Day 39 & 40: Gyeongju, the ancient city

Sorry for the absence for the past 3 months. I've just started on my new job and it's tough trying to cope with things. Not to say, I'm so mentally drained I started feeling tired really early. So I've been dragging to continue posting. But feeling encouraged by the number of visitors who still come here often, I decided I should finish up my posts of my Korea trips.

So Day 39 started off with us waking up early to check out at 8.30am and rushing for the 8.45am bus from Sun Cruise resort. If you do not remember, I've mentioned before that the bus to and fro Sun Cruise comes every 2 hours. If we had missed this one, it would take us another 2 hours before we could get back to Seoul.

I have to specially mention the friendly bellboys. Because we saw the bus from afar and were worried that it may scoot off without us, they started running for the bus for us, and I'm ashamed to say that these guys were even faster though they have to run along while pushing our heavy trolleys. Superb service from them really :)

We took the bus back to Seoul before we head off for our road trip #2. Just in case you're wondering, you get pretty good comfortable chairs for the bus. And this is not even the premium one.

We had a simple lunch back at the bus terminal before boarding another bus to Gyeongju. A bus from Gangneung to Gyeongju would take 6-7 hours, and a bus from Seoul to Gyeongju would have taken 4 hours. So that was the reason why we decided to head back to Seoul. But we forgot to count in the journey of Gangneung back to Seoul which took 2 hours so in the end, the time spent is around the same. But nonetheless, glad to be back in the lively city.

My simple lunch - tuna and kimchi rice. I can't fathom why a simple dish like this can always always taste so great. In Korea, I've almost never gone wrong with a dish before. No matter how old the shop is, how small the shop is, how empty the shop is. Koreans are all born to be cooks somehow.

So... we arrived at Nahbi guesthouse in Gyeongju. Gyeongju is a very ancient city and most of their houses are hanoks or traditional houses. The girls wanted to opt for hanok stays too but unfortunately the highly rated ones didn't have rooms. I was secretly glad though. I'm particular about bathrooms and I always have the thought that the hanoks' bathrooms will not meet my standards. Not sure how right I am, but do let me know if you've stayed in a hanok before.

Nahbi guesthouse, is a pretty good one to stay in if you're not into hanoks like me. The guesthouse owner gave clear instructions and directions and also a map that indicates the famous restaurants in the small city of Gyeongju (although I beg to differ for some recommendations). He also speaks good English so you can be sure he will help with anything. Also, I needed to print something but ran out of paper. He was helpful to get me some as well. It's a small and simple guesthouse but good to get by if you're not fussy. Afterall, I don't think I've seen any hotels around in Gyeongju too.

We headed for a very traditional dinner after settling down and it was quite highly recommended by the guesthouse owner too. It took quite a while to find this place and we reached after about half an hour. We were here for one of Gyeongju's specialty food - ssambap (쌈밥).

This spread looks amazing but I can safely claim this is one of my worst meal experiences in Korea. Firstly, almost every single dish felt as if they've been immersed in salt for days. Secondly, we came in at 8.15pm or so and at 8.50pm they started chasing us out. Like telling us that they are closing and we have to finish our food. Well... there wasn't a lot of food choices at night but even if so, if they have kindly told us at 8.15pm that they are closing at 9pm and would really chase us out if we are not done, maybe we wouldn't have headed in.

We were feeling unhappy and unsatisfied and the night was too young to head back to sleep. Afterall, it's only 9pm! But there weren't a lot of activities to do in Gyeongju at night (not that I know of) so we decided to head to Paris Baguette to eat patbingsu. I love love love patbingsu, because of it, my night ended slightly better.

Gyeongju doesn't have any subway systems. There are buses of course but the places we are heading to are all clustered in one area - we wonder if buses are even necessary. After much deliberation, we decided to go by cycling. It's one of the most basic and best way to explore the city, while not having to take as much time as walking.

We first came to Daereungwon complex and also to the Cheomseongdae observatory. Gyeongju really is a place of rich culture and history and it was very peaceful cycling around there. Its famous tourist attractions are all history-related though, maybe that's also the reason why this place doesn't appeal to much tourists.

