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Our last stop before the airport takes us to the duty-free shop.  It’s located somewhere in the highway in Incheon leading to the airport.  Irene explains how much time we have to buy the stuff we want.  There are lots of other tourist buses also parked, with its passengers also going to the duty-free shop.  Wilson’s kimchi order from the kimchi factory is also there for pickup.  The entrance to the shop itself is on the second floor, so everybody goes up.  The door to the shop is closed, but once it opened, it feels a bit comical.  People suddenly make their way grabbing all the stuffs they are going to buy.  The floor we are in sells foodstufs.  Korean crackers, ginseng rice crispy bars, kim(dried seaweed) packets… on the ground floor are the more primo items, souvenirs, hanboks.  We bought the ginseng rice crispy bars, caramelized sesami chips, elongated rice cracker wrapped in kim, a souvenir of a Silla-era royalty mini-SD(super-deformed) statuettes.  We have them packed in a box and we are now off to the airport.

Our way to the airport is on an afternoon, just in time for the low-tides.  You can see the wide expanse of exposed marsh.  I wondered what it was like for the US troops to land in Incheon during the Korean War.  There’s a feeling of mellon collie as we are nearing the airport.  The end of our Korean journey is nearing to an end.

We reach the departure terminal.  Irene and Imelda get the boarding pass for us.  I must say the departure terminal’s lighting and ambience is a bit darker than the arrival.  In contrast, our arrival has brighter lights and impressive amenities.  You could say it (departure) has less frills because you are leaving the country.  We make a final photo of everybody together for a last shot.

We make our way to immigration.  This is where we thank and say goodbye to our gracious and beautiful guide.  She will be going back to Seoul via subway from Incheon, back to her husband and son.

So, we will wait for about a couple hours for our returning flight.  After that is a quick transfer from NAIA to domestic airport to catch our Cebu Pacific flight which is going to be a long wait.  Farewell Korea.  Very beautiful country.  It’s not perfect but it has a lot of interesting places, interesting history, delicious food.  I hope to return there again one day.  Hopefully, there are trips where you can go to the southern provinces (Jeolla for one).  Many places yet to be visited: Busan, Seoraksan, DMZ, Jeju…  Perhaps someday…

Since this being our last day in Korea, lunch is something special.  There
are at least 6 Tony Roma’s in Seoul.  We take the one that is in Myeongdong.
This is one of 3 restaurants (one of the others is an Italian resto) located
in the area that are located in a building’s basement.  As usual, Irene
called for reservations well ahead in advance.  It’s about 1pm, there’s
not much people in the restaurant.  Looks like Koreans really just order
lunch, eat fast, scoot fast.  Everyone is served the same dish: ribs, barbecued
chicken, rice and a coleslaw sidedish.  The coleslaw was delicious.  It’s
mixed with parsley making it flavorful.

With that done, we detour to Dongdaemun before going to the airport.  Dongdaemun
is well known for bargain clothes.  It is also close to Cheonggyecheon stream
and Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium.  Everybody disembarks in front of Doota
mall.  In the Philippines, closing the mall for even one day is unthinkable,
but in Korea, some department stores close for one day of the week for maintenance.
  In this case, Doota closes on Mondays.  For comparison, Dongdaemun is
comparable to Divisoria’s Tutuban’s dry goods (clothes) without the wet
market, with many small shops surrounding the big department stores .  We
tag along with Irene, Ryneth, Wilson’s family, but they are in a cosmetic
shop and grew tired staying around and decide to explore on our own.  The
small shops are all side-by-side with different kinds of businesses.  Restaurants,
carpets, hardware, textiles…  They remind us so much of Ongpin.  Not
all department stores are the same.  One department store (whose name escapes
us) is nothing but several floors of bargain clothes.  There are also street
foods just like in Myeongdong, but not as varied.  We decide to finally
try, but since we still feel full, I try the chicken skewer and James tries
the crab stick.  The chicken skewer’s not so bad, very mild spice.

