Grad trip - Day 9

The jellyfish is back! This post is about my Day 9 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 10: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-10.html
Day 8: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-8.html

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Day 9: Train from Busan

The last morning in Busan started off with documenting the previous day’s activities and the planning of activities for the free day on Day 11 in the GS25 convenience store. SY mentioned at the start of the trip that there should be a free day for the both of us so that we could do whatever we want without boring the other person. I did not like the idea at first as I was feeling extremely lost at first, but it seemed to be ok at the present stage thanks to SY’s guidance of surviving Korea in the first two-thirds of the grad trip. =) I had a chicken cutlet patty burger which doesn’t really taste crispy, but decent enough for a quick bite, and clearing up the rest of the remaining food which I had not done the night before. Nearing to 7am, I headed back to the accommodation facility for the last pack and tidy up. The morning TV was showing a program on basic set theory and its properties. What an intense way to start the morning. -_- At 8am, we left the couple’s accommodation facility and set off to Busan station. It was a really pleasant stay! ^^

Subways on a Sunday morning is definitely not very crowded, even though there are still Koreans wearing suits for work. We had a smooth journey all the way to Busan station, which is decorated quite traditionally with bricks. Initially I had thought that the KTX train platform is directly linked to the normal Humetro platforms through a direct underground or something, but it turns out not be the case and we had to walk to the actual station instead. A very beautiful glass-wall surface with the big words “Busan Station” welcomed passengers inside, with a bit of construction at the bottom. The train station is near some of the commercial buildings, but doesn’t seem to be near a shopping area. SG doesn’t have large scale train stations like these, and it is interesting to see the structure of such a facility. There are the usual food, gifts and fashion shops catered to the public in the atrium and entrance of the station, with train arrival / departure timings displayed on electronic boards and a general guide on posters. Our 10.05am train operates only on a weekend, it is a slightly slower KTX train as it passes by extra stations but is cheaper too. =) Busan Station holds other kinds of trains too such as the SRT, ITX, Mugunghwa, etc, and one could simply buy the tickets half an hour before the trains arrive. The place feels just like an airport, except that it is not air-conditioned and has a looser security. =P We walked a bit around the station before settling down at some seats in front of the arrival hall. After SY had his breakfast and came back to the resting spot, I went for a walk around the station, looking at facilities such as tourist booths, paintings, outside scenery, first-class waiting rooms, etc. I find the KO-RAIL cartoons to be very cute, including the random bears and monkeys. =P Similar to the normal subway stations, long distance train rides do allow passengers to bring food and drinks up the trains, and as such quite a lot of food items are convenient for holding such as bakery pastries, doughnuts, Korean stick snacks (which looks like wu-xiang). =D

The main part of the station will naturally be the platforms, situated one floor below the waiting area. The platforms do have vending machines / small convenience stores for people who wish to buy last minute items. I stayed for awhile to see a train departing the station, and it feels kind of nice to see that these kind of train station scenes you see in movies and shows actually come to life. :D The structure of such stations in other countries should be similar ya? =) At 9.30am, I reported back to SY and we set off with our luggage to the correct platform. Before going to the departure area (which was very open to public), our items were taken for a quick security check. I made the mistake of forgetting my bag after collecting my luggage from the security conveyor. >.< Thankfully the security reminded me to take my belongings and smiled when I apologized. =P I bought some mini hot dog croissants and coconut-grape juice before we boarded the train. Shortly after we reached the platform, the KTX train arrived (looks like a nice and clean train). The inside is really nice! The seats were cushioned, with a tagged seat number, a seat table (with a KTX magazine) just like the ones in the aeroplanes. The train has toilets and vending machines too near the train doors. Initially I had thought that the seats would be in compartments with common corridors, but in reality the seats are all in car numbers, and I guess that essentially serves the same function? No complaints there, everything seems good. We chilled a bit on the comfortable seats, listening to a er-hu / wind instrumental version of Kiss The Rain.

