Taiwan trip~

Hello everyone! I apologize for not blogging in ages... I am just too lazy to post entries... This post is on my recent trip to Taiwan with my family. We visited a few places there... including Hualian, TaiChung and Taipei...

On board our flight, my sister and me having a picture taken by the friendly flight steward.

And the sightseeing pictures... my family at Hualian. We took a train there from Taipei which took us 5 hours... Luckily we got to taste their Railway Lunchboxes which was surprisingly good. Comes in two variations- Pork rib and Chicken leg.... Both come with a braised egg and vegetables. Yummy~

And in Taipei, saw a huge board advertising Dongbangshinki's upcoming concert in Taiwan. Not a huge fan of them, but some of my friends are, so here's the picture for the them. Other pictures here include the city view from Taipei 101, at the cable station at Beitou for our hotspring experience and shopping at Raohe night market. We visited other typical tourist spots like Shihlin night market, Ximending, Keelong and others as well.

The weather was too hot as it was summertime when we were there, with temperatures hovering around 35 degrees. That's like Singapore or slightly hotter, I could not stand the heat! For food I think they just tasted normal, not as good as I expected from my impressions formed from Taiwanese variety shows such as Shizilukou. Shopping wise, the items are mostly available on spree websites so I did not see very unique items.

I have to commend that Taipei has a very good public transport system. The subway is new and clean, and the people are all very considerate in standing on one side on the escalator to give way to others. And the taxis and buses are cheap and easily avaible. The taxi uncles were all friendly and helpful, giving us recommendations on what to do and where to go.

Overall it was an ok trip, the best part would be the sq flight which I enjoyed the most. Hahaha~

At Shinhwa's Fried Chicken Store

Dear Kitty visited me with her friends and we met up for dinner at Shinhwa's fried chicken store at Apujeong. Its actually a franchise of a popular fastfood chain in Korea and the store has been decorated with loads of Shinhwa's posters and stuff. The chicken taste average, not exceptionally delicious. But the main point of visiting the restaurant was to see Shinhwa's merchandise so food was secondary to me! Hahaha~

A poster of my Dongwan and me at his table...

And the food... the chicken was too spicy for my liking...

Lastly, a group photo of the Singapore girls and with Kitty...

Back in Singapore

Hello everyone! I am back in Singapore, the 4 months in Korea passed so quickly, it seemed like it was just yesterday when I just arrived. And now I am back. Overall it was a wonderful experience, I have met many friends from all over the world, visited many interesting places and tried many new things. I am glad to know the Singaporeans as they were my closest friends there and I really enjoyed their company very much. I also enjoyed the slack life as an exchange student.

I will be blogging about the things which I did in Korea for the past months but had no time to blog. The place we visited in this entry was in downtown Seoul and its Cityhall. The weather was good, so we just hung around there on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Soccer match

I revisited Seoul World Cup Stadium this time and watched an international friendly between Korea and Netherlands. I sat with gil, et, sq and our dutch friend, Mansy. All of us were dressed in red, including Mansy who was forced to dress in the same costume as us even though she obviously supports Netherlands. Haha.

Korea lost 2-0 but I enjoyed the match a lot as the atmosphere was great... there were lots of cheering (dae han min guk~~) and the fans were so supportive of their teams, even the kids!

And my favourite player for the match... He's called Cho Jae Jin. I think he is one of best looking korean players. Heh~

This is my favourite picture of the night, taken with the Korean national team (I wish I could). Ha!

(Photos courtesy of et and gillian)

Spring Sonata

We visited Nami Island and Chuncheon during a weekend trip and had great fun. The places were the filming sites for the korean drama Winter Sonata. Bay (our taiwanese friend) was the tour guide for the day and others include the usual Singaporeans, Mansy, Michael, Nam and Kai from Holland.

The journey to Nami Island was quite tedious actually as we had to take the subway, train, taxi and then ferry to reach it. But the journey was worthwhile as we got to see the nice scenery around the island. Some of the memorable scenes from the drama are above... Do you remember them?

Our last stop was a meal at Chuncheon where we ate the famous takgalbi (bbq chicken) and did some sightseeing at Chuncheon's Myeondong ( there's another one here in Seoul). Takgalbi is the specialty food in Chuncheon and there is a street called takgalbi street where the whole street is lined with takgalbi restaurants.

And lastly, thank you Bay for being our guide and Engteck for the photography! =)

Weekend trip to Gyeongju

I went to a weekend trip with rouxin, flora, shaoqin and bryan (from hongkong) to Gyeongju, in Southeastern Korea. Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Kingdom for 1000 years and has a great concentration of historical buildings, temples and artifacts. It was 4 hours bus ride away from Seoul.