Soon it is 3 pm.  And everybody gathers at the drop point.  We ride the
tourbus again and are now headed to Incheon…

One of the things that leaves a particular mark in James’s tour in China
is the tourguide brings them to some factory, and into a room where the
owners hope you will buy their wares.  Now, this I suppose is to be expected,
but the guide almost always bring them to some factory or shop at every
opportunity to the annoyance of the tour group.  This really makes me think
twice about visiting dear old 中國 in such an arrangement.  What’s good
in Korea is that the guides don’t lead you everyday to some factory you
may not care too much.  Most likely, the government regulate and make sure
the tourists are immersed more in the culture and adventure than the commercial
side of Korea.

After our last cultural immersion, we go to something commercial but uniquely
Korean.  We go to a Korean ginseng shop.  Other tour groups are also led
to this shop, so we had to wait a few minutes.  Meanwhile, Irene manages
to get ginseng tea samples.  They are in small cups.  Everyone drinks the
samples.  It’s so sweet and tasty, we craved for second servings… :P 
It is sweet because the tea is mixed with honey, otherwise the tea actually
tastes bitter.  Korean ginseng apparently is highly regarded.  It has more
nutrient (saponin?) than Chinese, American or Japanese ginseng.  The Korean
government even regulates its exportation (raw products not allowed).

Everybody goes up the lone elevator in the building in batches.  Irene is
also studying Chinese, so she practices when possible.  Since we’re also
Chinese descent, we can converse a little.  Describing the tea, we corrected
her it’s 好喝 not 好吃.  Don’t worry, Irene, you’ll perfect it.

We enter the lobby and to the left there is this guy standing behind a counter
full of ginseng related products.  To the right, is a wall of preserved
ginsengs from one year old up to the most mature seven year old.  We are
introduced to this guy who is a salesman. Talking in perfect English, the
guy describes the health and benefits of Korean ginseng.  He then introduces
us to the different ginseng products they have: concentrated, powdered,
pills, skin application..  For the ginseng to be effective, you have to
take it everyday for a long period.  At least the guy was being frank about
the efficacy of ginseng.  This in contrast to this one product introduction
in a 隴西 meeting, where the guy claims the efficacy of mangosteen to be
so effective that a miniscule contact with a mangosteen product would give
an immediate effect and make you strong. 

Anyway, buying these ginseng extracted products is not cheap.  Some packages
are as high as $ 1000.  Dollars and Won accepted.  Not everyone of us can
afford it.  One of the families in our group are in another room buying
loads of ginseng products.  The others bought one type and that’s it.  There
is a poster displayed advertising the efficacy of ginseng. 

After the Ginseng Center, we make our way to another part of the city, an
amethyst factory.  It’s actually a building not so large.  Apparently, Korea
is rich with amethyst or so the company’s president claims.  And that the
amethyst has a positive energy aura properties.  You can sample the positive
energy by stucking your head into a hollowed amethyst rock.  Like any stones,
there are different qualities in amethyst. 

The president declares that for the special offer, we are given up to 50%
discount on their products.  Hmmm…   They have lots of amethyst jewelry.
Their salespeople are pretty persistent, but I declined from buying.  The
others bought what they liked.  Buying a jewelry comes with a certificate
proving they are really amethysts.

With the business done, we go to lunch… at Tony Roma’s.

Gyeongbuk Palace is very close to the museum.  It’s very big, and consists of several buildings and structures.  It’s a fairly quick tour.  If you can peek into the windows, almost all the rooms are empty.  Standout structures are the throne, pond, dining hall, and main entrance.  The dining hall is elevated and in front of the pond.  The throne is big, and mostly used for ceremony.  In front of the throne is the quadrangle.  There are small stone posts where military officers/soldiers, civil servants are divided based on rank.  There are lots of tourists wandering around.  Many are from China.  Our guide points out the architectural intricacies that is not apparent for those who are not in to architecture.  The roof’s edges for example has circles of the zodiac.  Outside the palace, there’s a parade of men in palace costumes marching.  Basically, the changing of the guards.  There are even guards by the palace entrance.  You can clearly see their fake beards.  Hhehehehe…  In front of the entrance is another structure of that is being renovated.  Not sure what it is, even Irene somehow couldn’t explain.

