Day 32 & 33: Lotte World & Bungee-Jumping (which failed)

I am back after another 10 days in Korea (technically 8 because I arrived late on the first day, and I am leaving first thing on the last day). I will have more things to blog about I guess, since I went to Petite France and Jeonju this time round too. And a few other places. I re-visited Namsan Tower (still loving it very very much) and Myeongdong countless of times and Express Bus Terminal and Bukchon Hanok Village and I've to say that I take back all my words about Bukchon being boring.

So... Lotte World is relatively one of the easiest themeparks to get into. And also a good choice even if it rains because half of Lotte World is sheltered. But comparing Lotte World to Everland, I personally would still head to Everland despite it being farther and more troublesome to get to.

So Lotte World is accessible by Jamsil subway station, Exit 4 if I am not wrong. This makes going to Lotte World soooooooo easy. There isn't a need to change to any buses or take a taxi there or anything. Just walk a stretch of underground shops for about 15 minutes or so and you will see Exit 4. Follow the directions along the way and you will reach Lotte World. Besides, there is also Lotte Departmental Store there so you can do your duty free shopping afterwards (if it is still open of course).

So I was saying Lotte World is a great choice because it is partly sheltered. So here is the sheltered part. We were honestly quite glad to have this kind of crowd on a Saturday - I thought this was pretty reasonable already. There are quite a few rides indoors and also food places and performances at the center stage.

If you cross a bridge, it will link you to the outdoor part of Lotte World. This is where the more "exciting" rides are all at.

I took this one! It's called Bungee Drop. And it will simulate how a bungee jump is going to be? I thought it was just one drop down, but it went up and down thrice I think. I guess if you do a bungee jump there is rebound too hahah. This scared the hell out of me. I can't do anything vertical oh my goodness. I thought heights scare me already and vertical heights are the worseeeee.

This is the #1 ride in Lotte World - Gyro Drop. This ride is crazy. If Bungee Drop at 45metres scare you, Gyro Drop at its height of 70metres is sure to freak you out. And the worse - it's free fall (or so they say) comes suddenly and unexpectedly. You will go steadily upwards and the ride will rotate around so you get to see a 360 degrees view of Lotte World and its surroundings. It will stop for like 5 seconds or so and suddenly it will just droppppp!!! I was just standing below it and I can feel the strong wind when it came down. I could never pluck up my courage to do it even though people said the #1 scariest ride in Korea is T-express in Everland and #2 is Gyro Drop. I did #1 but I have no courage to even queue at Gyro Drop. Just feeling the strong wind when it drops down makes my legs go jelly already.

So I thought that Everland is a lot more fun because of the kinds of facilities it have. It has children-family rides as well and a lot of other things like a mini zoo etc. For me, Lotte World either has scary rides or boring rides - there is no middle here. Of course I opt for those boring rides hahahahahah. Everland also has the four seasons garden which you can spend an hour easily admiring the pretty flowers and snapping photos. If you have limited time on your trip, I would recommend Everland but of course that's only my opinion.

So Day 33 was the day I was half anticipating and half dreading - the bungee jump day. I decided to group it with Lotte World entry so you probably can expect that I didn't jump and thus have no experience to talk about. I can't even remember which one I attempted to do it at. I think it's Yuldong Park Bungee Jump.

Sorry I really can't help cause I forgot all the directions. Actually I was dreading rather than anticipating it because after the Bungee Drop the day before at Lotte World, I was somehow very very scared. It's about the same height as the one in Lotte World and thinking back, it will probably be done and over with before I know it. But I asked a lot of friends - it's taking the first step out that is hard, not so much of the free fall part.

I could help with a few photos though. You should see this playground just opposite the bungee jump area. 

I couldn't jump and I didn't fully understand why still. The instructors didn't speak Korean but it was drizzling and the weather looked bad and I thought that is the reason why too. I re-confirmed with him again after seeing a note saying that there is no jumps allowed that day. I could only understand him saying "no" hahahahahahha but you know how relieved I felt at that moment goshhh.

