It was a tour day today as I have booked a driver through Klook to get us to Nami Island and it’s surrounding. Had agreed on the meeting time the day before to change to 930 instead of 9 because it seemed impossible to get the family out by that time which the driver had agreed through whatsapp.
Everyone was awake and preparing early except K that slept in till 9 as we wanted him to get rested as much as possible. The driver had arrived early and sent a picture of the location where he was parked. By the time we got to the ground floor, it was 935, still late! I sent a picture of where we were and he drove there to pick us up. It was a mad rush to get everyone into the Hyundai Starex as there were 10 of us but it worked out fine and soon we were 1hr40mins to our first destination.
As the journey was long, the initial lively conversation with the Korea born Chinese driver didn’t last and everyone was dozing off. We arrived finally at the restaurant for lunch as I have preferred that we ate first before going to the island as there might not be food choices there.
This restaurant served stir fried chicken and we had 3 tables in which 2 had spicy and one not, for the kids. The chicken was fried by the staff and had vegetables in them too. When the chicken was done, the rice was then added in and fried on the same plate to absorb in the sauce. It was quite delicious but K didn’t appreciate the food and was almost puking at some point. Maybe the food chunks were too big. The driver paid on behalf and we left for Nami Island in which the driver also helped to get tickets on our behalf (as he had an additional 5% discount) and helped take a photo for us before bringing us into the island.
We were left to roam the island as he left with the instructions on where to meet up. Following the map, we walked towards Winter Sonata filming location. It was a 500m walk there which but it took a while as we stopped by here and there to chase squirrels, play at playground, see ostriches and Merlion and tried pumping ground water out from the ground using an old pump.
When we finally arrived, we had to jostle with the many people there that came in a tour group before my parents could take a photo in front of the photo (think the actual shooting location was further down as we didn’t get there). Walking back to the ferry after our 1.5hrs there was way faster since we didn’t stop but there was already a huge line of people waiting to board the ferry back.
Returned to the vehicle after a restroom visit, we travelled about 30mins to the Gangchon rail park for the next destination. K fell asleep on the way there and thus we left mommy and K while the rest took 2 rail bikes of 4 persons each to ride. Again there were quite a lot of people despite the poor weather and we had to queue here too. The driver was very helpful to get the tickets and helped us with the tickets and even a video of us going off. Later he drove the vehicle at the end point to meet us with mommy and K.
This rail bike experience was unlike the previous one I had in Yeosu. This was 8km in length according to the guide and had 3 tunnels and pretty good scenery along the way. Longer distance meant that I had to paddle more and it was indeed a workout for my thighs as I was seated with my parents and my aunty! But it felt great anyhow as they get to experience something different, heard them laughing a great deal along the way. The ride here made the one in Yeosu looked like a kids ride, as we made thru 3 different tunnels of different displays, one with bubbles, one with slow music and lights and the other with heart thumbing disco music!
After riding about 40mins, we disembarked at an intermediate platform to take a slow romantic train back to Gangchon train station. The train arrived after some time while people were going to the toilet, getting something to eat from the cafe, taking photos of the surrounding or simply just seated in an enclosed tentage. The train had 2 sections, one closed off from the elements with windows and the other was opened. We took the closed off ones to avoid the cold and the train rolled slowly to our final destination. Upon arrival at the end point, I managed to snag a few photos for my sister before the staff chased us out of the area.
Boarded the drivers vehicle parked next to the road and found K still asleep with mommy. We then proceeded to the next location while the drizzle started to increase in intensity.
It was about a 40mins drive from the rail park to the Garden of Morning Calm and the drizzle didn’t stop even when we finally arrived at the carpark. We opted to skip this to go for a great dinner instead since it would be too cold to visit without an umbrella and the view will be quite dreary too. We requested for a place with good Ginseng chicken and the driver knew where to bring us.
After a toilet break and some eating of some snacks bought from the stores, we were on our way, 2hrs drive back to the samgyetang restaurant.
The journey was long due to traffic jam probably contributed by rain and peak time traffic. K, who had slept too much, couldn’t go to sleep and was moving so much that he got road sickness and was puking a few times.
We had made it to the Tosokchon Samgyetang restaurant, still drizzling and the driver helped get everyone off and into the restaurant before going to park his vehicle. We ordered 8 portions to share and a seafood pancake. There were also ginseng liquor available for purchase. I thought the soup tasted pretty good, and the chicken with the glutinous rice was delicious. The pancake wasn’t fantastic though. The free ginseng alcohol was quite flavourful and tasted even better after the dinner. The total costs of the dinner was about 166k.
The drive back to the accommodation was a quick 30mins and after the driver parked just under the block, we paid the driver who had taken care of the entire day’s spending for the meals and the tickets by paying in advance. That came up to about 527k inclusive of the discount already but it was a surprise for us as we didn’t prepare a lot of cash. My mom paid off first with 500k and the rest I topped up but now we were left with not much cash. Should have paid with credit cards for the meals at least.
We returned to the accommodation tired from the days’ activities and night proceeded as usual. I dozed off for a bit while mommy and K was spending time with granddad and then lights off happen some time later.