Xiu's Trip to Korea Part 1: COEX Aquarium

Im finally back with my first installment of my Korea trip last year with my Sister!!! What tempted me to finally write this blogpost is cus I just uploaded the last Korea trip album on facebook! So im like, yeah, i shld start blogging about it soon too!!

Actually i dayre'd about it before so im gonna share the links here too!!

http://dayre.me/annaxiu/Be19TCBTgh

http://dayre.me/annaxiu/Vd0RgY2oNP

Yeah!! We're taking Scoot to Korea cus we kiam! The only bad thing about taking scoot is that it's not a direct flight and need to stopover at taiwan for an hour, but not bad lah, total flight time is 8hr instead of those 10+ hours if i chose to fly via other airline!

LOOK! that's the airplane that we're taking!!

That's my first selfie onboard the airplane!

4 hours later, we reached taiwan and i took some time to explore the place and saw some nice and cute architecture! This reminds me of the movie 'Up'

They have this super adorable hello kitty phone booth too!!

And guess wad? they even have this hello kitty land!! Nah, i din go there and shop cus i only have an hour of stopover time at the Taiwan airport only!

They even have a hello kitty world clock!! Another shot of the super pinkish and cutie telephone booth

Some funny incident at the Taiwan airport!! We wanted to drink some soft drinks at the Taiwan airport cus Sis was craving for it! And you know that budget airline doesnt serve us drinks or food and they charge an exorbitant price onboard for those drinks/food!

So basically one can of coke cost 180NTD then my sis said she have some taiwan coins with her so we started digging! we dig n dig n dig and only manage to dig out 160NTD =.=

Bye coke!

I went on to find another water cooler to refill my water bottle so that we still have water to drink onboard when we're thirsty!

Finally reached Incheon airport ard midnight and everything that i planned to look for at the airport is closed, like the mobile egg ar, customer service etc *jang jang jang*

BUT luckily, we managed to catch the last trip of the airport shuttle bus to Gangnam area. I remember the bus number wasnt the bus number that i searched online before but im sure that the bus goes to Gangnam area so on the bus we go. My tactic was to take the airport shuttle to somewhere nearer to our hotel area then change cab to our hotel! (Luckily it worked)

So we alighted near COEX and took a cab from there to our first hotel, Cello Hotel located at Gangnam area. Gave her the postal code already but the female ahjumma taxi driver dropped us outside and didnt send us all the way in. Luckily we met a nice korean guy who can speak good english and he walked us to the hotel!!! So nice right!!! Ended our night by going to the convenience stop opposite our hotel to eat ramyeon and fried chicken!

Fast foreword to the nx morning!

That's sister and me taking our first Korea train ride to Jamsil to explore the Gangnam area first! Was abit nervous at first cus we need to change train and stuff and scared that we will miss the stop or what but heng ar, none of this happened!!!

Here we are at the Lotte World!! Even their interior design is so artistic sia!

First thing we do, is of cus to find food! I rem we woke up quite late cus we had a late night so our stomach was growling by the time we reached there and our budget hotel doesnt provide breakfast! So we surveyed ard and settled on school food cus the interior design is nice and the name sounds cool!

Even the table design is so cool!!

The starters that they gave! Odeng soup and pickles!

I forgot the name of this noodle! but it's on the chef recommendation list on the menu so we chose it and the noodle is very Q! the portion was so big also that we cant finish it!

This was DA BOMB!! cheese toppoki! Literally its mozerella cheese with spicy toppoki!!! I love love love this dish! The sauce is super spicy until super shiok tt kinda and together with the mozerella cheese, its amazing!!!! both sis and me love it! I think if i show her a pic of this right now, she will wan to fly back to Korea to specially eat this luh!

After lunch we went ard lotte world to explore and found this ice skating rink! Both sis and i sucks at ice skating so we gave it a miss~

And guess wad? I saw PORORO~~

Gigantic PORORO! Bought some pororo gift for my fans there!