I headed back to Gangnam station to get a backpack for my last 10 days of road trip though. And I spotted Gongcha which is like my favourite bubble tea store everrrrrr. It costs nearly S$5 for a cup of pudding milk tea, which is almost twice the price of what I can get back in Singapore. But I was missing it so bad. If you ever want to try out bubble tea while in Korea, I recommend Gongcha anytime hahah.

Day 31: Last day of school + Luxury Noraebang

I think I should do another post before I head back to Korea tomorrow. I am going back for another 10 days. Don't be jealous though! You can always go there if you want. It's not that easy for me to head back too, I need to work during holidays to save up for the trip (my parents like us to be independent), and it isn't that easy to get approval from them too. I was brought up quite strictly and never have I thought that I would be heading overseas alone until last year when I decided to "fight for my right" to come to SKKU for exchange. But then again, nothing worth it ever comes easy.

So here is a strict view of Daehangno and SKKU where my school is. I am probably queueing for Isaac Toast as I snapped this photo.

This is the kind of games Korean played in class while not paying attention hahah. Because we had finished our presentation the day before, we were not required to be here to listen to the other presentations if we didn't want to. But Jihye was our class representative so she had to be there, and our group decided it is the last time we could have a proper meetup so we came over nonetheless.

Okta brought this over for us. She brought it from Netherlands, and it was really pretty good!

So the girls + HyoEun and Okta decided to go sing Noraebang at a super luxurious noraebang that day. We headed to Edae to do some shopping first, and I see a teeny weeny bit of Singapore in Edae. A Kopitiam cafe that whips out our famous Kaya toast! I've never had it before but I heard it's pretty good like ours. So somewhere you can go if you are missing home.

In Edae, you can see shoe shops like this. Rows and rows of shoes. Although not everything may be cheap, but you can always ask. You can bargain if you buy a few pairs XP

And if you complain about the MRT situation in Singapore. Do note that it is that bad everywhere else too. I have come to treasure our transport system so much especially after Korea trip. Seriously, waiting for an MRT for 5 mins is NOTHING. Our kind of crowdedness is NOTHING compared to the ones in Korea whereby you are literally squashed onto another person's back almost all the time. At least we only experience it during peak hour. That aside, I'm getting very proud that Singaporeans are starting to line up for the MRT, I see that in Taiwan and Korea and always wonder why we don't ever do that. 

HyoEun brought us to a very traditional Korean restaurant, or so it claims. The food was good at 7,000won but honestly it tastes the same to me hahah.

This is the luxury noraebang I'm talking out!!

You use this thing to control your music. You can add "applause" after the song ends hahah.

Hahah I gathered everyone for a photo. This room is kind of huge actually. And we paid a high price for it. Like 25,000won for 2 hours, with no free drinks or anything. Give me Teoheng anytime!!! Plus the room was too big for any cosy feel. It stinked of cigarette smoke too so I don't think it is really luxurious to me.

It was pretty late when we got back to Hyehwa. Like 11.30pm or something. Someone suggested a crazy idea of eating Patbingsu at this hour. And also probably because this rather famous patbingsu store was empty and still open when we walked past it. I wondered did I just experience "rounds" in Korea? Like Round 1 of dinner. Round 2 of noraebang. And round 3 of patbingsu. Is that considered a "round"? 

Blueberry patbingsu and original patbingsu. The berry one sucks hahah but at that timing, they didn't have much choices left. Also, we picked out all the berries and added the red beans because the berries were so sour. We requested for more red beans and surprisingly we got it. Hahah I think usually you have to pay for it but since they had it when they are closing soon (12am) they gave it to us. Yay!

I will update the remaining 15 days when I am back in Korea. And if there is any more interesting things to talk about, I will have 10 more days of adventure. I'm mostly doing the same things I did when I was in Korea then, but I'm heading out to explore Jeonju and Petite France which I didn't have a chance to last time. Hopefully it will be great!

Day 30: Apgujeong - JYP, CUBE, SM

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I was struggling to complete my 4 papers in a week or so. And I'm now freeeeeeeeeeee~! Unofficially graduated. Hahah I know studying is always great but I've had enough of it for so many years so working isn't that bad an idea right now.

