7D Korea Golden Rama Tour: Bibimbap for dinner

One of my usual pet peeves about joining a tour group is the variety of the food provided. It is very common for tour group to give us Chinese food throughout the duration of the tour no matter whether we are travelling to China or not. I find it a huge waste not to try out the local cuisine while travelling to a certain country but then again, it is not easy to find a restaurant which is willing to accommodate 20 people at one go in some countries. But that does not seem to be an issue in South Korea and Golden Rama still manages to feed us local Korean food halfway through the 7D Korea tour. We are going to dine at Korean Restaurent (the sign really had typo error lolz) before exploring Dong Dae Mun. Yeahh!

The restaurant seems to have quite a good variety of homemade Korean meal from the cold noodle, samgyetang to variety of stews. 

Price of the meal seems to be reasonable since it's around SGD 10 ish. Okay, that's not exactly cheap I suppose. Nowadays I have even more cheapo perspective on meal price since I am not earning any income yet. 

Omo! This is the first time we encounter egg as side dish. The rest of the side dishes is pretty standard like kimchi, beansprouts and cucumber. 

It seems that Korean love to eat stew very much? We have been fed all kind of stew from the start of our journey until halfway. Not that I'm complaining though. Mushroom is after all one of my favourite vegetable. Yumz. 

Finally we are served the highlight of the dinner, bibimbap. Bibimbap literally means mixed rice. It is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with veggies and gochujang. Sometimes fried egg and meat are included in the bibimbap too. But it seems that the bibimbap that we are having that day is a very healthy vegetable bibimbap. There is no single sliver of meat inside this pot. While anything taste good with gochujang sauce, I would like it better if meat (especially beef, yumz!) is included inside the bibimbap. Hehehe. 

Writing this post kinda makes me want to eat bibimbap now. Hmm maybe I should eat one for dinner. Yumz. 

7D Korea Golden Rama Tour: Petite France

 If your tour itinerary includes a visit to Nami Island, most likely it will include a visit to the nearby French cultural village, Petite France. From its outward look, you will think that this European village seems to be a tad out of of place in South Korea. 

However, due to its unique concept, Petite France has become a filming location for many best-selling TV series like Secret Garden and The Man Who Came from the Star. I watched both series and they are both pretty fun to watch. 

To be honest with you, I was not particularly looking forward to visit Petite France again because I have been here before and I have explored the whole place (more or less). You probably will not need more than one hour to play at Petite France. But the thing about joining a tour is you don't really have a say in the tour itinerary. You just have to bear with the not-so-excited place and proceed with it. So yeah, Petite France is fun for first time visitor but not so for 2nd time visitor. 

Anyway rather than grumble, let's just revisit the beautiful colorful houses at Petite France. These houses serve as cafe, stores, exhibition facility and also a youth training facility. There are 16 French-style buildings where visitors can lodge and experience French food, clothing and household culture.  

Right after entering Petite France, you will see an auditorium. There will be puppet shows and performance held at this open auditorium. This auditorium also served as jail for one of the early episode of Running Man. That was quite a fun episode to watch really. 

Mom feels like posing like Hyun Bin. I don't think she even watch the drama but she's being so cute here trying to stick her head out there because the poster frame is quite tall. Hahahah.

Some of the houses are open for you to take a peek inside. The interior design of the house is inspired from a typical village house in French. Hmm, I am not very sure if a house in French village has that many plates though. Do people there still have a very big family nowadays?

This is how the living room looks like with piano, sofa and cupboard. I can tell within one glance that it's gonna be a huge effort tyring to clean the whole house with design like this. 

We were getting bored after 30 minutes of wandering around Petite France so we decided to buy drinks intead. There is a cafe next to the house that we just saw earlier and this is the list of the price for the coffee and tea. 

From where the cafe is located, you can see the view of Cheongpyeong Lake. Quite a nice view from above, except for the fact that it was so hot. 

The seating area on the right side is where you can sit down and enjoy the drinks that you just bought from the cafe earlier. We sat down for a good 15 minutes before we made our move to the auditorium again since our appointed meeting time is still 20 minutes away. 

A recreation of a French village will not be completed without a small miniature of the Eiffel Tower, in yellow color. Je'taime! 

  Did you see the statue of a young boy dressed up in green coat behind me? The boy is actually the Little Prince. The concept of Petite France derives from "flowers, stars, and the Little Prince". The village has a memorial hall which is dedicated to Saint-Exupery, the author of the celebrated French novel, Le Petit Prince (1943). I guess you can call Petite France as the Little Prince theme park. If you'd like to, you can buy some souvenirs or even the French kitchenwares from some of the shops in Petite France. 

Marionette or puppet show are available at certain timing and this show seems to be very popular with the children. I have no idea what the person is saying though because she spoke in Korean but the puppet dance is quite fun to watch. There is no additional fees need to be made to watch the show. 

