korea day three

lotte world

today was a blast! it's friday and we went to lotte world!

the views are nothing compared to USJ's but the rides here are definitely far more interesting than those childish disneyland rides!

i would say lotte world is just the right size, not being too ridicously huge like USJ which makes you go "hurry hurry! we'll never be able to finish all the rides at this pace!", making you feel like it'd be a waste of your super expensive entrance ticket if you are unable to play everything (which is the definite outcome in the end)

the ride i never got on =(

but i'm still satisfied tee hee XD

i got to sit at the front most of the rides today!!

nope.. that guy isn't the one whose picture i'm trying to take

this one...this (almost) filthy traitor

the 3 of us said to ride the bungee drop together but when sze yang and me lined up dong sheng secretly sneaked off!

by the time we realised he was sitting there smirking ==

after a series of "you traitor!" "we'll tell everyone about your betrayal in fb" threats, his conscious must have gotten to him and he lined at the back =)

this one drags you high high then drop then up, drop times 3

it reminded me of a similiar ride in genting which i recall myself screaming then halfway during the drop down the speed must have been so fast that my voice wouldn't come out.

i was prepared to scream off my head this time but 

this ride, like all other lotte world rides as i'm about to find out - is thrilling rather scary

i'm not sure how lotte world does it but good job!!

most of the rides have just the right level of scariness to be thrilling

letting us all get off the rides laughing rather than " i will NEVER ride on this monster again" gasps

 

it was love at first sight

gyro drop *sigh*

gyro drop not only swings you higher than those pirates ships, it spins at its own axis 360!!

i thought "this is it!!"

which i was to later find out that looks can be misleading

this has to be the most unscary ride of scary looking rides out there =(

i didn't even scream

wonder if it's because it has two wall like things beside your head allowing you to only see your front

it wasn't scary at all and simply feel like the scene in front of you is changing on its own

it was interesting to see the castle at its 90degrees ^^

sze yang's state after gyro drop

apparently it's my fault for blurting out "no feel de?!" halfway through the ride making him paiseh to scream out thus - leading him to become ill?

haha i will remember this scene and goad sze yang about it for life! 

don't ask me.. i also don't know what pose this is haha

the halloween parade... made me reminisce that it was around this time last year i went to see Universal Studio Japan's halloween parade. the lighting, floats at USJ were far more 'wow!' and enchanting but i like how lotte world included a bit of dancing into their parade

was kind of suprised they hired ang-mohs for the parade but soon found out the reason when i see the koreans in the costumes..

something just feel amiss when its asians doing the ang-moh cartoons roles. some of the korean performers just put on a black face and didn't smile at all!

like genting highland, lotte world has an indoor and outdoor amusement park

we originally planned to leave the indoor park for night (when the lighting would be more pretty) but ended up alternating between the indoor and outdoor everytime the sun comes out

a museum in lotte world

which is again actually very interesting but i just don't know how to 'xin shan'

dunno who took this photo but i love it!

i love this view! i love the purple and pink light illuminating the castle's bottom part making it look so magical!

but again honestly this is the only nice view in lotte world

 overall i had to say i really really love the rides here! none of them are actually very scary. they're more to thrilling and exciting ^^!

and thumbs up for the outdoor roller coaster!!

its the best of all the roller coasters i have ever ridden on (not that i have ridden much =P- genting, usj, and this time).

while most roller coasters start slow and leisurely brings you up up then all of a sudden - dooowwn, this one goes high speed right from the beginning.

we were all laughing when we got off the ride

thank you dong sheng and sze yang *^-^* - for making today so thrilling for me!

things just wouldn't be the same if i was screaming alone

korea day two

Mt Namsan, Myeongdong

dear diary,

it's a beautiful cloudy day! the sun isn't out to make us black yay!!!

the railway system is a lot simplier than japan's so we aren't having any problem navagating around

this card is called a T money card! i insist you buy it if you ever go seoul. it saves you tons of hassle from buying tickets each time you ride the subway or bus. the card itself costs only 3000won then you can charge it up as much as you like. we ended up using 20000won for this 10day trip. plus i'm not really sure how it exactly works but - if you transfer to bus after using the subway with this card, the bus fare becomes free

most of the time the fare only and minimumly costs 900 won (rm2.4). and maybe plus another 200won if you travel super far.

so glad the guys like taking photos as much as we gals do ^^

our first stop - korean folk village

which personally i don't really find interesting since i don't care for heritage and old buildings. but i am aware it would be such a waste to come all the way to korea without visiting this kind of rich-of-heritage places so...

the place is actually very nice

but it's just not really my cup of tea

choi ah?! blekkk

busket 37 rubbins...hmmm

tasted very nice actually

a place called oh! zemidong which is why we are all doing the 'Oh!' look.

