Kamsamida 6-16Oct'13- part 2

After jetting back to seoul, we heading to Everland

Absolutely drives me crazily in love, these beautiful bunches of tiny petals

Spot the big fat pumpkin that looks so evil. ROARS

With the 2 guys in my family <3

I really like how innovative and considerate Koreans are. Spot this adorable tiny pulley for visitors to hold their baggages as they immerse in the wonderland

Hanging bats with bulging eyeballs *eeks*

For once, I feel tiny! :D

Here's my fashionista bro. I am proud to say that he is one of the most fashionable (and vain *hehe) guys that I ever know (:

The food fair which we were given free food coupons by the tour guide to dine in. But the food wasn't any worth raving about in this space.

My super duper extremely excited dad who found himself a seat of this Safari bus which brings us around to view the roaming animals outside. Finally we got a place in the bus, which took us about 1.5 hours to queue. Don't be deceived by the seemingly short queue that peeks outside this Safari ride counter as you will only be welcomed with more portions of queueing when you enter the "house"

The whole bus went gaga when the bear made his farewell debut of waving to us and pulling his feet at the exit

Shots of random kids that are too cute to resist in the park. Why are they just soooo cute!

Capturing some bubbly effect shots for my guys, and a pity by the time its my time to be bubbled, people began spilling in from everywhere ):

Super cute kiddo! Who kept stealing glances at  me *blushes*

Spot the real one and the stuffed toy

And that's all for the everland animal shots

Finally some cosmetic shots, which means my favourite activity, shopping, yes!

We spent the night at Lotte world hotel which gives us ample time to shop at the duty free shop just smacked next to the hotel.

And so I replenished, and stocked up my cosmetics and skin care supplies. After hearing all the raves from Peiling's blog (owner of Agneselle) on top of not knowing what to get, I just got most of her recommendations.

I heaped on lots of Hera products from Lotte departmental store, thankfully, as I didn't spot this brand anywhere else, not even at the cosmetics street heaven;Myeongdong during my extended stay in Korean (on top of the tour in the following days)

For the final night of the tour, we were refunded money (10k won ~ 12SGD) to settle our dinner. And oh boy, was it good news to us! We engaged the help from the hotel's concierge to write the address in korean for us to facilitate travelling to our destination. And off we go to Apujeong! We just wandered aimlessly around the area and spotting a sign leading down the the basement for a Korean restaurant. And off we went. And I'm certainly glad we did(:

Starting off with some raspberry wine as my dad and brother can't take much alcohol

And this is where the real korean food feasting starts! You have no idea how much this means to us as the food provided by the tour was seriously not worth eating for 90% of the time and we had to head to the convenient stores to find alternatives. 

Oh boy, were we stuffed, of food that is! (: This is the first time our tummies felt so satisfied after stepping into Korea. The other 2 girls were from the tour, and after which they joined us for part of our extension in Korea.

And like all hell let loose, the feasting never stopped. After dinner, we walked further down and stepped foot into O Sulloc cafe, the first of many cafes that captured our hearts. And yes, there was a huge range of green tea selection.

Especially delectible was this green tea cheese cake. 

Finishing this post with the Cranberry scone from a cosy little bakery, Rolling Pin which we spotted some streets down. 

I'm not a fan of pastry, and I'm really picky to be honest, but this is really GOOD stuff! Managed to grab this last piece of scone at the display counter and I so totally regret not getting the other pastries ): This is seriously fabulous flour and which made the much raved after Paris Baguette pastries pale in comparison to this. 

This is the only few times I actually crave for.. flour

Disclaimer: this is for the following day's breakfast. I can't eat that much for the night :p

Coming back soon with Part 3!

Read Korea part one here

Kamsamida 6-16Oct'13- part 1

KAMSAMIDA!

Oh my, it has been ages since I've last blogged! Everyday has been a race against time to create, source and upload new jewels and apparels in store. Thank you so much for your support thus far! TDJ will continue to bring in more fab finds (:

A little break from preparing from the launch, is this partial update on my not-so-recent (6-16Oct'13) trip to Korea!

