Day 7 : EVER-FUN EVERLAND

Ever since I watched the 'Running Man' team visit South Korea's largest themepark for one of their missions, I literally vowed to go there the next time I touched down on that country. So today was the biggest highlight for me. We left early in the morning to take the public 5002 bus at Gangnam to Everland. The bus comes quite frequently (around 15 min), and the station is a couple of meters from exit 10 Gangnam station. There was also a worker at the station who asked us if we were going to Everland and told us where to wait. The fare was 2000W for one way. The duration of the trip was around 40 minutes, which was quicker than we expected since there was little traffic during that time. The themepark is situated away from the city area in a desolated mountain like region, so it was quite colder up there. We arrived at the shuttle bus area first, which was completely empty. From memory we arrived a half an hour early from opening because we feared the long lines, and it was during holiday season. There were just a handful of people with us on the shuttle.

 

The shuttle took us to the entrance of Everland. Already there were people lining up in front of the ticket offices, eagerly waiting to get in.

Below is the price chart, but since we were foreigners we could use a voucher and present our passports to them to get a 20% discount [link to price and discount voucher]

After purchasing the tickets, we lined up behind the entry gates, waiting for the grilled gates to open. When the workers in their blue Harry Potter-like coats came out to make sure that we were all lined up, we knew it was almost time! We took the maps that they handed out to us and planned our way to the first ride - the T Express.

The T-Express is probably the most popular ride in Everland. We literally fast-walked / ran over there, and made it before a long line started to form. This wooden rollarcoaster is the fourth steepest in the world, tipping at 77 degrees and going at 104 km/hr. It didn't sound so scary until I was on the ride and looked over to the 2nd steep track across from me and realised I might've regretted my decision lol...

This comic I made illustrates how it went on

Right next door to T-express was the Snow Buster, a snow sled ride that has 3 types of slopes depending on how high you want to slide down. After riding the T-express, ANY sort of thrill ride were kid stuff in comparison. We chose the highest slope, where we can go as a single rider or with a partner. The only downside to this ride was the number of stairs that we had to climb in order to reach the top, then we were given a yellow tier to drag up the slope and clip onto a hook that automatically dragged us up inside the tier the rest of the way to the top. That was quite fun, but because most of us didn't understand Korean, the worker at the very top was saying something to us so we thought we had to stand..but it was the complete opposite to what he was apparently saying so some of us almost risked slipping down the icy slope prematurely XD Anyway, the ride down the slope was soo worth the trip up =)

Snacks! You can't miss the snack booths splattered all around the themepark. I had my first (yes first) corndog for breakfast..mmm nutritious... 

The Rotating House was smaller than I thought it was. The interior looked amazing, like a Victorian-esque haunted house, but inside was a small rectangular room where we all sat on opposite sides of each other and the walls moved to give the illusion that the whole room was rotating. The 'scary voice' speakers were speaking in Korean so once again language failed us, although we received an awkward yet surprising 'thrill' on our seats at the end of the ride.

At Magic Land, the rides are alot more kiddy and chilled. Such as the Magic Swing which swings up and down and rotates 360:

Dragon Coaster which goes up and down as it spins around

 

And we couldn't resist being a little kid again without going on the merry-go-round!

Columbus Adventure

Championship Rodio: If you like rides where they spin and thrust you sideways at high speeds, this is for you

 Hurricane

I think I just blindly followed my friends into this show, then realized the crowd were mostly parents with their babies and kids that were at most 5 years of age. AND the show was again all in Korean. So basically not only were we too old for this, we couldn't understand what the show was about...except that they went to space, met some aliens, and became best of friends. How original ey? But Pororo is very popular with kids, I know at least that much.

We also went to see the Rio 2 4D show, although again it was a bit unfortunate that we couldn't understand a word ;_; We spent the least time at the zoo area (Zootopia), but it's a great place for animal lovers.

There were plenty of restaurants to choose from, plus different cuisines, although some were closed (perhaps due to low peak times). Below is a little food area called Holland Village if you like Western food.

We chose a restaurant literally called "Korean Restaurant", where we ordered a mackerel and kimchi soup set. It also comes with all you can eat kimchi, a small slab of ham, and some soup.

 Now for some random snaps along the way. We discovered the LINE store featuring characters from the LINE app. You can get t-shirts, accessories, toys, stationary, cushions...anything to do with LINE.