Well, it was a quick tour.  Basically you walk around, have shots, and go.  Maybe the city government could do something more.  With that over, we transition to what tour guides also do as part of their job.

Morning comes, and breakfast is at the hotel’s ground floor.  This would be the last meal we have involving kimchi.  The food in this hotel is okay, I’d rate it second after Daemyung Resort in Gyeongju.  I liked the kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap), which is the standout from my meal.  Beware, it is spicy.  James tries the coffee any chance he gets during breakfast in all our stays.  Oh, and we got our order of kim (or nori aka dried seaweed).  This kim is reputedly homemade and nowhere as oily as some of the sacheted stuff we had.  It cost quite an amount, but we will enjoy it after we go back home.
Our tourmate, Ryneth mentions about Dongdaemun and describes about it since she went there with her bf last night.  She’s not satisfied with some of the itinerary I think.  Anyway, slight grumblings, although overall, James and I liked our experience.  Some of us have a chance to review the city map provided by the hotel.  Andrew Ong, asks if the itinerary can be changed or detoured so that after the Gyeongbuk Palace, we go to an oceanarium.  Irene explains it’s not possible because the oceanarium is located somewhat far and is south of the Han River (漢江)﹐ taking a detour would not give us much time to get to the airport.  So, everybody sticks to the original itinerary designed by Imelda and Irene.
Myeongdong by day, certainly looks and feels different from nighttime.  Aside from the obvious, the ambience is different.  Our first itinerary of the day, the rotunda of Seoul City Hall plaza.  There is one perfect photo point allowed.  The plaza is conveniently located where you can view all three mountains that surround Seoul.  Just a few meters from where were having our photos taken, there’s an old guy with carrying signs and banners protesting something.  We were wondering what he was protesting about.  Irene explains something about he wants down with the government or something.  Anyway, James takes a photo of the guy and we are on our way.

 
Next itinerary, the National Folk Museum.  while our guide buys tickets for everyone to go inside, there’s a circle of Chinese Zodiac as guardians guarding a tri-partitioned Taegukgi circle.  Another excellent photopoint.
Anyway, everybody goes inside the museum.  Since time is rather of the essence, I think Irene figured how long it will take to look around inside the museum in an hour or two of touring.  The museum is divided into 3 aspects.  The first is about ancient Korean life.  From the time when Koreans lived in strawhuts to when they have kings.  There’s lots of interesting and intricately detailed dioramas.  Included in the dioramas is how Koreans prepared their kimchi. 

There’s also displays how the royalties of the three kingdoms are dressed.  There’s even a display of the different kimchis available.  It’s more than just the spiced pickled cabbage everyone is familiar with. 

Another section is the life and death cycle of Koreans.  Korean babies who reach one year of age, are given various stuff  which are supposed to give you an idea of what they will be.  Some of the stuffs I saw include money, scissors, and thread.  Nowadays, the computer mouse is also included.  Maybe pro-gamer?
Also, becoming 60 is a milestone in the old days.  Remember, life expectancy used to be short due to disease and wars.  Also 60 represents completion of living through all the various permutations of the Chinese Zodiac.  So, if one becomes 60, theres a very big festivity going on.  Lots of food stacked.  Some of them are fruits stacked in a way that you have to wonder how they could do it.  Some displays have alarms that go off if you plan to touch them.  We kept tripping them to the annoyance of a couple nearby local tourists.  Sorry!
There’s lots of text on every scene or specimen but there’s no way you can read all of them.  We finish all three rooms, and just outside the room is a souvenir shop.  It’s got souvenirs and even books.  The Korean books I saw are designed to be read left to right, top to bottom like English, though I imagine you can also do the Chinese way of top to bottom, right to left.  There’s another exhibit not part of the itinerary.  While everyone is still in the souvenir shop or taking a leak, Ryneth and I go sneak to the special exhibit.  I can’t recall what it was about, but it was worth it.  It’s too bad  that we only had one camera brought along and James was holding it.
Time’s up, and it’s time to move to the next, Gyeongbuk Palace…

