[buzz Korea] Explore Seoul, Chuncheon and Jeju with Tokki & Friends

안녕하세요, I want to share a story about my plan to go to Korea again, hmm this year ?? or maybe next year?? (Keep Praying) 

 Actually the post content is based from my other blog that I made for Asia On Air Program. But I edited the content a little, hope you enjoy. And Let's explore Korea with me (Tokki) & my friends........

1.Explore SEOUL, the capital city of Korean. 

First, I want to experience the traditional cultural feeling by visiting Joseon Dynasty palaces & other Historic sites. From all the palaces, I want to go to Gyeongbokgung palace because National Folk Museum of Korea is located inside that palace. In this museum, I can learn the cultural & daily lives of ordinary Korean people. Next place is to go to King SeJong Statue and try to seat on royal chair replica at The Story of King Sejong Exhibition Hall. Then I will go to take a picture at  Yi Sun Shin Admiral, play at water fountain & watch music/ live performance that usually held at Seoul Plaza. Last, I want to visit Bukchon Hanok Village to learn about Korean Traditional House. 

Second, I want to go shopping at several market in Seoul. I want to go to Insa-dong that famous with art gallery & buy a mother of pearl box (najeonchilgi) for souvenir. I want to try speciality snack of this place called kkultarae. I will also go to Namdaemun Market that sells almost everything with affordable prices, Myeongdong Market to shop at Migliore/Lotte Dept store & try "media wall" a box that can take a picture and send it to our email for free, Dongdaemun Market that famous for clothes & accessories product & buy a good quality Hanbok at Gwangjang Market. 

Oops, there's still so many places that I haven't visit so I decided to take a second day trip in Seoul. 

Today, I want to go to 63 City Building & see 63 Wax Museum. There's also a Seaworld, Theatre & other entertainment in this Building. Then I will go to Teddy Bear Museum & Love of Lock at N Seoul Tower to take a picture with cute Teddy Bear & lock my name with my soulmate. A luxury fashion streets at Apgujeong, Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam is a must visited place too, I want to drink a coffee or eat cakes at Cube Studio. Many major entertainment company located in this area such as JYP Ent, SM Ent & Cube Ent. I hope I could meet with 2PM, 2AM, Miss A, Wonder Girls, B2ST, 4minute, Girls Generation, Super Junior & f(x) >_< 

After that I want to learn making kimchi at Pulmuone Kimchi Museum & see Aquarium in COEX Mall.

Last, I want to go to Trickeye Museum & Hello Kitty Cafe at Hongdae. Wait, Hongdae Free Market is a must visit too but I heard that the market only open on Saturday 13.00 until 18.00 (from March to November). Last I will end the night with eating street snacks and drink soju at Pojangmacha.

2. Enjoy the scenery at CHUNCHEON

At Chuncheon there's an island called Namiseom, this Island is famous for their beautiful tree line roads and many K-drama took a scene at this island like Winter Sonata. I also want to try go down using a wire cable from an 80 meter-high tower in Namiseom Zip Wire.

 After that I want to go to Chuncheon Myeongdong to eat Makguksu (noodles with hot sauce and vegetables) & visit Cheongpyeongsa Temple.

 3. Alluring JEJU ISLAND

Jeju Island is sometimes referred to as “Samdado Island” (삼다도, meaning the “three many”) because of its abundance of rocks, women, and wind. 

There's so much thing to do in this island. We can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, hiking at Hallasan National Park, play water sport or go to many museum & theme park located in this island. For me, I will go hiking at Hallasan National Park, visit Bukchon Dolhareubang Park, Yongduam Dragon Headrock, Chocolate Museum & try paragliding to see Jeju Island from above.

I want to visit Soingook Themed Park too, this park had various miniature models of famous architecture from all over the world. Last, I want to buy Hallabong a local fruit in Jeju (a hybrid citrus fruit).

Okay, that's all my planning? Are you enjoyed it reading my plan??? Have any advice of other place that I must visit ?

Please write your comment and let's share our love story about Korea. 

And I also have other post related to 2012 Buzz Korea Awards, if you want to read it I'll give you the link here

안녕

 

[buzz KOREA] - Tokki's Dream to Revisit Korea and Meet with 2PM & Miss A

안녕하세요, My name is Noviani from Indonesia but my family usually call me Tokki  .

I write this post to share about my passion towards Korea especially with their culture, language, foods, beautiful scenery, K-Pop, K-drama, wait I think I interested in all about Korea. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Aah, yesterday my family celebrate Mooncake Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival) that fall on September 30, 2012. It's a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people. And happen on this year Korea also celebrate a harvest festival called Chuseok on September 30. So my family and I also want to say "Happy Chuseok Day" to Korean peoples.

Left to Right : Sha, Fan, Iin, Me, Yenni & Ay2

I travelled to Korea once on March 2007. I choose Korea not intentionally, I just decided that I want to celebrate my university graduation by travelling abroad for the first time. I'm always interested to know about culture or traditional heritage from other countries. So I'm searching on Google about a country that had a traditional heritage yet modern and then a several images appears on my Notebook screen. I'm in love when I saw pictures of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Nami Island & Mount Seorak and deeper in love more after my trip from Korea. At that time I only knew about Korea from K-drama like Winter Sonata, Daejanggeum, Hotelier, Endless Love etc. So I decided to go to this country to knew more things about Korea.

For this trip I used tour & travel services because I didn't know about the language and transportation in Korea. I also a little afraid since this is my first trip. But nowadays we can find information regarding the tourist site, accomodation, transportation, learn a conversation using Korean language or etc through official website like Korea Tourism Organization , Buzz Korea & Touch Korea 

There's also "Visit Korea 2.0" a smartphone application for travel in Korea developed by the Korea Tourism Organization.