We were not satisfied with the ssambap (쌈밥) yesterday so we decided to stop by at this other restaurant when we cycled past it. This was so much better, still salty though. If you realise, the portions of the side dishes are quite small, probably because they know you will refill it anyway. It's all refillable except that delicious stewed pork. You also have so many choices of vegetables to wrap your face and side dishes in - makes perfect sense since ssambap literally means wrapped rice.

We also saw many people queueing for this and we decide we have to too, even if it takes a while. It's called Hwangnambang, and supposedly one of Gyeongju's delicacies too. It's some pastry made of red bean paste and it tastes absolutely delicious eating it piping hot. We were probably the only one who spent 15-20mins queueing up but only bought a packet of 8 to share. I really wanted to bring some back to Singapore though, but considering that I've two more road trips after that, I'm not sure if this can survive with me while I travel around the rest of Korea. I gave up that thought after realising how much of a hassle it is to lug my backpack, to-go bag and another bag of this along with me.

We also went to the Anapji pond and also Bunhwang-sa afterwards. Anapji pond will look amazing at night so if you do have a choice, please visit Anapji pond at night. The only reason why we didn't was because Anapji was at the opposite end from our guesthouse, and we already cycled a half circle, it makes no sense to come back here at night.

We spotted some lovely sunflowers and a nice patch of green grass?? along the way cycling back. It was a tiring journey back though because shortly after, a friend fell while riding. We sent her back via taxi and had to push her bike back. It meant that one of us must push two bikes. And it doesn't make sense that we leave one person behind too because we were running late in returning the bike and had to take a shortcut which was not already planned. A long and tedious journey back indeed.

We went for samgyupsal and makchang for dinner after that. I really really miss makchang - it's quite exotic in Singapore.

We finished the night with another patbingsu. Patbingsu makes me feel so at ease.

Day 38: Exploring Gangneung

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's hard to piece together things from nearly a year ago. But anyway I should still continue because things are going to get real busy for me soon and I would have even lesser time to update - I'm officially entering the workforce.

So we explored the area around Sun Cruise Resort first. Found a nice little quaint park and took many photos.

I could totally sit here forever....

The areas in Gangneung has beaches with one of the clearest waters I have ever seen. I'm not sure is it because there are less tourists and thus the water is less polluted.

Here's a shot of me at the nice beach area.

And here's a fantastic view of the "cruise" again. All along I thought it was a real cruise and they moved it up onto a hill hahahhahahah. But it turned out to be a resort built to look like a cruise. This place is really amazing.

If you're in Korea, grab this Wang Subab literally translates to Big Watermelon. It's an icecream shaped like a slice of watermelon and I guess the taste is close enough to a watermelon, though albeit artificial. I love it on a cooling day :)

After that we took a bus (I forgot the bus number) to Sodol Beach because we wanted to do the Gangneung zipline. It was also nerve-wrecking because the bus ride is about an hour away but we constantly kept a lookout and also focused on hearing the stop's name in fear of missing the stop and ending up at some unknown place 3 hours away. We reached a harbour-like place with no site of any zipline except one that looks like a 30-minute walk away. We asked the lady who was selling iced coffee in a pushcart (in our broken Korean) and she didn't know about it but she kindly took out her phone to google (or in Korea, they used Naver) for us. Her boss also came over to help us with it and it turned out that the Gangneung zipline is closed on Sundays. Bad day for us. And the place is so inaccessible. So I would highly recommend you to do the zipline down to Nami Island if you're interested in one.

We then cabbed to Charmsori Gramophone & Edison Science Museum because if we don't, we probably might not make it back in time. (Refer to previous entry about how the bus to Sun Cruise Resort only comes by every 2 hours). Museums are not my sort of thing but some stuff are pretty interesting too. Like the picture below. These are all the lightbulbs Thomas Edison has tried to make before he successfully invented the lightbulb.

We crossed opposite as we spotted this wide and spacious space for some jumpshot photos hahah.

