Day 1: Meeting them at Seoul to watch MBC countdown on TV.
I traveled from kaohsiung all alone to meet my buddies. I was only wearing 2 layers but the 0 degree weather didn't faze me because I was carrying my 23kg monster luggage. Even sweated quite a bit on the way there LOL.
The initial plan was to actually go to a countdown concert but we were all not lucky enough to get the tickets through lucky draw. So we bought chicken and Coke and spent New Years Eve watching the MBC kpop countdown.
Day 2: SM Exhibition, Lotte World
It was New Year's Day so we started the day with a huge meal! Check out our stew!!
It was New Year's Day so we started the day with a huge meal! Check out our stew!!
Except that there was quite alot of weird ingredients like intestines and fish lungs (?). Check out Joce's disgusted face LOL, and a gleeful yeye laughing at her hahaha. We played zhong1 ji2 mi4 ma3 to choose the losers who had to eat the disgusting parts.
SM exhibition was quite interesting with many wall photos, figurines and standees. Lots of Exo merchandise but we would have loved more of SHINee's <3. Ended up going to the candy section and bought a small bag of candies for $13. NOT WORTH IT. Lol.
Yikes... Unfortunately, we decided that we shouldn't back out since we are next in the queue.
Strangely, I seemed to have reached the peak of my fear and was numb when I was being strapped on lol. The ride out was pretty serene as we twirled around and got a bird's eye view of the whole park. The ride stopped at the top and we all took a big breath to prepare ourselves. Finally the moment came. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Hahaha. After the harrowing experience, we all somehow decided that we had lots of fun on the ride and started to hold hands in a circle and jump round and round =.= -total embarrassment in public hahaha- Haochen the yeye said he had crazy thoughts about the machine failing on us and flinging us out on the way down hahaha.
Day 3: Sejong King, Ttuekseom Resort, LINE shop
We were supposed to go to Gangcheon for fishing and ice activities but missed our bus there! OTL
In our usual impromptu fashion, we saw that there was King Sejong's statue in the vicinity and decided to do some sightseeing instead.
Realized that there are snow activities to do in Tteukseom resort and it was reachable by mrt so off we went!! Reached Tteukseom resort and realized that it looked like SG's snow city. Channeled our inner kids and still managed to have lots of fun on the snow slide. :)
Day 4: Kpop Street, JYP, SM, Cube, Dongdaemun
Today was finally the time for some star spotting so we made our way to where all the entertainment companies were gathered. Reached JYP first and saw many fangirls waiting at the door so we knew something was up. After a few false alarms of managers walking in and out to raise our hopes......... We finally saw Junsu from 2PM. So exciting to be a one-day paparazzi team and snapping photos of kpop stars haha.
We also saw Jokwon but he swiftly jumped into his car so it was no more than 3 seconds TTTT
After that there was not much activity so we made our way to the other entertainment companies but unfortunately did not have much luck there. My evil case buddies pushed me out and screamed "Sooyoung" to irritate the other fans =.= KC's fault!
We walked back to JYP to try our luck again. Got bored after awhile and started to play cards LOLOL. Poker cards were a staple on our trip. Every single wait for meals/things to happen was made entertaining with games of Taitee.
Halfway through playing, a car showed up and everyone turned around expectantly. Suddenly a guy with silver hair came out and immediately everyone went "OOHHH!" and grabbed their cameras. Confirm must be an idol because the hair was such a giveaway LOL. He was so nice to wish everyone "Happy New Year" and also accepted his fan gifts!! I was so amazed and raved about him, and my friends judged me for liking someone I don't even know HAHAH.
Day 5: Samtong Chicken, Hongdae, Lotte Mart
Went to Hongdae for cafe hopping and we decided to try Caface, where we can put our photo onto coffee! It was so cute but only lasted for a few minutes as we hastily stirred the coffee and destroyed the photo LOL.
Dinner was awesome Ddakkalbi. The cheese in the middle was so yummy but unfortunately HC has cheese trauma and could only eat the chicken and ramen at the side. :(
Ended the day by shopping at Lotte Mart for groceries. Jocelyn raved about the Market-O brownies that ended up being not too popular among us HAHA.
Day 6: Myeongdong, Strawberry Farm
Finally reached the beauty streets of Korea!
We happily bought cheap masks to be used every night, to fulfill our plans to become stars. More on that later :)
Took a mrt to Madu and cabbed to the Strawberry farm. Excited for picking! The moment we picked and ate our first strawberries, we were astounded. The strawberries were so sweet and juicy!!!! Not a single sour berry if we picked the red ones. We brought home 2 boxes of strawberries for 18,000won each and the strawberry farm auntie called a cab for us to go back and travel to Jeju!
Day 7: Abalone Porridge, Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls, Orange Picking, Miniature Park, Neulbom Black Pork
We had our breakfast at the porridge place just beside Cheonjiyeon waterfalls. Jocelyn said this is a must try. Unfortunately the porridge was extremely bland and we had to add soya sauce LOL.
