Monday, November 2, 2009

Korea (24 Oct 2009) - Muju & Seoul

We had our breakfast at this charming cafe. Although I found the food average, the atmosphere and decor more than make up for it!



We woke up especially early today so that we could take photos of the beautiful surrounding.






After an hour ride, we reached the Heritage Park where we will get to learn more about South Korean's origins and traditions. The top most popular surnames are Park, Kim, Lee. We happened to find MW's surname Lim and my mum's Loh here too!


ZY insisted on standing beside my mum but refused to smile. Hiaz..


ZY playing with some of the traditional Korean games









Next, Everland Theme Park! ZY has been waiting for this for the whole day and we finally reached there at about 1p.m. As today was Saturday, the theme park was extremely packed with locals and tourists alike. We had to queue for at least 1 hr for each ride and my brother who wanted to ride on the world highest wooden roller coaster queued for 2 hr! However, we still managed to squeeze in 3 rides. ^_^














We played till 6.30p.m. at the park and then proceeded to have our dinner of BBQ pork belly wrapped in lettuce leaf.


Korea (23 Oct 2009) - Jeonju & Muju

As it was supposed to be autumn in Korea, our guide brought us to Naejangsan National Park which is famous for its 500 metre maple tunnel and Baekyangsa Temple, which is surrounded by dense red maple forest. Unfortunately, the trees have not changed its colour yet so its not as beautiful as I've imagined.

Furthermore, something that's really dampened my mood happened here. Our tour guide who is a local Chinese Korean at his 40s is a very fast walker, he will seldom wait for all the tour members to reach him before briefing us on the location history and so on. ZY who had just gone to the toilet told me that she wanted to pee again. Hence, we had no choice but stop and brought her to the toilet again. By now, the tour guide had already walked way infront of us hence only our tour leader stopped and waited. After we came out of the toilet, we followed the tour leader (who had gotten the direction from the tour guide) and continued our walk. We walked and walked uphill through steep slope trying to catch up with the rest of the group but still couldn't find them. ZY, who had walked faster than me, cheered for me by saying, "Jia You, mummy!" The path was so steep even the local needed walking stick! Imagine, our little group of six, including 2 elderly, one pregnant woman, one 3 year old kid and a man carrying a stroller walking up the same path for almost 45mins! I'm really damned pi** off!!! The worst was that the tour guide did not answered his phone and hence we did not know whether for sure we had walked the wrong way. Anyway, we decided to walk down and I tell you by this time my legs doesn't belong to me anymore. Luckily, halfway down we saw a car passed by, and the 3 mums plus ZY hitched a ride. Once we reached the coach, I really give the tour guide a good talking and tell him off by saying that he is so irresponsible.  Even the other tour members especially an elderly uncle reprimanded the tour guide for not taking care of us. Imagine, the whole group had our lunch that day at 3p.m.

Anyway, did not take any nice photos here as the colours had not yet changed and also no photos of the temple as we did not reach there because of the above incident. While waiting for MW, my brother and the tour leader to arrive, I took this pic of ZY as I "buay kum yun". ^_^"








This was what we had at 3p.m. that day.



After lunch, we continued our journey to Muju Resort, enroute we went to the Jeonju Traditional Craftworks Exhibition Hall to learn more about the art of mulberry paper, pottery, woodwork, embroidery etc..

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Therafter, we went to the ginseng farm. It was already 5 plus when we reached the farm so it was a very brief stop.

A four year old ginseng plant as it has four branches.


We reached the beautiful Muju Tirol Hotel at about 7.00p.m. This hotel is famous for its unique Austrian atmosphere created by its Austrian architecture and superb interior. Imagine pure mineral water coming out from its tap!



As the hotel is situated at a ski resort, the temperature is slightly colder than the other area. This quaint little town is so quiet at night, taking a stroll after our dinner, breathing in the fresh air really wipes off all the tiredness out of our bodies.










Korea (22 Oct 2009) - Daegu

We flew back to mainland Korea this morning and reached Daegu at about 11a.m. ZY brought her mini Elmo along for this trip and her loyal friend had been keeping this little girl busy for most of the flight journey.



We then visited the Dongwasha Temple. The colourful lanterns were hanged up by students to pray for flying colours in their coming exams as their exam season was arriving.






The tour guide told us to drink from this fountain as it will bless us with good health. Firstly, we had to wash the small scoop with the pool of water, then fill the scoop with the blessed water that is flowing down from the fountain. Served it to the buddha by pouring some water out and then gently slurp from the pail. ZY, being the clean fleak, refused to drink from it. What a waste..hiaz


We donated 10,000KW (S$12) and wrote our names and wishes onto this concrete tile and the monks of this temple will put them on the temple's ceiling for blessing.




We had tofu pot for lunch and I must say its really flavourful and full of nutrition. It's one of the tastiest meal we had in Korea.


Last in our itinery was Daegu Spa Valley.
My mum and mum-in-law both daringly stripped off all their clothes to enjoy the hotspring! They are really super ON and were not shy at all after the initial hesistant. Too bad can't take any photos in the hotspring! Hehehe...

So  instead, I took photos of them swimming in the therapeutic pools with ZY. See how ZY "play cheat".


We also tried the Fish Doctor and it was soooooo ticklish. LOL, I think the people from the whole floor can hear me screaming! Paiseh. Btw, the legs below belong to MW, all the fishes went to his legs, imagined how 'sick' his legs are, hahaha!


We had mushroom pot for dinner, MW's and my brother's favourite.