We also took a bus to the Gajeong Beach I think. It was pretty good but we were too tired out for a day at the beach. We left after about an hour and took bus 202 back to the terminal area for dinner at 6pm or so because we didn't want to miss the 8pm bus (also the last bus) back to the resort. See how tiring it is to stay at the resort.

Dinner was at some family owned Korean restaurant. We ordered our favourite Haemul Pajeon (I always liked the ones in Korea, less batter, more seafood/chives) and their spicy kalguksu (knife-cut noodles). Both were good, but the spiciness of the kalguksu got to me after a while. I gave up at half bowl.

The helper in the restaurant, probably the son of the chef, was a cute ahjossi. Maybe an oppa, he looks like he is in his late 20s or early 30s. Cute as in not good-looking cute but his little antics are so cute hahah. He knew we weren't Koreans of course, because we were speaking in a language he couldn't understand. And then maybe due to boredom, he started chatting with us. His English was terrible though, not even basic seriously. Hahah probably only knew 100 words kind of terrible. So he talked to us in Korean. Apparently only me and Cheryl has a standard that is well enough to understand basic Korean. So but he kept bombarding us with Korean. It's the first time we had an entire conversation in Korean for a good 15 minutes with many exchanges of fluent and broken Korean respectively. We also gave up halfway because we couldn't understand him but he didn't give up and continue to use slightly simplier Korean along with a mixture of hand gestures to convey his meaning across.

Hilarious night really.

Day 37: Gangwon-do & Sun Cruise Resort

So the first trip is at Gangneung, Gangwon-do. Gangwon-do is a huge province on the north of South Korea. If you want to visit Gangwon-do, have an idea of what you want to do here because this place is too huge and the attractions are too isolated for you to hop around unlike in Seoul. That's one bad thing about travelling outside of Seoul. But otherwise, you get to experience the less bustling life - it's quite peaceful too! Usually, people go to Gangwon-do Pyeongchang in winter time for their winter ski.

We chose to start our long bus ride from Express Bus Terminal. Yes, that amazing shopping place. But there is a bus terminal at the next building. You could get your tickets there on the spot or you could reserve earlier. You can also choose the kind of bus seats you want - standard or premium. You could converse with the person in basic English, no worries about that. The main language barrier comes when you leave Seoul. It's hard to find someone who can even understand your broken Korean, let alone basic English, outside of Seoul. So be prepared for that!

Having my all-time favourite comfort food - Sundubu Jjigae. I had less of this on my second trip because these are readily available in Singapore. Just double the price and maybe half the authenticity. If you're there for a short trip, I would recommend you to try Korean food which cannot be found/are harder to be found in Singapore.

The bus stop right outside the bus terminal at Gangneung will bring you to Sun Cruise resort. There are a few buses but only take bus 109. Buses outside of Seoul do not flash words, not even Korean words. Listen out for the voiceover, but then again it's in Korean. However,  the Korean pronunciation of Sun Cruise resort is very close to the English one, so just keep hearing for it. It should go up to the top of a hill and you should only alight at the highest point.

As you can see, bus timings are horrendous. Except 7am and 8am, the buses only come by every 2 hours. And this is the only bus up to Sun Cruise resort + the bus ride takes one full hour. So do plan properly. Because if you miss the bus, your itinerary will be pushed back by 2 full hours. 

You will arrive at this entrance about 1-2 minutes walk from where the bus stops. And if you think you see a cruise behind, you are not wrong.

This is the exact reason why we stay in this place. The resort is made like a cruise on the top of a hill. It looks so spectacular and honestly staying there was one of the best choices. Minus the transportation woes. If I could, I would stay there 3d2n and not leave the place. But I probably need a much higher budget.

The view that greets us when we stepped into our room.

The room was spacious, well-lit and cosy. I love all rooms that look cosy. But of course, for the price, if it didn't, I would have never paid for it.

The resort also has a mini cafe. Nothing spectacular or amazing about the decoration but the cakes and the accompanying view sure looked lovely.

On our way down, we managed to spot a pretty sunset.

