We spent all but one night in Daegu before we set off for Korea's capital Seoul. It would be a 2 hour journey but we stopped by 2 places along the way.

First stop was Herbland which had been featured prominantly at 2006's Ms HK Peagant when the contestants made a trip to South Korea to visit the place and try their speciality - flower rice. Basically a rice dish with flowers as the side dish. A very unsual combination but we didn't try it cos it probably is not something everyone is used to. Nevertheless, we took a short trip into the place which was like a botanical garden that focused on all things edible and usable, such as herbs, flowers, shrubs etc.



A facilitator from Sangsoo Herbland giving us an introduction of the place. He also gave us each a complimentary bottle of herb-infused mineral water. How did it taste? Imagine stuffing lavender potpourri into your mouth with a mouthful of water. Not a taste I am used to. The Camomile one tasted better but would still rather have a cup of camomile tea instead.



Some of the many herb plants in the garden.



Some sights, including the thousand-year pine tree (I didn't catch if it was really 1000 years old, but even if it's not, this kind of pine reportedly has the ability to live that long).



Some flowers in Herbland.

I bought my souvenirs to give away from Herbland, including a handphone charm which has a tube that contains rose essense. Quite nice. We also bought a small bottle of mint essense which was supposed to be good in reliefing headache, nausea, and basically keeping you refreshed, much like how those medicated oil works but much nicer fragrance. We can't attest to those qualities but what made us buy the essense is because a salesgirl had ambushed us from behind by dapping little drops of mint essense on the back of our necks and the fresh fragrance lingered on for a very long time.

Again, trust the Koreans to come up with such ideas for tourist attractions.

Next we moved on to another tourist attraction called Everland. When talking about Everland, I have to talk about the Big 5.

Basically, the whole of the Korean economy is governed by 5 empires - Samsung, LG, Hyundae, Daewoo and one last one which name I can't remember. All empires and kingdoms in every sense of the words, with kings (CEOs), queens (CEOs' wives), princes (CEO's sons) and princesses (CEOs' daughters), with the princes and princesses groomed to take over the empires. Case in point - with construction, eletronics, IT, hospitals, schools etc. under their name, Samsung alone feeds 20% of the whole of South Korea's population.

It's no wonder Samsung employees managed to accomplish such an amazing feat...

Anyway, Everland, almost the equivalent of Disneyland, was built and is owned entirely by Samsung. And it's an extrordinary themepark with really beautiful set-ups, creative themes and hyper-energetic staff dressed in elaborate costumes greeting you with their signature hand-wave which may be perfected by raising both hands to shoulder level and waving only your palms while you flash a big smile and greet loudly "Annyeong haseyo!"



The entrance to Everland.



It's all about Halloween this October at Everland!




Welcome to Everland!



A peek at one of the costumes the staff wear. We noted that even the road-sweepers in the themepark are also elaborately decked out in costumes like this.



We took a cable ride across the park to reach the Safari segment of the park.



Smiley staff ushering guests as they moved onto the Safari bus. Unfortunately I couldn't understand a word she was saying...



So in the Safari section, we were led into huge buses that took us right into the animal enclosures, where we saw lions, tigers, bears, owls, giraffes etc. up close. Exciting!! Again, the driver was the commentator and he made some jokes which again we couldn't understand cos there was no translation. But we know it was a joke cos the Koreans were laughing.

After that we went to this 3D animation place, much like the space ride at Universal Studios where audiences were treated to a 3D show with the seats moving to the momentum of the action-packed show. The show itself was tad childish with cartoon characters trying to save the world after all the "adults" were captured. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience with wind blowing at your face while you flew with the characters, and water splashing on you while you dived into the water with the characters.

We then made our last stop in Everland at the Four Seasons Garden which housed numerous flowers from all around the world in a beautifully-landscaped park.



As it was the Halloween theme, pumpkins were all over the park. Those in the picture above are all real pumpkins (except for that huge one and those that are being stacked into columns in the background).

Another view of the park.

Everland is a wonderful place to be in, and Korea's answer to Disneyland. May not be as grand as Disneyland, but the rides and the themes and the whole layout just turns you into a child once more. Wished we had more time there...

We set off to Seoul after visiting Everland, and reached the COEX Intercontinental at night in time for dinner at the underground shopping mall assessible from the hotel lobby. Our first true glimpse of Korean merchandise and it's pricey-ness. But the quality is good and the designs are unique, no doubt about that. Hence, shopping in Korea is good provided you go there with a goal of what you want to buy and be prepared to fork out just a little bit more for the quality of the products.

More about that when I talk about day 6 :).

To be continued, day 6 and 7 (last day) together in one post, and some interesting facts about Korea you must know...