tickles & trickles: Korea Part 1~ Bub exploring his Korean roots for the first time

We arrived in Seoul on 5 August. I could already feel the heat from the moment we stepped into the elevators leading down to the basement carpark! Fortunately, it was only hot for one week, and then it rained almost every other day the following week!! The weather was really dreadful!!

As the weather was so hot, my MIL and SIL did not want to leave the house. They preferred staying indoors with the aircon on full blast. As I just arrived in Seoul, I was dying to go out to explore - rain or shine! I've been to Korea before in 2009, but I got on a connecting flight straight to Busan from Incheon airport, so I have never been to Seoul before. The heat in Seoul was killing people (the news reported that at least ten people had died from heat or heat-related illnesses) so my MIL forced us to stay at home, with good intentions in mind.

During the first week, all I ever did was stayed in the house (with the air-con on) and went to shopping centres (had air-con). We had to go to the shopping centre because bub was running low on diapers, wipes, and milk powder. We went to Emart and NC department store. NC was relatively quiet, but Emart was packed full of people, even on the weekdays. We even had to wait for tables at the food court. The large volume of people was attributed to the summer school vacation at that time. Hence, all the young kids and teens were hanging out at the mall, taking up space :)

Daryl arrived in Seoul on the same day as me, but he was staying at a hotel with his navy/poly friends. We actually planned to meet up in Seoul, and I gave him the house number to contact me. I waited for his call everyday! I even sent him an internet SMS, but he did not reply. He finally emailed me when he returned to Singapore. Apparently he had been trying to call me from the payphones in Korea, but the call could not go through. As I myself have no clue how the payphones in Korea worked because the instructions were in Korean (it took me nearly two years to figure out how the payphones in Australia worked and the instructions were all well in English!), I forgave him. I was quite disappointed that I did not meet Daryl and his friends as I was actually relying on Daryl to take me out as he had done extensive research and knew Seoul well. =(

My in-law's house was a bit old. They've been living there since my husband was 10 years old, and they got builders to construct their 3-storey apartment for them. When the building was constructed, my in-laws rented out the bottom 2 floors, and they only occupied the third floor apartment. I wished we had the ground floor apartment, because it was so troublesome carrying bub's pram up and down the long flight of stairs. It was good exercise though!

The local shopping centre was like Junction 8 in Bishan. There was a pet shop, and cinema too. A few of the kindergarten children were outside the cinema as it was a school excursion to the movies. I like the Korean kindergarten uniforms. Not all the kindys have the same uniform. However, a few of the kindys I saw in the neighbourhood had similar uniforms - Burberry-style tartan skirt/shorts (see below). The pic is quite blur, but you can just visualise a Burberry in your mind. It looked exactly like Burberry but I'm sure they had variations to avoid being sued.

The pet shop

We went to like a "play gym". It is commonly found all over Korea - Korea is an extremely child-friendly country. It was like an indoor play haven for kids. Parents can leave their kids there and go shopping. I'm not sure how much it was - because my SIL paid. There were slides, TV cartoons, books, computers, and everything. We bumped into my SIL's ex-classmate and her younger son was about the same age as bub, so they got along pretty well =)

Bub's name in Korean

Teaching bub and me simple Korean words

Fascinated by the magnets

All kids have that sticker for identification purposes. It has the child's name and time of entry (we paid for an hour's play)

We also went to a "restaurant village". It's like a cluster of restaurants in a village-type setting. My in-laws did not have a baby capsule in their car, and it wasn't a law to restrain kids in the car. However, I was extremely cautious during car rides, especially when my FIL braked. Tried many times to sit bub down, but he would stand up again.

so stylo-milo =)

Sat for a second before standing up again

Enjoying the ride

We finally arrived at the restaurant village after a long drive (about 45mins). We could've got there in 20-30 mins, but we got lost and had to keep making u-turns.

That's the entrance and car park

It's a very nice cosy "village" with lots of greenery and scenery. You feel like you've went back in time.

We were lucky to get a parking spot right in front - that's the usher directing us on where to park

A map of the area and all the different restaurants offering different food styles and types for your choosing

A signboard giving directions to the different restaurants - it was like a Korean-type of hawker centre with different food caterings and choices. Reminded me a bit of Newton Circus.

My FIL chose this restaurant

I loved the restaurant. The ambience was great. It felt like I was in an imperial palace or something. The atmosphere was authentic.

We sat at the waiting area because there were no rooms/tables. Business was great, and it was packed with people on a weekend. Bub entertained himself by playing with the oriental windows.

We finally got our table after waiting about 15mins. The table was very long, so we shared the other half of the table with another family. It was just our 2 families in one room.

A mini garden in the middle of the restaurant. You can see the rooms in the background where we sat and had our dinner. Shoes had to be removed before entering.

Bub and Haraboji (grandfather)

There was even an outdoor playground/excercise area with a swing hanging from the tree!! So authentic right?