it's a small place where they have books, computers for you to surf net and tvs. all for free! it's being  mentioned as one of the interesting place around mt namsan. but honestly?.... nothing to see really. might appreciate the place if i live nearby though.

we gave up our original plan to hang around mt namsam till night falls for the seoul tower night view

and jumped into a taxi to go to myeongdong

 which is just the next station

its easier and cheaper to take taxi with the numbers of people we have when we travel short distance

myeongdong~~

zhong ing wins! the coolest among us all.

never came across my mind to reject rain

oh, diary myeongdong is so niceeeee!!!

it's a street with lots of lots of make-up shops!

to our suprise, most of the salesgirls are fluent in either chinese or japanese

didn't think i would be speaking japanese in another country other than japan

all the shops give out free samples like they're er.. free!

i was practically dragged off the street by the face shop salesgirl who pushed a small basket with a free mask onto my arms and bustled me into the shop.

i offered no resistance XD

bought masks and hanskin bb cream (supposedly famous bb cream brand in korea) for you sistas! (excluding ah bi of course). would like to pass you guys earlier but seems like it'd have to wait till next year

in the evening, we watched a non-verbal show called nanta which is expensive (50000won) but worth every single penny. it was the hightlight of our day, if not, our trip! it's a comedy story of 4 chefs preparing for a wedding reception as they performed music with kitchen utensils, brooms.

 AND the way they engage the audience was hilarious, absolutely hilarious! if you buy the front seats 60000won there's a chance you might be dragged onto the stage. i would definitely recommend anyone going to seoul to watch it!!

that's it for day 2. gnite diary.

korea day one

Dear diary,

i went to korea for 10 days! i don't know how i'm gonna tell you all the details without without being too lengthy but o well, let's give it a shot!

These are the 7 korea trip members, introducing from left: wei ling, carine, me, sze yang, lydia, dong sheng, zhong ing.

and oh, i forgot to mention diary but yours truly is the "organizer" of this trip. hehe didn't think i did too too bad for my first time! 

and honestly not that i did much either. searched for plane tickets, chose the place we stayed at, looked up interesting places in seoul. i didn't even plan the schedule so every night before we head to bed we just kind of have this "so where should we go tomorrow?" discussion.

A quick search on the internet shows that japan airlines are expensive so i booked us korean airlines. the return tickets costed about 36000yen which would be around rm1300? 

lunch in plane. no set meals to choose from as MAS would offer but no complains there! didnt expect to get a meal for a 2 hours ride.

booking the plane tickets was one of the most tedious process. only credit cards are accepted for the payment plus you must present the credit card at the check-in counter.

wouldnt be so complicated if my credit card didnt limit students on how much they can spend per month. the fact that i cant use a third party credit card didn't really help either

 i got so paranoid that we all wouldnt be able to go korea because i would forget to bring my visa card along that i ended up checking my purse every few hours!

 must be phobia from the time i went back malaysia during spring holidays. i only realised i didn't have my IC and driving license with me when i was in the train on the way to airport ==

riding the bus to "kyungnam wedding hall" stop (where our inn is supposed to be at) was one of the most exciting ride i ever had in my life.

the bus driver doesnt really announce the name of the stops (we got too spoilt from japan's immaculate service that provides a digital signboard flashing the name of the stop, the next stop etc) so it was a ride we had no idea when to get off.

we could only estimate from the length of time it's supposed to take to reach hongdae area (40 minutes).

in the end we took our chance and followed an ang moh at getting off the bus.

"look! that ang moh's getting off here"

"then this must be the right stop!"

on what basis i have no idea... but we did got off at the right stop. phew...

a short walk and...

the place we are to stay for the next 9 nights: mr kim's friends guesthouse. nice place, pleasant staff! would have definitely sucked if we had to spend all 10 days at some lousy place.

I booked us all 7 in the same 8-bed dormitory room. a decision that i'm glad i made. it was a lot easier to bond this way.

i find the staff's reply so hilarious that i couldn't stop laughing. or maybe it was me who started the 'informal-ness' with the (*^-^*) face?

anyway upon our arrival, they attempted to charge us the original rate 20000won (rm53) until i mentioned about the 10% discount.

our 1st meal in korea: the famous grilled meat!

by the time we arrived at the inn it was already around 6pm so we decided to just explore the area our inn's located in: hongdae, one of seoul's most lively area!

shopping~ 

oh diary, this is one of the things i love korea so much about! it was around 11pm already but all the shops are still OPEN and the whole atmosphere is still ever so lively! i just can't stand the japanese closing their shops at 8pm.

it was in front of a shop. it looked so cute and we couldnt decide whether it was real or not. attempted the old-fashioned way: look at its body to see if its moving up and down from breathing.

it did

but it was a doll in the end

how the times have changed..