Grad trip - Day 10

The jellyfish is back! This post is about my Day 10 out of the 12 days grad trip in South Korea! ^^

It is a long post, but if you are interested to read about my experience, please do so. :)

Day 11: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-11.html
Day 9: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-9.html

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Day 10: Nami Island / KU tour

After I finished the 3^rd draft of the timetable, some people who were curious enough to ask for my itinerary question a lot about the day’s activities as besides the rushed Nami Island and rail park schedule, there was a part to visit SY’s summer exchange university: Korea University (KU). Why on earth would we go there? Since SY wanted to revisit his old school (memories?) and show me around to see how other countries’ universities are like, why not? So the day started off with 2 simple objectives. That is of course, after my solo morning walk. =P Since we did not walk much onto the streets the previous day, I decided to walk along the street and see what awaits me. A slightly cold morning, and the Monday traffic is already present at 6.40am along the busy roads and junctions. The fast food and a 24-hour supermarket are operational, but other than that most shops are closed. The restaurants look nice both in food style and decorations (some have nice pottery displays), although the prices can be quite expensive. Oh! One of the restaurants actually serve Chinese dim-sum! It is really expensive though, and I don’t think SY will be interested in visiting this eatery. =P 4 pieces prawn dumpling for 8k wons is really an overkill ya? After walking for about 10 minutes, a small black temple/palace could be seen, and that is where I left the exploration of other places to the next two days. =P After turning back, I went to the supermarket to buy some grapes (fruits are good you know?). and proceeded to have Mac for breakfast.

Ok, why mac when that is so common in SG? Well, firstly there are no eateries that are opened so early in the morning, secondly I do not want Lotteria after the disastrous dinner on the previous night, and third why not try what other countries have to offer even though they are under the same name? XD I got myself a tomato bacon egg muffin with hash brown and chocolate milkshake. For some strange reason there isn’t Milo in mac, and so the milkshake serves as an alternative. =P The mac has a self-service kiosk similar to the ones in SG, except that a customer can choose to make his order in either English or Korean.  Even though the menu selection is in English, the order chit was printed in Korean! =D Gave it to the guy cashier (alone), obtained a waiting number and I proceeded to the seating area upstairs. It is a rather big area, size about the same as the Old King Albert Park’s outlet less the fanciful decorations and furniture layout. Choosing a big circular table at the corner of the restaurant, I started to write my previous day occurrences and had breakfast. The burger tasted very normal, but not as hot as the ones served in SG. The chocolate milkshake tasted a bit too sweet and it makes people feel like drinking more water to counter the flavour. Wrappers are in the same style as the ones in SG. Spent a bit of time looking at the Banpo fountain show videos taken the previous night before, while listening repeatedly to the Hero song. =P

SY woke up at 8+ with an added suggestion of shopping in the evening to reduce the big shopping task the next day. 9am, we set off to Gapyeong station, at the rather ulu Gyeongchun line that reaches out to the countryside areas of Seoul. The ulu lines proved to be a nagivation challenge. At Cheongnyani station, the dark blue line, line number 1 intersects with Gyeongui Jungang line and the Gyeongchun line which for some strange reason have similar colour. The two lines are both over-ground and that station has lots of platforms. >.< Without really knowing what is going on, we followed the sign that leads to the Gyeongchun line and boarded the corresponding platform. Nothing is strange until we realised that the directional sign stated Gyeongui Jungang line and our own desired one was nowhere to be found. -_- SY suggested that we ride the train anyway as there is a few more intersection stations between these two lines after seeing that I had no better solution. That seemed to work correctly as we found the platform after hearing the train announcement at Sangbong station that we could transfer to the Gyeongchun line or line 7. Up till today, that phenomenon is still a mystery to me. =/ How are we very sure that we are in the correct place? The answer is the presence of a lot of ahjumas and foreign tourists crowding in front of the platform doors. =P Gapyeong station is really far away from the densely packed stations and the journey took a good 50+ minutes of standing. That being said, it was a pleasant journey as the train moved at a slowly speed, allowing us to view the scenery outside the windows. Doing business on an ulu line leading to a famous tourists attraction has its own benefits, an ahjuma pushed a cart selling outdoor fashion accessories such as mats, socks and hats and attracted quite a number of other ahjumas to shop for stuff. Her method of selling is to first display the stock up in the air and giving a brief description, then going to small neighbourhoods of seats to give potential customers a more detailed look of the products, and lastly letting the customer feel the item if they are genuinely interested (just like normal shopping). The items are priced at 5k wons each, but a pity she did not sell any sunglasses, otherwise I would have bought one and wear to Nami island for fun. =P

