KOREA SPARKLING! Well, this is the conclusion after a 8D6N korea tour.

Before I start of this hopefully short post, please do not misunderstand this as a boasting/showing off post for you overly-sensitive-but-unable-to-go-overseas people.

1. Korea has really awesome, breathtaking, drop-dead gorgeous scenery. If you are planning to go Korea, please make a serious consideration to go to Jeju. In Jeju, you have Yongduam Rock and some World Heritage Site which allows you to take some very stunning and amazing photos.

And then, you have Mt Sorak National Park. Of course, the pictures are unable to show the oomph factor when you really see the picturesque landscape for yourself - a true eye opener,away from concrete and buildings. Enjoy the fresh air on the top, refreshing and cool.

2. Skiing is extremely fun, albeit frustrating on the other hand if you are unable to learn the ropes in the allocated time. Falling down doesn't hurt at all, and somehow I enjoy falling down the slope... Nevertheless, I managed to learn the brake but turning is so hard! The next time I come back to Korea, I'll definitely go to the ski resort again.

3. The weather and climate in Korea is also something very unique. Living in Malaysia/Singapore equates to a equatorial climate which translates to >25degreesC. However in Korea, as winter slowly creeps in, temperature is <10degreesC. It dipped below 0degC one day in Seoul, and oh boy, I love the weather there. So cool, but I totally enjoyed it. If I have the luck and fortune to migrate to somewhere, I'll pick a place with <10degC temperature. Walking down the street with your parka/sweater, puffing out your breath, truly amazing!

4. The food, is simply marvelous. However, taking into consideration that I was in a tour, well, I'm lucky. Group tours would mean better meals, delicious and scrumptious. The bibimbap, ginseng chicken soup, black pork BBQ, hotplate..... Yum yum.

5. Another interesting thing to take note is the NANTA/Cookin show. It is a musical which involves acrobatics, comedy. audience participation and using improvised instruments. Well, nuff said, you just have to catch the musical if you happen to be in Korea.

6. To be honest, I am not a fan of theme/amusement parks but the two theme parks I went really blew my mind. The first one was Everland. It is the largest theme park in Korea with a zoo, safari and water park. Though I am a very timid person, I had some guts to take the rides, which ended up really fun. The exhilarating feeling, with the wind blowing against your face while you are racing down from top, or simply turning 360degrees unpredictably. Okay one word: fun. The second theme park was Lotte World. It has the most indoor attractions I have ever seen. The layout is pretty impressive, that they managed to maximise every area to fully realise the potential to the maxx.

7. Okay I am sounding incoherent due to the fact that I want to go back to Korea again. But I don't look nice/handsome/smart in Hanbok, so I'll skip this part.

8. The language barrier, is however, horrifying. Not a substantial amount of Koreans speak English or Chinese. Thus, causing many communication breakdowns and misunderstandings if without the tour guide. One memorable incident was that I went out to Dongdaemun at night, without anyone who can speak/understand fluent Korean. It was very late, around 12am and there were still people shopping. At 2a.m. we tried to take a taxi back to the hotel, but we cannot understand what the driver was rambling about. Trying to buy stuff was a pain too. We don't know how to ask for the price, is it possible to try on the shirt, so basically I bought nothing. Can't even slash the price :(

9. Another memorable incident was eating at Lotteria which is something like McDonalds. I ordered 4 burgers but they gave me 5 burgers. I pointed helplessly and desparately at the receipt to show my innocence and their mistake. But it was a very funny experience. The attendants were VERY cute, and their effort to understand my frantic pointing was very cute too. While I was trying to charm these beautiful attendants into giving me their numbers and emailI was sorting out the orders, my relatives almost got into a fight in another eatery. Quite scary and the details are sketchy.

10. Since the dominant religion in Korea is Christianity, the proximity between churches is very unique. In residential areas, you can see churches located in close proximity. At night, you will get to see the crosses which are lighted.

11. If Crumpler is cliche in Singapore, Converse is cliche in Korea. Almost every teenager owns a pair of Converse shoes. Did I mention that the female students I saw in the theme parks wear eyeshadow and mascara? They look like they are in junior high... I wonder if schools allow such make-up :o

12. FamilyMart, the equivalent of a convenience store is very popular. You can have one FamilyMart placed right opposite another FamilyMart.

13. Lastly, the tour guide and helper were very interesting person. Obviously, not all tour guides tell you their love stories, sing songs on the bus, inform you almost everything about Korea (politics, economy, culture and tradition), serve you dishes, help you replenish your food, speak fluent Chinese (he has a Chinese major) and basically make your trip trouble-free and enjoyable. Maybe I'll blog about his epic winter sonata next time :) Thank you Sean and James!

On a totally unrelated side note, his winter sonata reminds me of a song.
One another totally unrelated side note, I am still contemplating whether to upload the photos on facebook.
Another totally unrelated side note, I forgot alot of stuff that I wanted to say.