Luckily i survived the long bus journey to Everland thanks to my motion sickness patch! Everland located in Yongin, is South Korea's largest theme park. There are five theme areas along with more than 50 different kinds of attractions full of high octave thrills and various fun. Everland is often compared to Disneyland by those who have visited both parks, as some consider the architecture, scale, themes and general atmosphere to be very similar. It is also the filming site of Korean Drama "A Red Bean Lady". We reached before it opened and there was already alot of people waiting at the entrance. The weather was still very cold but i was beginning to get used to it after a few days.
We were able to go for five rides (Big 5 ticket included) and our tour guide joined us for the first two rides. We were given about 3 hours after that to explore the place and have our lunch. We first went to the "Safari Tour" where we took a bus inside to look at the tigers, lions and bears. The animals were free to roam around in their natural habitat and we were all fascinated with the walking bears which approached our bus to get food from the bus driver. We were all wondering if the bears were fake as they really walked like human beings!. A cross breed of animal between the lion and the tiger which is known as “lionger” also draws the attention of the visitors.
After "Safari Tour", we went for an animation show with wind-chill effect in 4-D image. It was very interesting and the animation and special effects were abit similiar to the animation show i went to at Hong Kong Disneyland. We next went to the "Snow Buster" attraction and we had to sit on a snow sleigh (looks more like a swimming float to me) before sliding down a snow slope. It was so fun and exciting! I was so scared initially that my float would not stop at the end but I ended up struck halfway and had to walk down the slope.
After that we went around taking pictures, trying out some of the other rides and more shopping at the gift shops. I bought a very cute bunny wearing Korean Hanbok and some handphone decors. We then had fast food for lunch.
Our next stop was the Presidential Blue House and the museum which housed gifts from the various foreign countries to the Korean government.
After that we proceeded to watch a very entertaining show, called "Nanta Show", it is Korea's first non-verbal stage performance which dramatize culinary art and customary Korean percussion. The below post is written by my hubby as he enjoyed the show so much that i asked him to share with everyone :>
"This is a guest post. My wife asked me to write about a perfomance we watched in Seoul.
Its a high-energy, non-verbal, 90-minute musical that both of us thoroughly enjoyed at Nanta Theatre. The cast was a 5-member crew of 4 dancer-chefs and 1 manager. Their mission: prepare for a wedding banquet. With their lightning fast-and-furious chopping skills, excellent footwork and superb acrobatic feats, the chefs used pots, plates, chopping boards, knives, brooms, dustbins, sacred recipes, cabbages, carrots, etc etc to weave personal tales of love and rivalry in the humble kitchen.
We (the audience) played a part too -- in dodging the harmless props thrown at us, in trying to understand the head chef's silly (but successful) attempts (remember: non-verbal) to get half the audience clapping hands followed by the other half stomping feet and coordinating other combinations, in cheering for the dumpling challenge contestants as well as the bride and groom (all randomly picked from the audience), in singing happy birthday for the head chef before the show started.
The climax had to be the drumming finale. On huge drums labeled kimchi, salt and sugar, the athletic performers created powerful, modern, almost-religious rhythms that inspired and rocked the audience soul."
We ended the day having Ginseng Chicken Soup for dinner and celebrating the birthday of one of our tour members. Our tour guide bought the sweet potato cake and it tastes very good. The restuarant also serves Ginseng wine with the soup and you can either drink it or add into the soup.
After dinner we checked in to the "Lotte World Hotel" where we would stay for two nights. Hubby and me really like the room which was so cozy and had a nice view of Seoul. As tomorrow would be our last day of tour in Korea, i don't feel like sleeping so early and went swimming. I was able to swim for 45 minutes as the indoor swimming pool closes only at 10.30pm.
