11-17 June - Holiday at Korea (last 2 days)

This is our first time trying out ice carving...our creation got 3rd prize... yeah!

Our tour package also includes entrance tickets to Fanta-stick show.  It is a modern interpretation of Korean traditional performances combining percussion & string performances, break dancing &  martial arts.  Quite entertaining but as there are some ghost characters in the story line, Kaelyn didn't quite get it so it may be suitable for primary school kids and above.

The rest of the time are shopping and shopping...too busy for photos.

At the departure hall, we kill time by participating in the free activities provided by Korea Traditional Cultural Experience Centre. Kaelyn painted accordingly to the sample and she gets to bring home her own creations.  Visitors get to choose other art and crafts too.  Depending on timing, visitors also get to immerse into other cultural performances.

And we were in time to catch one of the traditional performances/walk-about.  It displays the cultural ceremony and also the King and its entourage's symbolic tour.

We bid Korea farewell with a little regret.. only if mummy has a little bit more time in Korea, I'll definitely try out a Korean hair perm...

11-17 June - Holiday at Korea (Day 3 & 4)

Starting from today, we are slowly heading back North to Seoul.  This morning, we visited a farm - Agroland.  Kids are so excited when they get to feed the different animals.  During our Perth trip, Kaelyn almost wanted to feed every animal...this time round, strangely, she wasn't enthusiastic at all ..

The farm owner took us around - We passed by a ginseng farm (left) and what is this animal on the right?

After the farm tour, we are all led to a classroom to learn how to make ice-cream.  All of us are giving absolute attention to Tour Guide, Uncle John, who was showing us how to make ice cream

Stiring continuously.... hands are really tired!!

Finally, we get to enjoy our fruit of labour... Yums... finger licking good!!

We ended our farm tour with milking the cow experience...Kaelyn refused to go.. holding daddy tightly... so in the end, Daddy have to obliged..

Next we were all hungry so we had bbq lunch.  Our first time seated on the floor over meal...

the bbq meat, dipped in chilli sauce and then wrapped in lettuce is really fantastic..

mummy so enjoyed it!!

After lunch, we had a good time in the Strawberry farm... plucking and eating juicy and sweet strawberries...3 bagful of strawberries...

After a sweaty good time in the strawberry farm,Uncle John brought us to ChunChunHyang.. or Resome Spa Castle in English... It is an indoor and outdoor spa and water family resort. 

The indoor spa is separated by gender and be prepared to go nude or people will think of you as an alien..  There are many pools with different temperature (freezing cold, hot or super hot), scrub facilities, massage at additional charges, steam bath, sauna, washing machines & etc.  Koreans call them Jimjibang which is a must-try if you go to Korea.

Right outside the indoor spa is a semi-outdoor hot spring pool.  Here you are expected to be in your swimwear and swimcap.  After your muscles have been relaxed by the hot spring water, you can opt to go outdoor where all the exciting slides awaits you.  There are also outdoor spa with different "soups" eg. wine spa (you can pour additional wine into the pool). There are also small rooms where you can relax yourself in eg. Geranium room & etc. 

As there are so many different offerings and involved water so we didn't take any pictures but here's a picture of its map.

We ended the day with western food opposite our hotel. 

Our restaurant has an interesting architecture.

Day 4 is a dress up day - we get to put on the hanbok as many times as we like. 

After laughing and changing costumes, we moved to another room to have a hands-on kimchi making

After our lunch, we spend the rest of the day at Everland which is very near to Seoul city already..

11-17 June - Holiday at Korea (Day 1 & 2)

Mummy left for Korea on 4 Jun for work and then meet Kaelyn and daddy on 12 June for holiday.  Daddy & Kaelyn left Singapore on 11th night by Asiana Airlines whilst mummy checked herself into the jimjibang on the 11th night in Incheon Airport so as to meet them by 6 am on 12th June.  As we have been to the East side twice, we have hence opted to travel to the West.

On the first day of arrival, we started our tour with a bullet train experience from Seoul to Daejeon.

Our coach took our luggages and travel all the way to Daejeon to meet us.  This will take about 3 hrs by road vs 45 mins by bullet train. 

Next, the tour guide Uncle John brought us for lunch.  He said this is the most authentic bibimbap - those found in Seoul are not so original already. 

Seriously the food was so-so only - individual family have to top up if we want to have meat. 

About 20 mins walk from our lunch venue is the Maisan (马耳山).  As the name suggest, the mountain looks like 2 horses' ears from far.  Within the mountain, once live an old monk who spent his entire life stacking pieces of stones and rocks as a symbolic prayer for North and South to be unified one day.  He spent more than 30 years building stone pagodas of all shapes and sizes all  without the use of mortar... quite amazing..

Our hotel was just right in front of the Jeonju Hanok Village.  This is the way to preserve the traditional  Korean 'Hanok' houses.  While the rest of the city has been modernised, this village, that retains over 800 traditional Korean 'hanok' houses, aims to retain its historical charms and traditions.

View from our hotel room

In the olden days, if you have a lot of these clay pots signifies the richer the family is..

As usual, the table are full of colourful dishes.  Here's our first dinner at Korea

Day 2 - we are heading down South - Today we're spending 1 full day at Yeosu Expo

- Here's Yeony (left) and Suny

Inside Singapore Pavilion (left) and Australia Pavilion (right)

- see the Super Tree behind us? 

Enjoying the seamless screen that integrates the walls and ceilings of the exhibition hall. Videos are displayed on the world’s largest dome screen... awesome!!

 A large scale outdoor performance... Kaelyn and the main lead!

Outside a corporate pavillion... 

We didn't get to see a lot of pavillion as the queues are unbelievably long.. There were a lot of activities outside the pavillions that kept us entertained!