Korea..."Sparkling"
Korea..."Sparkling"
I borrow the line from Korea Tourism Advertisement since I came back from Busan, South Korea(Republic of Korea) a month ago so I just feel like it's appropriate to use the line as my blog's title.
Was it really "Sparkling"? It definitely was, in some way. And also it was another one of a very good experience and a very wonderful moment I've had in my life.
My first day in Busan, there was 2 impressions I got from my very first Korea trip. The 1st one was a taxi driver from airport. I know I should aware of some "taxi driver" but I didn't. I was tired and sleepy because my flight was at 2am, that's too early in a morning or too late at night depends how you see it, so I didn't aware when he said taxi fare was 50,000 KRW; which I found out later that it was 1,670 THB!, that was a tough luck. I also didn't get receipt because apparently he wasn't on meter. I might have to pay for that price but I deserve it well. The 2nd was with another taxi driver, I called her from in front of my work site to some where near my hotel, which they said it's easier to find and then just walked back to hotel, when I got off I felt so sorry for her as I didn't have a small note with me but only 50,000KRW I had. I tried to tell her to drop me at any convenience store to get some change. She told me that it was ok, "Service" she kept saying. I couldn't thank her enough for that, the fare was 2,400KRW (80THB). It was such an unlucky and a very lucky kind of experience in one day.
Haeundae was the town where I stayed during the trip. There's famous Haeundae beach where I loved to be on every day of my stay. Since Bangkok is a bit far from beach so I took an advantage of my luck to enjoy the scenery at every possible moment I had.
My mission of the trip was I had to train 9 Korean staff how to do wax hand. The mission of training Korean staff sounded difficult but it was successfully accomplished. I had to give a very huge round of applause to them. I admired their enthusiasm and never giving up attitude. With the language barrier, they managed to learn it quick. For a few hours of learning and a couple days of practicing, they all know how to work it out. It was very notable.
Korean seems to have a very good driving manner. That's one thing I didn't miss about Bangkok was its traffic and the madness of Bangkokian's drivers. There wasn't so noisy nor "beep beep beep...!!!" and nor zig zag driving or it was my luck that I didn't have to witness those kind of event. But then again, I liked what I saw so far.
And of course the most important part of my trip was FOOD. My passion is always about trying local food and it has never been my problem to try something new or different. My first meal was delightful as I was helped by my translator and she's also and always such a big help to me, Suin. We went to Bulgogi's brother, Bulgogi is a barbecue marinated beef, which was of course fantastic! I also had a cold noodle which was lovely but Suin insisted if I wanted some vinegar. I thanked her but I did enjoy that plain but simple cold buckwheat noodle the way it was. I had to say that I did enjoy everything I had without adding any additional spice. I loved that they have a bowl of Kimchi on table, at staff canteen, it's like we have that fish sauce and chilly on a table in Thailand. Something I like about their food court or coffee shop, Twosome place it's called, was a pager. Some people might forget already what pager is. But in Korea, they use some electronic device which looks a bit like pager when you go to food court, you go to a cashier counter to order food from menu and pay. Then they will give you this device and tell you that when it vibrates means your food is ready so you just go to the shop that you pick their food from the cashier and collect your food, I love that idea! And when you finish your meal, you have to put your tray away to where they have carts to collect food trays, the cart is a bigger version of a cart on plane. It's a simple concept about those pager and a cart but yet so impressive which I don't need to compare anything to what we have here in Thailand. I had time to visit local market but unfortunately I didn't try much food as I wished because I went there alone and it would be more fun if I had someone who could help me out! Anyway, it was a really enjoyable discovery in both food and place.
Normally I would be terrified to see my phone bill after travelling but this trip I didn't forget to turn off data roaming. Of course it was difficult but lucky me that Korea provides me a very good way of communication, Free Wifi. It wasn't just only Free but it's Free HI-SPEED WIFI!! Since I knew that the department store where my work site's located provided a free wifi and so did the hotel where I stayed, I didn't need to worry about how to connect to the world. I love Korea FREE HI-SPEED WIFI!!
A week in Korea, I could fall in love with the place so easily. I might not be there at their best weather, as it was windy and showering during that week, I still like its fresh air and how clean and green the city is. Just only one problem was the language, beside that I don't see any other reason why shouldn't I like it.
Last day in Korea, my last wish and mission was to walk around art gallery area. But since I followed the wrong way, I ended up somewhere else which was spetacular. After some wrong turn, I found Moontan Road; A very magnificent forest path. Its beautiful and peaceful scene took my breath away. I didn't imagine to find something like that but since the second day at APEC House, I had to admit that there was something else of Korea more than just shopping and plastic surgery. I tried to tell everyone that please don't ask me to buy something because I am not a shopping type and I wouldn't have any idea what to buy any way. So souvenir I got from Korea was some packs of chocolate instead of some pack of cosmetic. But what important was I had a great time exploring Korea and enjoying their local food. My mission was fullfiled.
I keep my last impressive moment to the end, once again with a taxi driver. My last day in Busan, I got a taxi in front of a hotel and I told him to go to airport. After a couple minute he called someone on a phone and talked in Korean. I didn't like the fact that he talked and drove but when I answer the phone, I was surprised. A woman on phone told me that a taxi driver wanted to inform me about the route to airport that he's gonna use the other way to avoid traffic and hope I would be ok with it. I said to her that I didn't have any problem at all! How would I possibly have a problem since I had no clue way to go and which was the other route she talked about! But I found it was very nice of them which is rare to find.
Korea.."Sparkling"... It's sparked some thought indeed. If the government stop taking advantage of their people, stop fighting for their own purpose, start working and start developing the country, we will be "Unbeatable Thailand" as they wish on their new campaign. So, "Unbeatable Thailand" we shall see...
