Annyeonghaseyo!!

How I friggin' miss these moments :D

Yes, I've been to Korea before, no intending to brag about it here. No matter how I would kill to go there at these moments. No, not because of Kpop (actually, that's like the fourth or fifth reason).

It's funny, when you wish for something, it won't come true immediately, but then when we didn't wish for it, it happened, and how can I tell about that? Back in 2002, I hardly recognized what Korea was. My mom and dad just went. "We're going for a trip to Korea on Christmas."

I was like

"Where is that? Oh well, okay then." *I'm telling you, way back when, my geography skill was really lacking*

But now....I'm like.

"Pleasepleasepleaseee....take me to Korea!!! Take me thereeee.....!!!" TT__TT

What a contrast eh?

Here's our tour guide onnie, Jenny :D

Anyway took off on winter 2002 as mentioned before above, with my family and my friend's family (our families have been good friends for a long time). I don't know why but I always love winter despite people saying that summer was better (dude, we experience summer everyday here in Indonesia! We need to experience what it's like wearing layers of clothes and a thick sweater). Winter's always best with its Christmas-ish vibe, the decorations, the Christmas songs, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and everything.

Waking up in the morning!

One of the most memorable places I visited in Korea was YongPyong. It was a ski resort that used to be the filming location of Winter Sonata. Nice place, I'm telling you, and the best feeling is when you wake up in the morning and open up the window, walk to the balcony, and you'll see this snow covered forests, houses, and roads stretching before you. What a heavenly feeling.

In front of our hotel in YongPyong resort


In the hotel's lobby with my friend's onnie

Way back in 2002, Kpop hasn't fully developed unlike these days. The people were still talking mostly about Kdramas, stuff like Winter Sonata (it was a hype, and even it lasts forever up until now!), and...speaking of Winter Sonata, for the love of God, my mom used to adore Bae Yong Joon so much!

Bae Yong Joon poster in YongPyong

Even when we went to Yongpyong and spotted a huge Winter Sonata poster there, my mom went like "Look, it's Bae Yong Joon!" I went to look up because I was very short and I thought that my mom spotted the real person (I was blocked by these tall people so I couldn't clearly see what my mom was pointing at) before I sighed in disappointment, by the fact that she only pointed on the huge poster.

Ready to go skiing in YongPyong!


Skiing with dad

Actually the first reason why I wanted to go to Korea again is...THE THEME PARK! Lotte World and Everland! I miss those places. Really.

In Everland :)

Everland was the first theme park we visited shortly after we arrived in Incheon airport. Imagine us having a jetlag and having slept all the way from the airport, then directly taken to this theme park. What a refreshing! Tours should have programs like this, where tourists are taken directly to a theme park or such shortly after arriving.

There were many rides and fun stuffs in Everland, such as swinging ship (unless this particular ship doesn't swing like any other, but instead, it flips 360 degrees, I had no guts riding on this thing back then), suspended coaster, and many other.

With a mime, shortly after watching a show

Anyway, there was this particular ride that didn't look frightening at all. So basically you board this compartment and you'll be swung like a clock, unlike the swinging ship I mentioned to you guys. It looked fine, but apparently it didn't feel the same way, every moment it fell, my heart felt like it had been left on the air. Haha. You get the idea.

Did I mention that the theme park also has a mini zoo? I don't have the picture of us in the mini zoo, but it was awesome! It got some Australian woolly sheeps, whose fur was really really smooth. I feel like running my fingers through it again and again :)w

Lotte World!!

Lotte World is another theme park, and as far as I can remember, that was our last destination before we left to Jakarta the next day. But I'm telling you, it was AWESOME! DAEBAK! I didn't know that it eventually turned out to be both an outdoor and indoor theme park, since I only visited the indoor one.

Before entering the indoor theme park attraction, you'll walk down this hallway of shops and stuffs (I'm counting on my memory right now) before you'll find yourself in a huuuuge hall with many attractions and rides in just one big hella room! I rode on Jungle Cruise and many other rides. Geez, I forget, it's been eight years, so please forgive me :)

Around 8-9 o'clock, the attractions and rides were closed due to a so-called parade and laser show. The parade was fine, with beautiful models and performers wearing traditional outfit. The laser show was the most attractive show I've ever seen.

The snowy path

Other than theme parks, we visited many, many temples with fascinating histories. Too bad I couldn't remember each names of the temples, but the sceneries were magnificent as well. The moment when I saw the snow covered the whole area, was the moment when I felt grateful to be here in Winter. Just fabulous to see everything's white.

Cute snowman, eh? Not big but we're proud of it

To get out of the temple, we took another path which was still covered by thick snow. When I said thick, I meant, real thick. It was knee-depth and you can imagine what it's like to walk through it. However, the fun thing is, when we were tired, me, my friend, and his onnie managed to make a snowman out of the thick snow.

Before the huge Buddha statue

Another destination we went to was this large Buddha statue. I didn't know the place of interest's name, once again, but it was a really great place!

So overall, Korea was a fascinating place, but I said this according to what I saw and experienced back in 2002. Oh and also, we visited in the year of World Cup, so we got to pass the stadium in Seoul, but too bad, we didn't have a chance to visit it and take a closer look.

Hopefully, I'll get to go to this country some time in the future! Hopefully soon :D