Ok this will be a long post. read on if you are bored.
My trip to Korea was a fulfiling one. Experiencing many new things over there. Saw , stepped and played with snow, tried ski, makes cheese and kimchi, wearing the hankok, touching the sheeps, sleeping on tatami,driving on an ATV, knowing new friends. =)
Started out the journey at 11pm on Korean Air. Ben and myself agreed that the leg space on Korean Air is really huge but the food sucks. But then again, which airline has good food? Good thing they gave us cheesecake ice cream and blueberry yogurt to fill me up.
We arrived in Seoul at about 6am (sg is 5am) and headed to the domestic airport for Jeju Island. the day was really tiring and it was freaking cold. I can feel my ears dropping and things starts to flow from our nose. Lolx.
Jeju Island is a fertile land made from vocalno lava. So this island has many stones. We visited the glass castle where every single thing is made of glass. Even the beansprouts! haha. Then there was this teddy Bear Museum with an LV bear that cost as much as a local BTO and you can even buy a car with it after paying for the BTO. Crap cos it's just a bear! We also visited thie Mysterious Road where the rule of gravity does not follow. The road is a gradual down slope but if you pour water on it, instead of flowing downwards, it flows upwards. Likewise, cars approaching the roads will off their engine and you can see that they will still move up the slope. I will not tell you the reasons, you guys can go there and find out in future. =p
We visited the Seongsan Sunrise Peak. It is a mountain where climbers would need about 1 hour to climb to and fro. It was a rainy day and I was wrapped up like a dumpling due to the cold too. But I still wanted to climb up, however halfway through, I really wanted to give up. It's too steep and every few steps I took, I panted like a pig! lolx. Ben pushed me to go on saying that we flew all the way here so shouldnt we climb to the peak to have a look. I agreed unwillingly. It was really a dread. Upon reaching the peak, the scenery was great, mountains, trees, sea.. all the views you would have expected in a postcard. haha. And then suddenly, this fellow kneeled down with no warning or signals proposing there. Whaha.. I was in a shock too. One part of me was still irritated with the rain, wearing the thick sets and panting. One part of me was a little pai seh. Ahha.. I refused to post any pictures of this scene because like I said, I was wet and my hair sucks to the max with centre parting flat down like a China woman from the village. Ben said we will visit this location again 10 years down! lol. And so, we left Jeju Island after two days with the sun rising right in front of our faces while having our breakfast.
We went back to Seoul and the temperature there was worst! It averages about 0-2 degrees on most days. My toes were frozen one of the days. it was so painful that I could not stop complaining. In Seoul, we went to skiing. It was fun but the gears were very heavy. I wanted to give up too but the thought of sitting down doing nothing will froze my toes again, I rather stand up and be active. at least I do not feel as cold then.
Let's talk about the food there. It sucks to the max. it's always steamboat and steamboat but unlike us, we have all sorts of ingredient in our steamboat but for them, it's always one dish, one rice. If it's pork in the steamboat, it will be pork and cabbage. If it's chicken, it would be chicken and cabbage. The BBQ food tasted nice but again, if it's BBQ chicken, it would be only chicken and rice unlike Seoul Garden where you get different flavourings and different meats. But I must say the milk over there is very smooth and the melon ice cream cannot be missed! I ate 3 portions of melon ice creams over there within a span of 7 days.
Seoul was really about shopping and playing. We went Lotte World. It's a theme park and we managed to catch some exciting rides. Were given only 4 hours there so it's not enough. The roller coaster was terrific. It was very fast! Before we knew it, it just flew!
Anyway, from this trip, I picked up about the culture of the Koreans. They are fashionable people with very backwards thinking in my opinion. Woman are actually not encouraged to work once they are married and if they want to, the husband has to agree and before the woman leave the house, she has to prepare all the food and iron the clothes properly for her husband before she can go out to work. And when I say food, it could be from breakfast to dinner. She needs to prepare even the dinner so the husband can heat it up when he's back from work. Guys there seem to be very egoist. Anyway, people there seemed to be very stressed up. The education system is very competitive so many Koreans are trying to send their kids away. I think it's more pressurized compared to singapore. It is a norm that the husband's salary will be credited into the wife's account and the wife in return will give the husband the moeny to spend. the only time that the husband sees their own money is during bonus time where cash will be given to them by the bosses. So in short, boot licking the bosses is also very important because that is the only cash you will see for the whole year at work. I dunno why the system is like tat but it sounds good to haf your husband's salary into your account? Ahaha... Becos the man usually do not see their monthly salary, they expect the wife to treat them like kings. Oh, the tour guide said that having a misstress is a norm over there too and wife expected it but will close one eye about it. Koreans are actually not very good lookers. I hardly see any pretty girls not handsome guys. but I must say their skin is crystal clear and shining. the faces itself .... erm.... I went around counting the number of kids with double eyelids (adults all go under the knives) and out of every 10, only 2 have it. Very bo liao rite? AHha.. Oh, since their food is always so healthy (they do not usually eat fried things. Hard to find fastfood), the people there are very healthy and diseases are kept low. Cancers are low too. And it seems that baby boys are preferred so mother in laws will not be very pleased if you have only baby girls.
I think everyone should go Korea once in their lifetime to experience the sceneries but once will be enough haha. Dun think I will go back there again as there are really not much things to shop nor buy. Both of us spent less than 500 SGD in the 8 days. Till then, toa payoh (it really means bye bye) Korea!
13 years ago
