Korea Winter Discovery 2010 - Phoenix Park Ski Resort

After a fun day at the Everland Outdoor Theme Park(read more HERE), we finally gets to stay in the skiing resort which is one of the highlight for this tour. As we went during the earlier months of Winter, we still can't really sees the whole skiing mountain being covered with thick snow. But despite of the disadvantages, everyone still had a great time catching up with some skiing lesson snowballs fight.

For morning Breakfast we had some simple Western and Korea dishes in Buffet syle together with assorted bread, toast, fresh juice and coffee/tea.

After breakfast, everyone changed into skiing outfit and getting ready to embrace ourselves with beautiful morning view from the "Scenic Gondola Ride" up the snowy mountain.

Breathtaking sights of the downhill view from the top of the snowy mountain. This is also the starting point for those Alpine skiers too.

A group of skiers getting ready for action. At that moment we wished that we could be half as good as them to handle all the turns and jumps.

Our first encounter with the real snowflakes at the top of the snowy mountain.

Although Rey is too young for the actual skiing fun but he did have lots of fun with the sled-riding. And he even complaint that the half day skiing itinerary is too short for him.

Uncle and cousins are training hard to balance their skiing set after the demo session by our tour guide. Guess skiing is not an easy sport after all as we saw a lot of young kids of age below 6 starts learning at such young age with their full gears on.

Lunch was at a small cottage about 8 minutes bus ride away from the skiing park. From the photo you could roughly see that we had some "Assorted Mushroom Hotpot" with shaved meat and the usual accompany sides.

While the rest of the tour mates were enjoying themselves at the "Blue Canyon Water Theme Park", we explored around the small shopping area with a few others and enjoying our afternoon tea-break with Yogurt ice-cream and Starbucks coffee to warm ourselves on the cold weather.

After a relax afternoon at the jacuzzi for the Adults and fun filled excitement at the various pools for the kids. Everyone is so tired and doze off during the an hour plus of bus journey to our dinner destination and hotel.

Dinner: We had "Octopus & Lean Pork" hotplate.

SNACK PREVIEW:

Nami Island, the filming location of popular drama series "Winter Sonata". And we finally experience the downpour of snowflakes and the freezing cold weather of -10 degree in cold winter evening.

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[New In Town] City Nomads

CityNomads.com is not just a website where people can find great deals in Singapore, it is a social network and community for Singapore’s food and drink lovers. On 16th December 2010, CityNomads has a launched party at Infusion @ Dempsey to celebrate its' official launched.

And on the following day, 17th December 2010 they launched their website which is easy to use with only four main tabs to navigate from such as:- "Today's Promotions, Recent Promotions, How it Works and About City Nomads". Below is a sample of the screen capture for your reference or you could click the link provided to explore more at: http://citynomads.com/


Just like some of the well-known online restaurants and leisure search sites such as inSing, HungryGoWhere and OpenRice_Sg, CityNomads will also organize regular events such as wine tastings, absinthe parties, whisky appreciation, cooking classes and and etc to bring likeminded individuals together.

And on top of the these, CityNomads also promotes Eco-friendly habits with its paperless system. Members will not need to print out any coupons but instead just provide their ID and mobile number for verification.


  There is even an Iphone App (more information HERE) for “Nomads” to help keep track of purchases. For quicker updates and information on CityNomads, you could add them at Facebook(link HERE) or Twitter (link HERE).

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Korea Winter Discovery 2010 - Everland Theme Park

Upon returned from Jeju Island we spent almost half a day at this Korea famous outdoor theme park known as "Everland". This park equipped with many different kinds of rides and attractions that are suitable for all ages. In it there is also a safari park in Zoo-Topia area where tourists would get a close up view of the wild animals.

Finally gets to see something familiar and decent for breakfast at one of the cafe known as "Azale" at Jeju, Grand Hotel where we stays during our Jeju stop over.

After breakfast we proceed to our flight back from Jeju International Airport to Gimpo Airport in Seoul.

About an hour bus ride, we transfer the theme park shuttle bus service from the foot of the mountain to the entrance of the Everland theme park. (about 5 - 8 minutes ride)

Everland is opened in 1976 and it is about 1,200,000yd2. It is ranked as the 4th theme park in the world by offering 5 Main Festivals and exciting entertainments all year around.

