Thursday 6 December 2012

안녕하세요! day 4&5

Sorry it took a while to blog about the rest of my korean trip,  I have been busy with work, so many things happened . Anyway here's the last part of my Korea Tour experience 


DAY 4

We stayed at Hotel Maremons in Sokcho, close to Mt Sorak. With the tour always moving to different places everyday, we always find ourselves in different hotels. This hotel is my favourite by far. Our room has a nice view of the East Sea, the room is spacious and super lush. Me and my grandma watched the sunset from the balcony in the morning


I lost count of the amount of times I had this Banana Milk in Korea. It's hands down the best drink ever. 
If I could I'd love to get a crate full of this banana milk. 



My gran catching up with sleep at the hotel lobby~



After Breakfast we left the hotel to go to Mt Sorak. We had to get a cable car to get up there. It was so high up I thought the ride in the cable car was going to be scary and shaky but no it was actually quite pleasant and super smooth. I didn't get to climb up the peak of Mt Sorak when we got to the top though  but still the view was lovely


And then.. 


We visited Buddha . 안녕하세요!


I'm not too familiar with the praying ettiquete here, but these stalls were selling rice. 
Not to be eaten I guess. These little houses looks quite Japanese btw.


We left Mt Sorak to head towards Yong-in for Everland! But before that, lunchtime~
I can't get enough of the Korean BBQ. We had Pork this time. There's a small souvenir shop under the restaurant .My aunt found some Girls Generation smothered stationery for her son. le sigh. 


and omagah. we finally got to Everland ! It's like a Korean Disneyland.


There were so many cute Korean kids I just want to adopt/kidnap them all. Agh.


Misleading ride name. I actually thought there would be human bodies hanging from the sky. like. literally.


But it was actually this.


And as soon as I got off at the other end of the Human Sky ride I was greeted by Mr.Polar Bear or should I say しろくまさん (Shirokuma san from Shirokuma Cafe ; this anime I dearly love)



and then I found  ペンギンさん


unfortunately i didn't find パンダちゃん  but we found PORORO . Pororo is everywhere in Korea. At least thats how it seemed to me. There were even Pororo dolls on the security screening area at the airport.


It feels so Christmasy already here with all the decorations



and even more Christmasy at night with all the lights lit up.
We had dinner at one of the restaurant inside Everland, went for a bit of souvenir shopping then headed to our hotel back in Seoul.


I got these from Everland for me and my sister, they're clip on cat ears! They had so many cute accessories similar to these but in headband form, I just wanted to buy them all .





DAY 5

We got to the hotel back in Seoul quite late. So I just crashed straight in bed as I was too tired to do anything else. I didn't really know where we were in Seoul or what the location is like.
But in the morning when I pulled myself together and finally woken up, i realised that our hotel is really close to the Han River. This is the view from the elevator.


We stayed at Ellui Hotel.. in Gangnam. At first I didn't believe where this hotel is located. But here's a proof that I stayed in Gangnam and that this place actually exists. Not just in Psy video. 



apparently Gangnam is one of the posh area in Seoul.. i guess it's like the West End in London?
The first place that we headed to was The Ginseng Centre, but they didn't allow us to take photos plus there isn't really much to talk about as the products they sell are expensive ginseng pills etc and I'm not interested.
But here are photos from the Presidential Blue House. They had some kind of ceremony, with flag waving, tossing rifles in the air, and dancing mascots.


It was so fun to watch up till these guys came up close and i was hoping they wont drop the rifles not toss them in my direction.
But these guys are pros. 


My gran with the mascot~


After all the sightseeing has finished, i was finally time to do some shopping. 


Donghwa Duty Free, my new favourite place in Seoul. They have overseas brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, etc and they have domestic brands too. I spent most of my money in the domestic brand make up section.


Nabbed  some Etude House / The Face Shop goods.


I really love these small roads in Seoul.


and then off to Dongdaemun. To be precise we were at Doota mall .sI wished we spent more time here but there were just too many things too see / want to buy and so little time



With that and dinner out of the way, we headed back to the hotel and I headed back out for a little walk around Gangnam at night.
Spotted BoA on the billboard


Lot's of cafe nearby



Aha and this is my favourite part, I just happen to stumble upon JYP's studio. Didn't see anyone famous though.


And around the corner from JYP studio was Cube cafe ! What a coincidence



So that ended the last full day in Korea. The actual last day was when we flew back to Indonesia. And just so happen that our flight back was on Pepero Day, which always falls on the 11/11 every year. It's like Valentine and they give out pepero which is like Pocky. Because 11/11 resemble 4 sticks of pepero.  Coincidentally this day was me and mon cheri 8mth anniversary.   

Our flight was in the morning and we couldn't really go to that many places. Only breakfast, more souvenir shopping, and airport. I managed to find myself Korean Vogue and Korean Vogue girl in the airport bookshop which I happily took with me to read on the plane .

I would really recommend Arirang Tour if you ever consider going on a tour to Korea. The guides were really friendly and helpful, super patient, and they always made sure we are ok and having a good time. 

There were places I still wanted to explore more like around Hongdae. Where the Hello Kitty cafe, Cat Cafe and Dog Cafe's are, but I'll save that for next time I go.

Here's a song to finish this blog post by Linus Blanket, a lovely Korean indie band


0 comments:

Post a Comment