Busan & Seoul Travelogue - Part 3

This is the last part of my 2 weeks holiday in South Korea (Busan & Seoul).
I will put a link of our itinerary in this post as mentioned so you can see where we planned to go & the directions in reaching the destinations.
These 3 posts is more about where I went and what I do, instead of discussing about the budget and places we stay.
Here's the link to Part 1 & Part 2.

SEOUL DAY 6

Yesterday was shopping, today is PLAAAAAY!!!!
Yup, we went to Everland to have fun!!
We failed to reach there at 10am which is their opening time but if we were to reach there at 10am, we have to take into consideration the 1.5-2hours preparation + 2 hours traveling time to the theme park... Heok.
End up we reach there about 12pm? Or was is 12.30pm?
Doesn't matter anyway, & the main objective of coming to this theme park is to ride the T-Express!!!!
However, it was not open due to bad weather forecast :( T____T
Super DISAPPOINTED!!!!!
Sigh, what to do? We can't control the weather..
But we rode some thrilling rides too!!
Especially the Rocker one & X-Twist or something.
Lots of 360 spin & hanging in the air sideways!!!!

Another roller coaster that Da Jie & I rode was less scarier than T-Express but it's still super thrilling!
I even took a video during the ride but it's very ugly HAHAHAHA.
So lucky of us to ride it because they closed the attraction later.
I would write 'must try!' in all the rides we rode but actually since you already paid for the entrance fee you might as well try on all rides right???

We rode this super dizzy round & round attraction that urgh, I not a fan of it.
4D rides, bumper car, carousel, and more.

It's been years since we played Bumper Cars!!

There was a light parade!! Kinda like Chingay, with big flashy floats and its respective performers in front of the float.
It lasted for a good 15 minutes I suppose because the floats were maneuvering slowly

We took some photos at night because there are so many pretty background!

I love this shot! It was taken by Huimin, even she don't know how she achieved it hahaha

We spent the whole day in the amusement park and we were dead-tired on the way back to the hotel.

SEOUL DAY 7

So we had our fun and our shopping, what are we missing?
FOOOOOOOOD!!
Not the restaurant dining or cafe hopping, but food shopping!!!
Where did we shop?
*drrr drrr drrr drrrr*
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
LOTTE MART!!
Initially we shared a trolley but then we have to use one each because the amount of food we took off the shelves is insane & at an alarming rate.
Furthermore the snacks they sell is usually in big packs so our trolley got filled up really fast..
There were so many snacks that look so delicious but we dunno if they are really delicious. We just take & dump, take & dump as if we got no budget.
We then asked ourselves, 'I wonder how are we gonna bring this back home'.
Heng they do tax refund on the spot so it's so much convenient for us and we paid less than the actual cost.
Mind you I'm not buying for only myself; my friends, my work place & my family.
I think we spent more time packing the food into the boxes & wrapping them than shopping.
Lotte Mart provides empty cardboard boxes for shoppers to fill their items into the box because it is normal to buy a lot of items and plastic bags are just not useful.
I had to put my organising skills to good use by utilising every space of the box as possible, be it changing the orientation of the brownie box or stacking it flat or upright.
We each ended with 2 big boxes... Jialat sia...
Obviously we cabbed back to the hotel then went to Myeongdong to shop again!
The cabbie had a tough time trying to fit all 6 boxes into his car. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
While doing so, one jiak ba bo sai pang taxi driver came out kpo and claimed it wouldn't do, gesturing his dangling flabby arms to the boot of our cab.

Oh by the way if you happen to be approached by promoters of a KBBQ restaurant (that sells other food like Samgyetang) in a large shopping street (I can't remember where we were), DO NOT GO.
Their KBBQ meat portion PER PAX, PER PAX AH, IS VERY SMALL & cost AT LEAST 30000₩.
It's not very delicious too...

SEOUL DAY 8

There were a lot of traveling today and thus huge amount of time burnt.
Today, we went to Gapyeong Rail Park and also to Namiseom.
We had a hard time trying to locate the Rail Park..
First off, we alighted at the wrong subway station, so that's time and money in our transport card wasted.
Then when we reached the correct place, we don't know how to walk to the so called 'meeting place' even though there is a tourist attraction map outside the station.
We did what tourists always do: CAB!!
It was rather... quiet out on the road, like there is a taxi stand and bus stop but there weren't traffic.
THANKFULLY, taxis started to show up shortly and the kind taxi driver drove us to the shuttle bus point.
He said that taxis cannot drive into the Rail Park directly.
When we arrived, Da Jie asked the bus captain if it will brings us to the rail park and LO & BEHOLD, IT DOES.
So we sat in the somewhat empty bus, and we felt something amiss...
We saw a ticketing booth & was wondering if.... Pauline went out to enquire & yup, we needed tickets for the rail bike.
Soon after the bus got filled and it was about 15 or more journey to the rail park.
There were already people waiting to sit the rail bike when we reached.
The instructor probably was explaining the rules and safety regulations but it was in Hangul. Anyway I don't think we'll die.
Fast forward, yay we are off to appreciate the scenic view of the surrounding.

There's 2 seater and 4 seater rail bikes

In a Tunnel

Video:



Video: Pauline caught a video of one Ajussi hi-fiving me while he was transporting the bikes!



