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Seoul, Korea 5 Day Tour - 2006

11.01.06
Day 1

Our flight was at midnight of the 10th. We met up with our tour guide Alex who gave us our tickets and tags. The flight was very boring and tiring. It was so hot on the plane. I listened to my Mp3 the whole time. We arrived in Seoul at the Incheon Airport around 5am Seoul time. We met up with our other tour guide Annie at the airport. We got on the bus and started on our way to our first stop. The tour guides started introducing themselves and explaining what we will be doing, what we should be aware of, Korean customs etc. Annie was talking for so long, we just wanted to sleep. She keeps referring to herself in the third person, it's so funny. She was talking in Cantonese and she would throw her name in there every other sentence. She never said 'I' or 'me'. Dan and I were trying to count how many times she said it, but we got tired and lost track. After about an hour, we arrived at Walker Hill Casino. They gave us these coupons that you can use along with 30000 Wons to get a key ring and 30000 worth of chips for the Big and Small table. We didn't use them. We just watched other people playing. Some dude was betting hundreds of thousands on the Roulette wheel. A couple from our tour played Big and Small and Black Jack. We watched them for a while. They lost so much! After an hour or so we gathered back on the bus which took us to a War Memorial. Annie explained that there was a statue of two brothers. Apparently during the Korean war, the brothers were separated and were fighting for opposite sides, one for North one for Republic of Korea. There was a board on the side that reads:
The statue symbolizing the Korean War depicts the past sufferings of the Korean people and their determination to achieve the national harmony, unification and prosperity. The external part of the statue represents the dramatic reunion of an elder brother who was a Republic of Korea Army officer and his younger brother who was a soldier in the North Korean Army on the Korea War battlefields.
Inside the dome is a mosaic picture portraying the spirit of Korean people who have overcome the predicament of the War. Engraved on the floor is a map of 16 allies which assisted the Republic of Korea in the Korean War.

We had lunch at 10am. After that we shopping at some department stores. Then we had dinner at 4pm. The times were all weird because we had to fit it in the schedule. There was a wall that had bottles of Gin Seng all piled side by side. It was kind of gross. Our food had Gin Seng. Everything Koreans ate had Gin Seng in it. Kimchi was a side dish for all the meals. The look of it kind of made me sick. I used to like Kimchi, but they lay it on the table as if it has been there for hours. I didn't dare touch it. We arrived at our hotel - The Holiday Inn around 6pm. We were still hungry so we went out to a convenient store and bought some cup noodles. We ate, showered, brushed our teeth, watched some tv and went to sleep. The next day is going to be more exciting...

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12.01.06
Day 2

We got a wake up call at 6:15am. We had to get down to the lobby by 7:00am. We brushed our teeth, got dressed and packed up our suitcases and headed down. We all gathered in the lobby, handed our keys back, hopped on the bus and headed off to breakfast. We ate pretty much the same thing we did for lunch the day before. Everything tasted the same. Dad tried to start up conversation with the other people in our group. But everyone was kind of shy and didn't say much. We finished around 8am and went back on the bus which took us to Everland. It's a theme park like Ocean Park and Dreamworld. We got full passes so we could play everything. First we went to see the animals. There were tigers, lions, bears, giraffes, owls. A tiger and a lion apparently mated and produced some offspring. They looked like leopards. Or a tiger with lighter spots. It was pretty cool. We saw the bears standing upright waving at us in the bus. The driver starting throwing treats and they would catch it in their mouths. It was so cool. They were so big and furry, I wanted to hug them! We took some photos and videos of the bears catching the food. Then we were free to do whatever we want. We went to do the snow rides. It was scary at first. They give you a floatie looking thing with handles on the side. We lined up for about 20 minutes and we slid down the slope. I stuck my feet out on the snow trying to slow down but it didn't work, it only got snow all over my face. But it was very fun and exciting. All the people lining up were kids. Then we did the tobogganing ride which was so much slower the one before. The third one, apparently the hardest one, you have to go up the hill. You ride down on a sleigh. The slope curves so you have to turn. That was the most exciting one. I had a lot of fun. Then we had lunch in the food court. Dan kept saying he wanted to go on the roller coasters. Ever since I went to ones at Ocean Park, I kind of got scared of them and didn't want to go on anymore. One of them was suspended and Dan was saying how cool it would be to go on it. Then we went to see the line. It was 3 storeys long and at the bottom, it curved around a few more times. We only had an hour left so we didn't line up. Thank god! We just went on the ferris wheel and walked about for the rest of the time. We bought some popcorn, candy floss and other snacks as we were heading out. We had dinner, went by a convenient store to pick up some more snacks and drinks. At the store, we saw the craziest thing! It was a SPAM gift set! Yes, SPAM the canned ham! Along with some vinegar or olive oil or something on the side, packed neatly in a gift box set. It was hilarious! There were other gift sets too with hair and teeth products. It was so funny! Then we got to our hotel and enjoyed some snacks and tv and went to sleep. Sleep and rest is vital because we are going skiing the next day!

