Seoul Vacation

Seoul is the biggest city in Korea and the most multicultural too. I bumped into many foreigners and I even felt like I was in Toronto at one point. Especially the Itaewon area where there were more foreigners than Koreans. Anyways, here is the breakdown of my trip...

Tuesday, August 23rd (1st day): We arrived in Seoul Station looking all touristy like. Huge backpacks and a camera in one hand (well, I had my iPhone instead). I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of people on a Tuesday evening. The subway system looked like a labyrinth and fortunately for us, we could use our Busan subway passes! However, we can’t add money to it which we learned on our last day in Seoul. Anyways, we headed to Itaewon right away for dinner and to hang out with Austin who lives in Seoul and a good friend of Nav’s. Later that day we met up with Chris was also in Seoul to say last farewells to his buddies in the city.
Wednesday, August 24th (2nd day): Chris after picking up his CDs that he has made for his band left to Busan. Nav and I went shopping at Itaewon. I got a customized leather jacket which should be mailed out to me in a week’s time. I will show a picture of it as soon as I get it. I never owned a nice leather jacket so it was a little treat for me. I saw baseball, soccer, and football jerseys for $25 and I could get them to customize it for an additional $10 but they looked fake from the get go. I decided not to spend money on the jerseys even though I was tempted. We visited Seoul Tower and it was well worth the trip. I was able to get a great view of the entire city. Oh, Wednesday was also Austin’s birthday so we celebrated his birthday with a dinner.

Thursday, August 25th (3rd day): We woke up super late on Thursday so we didn’t do too much besides playing X-Box which I enjoyed a lot. I was playing Madden 11 the whole time, and Nav was on Facebook and Skyping with his buddies while Austin was at work. Austin works at a Hagwon (private schools) so they don’t have the same vacation period as public schools. It was also my 2 months anniversary in Korea! 10 more months to go until I am back in Canada!
Friday, August 26th (4th day): Visited Seoul Grand Park, which is a zoo for those who do not know. We had tons of fun and this is probably the first time I have been to a zoo since I was in elementary school back in Toronto. Grade 4, maybe? I got to see my favourite animal – the lions, and I got to see a show with the dolphins and seals as well.

Saturday, August 27th (5th day): Pulled an all-nighter in order to catch the 8am bus to Busan. It’s a free bus for foreigners only. We had to be there at least an hour in advance just in case there was a line up. We could have registered for this free bus online but we did not have our passport numbers with us. Instead we went early to the boarding point and registered our names with proof (ARC). It was approximately five and half hours bus ride but I managed to make new friends from Lithuania, India, and Indonesia. I came home and fell asleep until late at night. Overall, this vacation to me seems a bit more tiring than the first vacation to Jeju Island. I still enjoyed my time in Seoul but I do know that it could have gone better if we stayed a lot longer to see more places. Especially cultural, touristy and hot spots in the city but there is always a next time.

Break Within A Break

After coming back from Jeju Island I immediately took a nap and relaxed. I managed to get my energy back up around 6pm and decided to go watch Planet of the Apes. I was never a fan of this franchise but this movie was well done and worth watching in theatres. The animation part was great, the storyline was good, and the actors did their part adequately. Only flaw is that is it seemed a bit too short of a movie. Perhaps, I just wanted to keep watching the movie because it was so good. Once again I got caramel popcorn while watching the movie and it was done before the half way point.

The next day I went to Spaland at Shinsegae to enjoy two and half hours of relaxation. This was my first time ever going to any sort of “spa” or “sauna” places and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I might actually do this on a weekly basis. I could be sitting on a massage chair for 10 minutes for 1,000 wons (less than a $1)! In fact I did just that for 20 minutes. The saunas I found to be too hot for my liking. It felt like I was getting baked in an oven so I didn’t stay for more than a minute. I will certainly recommend going to a spa in Korea because it’s affordable, you will like the experience, and you won’t even know how fast the time goes by. After enjoying my time at Spaland, I met up with Nav to play a bit of bowling before eating dinner with Jeongeun and organizing what time to leave to Seoul the next day.

Jeju Island Vacation

I am going to try my best to keep it simple as possible and straight forward because there were so many things that I had seen and experienced that it might be too difficult to explain. Well, here I go...

Wednesday, August 17th (1st day): I arrived in Jeju Island at 4pm. Immediately without any hesitation Nav and I decided to get on a bus and explore the city. We then walked around Jeju-si (the city) for few hours before getting tired. So we discovered a building or an area with traditional Korean style landscapes. Then we headed to Jungmun resort where our friends Chris and Brent were spending the day at. About an hour and half bus ride. When Nav and I arrived at the resort we were in amazement over the things we were seeing. As soon as we met up with Chris and Brent we went to Ripley's Believe It or Not - Jeju version. We had dinner and went to sleep early because we were tired from the travelling.

