KOREA TRIP '14- DAY 4 (EVERLAND + GANGNAM), DAY 5 (HONGDAE + DONGDAEMUN)

Woke up early because we were going to Everland, which is some two hours ride away.
Took the train to Jamsil, and then boarded the bus (bus stop is the one in the middle of the two way traffic) that had Everland in it's route map. Couldn't remember the bus number but I think it was 5007?

Realised that my SD card was still in my laptop back in the guesthouse so I could only take photos with my phone :c AND I made the wrong decision and ate a packet of chips before taking the rides and I felt really nauseous after the second ride :/

Guess I don't have to state my reason for taking a pic of this

Guy behind us made this ride a really funny one

We went on this swirling thing, and that was when I realised how tourist-unfriendly this place was.
Everything, including the instructions given when boarding the rides are in Korean. The phrase that kept appearing was manse (like, 万岁) haha. Cue for you to raise your hands up in the air~

羊咩咩

Boot-licking

OH GOSH THE STORY BEHIND THIS ^ WAS SO FUNNY (and a little sad actually). The guy sniffing the white guy's butt was originally following the other rabbits around, but they were all avoiding him :( He ended up sniffing this white dude's butt and this was the only time another rabbit didn't run away from him :(

We then queued for this safari ride thing to see the animals~ Again, the guide spoke in Korean only, but it was easier to understand because they were catering to the kids who were on board lol

bAEKHO (need I say more?)

and "SHE is always following Yoobi" Hmm

"SHE is the wisest white tiger"

My sleepyheads~

Literally 곰세마리

MY YOLO BEAR~ Everyone was shouting 귀여워

Mr YOLO. Where else to find another bear sleeping in this position

AND WE WENT ON THIS WOODEN ROLLER COASTER RIDE when I was feeling less nauseous from the damned packet of chips.

Long queue, but worth it

 Back to animal shots.

This dude was posing like this every few steps

Super adorable~

This time, we took the amphibus/amphibious vehicle tour and caught more animals (on camera) ~

Mr Lonely :/

LEE KWANGSOO

Stuck his head in

Back on land.

Just had to. For the "GOOSE"

RATED

On the way to the Rose Garden~

Zhang yixing ^^

a rose by any other name

would smell as sweet

another touristy shot

:DDD ran up to claim my spot before the kids some 10m away could

Day at Everland ended, with this Pororo pic~~~~~~~

Bye~~

Went to the bus bay and queued for the one that was heading to Gangnam.

BEST, CUTEST PURCHASE EVER.

Goose, they tried hard to stop me from splurging. The funniest part was when I came out from some ride, and you know how they always place a shop after a ride/exhibit to make you buy some stuff while you are still brainwashed by the cuteness of the animals? I have problems dealing with that sales tactic and they had to grab me by the arms on each side in order to stop me from buying lol
BUT YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT EVERYTHING THERE WAS SO CUTE
And unlike the gift shops in Singapore, the pricing for the stuff there in Everland was rather reasonable and they didn't tried to scam us with overpriced cute-looking creatures.
Got a white tiger plushie (10 000won) and an owl keychain (7000won) in the end :D

Took a stroll, and did a mini shopping at Artbox in Gangnam.
Went back to Hongdae and met Sasha and Ira at W! We stayed at the cafe till 11plus and decided that we should walk around Hongdae. They brought us to the album shooting site for XOXO. It was located at a really random neighbourhood, which is pretty meh and average, though they somehow managed to make it look nice and hip in the photos -.-
Ira was craving for food, so we went to Lotteria and it was MEGA FUN AND FUNNY~
With Sasha and Ira around, you can be assured that it won't get boring and that the conversation will be filled with laughter!
Left the place at around 1-2AM on a taxi since Ira's foot was really hurting :(

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DAY 5
Chanel and I took a walk around Hongdae area again, and we did some shopping at H&M before meeting Crystal and YY at Dongdaemun (got off at Dongdaemun History & Culture Park stn).

