07 Mar 2007

Our journey continued way past midnight (12 hours of shopping) and we spotted a few tourist spots that we had checked out on the internet before our trip, making a good excuse to stop Amy rushing from one shopping mall to another.

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The Colourful Ogansumun Gate.

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Notice The Colour Change?

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Doosan Tower.

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The Shopping Terrorist.

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Street Shopping Under The Hundred Yellow Tents.

Somehow both of us got hungry at almost the same time. I guess the reason was because the adrenalin died as most of our shopping was done. We headed down to the night bazaar and looked around for something to eat, hoping to try something new. Somehow we ended up just having Ramen with pickles and corn tea in a little tent. I am getting hooked to pickles by now.

We also decided to get a bit mad and have some cold stuff while we were already freezing. Good thing about having ice cream in the cold is that it doesn't melt that fast. Bad thing is that I get that pain in Sensodyne advertisements. But that ice cream was yummy... green tea and chocolate... interesting combo.

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Having An Ice Cream In Cold Weather? Yum!

Finally when we decided that we got everything we wanted and possibly couldn't carry more, we headed out to get some food before we headed back to our room. As we got our food to go, we were amazed at how some people could stand by the cart, in the cold, to eat instead of hiding themselves in somewhere warm and comfy to enjoy their food. Weird. We ended up getting a buffet from 2 stalls - a bunch of assorted sausages and kebabs, rice rolls, some dumplings cooked in the spicy red sauce and a small bit of blood sausage. We then got a cab and got to our room to enjoy our buffet.

So what do I think of the blood sausage... it needs to go with something. This one simply had the intestines stuffed with rice noodles and blood. The taste of the blood was rather strong and brought about the memories of the blood cubes I used to have with my congee. Amy didn't know and had a rather bad reaction upon finding out what it was but I couldn't finish the whole bag myself and it was just a bit too much to consume on it's own. Think my dad would love it though.

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Corndogs, Hotdogs, Satay...

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Rice Rolls, Blood Sausages, Spicy Dumplings...

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After packing all the purchases, it was already bright and sunny outside, leaving us little to no time for a good sleep but I managed to get 2 hours of nap time while Amy surfed the internet. Before we left the hotel, we managed to take a few videos and photos of the gadgetry in the place, as well as the sign I couldn't help laughing at. Looks better on video but that went missing along with a lot of my files when the comp died.

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Room Temperature & Lighting Controls, And Electronic Peephole.

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Room Key.

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Door Bell/Peep Hole Camera

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Electronic Door Lock.

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(1st Red Line) Don't Think I Intend To Leave It Here.


We left the hotel and took a cab to the Sofitel to board the shuttle that was a cheap way to get to the airport. It took about an hour to get from the city to town, but that included the different pick-up locations around town, which gave us a mini tour as well as the opportunity to take pictures of Seoul.

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We finally get to the airport and we rush in to check ourselves into our flight, taking a few pics before we pass immigrations. Immigrations' check was rather bothersome, we had to remove our shoes and then get a physical pat-down by their officer, then we had to struggle to put our shoes back on while hopping on one foot because all the seats were taken up by the old people there, just sitting down, and most likely getting entertained by the struggling-one-legged hoppers around them. They should just put a rail there for support, then again, I can wear simpler shoes, but I don't like my shoes loose enough to slip on anyway. The departure lounge is rather open and bright, rather clean, like Changi, but it didn't have enough simple stuff available (like a 7-11, which would have a bottle of diet coke maybe?). Then came the last store I go to at almost every airport leaving for home, the dute-free store or something on that range. The shop that would be selling almost every product that's simply made or a reminder of that country. So in we went into one such store and I bought the whole store back. They were nice enough to pack it neatly and even packed it in a trolley bag that mom would just love.

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Proving We Were @ Incheon Airport.

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After making some last minute calls to home, the gates opened and we boarded the flight home. Seeing that the flight was rather empty, everyone seem to be taking the opportunity to occupy a window seat and that left the one before me empty, giving Amy the opportunity to occupy both seats. Once Amy got comfy in her stolen seat, she started taking pictures of that bear again. Once we were in the air, the boredom began after photo opportunities ended and my iPod came in really handy. While we were taking pictures of Korea from our plane, the stewardesses gave out some peanuts that were really nice. Not sure if it was altitude, lack of peanuts or if the nuts were just yummy, but somehow I could eat a bigger pack, or 20 of those tiny packs, while listening to music and challenging myself with Sudoku puzzles.

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Candid Shot Of Xiao Pui While Posing For Amy.

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These Were Especially Yummy @ High Altitude.

Our meals came slightly later and if the choice wasn't beef stew, I would've tried the bibimbap. The stew was alright, but I wouldn't rave about it, plus I really couldn't tell what was in that salad. However the desser... although I don't like strawberry ice cream or artificial strawberries, the dessert was still nice and simple as it really tasted like a frozen cheesecake with bits of strawberry. However, if it wsa blueberry, I'd have been in a really happy place.

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Beef Stew

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Bi Bim Bap

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Red Velvet Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream For Dessert.

After the meal trays were cleared, it was back to doing our own things again, and I guess Amy really enjoyed her dessert so much, she was in dreamland.

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Sleeping Satisfied? OK This Pic Was Posed For - Just Look @ The Smile.