Thursday, August 18th (2nd day): We woke up at 7:30am to visit the waterfalls without paying any admission fees. The waterfalls were amazing and you can look at the pictures to see what I am talking about. The morning atmosphere was perfect because of how misty and cool it was.
After the waterfalls we headed to the Botanical Garden. I didn't know what to expect but it was quite fascinating to see different types of gardens that do exist. The French garden was so bad. The Japanese garden had to the best from the outdoor exhibit portion of the place.

We went to the Chocolate Land after the garden adventure. Chocolate Land had chocolates from all regions of the world. My favourite part was sampling the chocolates that were available. Yummy. Well worth the admission of 2,000 wons. After the Chocolate Land fun, we toured around Lotte Hotel and Lotte Casino for our curiosities because these places were high class and well maintained. We didn't stay at the hotel but we were allowed to walk inside and check things out. If I had the money I would certainly stay here. Anyways, after the hotel and casino detour we headed to the Jungmun Beach! The pictures say a lot more than what I would have typed. So, just check them out. After soaking in the sun for 2 hours or so, we went to the Teddy Bear Museum because we wanted to know what's so special about teddy bears. It was actually a good visit. Lots of families and children but as a teacher, it's a great place for a field trip. Too bad there aren't any nice museums like these in Toronto. The next museum - the Sound Island Museum was so bad. I don't know what to say to it. Maybe I am scarred from Music Methodology class from Teacher's College or my experience with the flute instrument from grade 7 and 8 but music is not my thing. I don't mind listening to music but playing it and understanding it is so boring for me. The last thing we did on this day was Love Land. In short it's a museum for adults, especially couples and it was educational but vulgar. Regardless, all four of us had a great time and it was jokes 95% of the time. Only one picture though. Sorry, don't ask.
Friday, August 19th (3rd day): Once again we woke up early and this time we climbed the highest mountain in South Korea - Mt. Halla (Hallasan in Korean). We trekked for 5 hours. I never hiked before and this was a huge challenge. A personal mission but I was able to complete it successfully and in fact I finished 1st from our group. Good thing Nav and Chris decided to go off the trail for a bit. Brent was sick so he was walking at his own pace. I had my songs on full blast (Bollywood, Kollywood and K-Pop) and enjoyed the walk. 3 hours of walking up and 2 hour walking down. We went on two different trails. It's a national park so it was well worth the time we spent here. I recommend people to do this if you ever get a chance to go to Jeju! After the hike we went walking some more! This time at a Maze Park but it wasn't exciting as I hoped it would be. Anyways, at the end of the day we just hung out at the city and relaxed.
Saturday, August 20th (4th day): Brent and Chris went back to Busan super early - around 7:30am because their flight was at 9:10am. That left me and Nav to explore the Island by ourselves. It was raining so badly that our original plan to visit Udo Island had to be postponed. Instead we visited the Jeju National Museum. Nothing special to write about but Nav did lose his glasses here. Fortunately he wasn't completely blind the rest of the trip and he had a pair back in Busan as well. When we came back to the bus stop we met a Korean guy from Seoul who was backpacking across the Island for the past three days. He has covered 75% of the perimeter of the island according to his map. His name was Woo Bong Kang and he was super nice, like most of the Koreans I have encountered and he even spoke English! He was very helpful too because he was able to break the language barrier for us by translating everything into Korean. He showed us a nice place to eat for lunch and dinner and came with us to the adventures that Nav and I planned for the day. He even asked us if it was okay to join because he was lonely and didn't have a travelling buddy. We did not argue and told him to join us in our adventures. He was very happy and we were happy too. I guess the rain was a blessing in disguise.

With Bong as our personal guide we went to the Lava Tubes and had a great experience enjoying the coolness of the cave. It was very neat to walk inside of a real cave but I wish they had more lighting because the photos did not turn out so well. I do own an iPhone after all and that means no flash.
The weather was much better but we couldn't make it to Udo Island because the last ferry was at 6pm from Udo to Jeju and we would miss it and be stranded. Instead we went to Sunrise Peak. This particular crater shaped landscape is supposed to be in the running for the new 7 wonders of the world. I don't see why it shouldn't be because it was a great place. I hope it does win and become one of the new 7 wonders of the world! Bong decided to stay around that area for the night but he was still helpful and showed us to the right bus stop back to Jeju-si. That night we just played darts with bunch of foreigners who are teaching at Jeju. I also managed to find a batting cage where I was a kid at a candy store. I was so excited but we knew we couldn't be there all night because our flight was at 9:10am the next day.
Sunday, August 21st (5th day): Flight back to Busan was at 9:10am and we arrived around 10am. I took the Airport Limousine bus back to Seomyeon and a local bus back to my place. I immediately took a nap and posted pictures onto Facebook. I was too tired to type the blog until now. Overall, my first ever vacation in my 24 years of existence was a great success. I enjoyed everything we did, experienced and saw. I wish that there was more time to visit Udo and the Trick Art Museum but it doesn't matter anymore because new adventures are always around the corner and a new story to share.