Day 7 - 20 December 2008
Into the 7th day in Korea... coming to an end soon... its been 7 months since! suddenly felt so fortunate to be able to spend xmas (almost) at korea... my first COLD december :) must work harder to have more chances like this... Woke up to a pretty clean hotel room + fluffy bed :D a good start to the long day ahead~
reindeer deco at the lobby
i came down early to take pictures of the hotel surroundings... very wasted actually... such a nice hotel yet the only time we spent here was waiting at the lobby in the mornings and coming back late and night to bed... but i can proudly say i saw more than anyone else in the same tour :D
reception counter
it was quite early in the morning... this was the xmas tree displayed outside... and it was playing this song from "Howl's Moving Castle" :) like how pretty can...
some show that the hotel was having i think...
temperature increased and our snow became rain again! :( sad
pretty view of Seoul (part of it) cos the hotel was located on higher grounds
crappy breakfast place... wonder if its becos the hotel breakfast is too ex... full of rowdy tourist, food not so nice, and super cramp! noone really enjoyed this day's breakfast...
see xiao yee's hand-made scarf, so pretty right? :D
streets of seoul (argh i wanna go back there!)
on the way to
Kyeongbok Palace (if i'm not wrong) :X
charlie + daddy
beautiful morning for a walk (except the wet floor)
charlie waiting for everyone to gather and explaining...
The Kyeongkok Palace was built in 1394 as the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty by its founder King Taejo. It has been damaged and rebuilt many times. The present structure dates back to the end of the 19th century. The walled grounds contains some very beautiful pagodas that were brought from all over the country (mostly during the Japanese occupation).
can u see the row of animals on top of the roof? i recall charlie telling us its the 12 animals of the zodiac cycle. but in a recent variety show on channel u, it was mentioned that those are the animals from the "Journey to the West". maybe they were talking about different structures... o.O
yep, another cold morning... kinda boring taking pictures when u're at someplace cold... always same clothes (jacket)...
daddy + mummy ♥
the different designations of the officials in the past
its not often we get to see palaces in the middle of a city...
neither is it often we get to see mountains...
forgot what i was taking :|
horse? (i'm almost certain those animals are from the zodiac
xiao yee + uncle davide
where the emperor sits...
we weren't allowed in...
on the ceiling where the emperor sits (金龙在天？)
i remember taking a picture of this because... charlie mentioned if you wan to know if the family are officials, you have to look at the (support?) poles of their house. the houses that normal people stay in have square suppoting poles white the houses that officials stay in have round pole...
no.1
no. 2 spot the difference ?
us all~
i like the palace backyard :)
oddly shaped tree
these holes under the houses are for burning charcoal/wood... in the winter when the floor is cold, charcoal/wood are placed in these holes to burn in order to keep the floor warm...
almost to the end of palace pictures... i know its getting boring...
charlie explaining that korean words are made up of 拼音(pinyin). this is the 4 strokes that make up most korean words... (i think)
the map of the entire palace
leaving to another place!
the men smoking...
waiting in the bus with our 暖暖包! its this thing that heats up by itself when you put it in your pocket. then when u're cold, u can take it out to warm your hands..
i think uncle davide was looking for a 暖暖包 o.O
next destination: Presidential Blue House (靑瓦臺)
(yes, its tourist-y structures day)
:D
mummy + daddy and one of the girl in our tour group
(i have no idea where is the main building of the blue house, all i remember was walking around this park-like place and taking lots of photos... )
lunch next...
at this cheena thai restaurant... food was so so...
i cannot remember wad was this :|
there was sotong inside... not too spicy...
shopping after lunch!!! :D
The Face Shop! the things there are dirt cheap... most of the men stayed in the bus while the women all went to shop shop shop! i love the face shop in Korea! cheap and nice! i got my moisturizer from there! but its not face shop brand and i can't find it in any of the face shops here.... :(
kimchi making next... none of us were really excited abt making kimchi... i guess we're more shopping people... lol
the teacher explaining the different types of kimchi...
: main ingredients
we were given aprons, gloves, half a cabbage, and the marinating sauce... guess where all these kimchi goes? not in the bin definitely. they are given to the homes, either childrens' homes or homes for the old age... i wonder if they get really awful tasting batches...
mama concentrating on her kimchi...
cam-whore while making
my kimchi is pretty one k... nicely spreaded out sauce on every
cabagge leaf and folded and tied up nicely... :D
next was something we totally did not look forward to... it's more of a "just go lor" kind of thing....
pink.... WHY PINK!!! dun remind me how horrible i look :x
auntie lilian had a pretty blue one...
mummy with her messy hair... lol... she kept laughing and charlie said, wear the traditional korean costume (hanbok) cannot siao siao one... hahaha
it all had to be long enough to cover our sports shoes... lol
more shopping!!!! yay!!!
this was at... Myeongdong if i'm not wrong.. i cannot differenciate Myeongdong and Dongdaemun... both are shopping places~ we walked quite a bit here... both me and mummy got pretty watches~ :D and we got to try this fried bun thingy with vege + meat inside... its like pan-fried dumplings... our only roadside food! nice! daddy liked it alot...
busy streets of Myeongdong... everytime we went into a building,
its becos it was too cold outside!
prettily lit-ted trees
didn't manage to go alot of the shops cos we didn't have much time + it was too cold! this was taken from the bus... dinner next
mushroom steamboat? the meals for the last few days of the trip were nothing special... just normal big pot of soup with many things inside...
this was good! 石锅拌饭! its rice in a claypot like thing with ingredients inside to mix... i didn't think i would like this cos there were weird stuff inside... but with the seaweed, it was a bit kiam (salty) and very nice and hot! its looks like our claypot rice in sg but tastes totally different
:D daddy liked it a lot too~
nice hot soup is always good in winter... regardless of wad is inside...
Dongdaemun!! more shopping after dinner. mummy managed to get a nice jacket. the stuff here is not cheap... we heard the basement had many pirated branded goods... but we didn't make it to the basement... i saw this pretty furry jacket that i really liked... not cheap.. and found out its rabbit fur o.O no rabbit fur for me... i managed to get really pretty hp chains... (too bad my iphone now cannot hang...) the quality of the stuff there is really better... the hp chain had crystals on it, normal sg ones, the crystal bits will drop of one by one slowly... after 7 months or so, mine is still in perfect condition! ahh.. i miss korea.. :(
this was the shopping mall we walked in... doota~ i think we really missed out a lot becos of the time constraint... we could have spent the whole day, or even 2 days in the shopping mall...
waiting for everyone else at Gate 1... freezing outside...
was feeling rather moody towards the end of the trip... cos of certain reasons... but also cos we were leaving korea soon... this was one of the best holidays i've been to... and like some say, its the company that matters ;p
Day 7 done!!!! :D
