I am not a big fan of Korean food except Bulgogi. Kimchi is a big NO-NO for me. I always try to avoid kimchi whenever I could.

Not this time, lady. Korean has kimchi in EVERY MEAL! Even the breakfast buffet at hotels. Kimchi is always there amidst cornflakes, poached eggs, sausages and other continental breakfast.

Every main course comes with many ‘appertisers’, kimchi is definitely one of them. Most of them are served cold.

This is Bibimbap served on the plane. It is delicious when you mix the given chilli paste and sesame oil. See kimchi on the top right corner??

When you dine in restaurant, kimchi is definitely one of the dish that you can refill for infinite times! I am not kidding! It is sour and hot and sometimes I could feel my brain implode.

Two kinds of kimchi here. Can you spot the two?

Anyway, I was told that kimchi is the major food that contributes to Korean’s good health. It improves digestion. So no matter how much I dislike it, I still had to take a bit.

Bibimbap with kimchi…again.

According to the tour guide, there are 2 things that Korean women need to know how to make if they want to get married: Ginseng chicken (my favourite!) and kimchi. We went for kimchi making class. Actually, we only learned to brush the mixture onto the cabbage and wrapped them up. We took our kimchi back to the hotel, thinking to bring them back to Singapore. But guess what, both of us were too chicken to even try our kimchi the next day.

Kimchi making class

We had only vegetables for the first 4 days. Everything was vegetable. There were so many varieties that I have never seen before. All of us craved for meat so much.

So…to counter my craving for meat, I resorted to this…

My tour guide said that the protein in 1 bug = 5 eggs!

Mmm..merry cherry.

The uncle sold a cup of bugs for 1000 won (about SGD 1.60). Mom was afraid that I would get sick. So I used my sign language to convince him to sell me half a cup instead for 500 won.

It didn’t taste bad at all. It was boiled in salt water….chewy…has distinctive but OK smell. I can recognise the smell even from far.

Towards the end of the trip, we had grilled pork, ginseng chicken and squid. Guess what, all of us were like wild tigers and lions devouring the meat in one bite!

This was the best dinner, grilled sweet pork marinated in soy sauce, pear purée and other secret ingredients.

Posted under Glorious food! , Travel | [10] Comments 

There are goods and bads when traveling with tour packages. I think this time, the only down side was, we felt as we were cheated during the last day. We did not have a Singapore tour guide so we depended solely on the Korean one.

Cherry blossom…hahah..my season

During the last day, according to the itinerary given to us from Singapore, “If time permits, you can do some last-minute shopping at Myeong-dong, which has been the trendsetting centre…blablabla…” That was it. No visiting some weird factories and places, which I think was perfect for doing last minute shopping on our free time.

I am the second Dae Jang Geum (Da Chang Jin)

When we reached South Korea, we were given another itinerary. For the last day, it simply said, “Breakfast → own free time → Bus to airport”.

One day before the last day, we were told that we had to pay for bus rides IF we opted to go for shopping (supposedly at Myeong-dong, but NO!). Each of us had to pay 14,000 won to get there (which was about SGD 23). At first I thought, well….since we were already there, might as well spent a little more during the last day, right?

But NO! After breakfast during the last day, the stupid tour guide took us to various places such as the amethyst factory (which were supposed to visit few days earlier) and some herb factory (which was not from the itinerary) where they pushed you to buy their overpriced products (in USD for goodness sake). Then, we rushed to the ‘supposedly’ shopping district to do last minute shopping for less than an hour.

The best meal in Korea, ginseng chicken.

I paid SGD 23 just to do 1 hour of shopping??? She rather took us to those pushy factories where she can earn extra income on OUR OWN bus expenses. I thought we paid the extra bus ride to get to the shopping district right after breakfast and we would have like 3-4 hours to shop.

What a rip-off!! So I was thinking, what if I opted not to follow…what will she and the driver do? We -> hotel after those stupid factories, the rest -> shopping district, pick us up from the hotel and the rest -> airport?

Hey..That guy from Winter Sonata!!

I remember asking the lady from Singapore if I have to pay anything extra. She told me that I only needed to tip the tour guide…which was OK for me because she was upfront about it.

And I extremely dislike a tour guide who is dishonest and biased. She treated us so differently when we refused to buy their products from those factories as compared to the big spenders.

I have joined tour packages in the past and NO, we did not encounter thing like that.

Most of my friends complained that it was a norm. They said the local tour guide would try to add some options, which you have to pay extra. Yes, although it is an “option” but they are very good in making sure you will pay the extra like idiots.

At Yong Pyong where they filmed Winter sonata. I didn’t watch that show. Not a big fan of Korean drama

A friend shared the same story though but she brought her original itinerary along and insisted the local tour guide to stick to it without adding any extra options. Although it seemed as if she was making a fuss but everyone was happy at the end of the trip.

So can I say it is all right since it is a NORM? Same as having extra-marital affair. If the norm is having extra-marital affair, should we even tolerate it and agree it is OK to do so?

Posted under Travel | [7] Comments 

Reached home at 11 plus at night…Long and tiring flight indeed.

I will NOT miss: KIMCHI! No more kimchi for me please..not for the next few months.

I will miss: Communicate in lousy korean and lots of sign language.

Highlight: I bought my HANBOK!! After bargaining for a long time, and of course, with lots of sign language.

Summary: Long bus rides, naps on the bus, kimchi, public bath, cold, cherry blossom, snow on mountain, have taken LOTS of pictures.

Lots of stories to share but that’s all for now because….I MISS MY BOLSTER…

Posted under Travel | 1 Comment 

Yup..I am leaving for Korea tomorrow night. I bought mom and myself a 7 days tour package to Korea. To be frank, I felt a little bit nervous because….KOREAN is so difficult! I can’t count numbers in Korean and that is bad!! So far, I only know how to say “hello”, “how much?”, “can you sell it cheaper?”, “no”, “yes” and “thank you”.

I think I can shop better in Thailand. At least I can bargain in Thai with numbers fluently. Argh…

Actually…*grin sheepishly*, I am not going to shop…that much. Er..the only thing that I want to buy is a hanbok, the traditional korean dress. That’s all..I think..

The won..look at the ’0000s’ Well, I told you that I am going to be a millionaire, didn’t I? *grin*

Posted under Travel | [3] Comments 

Well, I have received several emails asking me about my “sudden inheritance”. And of course I have to make it clear that I “assume” it is nothing more than just a spam.

But wait!! If you think such incident is too good to be true, I want you to read the following.

About 15 years ago, a good friend of my grandpa visited him. He told my grandpa that his son had inherited a few million dollars from a man, who was serving jail sentence in Hong Kong (may be some tycoon like the one you watched from Infernal Affairs). This man asked his solicitor to search for his descendant from his family tree (of the olden days), with a specific name, generation and year of birth. The solicitor spent 4 years looking for this person with such profile and his son happened to be the perfect “candidate”. Hence, he became a millionaire overnight. With one condition though, that he has to visit his grave every year after he died. It was a big news backthen, and it was featured in a local newspaper.

Well back then, there wasn’t spam that constantly flooded your mailbox trying to cheat your money. Thing was much simpler then. You just had a solicitor knocking on your door with a suitcase of money… how nice..

Posted under Random ramblings | [2] Comments