1st travel right out of COVID, and we head to K-Land!
(Daddy promised to writeup on our Cruise to Nowhere which he still hasnt! We were on the Royal Caribbean this time last year as a form of escape being the only place we could pack our overnighter and clear immigration while borders remained shut… yes, he’s been procrastinating but will hopefully get to it soon before our Bali 2023 trip over CNY!)
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Back in July Daddy and Grandpa and were contemplating between Korea and Japan (which only announced full resumption of travel circa Oct) so it became fairly straightforward that it was back to Pororo Land once again!
As prep for the trip, Mummy lets us binge watch Crash Landing on You (CLOY) and Attorney Woo… tsk tsk tsk.
Headed to the airport for our red eye flight into Seoul, arrive in to a Incheon close to 7am the next morning.
Lounging in the lounge while Mummy the seamstress mends “someone’s” pants – de ja vu of a previous trip we had to sit put at the aiport while daddy had to literally run off to Changi City Point to buy some new boots (since we had some old pairs ‘crocodile-mouth’ after having not worn them for some time)!
Jie Jie and I were hardly asleep for the entire duration of our flight save for the 40 winks we stole in between our dose of movies and game (Biobot some old school 2D Mario Style arcade game) – Daddy says we were at it again the entire flight back…
Domestic Flight from Gimpo (Kimpo domestic terminal) to Jeju.
Welcome to Jeju!
Daddy slurping up his Abalone seafood soup while we kids got our special He Bao Dan (sunny side up egg).
Tangerine farm! Last we were here it wasn’t snowing.
Not only was it not snowing last we were here, we even brought Mummy Koa along! This time she stayed home to guard the other stuffed Koalas.
Blast from the past (from 2014!) when the tangerines looked and definitely felt much bigger!
Then and now. 5 oranges per person but I think Daddy easily ate 15 before scouring for 5 to chuck into his basket!
ATV ride! Our first since the last we were here Daddy says the only thing we could ride was strapped to our storo (baby stoller!).
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MgeJtySdxgY
Here’s a pix of Jie Jie in her yellow helmet then and Didi lounging while waiting for the boys to finish their ride (Daddy and Yeh Yeh)!
At the pier in Jeju…
Catch another flight out from Jeju to Busan thereafter traveled by road to Daegu.
At the Inter-Burgo Hotel Daegu when we encounter the first snowfall in the trip when it starts snowing right after breakfast!
Busan Gamcheon Culture Vilage.
New soft toys!
Us mucking around in the snow.
Be careful Daddy says, ‘don’t eat the yellow snow!’…
Temperature was a biting -15 degrees C on average (real feel was closer to a frigid -20 when the winds came a blowing)…
Temperatures in Dec this time round seemed way colder then expected since the coldest months would typically be around Jan/Feb. In fact, Jeju airport was closed for 24hours with flights in/out cancelled due to heavy snowfall just 2 days after we left!
Onward to YongPyong (Pyongchang) where we revisited Dragon Valley Ski Resort, the original site of our 1st snowman, Snowy. And now behold the amazing, bigger better and colder yet Frosty.
Then and now…
Went up the cable car to the sky observatory,
Us skiing. Mummy skipping the skiing this round though still ranting about her last (mis)adventure heading up the slopes in the ski lift…
Lotte World.
Daddy says this is our 5th year back, unfortunately we didn’t get to go to the main entrance which we took the customary photo still in previous years but this is a close second. Since we only had like 4 hours here today we managed to do only 2.5 rides (Wild Valley 4D ride which made Daddy green in the face (yeah he almost puked but was just trying to pull the usual strong-man ‘Dad persona he usually does. To his credit though we didn’t know it was going to be a 4D rickety rock-and-jerk-a-lot kinda ride until 5 min before we started (despite being in queue almost an hour!). Next ride was a ride out shoot out ride (Wild Dragon shooting Jo seems to recall,very similar to the Legoland car ride) except this was shooting dragons. FYI Mummy turned out the winner for this round. 2.5 rides since we were essentially in queue for bumper cars until we decided to give up and head back for the parade at 8.
Adults lug heaps of shopping – ginseng, Oddbot soundalike Odbo and healthy liver.
Literally buying up a segment in the shop…
Playing game at hotel lobby past midnight. We absolutely love this hotel with the cute fella in the lobby (we reckon its the Novotel Ambassador Yongsan)…
And still playing game throughout the entire duration of our flight home.
Incheon airport Line Friends vs. Pink Fong.
Sorry din get to take the same shot with Line Friends (whom Daddy says is still there when he was here couple of weeks back, and yes lucky him stayed at Lotte World Hotel) since we’re on Asiana today and in a gate farther away from him).
Headed back on our return flight. Full 6 hour of no sleep! Every Daddy’s nightmare (not on the flight but when they start getting cranky at home!)…
Play play play from daylight to sundown (literally till landing in Singapore – check out the view from the window!) – the only time our masks come off and we’re off the screen are during meal times!
Merry Christmas 2022 to all!
