Korea Afterthoughts

Yes, we are back in hot, hot Singapore. Hot – that was my 1st thought the moment we got out of the airport and into the cab. We even asked the taxi uncle to turn up the aircon. Freaking hot. 

The Korea trip had been fantastic. The duration was just nice – it was long enough for us to fully enjoy the trip and yet starting to miss home. Lil Isaac said that he missed home and his best pal, skinny nono. We didn't feel the need to stay any longer, except for Lil Shauna, who wished that she could stay in Korea forever, so that she didn't have to go back to school. Lol. The choice to go free and easy and engaging Kay for 3 days was right. We didn't have to go to touristy and merchandise places that we didn't want to. We had the freedom to drop and add on places as and when we like and the private tour allowed us to pack (seriously packed) in places that we would otherwise not go to on our own. Eventually, we spent about the same as what we would if we had gone on a package tour. 

My afterthoughts.

The weather was cold, though not unbearable cold. I cannot remember if it had been colder 3 years back (maybe it was bcos it was constantly snowing then) or we were simply ill-prepared then. The heat tech appeared to work well, Daddy Lim swear by it as compared to the wooly thermal wear that we bought 3 years back and recycled. The kids didn't complain about the cold too when we switched them from the thermal wear to the heat tech in the middle of the trip. The cute beanies that I bought weren’t too well-received by the kids though. As the trip progressed, I think our bodies started to adapt to the cold and it began to feel good, then it was time to come home. Sob.

The dryness was bad. Daddy Lim and the kids were constantly ordered to line up to apply lip balm and hand lotion. Lil Shauna had so much body lotion smeared on her that she was screaming murder every morning and after shower. Daddy Lim developed red itchy spots on his legs and tummy by the 3rd day and started obediently smearing body lotion on himself. I wasn't spared the red itchy spots but got them later and on a smaller scale. My face took some of the wrath. My face was so dry that I even put on mask and sleeping mask on some nights but I don't think they did much wonder. Did I see extra wrinkles on my forehead!!?? *gasps*! The dryness not only affected us externally. Lil Isaac was given Zyrtec almost every night bcos he would for sure develop a stuffy nose by evening time. I also brought back an irritating dry cough and sore throat that stuck with me for a couple more days after we came back. I heard that my brother’s family took turn to fall very sick with flu complete with fever after the trip.

It was easy to go free and easy in Korea. The MRT system is fantastic and so easy to maneuver. We downloaded an app that was super easy to use without the need for wifi. The app shows the fastest way to get to one station to another, indicating clearly where to switch lines. There are clear directional signs in the station and there wasn't once that we had to ask for direction (or maybe we were lucky). We didn't have to take taxi at all throughout the 9 days, not even to or from the airport.

Food was easy to find though not cheap. I am reminded of the expensive bbq dinner that we had one night. Ouch! In most of the restaurants, we could find somebody who speaks Chinese and so the ordering of food was easy. The Chinese are everywhere. It was a little challenging to find non-spicy food though. Even their so-called non-spicy food tasted somewhat spicy. To get the kids to eat, we tell them that it was only slightly peppery. Haha. On the good side, I think the kids’ tolerance for spicy food has increased after the trip. Our real struggle was to not over-order and over-eat. It was so easy to succumb to the temptation of hot food in the cold weather and so comforting to be eating when feeling cold. I Googled and I think it is a myth that our bodies burn extra calories in winter unless we are shivery cold, which we weren’t. Luckily, I didn't pile on weight in Korea. The kids lost a tiny bit without all the snacking that they usually do at home. As for Daddy Lim, let’s not shamed him here. Lol. He had the noble task of sweeping the unfinished food. 

 We would definitely go back to visit Korea. The next time, we would venture further and spend a night in the ski resort. 

Mummy Lim

New Skates

Lil Shauna started in her current recreational skates after she completed Core 1. They are easily 1.5 yo. They are easy and comfortable to wear and most importantly, they are pink! We know that inevitably, she has to change into the professional white skates. Teacher Raymond didn't think that it is crucial for her to change now but if her current skates are getting tighter, there is no harm in doing so.

I had been toying with the idea. I am wondering if new skates will help to boost her confidence and also help with the moves. I was secretly hoping that her difficulty to master the moves now is actually due to the skates. Then all the difficulties would disappear the moment she dons her new skates. Ha! I must be dreaming of buying her magical skates. 

We finally got her new skates. They are expensive - $290! And these are actually considered the lower range. Her skates are only going to get more expensive as she advances. I am praying for her feet not to grow so quickly. Haha. 

We tried her new skates on ice right after we got them and they are not the magical skates that I had dreamt them would be. This is her before entering the ice.