The T.Express shown in the photos at the back end is the first wooden roller coaster built in 2006 and the largest of any kind in South Korea. The T Express is the 6th longest wooden coaster in the world at 5,838 feet long. It is also the steepest, with the first drop inclined at 77 degrees.
Height requirement: between 130 cm and 195 cm.
Location: European Adventure

Indulge yourself in a bus-ride with close up look with the wild animals in the Safari World tour where you can see rare white Tiger, Black Bear, Elephants and etc.
Location: Zoo-Topia

For kids, Animal Wonder Stage will be a great place for fantastic stage performances featuring Everland's very own animal stars.
Location: Zoo-Topia

There are a lot of small food stalls around the theme park selling all kinds of quick and easy snacks for you to grab along while enjoy your rides. Or you could also explore the food village located at European Adventure. Here we have some popcorn chicken meal from Burger Cafe.
Location: European Adventure

Everland's gorgeous parades at the Carnival Square.
Location: European Adventure

Enjoying our festive train ride around the Four Season Garden.

The Ferris wheel in Magic Land provides a spectacular view of the whole park.
Location: Magic Land

Oriental Restaurant that caters buffet with more than 40 mouthwatering dishes. Look stunning with all the Christmas lighting.
Location: Global Fair

Amazing Christmas lighting at Global Fair area. Since we reached there almost 12pm and we have only around 4.5 hours in the park or so to play those rides. But since we are not those adventure people, most of the rides we did not complete except exploring around the park and accompany my kid for some kid's friendly rides and shows.

For more photos of our adventage in the Everland Theme Park, do click on the link HERE to re-direct to Cuisine Paradise Facebook Fan Page album @ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48950&id=116774448333449&ref=mf

Dinner time: Korea BBQ Pork with lettuce wrap and kimchi and etc.

SNACK PREVIEW:

This is the main reason we choose to explore Korea in winter. Stay tune for more updates on the skiing post soon.....

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Sakae Junior Club - Sushi Making Workshop

Last Friday, 17 December we went for a kids' Sushi Making Workshop organised by Sakae Sushi at one of its' outlets at Causeway Point. Although making sushi is not something new for my boy who loves to help me in the kitchen but from his facial expression I am sure he is having great fun and enjoyable experience with the new friends.

After registration at level one, we are asked to proceed to the Kid's Section at Level 2. From a glance you can see that the venue is well-prepared with kids' friendly sitting area, ingredients and great atmosphere towards kids liking.

This sushi workshop lasted for about an hour plus and all kids get to learn the steps and hands on at how to make Chawanmushi, Tri-Colour Sushi Balls and Cartoon Inari with some assists from their accompany parent(s).

Each and everyone of the kids enjoyed this interesting workshop very much and you could heard laughter almost every few minutes during the whole section. And another encouraging issue is everyone present at the workshop is very co-operative in following instructions which makes everything goes on smooth and enjoyable. Above are the 3 items done by my boy.

After the workshop, each and everyone of us get a set of the Lunch Bento according to our preference choice. For both Adults and Kids, everyone gets  to choose their desire bento set from the pre-ordering menu before the workshop. Since we have two adults we could get to try out both the Salmon and Spicy Chicken Bento while Rey settle for his Fire Engine set.

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Christmas with Sakae Sushi

Christmas is just 2 day around the corner and I am sure everyone is getting pretty excited with the Christmas Eve countdown event  and feast. At early this December Sakae Sushi has launched some innovative Christmas Theme (menu HERE) items to excite the sight and taste of their customers. Below are two of the Christmas items that we have a few weeks back.

