6 days Korea Winter Ski (02-07 Dec 2005)

2 Dec 05 (Friday) – ex Singapore to Incheon
Flight OZ752 (Asiana airline)
Departure : 1135pm (Spore time)

Day 1 - 3 Dec 05 (Saturday) – Incheon airport
Arrival : 7.35am (Korea time – they are 1 hour ahead of Spore time)

Met up with the local tour guide, 权金花, at the airport. She speaks fluent Chinese even though she is a Korean. She explained that she worked in China for a number of years before, thus could speak the language well. Altogether, there were only 14 of us in this tour group, consisting of 3 families. To me, I feel it’s a small and comfortable group.

Though still a little tired from the overnight flight as most of us didn’t sleep well on the plane, the tour started nonetheless. First place we visited was at Yang-Ju, the filming site of DaeJangGuem, 大长今，this is the first drama theme park opened to public in Korea. With the help of a map on hand & the picture signs at the various locations, we saw all the drama props, royal dishes, costumes, rooms and areas created for the scenes. I’m quite amazed to find that actually the entire filming area is very small, yet the angles portrayed in the show came across as if it was a very large area. Wow…

Next place we went was the Namsan Hanok Village – 7934 square meters, comprising of 3 parts : traditional Korea garden, Time Capsule Garden and the village itself including 5 traditional Korea Houses or Hanok from the Joseon Dynasty. These houses were moved from their original locations scattered around Seoul and restored completely over here. Through the explanations of the guide, we understood a little better about the culture and ways of living for the Koreans. Very interesting and informative. We even played some of their traditional games.

Time for lunch ! We had 石锅伴饭, which is actually a mixture of rice, bean sprouts, vegetables, seaweed and red chilli paste (not spicy). The end product looks a little messy with all those mixing, but sure taste great ! We also had a pot of steaming hot soup that had cabbage, pork, bean sprouts etc too. It was good to eat steamboat especially with the cold weather outside. Delicious !

After lunch, we were brought to a nearby 2 levels duty-free shopping shop where my dad decided to purchase a set of Korean style metal chopsticks (costs US$10. He regretted later cos he found that it was sold somewhere even cheaper, and with their metal spoons too ! Ha !)

We then proceeded to the Korean Entertainment Hall of Fame, where we saw displays of props and posters of those Korean idols & VCD shows that we are familiar with such as Bae Yong Jun, Chui Zhi You, Winter Sonata posters etc. We took quite a number of photographs with those life-sized posters of the Korean stars ! Hahaha…

After that, our journey took us along a small little lane (cannot remember the exact name of the lane though). This small little lane is well known to be the “pak-tor” lane for many couples, however, it is believed that these couples should not walk all the way to the other end as this would mean that their relationship with each other will end there as well. How true is this belief ? Haha… to me, a relationship should be maintained between the couple, not determined by this small little lane !

Next, we came to the Chongdong Theatre (Traditional Performing Arts) – This theatre is never skipped on the theatergoer list for Korea traditional performing arts. Its popularity is also growing among foreign viewers as it allows them to further understand the culture of Korea. Its main genres of the performing arts are dance with drum (called sangomu), narrative solo songs (pansori), a fan dance (buchaechum), a shaman dance for spiritual cleansing (salpuri), singing to the 12-strings Korean zither (gayageum byeongchang) etc.

In the comfortable cushioned seats and dimly lit theatre, I fell asleep for almost half of the performance (only to be awoken later when the performance got more “vigorous” and loud due to the drums and music.) Actually I noticed that quite a few of our tour group members also fell asleep during the show. The performance lasted 90 mins. It ended on a high note though, as the last performance was simply thrilling and exciting, most of us woke up by then. Haha.

When we came out of the theatre, our guide excitedly informed us that it was snowing lightly outside, all of us rushed outside to the open space and saw small little snow flakes floating down from the sky.. it was so beautiful.. Praise God. I thanked God and prayed silently in my heart that I will see even more snow during these 6 days in Korea.

Finally, dinner time ! One ginseng chicken for each person ! The chicken meat was fresh and tender, the soup was piping hot and tasted great. You can also add additional ginseng wine into the soup for an even stronger taste of the ginseng flavor. There was also rice stuffed inside the chicken and we can even put mee-sua (面线) into the soup as well if we wanted. Fantastic !