Nearing to 11am, we arrived at Gapyeong station along with a super large crowd. Both the Gapyeong Rail Park and the Nami Island are accessible by walking or private means of transport, and as such specially catered buses are used to bring visitors to their desired destinations costing 6k wons per person (expensive!), and every visitor is given a bus ticket and various brochures about Nami Island and the places around it. The bus was extremely squeezy, and that continued all the way until the Nami Island bus stop. Nobody alighted at any of the previous stops (the bus driver announced the bus stop manually), not even the Gapyeong Rail Park which looked like a super abandoned town. We were both very surprised that the Rail Park being advertised like a good attraction online is somehow an anti-climax in reality. >.< Probably because that day was a Monday, and thus it was closed for operations? Hmm.

The normal way to Nami Island will be by a ferry that costs 10k wons per person, with a 2k discount given to visitors holding a foreign passport. The alternative way to avoid the crowd would be to climb up to a very tall building, and zip your way via the ZipRide across the waters to the heart of Nami Island. =D That looks rather exciting, but we gave that a skip. The layout of the boarding entrance is very traditional with wooden houses and small plantations, and visitors will queue up / wait at the boarding area inside a big shelter. I have always associated Nami Island to be an attraction that is uniquely South Korean, however the flags and wordings at that area suggested an affiliation with Malaysia? =/ The wait is about 15 minutes or so, and we killed time by reading the given brochures and the fact that the waters surrounding Nami Island is actually the Han River! Wow ok! :D No wonder Seoul prides itself on such a magnificent bed of water, it is basically the horizontal line of the city! Imagine if there is a river that links Boon Lay all the way to Tampines, hmm… The ferry came thereafter, and sort of rushed to board it, some sitting on the inside, some standing at the outer layer to view the scenery, and with most standing on the centre of the ferry. A person with some large boxes boarded the ferry too, but nobody seemed to mind. Was he selling drinks? =P The structure of the ferry is basically a 1-floor layout that has a mini horizontal ramp for direct boarding, unlike the super big one we took on the 3^rd day from Wando to Jeju, no other facilities added. Once the ferry is almost full, we set off on a slow speed to Nami Island.

11.30am, welcome to the place of Korean Drama sceneries! I am not sure how other people got to know this place, but my introduction came from the Thai movie “Hello Stranger”, where the lady intended to visit South Korea on her own and Nami Island was one of the places of attraction. The guy gave a deep impression by saying that “if there were no Korean Drama series, will there be any tourists here?”. XD I did not go there for the Korean drama figures, but more for the scenery and the curiosity of why the island could attract so many visitors. =P A beautiful arc sign welcomed visitors to the facility, and we started off our walk on the trial of tall trees. Yup, typical green tall trees where Korean dramas’ couples walk when talking about their life, old couples trying to be romantic under trees with different colour leaves, cocoons hanging from the trees (yawning is dangerous), etc. Many visitors were taking photographs with the beautiful background behind them. SY doesn’t seem to be in a mood for enjoying the scenery though, and instead just led me to different spots which he found relatively more interesting than the others. Among the foresty areas are some small decorations and plantations, and a super loud strange howl echoing in the air. We were not sure where the sound came from, until I spotted a small group of people looking up at a tree, and OMG there is a peacock stuck at a very high branch! How on earth did you get up there? XD Anyway, it howled for very long without coming down. Probably that peacock is trying to be a counter-example that peacocks can’t fly. It sure wasn’t proud of itself as the tail wasn’t open! =P

While the edges of the island offer nice sceneries and plantations, the central of the island showcases famous figures and architecture shown in more popular Korean dramas, and offers eateries and entertainment to visitors. Since I don’t watch a lot of Korean dramas, let me just place some pictures here for memory. =P