06 Mar 2007


We had a really good sleep and was woken up by a phone call telling us that we were supposed to check out... at which I got a bit pissed and asked the American-accented receptionist to double-check that I had booked for 2 nights. Then came the crazy cleaning lady who couldn't wait to clean our room and so we finally let her in after we were bother changed and ready to go. We ended up leaving the hotel around 3pm, hungry and excited to check out the shopping and sights. I wasn't sure if Amy was afraid but we just charged straight towards our destination without a proper map, looking at the ones we found in the subway stations, and explored whatever we saw on the way. We finally reached a point where we thought was our destination and headed to fill our stomachs. The place was like a shopping mall, with a wet market look and prices that matched. We just looked around at every stall and they all had almost similar dishes but somehow it was this stall that got us to place our butts down to enjoy what they had to offer.

We ended up getting two bowls of noodles and seaweed with a side of kimchi, and a plate of rice rolls cooked in some spicy red sauce. I wanted to try their blood sausage but was afraid that the ladies might give us a portion that's too big for me to swallow, especially with Amy already turned off by having to dine while looking at it. This was also the place where I got to sample my first corn tea. It tastes something like the water that corn has been boiled in and with a bit of the slight burnt popcorn flavour.... basically it's simple, yummy and refreshing when cold. Somehow the few items we had gave us enough energy to continue on our journey and were still shopping at this point.

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Rice Cakes In Spicy Red Sauce. Yummilicious!

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Some Kinda Melon Pickle

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05 Mar 2007

Getting just a few hours of sleep after packing, we woke up to a much colder day but something about it was different. I looked out the window and thought it was still raining until I realised that it was actually snowing. SNOWING!!! YAY!!! So we headed down for our last buffet breakfast with the gang and it was time to head out to experience our first snowfall.

Amy, however, had to go up and change after breakfast and probably put some make up on. so while waiting for her, I got a few pics and checked out some loo she didn't know how to flush. I was pressing a few buttons wondering if I'd get a blast of water suddenly from the bowl, but nothing seem to happen and I think the buttons were there for show. But I did manage to find out how to flush it and it didn't even involve the 101 buttons.

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Hi-Tech Loo... Don't Know What The Buttons Do.

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Snow-Covered Me!

Finally Amy is photo-ready and we get one of the gang to help us take some photos. Honestly he did a rather good job, especially for picking the whole choice of scenery for the pic below.

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Awww... Our Own Winter Sonata

And with snow comes snowball fights... or rather fights with chunks of snow. After dragging our bags to the bus waiting point, I was busy recovering while Amy went around the ski resort for one last time taking photos of the snow-covered place. When she came in to warm up, I took the opportunity to get the one pic showing how cold it was.

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Snow Ball Fight!

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Snow CHUNK Fight!

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Dragging Almost All Our Bags To The Bus Waiting Point.

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Tired Out.

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Was The Car White To Start With?

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Lovely Temperature.... Minus 5.0 Celcius!

The bus is finally ready and we drag all our crap out in the cold again to load it on the bus. After getting comfy on the bus, we were on our way to Seoul, only stopping once at YeoJu Service Station for everyone to stretch their legs. Problem with the place was that everything was in Korean and it didn't look like the place served many foreigners. I was considering getting a drink, or just a snack that looked like something on an episode of Japan Hour but everyone seemed to be getting on the bus and we didn't even have time to look at all the stalls. Well.... if I ever come back...

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Bus Back To Seoul.

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Rest Stop Where I Regret Not Trying Anything.

Once we got off the bus in Seoul, it felt colder than it was up in the mountains and my fingers were frozen. Almost dead... they were burning from the cold, but the rest of me felt like I was in the nicest air-conditioned place. The next step was to find our accommodation. Amy wanted to take the subway so that she could say we took it, but after looking at the stairs down, I decided to take a cab instead as I would just DIE carrying the load up a flight of stairs. So we got in a cab and showed the driver the name of the hotel and it's address. Well that driver was useless! He nodded that he knew where it was, but I think he called someone for directions and in the end was given the wrong address and we ended up at the President Hotel instead of Hyundai Residence. Residence - President... guess it sounds the same to any non-English native and those with too much wax in their ears.

The staff at the President Hotel were much better... I guess they deal with non-Korean speaking people more often. So they got a cab and made sure that he knew where he was bringing us and helped us with our bags into the cab. After a few minutes, we were finally checking out our apartment, which had really high-tech stuff installed. The view from the room was a little disappointing though. All the tiredness from the late night before and the bus ride finally enveloped all the excitement of getting to Seoul, but we were too hungry to just fall asleep and went out to explore around the hotel for some food.

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The cold hit us the very moment we opened the doors out of the hotel and decisions had to be made in split seconds. Spying a market just across the road from the hotel, we quickly headed in that direction, trying not to kill ourselves while crossing the road, and kept our eyes open for anything that looked hot and comforting. In the end, with the major road-block in communications, we managed to get some kuehs, some sort of pancake, a roll of sushi and some kind of fish cake soup. The other stalls seemed to sell every part or a pig and it turned amy off from trying anything. So happy with our purchases, we hurried back to the hotel, getting lost for a few minutes, as well as stopping at a convenience store for some more food and some essentials.

Somehow the apartment lacked a microwave, and since everything was cold, we warmed up some kuehs using the soup and kept the rest for folks back home. Dinner was a simple bowl of instant noodles, sushi, vege pancake and fish cake soup. Somehow that satisfied us both that we dozed off, tucked up in bed, while watching weird Korean tv shows.

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Colourful Stuff.

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Looks Bleh... Tastes YUM!