We were like panting and all pedaling the bike. Our legs gave up on us HAHHA.
There was a part where it was down slope so it was SHIOK! No need to pedal.
After a long course of pedaling, we reached a point to take a break. There is a food stall and a designated area for us to rest.

Spotted this mini waterfall

A train came and brought us back to the starting point. We went to the outdoor seating so eagerly because we thought, like that more feel.
BUT.... 
Pro: No need to pedal like a dog anymore back
Con: Many tiny flying bugs (like specks of dust) were attacking us
CAN YOU IMAGINE!?!?!? I literally bury my head under Da Jie's coat so my face was resting on her lap.
We hear the Korean meimei's shrieking every now and then ahhaha.
Seriously it landed our clothes and even our hair.
GROSS!!
Really disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the scenery on the way back. Should've sat inside. Damn.

Again.. We took a cab to the zipline destination. I mean, it doesn't cost much if you're sharing one and it saves A LOT OF TIME.
Da Jie & I saw the same thing when we came out of the car: BUNGEE JUMP!!!
It isn't the exact Bungee Jump place that we listed on our itinerary but since there's one here, might as well!
It didn't look high but trust me... When I was at the top & I peeked down, I was chill and cool on the outside but deep inside my very heart, I was like 'SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'.
It cost 40000₩ per person which I think it's reasonable for such extreme sport.
Here's a video Huimin took. Thanks Huimin! :D



The music they play were all so nice & it set the mood right!
When I lean forward, it felt so scary BUT THRILLING AT THE SAME TIME!
Like, when the spring is gonna rebound??
Finally one item off the bucket list ^-^
We then went to eat because I was feeling hungry and then we settle at...

Er.. This is.. Stir-fry Chicken? I forgot what we ordered by the host is super friendly and insist we shouldn't cook ourselves because when we tried to take the spatula to stir, he said, 'nonono, let me do it'.
He even taught us how to eat wrap (even though we know how hehe).
The food was really BOMB. We finished it clean. He came over to cook the food, chatted with us and just so warm the ambience.
After the satisfying meal, we proceeded to buy the tickets to enjoy the zipline down to Nami Island!
It was way higher than the bungee jump and I actually recorded a video.

Namiseom was.. beautiful and gives tranquility.

One of my favourite photo hahaha

Was trying to pose on a long vertical post when...

I landed on my feet but ouch it hurt.
Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to take the ferry to Petite France.. :(
We didn't spent a long time in Nami Island because there's nothing much you can do there except taking pictures and enjoying the surrounding.

A ferry took us back and that concludes our day in Gapyeong :)

SEOUL DAY 9

We left this day with no plans, which is a good thing to do if you are traveling for more than a week because having a rest day means you can sleep in and decide on wherever you feel like going.
So we went on a eating and shopping spree - Bupyeong Underground Shopping Mall & Myeongdong + street food

SEOUL DAY 10

The second last day of our holiday in South Korea, we visited Pauline's Korean friend in her hometown!
Yup she made a Korean friend online and had been chatting since before we plan our Korea trip.
Her name is Hyemi :) Sweet name she has.
The journey from Seoul to Suncheon (her hometown) took 5 hours and in between the coach captain made 2 rest stops.
We only spent 4 hours with her.. Which was short :(
She prepared fruits for us!! So kind of her! :D
Lunch in an authentic Korean grill restaurant where we sat on Ondol floor, which is heated wooden floor.
It was also our first time sitting on the floor eating throughout our whole trip. Luckily we manage to experience that before we fly home :P.
The pork and beef were AMAZINGLY GOOD!!!
Their side dishes filled the entire table, I'm not even kidding.

Waiter setting up the table

Are there restaurants like this in Singapore???

Da Jie and Hyemi

SEE!! I'M NOT JOKING! Their side dishes are tasty too haha

Look at the juicy glorious meat 

We had a hearty meal because the food was good & the company was even better.
It wasn't a problem communicating with Hyemi because her standard of English is pretty good!
She then brought us to this park followed by a garden to see fully bloomed cherry blossoms and pretty flowers~
Short time spent in the park because Hyemi said the garden is very big so we had to use more time exploring the garden than the park.

Just look at it

Photo don't do justice

All these are raw photos. I wished I had edit a little to make it brighter because it look so dull.
And so we cabbed (again) to the garden. Feels great to have a local bringing us to beautiful places and helping us to communicate to the taxi driver.

The garden we went in Suncheon

Can you recognise this? Running Man film here before!

The garden really is a hidden gem in South Korea! I never seen in on the web. Maybe because it's not the capital that's why.
So fortunate to be able to see all the beautiful flowers and scenery!

We thought we couldn't make it back to board the coach, I was so anxious in the cab.
Hyemi communicated with the cabbie and he made like U-turns (I think he isn't allowed to make that turn LOL) and changing of lanes. There was a short jam too. D:
Luckily we made if back on time!
When it's time for us to leave, we thanked Hyemi for her time to be our tour guide & also save our asses time to time before we met her. We hugged and then boarded the bus.
It was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience I ever had. :)

We (shamelessly) filmed a MV while in Busan & Seoul but I only have the one taken in Seoul with me.
2 variations of MV (Cos I can't decide which to post) so here it is!





It was the furthest I have traveled in my life now, & I am sure to beat that in future!
I will definitely come back again, Korea!

For those who would like to see the itinerary of our 15 day trip to South Korea, you can download the file here. :)
I hope it is informative and adds into your plan ;P