10.05am eventually came, the doors were closed and a clip of safety procedures starts to play on the compartment TV screen. =D Once again, the KO-RAIL characters appear on the screen and they are really damn amusing to watch, I managed to look through the whole safety procedure without being bored. =P This is it then, goodbye Busan! Thank you for giving me such a wonderful time and memory in this metropolitan city! ^^ To be honest, I felt a bit sad when we were leaving as I enjoyed this part of the grad trip very much. Jeju was fun and all, but Busan apparently seemed to be even better and I enjoyed about every part of it. =D Will definitely miss the cool jingles and doors closing method on the Humetro subway too! Haha that’s random. XP Back to the topic on KTX, every train (regardless of the type) will pass through certain cities in South Korea, and thus passengers may choose to board / alight the train at those stations. The ones like Busan and Seoul are major train stations, but apparently not all the ones are like that. Some of the passby stations are simply a platform and a small self-service ticket kiosk, with the size and style similar to a normal subway train. We passed by a whole lot of mountains, rivers, small ulu villages and urban residential buildings in our whole journey. During the periods where the stations are far away from each other, the train travels at a high speed of up to 300km/h, and that information is displayed on the screen. I attempted to take a picture of the screen showing the speed, but the number is rather small and it was rather difficult to do so because of my shaky hands. SY joined in the fun too and in the end a few successful ones were taken. XD The journey is still very smooth though, and there is no trace of vibrations even at fast speed curves. For those who wants a comfortable train journey (I dozed off a bit), KTX is recommended! Take it if budget isn’t a big problem to you. =D Oh, there’s a first class service for the KTX train, and it’s benefits include a wider seat space, lower decline angle and a complimentary meal will be served. If you would like these extra facilities for 24k wons, go ahead. =P Throughout the journey, we saw a few conductors but surprisingly none of them checked any of our cabin’s passengers’ tickets. I guess Koreans build a high level of trust and integrity on their people in the transportation industry. =)

We reached Seoul at 1.05pm, 1 minute later than what was expected. Welcome to the last part of the grad trip, the city that it Seoul cooling! Ok la that’s lame. =P Seoul station seems to be much bigger and busier than Busan station (probably due to the timing), although we did not get the time to visit as SY has promised the accommodation host (Teresa) that we will reach by 2pm. A few pictures from outside the station, and we walked a super long path to the dark blue line, line number 1. Ok, I have no idea why Seoul emphasizes the colour of this line for every transfer announcement, so let’s just copy it. XD Our last accommodation facility is at Dongmyo, right beside the heart of the shopping district at Dongdaemun (and of course a bit more expensive than the other facilities). The aim of this part of the trip is to focus less on attraction explorations and spend more time on shopping for stuff, so I guess SY chose an ideal location to stay in. =D Dongmyo is an interchange of line 6 and the dark blue line, line number 1, of course with its usual nice jingles. =P The journey from that dark blue line up to the ground level is amazing, we had to go down one level as the exits from line 6 do not connect to our facility, crossed one bend with a random shop in the middle of the walk, proceeded up to the line 6 platform level, and finally climb up the stairs. -_- How I missed the short transfers at Busan’s HuMetro. =/ After walking out from the exit, SY pondered for a while on the location of the building, which I hastily concluded that the building right in front of exit is the one as the facility description said that it was a 1…2…3 seconds walk from the station, and sure it is! =D If one has to be anal about it, I think we took 5 seconds to walk from the exit to the entrance of the building, that’s 67% more time then what the description promised. Aiya, another underestimation of walking time in addition to Chloe’s place. XD The building has some food facilities below which wasn’t very appetizing to SY, and so we delayed the thinking of where to find lunch to later. A cute thing about the elevators is that some of them do not serve every floor, a feature that is seen commonly in tall office buildings. There is this bigger elevator that’s serves every floor, and the rest serves only the common food levels (up till 4?) and the odd / even levels. My atas suggestion of having elevators that serve the prime / composite levels attracted a -_- look from SY. A very funny blunder happened! SY had forgotten the room number we were in, and guessed that it was room number 9, and so we tried different kinds of supposedly correct code on the keyboard but naturally was unsuccessful in doing so. Having thought that the door had some problem, we tried to open it until we heard someone from inside asking “who is that?” in Korean. >.< I panicked a bit and quickly asked SY to leave the corridor unless we wanted to start some misunderstood conservation with an extra challenge of language handicap. XD After checking the email again, we realised that the correct room is actually the adjacent one. SY does not usually make blunders, but when he does, it is big! Haha ok la, I share the responsibility of not checking the door too before arriving, and did not check when I heard noises inside the room, thankfully nothing happened. =P

