travel: South Korea 2013 Day 5: Nami Island, Seoul: MyeongDong

Nami Island is arguably one of the must-not-be-missed places when you are at South Korea, so off we went today.
We took the subway (holy&@^*! It is far!);
How to get there from where we are staying:
From Anguk station (line 3, orange color) -> Jongno-3-ga (line 3, orange color) -> transfer to line 1, dark blue color all the way to Hoegi Station -> pay attention to the signage in front of you as soon as you alighted you want to choose the rail heading to 'Sangbong', alight at Sangbong station -> pay attention to the signage again, you want to choose the rail heading to 'Gapyeong', alight at Gapyeong station.
Between Sangbong and Gapyeong, it takes about one hour. So the trip all up will take around 2 hours.

Gapyeong Station

At  Gapyeong station, take one of the taxis (there should be a lot outside the station) and just tell the driver 'Namiseom'. He'll know.
Taxi fare costs KRW2500-3000

We skipped the ferry and chose the more with less queue (but more expensive) ZipWire - a cable seat ride that took less than 5 minutes to reach the island.

Ride costs KRW38000 per person. Worth it? Once in a lifetime only.

Now I am sure Nami island would look absolutely beautiful during winter time when everything would be covered in snow and ice (and the cold! the cold!) or autumn when it should be covered in gold and red hues. 

Although it still has its charms when we were there, the place looked pretty barren as not many flowers bloomed yet, and the trees pretty much were bald.

And there are a lot of artistic figures and arts throughout the island.

I don't understand the aesthetic of this statue. None. 

Traces of ice from winter time

mmmmmmm

Bilasa's (Damn you Simon@eatyourkimchi. I cannot say their name properly now) fans and ELF shout their loves out

The island is very small and you can pretty much go around the island within a couple of hours walking leisurely. 

And of course, there are plenty of commemoration statues and places where certain scenes of the infamous Winter Sonata took place. In fact, a lot of people come to this island to reminisce about the movie that pretty much start the trend of Korean drama.

There are bikes for hire to circle the island and is probably the next cheapest thing to walking; but we chose another form of transportation and did it in style:

The motor scooter costs KRW10000 for 1/2 hour or KRW18000 for an hour.

Having enough of the island, we headed back mainland and another 2 hours later, reached MyeongDong for dinner and shopping therapy. I stocked up on face masks and bought another CC cream from TonyMoly (because JYJ's advertisements on the television keep beckoning me to buy TonyMoly line although I have bought another CC cream from The Face Shop at Everland a few days ago... . How can I resist Jae Joong. Ahem...).

We went into this restaurant that was very packed. It specializes in teppanyaki style chicken dish and rice. 

Total Damage: KRW 14000. We have full tummy.

these are not your regular tteokbokki....

They have stuffed mozzarella in them. mmmmmMMmmmMM!!!

My loot: It is so cheap to buy beauty products here in South Korea. Easily costs double or more in Australia, especially face masks.

the two CC creams I have bought... . Let's see if they are actually better than BB creams... .

travel: South Korea 2013 Day 4: Seoul: Everland Resort

Today we spent pretty much the whole day at Everland Resort. It is freaking far from central Seoul - like 45 minutes to 1 hour drive. Lazy 1/2heart and I took taxi there (and also back), and it costed KRW50000 per trip approx. For around 50 minutes drive.

Imagine the same length of trip but in Australia... would have costed at least double... .

There is tulip festival in Everland Resort, gorgeous tulips everywhere. Oh and by the way, Everland is much much better than Lotte World, IMO. If you only have to go to one theme park in Korea, go to Everland. Skip Lotte World.

 

the flower and the bee

 

I particularly love the animal adventure part of the theme park. In fact, the whole planning and settings of each section of the theme park is pretty good, making it easy to explore and see everything with minimal fuss. They also have safari ride type attraction, where you get on board of a bus and get up, close, and personal (apart from the glass windows of the bus of course, separating the wild animals from their prospective meals).

bonding time

There are also plenty of meal and snack options around the park. Not necessarily as good as the ones we have had so far during this trip, but I think for theme park standard, they are quite good.
We had japchae, pork katsu and grilled chicken set, and egg roll. Cost: KRW 19000. Kimchi is self-serve and free refill.

1/2heart had his first try at T-express - the infamous steep wooden rollercoaster ride - the scariest in the theme park.

I waited for him to finish, like the good wife I am (and a scaredy cat).

I love this little balls of delight. They are mini balls of ice cream, people.

 After having our fill of the theme park, we headed back to Anguk station (by taxi again, another KRW50000) and looked for dinner. You cannot go wrong staying around this area. Food aplenty.
Dinner: Tteok Mandu-guk (rice cake & dumpling soup) and Kimchi pancake, and some Makgeolli (rice wine).
OMG, I love this rice wine. I think I am going to stock up this brand when I am back in Sydney - If I can find one.

 

Felling relax and warm and kinda flying (alcohol effect), we headed back to Lavinia for the night.