LoLLiGoesPop

so much photos that i took quite a while to upload and decide on the captions..
*note: photos here are different from facebook cuz i made an effort to differentiate for friends who matter to me*

many travellers blog their korea trip, following the itinerary.
honestly i cant remember my itinerary cuz we did so much activites within 1 day that i couldnt recall the correct days!!
so i’ve decided to do it by venue. haha..

Theme #1: 帅哥

i’m sure everyone knows who he is la..hehe..

these boys all OVER korea.

can you spot him? my 1st & last sighting of a 帅哥..

backview also nice.. haha..
me & friends were just being cheeky. =p

Theme #2: high high in the sky

Boarding from SG..
didnt manage to take any inflight pics cuz they sat us, right in the middle row. painfully difficult to sleep throughout the nite.

Jeju to Seoul
Seoul is indeed a complicated, huge city.

Seoul to SG

look, ma!
flight’s empty except for some oppa & omma who were gg to SG for holiday.

Theme #3: Hug-me-teddies

we joined the Kim Teddy family for a picnic in the park.

bear wannabes. hahaha..

hey! YOU! get away from that..it will cost your lifetime salary!!

the magic fingers.. *ding*

think.. think.. how to attract more attention from other teddies?

宾马俑

Snow white, 7 bear dwarfs & the human dwarf.

come, come, say cheeze!!!

“bro, how are u? coming to SG not?”

Theme #4: Tea Guesthouse, Buchon (www.teaguesthouse.com)

we decided to try the korea style of accommodation so here we are in Buchon

here’s the main entrance.. pretty traditional

high tea in korean style?

the door to my hanok

Theme #5: Deep Deep under the sea

i just tot the 2 photos if joined together, could be panaroma photo!
submarine can be quite fun.. 20 feet under the sea.
i tot i could have met willy?

Theme #6: Shopping & randoms

seoul has 9 train lines!!

we had to read the train routes every time we wanna get from A to B.

Sinchon fashion street snowed!

isnt it a cute shop? why SG dun have?

they even have cheeky shop names. Be Full. yes, he needs to be full.

not just cute shops, cheeky shop names, they have pretty & sweet name for a bakery! dilly dally

hanbok, they called it. i like it.

kimchi is to Korea ; chili is to Singapore.

but these boys prefer tomato is to Singapore. hehe..

myeong dong spoils us with curly fries

myeong spoils us with grilled fish & cuttlefish too!

cosmetics shops spoils us with free samples & panda..

more street food along myeong dong. such a heaven.

myeong dong – a mix of new & old shopping styles.
street hawkers + shopping centres

naedaemum market is to korea ; pasar malam is to Singapore
ginseng, seaweed to socks, shoes, towels to tze char
a place to go but can be missed.

Theme #7: Pheonix Ski Resort

check out the winding Q to get to the cable car!

we look totally weird in non-skiing clothes compared to the rest.
i have to say they do have really good looking skiing clothes

snow fight time!!!! ahhhhhh!!!

skiing time! ready? let’s go fall

but we were quite pro.. we could do matrix with ski.

so funny fooling around.. haha..

check out the super steep and super high ski route. gulp. NO. NO.

why not we just glide down the ice, like how kids do it?? hehe..

Theme #8: The Palace

“eh, where got dragon huh?”
“there.. there.. up there la”

“sure not?”

“hello..? bo reception leh.. where are you?”

the frozen pond & frozen humans.

Theme #9: Blow me away

welcome to Mt Sorak!

Bears once dominated the area. until humans invaded. haha.

face turned red from the strong, cold wind.

river, mountain and forest. wat else can u ask for? friends. =)

let us take a nap while we wait for the cable car to operate.
but it didnt happened cuz wind was strong enough to swing the cable car.

Theme #10: Island of Fertility. apparently.

ah ma & ah gong fertility.
touch the nose of ‘dun know which one’ to bear a son.
i dun know abt touching their heads though..

so so so windy @ i-think-this-place-is-called-dragon-rock

old school hanoks.

totally dun recall the name of this place.
only recall that it was to see some cliff/rocks/whatever else.

so we ended up, looking for food. haha..

eeee..hawww.. let’s ride horses. i likeee..

seongsan sunrise mountain. really pretty view.
except tiring to climb up. see below for evidence.

pretty view, i promised.

but have to climb like SIAO to the pretty view.