When we entered the correct room, a cool and “young people” feel can be instantly detected, and sitting on the bed was Teresa herself watching TV, making it the first and only host whom welcomed her guests personally. Teresa is a young lady who has her own apartment 20 minutes away from Dongmyo, and she looked kinda surprised when we entered the room as she had expected SY to bring a girlfriend since it is a 2 people trip. Ok la, it is indeed kind of funny if you have 2 guys on a grad trip together, so her reaction is rather normal to me. =P She introduced the apartment to us as a cosy corner in the middle of the busy town, the household facilities, entertainment, complimentary snacks and drinks (wow!), tourist attraction sources and guides (she placed a lot of brochures and tour package guides on the coffee table), and outside facilities which some are supposedly opened all night long. Her command of English is actually fantastic for a Korean! It is not a given that young people in Korean are good in English as evident by so many examples for the past 8 days. =P She asked us for our names (and echo-ed back incorrectly with Zeff and Shi Hwan) and the places which we had visited in Korea. Our Jeju visit was interesting to her as she heard about the life and transportation style there. After that welcome, she left and we settled down on our own. I took a wooden table, fan and small sofa seat beside the bed and label it as my office, while SY took the coffee table and long sofa as his nua area. Teresa’s apartment looks very stylish, with some fragrance scent in the house, creative furniture and decoration colours, and suitable for a place of innovation for young people. Maybe people who are more of the artistic kind would like this place as a working area. Comparing to the couple’s facility at Busan, I find the given facilities and items here much better, but the overall ambience is still nicer at Busan as it is more of a plainer colour, and not so overwhelmed with decorations. Jeff leads a simple life and naturally likes simpler stuff. =P

The exploration and rest took us a good 45 minutes or so. At about 2.30pm, we decided to have lunch and restock items from the convenience stores. Probably because the past GS25s were spacious and less crowded, the GS25 we had downstairs was kind of disappointing as it was really crammed and had no proper tables for eating / resting. There goes a nice spot of writing stuff. T.T SY was looking towards the different flavours of Soju, while I had nothing much in mind. Lunch-hunting was more difficult as the prices became more expensive (even worse than Busan), many sold Chinese food instead of authentic Korean food, and there was a Sunday flea market crowding up the streets. Eventually, we found one Korean-Chinese restaurant and settled down. A nice place with wooden furniture and comfortable lighting, and some of the staff were able to speak Chinese. I got myself a sliced rice-cake dumping soup, while SY had a bibimbap. There were only 2 dumplings, but each of them is extremely big! Taste wise, SG’s normal wanton / dumplings have a heavier flavour and is more solid instead of being easily shattered. The rice cake and soup tasted quite plain and was seriously tasteless as compared to the one in Jeju, resulting in me taking the caramelized onions to go along with the rice and the dish. I felt that the level of blandness is really low, as my tolerance level of bland food is stronger than most people, until SY found a bottle of soya sauce nearing the completion of our meal. -_- 10k wons for a decent enough meal, fair enough.

After lunch, we proceeded to find another GS25 as SY couldn’t find some flavours of his soju in the previous one. We did our shopping of supplies, and I randomly bought some mint magnum ice-cream (which was on offer), Reese bits and the usual supply of water and orange juice. Not being really full from the lunch, I bought a egg-ham cheese-toasted sandwich from the neighbouring bakery. The shop also has some buns right on the street but the items seem to be rather cold, unlike the ones inside where they feel warmer. Not sure if the warmth is real or merely from the heat of the kitchen. >.< The flea market outside sold a lot of cheap items such as shirts, footwear, fashion accessories, electronics such as clocks, watches and calculators, and other random stuff. I actually expected that the flea market would sell some children items such as toys, but those items did not appear in the entire walk from the bakery to our accommodation facility. That’s different from SG, as you will see some enthusiastic parents selling their children used items in smaller SG flea markets. Didn’t spend too much time there as SY disliked the crowd, and we went back to rest at the accommodation facility. The Seoul brochure with Teresa provided has lots of good information and attractions (duh), an item which I should have looked at during the planning of attractions in Korea. =/ Some of my planned attractions are there (yay), while there are some other random ones which I have never seen before. While SY looked at some DMZ guides, I looked at some potentially nice attractions worth visiting during the free day.

