Finally made my way to Korea last week. Wasn't a planned thing and Korea wasn't on my list of "places-to-go" for me. However, I was feeling quite bogged down with work and my mum just asked if I would like to join her and her friends to go Korea and I felt, "ah, what the heck. I need a break". So I went.

It was a good experience, really, with a very experienced and knowledgable tour guide and some really wacky company. We didn't manage to cover everything important, but we did cover quite a bit, nevertheless.

Day one was a very tiring day. We took a night flight to Korea and within that 6 hour flight, I only managed to catch an hour's worth of wink. Immediately after touching down, we were taken to the Blue Palace where the president's residence is. Took some pictures there, but quite tired so wasn't too excited about the place...


But the Kimchi-making place was interesting. Basically they had the cabbage all pickled and lying on the plate ready for us. The condiment was also mixed and set aside for us to use so all we had to do was to follow the instructor in smearing the red condiments onto the cabbage and learn to wrap it up. Pity we didn't to bring home the kimchi, though they did give us some ready-made ones to try. Yummy! We were all wondering where the kimchi we made would go though.

At the kimchi-making place was also an elaborately-decorated spot with a huge banner of Lee Yong Ae as Dae Jang Guem. I would later realize that that image is to be common-place at practically every tourist destination I went to. Anyhow, this place was meant for tourists to wear the traditional Korean Han-bok and take pictures at. Very fun :)



As you can tell from the picture I was travelling with, erm... not-very-young citizens... Not used to it at first, but turned out to be quite fun. It helps that this lot is quite wacky even for their age. Then again I guess being of a certain age they're just not shy about many things anymore.

Immediately after the kimchi-making experience, we were taken to the domestic airport to take a flight to Jeju. Interesting thing was, on the very same day and time, there was a plane to Pusan as well and since the Pusan Interational Film Festival was on the same day, we saw many many many Korean celebrities!! Ok, to tell the truth, I don't recognize almost all of them, except a few who I'm quite sure I've seen on TV before. But it's probably due to the fact that I don't watch many Korean movies. Our tour guide was the one who pointed them out. Anyway, it's easy to tell who's the celebrity so they're all so slender, nicely dressed and made up and all with chiselled features. But where's Bae Yong Jun? Lee Yong Ae? Jo Hyun Jae? Lee Bo Young??? So sad...



I know it's a poor picture but anyone recognize her? Was tempted to take more photos but felt 'pai seh' to take them in on the sly. Anyway, don't recognize them so not much motivation to go that extra mile to take their photos. That said, if I saw Jo Hyun Jae, I'd definitely lose all of my composure, run up to him for his autograph, tell him how much I like him and force him to take a photo with me :P

Anyway, it was a 1 hour flight to Jeju and we were immediately whisked to see this place called the Dragon Head Rock. See, apart from being a favourite filming spot for dramas such as All In and Dae Jang Guem, Jeju is a volcanic island famous for 3 things. 1) It has more women than men, and women are considered to be more powerful than mem, 2) It has lots of wind. Very very very windy, and 3) It has lots of lava rocks.

So most of the sights in Jeju have something to do with the porous lava rocks, like this one which has its name for virtue of looking like, well, you guessed it, a dragon's head. Though really, it takes some imagination to see it...



Keep thinking it looks more like a dog's head, actually...

Anyway, introducing the gods of Jeju Island, as can be seen here in a picture taken outside the Jeju Natural Museum.

Ok, one god only in that picture. But you do get to see that image everywhere in Jeju. Frankly I didn't really catch the story of how this come along, but if I'm not wrong even historians are not sure when this started. Anyway, probably the god of fertility and now a symbol of Jeju Island.

Anyway, about the natural museum. Hmmm... nothing to scream about. I hate to say but I may even go to the extent to say that it's uninteresting. Sure there are lots of animal specimens in there with some really exotic ones like this Oar-eel which was like a few meters long. But the whole presentation was just sleep-inducing. Ok, maybe I was just tired...

Food on the first day was interesting though. Our tour guide thought we might be tired on the first day after a long flight (and tired we were, indeed!), so she arranged for us to try the famed ginseng chicken soup. Delicious and so comforting with the hot nutritious broth on a tiring day.



Lots in the tour goup didn't seem to like it though... I wonder why.

At Jeju we were also treated to the sights and smell of street food stalls which sell a whole range of comfort food dipped into hot oil. Other interesting food stuff around the area was also cactus candy (it's quite nice, actually!) and some really soft and creamy and delicious ice cream. There was also this stall selling dried and fresh squid cooked over charcoal, but we didn't try any until the next day, and when we did, it was just heavenly...



Dinner that night was seafood hot pot and of course I loved it! Again, others in the group didn't see to like it cos I guess no sauce and chilli to go with. Starting to think that that good thing about me is I can survive anywhere with any kind of food...

Anyhow, we couldn't resist checking out the local convenience stall and this was what we bought - takeaway coffee, hot chocolate and cup noodles. Actually, I still haven't tried the noodles but we have wiped out the rest already. Very nice coffee and hot chocolate which is hard to find in Singapore. In fact, these nice packaging which is convenient and easy to carry around is totally non-existent in Singapore! How I miss the drinks over at Korea! And at Jeju Island, the drinks were cheap at just 350 won per cup (about S$0.80). Later at Seoul, we realized that it cost 800 won (about S$2.00) to buy the same brand >.<

So there goes, the end of the first day in Korea. Many sights and sounds, but too tired to truly appreciate everything. Throughout the whole trip I found myself nodding off everytime I had a chance to sit down. It would be better and more interesting the 2nd day, though, after everyone was rested.