Kimchi Land
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Got back from my korea trip.. Here are the pics..
Here is the picture of the Blue House. Where the Korea president lives. Its a good "fengshui" place because behind is a mountain which looks like a dragon (see the eyes, nose) and directly behind is North Korea. In case if North Korea attacks, the blue house is protected by that mountain.
Then went to Namsan Hanok Village where we can see olden korean home structure. If you have watched Da Chang Jin, you will understand that most of the houses in the olden days are like that. Houses are built high because its cooler in summer and during winter, they can build a fire underneath to warm the floors.
Below is a picture of their stove. Its made of iron and its really heavy. One side is to boil water, the other is to cook. The reason why Koreans have so many cold side dishes is because of this reason. Olden days, its difficult to keep washing the pot becoz its heavy and hot. So they'll boil water and blanch their vegetables. The first vegetable will become cold by the time they finish blanching all their vegetables, so they just season it with some salt, sesame and it becomes 1 side dish. Only until the end then they will cook rice. When the rice is cooked, there will be a layer of rice stuck at the bottom of the pot, so they will scoop up the rice and pour water into the pot and it becomes another dish.. (锅巴汤) Afterwhich at the end of the meal, then they will wash the pot.
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Then came lunch. Had Korean Ginseng Chicken.
You're supposed to pour the first cup of ginseng wine into the hot soup, so that you get the nice flavor.
Here's the kimchi we had. Radish, 1 spicy and 1 non spicy. Koreans love radish kimchi the best.
The ginseng chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice, 1 red date and 1 small ginseng. Very fragrant.
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was at spa after lunch, so no pics.
Dinner was a delicious mushroom hot pot
Went to Everland next. Here's one of the steepest rollercoaster in the world. 77degrees! I think it really looks scary..
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Went to a farm to learn how to make cheese.
1st boil milk. This milk is freshly squeezed from a cow..
Next stir in water and a substance called GDL. (not sure what it is..)
Then pour in vinegar. Switch off fire and wait for it to coagulate.
Your container, put cloth and wet it with the water in the bowl.
Decorate your cheese with some flowers, nuts or whatever and pour in the cheese mixture
Press with a brick
Finished product
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nice..
keep it up
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Another meal. Yongpyong is famous for its tofu, so we had a tofu hot pot.
Next went to YHongpyong dragon valley, the filming site of the famous korean drama, Winter Sonata. Its a famous ski resort too during winter becoz it has the longest ski route in Korea. Lots of people like to go there during winter. Here's the spring view...
This is taken right on top of the hill (you can't see the summit from the above pic. Its behind that mountain.) Its also a winter sonata filming site.. the view is superb..
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Wow...i wish i could go to korea =( sigh
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Bibimbap for lunch
Sorry, I forgot to take a photo, so this pic was after a few mouthful.
Mount Sorak next.. Can take a cable car up to the top, then walk up the hill for another 100 metres. There are steps, so its rather easy climbing.
Saw a really tiny squirrel up there. Its really tiny!
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Famous korean bbq..
Sorry for the blur pic..
Koreans love their meat. They will wrap the meat in lettuce, sesame leaf, garlic clove and a bit of chili. You should see a lot of this in korean dramas.
This was another meal. A traditional korean meal. Just rice, with some side dishes. The pot in the middle is tofu and egg. This is in Pusan.
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Jeju Island. Jeju island is formed when an under see volcano erupted and over years, the lava cooled and formed an island. Also known as Honeymoon island. Known as an island of 3 things (三多岛）Rocks, Women and Mist/Fog. (If i recall correctly for the last one, it either mist or wind.. if i can find out, i'll edit the info) Rocks because of the lava rocks, women because ppl from here, depend largely on fishing for survival. Because its largely a rocky place, its difficult to cultivate plants on this. And as there is almost always fog, men need to wait until a suitable timing with no fog to go out fishing. And sea current is very strong, so many men die out there, thus there's a lot of women in the island.
1st stop is to Songsan Sunrise Peak. Had to climb up this mountain, about 500+ steps? And it was raining quite heavily too. :( Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain, the fog covered almost all the scenery. Only see white mist right on top, but it is quite satisfying to climb all the way to the top..
Went to Songup Folk Village. This is a look at the traditional village houses in the olden times. As Jeju island is formed by lava rocks as I mentioned above, in the olden days, they collect water by tying the bambo brush on the tree trunk into a vat below. Otherwise water seeps into the ground and flows away. No matter how deep you dig, there is no water. Thus no wells.
Women carry water vats during olden times. Should see Da Chang Jin carry this when she was banished to Jeju too. That's why women in Jeju during olden days are usually shorter, and broad hipped, because they use their butt to support the vat.