Naturally the couple statue (Bae Yong Joon and Choi Ji Woo) from the Winter Sonata statue is the most famous and popular item in the whole island. XD Other statues had people posing for photos, but nobody had to wait long before having a shot with it. This is definitely not applicable for the couple statue, and I had waited a few minutes just to take a real life photo of it. Ah, the people who took photos with the couple statue are mostly a large group of friends or couples. =P I think the people may find it strange that I am a singular person interested to take a photo with it. SY is naturally of course not interested. XD

The South-East of Nami Island holds a very quiet trail of stone road, benches facing the river and a traditional wooden bridge (made of logs?) that serves a small walk on the river. A short rest at the benches (and sending a few scenery pictures to my parents and girlfriend), enjoying the super peaceful and quiet environment while watching the water flow slowly. I don’t know why, but that kind of scene reminds me of village people washing clothes by the riverside, not sure what kinds of show I have been watching when I was young. XD After the break, we walked across the bridge and get some fresh air of the river region. The walking course is actually not too easy as some parts of the bridge seemed unstable with shaking logs, but overall it is not bad. I guess that’s what the past people have to walk through to transport their daily necessities in their daily life. =/

Just as with other tourist attractions, eateries are an essential part for hungry people. XD The small snack stalls offers ice-cream, hot dogs, toasts to a long queue of people (SY had no mood for eating), while the bigger restaurants offers the normal Korean food and even more international and Asian food. Was there Thai food? While I am tempted to get some lunch at one of the eateries, SY went against the idea and said that he will introduce better food that is worth the money during the KU tour. Ah ok, oh well. =/ That being said, SY asked if I was interested in a Nami Hotdog (2500 wons) which looked like a normal sausage on stick. I felt that the street food sausage I had in Busan seemed much more worth and appetizing, and thus skipped it.

Our visit to Nami Island coincides with the holding of a kid’s festival in the central area. Some small mushroom house / leaf house was set up with books inside for kids to read, and children songs were being played throughout the loudspeakers in that area. Ironically, we didn’t see any kids in that area. -_- Not sure if they are playing it for the kids, or they are playing the songs because there are no better ones. A mini pond area lies in the quieter part of the central area, including glass(?) bridges, wooden broadwalks, and some Singapore Merlion mini statues at the edge of the pond. Why the heck is that in the pond? o.o A large signboard of “hello” in various languages are also shown beside the pond, and some of the translations are just bad, especially for the Singapore Malay language. The person who wrote that deserves some smacking. =P

The Nami Island museum / café offers an air-conditioned rest spot for the tourists, attracting us to take a look inside. Ok la, I was the only one interested, SY just accompanied me. =P It is a one-floor area that is quite narrow although with nice decorations, showcases different styles and era of music from Korea / International origins. Didn’t find any familiar genres I know, especially some of the collections which look really old (the kind of years which War listens to). XD We also visited the cafe (strangely bigger than the museum), looked at the expensive  bakery items , and went to the outer area for a rest. Nami Island should be quite small, considering that our direction of walking form the central area led us to the west of the Island, allowing us to view the river from an elevated spot. =) A very quiet spot with cool jazz music, good view and fresh air, an excellent spot for doing tutorials! Ok fine, it’s strange of me to relate beautiful places for doing tutorials, but it is definitely true South Korea does have a lot of scenic environments for quiet studying, that’s a better alternative than being stuck in cafes or libraries right? XD

We had a last walk around the South-West of the island before leaving this beautiful place. Some of the trees had some vibrant red leaves, with benches underneath intended for people to having a sheltered rest under the tree cover. Looks very autumn-ish and romantic, perfect for couples. =P After buying a packet of Hershey’s cookies and cream drink, we boarded the ferry at 1.30pm and this time chose to stand outside to view the last scenery and the small-scale flags mounted on the metal bars. Unlike the boarding area at Gapyeong where the platform is narrow and jammed, the one in Nami Island is very wide, and as such the blocking belts could not cover the entire area. Nearing to the departure time, a guard will be there asking visitors to quickly move to the ferry, but one comes after another, and the guard seemed to just allow everybody to board including those running from a rather far distance. By Mathematical induction, there will be an infinite number of people boarding. =P Ok la, not to that extent, but SY was complaining that the waiting time was taking very long and noted that the ferry we boarded is different from the one we took earlier. Eventually it was time for us to leave, goodbye to the famous island of Seoul! If a foreigner would like to visit Seoul and enjoy scenic yet quiet places, Nami Island would be a great place to go! :D