At the appointed time, we come out at 6pm at the hotel lobby.  Ryneth, Wilson’s family, Ong family and Imelda, our Philippine liaison to Korea, come down the lobby to explore a piece of Seoul on our own.  First, since the day being Easter Sunday, we go to Myeongdong Cathedral which is just across the street.  It is a one way street.  There’s a guy on chair singing with a donate box in hand.  Apparently, begging is not allowed, so the guy must entertain to get "paid."  We proceed to the cathedral.  It is under renovation with a very very big tarp with the image of the church on it.  The entrance is at the side.  We enter, and find it is a tad crowded.  As expected, most of the men wore suits, and the women are in black jacket and skirt, white shirt, and with white transparent veil.  James and I would be willing to stay around to see how the mass goes, but because the mass is spoken in Korean, everybody in the group decided to go out.

So, we start exploring around Myeongdong.  Myeongdong is the most expensive high-class place in Seoul.  Think Glorietta, Greenbelt, SM MoA, Megamall and you get the idea.  But instead of malls, you have streets, alleys, open air shops, street vendors.  It’s a mix of department stores; first class shops for clothes and electronics; "bargain" stores;  street vendors selling cheap (cheap is relative) stuffs, pirated movies (very expensive pirated stuff I must say, a movie costs like 5,000 Won); classier restaurants; fastfood; streetfood stalls; tentbars (pajongmacha 파종마차).

Lots of people walking around, especially couples doing lovey-dovey.  Their affection is more outwardly expressive here compared to people in ‘Pinas.  We enter one of the shops selling clothes.  Business seems brisk as customers rummage around wrinkled clothes.  I guess they are bargains.  Some in our group both stuffs.  We held off buying anything.  And proving that even ripping off names in Korea is not sacred, we saw a clothes shop with a name that rhymes with Tommy Hilfiger.  Even the logo pretty much matches.  It’s located in the back alleys.

Food is varied in Myeongdong.  Besides, traditional Korean foods, there’s more Western fare and fastfood like Burger King and Krispy Kreme.  These restos are packed!  There’s supposed to be a McDonald’s in Korea, but we never spotted one during our stay.  Even the streetfoods are nothing to sneeze at.  Unlike street foods in ‘Pinas where the servings are small, more like light snacks of indulgence,  street food in Korea run from that and to the more filling.  Let’s see… street foods we spotted: roasted chestnuts, crabsticks, crabs, plain sausage, sausage with potato sticks in batter, sausage wrapped in kim (dried seaweed wrapper), various sausage permutation, roasted squid, tteokbukgi (elongated rice cakes in gochujang with what ever else you wish to mix), chicken skewers (they looked more like the pork barbecue skewers in ‘Pinas).  Those are just on the top of my head.  The back alleys have the more established food stalls on one side, and tent bars on the other.  Tent bars or pajongmacha are basically tented restos.  The tents are transparent, and people dining inside can be kept relatively warm.  People will eat anywhere they choose, even in pajongmachas.

Walking further we see SOGO (?) department store across the street.  It is crossable by taking an underpass.  The underpass also has different small businesses inside.  Department stores of course have the more pricey stuff.  but most of those stuffs are clothes and watches.  Since we’re not really interested with the stuffs the others are looking, James and I ventured a bit on our own.  The jeans must cost P 3,800 when converted to local currency.  Ouch.  The interesting stuf I saw are shirts of Tetsuwan Atom aka Astroboy.  Now that I think of it, I think I shoulda bought at least one of the shirts.  We held off buying anyway.  Wilson bought a leather-type jacket which is on a special sale.  Thankfully, the saleslady they were talking to can speak some passable English.