One funny incident happened there too! I was on a mission to help my colleague's son grab a hat which he likes alot but couldnt find it the last time he came to Korea despite searching high and low for it. The funny thing is, I found it accidentally while shopping at Lotte =.=

So I wanted to pay via CC and was rejected, so in the end i paid by cash la (Ok, at tt time i din know need to activate the overseas magnetic thingy) then i received a call from a Singapore number in Korea but i din pick up! then received sms asking if im the one trying to use it overseas. The bank even called my mum to ask if im overseas anot. HAHA!!

Then to the main highlight of the day, COEX Aquarium!!!

Introduction

The COEX Aquarium is spread out over a large area and showcases no less than 40,000 sea creatures, which come from 600 different species. The aquarium is unique in Korea because it has been designed around the theme of “Water Journey”. On entering the museum, visitors will embark on an adventure that follows water on its journey from the high Andean mountains, through the Amazon tropical rainforest to swamps, rivers, seashores, and finally to the depths of the ocean. Visitors will get an in-depth look into some of the world’s fascinating underwater creatures.

Structure Size

Whole area 14,350㎡

Facilities area 9,256㎡

Tanks - 130 display tanks, 90 breeding tanks

Water volume – approximately 3,000 tons

Creatures - 40,000 sea creatures from approximately 650 different species

Admission / Participation Fees

Individuals: Adults 22,000 won / Youth 19,000 won / Children 16,000 won / Seniors 16,500 won
Disabled: Adults 16,500 won / Youth 13,000 won / Children 9,000 won

Well, this is the shark that greeted us the moment we went into the COEX aquarium!! And yes, my head is small enough to squeeze in! LOL!

My sis dun rili take unglam shots? HAHA!

And yayyy, we managed to watch one feeding session!!

Hello turtle!!!!

My cousin thinks the face of the stingray looks likes a smiling face so im trying my best to take it for her~

HEHE! a nice tourist decided to help sis and me take a photo!! (:

This is so pretty right!!!

Anyway, these are called garden worms? (or sth like that) My sis finds it gross so I took photos of it! LOL~

Hmmm, is this a lobster??

Hehehe, managed to take a super clear shot of the tortoise cus its just posing there for me to take photo of it!

Are these catfish?

My sis and her favorite pose (like forever)

That meeee~

There's a vending machine inside the aquarium! so cool!

They even have a place for u to wash hand?

a phone booth inside the aquarium?

a fridge tooooo?

a dressing table as well?

WAD? A BED?

They even have a place for the doctor fish!

Me imitating the expression!

My sis putting her hands in!!!

U can find a lot of these fishes in Kenko here in Singapore! LOL

Its my turn now!

Im so scared......not.

I dunno where the cute fish come from! haha

Another kind tourist helped us take this shot! haha

Attempting an artistic shot?

My natural nemesis~

The cute stingray face!!

Amazed at my stunned expression! LOL

Dugong's feeding time!

Ermmm...isit a seal?

Hello sealy!!

Angelic Xiu??

Haaaaaalehlujah~

STARFISHHHH!

Another sharky ornament! haha

My sister again!!!

On the travellator!

CRAB CRAB CRAB!

I just find it amazingly that these fishes actually have... LEGS?

LEGS!!

At the souvenior shop!

I dun think my sis is scared of the snake huh?

My expression is priceless!

Gwiyomi~

After that we decided to explore the rest of the Lotte at COEX which is not under renovation and went by these 'stars'

Nickkhun!

Jang Geun Seok

With all of them!!

A super cute MCM bear!

Wish wall!

After that we are hungry, so we went down to the basement food hall to grab sth to fill up our stomach!

We saw a lot of people queuing up for this and naturally as typical Singaporean, of cus we also join the queue la!

Well, its sth like takoyaki but the upsized version!

Then its time for DINNER!!!!

Decided on this BBQ place (my sis was craving for BBQ btw) and decided on this one cus the aunty (whom is from China) spoke to us in Chinese and asked us to go in! hahaha