Waiting for the bus could be a very big problem, as there is a really huge crowd of people who wished to take a transport back to Gapyeong station. SY didn’t want any lunch in replacement to killing time as he insisted that the areas near KU is better, so that got kind of sian as we thought of squeezing with so many people. That was until the idea of taking a cab came up, in the hope that the prices will be quite reasonable as comparable to the bus ride prices. So SY asked the cab driver for an estimated price, and asked me with a confused look of how much “Sam-cheon” is. I was expecting something along the lines of 10+k wons as the bus ride already cost us 12, so after a few seconds of lag time, I was like Huh only 3k!? Let’s go la! And so we happily boarded the cab. =P The cab driver didn’t seemed to be in a good mood, and spoke to us a lot of Korean words which SY replied that we are not Koreans and thus can only understand basic sentences. The nagging sorts of continue, and halfway I heard something that means 18k in Korean. I was already prepared that we were being scammed and standby more money to pay (SY signalled me to keep the money). In the end, the cab price is really 3k wons. We were kind of surprised that there was no surge or anything, and the cab driver simply pointed to us the meter and looked at us like “what’s wrong with the price”. That, is simply amazing. We took a super crowded bus for 6k wons each to Nami Island, and came back in a comfortable cab for 1.5k wons. The amount of money the bus company is making is too damn high! SY hypothesized that he was pissed off as we still hesitated to board his cab despite the super reasonable price he offered as compared to the bus expensive fares. Aiya, should have given him a tip. =/ 

The next destination is Anam station, the part nearest to his campus and the area he wanted to have a good meal in. The afternoon is much quieter, and we waited for quite some time on the cooling platform as the usage for this line is much lesser than the numbered subway lines. Our wait was interrupted by a China young lady and asked if in English if we knew how to speak Chinese. I replied “ke yi” and she was looked really surprised! Why? I look more Korean than Chinese is it? XP Anyway she asked if we were taking a regular subway to the main Seoul section and confirmed that the direction is correct. Actually I didn’t notice an alternative way until she mentioned it, and that alternative was the ITX. One can simply buy a ticket through the ITX self-service kiosk at the platform. I have no idea what is the cost as the data and description looks very messy in Korean, so we skipped that. The first jingle came, and we happily waited at the platform gaps until a Korean was waving to us that the train was not for boarding. -_- The second jingle came with an ITX passing us for that matter (why are they in the same platform!?), and finally at 2.20pm, our own regular train arrived and we got a seat! =D Time for a good rest and finding the jingle online. =P Apparently it is easily found and a lot of people found it to be nice to listen to! SY was like lolwut after finding out what I have been doing during the Gyeongchun line train ride. XD

At 4+, we reached Anam station, and SY started to show around the eateries he liked during his summer exchange. First up is a Kimbap shop with an orange signboard that sells cheaper kimbaps at 1.5k/2.5k wons per roll as opposed to the outside ones for at least 3k each. I bought a cheese kimbap based on SY’s recommendation. SY suggested that we get something light as it was already near dinner time and thus said that we should had some fried chicken at his favourite chicken restaurant on an upslope of the dense area. Ah! It was closed! T.T In the end our light meal turned out to be at a proper Korean restaurant, and I had a beef and dumpling soup for my meal. Just like the soup I had the previous day, the dumplings are really large, but the soup was definitely tastier. XD Our host was a young lady who looked really too young to be a waitress. Is she helping out or something? We enjoyed our meal with the modern ambience, hearing English songs (damn hip), discuss the plans for the evening and asking SY how on earth was that meal classified to be light. =P Ah, one more difference between this restaurant and the rest is that the complimentary drink here is not plain water, but rather some cold Korean Tea which tasted a bit sweet but yet refreshing! The convenience stores' tea are kind of bitter and thus this sorts of stands out above the rest. =D Before leaving, we intended to give the young lady a tip, and thus did not leave when an ahjuma came to collect our finished dishes. She was shy and told us that it was alright and the tip was not needed, but took it in the end out of courtesy. Wow, SY sure explored his eating places well! =D

