20th June 2014.
Daegwanllyeong Sheep Farm. Gangnam.
It's going to take quite some time before I actually finish documenting this Korea trip. Hopefully it would be before my next Korea trip whenever that may be. Maybe with the next trip, I should try to do daily posts, so that I wouldn't have so much backlog to clear.
Anyway, moving on! This was the first day of traveling around Korea without Vaneh and LT.. Just the two of us.. On this day, we met up with our Korean friend Joohee! We planned to go to a sheep farm and she wanted to come along. And oh boy were we glad to have her with us because it was definitely so much easier getting to the sheep farm with her around and she was a great guide! We had no worries when we were going around with her ♥
We woke up early that day and headed out to meet Joohee. I think we went to
Dong Seoul Bus Terminal at Gangbyeon Station. We meet Joohee at Gangbyeon and she brought us to the bus terminal. Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of the bus terminal or the bus ride. Nonetheless, it was a pretty new experience since I've not been on a long distance bus in Korea before.
We mostly followed Joohee to the bus but the destination was displayed clearly on the front of the bus as well. You would need a little bit of knowledge of the Korean language unfortunately. We were traveling to 횡계 which was the last stop on the bus route. It was a pretty comfortable bus and it was around an hour and a half. I ended up sleeping through the journey. Traveling is tiring. Haha.
The Daewanlleong Sheep Farm was some distance, roughly 10 minutes away from the 횡계 bus terminal so we had to take a taxi there. There were a few taxis waiting by the side so we easily got one. Joohee took the taxi drivers calling card so we could call him to pick us back to the bus terminal.
The ride to the sheep farm was rather bumpy as we were going uphill. It was located probably on a hill or higher land, however it's called and it was drizzling! It was colder than we expected and everything appeared foggy.
We didn't expect weather like that since it was summer! But I think this location probably had a different weather from Seoul. I'm not familiar with Korea's geography so I can't further comment.
Joohee searched for places to go for lunch but due to the weather, we decided to just eat where we were at. It was like a food court like dining area and it was warm inside! We ordered something simple but it was good too. Bulgogi!
We had a quick lunch before heading to the Daegwanllyeong Sheep Farm. We had to walk a little to get to the farm. Once we walked past the signage, it was quite a distance before we got to the ticketing counter. We purchased the tickets and they gave us coupons which we could use to redeem the sheep's food to feed them. We had to walk more before getting to see the sheep.
It was still drizzling so we used an umbrella most of the time during our visit. We didn't expect the cold weather so I think I was wearing shorts. The raindrops wasn't the usual kind but a little of the misty kind so our legs were wet, thus making it colder.
The farm was really big and there was grass everywhere! It was pretty refreshing since the view was different from Seoul and it was something we couldn't see back home.
When we got to the place where all the sheep were kept, we didn't hesitate to getting down to feeding them. We exchanged our coupons for a basket of sheep fodder.
It's not a very big basket but enough to last for awhile. Joohee and my sister got a basket each while I saved my coupon for later on. I didn't end up feeding the sheep though, gave the basket to my sister who fed the sheep continuously while I snapped photos.
A really nicely woven spider web! Taken by my sister. Thankfully the spider was no where in sight.
The little lambs were kept in one pen together so we headed over to feed them but the bigger ones would literally snatch the food from us. They would prop themselves on top of the tiny ones and reach for the food. Not nice, no snatching.
After feeding, we took a walk around the farm. There were sheep grazing on the other side as well. It was really quite a pretty sight. The area was big and the sheep were just scattered everywhere.
Some people brought their baskets over to this side to feed the sheep but we already used up our fodder so we just walked around. I was quite amused by the little sheep droppings that decorated the field. Teehee. So typical of me.
Just as we stopped to admire the sheep and take some selfies, a sneaky little fella escaped from under the fence, crawled under the board walk and popped his head out to have his own little feast before going back under the fence. It was like a free performance for the people who were around that area. I did snap some shots but I can't locate the photos... But here's a selfie of us!
We headed back the same way we came and it was really much better to have Joohee around! It would have been difficult to get to and from the sheep farm but we would probably have gotten lost a bit more.
We arrived back in Seoul in the evening and we went to Gangnam. I can't really remember how we got to Gangnam but we most likely took the subway.
Up till now, I find Gangnam confusing. It's really hard to get around as every turn and every alley are quite similar and after turning into smaller road, it's hard to find your way back to the main road. During this trip, we've been to Gangnam twice and both times Joohee brought us around. I think if we went by ourselves, we would have to ask for directions or use Google maps.
Anyway, Joohee brought us to eat Korean BBQ and oh boy, I love makchang (pig intestines)!!
Doesn't it look good? Ughhh... Why don't they have this at local Korean BBQ restaurants? I can only eat this in Korea...
It was my sister's first time eating this and of course she loved it. I think we ordered an extra serving at the end because she wanted more. It's seriously one of my must have meals in Korea. They should really bring makchang into Singapore. Also, since this was a restaurant that Joohee frequented, she managed to get service from the restaurant ahjumma. Hehehe. 'Service' is the best.
What is 'service'?
'Service' is basically something that you get for free when you visit a place often. At some places you can request for 'service' to be given to you provided you've really been to this place enough for the owners to recognise you.
Simple explanation of what the term service means. I think some Koreans do just ask for the service, I'm not sure if I would dare to do the same though. You can ask for 'service' at the noraebang (karaoke) too. They would add an extra hour for free.
In Korea, people like to eat so definitely after dinner, we went for dessert! The dessert place was in Gangnam too. I'm not sure how we got there but I do remember the name of the cafe! It's
Lga! We had the coolest bingsoo ever! We waited for about half an hour or more for our dessert, felt like it was the longest wait ever!
The view from our seat. The cafe was full inside so we chose an outdoor seat but since the weather is cool at night, it still felt like there was air-con. I think the cafe culture is very prominent in Korea. We were sitting at a cafe and across the streets there were a few other cafes.
Finally, our melon bingsoo arrived!
The same bingsoo from two different angles. It's seriously as big as it looks! It came with a side of red bean, which went really well with the ice shavings. Yummy ☺
It started drizzling just as we were about to finish our dessert. And oh boy, the journey back to our guest house was really shocking. Didn't expect so many people to board the train. Even when the train was full, people would still push their way in. We were trapped, literally, being the shorties amongst the relatively taller Koreans. Had to hold onto my sister's hand to make sure we wouldn't get separated. I guess that's Gangnam for you. It's always crowded no matter what time of the day.
So that's how our 9th day in Korea went! The highlight of every holiday definitely has to be eating good food. Hehehe.
I know it took me forever to blog about this trip and I've still about 5 days left to write about. Do stay tuned and hope there were some useful information for those planning to visit Korea too.