Climbed a short period of time to reach the waterfall and snapped loads of photos!! Nature~~~~
Day 7: Abalone Porridge, Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls, Orange Picking, Miniature Park, Neulbom Black Pork
We had our breakfast at the porridge place just beside Cheonjiyeon waterfalls. Jocelyn said this is a must try. Unfortunately the porridge was extremely bland and we had to add soya sauce LOL.
Climbed a short period of time to reach the waterfall and snapped loads of photos!! Nature~~~~
Miniature Park was the last stop but we didn't make it because places close too early at Jeju! It was only 5.30pm!! We just stood at the entrance and snapped photos, and convinced ourselves that it wouldn't be worth going from the looks of it HAHAHA.
Went for the famed Neulbom Pork that PM Lee had been to! (This was actually an accident: we wanted to go to another black pork store but the GPS brought us to the other end of Jeju HAHAHAHAA. Traveling luck worked again!). Anyways, the pork was too awesome, though on the pricey end. Still a must-try :)
Day 8: Seongsan Sunrise Peak, Maze Land, Manjanggul Cave, Black Pork Street
The hike up to Seongsan was horrible for us sedentary people, as you can tell from us resting on the benches haha. Still, we managed to scale the mountain in 30min, and the view made it worth it! On one side we could see the buildings and shophouses in miniature form (TAKE THAT, MINIATURE PARK), and on the other side, there were these ray of sunlight that lit up the sea so nicely! (Bottom left photo doesn't do it justice at all!) Made the hike up worth it! And we were kept warm from exercising in the cold Jeju air too :)
Maze land was so awesome!!! For one, running man filmed there before. Also, the overcast skies cleared up and it got warmer. We played games to decide who could choose the turn at each junction. Got out of the circular maze easily, but as for the tougher brick maze, we got distracted halfway by our internal high-pitch singing competition (impromptu, as usual) and walked back to the entrance of the maze and got out from there HAHAHA.
Manjanggul cave had many interesting formations from the larva flow patterns!
Settled dinner at the first black pork street that we wanted to go since it was near Gimpo airport (where we needed to take the flight back to seoul). And we decided that the first black pork that we tasted in Jeju was much better haha.
Day 9: SM Audition, Myeongdong, Samgyetang, Live Squid
Haha, to continue the story of becoming stars, yes, we started off the day by marching fearlessly to SM for their global auditions, thinking that we'll just go in for the experienced... Until the minute we saw rows of well dressed, (and most probably well rehearsed Koreans) in line before us, we started freaking out.
Still, I took the registration form and entered into the waiting room and shortly after, HC came in too. We waited for 5 minutes and realized that the rest of the group had pangsehed us LOL. We went out to find them and after some persuasion (which included coin flipping and wagering if the staff would let us audition together... and lots of other random discussion), all 5 of us went into the waiting hall.
Unfortunately, fear stuck us and we ended up fleeing from the waiting room within 15 minutes LOLOL. -failed-
Trying to shake off the trauma, we decided to go back to Myeongdong for some mask shopping. And we realized that we had been travelling the wrong direction on the train only after 3 stops. The nervousness and shock traumatized us so badly HAHA.
Decided to try more of korea's famed food so we went on another food hunt.
Samgyetang was quite bitter at first, but HC the master chef made it delicious by adding salt and pepper LOL
Live squid was scary but very delicious!! We kinda got judged for ordering only 1 plate for all 5 of us HAHA.
Left Myeongdong around 10 to catch me and HC's flight at 1am.
Day 10: Disaster Strikes
We were aiming to take the last airport train at 11.43pm and there was supposed to be ample time......... If not for the thousand staircases leading to the airport train. I was dragging my monster luggage and it was impossible to go up and down the stairways quickly. Alas.... missed the airport train by 5 seconds.......We rushed to take a cab to the airport and ended up spending our last cents on the cab fare :( ran and ran to the check in counter, but we were 20 minutes late.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Incheon airport was completely empty and there was no one to help us. I asked my dad to call scoot for me but unfortunately they had a strict policy that no check ins can be done already :( it was so horrible.
We started to research on new flights that we can take so that we won't need to find accommodation to stay in korea. After 3 excruciating hours of finding flights on our phones, we finally settled on one that would let us leave at 9am and reach SG the same day at 6pm. Phew. It was so exhausting. We wanted to pass out from tiredness (physical strain from lifting lugagges and mental strain from the shock of missing the flight + trauma from SM) but had to hold on or else flights would be gone :(
After booking, there was still time before the flight so we wanted to get some food. We then realized. We spent all our money on the cab fare :(((((
Thankfully HC got the realization that we still have balance in our T money cards (EZ link). Overjoyed with the extra few dollars that we had, we went to the nearest convenience stall to buy some cup noodles. -so miserable I cant even-
Once we sat down in the place we K.O.-ed and didnt know when the place took off and landed. Just woke up to exit the plane HAHA.
Transferred flights at HongKong. There was supposed to be a 2 hour gap but it was crazy once again because HK airport is so huge and we needed to take coaches to travel from one place to another. There were also crazily long queues.... Ended up running much more than expected :(
To cut the long story short, I was so glad to reach SG on the same day! Although we spent a bomb sob sob. What a huge price to pay to learn the importance of puntuality.