Admission fees:

Adults: 8,000 KRW

Teenagers (middle and high schoolers): 6,000 KRW

Children (3 y.o. - elementary school students): 5,000 KRW

Seniors (>65 y.o.) and People with disability: 6,000 KRW

Opening hours:

Sunday to Thursday: 9AM - 6PM

Friday to Saturday: 9AM - 8PM

7D Korea Golden Rama Tour: Nami Island Part 2

After passing through Metasequioa Path which is filled with beautiful meatasequioa trees and a major photo spot amongst tourists (a perfect picture without anyone photobombing you really takes a LOT of efforts), we follow the designated path which gonna lead us to Gongsaengwon Garden, where the famous Winter Sonata lover statue is located. In the middle of the path, we saw an international welcome greetings from Naminara Republic.

A few steps from the welcome sign, we saw UNICEF Hall which seems to be a kid-friendly hall because it provides a lot of activities for children to play. Timed performances are also available at UNICEF Hall but since we did not really have time to watch performance, we did not check it at all. You can ride UNICEF train (did not see any when we were there though) which boards from Seonchakjang/ Jungang Station for a fee of 3,000 KRW. 

Otherwise, if you are into cycling, you also have the option of renting bicycles at Nami Island. One-person, tandem, electric and sky bike are the type of bicycles you can rent here at Nami Island. The fees for the bikes are listed at the end of this post. While riding bicycles is nice, it will be hard for you to take picture with the cute snowmen here at Nami Island when you ride a bike. The snowmen are dressed in the national costume of each country. Aren't they a cutie?

The snowman from China says "Da Jia Hao". Do you think the snowman become alive on winter and start hopping around like Chinese ghosts? Hahaha. 

The lady snowman looks so cute too in her traditional costume which is in the color of watermelon. Wait, I should find out the snowman from Korea since I am at Nami Island right? 

Once you have reached Gongsaengwon Garden, you will see a lot of filming spot and the props which were used in the filming of Winter Sonata. The series was really a big hit amongst women back in 2012 and I believe my Mom was also a fan of Bae Yong-joon back then. I did not really watch the story though because back then it seems that the theme revolving around Korean dramas is sadness. Ultimate sadness. Omo. 

There is a queue spotted for the man and woman statue. Mom offered to take picture of me and my Bro doing that pose but that would be so wrong. I mean, both of us totally are not in the mood to follow Jaime and Cersei Lannister's path in our real life. So yeah, let's give it a miss shall we? 

Okay, apparently there was a famous scene in Winter Sonata where Bae Yong Joon rides a bike together with Choi Ji Won among the autumn fallen leaves. The bike is now on display forever at Nami Island. 

The next statue may not be related to Winter Sonata at all because it is a statue of mother and baby. Hmm no idea what it depicts though, motherhood?

While we were walking back to the entrance of Nami Island, I saw ice cream stall. Hmm, soft served ice cream for the price of 2,000 KRW. Since ice cream is my weakness spot, I was...uhm...easily lured to join the queue to buy the ice cream. It tastes pretty good but it melts rather fast under the hot summer of Nami Island. I nearly stained my own t-shirt. Oops. 

Once I was done with the uhh, messy situation, we continued our walk to the Maple Lane of True Love. Omo omo, we noted that  some of the maple trees have changed color to red. And the best part is, there is not many people around this area (since it's so damn hot). Major photo taking opportunity spotted. 

Mom seriously has a thing for taking candid picture of my brother and I but this one turns out pretty good. Like two kids doing some exploration. Ahh kinda miss the good times when all we had to do was studying and playing. #nostalgic #noteventhursday

Nami Island's bike rental fees:

One-person bike: 4,000 KRW (30 mins)/ 7,000 KRW (1 hour)

Tandem: 8,000 KRW (30 mins)/ 14,000 KRW (1 hour)

Electric bikes: 10,000 KRW (30 mins)/ 18,000 KRW (1 hour)

Sky bike: 8,000 KRW (elementary students and younger)/ 3,000 KRW (middle schoolers and older)

Boarding site: Bike center

7D Korea Golden Rama Tour: Nami Island Part 1

After filling ourselves with dakgalbi goodness, it's time for us to do a bit of walking. The location of the ferry terminal which will take us to Nami Island is located within walking distance from the dakgalbi restaurant. Within 5 minutes, we have reached the ticketing counter for ferry ticket to Nami Island. One thing did catch up my attention though, why is Nami Island also named as Naminara Republic? Hmm, I wonder if it's for fun/ tourism purpose.

But there is immigration and the word "VISA" is also there on the notice board. Is Nami Island really a stand-alone-country and since Indonesia passport holders need visa to a lot of places in the world, do we really need visa to enter the republic? O_O!

Visa fees for visitors which includes round-trip ferry fare & tax. Turns out this is for real. The Naminara Republic declared its cultural independed from the Republic of Korea and hence, has its own diplomatic and cultural policies. Okay if this is the case, who are then the citizens of Naminara Republic?

