myeongdong

Winter (again!) in South Korea – Ski Day at Bearstown Ski Resort!

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Perfect day for skiing

extremely picture-heavy post

For this day, it was dedicated solely for Bearstown Ski Resort. I badly needed to see snow, as a couple of days had already passed without seeing a whole bunch of them.

To go to Bearstown in Gyeonggi-do, you have to take a bus departing from Seoul. To reserve a seat for the bus, I had sent an email to the bus company on the Thursday before leaving to Korea. You can email them at good-bus@naver.com. They usually reply within 24 hours. The roundtrip fare was KRW 5,000, which you pay once inside the bus.

We thought we would be picked up at Insadong, but they asked us to be at City Hall station instead. Without even eating breakfast, we left the hostel at around 6:30 AM. It was raining a bit and the moment we got out of the train, it only took less than a minute before the bus arrived. It left at exactly 07:10 AM.

Shuttle bus to Bearstown Ski Resort

Mon was a bit grumpy throughout the ride. He was extremely hungry the whole time and we did not arrive not until half past 9. >_< So when going to Bearstown, buy at least something for the ride, especially if you will be running late. Not a single convenience store was in sight around the exit at City Hall station where the bus stops.

Upon arriving at Bearstown, I forgot how mad Mon was. There was finally snow, so #byefelicia. Just kidding!

Winter Sky at Bearstown

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Winter in South Korea – Day 4: Lotte World and leaving Seoul

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*extremely picture-heavy post

It has been three weeks since I last wrote a post regarding our trip to Seoul, and it did not help that this post concerned two things that made me unenthusiastic: Lotte World and leaving South Korea. From Simone Handbag Museum, we took the traingfrom Sinsa Station going to Jamsil station, which is connected directly to Lotte World.

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement in Sinsa Station

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement at Sinsa Station

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement in Sinsa Station 2

Another plastic surgery advertisement

 

Fountain with people sitting around it - Lotte World, Seoul, South Korea

Fountain with people sitting around it

 

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Winter in South Korea – Day 2: Cat Café in Myeongdong

bryologue 5 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

On our first day walking around Myeongdong,  the sight of the Cat Café made our hearts skip a beat because of the potential cuteness inside.

Before going to Seoul, we had Gio Cat Café in mind but has scrapped the idea because it was too far off from the place where we stayed. It was in Mapo-gu and since we did not want to visit Trickeye Museum, nor it was futile to visit YG Entertainment’s bulding again, so we scrapped the idea.

Earlier that day, Mon with Cat Café's tarp outside --- Myeongdong

Earlier that day, Mon with Cat Café’s tarp outside

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Winter in South Korea – Day 2: Bright, snowy day

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*extremely picture-heavy post

Continuing our adventure from the day before, we’ve learned our lesson on how to best deal with the extreme cold, and that would be putting more garments.

Granted that I had a hard time feeling myself and my surroundings with the clothes I had the day before, I thought that it would be easier to remove a garment and stash it in my bag if it gets too warm.

Timberland yellow puffer jacket, knitted Radic Color sweater, brick colored pants, black PathFinder boots

Bright, bright, bright

Knitted Radic Color sweater, V-neck blue stripes sweater, Vivienne Westwood wool scarf, brick colored pants, black PathFinder boots

I’m not ready

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Winter in South Korea – Day 1: Testing out the winter breeze

bryologue 9 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

So, here starts the strenuous “Winter in Seoul 2012” series. As earlier mentioned, I will not be doing the typical day by day account of our trip, rather complement it with thematic and specific posts that can’t be elaborately explained within a ‘daily’ post, and that will include the breakdown of our budget for the trip (note: like all-in-all, with the tickets, accommodation and dues we paid in the Philipine airport, I have personally shelled out less than Php 25,000 for the whole trip. =D)

Our flight to Incheon International Airport wasn’t until 1:30 AM but we were already in NAIA Terminal 3 before 10:00 PM. When the check-in counters opened by 10:30 PM, we immediately rushed to present our itinerary ticket and paid for the Php 1,620 travel tax. The staff manning the counter also weighed in our baggages to check-in and even if they were already quite heavy, we were still almost 7 kilos short of our combined 30kg limit as we have already paid for 15kg each. It was actually our first time to check-in luggages because since we started travelling together, we only have two carry-ons each and has been used to travelling light. But as we were obviously travelling to a wintery place, our usual baggage won’t cut it.

Mon and I waiting for check-in at NAIA Terminal 3 for our flight to Incheon

Mon and I waiting for check-in at NAIA Terminal 3 for our flight to IncheonAt around quarter to 1:00 AM, we decided to head for the boarding gate. Going there, we had to first pay for the terminal fee, which was already lowered from Php 750 to Php 550. Then next to the immigration officer who had to take a look at our passports and ask questions on how long we will be out of the country, as well as our employment record. It took me only three minutes to finish the whole thing over, but Mon took a longer time. The immigration officer even mistook him for a Korean and immediately talked to him in English. LOL One more thing, they no longer made us remove our shoes, which wasn’t the case when we travelled last year. Good thing because I was already unknotting my laces when the security personnel stopped me.

Cebu Pacific weighing our check-in baggages and we were almost 7kg short of the combined 30kg limit

Cebu Pacific weighing our check-in baggages and we were almost 7kg short of the combined 30kg limit

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Kimmy Dora and the Temple of Kiyeme: the upside and the downside

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When we heard that a sequel of Kimmy Dora: Kambal sa Kiyeme was on the works, we were extremely excited because it was big hit for us. I even remember watching this on iPod when we were in Seoul last year.

And to finally hear by the end of 2011 that they were shooting in South Korea, it was definitely a must see movie.

The movie picked up from where the last one had finished. Kimmy and Dora’s relationship improved, even though Kimmy still has this abrasive behavior towards everybody.

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