Lil Isaac was in his phonics make-up class and we only have about 45 minutes to practice. So I didn't go into the ice with her. She looked very unstable when she 1st stepped onto the ice, skating like an amateur, swaying her arms wildly. Aiyo, too ugly to look at. Fortunately, she got better after a few rounds. I think it is largely physiological. The skates made her go much faster at every push but she isn’t tapping on its full potential. She got scared by the speed and ended up shuffling, waddling like a penguin. 

She also tried the usual moves – front and back cross over, 3 turns, mohawk, waltz jump, half flip jump, spins etc., and was so bad. Faint. The skates are definitely heavier and the blades are much longer. She definitely has to spend more time getting used to the skates. 

She has class this coming Saturday. Unless she suddenly get used to her skates, otherwise, I will be throwing good money away for her lesson. I think we have to lug 2 pairs of skates this Saturday. I am still hopeful. Once she gets used to her new skate, she should be able to do a lot more. Hopefully, this will help to get her out of the plateau.

Mummy Lim 

Ice Skating 34

It is my bad – to put an ice skating class right after the holidays. I actually didn't remember that we had just came back; I only remembered that we would be in Singapore when I proceeded to pre-book the lessons.

We arrived back in Singapore at almost 11pm. Lil Shauna felt asleep in the cab and only go to bed proper at almost midnight. It didn't seem so bad on Saturday morning. The kids woke up by themselves; I didn't have to lug anybody out of bed. They were very lively when we had bfast at Mac Donalds. Daddy Lim took Lil Isaac for shopping while I sent Lil Shauna for her ice skating practice and class.

She turned into a dead fish the instant we hit the ice. She 1st complained that it felt funny skating as if we had missed the ice since forever, but we actually only skipped for a week, which was the week that we were in Korea. She took a little while to get used to the ice. Then after less than 15 minutes, she complained that she was tired and sleepy. Win already.

I didn't want to force her. Janelle and Xee Yue were in the rink too and I encouraged Lil Shauna to skate and play with her friends instead. I suggested it to be a take-it-easy week. She eventually skated some and took many breaks in between and proceeded for her class.

It was frustrating to watch her. It is like she didn't have the desire to want to do more, to want to push herself harder. When she remembers this, she forgets that. She cannot go faster or jump higher bcos her strokes are not there (yet) or otherwise she is scared. Arrgghhh… She appeared to have reached another plateau and it is something that she has to help herself. I remembered feeling equally frustrated when the similar happened a while back and I was at the verge of stopping her lessons. I need patience.

Of course class was uneventful. She hasn't mastered what she needed to advance to the next stage. The most irritating thing is that she thinks she had tried hard and done well. Aiyo!

Mummy Lim

Korea Day 9: Cat Cafe and Home Sweet Home

This was the final half day that we had before heading back to sunshine land. The kids were given 3 choices. The 1st was to go ice skating at the Lotte Mall, they had earlier pleaded to go ice skating before the short outdoor ice skating experience. The 2nd was to try some indoor playground somewhere. One very popular one was about 30 mins by train. The last one was to simply stone in the hotel and visit the cat cafe when it opens at 12 pm. This was also our original plan. The kids opted for.... the cat cafe. Chey, we should have saved our time and effort to look for alternative the night before.

So we did laze around in the hotel after bfast. Bcos it was Christmas, there were so many good movies on the TV and they were in English! The kids had watched so many cartoons in Korean for the past 8 days. It didn't matter that they couldn't understand the language, they still enjoyed them anyway.

While they were glued to the TV, mummy escaped the room to do last minute peaceful cosmetic shopping. It is always wonderful to shop alone. I felt so free! I probably spent at least 30 mins roaming the streets. Time passes so quickly when one is spending $$.

These were the free gifts given after all the masks and cosmetic that I had bought during the trip.

I had seen bloggers who posted more freebies. They must had bought a lot more. The store owners would give freebies to entice shoppers to go into their shops. They give even more if the shoppers purchased above a certain value.

The kids barely noticed my absence when I returned. We did last minute packing and checked out. To the cats cafe!

It costed a lot more - 12k per pax and it came with a drink. There were tables and chairs and most of the cats were lazing or sleeping some where.

We bought cats' food to lure the cats too. Not many of them were interested though. Many prefer to continue to sleep. The cats had free flow of dried food anyway.

We couldn't stay long, probably about 50 mins before we had to rush back to the hotel, picked up the luggage and chased the airport bus.

We had thought of getting a cab to the airport that would take about 1 hr and 70k. The airport bus takes about the same time and only 28k, Lil Isaac rides for free. We all knocked out on the bus.