Theme #11: Arty Farty Insadong

trying to take arty farty photos..

yummy premium rice cakes..

insadong street.

大便 bun, anyone?

can i kiss u? plssss.. ji hoo sunbaeeee..*lub lub*

Theme #12: Food Food Food

super duper yummy dumplings & noodles @ Myeong Dong

“dun stop me ah! i will diet after this trip.”

kimchi dumplings. so so only leh..

pork fillet BBQ. anonymously rated 5/5 by us.

jeju’s tangerine are addictively sweet til we continue eating at night!

the more side dishes = the more impt guest u are.
i think we are VERY VERY IMPT PPL.

they called this 水煮肉. in english > water cook meat. geddit?

promising chef @ work to provide us with black pork

black pork BBQ. anonymously rated 5/5 by us too.

another brave soul to tackle ‘live’ octopus

“i regretted trying. it’s.. it’s.. eeeee feeling”

some plain meat + cabbage put in a steamboat to cook the dry style

DMZ tofu is famous in korea for its smoothness and tastiness. but to us, it felt like 豆干. rough rough one..

Theme #13: DMZ -DeMilitarized Zone

hopes & wishes written & hang on the fence which divides north & south korea.

Theme #14: 大长金

Let’s cheers to 大长金

“LET ME OUT!!”

“hey! hey! i’ve done nothing wrong”

basking in the sun cuz it was too cold.

Theme #15: Ever, Everland

FUN!

FUN! gliding down the slope on a sledge.
just how Santa would like done so..

cats and dogs dun go together, u know?

cable car ride in Everland tells u how HUGE it is.

at the end of the 11 days trip, we concluded that korea is a nice place to visit again during other seasons.
probably not in the near future, but yes, i will come back during spring/summer!! shopping spreeee…

kam-sa-ha-mi-da.
i hope you enjoyed my trip as much as i did, with the photos.

“new pacifier! let me try..”

“everybody’s laughing so i laugh too..”

“姑姑, why u always have to take picture with me? i want to camwhore myself only leh”

it’s not always sunshine. “Ah ma, where are you?? i want ah ma..”

“heee..”

“how come they all called me tigger? who is tigger? can eat?”

“姑姑 is bringing me out for shopping!! yippee!”

Victory! Yeah!

“姑姑, stop eating. take photo for me 1st”

“i like this very much! shall i use it as my profile pic? hmm.. ”

26 June 2009 : SG to Brisbane

full of smiles on my face and in my heart as i flew thr 12hrs to Brisbane.

18 July 2009 : Brisbane to SG

the tiny rainbow made the flight home less painful. just a little.

12 Nov 2009 : SG to BKK

Please take off soon!!

yeah! i’m in mid-air but hates it when there’s turbulents. i dun like the feeling of dropping like a yoyo.

window seat is my permanent selection for flights. my space. my view.

it was written in the newspaper today
“design by vivenne westwood for melissa – $210″

i spent $10.

F1 3 day passes
F1 Stamford Suite pass
F1 work pass
F1 rocks pass

i’m missing my F1 Rock work pass.
imagine the no. of lanyards that i had.

i had to print screen as i watched boys over flower.
silly, you might think.
yeah.. i thought so too.. but i just wanted to share the beautiful scenes in the show.

as usual, watching such dramas make me FEEL LIKE fallling in love.
BUT falling in love is a dangerous gamble.

let me show you my fav scenes in the show.

1. Man in white suit + white horse. GOSH! how NOT to melt??

2. horse-riding in the winter. i need to try horse-riding for my holidays next yr.

3. my eye candy!

4. i melted when he did a saxophone performance. man with musical talent, i like.

5. i named this ‘Fatal Look’ cuz he took my breath away with this scene.