We visited many cultural places, such as the Tumuli Park, Gyeongju National Museum, Underwater Tomb of King Munmu, Three Storey Pagoda at Mujangsaji Temple Site and a few others.

Here's a picture of a royal tomb and standing on top.

And some other pictures from the trip as well...

Outings with KU friends

I've been hanging out with Singaporean friends from Korea University, Gillian, Onwah and EngTeck, and here's some pictures of our activities. Really enjoyed their company and glad that we know each other here~

First up was visit to their school. Their school is so pretty, looks like castles and there were green pastures around. The cherry blossoms were really pretty as well. As the weather was great, people just sat on the grass and had picnics. Dont think people will do this back in Singaporea as the weather is too hot.

Next was chilling at a cafe called "The Palace" at Hongik University area, which is a famous place for its pubs, cafes and clubs. True to its name, the cafe was grand and ambience was good. A perfect place for quiet gatherings for friends to chill. We ordered a pot of tea each (rx ordered a cocktail) and our orders came with complementary bisuits and ice-cream to go with our drinks. The service was good as well, we had an enjoyable time there.

(Credits to Gillian for the photos)

Seodaemun Prison History Hall and Independence Park

We visited two places that were really near our school on a Sunday and the first is the Seodaemun Prison History Hall which is a living education site for the part of Korean History when Korea was occupied by Japan. The site was originally a real prison used to house political prisoners and is now a museum.

Some disturbing pictures exhibited in the prison...

In front of the prison museum is the Seodaemun Independence Park, which was a site where Korea used to receive Chinese envoys in the olden days. The building inside was later torn down and a granite structure called Independence gate was built in place to symbolize freedom. As the weather was great on that day, we happily took many pictures there. Credits to rx for the photography and editing of photos! =)

I saw Minwoo~

We went to the opening ceremony of Hi Seoul Festival 2007 last friday and saw Minwoo from Shinhwa! So happy to see him... and I was at the front row (there was still a distance from the stage actually but still he was clearly visible from my view). Mr Eng Teck kindly helped me take pictures of him with his pro camera at the front row. Thanks to rx, a video of him performing 2 songs was taken as well. Presenting to you Minwoo...

Hi Seoul Festival is a 2 week long festival which showcases the culture through colourful festivals of events to encourage participation from Koreans and non-Koreans. For the opening ceremony, a pop concert was held and other singers such as Lee Sooyoung, and Soh Jiyoung performed. And at the end of the show, fireworks were also displayed. The fireworks were really pretty~



Another member of Shinhwa, Andy, will be appearing in another Hi Seoul Festival event, so stay tuned for updates! heh~ Really hope I have the chance to see all 6 members of Shinhwa during my stay in Korea...

JSA/DMZ Tour

After learning so much about the Korean war from my history lessons and the visit to the War Memorial of Korea, we finally had the chance to visit the Joint Security Area and Demilitarized Zone to experience for ourselves. We were really looking forward to the tour as we've heard so much about the place. The tour is organized by the US Army and there are many rules and regulations, for example Korean nationals (except military personnels) are prohibited from visiting; people from Mainland China, Taiwan, Macau or Hong Kong have to apply for permission to visit; photography is restricted to certain areas and there are strict dress codes imposed as well. And here are some snaps on route to Camp Bonafas.

At Camp Bonafas, our guide (a US army personnel) gave us a brief introduction of the history and places we were visiting, followed by the distribution of our UN guest tags which had to be pinned on our left collars at all times in the area. We also had to sign a declaration form indicating we would not hold them responsible should any accident happen to us.

Behind us is North Korea, which is mostly a yellow patch. We could use binoculars to look more closely and I saw houses and factories in the sparse land. There is no handphone signal and other forms of transmission of information such as radio and other signals near the area and within North Korea as the governent controls the transmission of information. And here's a viewing post of the North Korean soldiers. All our actions were closely monitored by them as well.

This is called The Bridge of No Return. After the ceasefire (Korea is technically still at war), soldiers from both sides could choose which Korea they want to go to. Once they have decided which side to go, they cannot revoke their decisions, and hence the name of the bridge was coined.

And this is the famous Panmunjeon, which is the meeting place for North and South Korea officials, and with the UN officials as well. Soldiers from both sides stand guard inside the blue buildings and photography with them is allowed. However, we are not allowed to touch/speak/gesture to them. Inside one of the pictures are our guide and our professor. Our professor's full time job is the chief negogiator for the US Army with the North Korean side and he teaches Korean War in our school as well.

We also visited Tunnel 3, which was a tunnel dug by North Korea to infiltrate into the South and was discovered subsequently. Photography was prohibited in the tunnel. And a last picture which I found interesting to end off this post. It shows the North Korean propaganda for its soldiers at the JSA. It was overall a great experience, there were so much to see and was definitely worth the visit.