Amazing scenery with a pond in the middle

Another restaurant across the pond

We finally went to Lotte World on a Sunday. We went bright and early in the morning to avoid getting caught in long queus. Being a foreigner, we got extra discount by showing our passports. We also had extra discount as we paid using my MIL's Lotte credit card =)

As bub is still below 2 years, there were a lot of rides that he could not enjoy. Thankfully, there were plenty of other baby fun to thrill the little one.

Chilling with Pinnochio

Bub loved the rotating flower chairs

There was one queue we could not avoid - the indoor "hot air balloon" ride! The sign warned that we'll have to queue for 120minutes for this ride...

The queue was so long that it soon became bub's milk time. SIL went to get warm water and made bub's milk.

Bub's really lucky to be sitting in his pram as we had to queue for almost 2 hours!

We finally got on the hot air balloon. We were so high up, and could see the entire indoor theme park layout (and all the rides we missed)

Bub looked terrified

We rested our tired legs for a bit and enjoyed an ice cool blueberry drink.

Bub playing with the straws

All our lips turned blue from the drink!

We then decided to go for lunch, but all the restaurants were full and crowded with people. It was like a circus in there. We didn't care what we ate, we just wanted to find a restaurant with an empty table. It was nuts! We finally found one empty table, and settled down before realising that we were in a Mexican restaurant. It was so random, but fun. =)

Table paper mats for the kids

Didn't look like Mexican food to me, haha. Rice is a staple food in Korea, so they serve rice with everything, even Mexican food! Although it didn't taste like Mexican food, it was still delicious.

What I like about Korea is that it's a super child-friendly country. You don't really need to bring your own pram anywhere, as they always provide prams for loan. It's free and first-come-first-serve. You just need to tell them that you want a "yoo mo ja" (stroller in Korean), give them your ID, which you will get back when you return the pram. They accept most foreign IDs, as long as it's in English. I used my Australian driving license.

Caught a woman sleeping at Lotte world! haha

Bunny ears!! For being born in the year of the rabbit =)

Bub loves Pororo, and all penguins in general. Hence, my MIL always bought this cute mini Pororo butter cake for bub at Paris Baguette. I first saw Paris Baguette (PB) in Seoul. I later discovered that they were opening PB in Singapore too. We were excited, but sad to find that the Singapore outlet did not sell the Pororo cakes which bub loved.

Bub is also a true Korean at heart. He loved reading Korean books and magazines =)

Look at the mess he made!

Bub also fell sick often. Maybe it was due to the heat, but he had fever for almost 1 week. My FIL, who is a doctor, told us to take bub to the hospital the next day. Bub was also bitten by lots of mosquitoes!! The Korean mozzies are horribly vicious. Bub was not spared. He had big red bites all over his leg, hands, and even his face! The strange thing was, Jen from the Korean Baby, shared the same experience. Jen lives in Seoul (her husband's Korean), and they just returned from Singapore for a holiday. Her son got bitten just like bub! Maybe the Korean mozzies love babies with Singapore smell =)

At the local hospital. Korea did not have GPs or polyclinics. These small hospitals act like a polyclinic

Bub's medicine for his fever - 1 day 3 times (4mls)

We even took him to the skin specialist for a second opinion (in case it wasn't a mozzie bite). However, the dermatologist told us the same thing, and prescribed some skin creams.

I LOVE Korean grapes - sweetest ever. And they're so cheap in Korea - only $3 a bunch! I went to Sol mart at Novena, and the Korean grapes were like $8...I could savour them forever...

The Koreans in general, don't speak English well, unless they were brought up in an English-speaking country. The English that's being taught in Korean schools by KOREAN teachers are seriously shit. I'm not insulting them, but the government should hire foreign teachers who are native English speakers. I've seen some really strange English words - like Starbugs. We went for a buffet at Yes Mare. It was quite expensive and posh, so you'd expect their English to be flawless. But, get this - they actually spelt PASSION FRUIT, as "Fashion Flute".

Sometimes, I just want to correct them because it's not their fault. But my Korean is just as shit, and they'll probably not understand what I'm trying to tell them. Argh...

We also went to Shinsegae, because Daryl, who had flown back to Singapore, wanted to buy more Pancoat shirts so I had to buy for him. My MIL wanted to take a taxi, because of the heat. We managed to get a swift and brief tour of the city on our way to Shinsegae.

Daryl's instructions were so off. Told me that Pancoat was on either the 2nd or 3rd floor, so I kept going up and down between the 2 floors searching for Pancoat. The lifts at Shinsegae were quite annoying, because they don't go to all floors. One lift only served even numbered floors, and the other served odd numbered floors. Always must check before taking the lift. I finally gave up and asked this guy who worked there, and he said it was on the 4th floor!! I could strangle Daryl =) Anyway, I love the parent room at Shinsegae, it's so high class. Bub didn't want to leave because he wanted to play with the toys that were in there.