6. i agree with this statement ‘throw away the delusion that all nice girls want nice boys’
cuz there’s no nice girls nor nice boys.
we are all bad in our own way or another.

on the bus to gan gugu’s place

i can sense camera ….

this gugu always stealing shoots with me!

didnt have any photos of me swimming..
CUZ i cant swim yet and everybody’s busy taking care of me so no camera. hehehe

Presenting….. my self-made sandwiches which i named them LolliDeck.

it’s just ham, lettuce, cheese & foccacia bread.
felt good after preparing it.
brought them to movies in da park hosted by Class 95fm.

1st: Iron man
2nd: Transformers: Revenge of the fallen

the 2nd movie reminds me of the horrible theatre seating arrangement in brisbane.
but i finally recalled another song which was constantly played on their radio.

You can never say never
Why we don’t know when
Time, time and time again
Younger now then we were before

Don’t let me go
Don’t let me go
Don’t let me go

is the mutation of spiderman & mickey mouse.

wonder how it looks like? here it goes
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i like it..
it amuses me..
but my colleagues werent amused.
maybe cuz i went “this spidermouse is CUTE.. isnt it?”

the key qn to you is “do you find it amusing too?”

“Who has the nicest nails of them all?”

“Matthew has the nicest nails of all.”
He was manicure-d.

my 1st time @ a hostel.
Urban Central was our choice from the various good feedback online.

i had my uneasiness about sleeping with 2 other strangers. but i chucked these thoughts away.
only until i experienced the inconvenience, i told myself to bare with it.

bunks. i only recall sleeping in them during my teen years.

rules & regulations

the fun part of Urban Central (which is also my recommendation if you are planning for a long melbourne trip)
huge kitchen where everybody prepares meals.

they also have special food themed nights @ very attractive price.
i rem BBQ night on Mon.

we took the chance to cook.
1. food was expensive in aussie
2. i had enough of yucky / salty food
3. it was a R&R day

bought this pretty looking cherry tomatoes for almost AUS$4.

now then i know i overpaid for these pretty looking balls. me hardly do grocery shopping mah.

of course i wasnt the chef. else it’s as yucky as eating out!
introducing the chef…

i think men look sexy when they cook. what say you?

tadah! a full course meal!

i was happy that night. would have been happier if #$%& wasnt lacking.

Months before i left for Aussie, i already made up my mind to try skiing.
We were lucky to be able to tag along with a young bunch.

they were extremely well-prepared for the trip. from food to alcohol to games & etc..
i was ‘forced’ to try snowboarding cuz nobody was keen to do skiing.
so i took up the challenge for my set of old bones (with lack of exercise)

Drove throughout the night for 4 hrs to Falls Creek Mountain.

Bottom of Falls Creek Mountain @ dawn

Day breaks into a magnificent view.
i was between sleeping & waking..

1st thing was to rent the snowboard, bindlings, ski top, ski pants and gloves + get ski passes.
spent a BOMB.
by the time i completed wearing my snowboard gear, i was exhausted.

all geared wrapped up for snowboarding! silverski hotel

it was darn tricky to get yourself onto the ski lift.
1. wear 1 side of the binding on the snowboard &
2. shuffle yourself + the board (tied to one foot) to the ski lift Q. aka walk-like-a-crab
3. wait for the ski lift assistant to cue you to step forward & wait for the lift.
if you are not fast enough, they will DRAG out outta the ski lift path. else you will be HIT.

ski lift to top of the mountain

winds was so strong that i had to cover my face OR tahan the snow hitting me.

on the ski lift

here’s the top where everybody comes up to ski/snowboard

Snow Taxi – which looks like a van. charge by per head, not by distance! and it’s not 24hrs

Leaving for Melbourne city

did i mention that i was lucky to catch a snowing weather?
2nd day was beautiful when it snowed but extremely cold & excruciating to move around in fresh snow.
3rd day was hailing & visibility got even worse.

i recalled silly things we did.
- green fcuk
- girls
- balls
- drinking cardgames
- sliding down the slope on the snowboard instead of boarding it.

i also recalled my incidents.
- waking up on 2nd day with the thought to quit snowboarding
- walking down the snow runs instead of snowboarding
- got lost by snowboarding down the wrong snow run

here’s my thoughts that day when i got lost.
“One of the snow runs, I was lost. Totally lost the rest of the kids.
So I just continued snowboarding until I found a ski lift to take me back to the main meeting point.
A little worried at first but I thought losing my way can be just another opportunity to be alone.”