Lunch before meeting Crystal and YY. And yes, Japanese food haha

We mainly shopped at helloapM.
You must have heard about haggling and bargaining if you are researching about shopping in Korea?
And so did the ahjummas in these shops in such places. They are all well-adapted to tourists cutting down prices and here's a compilation of some common points they will come up with to retaliate, from experience:

1. MADE IN KOREA!
One ahjumma even told us straight "Cheap is from China, made in Korea no. Good quality :-)"
2. Look at the details!
"See!" and they will start fiddling with the piece of clothing to find little details to show off the piece's exquisiteness, telling you that it is worth the price
3. You are foreigner, you don't know
This is the lowest price possible! You won't find it anywhere! And a few turns down the corner you spot the same item selling at a cheaper price in another store. 
4. For ahjummas who are reluctant to let go of their goods at a lower price, and are tired of this haggling process they will just say, "If you don't buy, someone else will buy it anyway"


Without bargaining much, this desperate luggage seller reduced the price of this luggage from 240 000 to 200 000 to 175 000, to final price 120 000.
And if you are from Singapore, there isn't gonna be any difference in price, it's like what you can get in Bugis price-wise. BUT quality wise, if you dig and look around you have to admit that "made in Korea" does mean something.
For people who are looking for REALLY cheap stuff, head down to edae!
You can easily get bags at 10 000won, clothes at 10 000/15 000won or even lesser without needing to bargain.

Mm this is pretty much it. Nothing much to talk about anyway since it's just shopping. I might post a separate post about what I bought in Korea, if I have the time :)

A really thoughtful design :") "You are not alone."

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next post: Trickeye Museum (fav photos!!), Hello Kitty Cafe, Lotte World

KOREA TRIP '14- DAY 3 (INCHEON AIRPORT: SHINee & EXO + everysing + GRILL5TACO)

Knowing that the boys would be back from their Shanghai schedule, we figured that we'd go to the airport to see them since SM idols normally choose to use the CIP terminal when they visit Singapore hence we don't usually get a chance to catch a glimpse of them at the airport. Besides wanting to see the boys, I was, in fact, more curious about the airport situation in Korea. 

We woke up at around 9+/10, and met Min at Hongik Uni. stn for the first time :D First impression.. Hmm okay I'll leave that for the last post. :p

It was a long trip to Incheon. And there was where we met Mana, a fanartist who draws really well, and she went there early so that we can get a good view. There's also a "chope-ing seat" culture over there as well, where you claim your place with signs/foldable chairs/bags, pretty much like how you do it in Sg hawker centres except that you don't use tissue packets.

Life, as EXO fans, is always about waiting, taking the first and last trains, and running. We waited from about 12PM KST when previews were out from Shanghai, to ~530PM KST. It was supposed to be a shorter wait, but their flight got delayed. We heard that SHINee was coming back from Taipei to ICN plus it was at the same gate as well.
 
After ten thousand test shots and a packet of fries (couldn't resist the temptation from the Japanese fangirls who were eating fries), SHINee arrived. Everyone stood up, and raised their cameras.  
Ready.
The gates opened for the first time and a few fangirls ran out.  
On your mark.
Gates closed.
Get set. 
Gates opened.
Go!
A group of about 20 or so shawols dashed across, and I'm not exaggerating, but the sound of the fans rushing over makes one wonder if an earthquake is happening. I could literally feel the ground shake. It happened really fast, too. They vanished after, like, 8seconds.

AND GOOSE GUESS WHAT I LOST MY SHINee PICS BECAUSE I WAS DELETING ALL MY TEST SHOTS T.T

The only pic left, and the reason why you should never use auto-focus

Together with the rest of the EXO fans, I stayed at my spot and continued to wait.
After about half an hour, the boys landed. One way to prepare self and to know when the idols have exactly arrived, is when you see fangirls (comprising of fansite masters) with hugeass camera lens standing near the gates. These are the fans who took the same/earlier flight as the idols for a variety of reasons. They are your cue to get ready.

