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Korea 2015: Virgin skiing experience!
posted : Sunday, April 12, 2015
For the first time in a few days we had to wake up early. No drama this time round though lol.
Checked out of our accom..by simply leaving the key behind. No fuss. Then hauled all our barang (which had probably doubled since the last time we had to pack and move) to Namyeong (which had no escalators or lifts sigh) and head over to Seoul station.
Bus pick up to YongPyong was from one of the exits. Plan was to deposit most of our barang inside the lockers so we don't have to drag them all up the mountain (not exactly hiking la but still). Can't remember why already but somehow we ended up running a bit late in the end, either looking for the correct exit or looking for the lockers. Ended up identifying a row of lockers where quite a number of homeless ppl were hanging around. Then..there was this problem of language barrier coz we didn't know the duration of usage for the amount we paid - can only make out the maximum we had to pay per locker which is 20k KRW if I remember correctly.
Used three lockers in the end. Decided against the 4th coz the only thing left was my luggage which was the smallest amongst all and I decided I don't mind lugging it along. And decided to have faith in the system, they cannot just automatically unlock the lockers when the timing expires right?! Anyway no time to debate further and we rushed off to catch the bus.
Bus ride took about 3 hours. One of our initial plans was to rent a car and drive which KH and I thought were doable but the gals voted against it for safety reasons. Scenery on the way was probably quite nice but we slept through it all hahaha. Woke up to thin ice layers forming on the inside of the windows wow.
Reached the resort and checked in to Dragon Valley Hotel, got a room for 4. Oh yea chose YongPyong over Alpensia which was in the vicinity, coz Alpensia is more atas (I.e more expensive) and YongPyong is the site where Winter Sonata was shot and therefore it's an ambition of KH's to be here. As per tradition this was supposed to be the part where we splurged on accom hahah. Only that the room had a "traditional" vibe to it. More on that in separate post. Left our luggage and head out straight for lunch.
SNOW!
Straight out of a postcard
  
Gimbap and Gyoja for lunch
Not many food choices at Dragon Plaza and so we ended up having the typical stuff - gimbap and all. Then we went to check out the skiing stuff! The various packages and all. Accom comes with discounts for various rentals and ski lift passes etc so intention was to use those, for the afternoon session to test water(or rather snow) first. Decided that we don't need a ski instructor since KH can double up as one lol.
Oh yea I also cleverly tried to walk on ice and slipped and fell rather spectacularly. Landed on my left wrist and though no serious injuries, my watch left a cut on my wrist. And that was before the actual skiing even began =.=
Also kind of laughed at how awkward people were walking on solid ground while wearing ski boots. Only to eat my words later when I needed to wear 3 sizes bigger than my usual shoe size and still not able to walk properly. Damn fatty legs.
All in all skiing was fun though! The feeling of not being able to control where I was heading and not very good at braking was terrifying and hilarious at the same time. At least I thought it was amusing. People whom I crashed into (e.g San) and my instructor (i.e KH) probably didn't find it that amusing lolol. The tiring part was walking upslope to ski downslope, coz movements were so restricted by the stupid boots urgh.
Skied for about two hours only though! We were kind of late and the afternoon session ends at about 4 or 4.30 if I recall correctly. And it was a relief as I slipped into my regular shoes and it took a while to get used to walking normally ahahah.
Our instructor!
Returned to our room to rest. Was feeling a bit heaty and thought I was falling sick finally (the gals hadn't been in their best shape for a while due to the weather and I thought I caught the bug alr). But later realized that it was because we had been out in the sun for quite a while, didn't feel like it coz it was cold mah.
Napped and head out for dinner at about 7. We all decided that we didn't mind not going for another session of skiing (there's a night session). Initially wanted BBQ but the restaurant only serve beef so we couldn't, and decided against hotel's restaurant. After roaming around, we ended up at a pizza and fried chicken joint which was surprisingly good, exceeded our expectations heh.
Surprising place for the best fried chicken we had in our trip.
Pizza's not bad too!
Not sure if this was better or the one in MyeongDong better.
With not much activities around we turned in early.
Bus back to Seoul was supposed to leave at 12.30pm the next day. Woke up late but after checking the time, KH decided there was time for him to squeeze in one skiing session. Poor guy didn't get to ski much the day before as he had his hands full with us three noobs. I decided to join him..ok somewhat, while he went skiing I took the half an hour(!) gondola ride up to Dragon Peak for the scenery. Meanwhile the girls would laze around, check out and meet us at the bus.
Hit the slopes again in the morning
Gondola ride to the peak!
Cuppa at the peak.
View from the top
Incredibly cold up there!
Between me and KH, the plan was that he would join me for a bit at the peak after his session. He ran a bit late and he really had only about 5 minutes to spend at the peak lol. And the moment we touched down at the base we had to sprint to bus departure point lol. Thought it would be a breeze for me since I had been running regularly but I think the altitude plus weather left me breathless after less than 500m (seriously?!) and well tired out by the time we were safely in the bus.
So that concludes the skiing portion of the trip! It was one of the things I was looking forward to and even though I didn't ski that much but I still find this portion satisfying. KH on the other hand vowed to return one day for a pure skiing trip. Think he didn't get enough kick out of it haha.
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