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We got a 7am wake up call. Got dressed, packed our bags and went downstairs to have a nice American breakfast with toast, bacon, eggs, orange juice and coffee. It was delicious. Then we got on the bus and started heading towards the skiing resort. Unfortunately, it was raining. The skiing court was very slippery and dangerous and called to say there were closed for the morning. They had to spray man made snow instead. The weather report said it was supposed to snow today. Oh well. We switched our stops and went to another place first. It was a famous mountain which I've forgotten the name of. Some of the people got out in the rain and decided to hike up the mountain. We just sat in the bus and rested, enjoyed the scenery, went to the bathroom and took a few photos. An hour later, the others came back and we were ready to go. After lunch, we went to hire out skiing gear. It was so expensive! Probably the most we spent! 20,000 Wons to hire the jacket and pants, 10,000 Wons for the goggles and 15,000 Wons to buy the gloves. OHMYGOD! The exchange rate is 1 HKD = 122 Wons. So you do the math. It's still way expensive. And these are things we don't get to keep! Except for the gloves, which I'll never use again. So we got all dressed up in our skiing outfits and arrived at the resort. We were going to get in the afternoon session. We went to get our boots and skiis and sticks. After another hour, we headed to the snow field. It was really difficult walking in those ski boots! I was taking baby steps because I couldn't move my heels. When we got to the snow we had to click on the skiis. They were so damn heavy, my legs were already tired before even starting to ski. We did some warm up exercises to practice moving in the ski boots, how to get back up if we fell, loosen our hips and stretch our legs. We had to move sideways up the slope. I kept sliding down flat surfaces. It was so hard to control the skiis. Annie was apparently a ski instructor and was showing us what to do. She took us one by one down the slope. When it was my turn some other dude was telling us to move across to the side and I was like HOW??? So she just dragged me down the slope. I fell of course and screamed my head off. After about 3 times going sideways up the slope and sliding down and falling, I decided to just practice sliding on flat snow and moving in my skiis. I eventually got the hang of it and did the sliding thing again. Dan got really good and was going really fast. But he fell a few times too. Dad and mum were on the side taking photos and video taping us making a fool of ourselves. It was really fun though. I can now honestly say I have been skiing! We were out there for 4 hours. We went out to dinner at the same place we had lunch and then went to buy some snacks at the store nearby. We took some night scenery photos and went to see people skiing the night session. The snow is so much prettier at night. We watched tv and relaxed in our room at the Muju Resort. It has the coolest and weirdest toilet I've ever seen. There is a panel on the side with lots of buttons on it. One sprays water at your ass, one sprays at your urinary area and one blows air at you. The other ones didn't seem to do anything. It was all in Korean so I don't know what they said. Man were we tired. Dan and I got a bit bored and took our room and mum's room's matches and lined them up in an ash tray and placed it in the sink. Dan lit one of them to light one of the matches at the side and waited for it to light the rest of them. It took a few attempts and we finally got it working. I video taped it go. It was cool! Then Dan turned on the tap and killed the flame. Then we took a shower and went to sleep.

Wake up call at 8:00. Buffet breakfast at 8:30. Bus ride at 9:00. It was a 5 hour drive back to the city. We took a pit stop after 2 hours and bought these nice soft cakes. We finally got back and went to this place where they sell Gin Seng especially to tourists. Annie gets commission so she was talking on and on about how great it was. We got in there and this guy was explaining the benefits of Gin Seng and what types there were. Then we got to try the tea. I had the one with milk because I didn't want to taste the bitter taste. Only two couples bought some. They were so expensive. $ 3,000 HKD. I won't even say how many Wons. It's crazy! Anyway, we got to another shopping street which was full of tourists. There were so many Americans walking around. But everything was so expensive. Even a coupe of keyrings was 40,000 wons. How fucked up is that? We just bought a few pairs of socks and gloves which were more reasonably priced. Then we went to Parliament House and took some photos. We looked in the souvenir shop and bought some special fan greeting cards. Then we went to have dinner and headed to Lotte World. Apparently it's a lot nicer at night. It's an indoors theme park. They had a lot of rides different from Everland. But their lines were so bloody long! We just walked around. There was a parade at 7:30pm so we stayed and watched that, took some photos. Then we went to line up for the Monorail which goes all around the park, inside and outside. We were in line for 1 whole hour. It was so pointless. They had some cool stuff. There was a Gyro Drop which is like the Giant Drop in Dreamworld. They had a kiddie version as well that goes up and down several times and was about 3 metres tall. We were watching it and some of the kids were crying! Poor little things. I wouldn't dare go on those drops. I was so scared going on the Abyss in Ocean Park. I felt so uncomfortable and couldn't breathe or move while I was going down. I didn't want to feel that again. So the rest of the time we just spent walking around. I bought a candy stick though. It's huge and multicoloured! So we went back on the bus and went back to the Holiday Inn. We got a different room from the first night. It was a non-smoking room. No matches... We watched Saturday Night Live. It was hilarious! I was so sleepy. Almost forgot to take a shower. Tomorrow is the last day. Sort of miss home.

Got up, packed everything for the last time. Went out to breakfast. Last day for shopping. We toured the streets and went exploring. I got a 32cm tall ice-cream at a stand and went inside to eat it. It's in the middle of winter and we're eating ice-cream! It was yogurt flavoured and it was delicious! I got a photo of the tallest ice-cream I've ever had. The little cafe inside is so cool too. It's filled with post-its. Everyone who goes in writes a note on a post-it and sticks it on the wall or ceiling. It's all multicoloured. It looked awesome. What an awesome idea! I read some of the notes people wrote. I wrote one too, but it's so lame and stupid because I didn't know what to write. The ice-cream was cool! I really liked it! Hope I can come back some time! Bye! LOL! How stupid! Anyway. I bought a nice denim skirt, some make-up, some souvenir magnets, and keyrings etc. We gathered back together and got on the bus and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 6:00pm. We got there at 4:00pm and walked around and went to a KFC and ate. Finally some meat! For 4 days all we ate was noodles, vegetables, and thin slices of pork. There was hardly any taste to it. Now I know why they always have kimchi on the side. Everything else they eat is tasteless. We walked towards our gate sat down on the couch until boarding. It was a long flight back. It had been a fun trip! The coldest day was - 5 degrees. I had never worn so much in my life. Skiing for the first time was definitely a day to remember. I would have liked to be there longer so I could practise more and finally get to slide down a big slope.