Security + fans busy snapping away in the far distance

What happened next was total chaos. The gates opened. And out came the boys.
Yixing was first. He came out so fast there was a distinct gap between him and the rest of the group, you could easily miss him in the group of security guards. Tao was looking down for pretty much the entire time. Not sure if it was the color or his height, Chanyeol stood out in his red outfit. Caught a few glimpses of Kai and Sehun and this all happened within ~5 seconds of mad shooting, ie clicking without bothering who or what I was trying to take a picture of.

People RAN towards the exit, and I followed along, seconds behind them when all the boys had left the place where I was standing. I realised there were more people in the first half, so I tagged along the second half of the pack, and had a good view of Kai and I remembered the first thought that came across my mind was "I think I understand why they call him kkamjong". He isn't THAT tanned, but in comparison to the other members, ESP SEHUN, you could actually see the difference between their skin tones quite clearly. But really, he isn't that tanned. And his face was so damn fine, so perfect it looks sculpted. I don't know if it was the lack of fats in his face, he looked really tired and worn out. :/ Oh, and another observation was, their faces are realllllllllly small.

So when I was moving towards the exit, more people started pushing from the back. I tried hard to resist the traffic flow but this is really mission impossible. Once you are in the crowd, you have move with the flow. You will only trip if you don't because they PUSH (read: applying force to get rid of any obstacle between me and oppa).
Saw the boys going into a black car, so I tried to move into an open space, since I thought this should mark the end of this airport thingum and I'm happy with seeing them irl already. All of a sudden, the group of fans moved into my direction and I got pushed back against a white vehicle. I still remember that I felt quite sorry for owner of the white car, like "Dude, sorry that this is happening to you but you just had to park your car here". I was literally half sitting on the front bumper of the car and got almost pushed out to the centre of the road. Back then I was still thinking that the fans were pushed here because the black car that had the boys inside were trying to leave the place. And when I was still hanging onto my dear life because I didn't want to get knocked down by the cars behind me, I saw some of the boys (D.O, Luhan, Kai, Baekhyun) entering this car, and this was when I realised this freaking white car that I am half sitting on isn't a normal car belonging to some random civilian (it didn't look that posh tbh). I was shocked for a few seconds and I turned my head and saw freaking Baekhyun sitting in the co-driver seat and I was so so so embarrassed that I was stuck in this awkward position. I squeezed my way out of this mess, while the rest of the fans looked happy to see this gap that I have left. I stood at the back of the crowd until they left, and went back to find the group, and we checked our cameras.

Can't edit my photos and publish them yet since I don't have PS on my spare laptop

Caught this on my camera before leaving the crowd

Min and Mana then took us to the everysing at the airport and I bought my Overdose albums there (together with a GG polaroid set :DD) Told myself that I will officially declare Kai as my bias if I got his photocard, since I've gotten his standee from NR + kept seeing him at the airport + current wallpaper + AND I AM THIS DESPERATE FOR A BIAS

Chanel and I then went to grill5taco to meet Fi. Heard some interesting stories from her and all I can say is that, it might be tough and tiring living as a fansite master, and you will have to deal with a lot of shit from everyone, but the acknowledgement that you'd get from your bias makes everything worthwhile.

Ordered double cheese quesadilla and skinny fries! THEY'RE FREAKING YUMMY :D Oh yeah there's free flow tacos in store too~

So freaking good we swore to come back another day

Time for the decisive moment.

I GOT CHANYEOLS CARD (and Chen's)

BIASLESSEXOFAN4EVA_1995

BYE


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Upcoming post: DAY 4 (EVERLAND + GANGNAM + HONGDAE), DAY 5 (HONGDAE + DONGDAEMUN)
I know I'm taking a super long time blogging about my Korea trip so I will try to up my pace a little bit.
This spare laptop has been showing some signs of failure so I'm gonna get my new laptop this Sun~ YAY!
Been crazy in love with yoghurt these days. Random, but I need to proclaim my love for yoghurt somewhere. >.<