It was quite a rush in the airport. We only had time for some pastry at Paris Baugette. Their coffee cup was so cute!

The flight to Singapore was easy. We were all busy watching movies, eating and drinking. Haha. SQ is always good. Towards the end of the flight, Lil Isaac declared that it was time for bed. And he slept.

He didn't wake up when we alighted. We had to carry him off the plane. He was still sleeping when we collected the luggage.

When we were queuing for the taxi.

He slept the cab ride home too. Even Lil Shauna fell asleep.

Back home, he was still sleeping.

We showered the kids and they continued sleeping while mummy unpacked the bag.

That marked the end of our wonderful winter Korea holiday. I missed Korea already. When and where is our next one?

Mummy Lim

Korea Day 8: Snow Sledding

It was the last full day before we head home. The itinerary was to go to the Seoul Children Museum and to do snow sledding at the Children Grand Park. They are supposed to be near to each other. With not much on the itinerary, we didn't have to drag people out of the bed and we proceeded to a slow bfast. Of course it was the same spread. We were all starting to get sick of the same food actually but still, cannot complain. Haha.

I was worried that the snow sledding wasn't opened like that of the Seoul Land. We had asked the front desk yday and had asked the front desk to call to confirm in the morning. Kaisuism to the maximum. Yes! It was opened! We decided to head to snow sledding 1st. So exciting!

The directions that we found on the web is to take the train to the Children Grand Park station, exit 4 and walk toward the park for a few minutes. Win already. We were seriously making wild guesses bcos there was no indication of where is the park or at least we didn't know bcos we cannot read Korean. We simply followed a group of teenagers, guessing that they were going to snow sledding too. They did lead us to the park eventually but they were actually heading to their school located within the park. Heng ah.

Me on the way, wearing Daddy Lim's new cap. He just wanted to spend $$ and the cap was the only thing he could find. Lol. I think I look good in it and will claim it as mine. Haha.

The entrance fee was 10k for kids and 5k for adults. The snow slope greeted us the moment we entered. It was man made snow but at least the snow didn't melt in the cold weather.

Basically, we had to lug our tubing up the gentle slope.  The kids pulled their own tubing up too and there were no complaints, at least not initially. 

Many other smaller Korean kids were doing that too, so super cute. The really young ones had the privilege to sit in the tubing while their parents lug them up the slope. Lil Isaac attempted to do that. No way!

Then it was time to slide down the slope.

We tried ice fishing too. It wasnt the authentic "drilling a hole in the frozen river to fish" but simply to haul mini fishes out from tank. We paid 5k per kid and they were each given a net and a mini plastic bowl to hold the captured fishes. They were allowed a maximum of 10 fishes per pax.

The kids had fun catching fishes despite the very cold water, which made our hands very cold too. I thought the water stinks a little and left our hands feeling sticky. Yucks!

After some time, the kids finally caught 10 fishes each. In fact, they were super good towards the end.

So what did we do with the fishes? We paid 2k to fry the fishes and to eat them! Ok, we did that with 10 of the fishes and we kindly put the other 10 back, for other people to haul, fry and eat. Haha. The fishes were battered and fried. They don't taste bad but the thought that we had just caught them puts me off. They were alive and swimming just moments ago! Lil Isaac refused to try too. 

Daddy Lim pretending to eat a mini fish before it was cooked. Eeeeeekkkks. 

Food was available and we had lunch but realised that there were no water to wash hands before lunch.  We made do with wet wipes and some water that we brought. I hope we didn't consume too much of that fish water. I felt like we were out camping.

Lunch was expensive simple food. The Koreans brought their own food but tourists bought expensive food.

We had more snow sledding after lunch. I lost count the number of times that we climbed up and slide down the slope. The kids got tired and decided to a mini pile of ice at the end of the slope as mini slopes instead. Many other kids who got tired of climbing were doing the same or playing in the snow. It was a pity that we didnt have water proof snow suit like them. I even saw some girls attempting snow angels!

We left at about 3 pm and decided to skip the museum. Nobody protested. We were back in the hotel and relaxed until it was time to go for dinner, which actually wasn't that long a wait.

It was super crowded at the Myeongdong exit that led to our hotel. Then we remembered that it was Christmas eve. There was a huge crowd trying to get in to the station and an even bigger crowd trying to get out. People were moving very slowly and we worried that there would be a stampede. By the way, most exits were stairs and not escalator like the luxury we have in Singapore. All it takes is for somebody to miss a step and fall down. So we were really glad to make it out safely.

Dinner was at a simple restaurant opposite the hotel. We saw quite some restaurants while on the way to Namsan Tower. It wasn't fantastic but at least it was cheap. 