Yippee… reached Capital Hotel (Seoul) for our stay tonight. All of us were tired yet excited. Why ? Cos it had started to snow even more by now ! Quickly, we went to our rooms, put down our luggage and met with the other family of 5 (Daddy, Mummy, their 2 sons Lester 11 years, Dylan 9 years and Lay Cheng- sister of Mummy) at the lobby again to go out into the snow ! Suddenly, we were all “transformed” to little kids…. giggly, full of smiles, eager to play snow ! We even walked down to a nearby 7-11 store to buy tidbits and drinks. It was fun and I thank God for snowing so I can experience my 1st snow. Praise Him indeed.

Day 2 - 4 Dec 05 (Sunday)
Morning call : 7am, met at lobby at 7.50am

When we woke up, it had already stopped snowing. But it must have snowed heavily while we were sleeping the night before as the roads & trees were all covered with snow. Beautiful.

Along on the way on the bus, the guide told us that it was the first snow in Seoul for this year. In fact, it seldom snow in Seoul. Oh, I feel so blessed. God knows we were in Korea, God knows we desire to see snow and He provided ! Thank you Daddy God.

For breakfast, we went to a Chinese restaurant where we had 油条 ie dough-sticks (but cold), 烧饼 (slightly warm)，plain white porridge (thank God this was hot), fried cabbage, tofu (not very spicy), kim-chi, and hot soya bean drink (where we had to add sugar ourselves).

As we departed from the restaurant, we played with the snow, made snow balls and threw at each other. It was fun and the snow was so white…

Yong-In Everland Theme Park. That was our first itinerary for the day. In Everland, they had various types of roller coasters, the most challenging being the Suspended Roller-Coaster (didn’t get to play as the equipment was under maintainence, sigh…), the Amazon Express Water Adventure (it snowed the night before and the water was frozen), the Double-loop & Cork-Screw Coaster etc. As our tour package only entitled us entrance to the Theme Park, each of us had to pay an extra US$25 or KW26,000 in order to enjoy those rides in the park.

The guide first took us to watch a 3D show (something similar to our omni theatre), after which, we took a 5 mins gondola ride from the top of the mountain to the lower part of the mountain. My sis and I took plenty of pretty photographs of ourselves while enjoying the scenery. Next we went to the Safari, where we saw how lions and tigers live in harmony with one another in the same big cage (this is the only place where they have that), giraffes, big fluffy owls, elephants, black bears that can do simple actions etc. There were also seals, penguins, white polar bears etc.

As I looked at those animals in the Safari, I was reminded of the verse in the bible that says, if God feeds the birds in the air and clothes the lilies of the fields, aren’t us of more value than them ? God clothed these animals with fur (for eg.) to keep them warm during winter.. if God cares for them, how much more us, human beings, that were made in His very own image ? Food for thought …

We walked up to the higher part of the mountain where we played Viking twice with the 2 brothers, Lester and Dylan before we had lunch on our own at Burger Café (similar to our Burger King). My family ordered the family set (KW18,400) which consists of 2 burgers and 4 pieces of deep-fried chicken, 3 drinks (changed 2 of them to freshly brewed hot coffee for my parents) and 2 packet of french fries. We added an additional order of chicken rings (that looks like doughnuts) in case we do not have enough. The restaurant was warm and comfortable compared to the cool temperature outdoors so much so that we almost didn’t want to leave. Haha…

After lunch, Lester, my sis and I decided to try out the Suspended Roller Coaster but was informed that the equipment had been put under maintainence and had no idea when it will be ready for operation. Not discouraged, we tried another roller coaster and had great fun. Soon, it was time to gather with the rest of the tour group for our next tour location.

Oh by the way, did I mention that this whole Everland Theme Park was owned by Samsung ? Yes, indeed it is. Samsung is BIG in Korea. Praise God.

We got on the bus and we were soon on our way to the Daemyung, Dragon Valley YongPyong Resort for our ski. Along the way, we stopped by a big warehouse-like place to pick up our ski suit (I had orange color, my sis pink, my mum blue and my dad’s top was red while his pants were black), ski gloves and both my dad and I got ski goggles (rental is KW10,000 each) as well to protect our spectacles. With 4 big bags on hands, we got on the bus again and made our way for dinner !