  My boy was attracted to this "Christmas Tree Wonder" while waiting for our seats at the queue. So when the order came he was very excited with the layout of this mini Christmas Tree that is assemble using a graham biscuit base, potato salad body with avocado that decorates with fresh fish roes and yellow Star cutout from Tamago.
Price: S$6.99 per plate

Emo Iruka Delight was my choice and look at this lovely pressie that sparks with those tiny fish roes coating. This pressie is made up with 2 layers of 4 sushi roll each and sandwich with cheese slice.  This is indeed a very lovely combination in taste too.
Price: S$6.99 per plate


Despite with the two impressive Christmas items above we also ordered a set of  "Deluxe Bento" which serves with Prawn and mix vegetable tempura, mix Sashimi, Sakura ebi tofu, seasoned Scallop wings, grilled Eel with tamago and Chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and etc . This set was quite a huge serving which can be consume by 2 persons with additional of some sides plates from the conveyor belt.
Price: S$17.99 per set

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Korea Winter Discovery 2010 - Jeju Part II

Continue from Part I (link HERE) of our "Korea Winter Discovery 2010 - Jeju" (link HERE), we will explored another 4 places in this post such as the Horse Riding, Teddy Bear Museum, Glass Castle and Nanta Show.

After lunch we take a break before embarking a short journey to the horse riding site. And along the way, the tour guide shares with us some history of this Jeju Island and the life-style of the natives. "Haenyo" or female divers of Jeju Island are born, grow up and die near the sea. Their lives revolve around the water where they harvest abalone, conch and etc marine products.

Jeju Island is inextricably linked to its stone culture. It starts and ends with stone. Jeju people are born in stone houses surrounded by stone fences.

They work in fields fenced in by stacked stones. When they die their bodies are returned to the rocky earth, buried under a mound surrounded by stone. (at the back of the hill you can see the some square made with rocks, those are the native graveyard)

Horse riding session which cost around US$20.00 per ride according to the tour guide. This is one of the most thrilling activities that Rey looking forward and enjoy.

Assorted Colourful Seashell that we spot at the ranch area.

Another set of beautiful rocks.

The Jeju Teddy Bear Museum officially opened on 24 April 2001. In this dreamland, you can find everything you want to know about Teddy Bears and inside this museum it contains two galleries which divided into three sections, the History Hall, the Art Hall and the Project Exhibition Hall. Inside the museum there is a gift shop, cafe and outdoor teddy's forest too.

Average human size wedding bear near the entrance of the museum before the display galleries.

Prince Charles And Princess Diana's wedding.

This Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear fetched a world record price of over $190,000 (about S$293,500 sing dollars) at a fund-raising charity auction in Monaco. And this most expensive Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear can only be seen at the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju, South Korea.

Cute bears wearing traditional Korea outfit during festive celebration.

Giant Teddy Bear near the gift shop gallery area for visitor to take photos. It is so huge that for my height of 5Ft 8(1.72m), I am only half way near it's arm area.

Beautiful Sunset along the way while heading towards the Glass Museum after our Teddy Museum tour.

The Glass Castle is one of Jeju’s newest tourist attractions. It contains six themed areas with around 250 works on display, and a walking course around the attraction that follows a predetermined route. A mirror maze, tunnel of jewels and eternal ring are highlights.

In the outdoor theme park there are glass fish made from recycled soju (Korean liquor) bottles, thousands of many-sized convex mirrors, a mirror lake consisting of white rocks, a glass pyramid with spectacular colorful night lighting, a large glass coffee set floating on the lake and many colored flower beds made of glasses and a glass bridge that make out this outdoor theme park.

Dining furniture that are made of colourful glass in the middle of the park.

Dinner for the day, black pork fillet slices, saba fish, scramble egg, spicy kimchi and accompany sides.

One of the top things and must-see attractions in Korea, NANTA is a great entertainment for everyone! You do not need to understand Korean to enjoy the show just follow the plot.

The story line begins with washing vegetable, carrying meat loafs, starting the fire, the cooks in the NANTA kitchen are about to begin their busy daily routine, when their surly manager arrives with his nephew. The staff must now teach the young man to cook. As he's about to leave the kitchen, the manager informs the staff that he has just added a wedding reception to their schedule. Though stunned by this unexpected and last-minute order, the cooks set about preparing their best recipes. With time running out and a neophyte in the kitchen, they face a daunting challenge.

For more photos of our Jeju Island Discovery, you can click HERE to view from Cuisine Paradise Facebook Album or direct link at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48238&id=116774448333449&ref=mf

SNACK PREVIEW:

For the next post we will be sharing with you one of the South Korea famous theme park known as "EverLand" and our up-close experience with the animal wild.

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