Day 5 : Mt. Sorak / Nami Island / Seoul

Nami Island is 63km away from Seoul and is famous for its beautiful tree lined roads. This island is the location where many scenes of Winter Sonata were shot.

We didn't particularly enjoyed the lake cruise and the leisure walk around the island. Weather was too cold and our hands were numbed. Even the small fountain behind Jaden turned to ice.

After that, we visited the Lotte World Theme Park. As the weather was still cold, we opted to stay indoor.

Day 4 : Vivaldi Park / Mt. Sorak

Vivaldi Park is actually a ski resort but since it's only autumn, the resort is in the midst of making 'snow' for the upcoming ski season. Below, the resort view from our condo room.






Entrance of Daemyung Vivaldi Park Ski Resort

After breakfast, we departed for Mt Sorak to visit the Grand Bronze Buddha and Shinheungsa Temple. We didn't manage to visit the Kwongumsong Fortress via a cable car ride as the wind was too strong that day. The temperature for the day was approx. -7 degrees Celcius!

We also visited Abai Village. The village of Cheongho-dong is now the hometown to many people of North Korean ancestry. Many elderly people fled to Cheongho-dong from North Korea during the Korean War. This area became popular after the Korean drama 'Gaeul Donghwa' (Autumn in My Heart) was filmed here.

Noticed this 'weird' house which has a door on the upper floor.

We had Korean for dinner almost everyday now, below is Korean Bulgogi beef - doesn't taste as good as the Australian bulgogi beef we had later in the trip.

Picture of the boys at the lobby of Sorak Park Hotel.

Day 3 : Vivaldi Park

After breakfast, we took an early morning domestic flight back to Seoul, and upon arrival, proceeded to Vivaldi Park to visit the Ocean World.

Jaden was so tired during the flight, that he almost slept through-out.


The cheeky boys at domestic Kimpo airport


We had bimbimbap rice for lunch.


Bimbimbap is a combination of all kinds of vegetables and egg, mixed together in a stone bowl.

In the afternoon, we went to Ocean World (something like Sunway Lagoon) to enjoy the in-door water slides, waves and heated pool.

Day 2 : Jeju Island

On Saturday morning, we had abalone porridge for breakfast before proceeding to Jeju-do Island for a full day tour.

Seongsan Sunrise Peak rose from under the sea in a volcanic eruption about 100,000 years ago. Located on the eastern end of Jejudo island, there is a huge crater at the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak. The crater is about 600m in diameter and 90m high.

The huge crater in the background.

The ridge provides an ideal spot for walks and for horse riding as well.

Located at the foot of Mt. Halla, Seongeup Folk Village has perfectly perserved Korean tradition. With its vast amount of cultural property, this place is designated as a Folk Village. Many cultural properties such as residential houses, Confucian shrines and schools, ancient government offices, stone statues, millstones, stone monuments, and intangible cultural assets such as folk plays, native foods, etc are handed down to date.

Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls

We also watched an acrobat show at the Magic World and had sashimi dinner at night.

10 Days Jeju Island/Seoul/Everland/Mt. Sorak Tour (14Nov-24Nov) Day 1

Day 1: Arrived at Incheon Airport and departed for Seoul City tour of Kyongbok Palace, National Folk Museum and Presidential Blue House.

Jaden in the airplane

Depart for Seoul city tour in a bus

Kyongbok Palace was the primary residence for the royal family of Joseon Dynasty.

Beautiful autumn leaves, in yellow and red

Jaden and Chern outside the National Folk Museum


Ryan with monkey statue

All the cousins in the palace compound

Korean ginseng chicken for lunch

Transfer to domestic Kimpo Airport flight to Jeju Island. Visited the Mysterious Road before checking in to hotel. In the pic, the road seems to be going upwards, but in actual fact, it's going downwards, and vice versa.

Check-in at Ramada Plaza Jeju

The tour guide brought us to a restaurant that served seafood steamboat for dinner.

Silence....

There will be silence from this blog as the authors will be away....

Wish us luck as we will be bringing the 2 monkeys along. Preparation and packing of luggage bags have already been done although mama still wrestle with the thought of how many packets of milk to bring, number of diapers, pants, tops, etc... *arggh*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Annual Report

Name of Student : Ryan Yuen

Age : 4

Met up with Teacher Ann after work to discuss Ryan's progress for the year.

Personal & Social Development

Ryan has really matured a lot this year, in particular since the second term. He has become more confident and mixes well with his peers and teachers. He also vocalises more and is more willing in group participation.

Reading

Ryan is quite a good reader now. He also has developed a good aptitude to books and reading. He also takes books on his own initiative which shows his keen interest.

Writing

Ryan's writing skills have greatly improved. He is not learning to write upper case alphabets and knows his lower case alphabets well.

Bahasa Malaysia

Ryan participates in the group oral Bahasa Malaysia sessions. He finds this subject a bit challenging. Regular application of vocabulary will help improve his memory skills.

English

Ryan's English language skills are developing well. He communicates well with people and his diction has gotten much better, especially when reading.

Mathematics

Ryan shows great aptitude towards this subject. This is his strongest subject and he has learned to work quickly and independently. He is now doing more complicated sums in addition and also number sequence.

Special Comments

It has been a delight having Ryan in school. He has really come a long way and I am pleased with his progress. We look forward to having Ryan back for another year.

Weekend of Parties

It was a weekend of parties for the boys. Last Saturday, we went to Jungle Gym, which is located at Bangsar Shopping Centre for Bryan Choo's 4th Birthday celebration. Bryan is Ryan's schoolmate at Vital Years. He just joined VY this year and was previously from Julia Gabriel Chilten House. Bryan's mum, Cindy is a nice lady. She was so busy that day but I managed a short chat with her. Asked whether Bryan has any siblings or she has plans to have another child, she casually mention that it was a surprise for her when she found that she was pregnant with Bryan at 43! Wow, she definitely doesn't look her age!

Ryan and Jaden, without a doubt, enjoyed themselves tremendously. Once the entrance gate opened, they dashed in, and were nowhere to be seen. The poor mummy, who did not bring her socks, was not allowed in. Reluctantly, I bought a pair of socks for RM4. I was worried that Jaden will get 'lost', and so I cannot have him out of my sight. I followed him everywhere, climbing through the tiny tunnels and playing balls with him. I took lots of photos of him, but none of the brother as Ryan was busy playing with his friends.

A pix of the birthday boy, Bryan.

The Ultraman cake...all the boys were hoping to get one of the toy...the mum said, no, it's all Bryan's toys...haha....
















And on Sunday, we went to Lisa's house to celebrate Hazel's 1st Birthday. Lisa is my old school friend from BBGS. It had been a while since we last caught up with each other and the rest of the gang. Birthday gatherings are just perfect for catching up!