Random decor

At the Magic Garden, everything seemed white and bare during the day. The Magic Tree was still grand and beautifully decorated, but to see all its glory you have to see it at night. The park transforms into a magical and gorgeous light display.

Magic tree during the day...

...and during the night!

The Magic Garden all lit up

Other areas of the park at night

So pretty no? Sadly we missed the parade, but we were all tired after spending a whole day in Everland, so it was time to leave the same way we came and have dinner in Gangnam. We searched online and found a chicken + beer restaurant called Kyochon Chicken. How we got there was a bit of luck, since we just walked down the busiest alleyway where all the restaurants were close to the station  and eventually came across it.
This place puts KFC to shame! It has the best fried chicken I've ever had so far, and they come in large plates for 15-18000W.  We chose the soy/honey and chilli flavours. The skin was crispy and full of flavour, and the meat so tender...oh god I will probably never have such delicious fried chicken again unless they open a store in Melbourne. They also gave us each a disposable plastic glove to avoid getting our hands oily, and a small bin to dispose the bones. The pickled radish that came as a sidedish goes down really well with the chicken.

Finally, you can't have just chicken without some beer

Day 5 + 6 : Winter wonderland in Yongpyong Ski Resort

For the next 2 days we spent our time skiing down the slopes at Yongpyong Ski Resort. The driver from Sally Tours came to pick us up at 9.30am and took us to the ski hire shop where we got our ski boots and ski blades. At the Yongpyong Tower where we got dropped off, we went to the locker area to store our bags away. It costs 500W to use one for the whole day, and there's conveniently an auto bill exchanger nearby.

Once we exited the double auto doors leading to the snow, our eyes were blinded but our spirits were still high as we commenced our skiing day! There are 3 wide beginner areas in the resort, and the Sally Tours also provide a quick beginners class for the first day...which we didn't go to cause we realised it had already finished. But nevertheless, we were able to survive our way down the slopes without any serious injuries, even down the intermediate ones. As for the expert slopes...we preferred to admire them from far...

Below is the ticket we had to clip onto ourselves in order to use the ski lifts.

Near the entrance into the Tower, there's a station where you can use high-pressure air guns to blow off the snow from your ski blades and boots.

For meals and breaks, there are food stalls and a food court off to the side near the resort hotels.

 

By storing our skis in a storing bay nearby (it's 500W to lock them but we didn't bother), we wondered around the food area, awkwardly stepping down the steps in our chunky ski boots, and discovered food stalls like below selling snacks consisting of chicken skewers, corn, Spanish doughnuts, hot dogs, kebabs, octapus balls and pretzels.

One of the food courts we went into was Dragon Plaza, where we can buy hot or cold drinks and sandwiches from a cafe or a regular Korean meal. The hot drinks cost around 5000W, whilst cold drinks were 6000W.

 There is also another smaller food court nearby on the very east side of the resort. Below is a pork cutlet and rice with salad meal, and a bowl of udon with tempura.

There are also restaurants into the Tower, such as Lotteria, a chain similar to McDonalds but owned by Lotte. As you can see there are stands for people to place their skis on before entering to eat.

Instead of fries, they have deep fried cheese sticks. They also have bulgolgi beef burgers which were really nice to try.

It's a very bad photo, but below is the counter where you can book bus tickets back to Soul. Just for reference =) It in the Tower near the doors towards the snow.

 

On our 2nd night at Yongpyong, we decided to buy dinner from the grocery store in the Tower and make it in the little kitchen in our room.We bought a packet of kimchi which is supposed to be used to make soup, but since it was our first time we didn't add enough water so it was super mega salt ^^'' Ok so it wasn't a real proper dinner, but we filled our bellies with lots of snacks and alcohol (rice wine and blueberry? wine) like all youngins do when they're on holiday away from families ;)

On the day we left Yongpyong, the bus picked us up at 5pm. We handed our hired boots and skis back to the Sally workers and the husband of the owner brought our packed bags to us, read to board the bus. The trip back to Jamsil went for 3.5 hours due to traffic, and once we were dropped off, we took the taxi to our new apartment. Again we found this place on Airbnb [https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/2042935]. As you can see it's very clean with a neat kitchen, and the building's security is very secure so there's no need to worry about leaving important belongings in the room when you're out.

For dinner, we went out to the main road where there were a couple of restaurants nearby. We chose a restaurant that had rice soup served boiling hot in a stone pot, and a plate of dried up pieces of pork. No idea what they actually were, but the taste was quite interesting...