However, since the bus only comes by every two hours, we cannot afford to wait for it. We decided to walk down, wrong choice but only choice. The road winds and turns and is so deserted because the only vehicles using this road are those that goes to or leaves the resort. Going back up at 9pm is the scary thing hahah, and of course uphill too.

We settled at a random restaurant for dinner at 8pm and it seemed like the area has quietened down quite a bit. But the ahjummas still served us well. That's what I like about Koreans - if they serve you, they make sure you are served well.

I also walked by a convenience store and craved for a popsicle - the Korean style hahah.

At the Hourglass park.

And a random beach which we walked past on our trek up the hill back to our resort.

All in all, Sun Cruise resort is a lovely place, but you have to know that transportation is troublesome here. Not just here, anywhere outside Seoul and Busan. Only Seoul and Busan has the subway trains, so buses is the main form of transportation for tourists elsewhere. Don't even think about cabs in some of these rural areas, because you might be better off waiting 2 hours for the bus instead. I'd definitely recommend Sun Cruise resort, especially if you think you can stay in the resort for a relaxing stay all day long - which you should be able to. There are restaurants and parks and swimming pools and cafe and a convenience store and souvenir stores. Wish they have a noraebang/multibang there hahah, then maybe I won't even take a step out of the resort at all.

Day 34 & 36: Folk Village + Dragon Hill Spa

I should have updated this blog way earlier but I'm always too lazy to do it.

Anyway, if you're wondering what happened to day 35. The thing is that the school was supposed to bring us to Buryeong Mud Festival. Although I was scared to get real dirty, I am still excited to go! But we experienced one of the worst downpours that day. And even when we're on the bus and ready to go, the rain did not show any signs of getting smaller. That's when we were informed that the organisers of the Buryeong Mud Festival cancelled the event that day and we will be brought to Lotte World instead. Those who have already been to Lotte World could just claim your subway lunch (again) and go elsewhere yourself. I was really tempted to get off the bus 'cause I was just there 3 days ago and I spent 40,000KRW on the tickets I think. But no one else wanted to leave so fine... I can't do anything myself in this rain too. So refer to my previous post about Lotte World please.

So day 34, we were brought to a folk village in Suwon. It was pouring too but the rain stopped by the time we reached Suwon. Apparently, this is also the filming site for Sungkyunkwan scandal.

We watched how a traditional Korean wedding is carried out in the past. Pretty interesting except that there were almost no seats?!?! We were standing around feeding mosquitoes.

The school arranged us to have bibimbap for lunch at this traditional restaurant. It's pretty good, or maybe I was hungry. One of the few times I finished the entire bowl of bibimbap. Usually bibimbap is too vegetarian for me.

We also had the chance to watch Taekwondo and try it out ourselves.

Jihye Okta and I met for dinner and dessert after that. We always have two rounds on default. I think Jihye loves desserts hahah. I met her on my trip back this time and we had 2 rounds too.

On Day 36, which is the final day of the programme, we have a graduation ceremony. All the TAs have to volunteer a student from their class, preferably non-SKKU students, and Jihye volunteered me! Surprisingly, my morning class TA (who didn't know me and I didn't know too) volunteered me as well!! Urm.... so I was made to go up the stage to represent the cohort along with 19 other students because the 20 of us all got volunteered (and of course me who got volunteered twice).

I really didn't want to but I didn't have a choice. Plus my cap kept dropping everytime I bow to thank the row of professors. 

HyoEun then brought us to this restaurant which is supposedly the best in Hyehwa.

I have to talk about the pizza. I didn't know Koreans eat cheese pizza with honey. And it tastes amazingly... good!!! You should try it in Korea!!

After that. We went to Express Bus Terminal Underground for shopping. HyoEun and I bought the same shirt cause we both liked it and the shop owner asked if we were a couple?!?!?!?! She must have thought that we were lesbians or something omg.

We ended the night at the Dragon Hill spa before heading back to our homes/guesthouses on the last train. We almost thought we missed the last train and had to cab back. But turns out that we were at the wrong platform. I will update about my road trip next and some of the places I visited in Korea this time round (which I didn't last year). But it's probably gonna take a while :P