After the no-lights experience at the Yeoinaru section of the Han River, SY suggested that we visit a different part as his senior had brought him to a nicer part of the river with lights during his summer exchange days. At 4.30pm, we set off to the Express Bus Terminal station, which is the nearest to the Banpo area. As the station vicinity is very big, we were quite lost on our directions to the park even with the help of an online map. Just as we turned into a quieter street as stated by the directions, I was really uncertain and wanted to ask SY whether that’s the correct way, until this sign appears.

Ah ok! Maybe the shop had too many people asking for directions to the park, and thus they got fed up and put up this sign as an automated response. =P The person who thought of this definitely deserves a price for the creativity! XD The walk continued for another 15 minutes or so, passing by junctions and short tunnels vandalised by a lot of young people with ‘cool’ English words and Korean phrases, some of which are obviously love messages. XP SY mentioned that it is a trending culture for young people to date, and you are out of league if you are not attached during that period. Not sure how true is that, but that sounds kind of scary and stressful. >.< Going out of the tunnel and across the street lies the beautiful Han River, Banpo section.

Unlike the Yeoinaru section, the place is indeed more beautiful with more nature and nicer sceneries for people to view. Instead of the structures that clutter up the area, the Banpo section provided more trees, grass patches and larger tracks for people to walk / cycle. The downside is that the amount of human provided entertainment is almost absent throughout the entire stretch, and so there is no shows / busking taking place on this lovely Sunday evening. T.T Before the rainbow fountain show at 7.30pm, SY suggested that I clear another cycling activity while admiring the scenery Han River has to offer, instead of coming back alone during my free day. I like that suggestion, and we rented the bicycles for 2 hours. My original bicycle seat was quite high, and I had to change to another one before setting off. >.<

The cycling track is a really long one and much more worth it to ride on, starting with the route under the bridge. The big road under the bridge is split into a few parts, with the widest part for the two-way vehicles, a narrower one for the bicycles, and a small lane for the pedestrians. That innocent road lies a super big obstacle consisting of a steep mini-slope hump right in the middle of the path, and before going up, many cyclists are either stuck halfway or manage to make it through with a super slow speed at the top of that slope. =P When it came to my turn, I chiong all the way up, and finally reached the top with almost 0 speed! Not even 10 minutes into the exercise and I was already drained, how unfit. >.< At the top of the slope, SY suggested that I should take a few pictures. Seeing cyclists and vehicles passing by while drinking water and taking photographs reminds me of a real life pokemon cycling bridge scene. =P After that short break, we continued our exercise with SY leading the way. SY’s speed is a bit faster than what SH and myself usually cycled, and so I was practically rushing to catch up with SY while admiring the scenery at the same time. Our route mostly consisted of circling the perimeters of the water, passing through exercise facilities under the L2 subway bridge, mini piers with stools for fishermen, benches and playgrounds, mini broadwalks, etc. Since it was already end May, the air in Seoul is no longer as cold as the time we just arrived, and so the breeze was really cooling and bearable. =) The route has quite a number of slopes though (not as bad as the initial one), and with all other slopes, the downslopes are always fantastic. =P A Sunday like this will naturally be more crowded, and you can definitely see experienced / professional cyclists overtaking us in a fast speed. What is nice is that the people will actually say thank you after overtaking, a culture which will never be seen in SG. XD