Dinner tonight was steamboat with cabbage, bean sprouts and lots of thin-sliced pork. Delicious. It’s really a good idea to have steamboat or some hot soupy stuffs in cold weather. We ate till we were full before we left to rest at the resort hotel.

Day 3 - 5 Dec 05 (Monday)
Morning call : 0630am, met at lobby at 7.30am

Dressed in our ski suit, armed with our woolen hats and ski gloves, we went for the buffet-style breakfast at the hotel cafeteria. Scrambled eggs ! That made my day really ! Hahaha…

After breakfast, following our guide, we made our way to the ski equipment rental area. First, we measured the length of our feet (need to add at least 10cm on top of the length of our feet). Then we collected our ski shoes, sleigh and the ski handlers. The ski shoes were huge and heavy, not exactly friendly to me… its exterior was made of plastic, but there was a little cushion on the inside though (praise God !). All of us took a while to get our feet into the ski shoes and had to practice walking around in solid ground prior to stepping out to the snow-filled slope. Our legs felt as if they had some dumb-bells attached to it, super heavy.

Ok, so we walked slowly all the way to the middle of the beginner slope, where our guide was. Our guide taught us the basics of skiing :-
1) how to place our sleighs in order to avoid them from sliding downwards the slope (ie placing them in horizontally or vertically against the direction of the slope),
2) how to attach & release our shoes to/from the 2 sleighs (one for each feet),
3) how to stop (bend your knees closer to each other, which will make the 2 sleighs point towards each other),
4) how to rest by squatting (actually pointing your buttocks backwards, so you actually rest on your lower calves instead of on your thighs),
5) how to fall down (fall on your butt instead of forward as you may hit your head),
6) how to get up after you had fallen.

Yeah.. all set to go…

After numerous tries and some falls, all of us managed to ski reasonably well, praise God. Even my parents (esp my mum, my dad fell down many times) could ski even though they are in their 60s already. Lester learnt really fast, soon he was climbing higher and higher up the slope for a greater thrill. After about 1.5 hours of fun ski-ing and falling down, all of us decided to call it a day and went back to the ski equipment rental area where we returned all the equipment, collected our shoes, washed up and proceeded to lunch.

Lunch was not included in the travel package, but as we were all too tired to think of where to have lunch, we decided to let our tour guide take charge in arranging lunch for us. Of cos, we had to pay her for that (KW10,000 each). She arranged for us to have 水饺火锅, meat dumpling steamboat with cabbage, seaweed etc. We were all hungry after that morning’s “ski workout”, so it tasted real good and fulfilling.

After lunch, we went back to our rooms, packed up our stuffs and got ready to leave the YongPyong ski resort to another resort in Daemyung for our spa.

We arrived at that resort at almost 3 pm, changed and proceeded for our next activity at Daemyung Aqua World – the year round water park. Aqua world facilities include the Aqua Health Pool Zone which include hydro jets pools, the Amusement Zone which includes the mineral water bath, event bath, couple bath, cave bath and the Swimming pool Zone. There was even an outdoor pool. To enjoy the above activities, we will need swimwear, and swimming cap, however, rental for them is also available at the counter prior to entrance (at a price of cos, KW4000 for swimwear – KW2000 will be refunded upon return, KW2000 for swimming cap – KW1000 will be returned upon return).

We first put our shoes in a locker, then with the same shoe locker key, we looked for the same locker number further in for you to put your clothes. Then you are to strip naked (yes, u didn’t read wrongly, it’s naked), and walk to the bathing area, carrying just your swimwear and cap. (The reason for the bath is that you clean yourself up before you go into the pools, which are actually naturally spring water).

Yes, there were towels available, but they were placed at the end of the longish locker room… so its either your make a dash to the bathroom or you walk out of the spa. We (as in my family and the ladies of the 2 families in my tour group), made a lot of noise as we were surprised and very shy at this arrangement (thank God the guys were separated from the ladies, we wouldn’t want them to see us “naked”.. hahaha… we would only meet them again at the pool inside, already “fully-dressed”).