We proceed back all the way to Seoul Royal Hotel.  We looked at Krispy Kreme again.  Everybody thought, hey, we haven’t tasted that, let’s buy a dozen and have 1 donut each.  Krispy Kreme is two-storeys high.  A fairly long queue we  stood in line, too.  While waiting we looked at what’s on offer.  We even calculated the best buy and even concluded the special offer is cheaper than the price sold in ‘Pinas.  The only Krispy Kreme donut worth a dam is the original glazed donut, and that’s what we ate.  Andrew, the head of the Ong family, bought a pack of sliced roast dried squid.  I normally hate dried or canned seafood.  Heck, I find tuyo, so god-awfully pukingly bad.  But the squid was surprisingly good.  The same goes for that small dried fish I sampled somewhere, I can’t recall (I think it was Incheon).

After the night snack, we detoured to 7-Eleven which is also across the hotel and bought our necessities.  We return to the hotel, just in time to find Irene also back from wherever she went, which is actually from the Cathedral.  She had a nap after everyone checked in and attended the last mass.  Ryneth’s bf who happens to be on a different tour group, decides to go out again.  As for everyone else, we retired back to our room and prepare for our final day in Korea.

We reach Seoul in about an hour.  Along the way, the bus was playing the movie Married to the Mafia.  Our guide is concerned for the 2 kids in our group who might find the movie too much. Anyway, this would be our final night in Korea.  There are tall buildings but on average, you will find more scrapers in Makati.  Along the way, we pass by Gyeongbokgung palace (hard to see due to walls), the statue of famed Admiral Yee Sun Shin, and his Turtleship.  Traffic seems like medium, which is good since that means we’re moving no matter what.  Our bus was stopped by a gyeongchalgwan (policeman), he asked our guide what is our business here but did not inspect further.  We also go around Seoul’s city hall.

Our dinner is early.  I think we stopped at the restaurant at around 5pm.  Would have preferred to eat later, but, hey it might as well be merienda dinner.  Our dinner is Samgyetang 蔘鷄湯 otherwise known as Ginseng Chicken Soup.  Our restaurant is beside a bank.  We stepped out and note how there are many ATMs operating in one branch alone.  The air is very cool and fairly clean.  True to space being of at a premium in Korea, the entrance and stairway is rather narrow.  The restaurant is at the 3rd floor.  The 2nd floor has nothing but a very small men’s toilet.  It’s got 2 doors.  There’s barely enough space to pee and wash hands.  Heck, I think this is the restaurant we went to in this Youtube video:

Samgyetang restaurant

There are restaurants and bakeries that offer foreign recipes.  One is just across the corner of the Samgyetang restaurant.  I can’t recall the name but it is familiar.  Anyway, we go up and enter the restaurant.  Some of these kinds of restaurants only serve nothing but one recipe.  As we sat, our soup is already ready to serve.  Though it’s spring, they serve it all year round.

The restaurant is much cleaner than the others such like it we’ve been through.  Ambience is excellent. You will notice big jars of preserved ginseng several years old.  The soup is boiling.  There is salt to flavor.  We also have ginseng wine.  I drink it.  It’s not sweet, but it’s still good.  Ryneth and Ruby, our felow travellers, pass on the wine, so I dunk it on the soup.  It’s a tough exercise from completely using your hands and just using the chopstick and spoon.  Some Koreans even mix their kimchi, making for a reddish concoction.  The chickens are young and you eat the whole thing.  It’s stuffed with glutinous rice, chestnuts, dates (jujube), and 1 year old ginseng.  I long imagined ginseng to taste kind of like ginger, but it’s actually on the bitter side.  The one-year old ginsengs stuffed are edible and soft.  Bitter, but not too much.

After dinner, we board the bus and head to Myeongdong district where we stay at the Seoul Royal Hotel.  Our friend Ryneth mentioned how she so much wanted to see some performance happening that day, or even watch Nanta or "Jump!".  There are catalogues, maps, information about the city, info on those two plays.  Reading about them, I wish we found a way to book and watch in advance.  Alas, perhaps next time.  If there is a next time.  Our guide, Irene, gives us the keycards to our room.  We and our companions agreed to come out at 6pm to walk around Myeongdong.  The rooms are a bit small.  A bit smaller than Best Western we stayed on our first night.  But we got a TV with access to the US Armed Forces Network, and a pretty hi-tech toilet seat with bidet.  Awesome!

