Blackbird, Fly

Some updates

Okie, I know I haven't blogged in the longest time ever; mainly cause my computer broke down (which is still not fixed as of now. It gets cranky once in a while still; have to coax it into starting up). Of course, it's also partly due to my lazyness, but knowing me, when examinations are coming, everything else seems super exciting, so here I am, blogging again.

1. Attended 'Ipsilenti'; an annual outdoor school concert where the most popular Korean celebrities would perform at the school's stadium. I guess the highlight of the event was the appearance of Super Junior, which made the female fans scream like mad. The ticket cost - $8.

2. Attended the Korean-ASEAN Conference at Jeju Island as a Singapore delegate. It was a great opportunity to meet up with many Korean and ASEAN students from top universities, not to mention the free food, hotel lodging and airfare! Oh, and I stayed in a suite (2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and 2 bathrooms) at a famous resort; super luxurious! And I even appeared on the news (both tv and the papers) while hiking with the First Lady of Korea! Okie, a bit boastful here, but I was really so glad that I went for the event!

3. Visited Andong, a rural countryside with Daedong, my Daegu friend. His family was super nice to host me for a weekend, and I was basically brought around everywhere in the countryside. Woah, and first time staying in a farmhouse too! Daedong's family grows grapes, but it wasn't the ripening season, so didn't get to taste them. The countryside is so beautiful, with lush mountains, sparkling rivers and vast greenery! Exactly the kind of spot for retirement!

4. Watched a new SBS drama - City Hall. It's basically talking about a woman who lives in a countryside, who unexpectedly became the mayor of the city. Very very interesting! The show makes politics sound so fun. Super drama, super funny, super chemistry!

Photos will be updated soon :)

Hi Seoul ‘Festival’

Today marks the start of the Hi Seoul Festival, and the few of us (Chin Keat, Yong Hui, Valerie and I) went over to Cheongyecheon (the most famous river in Seoul) to watch the mass parade. However, the moment we came out of the subway station, we saw hundreds of police in shields, head gear and bulletproof vests standing guard. I didn’t think too much, cause there are always policemen near Seoul Financial Centre.

We only started to suspect something was wrong when we saw policemen dragging struggling people away from the streets, with reporters at the same time taking videos and snapping pictures. Later we found out that there were around 4 to 5 protests taking place here all at the same time. We were also told that the festival might be cancelled because of the protests.

Nonetheless, we still decided to try our luck at the starting place of the parade. When we were there, the performers were already starting to play music and dance, and the mood was really high! What we didn’t expect was that the protesters had already mixed themselves into the performers. When the parade was going on, the protesters were creating havoc, chanting loud cheers and sabotaging the props.

At one point, there was a whole fleet of cars forming a contingent along the street, with special festival ambassadors walking beside the cars. The protestors actually started to cut the floating balloons off the car, and the event organiser was so worried he used the PA system to instruct all the ambassadors to get into the cars, so as to protect their safety.

We kept ourselves safe by walking in front of the parade, where there were no protesters around. At the end of the parade street, there was a giant outdoor concert stage. We were lucky enough to squeeze to almost the front of the stage, as we were told there was going to be multiple celebrities performing in half an hour. We saw so many fans holding 2PM balloons, and Valerie was so excited, as she loved that group. 

Unfortunately the protesters made it to the concert plaza too, and started to merge into the crowd. Many of them held placards and flags, and were shouting really loudly (not too sure what they were protesting about, but I heard it was the 1 year anniversary of the agreement of the importing of US beef into South Korea; the citizens were worried about contracting Mad Cow Disease. Also, apparently the South Koreans seem very unhappy with the present government) around us. We felt trapped in between the protesters.

The MC also seemed to be freaking out, and told the PA system to keep looping the songs so as to drown the chants of the protesters. This got the mob so angry that they started to throw stuff onto the stage, even hitting the host as a result. In the end, the mob managed to storm onto the stage and shut down the whole system.

At that point in time, we tourists were still really puzzled on what was happening, until the PA system started announcing that the concert would be cancelled and urged us to leave this place immediately. Volunteers were shouting frantically at us to leave, when the police started to put on their anti-riot gear and circled the entire plaza. It was then we started getting worried that we would not be able to leave the plaza, especially when the police were starting to walk inwards, making the circle smaller. Around us, we could hear loud screams and high shrills, as the protesters resisted arrest. Luckily we caught sight of an exit and made our way out to the subway station, where it was safe.

Anyway, please don’t worry about us in Korea, because all the protests here are non-violent, and protests happen rather frequently too. In fact, one of the flags we saw belonged to Korea University. The protesters ranged from students to elderly people, and besides the rowdy noise (and a handful of more violent people), it was pretty safe. In fact, we were more afraid of the fully-equipped policemen more than anything, cause they looked really menacing in their huge numbers. And besides, I am safely blogging about the event now, aren’t I? Heh :)

Gyeongbokgung (景福宫/경복궁)

Chin Keat came for a short holiday to Seoul during the weekend from Beijing, and hence became the very first friend of mine to come visit me here. He brought bak gwa from 美珍像， which tasted damn shiok! He wanted to visit somewhere historical, so we went over to Gyeongbokgung to view the palace.

The palace reminded me a lot of the previous palace I went to, but the highlight of the entire trip was that I saw the King! He was taking a stroll with the queen at the royal garden, together with a horde of palace maids and bodyguards when we were there, and we took so many pictures of him! I can’t believe I was so lucky to have seen them the first time I went to the palace!

Anyway, for those who are getting lost here, these people are just actors. Heh, no real kings here (although there are real descendants of the last King of the Joseon Dynasty. Managed to see one 2 days later, performing a rite for the past king)! But then, it’s still very exciting to see one whole group of people wearing ancient clothes and walking around. The men even wear fake moustaches! Anyway, the ‘King’ takes a half hour walk around Gyeongbokgung every day at 2pm, so those who want to catch the royal walk can do so at that time!

Also at Gyeongbokgung are free costumes for people to try out. Not only that, we were given the opportunity to wander around in the costumes and take pictures. Exciting!

For the rest of our time in the palace, we just went around taking silly shots. Chin Keat brought along a DSLR, so we basically wandered everywhere to take pictures. And the pictures turned out pretty good too! Even the standard jump shots look sharp. Orh, I want a DSLR already!

We also took super unglam shots of us imitating the standard Sybil pose at Busan beach! Damn erxin!

Busan Day 3

Okie, I feel bad about procrastinating my blog entries, so shall make use of my free time now to finish blogging everything. We were all supposed to wake up at 4.30am to catch the sunrise at the beach, but no one woke up (as expected). The bulk of us (Long, Yong Hui, Ziyi and me) woke up at 10am and went for a stroll at the beach. As compared to Friday, Sunday was way more crowded. There was some prelude to the upcoming beach festival, and we managed to catch some sand artists making sculptures at the beach.

The beach was still really cold when we were there. Even the sand was cold to the touch. There’s also a mermaid sculpture here, just like in Copenhagen! This was the second mermaid sculpture I have seen in South Korea; the other one was at Nami Island, Chuncheon.

We also managed to visit Nurimaru APEC House, which was a convention hall specially built to welcome heads of every nation during the 13th APEC summit in 2005. Now that it has served it's purpose, it has been converted to a tourist attraction by the government. The place was really beautiful, with wonderful views of the sea! And I managed to find the Singapore seat, where PM Lee sat previously. It must have been really exciting to be one of the participants of the summit! The view enough is worth sitting through hours of conferences!

After we checked out of the hotel, we met up with everyone else for lunch. Something really nice happened that day too. My hosts from Daegu actually travelled all the way from their home to find me at Busan! At first when I invited them to join me at Busan, I did not expect them to agree, but they really came! Although it was supposed to be only a one hour trip, the terrible traffic conditions resulted in them getting caught in the jam for 4 hours!

And the worst thing was, my host, Daedong형, drove here, so he was exhausted by the time he came. And he actually parked his car at the terminal so that he could take the subway and buses with us (there were too many of us; he couldn’t drive us all).

Daedong형 took us to a restaurant that is extremely popular in the area. In fact, many artistes who travel to Busan will come here to have their tteokboki (rice cake in spicy sauce). Besides that, we had cold noodles, dumplings, blood sausages (pig intestines filled with pig’s blood and glutinous rice), tempura vegetables and other pork innards. Damn delicious meal, and costs only $4 per person!

Following that, we went to a famous temple in the outskirts of Busan. At first, I was thinking it’s going to be another temple again, but it’s seriously the most beautiful one I have seen here, because it is situated right beside the sea!

At the entrance of the temple, there were 12 deities corresponding to the 12 different horoscopes of the Chinese calendar. Here I am, posing with the oxen statue. Notice that there are coins left on the statue; people place them there, and if the coins do not drop, their wishes will come true.

Here’s the very last picture I took with my hosts before I left for Seoul. They are seriously the nicest people I have met in Korea! I highly recommend staying over at their place if anyone is going over to Daegu!

Busan – Days 1 and 2

Left Daegu to travel to Busan to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans on Friday morning. The limousine bus from East Daegu Station to Busan station took 1 hour 10 mins and cost $9. Pretty cheap for a comfy ride all the way to the southernmost part of Korea.

Busan is a coastal city, and is surrounded by lots and lots of beautiful sandy beaches. Walking along the beach kinda reminded me of my younger days in Hawaii. The sea was so clear and blue, and not interrupted by ports, ships nor islands. It’s just one whole patch of blue that connects to the sky; looking at it made me relax immediately! First meal in Busan. Of course, the plates of food on the table are all just side dishes, and all were refillable. The main dishes weren’t even here yet! I ordered pork bone soup, which is not seen in the picture, and it cost me only $6. Orh the beautiful seaside! The sand is much finer than the ones in Singapore, and much colder too, probably because it was still spring at the time. Not much people were there, since it was on a Friday, so we had the entire beach to ourselves! Super relaxing, totally different from the bustling city scene in Seoul. The next day, we headed to Jagalchi market, which is famous for its fish products. Of course, like any fish markets, the smell there was really funky, so I didn’t stay there for long. The rest went exploring inside though, and even had live octopus for lunch!

I didn’t do too bad too. Ate their special strawberries coated with hard sugar, kinda like the Chinese 冰糖葫芦，except it is made with strawberries. Woah damn nice! And Sybil tried their Busan hottock too, which contains sunflower seeds and melted cinnamon sugar inside the fried flour cake.

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In the late afternoon, we made our way to Taejongdae Park, which is yet another park that overlooks the sea.

Along the way, we caught some pictures of the common local delicacies, such as funky-coloured corn, boiled shelled seastuff and silkworms! Argh, damn disgusting! Whenever I smell the silkworm thing, I would start to get dizzy. It’s an indescribable smell in a very unpleasant way. Totally not good at all.

The lighthouse is a major attraction in the park, and we took a tram ride (maybe $5 or less?) to the top of the park to get to the lighthouse. Woah, the sight was even better than the one at Namsan Tower. This one overlooks the sea, and I could see the cliffs, mountains, sea and boats; really beautiful! I was wearing the Korea University pullover, by the way, to show my pride for the school. Not to mention that it is cheap too!

There was a small road from the lighthouse that led to the stone cliffs on the other side of the sea, and we all went there to take photos. The cliff was really rocky and pretty dangerous too. There was only one railing that led to the cliff, and beyond that, there was nothing to hold people in the case that they fall off. Also, the road was rocky and uneven, making it hard to walk.

The most amazing this is that as we walked along the path, we actually saw women wearing high heels on the cliff. It’s amazing how these women could actually train their feet so much that they could walk even on rocky cliffs with heels on.

Once we reached the cliffs, we started taking random shots around the area. Besides the uneven ground, the wind that day was really strong too, so we were all really afraid we were going to fall off. Nonetheless, we still took many pictures in dangerous positions, cause the scenery was just too beautiful to be missed out.

 

We took a ship back to shore for $8, and everyone chose to sit on the top deck to view the scenery although we were all freezing in the cold. Woah the ferry ride was almost like taking a Viking ship, due to the strong winds and choppy water. At certain points in time we even hard to grab on to the railings with our lives so that we wouldn’t fall off the ship.

I found some excess potato chips in my bag and used them to feed the sea gulls. But somehow it attracted so many sea gulls that both Ziyi and I had to squat down and hide just in case the sea gulls were to attack us suddenly (which didn’t happen, of course).

Anyway we were all so suaku and kept screaming that all the passengers in the bottom deck laughed at us. Damn paiseh!

At night we headed over to Gwangalli beach. We had wanted to catch the fireworks that night by the beach, but we reached 2 hours late, cause we took the wrong subway line, and ended up having to reverse and take the right line all over again. It was really funny, cause we kept doing the wrong things in Busan, but we still had a lot of fun there.

To compensate for missing the fireworks, we bought actual fireworks for $1 per stick at the beach and set them off at the seaside. In the following picture, I am holding a tube of fireworks, which can set off maybe 10 fireworks consecutively. It was the first time in my life that I set off fireworks, and it was a remarkable experience. Activities on the final day will be posted another time!