#5,6

A little recap on what we did the day before: Cycled around an island. Climbed a mountain. Walked a ton and covered most of Jeju. Expanded all of our energy.

Which explains why we slept in until 10am the following day. Since travelling around Jeju is relatively time consuming, we didn't bother with any last minute exploration and headed straight for the airport instead. 

Checking out at 11am + staying 15 minutes away from the airport meant that we were quite dreading the waiting time for our 3pm flight. Luckily, there were available seats on an earlier flight to Seoul so we managed skip out on that! Lucky us.

Bye Jeju! And...

...Hello Seoul!

Naturally, Seoul was the easiest to navigate around out of all 3 locations. But...it also has the lousiest weather. You can't really tell from the picture above but it was actually raining when we touched down.

We stayed 15 minutes away from Hongdae Station, which on most dry and breezy nights, provided us with a nice little stroll back to our guesthouse. But switch that out with a thunderstorm + luggage dragging + strong winds and umbrellas that threaten to turn on us and you have two very grumpy girls.

Since the weather didn't exactly prompt us to explore Hongdae immediately, we decided to stay in and do laundry instead. Oh, and catch more episodes of Dad, Where Are You Going. Lolol.

By the time the rain had subsided, it was already dinner time. Headed over to the bustling side of Hongdae (aka the area beside Hongik University) when it started pouring again out of nowhere. We were reluctant to walk any further because of the shitty weather, so we went into the nearest restaurant to seek shelter and settled our dinner there.

It was a bit on the pricier side, but the beef was so freaking juicy I decided that it was money well spent. Just look at the marbling! Definitely one of the more fancy meals we've had in Korea.

Wanted to explore Hongdae further but alas, the weather continued to be shitty. Ended the night with mango drinks from Mango Six Cafe.

So yes, our first night in Seoul was pretty meh and as you can tell by now, I am definitely not a fan of wet weather. Hui suggested that since the weather in Seoul seems pretty gloomy, we should head over to Everland whenever the day looks sunny enough.

It seemed sunny enough the next day, so off to Everland we went! But first, breakfast. Hongdae is pretty much dead in the morning, so it took us quite awhile to find a restaurant that isn't closed.

Making full use of the ability to leech wi-fi off almost everywhere in Korea, lol.

Finished our meal and headed over to Gangnam to take a bus to Everland. Gangnam has a similar vibe to Orchard Road, very busy, very happening, all that jazz.

Since Everland is located outside of Seoul, the long bus ride provided us with a nice little nap time before the action begins.

Side story. We have been mistaken for being locals quite a bit during our trip. While awaiting our train to Busan, two businessmen who stood behind us decided to start a conversation with us in Korean. In Jeju, a granny and a family had approached us for directions in Korean. I was about to doze off on the bus when a guy approached me.

Guy: Ah...this bus (gesturing wildly)...Everland?
Me: *Nodding* Yup!
Guy: Ah...Kamsahamnida.

Turns out, him and his friends were tourists like us! I overheard them conversing in Cantonese after our interaction.

Hui: 你因该吓一吓他们. Go there and start a conversation in Cantonese!
Me: LOL. That would be funny.

But I didn't la, despite them looking cute and all. I wanted to nap.

Arrived at Everland!

I didn't realise the group of people taking cover under the shade of the tree when I was taking this photo, but as you can tell, it was a very sunny day. So the first thing we did was enter The Face Shop, bought the cheapest sunblock available, and lather ourselves in it before going anywhere else. Hahaha, we couldn't help it. The sunburn we have gotten from Dong-baek island in Busan didn't exactly benefit from the cycling and hiking in Jeju so...gotta keep out the UV rays!

I am not the biggest fan of heights, so I was feeling quite apprehensive about going on the thrilling rides at Everland. Decided to start off with something mild under Huihui's recommendation.

The Rolling X-Train. By the way, this photo was taken late in the afternoon when we took the cable car, which explains the darkness.

(While awaiting for the ride to start)

Me: 我有一点怕 leh.

Hui: 不用怕啦。This is very mild, trust me. I've sat on other more thrilling rides before!

(After the ride)

Me: Holy fuck.

Hui: Hahaha, 我错了。

A more accurate photo of the ride.

There are a few other loops that my camera didn't capture, but you get the gist. Not quite the mild I expected, but a really fun ride nonetheless! 

Decided to head over to the rose festival garden to calm our nerves after.