If you are questioning, Buzz Korea is a global campaign and an integrated online community platform site that reveals Korea's tourism attractions and a variety of Korea-related contents through social media like Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. 

And Touch Korea is an interactive program that give you an experience to discover the charms of Korea online. You should try playing Touch Korea, it's really a fun experience. You can try lock of love attractions at N Seoul Tower, take a picture of traditional Korean wedding with your partner, making Kimchi, play Jegi-Chagi (Korea traditional game) & many more.

Here's a story about my trip to Korea & why I fall in love with this country :

This is the first time I use airplane as a transportation, but luckily I get Korean Air for my first flight experience. I enjoyed my time using this airlines, the flight attendant is  pretty and nice. The food is delicious too, especially the Cheesecake Ice Cream for dessert. I arrived in Korea on 10.00 AM and the local tour leader Kang Ji Eun-ssi bring us to Daejanggeum Theme Park to saw a filming place of the drama "Daejanggeum". I also had a chance to wear a hanbok (Korea Traditional clothes), take a picture with the main cast figurine. ^^ & eat ddeokboki.

We also go to Chuncheon Myeongdong to grab a lunch, we ate Dakgalbi (a stir-frying marinated diced chicken in chilli pepper paste with sliced cabbage, sweet potato, onions and rice cake). It taste delicious, the ahjuma owner also teach me to eat the dish with unique way. We took a fresh cabbage, put the chicken meat and chilli paste, rolled it and then eat it. I've only seen this on K-drama before, it's really great that I can experienced this. I also taste my first kimchi, it taste delicious and I try several types of kimchi while I'm here.

After that we spend our time to shopping at Chuncheon Myeongdong Street, this street is also famous for Winter Sonata filming scene. I also buy a giant strawberry (I mean this the biggest strawberry I ever saw), it tastes very good & sweet. How can I not love this country when I can enjoy many delicious meals here. ^^ --> Delicious Food 
 

We go to Vivaldi Resort to take a rest at night, this place is famous for ski resort in winter. 

At the morning, we go to Mt Seorak to visit Shinheungsa Temple, Grand Bronze Budha and ride a cable car to Gwongeumsong Fortress. The mountain was named Seorak because the snow would not melt for a long time keeping the rocks in a permanent state of white.

On our way to Mt Seorak, our bus stopped for gas. There were two ahjuma selling a black sesame candy and give us a free samples. Although we didn't buy, they remained friendly and chatted with us. I also remember when I'm arrived at Seoul, because I wasn't used to the weather in Korea, my facial skin gets really dry and peeling. There was an employee of cosmetics store that I've visited gave me a sample to apply into my face. The next day my face has improved. One more point why I love Korea. >< --> A friendly peoples

Next day, our destination is to play at Everland Themepark (an open space amusement park). I'm so excited in here, there's a parade show, beautiful garden and many cute merchandise store. Unfortunately, not long after I arrived a heavy rain is pouring down. All the attractions closed, so I spend the day mostly on merchandise store. 

Today is my last day, finally I go to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace at Seoul. The palace is more amazing & beautiful than the pictures I saw on the internet. I also visit the National Folk Museum of Korea located inside the palace. For my last destination, I went shopping at Dongdaemun Market for souvenir. And actually I'm a little amazed when Ji Eun eonnie told me that the market is open until dawn. But isn't that a good news? especially for a girl like me that loves to shopping till drop. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Other point --> Culture/Traditional Heritage, Beautiful Places & Shopping Paradise

My trip to Korea ends here... but wait it isn't end here, it's only temporary because I already decided when I'm in the plane headed back to my country that I must visit Korea again. There's so many places that I haven't visited (Nami Island, Teddy Bear Museum, N Seoul Tower, Myeongdong Street at Seoul, Apgujeong-Cheongdamdong-Gangnam and many more). There's so many thing I want to try like Jjimjilbang (public house), Noraebang (karaoke box), drink maekgolki at Pojangmacha etc. You can read my other blog about the things I want to do/ places I want to revisit in Korea related to previous event Asia On Air Program here

It's been 5 years passed since my last visit, through several years my interest to Korea grew more. I try many Korean food like ddeokboki, samgyetang, bulgogi, bibimbap and jjangmyeon in my city. But I think the best way is to taste the dish from origin country.  K-Pop Idol also gave me a positive personal influence besides their song/performance which tone up my daily life, that we shouldn't give up and work hard to pursue our dream. Almost all the K-Pop Idol must endure years training before they debut and become succeed.

I also try to learn hangeul from Charm Lee's Beginner Korean Class & now continuing my curiousity by attending the Korea Class at Korea Cultural Center Indonesia. My teacher Kim Jae Wook (김재욱 -선생) is very nice. He is so funny when he try to speak in Indonesian. Last week he celebrated his birthday, he gave us a slice of his birthday cake. Yummy.

  
I'm only beginner right now, but I hope someday I can speak Korean fluently and chat with my penpal friend Jung Eun Shin-ssi using Korean. I meet her from SNS, she's a very kind and pretty girl. We had a same interest about K-Pop Idol & K-drama. She also told me that I must visit Korea again, since there's a lot of changes from 2007.

Thank you for give me opportunity to share my passion towards Korea through this event. I know my trip is an old story but it's also unforgettable moment for me. I hope I will be choosen as one of the winners so I can share you a new story about my trip to Korea and how I met with my idol 2PM & Miss A.

For you who read this post and interested to visit Korea, c'mon join 2012 buzz Korea Awards Maybe you're one of the lucky winners including me. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Click here for a tips "How to apply blog content".

감사합니다