After quite a long time of “struggles”, “strategizing” and “discussions” (giggling and laughing inclusive) among the ladies, we decided to make a dash for the bathroom. For me, I decided that since I was going to take off my spectacles and leave it in the locker, I would not be able to see who is looking at me (neither could I see others as well, unless they are very near, hahaha), so I decided to make the dash ! Brave hor ? hahahaa….

Finally we were clean, fully dressed (swimsuit and cap) and we proceeded to the pools… the pools temperature were as high as 43deg ! So hot ! Cautiously, we started by immersing our feet and legs into the hot water, then waist down, then fully submerged till our neck ! I tell you, the feeling is great ! There were 2 pools, one red, another green, supposedly with ginseng and herbs in it, both 41deg. Another pool just for legs (with strong hydro jets inside), that was 43deg. Then 2 swimming pools (with strong hydro jets Jacuzzis, where u could lie down and enjoy), these pools were 32deg each. We literally “jumped” from pool to pool as we wanted to try all of them. Haha…

Then came the final challenge, we decided to go to the OUTDOOR pool. Ready, opened the door, dashed out and jumped into the pool (41 deg). Cool yar ? hahahaha… It was not as bad as what you think, really, personally I find it very comfortable, soothing and not very cold outside.

After almost 2.5 hours spent at the various pools and the sauna (we went into the 76deg sauna, there was an even more hot one at 81deg !), we washed up (all toiletries provided at the spa), and its time for dinner again !

Tonight, we had seafood steamboat for dinner ! Though not a lot of seafood (compared to local delights where we had so many kinds of seafood that we are really spoilt for choices !), coupled with the usual cabbage, seaweed etc, the soup tasted really delicious. We finished up the whole pot.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the hotel we stayed tonight faces the famous Mount Soraksan, 雪月山，we even took a group photograph the next morning before we left the place. The rooms were Japanese “Tatami” style, which is sleeping on the floor (with mattress and blankets of cos). It was very comfortable for me cos I’m so used to sleeping on the mattress on the floor back home. Praise God. Had a very good rest that night.

We were told to rest early that night as the following day’s activities would be quite packed. For that, our morning call will be even earlier (at 0600am) compared to previous days. So that night, we all guai guai (ie obediently) slept early. Hee hee…

Thoughts : No snow tonight…

Day 4 - 6 Dec 05 (Tuesday)
Morning call : 0600am, met at lobby at 7.00am

Breakfast was at the hotel cafeteria. Normal food.

But guess who I saw there ? I saw Jang Dong Gun (张东健)! A famous Korean actor ! Okie, it’s not him lar… it’s his lookalike (maybe brothers ! hahahaha). And they really do look alike cos I checked with the other tour members and they agreed. This guy is actually the local (ie Korean) tour guide for another tour group from Chan Brothers. He speaks Chinese too. Aiyo.. so blessed ah… that group. Pity I too shy to ask him to take a photo with me, if not, I’ll surely post it up here for all of you to see.

We were brought to visit the Myongdong Shopping Street, where we bought some really delicious and sweet strawberries. Back home, the strawberries we had usually tasted sourish, but those sold here were very sweet and much bigger in size. This is also the same street featured in the show, Winter Sonata, where the male & female lead was supposed to meet for their first date, but the male lead met an accident along the way. It's a small little street only. Only about 15 mins (max) to walk from end to end.

Next, we proceeded to Chuncheon region to take a boat ride to Nami Island. It’s the island where they filmed the popular show, Winter Sonata. Everywhere were posters and pictures of the male & female lead of this show. The guide even took us to witness the two rows of trees where the lovers in the show strolled in during their courting days. We took many photographs here… a very serene big park.

Time for lunch again ! Today we had a change from steamboat to the local specialty, Chuncheon Hotplate Chicken. It is basically a hotplate where they initially fried chicken cubes, cabbage, 年高，bean sprouts, spring onions, seaweeds etc, then after which, rice (with a little more oil + green vegetables) would be poured in to be fried and mixed with the rest of the ingredients. You can wrap the chicken & the cabbage etc using the green leafy vegetables provided and eat them like that too. Cool ! The whole hotplate fried rice turned out to be really tasty. Later we found out from the guide that the rice was actually harvested this year and this place is famous for the high quality of their rice output. Praise God for blessing the fields in Korea with such good produce.