Pretty, isn't it? Most of the roses were already showing signs of wilting, but there were enough fully bloomed ones around for us to feast our eyes on. My favourite would probably be the last one. Also, the above pictures are testament enough as to why Samsung phones are the bomb, lol.

Sat on a few more less exciting rides. There was one where we got a little drenched, a carousel, bumper cars, another wet one where we had to sit with 2 other couples - that was awkward, a really lame one, and a ton of animal/safari themed rides.

Clockwise,
1) White tigers.
2) A lone liger. I wonder how it feels amongst other lions. Do they discriminate?
3) White porcupine.
4) Giraffe.

Clockwise,

1) Ducks. I wonder who decided that the sound a duck makes is quack. It sounds more like a nasally "whaaaaeeeeh" instead.

2) King Julian.

3) Meerkat.

4) Rufus, who in real life, looks nothing like the awesome sidekick Ron Stoppable has.

Also, there was this.

⊙▂⊙?

Finished our day at Everland with another thrilling ride.

And thrilling it was. The axle would turn around and around while the individual hands are spinning 360 degrees forward and backwards. This was us after the ride.
ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ 

There was also a mega roller coaster that we wanted to take, but unfortunately for us it was closed for maintenance. Real bummer.

There aren't too many photos taken because we were on rides most of the time, but trust me when I say that our day was more eventful than the pictures posted. Really enjoyed my day at Everland!

Took a bus back to Gangnam and settled our dinner at a street food stall. We were too tired by then to do anymore sightseeing so we headed back to our guesthouse to rest.

Ending the post with a pretty picture of flowers. We didn't do much for the first 2 days in Seoul, but we sure made up for it in the following days.

6 days down, 4 more to go!

xx

SPOILER

I have been holding out on reading any Silva vs Weidman news in fear of spoiling the results for myself because I missed the live broadcast of the fight.

Smart ass me thought that "Hmm..an article about their steroids test results wouldn't hurt, right?"

WRONG. I saw the damn results and I am very surprised and I still have not seen the full fight. This is extremely infuriating.

posted from Bloggeroid

#3,4

Okay so here's the installment for days 3 and 4 of Korea. We woke up in Busan on day 3, and dragged ourselves and our luggage (mostly luggage, and there are so many flights of stairs in Busan's metro stations it isn't funny) to Gimhae Airport.

After a little more than an hour, we arrived at Jeju.

Jeju doesn't have it's own metro/subway system, so we had to rely on buses everywhere we go. The stop we were supposed to get off at was "Tamra Welfare Center", and by some odd chance I heard the word "Tam-na" and we immediately scrambled off the bus before the driver goes Vin Diesel on us. This is the thing about Korean buses in general. It's more of a I-aim-to-transport-you than a I-aim-to-serve-you mentality. It is more efficient, but you definitely have to be alert and nimble if you don't want to miss your stop.

Okay, so back on track. We arrived at our guesthouse and it was AWESOME. The bathroom was huge, the staff were super friendly and helpful plus we had a huge dresser with good natural lighting. Needless to say, we were thrilled.

Briefly unpacked, did some laundry, and got glued to the television because we found "Dad Where Are You Going" airing. Lol. We were supposed to go check out the Dragon's Head Rock and whatnot but the comfort of our room and the television got us to stay in instead.

Decided not to slack around any longer and went out for dinner. Visited a traditional market along our way but most of the stalls we already closed by evening time. Bummer.

Walked through a lovely park and reached the famous Black Pork Street. It's an entire street filled with restaurants that specializes in black pork dishes. Went in the one that seems the most promising (busy = promising) and ordered ourselves a really yummy black pork bbq set.

We polished off everything because it was freaking good. Also, Huihui exceeded her quota for vegetables intake for the entire year during this meal. Lolol.

Hui doesn't eat any kind of vegetables at all, not even onions. So whenever we would have a meal together, she'd usually pass them all to me or just leave them uneaten. Before we started eating, the very friendly lady serving decided to demonstrate the different ways that we could eat grilled pork. She took a large piece of lettuce, placed a sliced of grilled pork in the middle, added some sauces and a heap of spring onions, wrapped it up, and proceeded to shove it right into Huihui's mouth. 

HAHAHAHA. Everything happened so fast that when I registered the look on her face, I wanted to burst out laughing right there and then. Which I did, after the lady left our table. It was too funny.

We left the restaurant feeling extremely full and made our way to Jungang Underground Shopping Center...which turned out to be a huge tourist scam. The stores were the kind that you would find at Bugis Street, so we had a rough idea of how much things were going to cost there. 