Mr Minn Byeong-do, the founder of Nami Island, and the person who had planted and cultivated the island is regarded as the citizens of Naminara Republic, the Naminarian. I don't know why but the whole arrangement makes me thinking of an adventure in One Piece manga series. Anyway, we were directed at the waiting area for the ferry after Jenny has purchased the tickets for all the tour participants. 

This is how the ferry looks like. It has the flags of most of the tourist countries. The ferry trip to Nami Island only takes around 10 minutes but it can get a bit windy so if you don't like to be slapped by the wind, it's best to stay inside. 

However, if you are the type of traveller who like to enjoy the surrounding, you should definitely stand at the outside area of the ferry. 

Since we came in the summer, there is no cold wind slapping our face while we were making our way to the island. There is a zip line which looks like electrical cable but turns out it's a cable for Namiseom Zip Wire where riders start from 80-metre high tower and zoom down along the wire cable to Jareseom (640 metres away) and Namiseom (940 metres away). It really looks like a fun attraction to ride but admission fee of 38,000 KRW is applicable. Weight restriction of 35 - 120 kg is also applicable for the ride. 

Welcome to Nami Island. Oh right, a brief history lesson. Nami Island was formed as a result of the construction of Cheongpyeong Dam. It is basically a half moon-shaped isle and there is the grave of General Nami on this island. He led a great victory against the rebels in the 13th year of the 7th kind of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejo.  

While the above historical background of Nami Island may not be known worldwide, Nami Island is definitely known outside Korea as the shooting location of the famous drama, Winter Sonata. The snowmen are here to welcome us. Hahaha. 

Nami Island seems to be a perfect location to have picnic as there are many tables and seats available for public. If you are travelling with the elderly or young kids, they can also easily sit down to take a break when they visit Nami Island. A lot of drink and food stall are scattered on Nami Island as well. 

The walking path whereby there is a row of trees on your right and left side is the most famous spot on Nami Island. It is called Metasequoia Lane after the name of the tree. This has become a global symbol of Nami Island after being filmed for Winter Sonata. I believe it looks so beautiful even in winter when there are no leaves left on the trees. It is, however, very difficult to take picture here without other human being photobombing your picture. Oh gosh. 

Since this island is associate a lot with Winter Sonata, there are so many spots from the TV series that we can check out here. Let's do that in the next post, shall we? Anyeong!

7D Korea Golden Rama Tour: Sinheungsa Temple, Seoraksan

Anyeong! We are back in our exploration of Seoraksan National Park. 10 minutes away from the entrance to Sogongwon (which is a section of the park), you will see Sinheungsa Temple. The temple is famous because of its close proximity to Sogongwon. No wonder, a guide map of Singheungsa Temple is provided at the entrance of Sogongwon.

The temple is located further in, after a row of cafe and restaurant which is situated next to this amazing mountain view of Seoraksan. Sometimes I kinda wish there is a mountain in Singapore where we can walk every morning to. Not that I will have the time to do that once I am back to my 9 - dunno when desk job. 

At Seoraksan, you can also see the famous tree in South Korea, pinus densifora. Pinus densifora is a red pine which is highly valued for its medicinal benefit in the modern day. If you join any tour in South Korea, most likely the tour will bring you to visit red pine store (endorsed by government) in Seoul to introduce and sell their medicinal products. 

In Korean dynasty, the red pine is used for timber and resin products and hence, the kingdom usually ban people from logging them. Ancient Korean people regard the tree representing Korean spirit. I suppose the tree has been regarded as previous commodity since long time ago. 

Just beyond this small gate, you will be able to see a great bronze statue called Bronze Jwabul Statue, which is well over 10 meters high. 

Turns out we are not going to go all the way to the temple because of the time limit. But we are allowed some time to check out the Bronze Jwabul Statue. Our fellow tour participants who are Buddhist can also pray here for a moment. 

While waiting for the rest to take picture and pray to Buddha, I was kinda curious of the temple store and began to check out what do they sell. They seem to sell rice which I wonder how is the rice is used in the praying ritual or ceremony hmm. 

Closer view of Bronze Jwabul Statue. After everyone is done, we walked back to the entrance and boarded our bus to continue our journey to the next destination at Gangwondo province, Nami Island. 

However, since we reached Gangwondo area about noon, it's time to fill in our tummy again with Dak-Galbi (Korean spicy chicken stir fry). Woohoo. I was seriously so excited to see the chicken because I quite like dak-galbi. Side dishes are available as usual. 

It's time to grill the dak-galbi and the ddeokbokki (rice cake). The spicy chicken has been cooked and marinated beforehand so it did not take long to grill/ re-heat them again. Taste so freaking good. Yumz! 

 Sinheungsa Temple's admission fees:

Adults: Individuals 3,500 KRW/ Group 3,200 KRW

Teenagers: Individuals 1,000 KRW

Children: 500 KRW

Adults: ages 20 - 65

Teenagers: ages 14 - 19

Children: ages 8 - 13