We reach Yangju, general area of the DaeJangGeum (大長今) theme park.  Actualy the theme park used to be the set of the DaeJangGeum TV show.  Back in ‘Pinas, it’s more commonly known and titled "Jewel in the Palace".  Admittedly, prior to coming over to Korea, we had no idea what the show was about (except for those who watched the show), since we have not seen one episode… Well, actually I saw a special titled Cooking in the Palace, which is a one-shot spinoff showcasing the cooking of Royal Korean Cuisine.  Thanks to our guide, we understood the gist and premise.  For those still not familiar, you can go to Wikipedia and read about the show.

The show is so popular the studio set became a tourist attraction.  So, we alight from the bus.  The set is about 100m from the entrance.  Along the way, there are walls of pictures from MBC Studios’ shows and personalities.  And then there’s this field where you can play some Korean traditional games, one where I saw from a GMA TV show which also featured about this park.  Past this playing field is a row of snack and souvenir shops on one side, and a wall of plaque with handprints of the principal cast and director of the show. 

Finally we reach the main entrance to the studio set.  It is amazing what the producers had to make do with so little space.  The throne would be in front, and then the prison set would be at the right door, and the kitchen on the left and so on.  It’s more than just a set, it’s a slice of what 16th century Korea was like.  There is a set where the king dines, and there is a mockup of the Korean royal cuisine.  I had to make sure I got a shot of a sample of the king’s daily menu of some 30 odd dishes.

I can identify soups of some type, 2 kinds of rice, jellyfish, sunnyside up, a chicken dish, kim, blood sausage.  The Empress Dowager of China has a larger choice of dishes.  Obviously, neither royalty can finish or even sample all the dishes.  And imagine, the chef must come up with something different everyday!

Most sets have lifesize cardboard cutouts of the characters.  We posed in some of them as if they were really beside us.  Soon, we had enough, and along the way, one of the vendors in the food stalls I mentioned talked to us, offering food, and figuring we’re from ‘Pinas, boasted of having been classmates with Carmna Villaroel.  We highly doubted it and moved on.    We pack into the bus, and make our way to our final destination, Seoul, where we have a pretty early dinner.

Lunch is at another Korean restaurant that pretty much serves only one type of dish.  Irene calls it as Korea’s version of chicken barbecue.  We arrive at about 1 pm.  Many tables are filled with diners, though Irene got us table reservations.  I wouldn’t exactly call it a barbecue.  What we saw are small cut chicken pieces, with cabbage and tteok (rice cake) on a black pan with stove underneath.  Still uncooked, the stove is turned on after we took our seat.  The tteok is different from the one we tasted in the kimchi factory.  This one is long elongated and white.  Actually, we thought it was pices of cuttlefish, particularly the tentacles, but there are no suctions throughout.  I only figured out after we got back to Pinas and viewing Arirang TV.

Anyway, after the ingredients start getting cooked, the waiters/waitresses put in the rice.  The chicken in our table are not covered in gochujang, the hot pepper sauce.  There’s a bit of frustration in our table, since it takes a while to cook the chicken and we are not sure how to mix up the ingredients as they are being cooked.  Anyways, once the food is okay to eat, we dig in.  There is the purple lettuce we also had during yesterday’s lunch, so we instantly figure out what must be done.  I think most everyone just ate from the pan to the small aluminum rice bowl.  James and I ate with gusto - grabbing a lettuce, put some pieces of banchan and sauce, the main dish… yummy…   I lost count of how many lettuce wraps we had.  There’s not enough chicken around, so our guide asked the cook to stirfry the chicken  and add to our pan.

We find out that the other half of our group seated at another table have been eating the spiced version.  They described to us that it wasn’t so hot, but the spice added to the flavor.  This made some of our half of the group commenting the blandness of the chicken.  Still, James and I thought it was delicious.  We understand Irene asked specifically to serve this chicken because she is concerned we can’t take the spiciness.