Me: *pointing at a very ordinary bag* Igeo eolmayeyo? (How much is this?)

Stall lady: 70,000 won. (~80 SGD)

Me: O.O Ahh...Gwaenchana.

Stall lady: Ah! Cash, 65,000 won!

Zzz. We decided to bounce after a repetition of the above scenario for the next few stalls.

The part of Jeju we were staying at is pretty local, so the night life isn't as bustling. Couple that with surroundings that get more difficult to navigate around in the dark and you have 2 lost girls.

We walked for over 30 minutes along empty streets before we saw a nice looking lady and asked for directions. This was us after finally arriving at the correct bus stop and preparing to head back.

Very tired.

Reached the guesthouse and promptly went to bed.

Day 4 aka day 2 in Jeju. Woke up super early and made our way to the ferry station to go to Udo Island. Psyched!

Went to rent bicycles to explore the island and it looks like I know how to ride a bicycle after all. Well, if you count restarting every 20 peddles and looking extremely pathetic whenever I tried to park as knowing how to ride one. But after a few down-slope screams and almost flinging myself into sea moments later, I got the hang of it! Also, nearly running myself into oncoming traffic really helps speed up the learning process.

Udo Island is absolutely breathtaking. I really wished that we could have spent a full day there just lounging by the beaches and exploring the island, but maybe next time. Also, I was humming Guns N' Roses' Paradise City throughout the bike ride. 

Take me back to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty, oh won't you please take me home. A very apt song.

Decided to pop by a restaurant beside one of the beaches half way through for lunch. Jeju's big on seafood, so we ordered ourselves some sea urchin bibimbap and abalone porridge.

I've never tasted sea urchin before this so I was pleasantly surprised! It was creamy and sweet and fresh...aaaand I am running out of ways to describe the flavours. It was very delicious.

Continued our journey promptly after because we only rented the bicycles for 3 hours and we needed to catch the afternoon ferry back to the port on Jeju island if we wanted to complete the day's itinerary.

Reached the port, returned the bicycles, and quickly ran to board the ferry because it was leaving.

Hailed a cab and took a 5 minute ride to Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak (Sunrise Peak). We reached there right smack in the afternoon, so it was less sunrise and more mercilessly scorching sun. I had climbed the peak the previous time I visited, but that was with the cool winter's breeze and even then I had half a mind to give up.

Which explains why I badly wanted to sit out the climb given the hot weather. You know those moments where you just know that you'll regret if you don't do it? Yeah, so I stopped being a little bitch about it, busted out my umbrella since I checked out vanity halfway through cycling around Udo island, and dragged myself up the peak.

I should emphasise that I really wanted to give up on the climb but China tourists in their heels kept me motivated. Heels people, HEELS. My legs were about to fall off and I was in my Converses. Mad props to them.

So about 30 curses later, we reached finally the peak!

Stood around taking photos for awhile before we descended the peak, walked lifelessly to the nearest bus stop, and briefly asked for directions to Jungmun Resort.

To be honest, not getting lost was the last thing on our minds because all we wanted was a long bus ride to pass out in, so I have little recollection as to how we actually made it there. I remember having to change buses in the middle, but that was with a 65% confirmation from the look the bus driver gave us that he could take us there. Hahaha, go figure.

Reached Jungmun Resort around evening and we were only left with time to visit one museum before they all close. We went with the Teddy Bear Museum in the end because it was the first museum we saw and also, we were too lazy to walk any further. Lol.

The museum was pretty boring, although I did appreciate the quietness and air-conditioning very much. The reflection from the glass made it difficult to get a clear shot so I only took pictures of the creepy looking ones instead.

Tell me that those photos of the teddy bears and their original owners don't look creepy. They remind me of The Haunting in Connecticut where they took photos with the dead because it was their way of commemorating. *shivers*

Finished browsing through the museum and headed to the burger joint nearby to settle our dinner. Complementary washroom mirror shot where you could see my neither here nor there sun burn around my shoulders and chest area which I will be nursing until...today. I am still trying to get the patchy tan to fade so I could get back my original skin tone.

Took the airport limousine back to the airport and made our way back to the guesthouse from there.

We were completely knocked out that night because it was such an exhausting day. One more night in Jeju would probably do us good since we wouldn't have to cram all the sightseeing locations into one full day, but either way, Jeju was the bomb. :)

It was Seoul for the next 6 days, and I shall leave that for another post because these posts really take up a lot of time and as you can see, my coherence and effort tends to decline as the post gets longer. Random ending now.

xx