i failed to do something i wanted – build a snowman
didnt have the chance to sit in the open.
moreover, i was totally exhausted from snowboarding that i didnt want to move a centimetre.
entire body ached for 4 – 5 days.

so, my friends, pls warm up your bones before attempting such vigorous sports.
dun be like me.

it was 1 objective for this day. The Great Ocean Road.
decided to take a tour instead of driving to enjoy the scenic in peace
(no searching for directions & no silent car rides)

woke up at 6am. gosh. utterly torturous.

this is a standard tourist shot.

gibson steps reminds me of gibson guitar!

this is the gibson steps. gosh.

looks easy right? i say photos are deceiving!!!
they are steps with a missing e. it shld be steeps. *panting*

12 Apostles

right view

left view

so exactly how many left? i tried counting

bells beach

i think this is bells beach. think. cant recall.
anyway, i dun know why i posed this way. so weird!

photo that i cant point a finger to the venue.

i like this.. “Sun’s in the face”

lunch was @ a little town (which i also cant recall the name!)
by this time, it was already my 12th day surviving on yucky food. so i ordered ’safe’ food.

i saw horses in the farrrrrr background. =)

why am i taking photo with fake seals? acting like tourist lor..

this is probably the 5th photo of me & the ’stick’
got no idea what it represented.

this is the razorback. resembles one, right?
sorry Bread. i borrowed your photo. cuz mine’s blur.

here’s one overview of the place – razorback

last place of the day – Port Campbell

if you have time, just chill on this bench @ port campbell. i wish i had a chair. with such view.

“mine, mine, mine, mine”
Pelicans. they are such common sight

it has a little jetty. ppl fish. ppl read. ppl eat packed dinner. by the jetty.

arrived back in the city abt 8pm. we were gg bonkers in the tourbus cuz it felt forever to reach.
continued our walk along Yarra River.

walk.. walk.. walk.. “eh, this staircase is soo my company”
1 thing about melbourne – nice architecture.
i say the city’s like an art gallery!

by this time, it was FREEEZZZING! i had to be hooded.
Crown’s the casino.
bling bling place.
modern & grand interior. not england type of grand. just modernised grand. geddit?

5 pillars outside Crown.
they spit fire at every hour in the night. we caught it just in time.

and if you are wondering, NO, i didnt go to the casino.

i should have taken photos of the motel.
it has a rooftop area. what’s the proper name?!?! shit.
there was a kitchen, tables & chairs in the open & a swing.
many a time, i sat there alone to chill.
to see the stars. to think. to think positively. to get rid of heartache.
it was MY space.

if anyone of you were with me, you would know that i’m DARN excited about the melbourne trip.
it also meant that i’m outta of view from adults.

had a good feeling about Melbourne the min i touched down.
wonderful weather!! sunny & chilly

walked for 45mins to reach the motel.
my 1st time @ such accomodation > using of common toilet outside the room.
but it feels alright. just like home. we all use a common toilet mah.

Took the free city tram to see the city in 20 mins.
Dropped off @ the famous market > Queen Victoria Market

here’s a quick overview of QVM

my kinda green.

somehow these barren trees appeal to me. i love those long stretch of such trees.
just that i cant seemed to capture them in a nice photo.

Hotel Winsor > Loves its majesty victorian outlook
p.s my motel is just right behind it.

The Parliament house is just opposite. the same kind of architecture all in 1 location.
How appropriate!

But i forgot all about the parliament tour. =(

main street of Melbourne City. the shops were separated by the trams.

rememebered that dinner was some hainanese chicken rice (wannabe). yucks.
but when one is hungry, one cannot be a beggar.

Yarra river reminds me of our Boat Quay & Clarke Quay.
Bars & restaurants along the river.

Effiel tower? Yup.

it was so cold..probably about 6 degrees that night.
i so wanted to hide my face in my jacket. brrrrr…

this is similar to our Esplanade – an art performing centre except theirs is probably older than ours. we ‘copied’ them.
but i have to say it’s nicer than ours.