About 45 minutes into the exercise, we reached a more populated area of the Han River, a scene of people having picnics on the grass that is very similar to the one in Yeoinaru except with lesser crowd. For a moment, I thought that we actually reached the Yeoinaru section after looking at the entertainment ferry and decorations that looked way too similar to the ones a week ago. XD I wanted to ride on further, but SY suggested that we turn back to our original location to prevent a fast and furious riding all the way back. Sounds logical, and we made a sharp turn at a very narrow lane beside the river. Had we gone further, the route would be narrow roads with tall grass and water as the scenery. That’s alright though. Nothing really eventful on the way back, except that there were kids blocking the route and I almost banged onto them before going downslope. >.< There was a point of time where I totally lost SY as I was being blocked by a group, but thankfully we still met after that. =P SY said that he prefers to ride at a faster speed as the scenery wasn’t really too interesting as it was a re-visit for him, and he focuses more on the road to prevent accidents. Nearing to 7.10, we reached the steep slope hump and this time I failed. >.< Literally walked my bike up through the few miserable metres to the top. XD I took quite a lot of mini clips throughout the rest stops given by SY, and that shall be saved as a memory.

7.25pm, we reached the bike stop. Throughout the journey, me and SY didn’t really know what happened to my bike as it had a problem in stabilizing itself even though the stopper is touching the ground. The bike ahjuma came to us and showed us that there was a part being touched which shouldn’t have been done. With that understanding and a last photograph on the bike, we got off and walked towards the Banpo Bridge. At night, there will be a show at the bridge that shows the beauty of synchronization between lights and water, make a wish at the moonlight rainbow fountain. =P The show started at 7.30pm in the presence of the bright sky without any lights from the water. So there is this loud speaker hung on a pole at the land area playing some club songs, while the water will be shot from multiple pipes across the bridge, cutting the cross section of the river. Hmm ok, the choice of song doesn’t seem to match the water patterns (are they even in sync?), but I must say the coordination between the different pipes are still decent, as you can see the parabolas in a small neighbourhood slowly changing but yet at the same rate, giving people a sense of satisfaction while watching this thing. After standing for a few minutes, we sat at the stone staircase steps with a large crowd of people. Amazingly, almost all the songs were in English and not Korean, leading SY to his belief that playing English songs is a cool culture over there. =P The night slowly came in, with the rainbow lights starting to be operational and the songs becoming less clubbing but more emo in nature. Ok, the lights are in different colour alright, but the water doesn’t really bring out the beauty in them and so we were effectively still staring at the transparent water in the middle of the night. Not sure if I had enjoyed the attraction correctly, but it didn’t seem to be too fascinating as how SY described. =/

Didn’t recognise any songs except for Mariah Carey’s Hero. That song was already emo in nature, and that intensity doubled when that song echoed through the speakers in that area. SY seemed to be tired, and out of nowhere we talked about our grad trip and life in SG. SY asked if I had regretted planning the trip for only 12 days, considering that I was enjoying myself to a level which I had never came close during my years in uni. I agree that the trip was indeed relaxing and I really had fun without worrying anything that was happening in SG, but if you have people who care about you waiting for you at home, then it will be good to go home. If I do not have to account for anything or anyone in SG, I wouldn’t mind extending the trip to much longer. =) SY did not really like my answer, and became quieter / emo after that, not sure if it was because of the song or from my response. =/ At about 8.30pm, we passed by a walkie-talkie box exhibition which theoretically should work through some mechanical passages, and left the Han River.

The journey back to Dongmyo was a quiet one, and SY’s tiredness brought him to forget the route to the correct exit of our accommodation facility. The time hit 9.45pm and many eateries were closed except for fast food. We settled for Lotteria, and the dinner proved to be a disappointment unlike the fast food experience in Busan. =/ My hash brown burger is not sold! =( I initially wanted a burger set meal, but SY wanted the fried chicken family pack with additional 1+1 cheeseburgers, which to our dismay the cheeseburgers must be bought from some special payment method. We ended up with a rather sad meal consisting of chicken pieces, spicy corn salad (o.o), chicken tenders and spicy sauce. Since SY enjoyed the chicken, I gave most of the portion to him and played with my phone. I initially thought that this small comfortable 24-hour Lotteria would be a good place for a quiet breakfast, but the food variety is so sad that I have nothing I really want. Unlike Mac, not all Lotterias offer the same variety of food in the same country. =/ After going back, I finished up my egg ham cheese sandwich and had a packet of Hershey’s cookies and cream drink.

With that comfort food and an aching in our feet, the long day 9 ends… butwith a motivation for the next day! =D

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

Day 10: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-10.html

Day 8: http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2017/05/grad-trip-day-8.html