, we reached our first destination: Nami island.
Nami island, flim site of 'Winter Sonata'If I thought that seoul was cold enough, I was certainly not prepared for Nami island. Nami island, as sean told us, was even colder. Argh, I almost lost feeling to my fingers and toes. Luckily, in korea, due to the cold weather, they have something similar to a bbq pit at many locations. These "bbq pits" help to warm our bodies and I almost didn't want to leave them, but we have a mission to accomplish, that was to capture as many photos as possible. Thus, we were rushing everywhere. Even though we tried to hurry, our group was almost always the last. Anyway, Nami island is quite a beautiful island with its barren trees. Being the film site of Winter Sonata, they even have sculptures of the actor and actress. It wasn't long before I realised that my camera died on me (I shouldn't have laughed at aaron), and there went my photo-taking opportunities.
After the freezing Nami island, we had lunch at a near-by location. We had some stir-fried chicken with nian gao and vegetables. To eat like the koreans, we were to wrap our food in a vegetable. It was super exotically nice and refreshing. As we watched korean dramas before, the food seemed to always be red and spicy. However, the red paste is actually to make it colourful and it's not spicy at all. After lunch, we went to some palace where we learnt about the difference and similarities between the architecture of China and South Korea. It's quite interesting and I would have participated more if not for the chilling weather. After that, went Gimpo domestic airport for our flight to Jeju.
Although the flight was only an hour long, it was very squeezy, hot and the landing was relatively poorer. It was quite a torture and I was glad that we reached Jeju island. It may be 1830 in Jeju but it's already quite dark. The first thing we realised when we reached Jeju was that there were flurries. They are not exactly snow, but I was super happy. Before checking in to our hotel, we went to Dragon head rock, a rock formation that almost resembles a dragon head, depending on how you look at it. According to our tour guide, there was a dragon who wanted to attack Jeju but was stopped. No matter how I viewed the rock, I couldn't see the resemblance. Oh well, hope we leave soon as the wind was super strong (I almost flew away). We didn't join our tour group for dinner, as they were going to some expensive seafood restaurant. Instead, we went around Jeju searching for food, super fun.
After the freezing Nami island, we had lunch at a near-by location. We had some stir-fried chicken with nian gao and vegetables. To eat like the koreans, we were to wrap our food in a vegetable. It was super exotically nice and refreshing. As we watched korean dramas before, the food seemed to always be red and spicy. However, the red paste is actually to make it colourful and it's not spicy at all. After lunch, we went to some palace where we learnt about the difference and similarities between the architecture of China and South Korea. It's quite interesting and I would have participated more if not for the chilling weather. After that, went Gimpo domestic airport for our flight to Jeju.
Although the flight was only an hour long, it was very squeezy, hot and the landing was relatively poorer. It was quite a torture and I was glad that we reached Jeju island. It may be 1830 in Jeju but it's already quite dark. The first thing we realised when we reached Jeju was that there were flurries. They are not exactly snow, but I was super happy. Before checking in to our hotel, we went to Dragon head rock, a rock formation that almost resembles a dragon head, depending on how you look at it. According to our tour guide, there was a dragon who wanted to attack Jeju but was stopped. No matter how I viewed the rock, I couldn't see the resemblance. Oh well, hope we leave soon as the wind was super strong (I almost flew away). We didn't join our tour group for dinner, as they were going to some expensive seafood restaurant. Instead, we went around Jeju searching for food, super fun.
Our first attempt to order foodGoodness, we didn't even know what we ordered, just pointing at the menu (it's in korean). Turned out, the food was yummy-licious and cheap. Walked around and saw dunkin donuts, basking robbins, the first face shop.We decided to have another meal at some dubious lumen shop, which according to raymond sold the noodles we wanted to try. After another random ordering of food, we were shocked to be served a plate of innards. A seriously serious mistake. Most of us didn't dare to eat it, had to depend on raymond and swee leong. Actually, it wasn't that bad, just that I don't like eating innards. It was very fun to explore the place, joshing here and there, and no doubt a tiring day for us. That was when we went back to our five stars Nam Seoul hotel.
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