I borrow the line from Korea Tourism Advertisement since I came back from Busan, South Korea(Republic of Korea) a month ago so I just feel like it's appropriate to use the line as my blog's title.
Was it really "Sparkling"? It definitely was, in some way. And also it was another one of a very good experience and a very wonderful moment I've had in my life.
My first day in Busan, there was 2 impressions I got from my very first Korea trip. The 1st one was a taxi driver from airport. I know I should aware of some "taxi driver" but I didn't. I was tired and sleepy because my flight was at 2am, that's too early in a morning or too late at night depends how you see it, so I didn't aware when he said taxi fare was 50,000 KRW; which I found out later that it was 1,670 THB!, that was a tough luck. I also didn't get receipt because apparently he wasn't on meter. I might have to pay for that price but I deserve it well. The 2nd was with another taxi driver, I called her from in front of my work site to some where near my hotel, which they said it's easier to find and then just walked back to hotel, when I got off I felt so sorry for her as I didn't have a small note with me but only 50,000KRW I had. I tried to tell her to drop me at any convenience store to get some change. She told me that it was ok, "Service" she kept saying. I couldn't thank her enough for that, the fare was 2,400KRW (80THB). It was such an unlucky and a very lucky kind of experience in one day.
Haeundae was the town where I stayed during the trip. There's famous Haeundae beach where I loved to be on every day of my stay. Since Bangkok is a bit far from beach so I took an advantage of my luck to enjoy the scenery at every possible moment I had.
My mission of the trip was I had to train 9 Korean staff how to do wax hand. The mission of training Korean staff sounded difficult but it was successfully accomplished. I had to give a very huge round of applause to them. I admired their enthusiasm and never giving up attitude. With the language barrier, they managed to learn it quick. For a few hours of learning and a couple days of practicing, they all know how to work it out. It was very notable.
Korean seems to have a very good driving manner. That's one thing I didn't miss about Bangkok was its traffic and the madness of Bangkokian's drivers. There wasn't so noisy nor "beep beep beep...!!!" and nor zig zag driving or it was my luck that I didn't have to witness those kind of event. But then again, I liked what I saw so far.
And of course the most important part of my trip was FOOD. My passion is always about trying local food and it has never been my problem to try something new or different. My first meal was delightful as I was helped by my translator and she's also and always such a big help to me, Suin. We went to Bulgogi's brother, Bulgogi is a barbecue marinated beef, which was of course fantastic! I also had a cold noodle which was lovely but Suin insisted if I wanted some vinegar. I thanked her but I did enjoy that plain but simple cold buckwheat noodle the way it was. I had to say that I did enjoy everything I had without adding any additional spice. I loved that they have a bowl of Kimchi on table, at staff canteen, it's like we have that fish sauce and chilly on a table in Thailand. Something I like about their food court or coffee shop, Twosome place it's called, was a pager. Some people might forget already what pager is. But in Korea, they use some electronic device which looks a bit like pager when you go to food court, you go to a cashier counter to order food from menu and pay. Then they will give you this device and tell you that when it vibrates means your food is ready so you just go to the shop that you pick their food from the cashier and collect your food, I love that idea! And when you finish your meal, you have to put your tray away to where they have carts to collect food trays, the cart is a bigger version of a cart on plane. It's a simple concept about those pager and a cart but yet so impressive which I don't need to compare anything to what we have here in Thailand. I had time to visit local market but unfortunately I didn't try much food as I wished because I went there alone and it would be more fun if I had someone who could help me out! Anyway, it was a really enjoyable discovery in both food and place.
Normally I would be terrified to see my phone bill after travelling but this trip I didn't forget to turn off data roaming. Of course it was difficult but lucky me that Korea provides me a very good way of communication, Free Wifi. It wasn't just only Free but it's Free HI-SPEED WIFI!! Since I knew that the department store where my work site's located provided a free wifi and so did the hotel where I stayed, I didn't need to worry about how to connect to the world. I love Korea FREE HI-SPEED WIFI!!
A week in Korea, I could fall in love with the place so easily. I might not be there at their best weather, as it was windy and showering during that week, I still like its fresh air and how clean and green the city is. Just only one problem was the language, beside that I don't see any other reason why shouldn't I like it.
Last day in Korea, my last wish and mission was to walk around art gallery area. But since I followed the wrong way, I ended up somewhere else which was spetacular. After some wrong turn, I found Moontan Road; A very magnificent forest path. Its beautiful and peaceful scene took my breath away. I didn't imagine to find something like that but since the second day at APEC House, I had to admit that there was something else of Korea more than just shopping and plastic surgery. I tried to tell everyone that please don't ask me to buy something because I am not a shopping type and I wouldn't have any idea what to buy any way. So souvenir I got from Korea was some packs of chocolate instead of some pack of cosmetic. But what important was I had a great time exploring Korea and enjoying their local food. My mission was fullfiled.
I keep my last impressive moment to the end, once again with a taxi driver. My last day in Busan, I got a taxi in front of a hotel and I told him to go to airport. After a couple minute he called someone on a phone and talked in Korean. I didn't like the fact that he talked and drove but when I answer the phone, I was surprised. A woman on phone told me that a taxi driver wanted to inform me about the route to airport that he's gonna use the other way to avoid traffic and hope I would be ok with it. I said to her that I didn't have any problem at all! How would I possibly have a problem since I had no clue way to go and which was the other route she talked about! But I found it was very nice of them which is rare to find.
Korea.."Sparkling"... It's sparked some thought indeed. If the government stop taking advantage of their people, stop fighting for their own purpose, start working and start developing the country, we will be "Unbeatable Thailand" as they wish on their new campaign. So, "Unbeatable Thailand" we shall see...
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