Before coming to Korea, I had expected KU to be rather large, with walkways and eateries at the ground level of the schools, and perhaps having some interesting routes like the ones in SG local universities. A bit of highlight would be to look around at the lesson venues and do a compare/contrast with our own universities. Ok, that was an over-expectation as SY said that almost none of what I had been expecting would come true. -_- Perhaps bringing Justin on my personalised tour (after my MH2500 paper) was one of the most detailed visits any stranger would expect. What did I introduce the other time? Hmm, I think I showed him around the SAC, libraries, NIE, ADM, the school halls (thank you Underfame!), the Quad, labs around the Engineering areas, the south spine carpark (WL finds the idea of studying at the carpark surprising), SPMS LTs, TRs, com labs, atrium, garden and sports hall. Ya, that essentially covers almost every important part of NTU. =D Aiya this is not the main point, digressed too much. =X

With my expectation being lowered to a rock bottom, the tour starts. The entrance of the school showcases a rather tall building and an open carpark area that was infested with a lot of KU students setting up tents and placing props, probably for an orientation or school games? Not all buildings are on the same level though, as SY led me to some ulu slope that leads up to another area of schools. In NTU, our school buildings are not really that tall, about 8 floors in total from the basements to a few positive levels including labs, research centres and tutorial rooms. The buildings in KU are totally closed-in, similar to the style of today’s commercial and office buildings where nobody can see the daily happenings in the corridors. Since SY is not interested in looking at the interior structure, the walk is quite boring as everything looks about the same. Not all is mundane though. Deeper into the school grounds, a very nice forest-style park lies cosily for students who wish to take a breather or hang out at the benches and seats built in that area. That park is also featured in a vertical style instead of the horizontal ones we see usually, and thus we skipped this part. All of a sudden, SY told me that we have been talking a lot of different parts of the school but I had missed out an important part. I gave a lot of different answers (halls / eateries / supermarkets) which all attracted a NO.

The answer turned out to be a sports facility. -_- Wth, is that supposed to be important? I don’t think many of the full time undergraduates faithfully went to all their classes, let alone go to the sports and recreational facilities for fun. Maybe the sports clubs people who skip lessons to catch up their sleep from night training would visit bah haha. XD Coming back, we walked yet another steep upslope all the way to the KU hostels, while listening to SY talking about how he endured all these daily intense climbing and asking how I would feel from climbing all these. -_- The halls are modelled in either some really old looking buildings, or are in new super tall buildings that require a small downslope walk, but generally they are all clustered together. In NTU, the genders will be separated by the floor numbers and ladies would have to scan their matriculation card through an additional metal gate in order to get to their levels. Things are differently in KU, as the genders will have their own respective lobbies that require passing by the security guard. Some couples were like saying goodbye and hugging before they broke off back to their own lobbies, how sad is that. =(

Climbing up even further (probably the peak of the school) lies the Korean Studies facility which has a traditional palace entrance, and the super important sports facility. A group of KU students are having some baseball training, and despite being important, SY suggested that we just look on the exterior and skip the facilities inside. I insisted on looking at the interior of the Korean Studies facility to prevent a wasted trip much to SY’s reluctance, and there we are finally looking at something! XD That was about 6.15pm, a very good time to go home and thus leaving a quieter school inside. What greeted us behind the doors was a large green area of carpeted grass, and a small flight of stairs that leads to the interior. The atrium / main area of the school is VERY different from what we see in SG schools! In our local unis, the guest area will usually be bright and filled with decorations to let visitors have a bright (works both ways) impression of the school. This one almost has not much lights, and the background is simply gray / black with ancient Korean words / collections being displayed in the lobby. I was immediately reminded of the old shopping centres in SG (e.g. Beauty World), especially the abandoned units’ corridors. The corridor on the ground level features the different offices, pHD students’ workrooms, etc. The offices on the level are very standardized by an opaque door and have digital number locks in every room. Nothing very interesting there, but ok that’s a different design of a research institute as compared to the ones in SG. =D

