Moving on, we went to Samsoo Herb Garden the next day after breakfast. I had the most bizarre lunch when we had to munch on pretty flowers and consume potpourri water (I felt like Dino the dinosaur). We had to mix different sauces, add in the rice with the flowers plus chilli and mix them all before eating so these is how it should look like:
Step 1: Everything looking nice and pretty...
Step 2: Add the sauces provided with the shredded chicken and the rice. Notice the potpourri water on the right.
Step 3: Voila! Rojak: Korean style!
Everland Theme Park, owned by Samsung was quite nice too. As we had to complete our Big Five ticket, we had to plan which rides to take, partly cos we had a limited time to complete them. Safari World would be good for animal lovers. We actually could see the bears, lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes up close as we drove into their enclosure and the bus driver cum trainer made them perform tricks. We could not see the Li-ger (cross breed of lion and tiger) as they could not withstand winter temperatures.
Safari World
Took the Ferris Wheel (quite boring, could not feel it moving, that's how slow it was...), some simulator ride which was not worth it cos it was narrated in Korean, the Hurricane (a revolving sphere moving viking style), the Viking Ship and the roller coaster. I didn't realised that the roller coaster was the type that could go upside down until I was happily strapped into my seat ( my brother pointed it out to me then, there were not one but TWO complete 360 degree loops to overcome! Eeeek!) So, I screamed until I felt like vomiting the whole way through. Even though my eyes were closed three quarters of the time, I could feel myself being lifted up when I was overturned TWICE but it was quite a shiok feeling when I reflected upon it later. Both my younger siblings took the ride and I'm ashamed to say that out of the 3 of us, I was the only one who screamed (you must understand that I'm not quite the dare devil when it comes to such things). Headed for Seoul after that.
Changdeokgung Palace was quite OK, learnt a fair bit about Korea's history. Really pity the palace guards who had to stand motionless for at least 2 hours in the hot sun, under the constant, cruel scrutiny of us curious tourists.
Shopping at Dongdaemun followed and lunch was Ginseng Chicken.
Took a 5-minute journey by ferry to Nami Island, the filming site for "Winter Sonata."
this really made me feel a sense of liberation...
If you watched "Winter Sonata", I'm sure you'll be familiar with the following scene.
If I had watched it beforehand, I may be able to better appreciate the place even more...Dinner was nice as usual...
this really made me feel a sense of liberation...If you watched "Winter Sonata", I'm sure you'll be familiar with the following scene.If I had watched it beforehand, I may be able to better appreciate the place even more...Dinner was nice as usual...
Ray, my aunty's friend's son was really very adorable...played with him for the whole 2-hour journey by coach to the ski resort.
Vivaldi Park's Pine Hotel was much better than the hotel in Seoul which we bunked in for a night. Slept on tatami mats...
The other highlight of the trip was definitely the skiing. At first it felt weird but after awhile, the feeling is just indescribable: imagine the feel of the cool wind against your skin as you rush down the slope...
This is the only time during the trip where I actually saw my brother stealing a grin at the camera...
This is also the first time which I witnessed the vulnerable side of my brother. As he fell down quite a couple of times, he could not get up (it was really quite challenging for a beginner to get up after falling) so he had to wait until Richard had to go over to him and give him a hand (in the meantime, he would just sit in a mermaid-like position and grin at us, who were watching him in his helpless state which was quite cute...heh heh....). The adults left for lunch after 2 hours of skiing and so my siblings and I embarked on our arduous journey of trudging uphill for the umpteenth time (you had to pay to use the ski lift). Upon reaching, my sister could not attach her boots to the skis and we spent half an hour to an hour trying to figure out the problem (the ski patrol was utterly useless cos he just stood there watching us and skiing away after a moment). In the end, the poor girl had to make her way downhill by foot...
Took the gondola ride after that to the expert slope (they are really good man...otherwise they can't be called experts right...) The slope was really steep as you can see...
The view there was magnificent too...
ski lifts and gondolas to overcome the arduous climb uphill for the experts...
The next day we passed by the presidential Blue House and had a steamboat cum stone pot lunch.
Kimchi-making was not bad...tried on Korean traditional costumes after that...
