Uni grad trip to South Korea day 6: 26th May 2013

It's a sunday! But SS, Jenny, MT and I are up early to leave for Nami Island, which will take us approx. 1.5hrs by subway to reach Gapyeong stn. Topped up an extra 2000won in my t-pass. *Rest of the girls wanted to continue shopping at Lotte malls, and so we split routes.*

I thought we could board the ITX, but it seems normal subway would reach Gapyeong too. *Subway and ITX run on the same track, but ITX would be faster and cost 4800won per pax to take~ well we would hav if we had more cash to spare haha!* We stood almost all the way~ and u see those cyclists in the train? They were mostly old grandpas and grandmas omg... 佩服！ We went into the tourist counter to confirm our directions, and then thr's this old uncle who couldn't help but took many pics of us using my cam lol~

Ironically, it seems thr were more locals than tourists on the Gapyeong city tour bus (5000won, can re-board using ticket), and many of them were uncles and aunties lol. 4 of us were standing on the big bus, and man the mountain roads were full of bends, so you can actualli feel the swerve rather obviously. We reached Nami Island stop in about 10mins time. The entrance ticket + 3mins ferry ride costed us 8000won each, and the scene was rather pretty... u can see ppl doing water sports thr too. *Omg the sky hike (38000won) looks cool but very ex.* 100+ppl could board the ferry at one go I reckon.

Ta-dah~ we are at the shores of Nami Island now! *The mascot below reminded me a lil' of Merlion... juz tat the way Merlion“吐水”looks better haha.*

We walked into the middle of the island, and nt far away, we saw General Nami's tomb.

SS wanted to take a pic of us standing on the railway tracks haha. Song Museum was juz upfront. *I guess ppl on the island loves singing and music?*

After coming out from the back door of the museum, you see this long stretch of greenery by the sea (?)~ 好凉快啊！

绿荫小径让人感觉太舒服了。We continued to stroll front, and saw ostriches, "mini Merlion" and SG's flag etc...

And don't be too surprised to see Snowman here! Cos "Winter Sonata"'s filming took place on this island as well... so say "Hi!" to my "family members" haha~

There's a butterfly garden too (nth much in thr), and then we went into a "castle". The guard on duty was literally snoozing off at the counter lo lol~ so 4 of us sneaked to the back of the place, and I think we entered a "no patronage corner", taking pics with the big bear haha!

It was lunch time soon, and we were desperately trying to find the chi restaurant“恋歌之家” to try their“摇摇饭”. There were many diff restaurants ard, boasting international food... but lucky we'd find wat we wanted! *Thr was this male opera singer singing "Nella Fantasia" nearby... and it was live omg!*

We sat outside, Jenny and I went to order food. We shared 2 boxes of“摇摇饭”, a kimchi pancake and one patbingsu! Costed us 6500won per pax for lunch~ satisfied!

*SS wore her glove the other way round LOL!* The metal container wasn't too hot but u can still feel the heat when holding it. 4 of us were shaking the rice real hard, hoping the kimchi, egg and rice will mix well haha. *Return to childhood... but I reckon mummy would yell at me for "playing with food" keke~* I think we were all hungry, so everything tasted delicious to us hehe... plus the dessert came in time during such warm weather. *However compared to Seoul city, the weather on Nami Island is somewat cooler though.*

And so the 4 uni grads continue on our trail on Nami Island... we simply enjoyed the greenery thr, it doesn't matter even if it meant tourists flooded the whole place haha.

SS saw this grp of Korean traditional dancers walked past us, and we asked for a photo with them! *The uncle behind SS and MT was reluctant to take at first, until being persuaded haha.*

Now we've reached the other end of Nami Island, furthest away from whr the ferry terminal is. Then, we took another half an hr to walk all the way back to the ferry terminal, and SS bought couple tee at the Song Museum too. *The mini-musical-houses" were cute.*

Now one kinda unlucky incident happened by the time we reached main land. All of us saw the city tour bus (that only comes every one hr interval) reaching the bus stop, so we sprang and chased the bus. By the time we'd reached, we joined a queue, and the bus arrived at the stop then as well. Just when we thought we're gonna move up the bus, suddenly it drove away~ right before our eyes! It was then when we realise the queue we joined was for cabs OMG! *It seems ppl dun really queue properly for the bus instead.* Bad luck to our Singaporean habit of queuing, now we even had to "fight" for cabs as well, cos some tourists juz snatch at every chance they've to get in any taxis. We were contemplating whether or not to wait for another hr, or get a cab, but I think the latter came to us first... so we boarded and headed for Petite France. *Oh I felt giddy in a cab omg... guess cos it's highland and the road's windy.* The 10-15mins ride costed us 18100won in all... nt cheap o.