With that, the KU tour ended with a beautiful pre-sunset down a super steep downhill. Thank you SY for the external showcase of your summer exchange university! SY wanted to have fried chicken before we commence the night shopping, but I was still full and thus rejected the idea. =/ Oh well. The first round of night shopping starts off at Dongdaemun, one of the famous shopping districts in Seoul. According to his past experiences, SY wanted to visit one of the fashion / cosmetics shops in the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park facility for some great bargains, but it turns out that the place is under renovation and thus the shops were closed all the way until to the end of July. Not wanting to have a wasted trip down (even though it is actually damn near the shopping facilities), we camped at one of the shelters for a while and glanced at the architecture. My initial thoughts of DDM H&C Park is more of a nature-dominated area, with plants and introductions to the culture of Dongdaemun, but that turns out to be heavily wrong as the whole facility is being built with modern artistic buildings with unique shapes, and each of them holds either a room or exhibition area which requires an entrance ticket to go in, for example a Disney exhibition requires about 15k wons admission fee. We gave them a skip and moved to our shopping, cosmetics as the target. In our own SG shopping facilities in Orchard, the buildings will be the ones that sell stuff, and the streets will consist of the buskers, street performers and temporary event fairs that cater to the walking crowd. Things are a bit different in Dongdaemun as the outside of the buildings will also be selling fashion items, like literally clothes, pants, shoes and accessories similar to a SG night market but without the fanciful tents. Not that expensive too, as a decent dress is only like 10k+ wons, and there are many items that are less than 10k. Hungry shoppers / Guys who are accompanying their partners may also be able to buy some street near the side of the roads, super convenient! The concept of a big night market + dense shopping buildings is a shopping paradise for many people. =P

After some walk in the buildings and random shops, SY found the cosmetics shop which he had been looking for, Innisfree! Wait what? Isn’t that also found in SG? Yup, the products from this shop are manufactured in Korea, and thus the prices are jacked up to cover the shipping fees across different countries. Ok, why not take this opportunity to buy some products for my parents and SH’s family? Before that, SY wanted to ask for recommendations on products that matches with the type of skin a person has, which apparently is an important factor for optimal performance in beautifying and repairing the skin. Language continues to be a problem as SY is unable to say out the super long translated sentence (“what product is best for oily skin”) to a Korean, which I eventually used my guide of pointing the sentence of “if there is anyone who speaks English”. There wasn’t, but thankfully one of the staff knew how to speak Chinese. Got myself a few items (with a recommended green tea set by the shopkeeper), and quite a number of face masks (950 wons) that costs $2 in SG, amounting to a near 40% discount. =D Innisfree is considered a duty-free shop, and hence tourists get a cash back for spending a certain quota in the shop. I bought a 125k wons of stuff, which just nice hits the next category of incentives, and thus I earned 7k worth of discount after displaying my passport. Hmm ok, instant tax refund sounds like a good thing for tourists. :D SY spammed a lot more face masks than me, but also lesser cosmetic items.

We ended off the day without a proper dinner, but I had a potato fries hot dog (the ones you can see in SG) on the walk back to our accommodation facility. To make up for our bingsu experience at Busan, we had another one at the Ediya coffee outlet, but this time It was the strawberry cheesecake bingsu, costing at about 9.5k wons. Intuitively, products made from Korea should be nicer at its home country and bingsu is no exception right? No! Ok honestly the bingsu in SG is really better (esp. the Nunsongyee bingsu café) as we have like more toppings, serving of milk and it is nicely decorated with enough side bites to go along with the coldness. The strawberry bingsu indeed had some nice (but slightly frozen) strawberries, trace of milk (whether you like it or not) all around, some small pieces of cut cake which I didn’t taste much, and that’s all about it to the mountain of ice. We don’t think that it is really worth it, but there’s not much options as we eliminated the rest due to our preferences. =/ So for the SG people, do enjoy your binsgoo in the town outlets! XD We went back there after with some grapes and the kimbap bought from KU (purple rice, but still not as nice as the 3^rd day tuna kimbap), a good closure for a fun day 10! =D

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If you would like to read more about my experiences, you may click on the links below. :)

Day 11: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-11.html
Day 9: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-9.html