Fly All The Way To WonderLand.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Korea Day 4: Jeju Island to Seoul
Weather: Fine, Sunny (at last!)

Morning:
Breakfast at Jeju Oriental Hotel, western style! (which means more scrambled eggs, haha.)

@ Gimpo Airport, preparing for transfer flight to Seoul

Someone is being freaky behind. Lol.

Look at that huge wing o.O
Then it was goodbye jeju, hello to seoul!:D

Skiing:

All decked out in rented ski clothes and skis.
If it looks warm, yes, it was very warm. I actually perspired alot.

Being all smiles and energetic before the actual skiing began.

Foreground: Beginner's slope
Middleground: Intermediate slope
Background: The f'cking steep expert's slope. (Just imagine sliding down this one)

Here, at the middle of the beginner's slope.
It already looks steep from here, doesn't it?

And it's hell tiring climbing up the slope.
1)The travellators (not in picture) at the side of the slope are only for the ski students to use.
2) The ski shoes are damn heavy, so you have to trudge up the slope.
3) If you're thinking of climbing up with skis, don't even bother because you'll end up sliding backwards each step you take.

In the end, I gave up after four unsuccessful tries of skiing down because each time I fell down barely halfway down the slope.
A typical attempt:
Step one: Putting on the skis.
Ready... Push off! But too scared (there's always inertia), so each time I take very long to even push off.
Starts to slide down, gaining some speed.
Scared of going too fast, so I want to stop, but can't stop. Just goes faster.
Oh shit shit SHIT stop...!
Emergency brake (supposed to fall to your side to fall safely).
Tries to lean to the side, but somehow, I fall on my bottom and do somewhat a split.
Ouch.
And trying to get up in skis is the most difficult thing to do ever.

End of story.

So a bunch of us, after some skiing (if that's what we did), decided to build a snowman!

Pretty pretty snowman. I built the eyes and hands!:P
But it was ruined in the end when we had a snowball fight=/

Shaun drying gloves who are unhappy with their treatment.

All the Singaporeans using the heaters to dry their soaked gloves. I was the person lmao and taking this picture.

Dinner!

More bbq pork.
At least I loved the seawood soup.

@ Seoul Garden Hotel:D

Night time: Free and easy.

The 9 youths decided to visit DDM (dongdaemun) again.
So we cabbed there (about 10-15min ride).
Take note of how we split:
4people: the two couples aged 20-odd to 30
5teens: aged 19-20

Going there, the cab fare was W7300 (take note of this also).

Ttokbokki!! (Spicy rice cakes) Yummy:P

Shop of the day: This shop selling socks on the streets.
11 pairs for W10000. That's around $1.13 a pair!

All sorts of designs, not to mention kpop idols'.

Happy and contented with our shopping.
Time: around 1am. And it was still bustling with activity, unlike in Singapore.

~~Late night~~ Early morning meal at a restaurant.

:) Yay we can all be seen.

At 2am, we decided it was time to return to the hotel.
So the 4 adults got into a cab first at the taxi stand. Next, the 5 teens wanted to flag one, but this uncle approached us and asked where we were going. So we showed him the hotel card.
He nodded and gestured us to his cab. But it was the van type which we knew were more expensive, so we politely declined.
We then approached another cab further behind the line of cabs.
This time, the uncle gestured: Five people, plus the time (it was already 2am, so we understood as midnight surcharge), he wanted to charge us W70000.
The five of us were like wtf??! And we scrambled out of the cab, enraged that he wanted to cheat us.
So we went to a third cab to ask the driver if he could take us to the hotel. And seriously, what happened next made our blood boil. While this third driver was checking the route to our hotel (because he wasn't sure how to get there), the previous cab driver who wanted to cheat us came over and told this driver not to take us. Lik wtf?! Can you fucking mind your own business!
We were all freezing in the night cold and this asshole cab driver was well, being an asshole. (It's an understatement.)
Then after walking away from the cab drivers whom we declined earlier, we got another cab (thankfully) even further back and the driver agreed to take us to the hotel, according to the meter. And he didn't even add the midnight surcharge into the fare.

This experience destroyed, yes, destroyed my impression that koreans (especially cab drivers) are nice people. And yes, just because of that one asshole.

What can I say, except Day 5 would be more pleasant:)

Labels: Koreeaaa Day Four