Korea Trip - Part 1.

When me and my mom were thinking about traveling somewhere, Korea wasn't exactly our first choice. We wanted to travel to Hokkaido, but it was recently hit by an earthquake. My mom was also interested in traveling to Europe, but I didn't really want to spend so much money.

But when we were looking around at the MATTA fair, we asked about trips to Korea. After discussing with a few travel agents, we've decided that's where we'll go.

I've always preferred traveling without following a tour, but this time we're going with one. I guess I was lazy to do my own research, and unlike Japan, I understand only a little about their country and culture. Having a bus taking us everywhere sounded great too.

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DAY 1
We were leaving our house to the airport when we got the news that our flight was delayed. I remember playing with my friends Overcook 2 for a bit before heading out again. It was close to midnight.

We departed from KLIA2 to Gimhae airport in Busan. When we arrived, I learned that our tour consisted of 20 people, and I was the only one below 50, probably. Our tour leader is a young girl, and our tour guide was a Korea man.

Our tour guide referred himself as Ah Bao. He definitely made an impression by greeting us in a suit. He looked more like a businessman than a tour guide, and he spoke to us in Chinese.

I'll be honest and say that I didn't have a really good first impression with Ah Bao. He asked us to always give him our attention, and that meant no looking at your phone or out of the bus windows when he's talking on the bus. You can't walk around without his permission and basically you have to obey him

I get it, handling a group of tourists can be difficult. If we listened to him, things would run smoothly for him, but we wouldn't have much freedom. I understand it, though.

Did I mention I was intimidated by him?

Gwishin incoming.

Our first destination was the Busan tower. We got a great view of the city, but that was pretty much it. The Overwatch nerd in me was kinda happy, because I was in the city that inspired the D.VA animated short and three beautiful game maps (beautiful, but not really that fun).

Then we were brought to Nampodong street for the street food and shopping. After that, we stopped by Jagalchi seafood market. We didn't try any raw seafood because our tour guide assumed our middle-aged people tour wouldn't like it, which is true. But I'm disappointed inside, lmao.

We had seafood for dinner, including lobster. Lots of shellfish. Not bad. After that we went back to our hotel and that's our first day in Korea.

DAY 2
Breakfast was interesting because they served rambutan at the buffet. It was terrible.

Our first destination of that day was Oryukdo Skywalk near the sea. It wasn't a long platform so it wasn't much of a big deal. However, there was a trail around the hills there that you can check out. We didn't have the time for that, though.

Our next stop was (what they claimed is) Korea's most beautiful temple, Haedong Yonggungsa temple. It's located by the sea and it is beautiful. Inside the temple you can pray to different deities at different parts of the temple.

I find the underground space to get the holy water was the more interesting part of the temple. Other than that, there's nothing really different from a usual Buddhist temple. Expect lots of stairs.

Haeundae beach was our next stop. If it was in the summer, the beach would be packed. But it's autumn so it's just a beach. We spent only 15 minutes there, 'cause it's just a beach.

After having Korean 'bak kut teh' for lunch, we went to the Gamcheon Culture Village. The village was built in the 1950s for North Korean refugees, but turned into a tourist attraction when they repainted the houses with bright colours.

 I L I O S

You can find snacks, souvenirs and plenty of photo spots in the village. The mascot of the village, which is a blonde boy and a fox(?), is very popular, and you can't even see his face, lmao.

We caught a plane to Jeju island after visiting the village. After landing, we had a delicious dinner where we had Atlantic mackerels and some two year-old kimchi. It was sooooo good. It was also a tour member's birthday, so we had cake.

After dinner, we went to see the Yongduam Rock, also known as the Dragon Head Rock. We went during the night but there's a giant spotlight shining on it. I think it depends on the person, but not everyone can see the shape of the dragon. I could.

DAY 3

We started the day with some intense cycling action at Jeju's Rail Bike Park. You would have four person in something like a carriage, and you would cycle along a rail. You get to see some scenery while cycling. The view's not bad, but gets old after a while.

We dropped by an orange farm after our tour guide promised us earlier in the day. It's not really the season to harvest oranges yet, but you can pick and eat them, they're just not sweet yet.

He brought us to the farm that belonged to someone he knew, but told us to pick the oranges secretly. In other words, we stole the owner's oranges. They're not sweet. Someone also got caught stealing.

After all that, we went to the Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, a UNESCO heritage site. It's not a mountain, but a tuff cone formed by hydrovolcanic eruptions. If you didn't get that, let's just say it's a rock.

I recognized this 'Sunrise Peak' from watching Korean variety shows, so I was pretty excited.

Our tour guide challenge us to climb halfway to the top, and whoever gets there before he leaves will get some kind of present. I couldn't say no to that, because I was in a tour filled with a bunch of old people.

So, we climbed. The trail was actually quite steep, and later leading to steeper stairs. I wasn't athletic to begin with and I placed fourth. I continued hiking to the top at my own pace. I later learned that most of the tour members reached halfway to the top, including a 84 year old uncle!

During the hike back down, you can see Jeju's town, the mountains, and the sea, which is pretty nice.

We had black pork for lunch, which is another thing I was looking forward to. During this trip, I learned to appreciate Korean food more. I'm not a fan of spicy food, but I find some kimchis delicious now.

Jeju's Brick Campus was our next stop. We were told that there's nothing much, and I believed it. I was expecting it to be more suitable for kids and something like Legoland. Oh, but I was so wrong.

It was actually a museum displaying Lego art. I never realized how you can create such amazing art until I walked into that place. There was nothing you can do to stop the creativity of these artists. I freaked out when I saw an art piece inspired by The Last of Us, Lego Overwatch heroes, and the Thousand Sunny.

I could have spend more time browsing the art pieces, but we weren't given enough time. After having some snacks at their cafe, we went to our next destination: the Teddy Bear Museum, Teseum.

I don't recall seeing really old teddy bears in this museum, but I saw lots of cute teddy bears. It's just a place where there's lots of teddy bears of all sizes. Great place to take pictures if you like teddy bears. I think the only thing really worth looking is the Hear Bear, which costs 1.12 billion Korean Won.

We watched an art performance called The Painters: HERO as our last activity of the day. The performers are only four dudes, and they created different artworks in a short amount of time, paired with music and some dance choreography.There's no dialogue in this performance so you don't have to worry about understanding anything.

As a former dancer and a person that likes drawing, this show was such a great experience. The entire show was entertaining and funny. The blonde performer reminds me of Prompto.

For dinner, we had seafood. We watched as we cooked abalones alive.

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Read Part 2.

Read Part 3.