Entrance fee was originally 8000 won, both MT and I bought the discount coupon SS printed for us, so it's 6000won instead. But Jenny and SS forgot to bring, so all of us split the discount lo... 7500won for entrance fee, plus another 500won for our "Running Man Petite France stamp" mission cloth haha. *So funny~ I didn't know the boy at the entrance was thr to检票~ I was a lil' confused by wat he wanted and lol he grinned too... he is cute keke.* Yes we're finally at the place which I saw on "Running Man"!

We saw a plasma TV screening "Running Man" too haha. There were some guestrooms ard the area, which visitors are not supposed to go into. I peeked into one and the interior looked pretty comfy. *Dang we've a lot of steps here as well, so we let the very enthu SS and MT to go run and look for stamps... Jenny and I leisurely strolled and took photos instead haha.*

I like Petite France for how colourful the whole place is! Filled with paintings, and it looked like a painting itself. Romantic and dreamy... feels like an escape from the real world for a moment.

I helped SS and MT (sometimes Jenny too) take pics while they were doing their "mission"... to collect all 10stamps all ard Petite France and exchange for souvenirs at the ticketing office! 

It's a pretty tiring thing to do, considering the fact that we've to complete everything in 1+hr, cos we had to go back and meet the others for drinks by 9pm. *Petite France closes at 6pm.* I'd captured Beethoven's home, and some other pretty French interiors otw, while SS and MT tries to complete their mission...

Now for some other "behind-the-scenes" footages of our mission hehe, as well as a short break!

The 2nd last place we went to was the underground auditorium. Thr was a magic show going on when we were thr, but we din watched though... we were more into taking photos with this fairy-tale liked place haha!

Almost thought I'd lost my camera's cover thr, but aish a foolish mistake on my part. *Thks to MT for helping me tie a simple knot to my cam~ how come I couldn't even think of such simple solution lol!?* And finally with the help of discussions with some other tourists/visitors thr, we found our final destination for the stamp!

So, we got our free postcards! *SS asked for one more even though we only had 3 stamped cloths... the counter lady gave it since we were tourists haha.* 5+pm by the time we left Petite France, and waited for the city tour bus to Cheongpyeong stn, that arrives at 5.45pm.

It was another 15mins on the bus before we reached the subway stn. By the time we were back at Myeongdong stn, it was nearly 8pm. I bought Shinhwa's latest album (17800won), and was greedy enough to buy dokpokki (2500won) for dinner lol! *Okie it's really too spicy for one person to finish!*

After finishing our take-away dinners in our rooms, 4 of us headed to the bar with pretty ambience to meet the other ladies. We thought they'd arrive earlier than us, but they were late... due to shopping la lol.
*Truthfully, I am afraid to let ppl wait for me, cos I think keeping up to ur words/promises is very impt.*

The iced-cappuccino (7000won) that Jenny and I both had was bland lol... we had to go out and asked the waitress for sugar/milk lol. Then, I got a surprise when XY took out a "gift" for me... saying it's from all of them lol!

Well, I can be quite bad when it comes to expressing words of gratitude, but they actually got me what I wanted a lot at Hongdae's flea market... the hand-made bracelet! Suddenly, I felt guilty, thinking back, cos I've been "nagging" at SS and the rest for persuading me not to get it while walking throughout Hongdae area. Now I know why SS, YQ and Jenny were hurrying me away from the stall, and took photos etc at the playgrd and壁画街, while XY and WT were buying it haha. WT was saying it's so easy to deceive me... hmm come to think of it, I don't think it's difficult if someone really有意骗我... cos I trust friends rather easily. *Now I recall a few times back in China when my poly/uni friends gave me surprises... almost always successful haha.*
*真心的朋友，我也会同等对待。谢谢你们了！这条手链独一无二neh！*