After lunch, it was a 3 hours bus ride from Chuncheon back to Seoul. We visited their Korean Ginseng, Dong-Cong-Xia-Cao and Amethyst Factory. All three are certified by the Korean government and purchases had to be made using our passports.

By 5pm, the sky was already totally dark. We continued another round of shopping at Shinchon Fashion Shopping Street. Nothing much to get as most were winter clothings and not suitable for the weather locally. However, my sister did manage to get a ear musk for her boyfriend, and some accessories still.

Dinner tonight was the famous Korean BBQ chicken. First you put the marinated chicken slices onto the BBQ slate (which is over a portable gas stove), when one side is about 80% cooked, you flip them to the other side, when the other side is also about 80% cooked, you can start cutting them into smaller pieces using the scissors provided, then further cook those smaller pieces a little bit more and you are done ! You can wrap the meat and eat them together with the green leafy vegetables provided too.

My soles of my shoes came off as I was leaving the restaurant after dinner. Thank God I brought along another pair of shoes in my haversack and thus could immediately change while in the bus before our next stop.

We were then brought to Dongdaemun Market, in particular, the Dotto Shopping Centre. It’s a huge building with many levels of shopping. Finally bought some souvenirs here for friends too, praise God. Other than that, nothing really interesting, clothes sold here were mostly for winter season and sizes were a little small.

After about an hour of shopping, we were brought back to the same hotel we stayed in our first day in Korea, Capital Hotel (Seoul), for the night. There would not be any morning call the next day, but we would meet at the lobby at 11am to check out and proceed for lunch before our flight at 4.20pm.

Thoughts : I had not seen snow after that first day, maybe God has forgotten. Tomorrow would be my last day in korea…

Day 5 - 7 Dec 05 (Wednesday)
Met at lobby at 11.00am

Finally, last day in Korea ! Mixed feelings actually. Eager to get home, but still wanting to stay and enjoy the cool weather here.

Had Japanese Udon noodles for lunch at a restaurant near the airport, then went 2 levels down to purchase some local foodstuffs as gifts for families and friends. Then off we went to the airport !

Oh yes, before that, we asked the photographer who was with us if he had brought the photographs he had been taking for us all these while during the trip. The photos turned out really beautiful although it was his first time doing this kind of job. We blessed him with more money than what it was due. (yar, fyi, its KW5000 per photo).

Guess what ? While we were waiting outside the gates to board the plane, we saw snow !!! Hey, God didn’t forget about my prayers. He heard and remembered ! Praise you Daddy God. I felt so blessed as I looked at the snow flakes falling down outside of the glass. Though I couldn’t play in the snow then, still I thank God for them. God’s so good, isn’t He ?

7 Dec 05 (Wednesday) – ex Incheon to Singapore
Flight OZ751 (Asiana airline)
Departure : 4.20pm (Korea time)
Arrival : 9.45pm (Spore time)

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Things to thank God for :-

Want to thank God for blessing my family with this trip. For giving us so much fun together. Its been a long time since our whole family traveled together. Now we plan to at least have one annual family trip together too.

We also thank God for the travel package my dad chose for this trip. It wasn’t very rush and though we probably did not cover a lot of locations, the pace was just nice for all of us in the tour group. Also, that the tour package was inclusive of items such as the rental of the ski suit, ski equipment, ski gloves etc. Other friends who went to korea for such trips, these were not included and they had to pay on their own. I was told it cost about KW30k-40k per person.

We thank God for an understanding tour guide, such as she will know to stop for toilet breaks if we had any bus journeys that were more than 3 hours.

We thank God for the good foods we had. My dad is a little picky with food (he prefers Chinese food anytime), especially as he had a very bad experience when he toured korea more than 10 years ago. But this time round, he was ok with all the foods (though he still avoided the kimchi and seaweeds).

Thank God for giving us wisdom to purchase the thick jackets, scarfs and woolen hats (for our parents especially) as we didn’t know we would need them so much. Also for the numerous heat packs, hand warmers, feet warmers etc. They were such a blessing.

And so much more, the list is never-ending..God is just so good… Thank you Daddy God.