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Here is the picture of a traditional house in Jeju. Also the filming site of Da Chang Jin. This is the village head's house.
Their doors in the olden days. 3 wooden sticks means the owner is away for the whole day. If the top wooden stick is placed on the floor, then it means the owner is away for 1-2 hours. if the top 2 wooden sticks are placed on the floor, it means the owner is around the area and will be back in 5-10 mins. If all the wooden sticks are placed on the floor, it means the owner is in and you're welcomed to go in and visit.
Jeju olden houses are special in 3 ways. 1. Due to their geographical location, they get attacked easily. So all the houses in Jeju don't have a Chimney. 2. As the winds are very strong and they get typhoon easily, so all the houses have 3 doors. A sliding door, a wooden door and a shelter thing which is propped up. They can let it down to protect their houses from typhoon. 3. They don't have pillars in their house. If you have a pillar, means you are of a certain status. This house that I visited is a village head's house, thus there are pillars in this house.
Below is Jeju island's earth god deity (土地公). 1 male and 1 female. The male is on the right side. If you see carefully, the male's left hand is higher whereas the female's right hand is higher. That's how you differentiate btwn a male and female earth god deity.
Due to its phallus shape, people believe that by touching it, will help the couples get a baby. Women who touch the deity's nose will get a baby boy, if they touch the ears they will get a baby girl instead. Anyone who touches the stomach in between the hands is just praying for well wishes for the family.
This is a reason why Jeju is also known as honeymoon island. As you need to take a plane to Jeju from Korea, and Jeju feels more tropical compared to Korea, a lot of koreans like to go to Jeju for their honeymoon because they feel like they are going overseas. Its a cheaper alternative. Its their "Hawaii". And a lot of married couples would like to come here to touch the deity so that they can get babies.
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someone promised me to bring me a korean beauty...
be it artificial or not...
but all i got was a few packets of seaweed in an ugly SAF paper bag...
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Here's a specialty of Jeju.. For breakfast, we had abalone porridge. But don't expect too much. Of my bowl, I only found 1 small abalone dice. LOL.. but korea porridge is quite nice.. We had fried eggs, fried tung hoon, steam buns and some other side dishes as well.
Next, went to see this place which the rocks formation looks like dragon. the dragon head is rising from the sea and the body is still in the sea.
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Teddy Bear Museum!!! If you have watched Princess Goong, then this is the place the princess came with the grandmother.. Its really a very sweet place with many teddies. Here are some of the more interesting ones..
Here is the most expensive teddy bear in the world.
2nd most expensive bear (Its eyes are made of expensive gems)
Goong S series bears
World tiniest bear
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did you try their plastic surgery there?
oei... u heard wat the very fierce mod said or not...
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Another place to go at Jeju Island is the Mysterious road.
Look at this road. Doesn't it look downhill?
Our bus came from the opposite. The driver turned off the engine and our bus just started moving uphill by itself!
As this road is next to a cemetery, it was said that ghosts are pushing the vehicles. And thus, this road is also called "ghost road"
Here are some pictures of the ghosts...
And what's the real reason for this phenomenon?
Highlight this to find out: Because the trees planted at the side are very strange. Instead of growing straight, they all grow at an angle, thus it gives an optical illusion that the road is uphill, but in actual fact, the road that we're on is downhill, thus the vehicles are able to still move even when the engine is turned off...
Lunch.. seafood hotpot.. because Jeju is island, I mentioned earlier that they are very dependent on fishing.. thus the abundance of seafood.
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This is a special dish.. direct translation in English is "sulphur duck" (硫磺é¸) This is the dish that caused Da Chang Jin to be punished in the show. Duck is just inside the soup. Soup tastes very herbal..
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Good life wor.....
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Lotte World exterior
Interior
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Zha Jiang Mein Korean Style
Soju (Was staying in the character floor, thus the cute character cup. I just took a picture with the Soju) Soju is really cheap in korea. This bottle costs about S$1.
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Some street pictures of Seoul, Myongdong area.
Last meal at Korea: Dumpling hotpot
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Ok time to sleep. Shall post the rest tomorrow.. stay tuned.
can start commenting now!
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i think i should immigrate to jeju island....
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Originally posted by stellazio:
did you try their plastic surgery there?
oei... u heard wat the very fierce mod said or not...
ok, i heard it now.
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Originally posted by pigsticker:
i think i should immigrate to jeju island....
And in the olden days, men there can have a few wives..
lol
men were very chauvanists then.. when the weather is bad and they cannot go out fishing, they'll laze around at home doing nothing while the women go out to work or do housework.