Another cool thing about this restaurant was that the softdrinks are refillable.  Everybody had the softdrinks,  except for the two of us.  With food this good, who needs Coke?  Around this time, we noticed that there are no more patrons and diners, but us.  Non-descript restaurants here are rather like the carinderias of ‘Pinas.  Anyone who wants cheap affordable eating come to eat for lunch, otherwise that’s it.  The restos we’ve been to are relatively clean though.  I know we ate a lot of wraps, but we don’t feel stuffed.  That’s good.

Now that everybody’s been well-fed, it’s time to go to Dae Janggeum studio/park.

Besides, 24/7 Starcraft, we saw an English-language channel showcasing Korean technology that recycles cooking oil (I think it was Arirang), and one channel is showing latenight Holy Saturday mass.  We are in Korea during the Easter weekend.  You will easily notice, people tend to wear black and white.  Men in black suits.  The women in black also, and white veil.  In contrast, here in the Philippines, people usually wear something casual.

Next morning.  The breakfast foods at La Vie D’or is layed out initially a bit confusing for me.  Perhaps from our vantage point it’s layed vertically, and not presenting the foods available easily in our view.  It’s still divided in sections, a Korean section, salads and typical western fare.  Unlike the previous hotels and resorts, La Vie D’or seems to cater more to business people.  Lots of people in suits.  Tourguide Irene made sure to reserve the tables for us.  Before 7:30 am, the lines easily start to become long.  Food rating, decent if not great but better than Best Western.

Outside the hotel is particularly cold.  Irene is a bit woried as the weather forecast says it could rain.  We all hoped it won’t (it didn’t).  Irene always make sure we are entertained even in the tourbus.  The bus has a videoke player.  She asks if anyone would like to sing.  Wilson, one of the senior members of our group suggest she sing first.  As icebreaker, she does and sings the theme song to the movie My Sassy Girl, "I Believe."  Then we all take turns including James and I.  From Elvis Presley to  Five for Fighiting to even classic Chinese songs.  This goes for two hours.  As ending song, since that day was Easter Sunday, I sang one of the songs I sing at church, Memorial Acclamation.  We arrive to the pier that will take us to Nami Island.

We take a small ferry boat which is about 10-15 minutes to Nami Island.  It’s a very cold morning, but you can see some people wearing and doing activities not normally associated with  springtime.  James saw someone waterskiing.  We see female students wearing short skirts.  A few people are not wearing jackets.  The temperature at the time… bbbrrr!!!

The island is man-made.  Lots of activities to do.  The roads are lined with young sequoias.  There are artworks scattered.  One of the first things you will see once on the island is General Nami’s tomb for whom the island is named.  There is a plaque describing him in four languages.

A UNICEF hall is located near the dock.  There is this bicycle rail construct.  You must pay to pedal your way in this rail.  There is a tent selling teas and cosmetics.  We drank the free samples.  Yummy.  Nami Island is famous as one of the scenic backdrops of the Korean drama, Winter Sonata.  There is a statue of the two leads in the middle of the island.  Plenty of couples have the same idea of standing beside the statue in the same pose.  There’s lots of Winter Sonata posters and pics around the statue. Interestingly, there are ostriches mostly sitting around.  They are not caged, though Irene carefully warns not to get too close.  Since Nami is a small half-moon shaped island, it doesn’t take long to go from one end to the other.  There’s so many things to describe in Nami.  It is more of a cultural park.  There’s UNICEF, the usual souvenir shops, dollar exchange, rides, restaurants that include a Halal committee!

We are on the island till about 12pm, so we have to go to lunch.  By this time the temperature is warmer.  Back on the wharf or dock, there are also souvenir and trinket shops nearby.  Even CDs of Winter Sonata.  We ride  the bus.  Irene it turns out bought some postcards featuring Winter Sonata.  She gives this as gift to everyone.  We then proceed to lunch where we will be having what our guide describes as Korean chicken barbecue.  She didn’t give the Korean name for this, but I think I could just about name this dish.  But that will be a story for my next log.