moments of stupidity
In many ways, the Graduation trip to South Korea from the 17th to 26th May holds much significance to me. It is the mark of an end of a phase in life and the beginning of another; as well as a celebration of friendship bonds and youthful moments under the sun. This is more than just another summer vacation destination. This is the first time that I've traveled so long, packed so much and spent so much on one trip.
And the end result was 10 days of non-stop action and adventure in Busan, Jeju and Seoul. Let me just recall the most memorable moments of the trip for me.
1. The journey to Korea itself is already an experience by itself. In an effort to save money, we booked the cheapest ticket possible from the Natas fair a few months back. Our route was to fly from Singapore to HK to Taipei then to Incheon from 8am to 9pm, tt's one whole day of flying! And since our 1st stop was Busan, we gamely bought an overnight bus ticket right after the flights. The driver drove at a breakneck speed, which reminded me of the bus ride from Redang to SG in 2008, but we slept through it all. That got us to Busan at 3am in the morning. And since the metro was closed and we didn't want to spend on a cab, we ended up eating and slacking in the station till 5am, took the 1st train to our motel, left our luggage there and went out to the fish market. It was so tiring for us that we ended up sleeping in Starbucks in the middle of the day! But Busan was well worth it. We had a huge seafood feast (courtesy of our motel owner), paid a visit to Beomeosa temple to see the Buddha birthday celebration preparations and climbed to a pretty high point to get a breathtaking view of Busan.
Buddha Birthday preperations at Beomeosa
2. Then it was off to Jeju! That journey to the guesthouse is another adventure. We rented a car upon touchdown for 2 days to explore Jeju on our own. Because it was at night and we didn't know how to work the Korean GPS, a 9min journey became an hour and we were left starving when we reached the motel at 11pm. All we could do was quickly get to the nearest GS25 (their 7-11) and eat instant noodles. I'll never forget that meal. When we entered, there was a god-freaking patient eating noodles at the dining corner, completed with his IV drip! We reckon he must be from the hospital next door and the kitchen must be closed for the night. We followed suit and ate in GS25 too. Gosh, it cannot get anymore convenient to choose the noodles, walk 5 steps, pay, walk 5 steps, cook, sit down, eat, throw, walk 5 steps to get a drink from the cooler, walk 5 steps, pay...
3. The 1st evening in Jeju was an eventful one. after one whole day of sightseeing, we were happily driving back to Jeju town when it suddenly got all foggy and cold and windy. It seems like some South China Sea wind blown over the coastline and the whole Jeju is covered in fog. Visibility was so bad that the guys could not see beyond 50m of the road. All flights out of Jeju were cancelled. We were pretty lucky that the fog lifted the next day and all returned to normal. I would say we got lucky quite a number of times during the trip.
This was how foggy it was
4. My favourite attraction on Jeju got to be Jeongbang falls, the only waterfall in Asia that falls into the open ocean. We were able to enter the 'pond' (for the lack of a better word) that the water fell into. The water was chilly but the sight of the falls from there was unforgettable. I always marvel at the limitless amount of water that flows from a waterfall.
5. On the 2nd night/morning, we decided to go to sunrise peak to catch the, well, sunrise. Considering we slept at 11pm the previous night, it was a hell of a waking up routine and drive starting from 2am to catch the sun at 5am. And i puked like shit coz of motion sickness. Not the best memories or the most unforgettable scene, but we all made it to the top and it was the best feeling ever!
6. Singing Disney classics under the Broccoli tree
7. Seeing Jay Chou's doppel-ganger
99.99% resemblance
8. It was raining when we visit Ewha Women's University (FQ's heaven) shopping area. This area had the cheapest items (not very cheap actually) and numerous boutiques with pretty nice clothes/shoes/bags. Our best find got to be this warm, cozy vintage shop at the corner of a small street. It was pure joy to rummage through the racks of clothes and bags of belts and scarves, try on vintage pieces and inhale the smell of antiques and old books. And it was freezing! We ended up cold, wet and hungry. So cold that we were able to blow puffs of condensation at night. But I take the chills over the sweltering heat in Singapore anytime.
9. The last day on Seoul was spent taking up a day tour to Panmunjom, the north-most town where the NK-SK border was located. It is an interesting coincidence that both my summer trips are visits to countries where 2 major wars happened less than a century ago; and both itineraries include visits to sites related to the wars. Due to the high tension between the two Koreas at that point of time caused by the submarine attack incident, even the tour guide and accompanying soldier cannot confirm that we can enter some of the attractions until we are right at the doorstep. But if I had to choose a time to visit the border, it will be when the tensions are at an all time high - the risk and excitement is sickly exhilarating. Haha! The visits to the different site, history briefing by the tour guide and Korean war history crash course by KY and nic did got me interested enough to return home to wiki about the Korean war.
DMZ
10. The food! omg! where do I begin? The restaurants that we went to were awesome! We asked the locals we met on the best place to eat and they often point us to their favourite restaurants. We sometimes had a hard time communicating with them coz they do not speak a single word of english. But this also means that the place is not touristy or commercialised at all, which is something I prefer a lot. The irony is that I hope to work in this industry and I will be play a part in commercialising and touristy-fying a place. Anyway, the recommended places always turns out great and we really feasted to our hearts content.
And there's the street food in the shopping districts and along any random road. It was so fun taking the plunge to bite into something that looks sinfully good and having the flavours bursting in our mouth.
As per the HCM trip, I shall just let my favourite photos chronologically showcase the best parts of the trip.