Okay so back to Day 30. Jenny Cheryl Winnie and I arranged to meet up after school to explore the Apgujeong area, with the main aim to go check out the entertainment companies. I listen to K-POP and have my own biases in various groups, but I'm not an avid fan of any particular one. I'm always neither a YG-family supporter nor a SMTOWN supporter, or JYP or FNC etc etc. I just pick and listen to songs from various artistes although I really like CNBlue's, SHINee's and SISTAR's songs quite a lot.

So, drifting away for a while, I'm here to introduce Korea's Lotteria! Which is like our McDonalds. I think you have a equal or in fact higher chance finding Lotteria than McDonalds. There is one branch between our guesthouse and SKKU, so Lydia and I decided to head there for breakfast on Day 30 since we haven't had much roomie bonding before. This breakfast set that consists of a waffle and a cup of coffee/tea costs 2,900KRW, and I've to say that the waffle is pretty good! (Choose the blueberry over strawberry anytime please.)

I also had my presentation because Day 30 was the second last class. (Time passes way too fast there!!!) It went well and I work well with my groupmates despite our different nationalities (2 Koreans, 1 Singaporean and 1 Indonesian). I'm honestly grateful for the girls to allow me to experience Korea in a more local manner.

Okay if you have been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm bad with directions. Like really bad in telling you how to get there. But if you place me there, I probably can walk and reach easily. So anyway, do google the locations but I remember you can alight at Cheongdam subway station if I am not wrong. 

From Cheongdam subway station, JYP Entertainment is the first one you will see. Fans of 2AM, 2PM and I don't know who else, JYP maybe, this is the place you should go. Not that I can guarantee you that you can see them. If you have all the time to wait, please feel free to wait outside for your favourite artistes! My bias from 2AM used to be Seulong, but now it is Jinwoon!!! His cute eyes hahah. Not very familiar with 2PM but everyone looks equally good in 2PM as well. :) 

If you have spotted JYP, walk further into the alley and you would have seen CUBE Entertainment as they are just nearby. For the lucky fans of artistes from CUBE including BEAST and Hyuna (sorry my knowledge in K-pop is really limited) this is the place you might chance upon them! There is a CUBE Studio which essentially functions as a cafe, and they also sell merchandise of their artistes there. Me and the girls headed in for a cup of coffee.

We were lucky as some of the BEAST members came down to get coffee when we were there. The fans were surprisingly calm and they did not approach them for signatures. I didn't know that they were artistes in the first place because I didn't pay much attention to BEAST before that until recently. I also accidentally blocked Hyuna's way because I was struggling to open the door which would not open, and again, I did not know that she is Hyuna even though we were standing side by side. I just knew that this person is definitely some artiste because she looks so good.

Anyway, we also walked to the opposite alley and randomly chose this restaurant for dinner because we saw so many signatures there. It must be good right!! This is also the alley which you should be getting your dinner because if you walk to the main road, it's gonna cost a lot more!!

This is Sundubu JJigae, which is tofu stew. I am slurping now already. I love soups like all kinds of soups. Chinese soups, or things like Clam Chowder, or even certain herbal soups, so it's no surprise there that I am in love with Korea's soups too. Sundubu jjigae, doenjang jjigae, budae jjigae and kimchi jjigae are the four most common soups you can find in Korea, of which I think I mostly ordered doenjang jjigae. If you are in Jeju-do however, do try their seafood stew - haemul jjigae, or the sea urchin soup. I only had the chance to try sea urchin soup and it was so flavourful.

The SMTOWN which was just by the road was down for renovation. We spent  more than half an hour before we manage to find the new SMTOWN which was by the expressway. We climbed slopes after slopes and it honestly wasn't fun. We were so tired after that we decided to cab to the nearest subway station. I think the cab driver was irritated we wasted his time - it was only 3 mins ride away.

That area where all these entertainment agencies are also had many luxury brands. E.g. Gucci. I see many other big names there so if you are thinking of getting some, this is the place which you definitely have to head to!

Lastly, poor me had to study for my exams on the last day of school (Day 30) even though it was nearly 12am when I reached my guesthouse. I read the case till 2.30am and fell asleep. But don't worry, most of the time, exchange life is fun (even though there are still projects and tests)!!!! Never miss a chance to go for an overseas study if you can afford it!