The rest of the night was spent TV watching and trying to decide what to do for the few hours that we had on the last day. After much Googling and researching, we still couldn't decide. I was so desperate that I even went to ask the front desk for more information at past midnight.

Oh, we wanted to countdown for Christmas. Did we survive? The kids did not. We did, but was busy researching on where to go. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Korea Day 7: Dongdaemon Toy and Stationary Market and Namsan Tower

It was a "take it easy" day. We were starting to feel tired after 7 full days of activity. We woke up at 8am and headed to hotel bfast. lt was the same spread but we cannot complain. It was better than having to spend extra $$ on food and braving the cold to look for food. Haha, I sounded like I am a cave man.

We had been trying to decide if we should go to a ski resort the next day. Then we saw the brochure on a one-day ski package at the lobby. I had asked the front desk to check if the agency still has vacancies. She called the agency and the next moment, she said that she had made the booking for us for the next day. We will be picked up from the lobby at 7.50am bcos the ski resort is far, far away. Thus, it was decide since the decision was more or less made for us. 

We then took the train to Dongdaemon. There is a toy and stationary wholesale market. We gave the kids 20k each and told them that they can buy whatever that they wanted, so long as they stayed within the limit. The wholesale market is about 300m long and there are 2 rows of shops that sell mainly toys and stationary. I think the shops sell about the same stuff and they aren't as cheap as I thought they would be. 

Nevertheless, the kids took a long time to pick and choose, before finally deciding on what they wanted. 

I think we spent a good hour walking up and down the street. Shopping is always good. Happy kids.

After shopping, right before we entered the station to head back, we were lured by this delicious looking fishcake. Yummy!

On the way back to hotel, I started having 2nd thoughts about the ski trip. It will take us about 1.5hr by car to reach and cost about 70k per pax. What if the kids did not enjoy skiing and fussed to come back midway? Though there would be basic lessons given, it is unlikely that we could eventually take ski lift to go up the slope and ski down. After discussing with Daddy Lim, it was agreed that we should stick to our original itinerary and therefore cancel the ski booking. Back at hotel, the front desk was really nice and was smiling even when we told her that we would wish to cancel the booking. Phew, I was still thinking if I should lie to say one of the kids not feeling well. Haha, so there was no need to.

We had Mac for lunch. On the way, we bought this hard candy. It came in a hard ball and the kids took turns to knock it into pieces.

We headed to Namsan Tower after lunch. It was about 15 mins walk from the station. There was clear direction and almost no way to get lost. Then we took the lift to the tower. I read that there is a way to climb up the mountain but I don't think we would even consider to attempt.

It was definitely nice view. We didn't pay extra to go up the observatory tower. We looked at the many locks, trying to find the most interesting one. There were so many.

We had many selfie too bcos mummy took our her selfie stick. Hehe.

The famous love chair.

Even without paying extra, there are many places to take in the good view.

At this place, I suddenly realised that my hp was missing! I was just using it a minute ago. We retraced our footsteps but didn't see it anywhere. I was lamenting about the hundreds of pictures that were gone and about to head to the lost and found counter when I saw the phone, right in Daddy Lim's bagpack side pocket! Daddy Lim insisted that I must had subconsciously slotted it there. Why would I? I would love to think that I dropped it and an angel put it right there.

Then coincidentally, there was a performance at 3pm that entertained us for a good hour. Sitting on the stairs to watch the performance. The stone steps were super cold, freezing our but.  The clever kids chose to sit on the parents instead.

The performance - some traditional dance and wushu. 

We went back to hotel after the performance and decided to call it a day. The kids self entertained and jumped around the room and played their imaginary game for a good hour. There was this Isaac Toast outlet right outside our hotel. There were plenty of good reviews and always  long q. I got Daddy Lim to buy for us. Being the typical Singaporeans, got q must mean good, right? So we must join in the q too. Hehe. Our Isaac holding the Isaac. 

It tasted fattening and fat stuff usually taste nice. It wasn't exceptionally special though. Still, we had done one of the Seoul tourists' bucket list.

In the evening, we went out for dinner to hunt for some bbq meat. There are so many restaurants in Myeongdong. Haha's shop (I think).

After some walking, we ended up at the restaurant that we visited previously. That 1st experience wasnt too bad and so we decided to have our dinner there. The food was ok, but ended up spending 92k!!! It was the most expensive meal but it wasn't the most delicious. I felt like we walked into a black shop. My bad, I chose it.

That concluded our very relaxed and eat a lot day. I dun want to roll back to Singapore!!!!

Mummy Lim