Finally a chance to spend my birthday overseas, in kimchi land(: Oh boy was I excited!

A quick note to remember, if you are taking Asiana Airlines, do go for the beef bimbimbap! I've head reviews of how good it was but haven't got to try it as we took the non-beef option, which turned out to be absolutely mediocre seafood pasta which i barely touched.

Was sneaking glances at the neighbour's beef bimbimbap. I should have just ate it without the beef.

Do forgive me for my high food quality control (; *winks*

Every year, I made it a promise to bring my dad overseas (together with my brother) for a family trip, and this year, we finally made a booking to kimchi land via ASA(:

Our flight was near midnight and we reached Seoul at about 6am in the morning, grabbed some breakfast at the porridge joint at the airport, which honestly is too bland for my liking.

Our first stop was slightly deviated from the original itinery, and we found ourselves at one of the palaces for some history classes. Let the pictures do the talking

Witnessing the guard-changing ceremony. Be prepared to reach early to guard a good spot as there will be many others vying for it (;

Doesn't this remind you of spot-the-wally book during those kindergarden days?

Loving those oriental architectural in the palace. Can't imagine how it would be leaving behind these pretty walls!

I'm finding it very amused with the random little provision store smacked right outside the palace.It's like alternating between modernity and history. Lusting for my first milk tea after setting foot into korea, my eyes twinkled when I saw the option in the vending maching.

But sadly, the drink as hoooooott ):

I never knew that vending machines can dispense hot, i mean really hot, canned drinks

After the short trip to the palace, we headed back to the airport to catch the internal flight to Jeju, which next up was the making of the kimchi. Look how intense my dad is <3

My family men and I

My master piece, for a good cause. According to the kimchi lady, all those "sample" pieces done by the tourists are subsequently packaged and donated to the charity (:

We ended up buying quite abit of kimchi- cabbage, white radish and squid. Prices were pretty steep, about SGD 90 for 6 boxes. And the quanity for the squid and white radish were not v generous. But as these variety were not common in Singapore, it's worth a try. And the taste is rather yummy. But as they are meant to be consumed with rice, they are actually really strongly flavoured, especially the squid.They would make good condiments with home-made kimchi fried rice (:

My horridful bf burst out laughing after looking at the photos of us donned in Korean's traditional Hanbok 

It was pretty dreary and wet in Jeju during our days there and to be honest, it wasn't very pleasant. Thankfully we were able to seek refuge in the Teddy bear museum.

Finally fun-sized for once (:

Your jump, I jump

Snow-bear

Super-bear hero

Tar-bear and Ja-bear

Disney bear

Up the hills the next day (:

Finally had the chance to wear the brown cow-girl inspired fur vest after hoarding it for more than 6 months, sooooo, spam the camera (:

And now, it's time to enter the submarine

bloop bloop

TBH, it wasn't as glamorous as I thought. From which the misconception stemmed from the glorious, cushion laden chairs in a big spacious submarine scenes in the Navy advertisement. The yellow submarine at Jeju was small, and squeezy, with blurred windows of which barely nothing can be seen.

Hoards of fishes will swim pass your little window when the diver circles one round with the fish food, drawing them to the bait, not the way as I expected it to be.

It was a really short ride and we headed to the "Tangerine garden" after that. Which only turns out to be a place that sells tangerine chocolates as it wasn't the tangerine season according to the tour guide

Complimentary orange & cactus chocolates, with the famous Jeju momentum imprinted on.

This, has to be my highlight of Jeju trip- Nanta. No photo takings were allowed, but this, has got to be one of the best shows I've seen.

Trust me. The show kick-started abit too slow, which was quite boring which made me perplexed as to why this Nanta performance was world class standard and so raved after. But about 30mins into the show, you will understand why (:

Coming back soon with Seoul (: