Korea 2014 ??

After much persuasion from me, finally Mr Love seems to be a little more interested in going on a free& easy trip to Korea. He had previously shot down the idea due to language barrier. We still  have the language barrier but I believe that can be overcome.

He was actually suggesting to join a tour agency but we did that during our honeymoon, I dun wanna revisit the few places again.

Anyways, I gotta promised him that this is not a shopping trip cuz he heard too much stories of women going to Seoul solely for shopping. KK, considered it done. Hehe I juz wanna try my hand at another country besides Taiwan. Language barrier or not, I believe if I've done enough preparation, we should able to get thru without much difficulties. Besides, I can always try to learn a few simple lines or worse come to worse use Google translator. Hurhur.

So being excited though it's at planning stage only, here are the 10things that top my list if this trip pushes through.

1). DMZ tour

Not sure why, but the trip we took in 2009 did not include this in our itinerary and I was disappointed. Way before Korean movies/serials/Kpop became a hit in Singapore, we watched JSA during our early dating years and I was fascinated by the world last cold war border. I was impressed by the South who progress so rapidly, making the contrast even more eye catching than any other countries bordering each other.

I am also curious about the life in North Korea, having read books of real life accounts from defectors. It would be nice if we can make a trip here to see what the border is like for ourselves.

Soldiers @ DMZ

 2). Jjimjilbang

Having been to Japan's onsen and Taiwan's 温泉. How can we forgo Korea's jjimjilbang? I would love to pay a visit here and buy an egg to eat. Haha just like wat I saw on the tv serials. Opps..

Running man in a jjimjilbang

3). N Seoul Tower

The icon of Seoul and for some reason, this is dropped from the itinerary from our tour..Aggrrr.. I realised there is Teddy Bear Museum here too..We visited the Jeju 1 on the last trip.. There is also a Namsangol Hanok village nearby show casing how Seoul is like during Joseon Dynasty.

N Seoul tower during Night time

4). Dongdaemum

Though I promised this will be a non-shopping trip, heheh but still I wanna come here when we are in Seoul. Having come here during our last trip, I was beri impressed by the large scale of the shopping area. Hehe I think it would be a big joke if 1 visits Seoul without coming here.

Random pic of a shopping centre in Dongdaemum we took in 2009

5). Lotte world

We had a short visit during 2009,but didn't have the time to try out the rides as we were busy finding  food for dinner. Hehhe...I badly wanted to try the hot air balloon look alike going around the theme park and of course the carousel that was featured in 天国的阶梯..

TA-DAH The Carousel I wanna take

6). Trying Live Octopus- Sannakji

I have seen this countless time in TV where people eat the octopus live and is very tempted to try though I am not sure whether I would have the courage or not. Its is said to contain a little danger as the suction cups on the arms of the octopus might sucked on to your throat while swallowing...

Octopus served live

 7). Gamcheon Culture village

 Besides Seoul, I actually wanted to visit Busan, the 2nd largest Korean city. Gamcheon Culture Village was featured in 1 of the Running Man episode and I fell for this place since. It looks like the colourful version of Santorini in Greece . Since am not able to go to Greece, I guess this will be the next best alternative. Hehe. Besides, there will be an asian touch to it I believe. 
 

See not to love here?

 8). Jagalchi Market

Known as the biggest Seafood market in Korea, I guess this must be a must visit. Its not like we will do marketing here, but I am sure there would be good seafood joints found here. Wahahah.. Besides, I love seeing the everyday lives of the different cities we visit. Wonder do we need to wake up at 3am to visit? Hurhur...

Inside Jagalchi Market

9). Eating Topokki (Korean spicy rice cake)

I know this sounds a bit funny but I would love to try eating Topokki in Korea especially in those little joints located in the alleys. Though I can make this at home, but the feeling will be totally different if we eat there. I nearly went in to 1 shop in Dongdaemum back then had not been Mr Love pulling me back. Was regretting it big time afterwards.

Topokki

10). Korean Rail

I simply adore taking rails for no apparent reason. Haha. Love the rail transport in Taiwan which is clean, efficient and fast. Planned to try the Korean version this time when we visit as I dun intend to fly domestic to Busan. Am wondering whether they will sell bento like the Taiwanese 1? Hahah

The above are some of the things that I noted down during my short research. But if the trip does get materialised, these are the things I will certainly plan into our itinerary after all, it is not everyday Mr Love agrees to go on a free & easy trip to Korea.

2009 in Jeju

Hopefully, I will get to go. If all else fails, haha I guess is to fall back on our Taiwan plans. Well, I guess I will do 2 proposals then since I love reading up and planning for trips.

Un fruitful day

Mr Love and I arranged to go shopping for my shoes today at Vivo. Plan was me to travel down and wait for him..He might need to stay back for a while or so he tot/claimed..

Reached vivo at 7pm and parked myself at the departure hall of cruise centre as I didnt noe wat time he will be off.

As the time passes, my limits got thinner..tried to watch running man but realised I only got 1 episode left in my phone. .

After my entertainment ran out, I switched and keep replaying CNBLUE's Love revolution(eng ver)over and over..love the tune and it slightly cheered me up during my long wait...

By 8pm, I was resigned to fate that Mr Love would not be able to come but since I was parked too comfortably in my seat I decided to give him half an hr more..

Finally I decided to go shop alone at 8.45 hearing no news frm since 7.20pm..didn't manage to buy any shoes and was too tired frm waiting so long...

I then took a bus to near his office where we can get a cab bak hm since he could claim..

It was a un fruitful day and I guess I need to wait till after his closing before we can go on a decent date...

Hai..life of accountants..

台湾春天之旅 2013-Taichung National Museum of Natural Science (国立自然科学博物馆）

This is 1 of the most recommended place to visit when I was doing research about places of interest in Taichung. Many had raved about the interesting exhibitions they had to offer here though you will need to understand chinese as all the introductions are written in chinese.

As Mr Love has no interest in shopping, I guess this might be a good place for us to kill time before departing for Tao Yuan for our night flight.

From Taichung station, bus 71,83,88 goes to National Museum of Natural Science however, I am not sure of the alighting point as Shan Shan Jie had offered to drive us here from Taichung station. It was quite a distance it seems but I am glad she is with us as we can leave our luggage in her car rather than at the hotel where we will need to go back n collect before departing.

Entrance tickets

We were wowed by the huge area of this museum when we 1st reached. Its like I dun even noe where to start visiting from. With only 2 hrs here, we only intend to visit the permanent exhibits and thus only brough tickets to the exhibit halls which cost NTD 100/pax.

Entrance to 3D Theatre, space theatre, greenhouse and science center are charged separately. We wanted to catch the 3D show but the next show time is quite rush for us and thus we gave up.

Outside the museum

Mammoth

Not knowing where to start with, we went to the 1st exhibition that we saw - Gateway to the living world. The exhibits are all magnified thousands of times to allow you to see the structure of things that we thought we knew.

A big ass bug

Jelly fish

 We moved on quickly to the next exhibit - The origin of life. Here, they showcases planet earth 3.8 million years ago where there is no oxygen present and then slowly move to the beginning of life.. There are some interactive stations here that you can try your hands on to further understand structure of DNA etc..

Beginning of Life in planet Earth

Evolution of marine life

We also saw the showcase of the reproduction stages of different animals here. Though some of the things here we had learnt during my primary school days but it kinda open our eyes up more with the various exhibits.

Fetus in different animals

You can tell that the exhibits are abit aged given their colour and display but these are the facts that wun changed for the next 1000yrs. Personally, I like the idea of having such a museum for the kids to visit and learnt through interactive ways outside the classrooms.

While here, we saw a few school trips and the kids are all having fun while the teacher tries explain to them the facts.

Mama snake and her eggs

乌龟下蛋

 We move on to Taking landing area where the journey of animals from water to land takes place some 400million years ago are explained to us. Here, certain reptiles are showcased as examples.

Explanations all in Chinese wordings

African Crocodile

Dimetrodon

Then came the Dinosaurs age where many replicas of dinosaurs fossils, footprints, shells are displayed.

There also 4 robot like dinosaurs on displayed here which actually gave me a fright when I went near them. They have limited moving abilites, trying to re-create how a real life dinosaur should behave and the sounds they would male.

Mr T-Rex and his smaller friend

My teacher once told me that taller dinos are plant eaters

Hunch back

Coming out of the enclosure

Velociraptor- Which I am most turn off by

Mummy and her babies

We are no big fans of dinosaurs but we spent the most time here, trying to read every introduction they did on the various dinos. It is interesting and most certainly educational.

I cannot stop laughing at this camo dino hiding on level 2

Moving on quickly through the 2 other exhibitions- Taking flight & Extinction we came to The Evolution and Adaptability of Mammals.

The gallery shows selective animals and how they try to adapt to live on Earth. Some of the facts here are not known to us prior to coming here. Its like we came here on a study trip. Haha. We moved thru the museum pretty quickly from here as Shan Shan Jie was due to pick us up and send us to the airport for our return flight. 

The bear and I

Kangaroo

Zebra

Duck mouth dunno wat..

And of cuz the primates

Our short stay visit here was indeed an eye opener. The museum do have lots of other exhibits that we did not have time to see. A full half day here would be good if you wanna decently look at what they have to offer.

I was very impressed by the scale of this musuem and judging from the outlook it was started for quite sometime. It does gives every 1 who visits an insight of life million or billion years ago. For us, it won hands down as compared to visit a shopping centre here.. Shopping can be done anytime when we are back in SG but having missed this, we would not have a chance to see in SG.

If we ever go back with our kids in tow, I will be sure to spend time here..

National Museum of Natural Science
One Guancian Road
Taichung, Taiwan 404

Closed on Mondays

Hallyu wave

In the news recently is the Running man craze, latest hallyu wave(韩流） to hit our little red dot. Colleagues ard me were complaining that their daughters had requested them to buy tix to go see the 5 running man casts and at no less the most expensive tickets. Each tix will set them back by SGD 250 exlcusive of the service charges.

As much as I love to watch the ever popular variety show, I would not pay 250 to see them. I mean, its not like they are bringing the game here, its juz a meet the fans session where holders of the most expensive tickets might get a chance to go on stage for games or autograph/photograph. So why waste my monies?Hahha I love to lie on my couch to catch the latest show any time than to go sqeeuze with thousands of fans there.

Speaking of this popular variety show, you gotta hand in to them for their creativity. I wasnt too impressed when I caught 1 episode on Channel U initially but there was this episode where they compete with the young female guests were switched to older female guests, that was when it caught my attention. I had a great time luffing watching the show while doing my weekly ironing.

It was then I went to d/l the other episodes on my phone and got glued to it ever since. I would need to try hard to contain myself while watching the show during travel for fear that plp would think I am crazy for luffing to myself early in the morning.

Occasionally, I would watch some Korean serials if I happen to come across shows where I can recognised the actor or actress. By watching running man, I get to know more Korean stars too and recently was into the music of CNBLUE.

Unlike pop groups like Super Junior, Girls Generation etc, this is a rock band rather than a boy band. I am not really a rock person, but I find their songs more appealing than those of the pop groups who many a times dance more than they sing.

With no good songs coming from the chinese scene recently, I can only shift my attention to the Korean 1 though I dun understand what they are singing. Thus is why the tune is important to me as I catch no ball in the lyrics. Hahah.

Well, guess the hallyu wave hit me also. Till the next country who comes out with more appealing shows, musics, artists, Korean stars is here to stay..At least for the time being..

Inflations at its best

Its was a well known fact that our inflation rates is  growing much faster than our increment rates in Singapore. I am usually pretty resigned to the fact but cannot help to feel upset bout this incident.

On a hot Saturday we took brunch as usual and by 3pm, I was starving oredi and was craving for cheese cake.

We were at Suntec running some errands and then Mr Love remembered there is a Coffee bean outlet here and we proceed to the shop.

I usually would have a slice of cheese cake and a cup of ice blended mocha along with it. Feeling happie, I actually wanted to place my order oredi.

It is then I saw the price of the cheese cake..Its priced at 8bucks...8bucks!!! I can take a lunch and a dessert to go along with it. A slice of cheese cake here costs 8 bucks oredi.

I remember few months back, it is not even 6bucks but over span of few months, it went up to 8bucks oredi and that is exclusive of the mocha I wanna drink. I didnt even get to see the price of mocha.

My mood was killed by the pricing and didnt ordered anything and walked away. Not that I cannot afford to but I was put off by the huge increase of the prices.

Why is it that my pay dun get to increase every other few months?

台湾春天之旅 2013- ChangHua Fan Shaped Depot （彰化扇形车库）

I was thinking how to spend my morning in Taichung and suddenly got reminded by the place I saw in a Taiwanese idol serial- 原来爱。 就是甜蜜。。There was this scene where the lead actor was there toking about his dream of hosting a fashion here here.

This fan shaped depot is the only in Taiwan and is also known as as a Train head hotel. This is where train heads goes to for maintenance after travelling for long distances. Had wanted to take a look here, but is too out of the place unless you are in Taichung area. Since we r here this time, I took the opportunity to plan a visit to this place.

On the last day of our stay in Taichung, we woke up early for breakie and took a train to Changhua (彰化） where the train depot is located.

Upon disembarking from train at Changhua station, I was captivated by the various plates displayed at the platform of Changhua station explaining the various types of train used by TRA and their history.

Express train

Diesel railcar

Electric multiple unit

Fu-xing express

Chu-Kwang express

Push Pull Train

After much photo taking, we then exited the station. Immediately, I was lost for direction. Didnt know which way to go. It was said to be 10min walk away from the train station but again, we were bluffed.

Beautiful flowers

We tried asking around and got the information to turn left as we exit from the station.

Pretty empty street on a weekday morning

Then we realised that they are signs along the street directing us to the direction of the depot. Happily, we followed the signs.

Sign pointing us to the direction of the depot

We then came to a small alley and the signs suddenly stopped. We saw a uncle walking his dogs and decided to ask him for directions. He told us to walk straight and then take the underpass. The depot is on the other side of the underpass. Hhehe thank god for this uncle, else dunno how much 冤枉路 we need to take.

Underpass to fan depot

The depot is a short distance away from the underpass. For visitors, we need to register at the guards room. There is no need for any identification, just write your name, time of visit and sign in. Simple.

Finally reached

Train head

Train heads parked in the depot

Tracks leading to the depot

The were many train heads parked in around the depot waiting for maintenance. We were awed by the many train heads here and also, the feeling of being in a train depot sweep me off my feet. I mean, how many of us have a chance to step foot in a depot despite taking the train for umpteen times.

The legendary fan depot

The is a rotating bridge right in the middle of the depot which connects the tracks to the slots in of the depot where the train heads rest or gets an overhaul from the engineers.

Rotating bridge leading to the depot

View from the top

We saw a viewing tower and went up where we took in the view of the whole depot under our feet. There are 8slots in this depot and many have train heads parked inside.

We then got lucky. Not sure whether there is a schedule or the fact that there are quite a few of us visitors here. The staff decided to move 1 of the train head out of the depot. I was so excited when the bridge started moving into place to get ready to move the train head to the depot.

The bridge started to move suddenly!!

The bridge is operated by 1 operator who will maneuver the bridge to connect to the track of the depot slot where the train head is suppose to move out from.

Rotating bridge moving into place

Once connected, another operator will then move the train head out of the depot slot and onto the bridge.

Train head moving to the bridge

When the operators confirmed that the train head is safely parked in the middle of the bridge, they start to rotate the bridge again to connect to the desired tracks they want to park the train head on.

Train on the bridge, and it starts to rotate

Turning slowly

Still turning

Not sure whether it is due to the weight of the train head, but the bridge seems to be moving more slowly as compared to when it is empty. Took a long time for it to move to the correct position. We also noticed that the bridge is rotating in a clockwise direction, not sure whether it can rotate in the opposite direction or not.

Facing us while turning

Ta-dah! connected to the desired track

And the train head start moving out of the bridge

The train head moving out of the bridge to the tracks

The whole process took around 15-20 min and I was happie to be able to witness 1 such move. We then happily left the depot.

Underpass entrance

On our way back to Changhuaa station

The only place of interest I planned in Changhua this time round is to the Fan shaped depot only and thus after visiting here, we are to make our way back to Taichung where we will check out and to meet Shan Shan Jie for lunch.

彰化火车站

Coast line stations

As mentioned earlier, we took the mountain line to Taichung. Changhua is the connecting station that the coast line trains connects to onwards to Southern Taiwan. Those taking coast line can also transfer trains here to Taichung.

Coast line stations

Trains parked on the tracks

Tickets back to Taichung

Train ride to Taichung is around 15min and thus making this a good place for 1 to kill time in the morning if visiting Taichung.

Map from Changhua station to Fan shaped depot

Address: No. 1, Sec 1, Zhangmei Road, Changhua city ( 彰化县彰化市彰美路一段1号)

Opening time: Mon-Sun :08:00 -12:00, 13:00-17:00 .