From Korea with Tutukan

It’s my another trip in last June. Officially it was not my trip because i didn’t spend a penny. It was sponsored by Astra Graphia because i got Lingkar Puncak Prestasi (i’m a little confused how to translate it in English. The main thing is the reward which was given to employee who had Excellent Performance in a year).

I went to Korea with my office mates, 30 people from Astra Graphia and 10 people from Astra Graphia Information Technology. Mostly i spent time in Korea with 10 people (included me) from Astra Graphia Information Technology. We called ourselves Tutukan Group, i don’t know exactly what the meaning of tutukan. But just my little understanding, Tutukan is sex, surely not in the serious meaning. The members of tutukan are Om Apri, Ayok, Bram, Dian, Mami Evita, Khoirul, Hito, Yunita, Yustin and me. Before this trip i only knew Hito and Yustin, So in the first time i doubted it will be fun trip. Unexpected, I went to there with crazy people. We always laughed at the whole journey. Almost forget, This is my first time joining trip with “officially” tour guide. Our tour guide name is Erick, he is fun and able to speak in Bahasa so he explained all about Korea in Bahasa and this is a part which we like, he understood with our jokes.

Erick

Tutukan Team

Our first destination is Petite France. Unfortunately that day was drizzle so we didn’t totally enjoy that day.  Petite France is a French cultural village set in the Korean countryside. Petite France serves as both a French cultural village and a youth training facility (Goseong Youth Training Center), and consists of 16 French-style buildings where visitors can lodge and experience French food, clothing, and household culture.

Afterwards, we crossed to the Nami Island. Actually i didn’t know enough understand what the special from the island. After i arrived this island, i surprised with the packages of the island. It’s so amazing regardless this place was the location where many scenes of winter sonata were shot.

Most Romantic Moment

That night we stayed in the class 300 hotel, It was far away from town because in early morning we had to go to mount Sorak where is near from my current hotel. So we just spent that night in Sevel

Next day, we visited Mount Sorak, Gwongeumsung Fortress, Shinheungsa Temple and The Great Bronze Buddha. I think Mount Sorak looks like Monkey King Mount :p

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After that we continued our journey to Everland Theme Park. That Theme Park is like Universal but it has T-Express.  T Express is a wooden roller coaster. It is South Korea’s first wooden coaster, Intamin’s fourth wooden coaster with prefabricated track, the first ride of this type in Asia, and the first to utilize three trains. It is world’s fourth steepest wooden roller coaster. It is also the world’s ninth fastest, fourth tallest, and sixth longest wooden coaster, with El Toro being the third tallest. How ? Do you want to ride it ?

Lucky us, at that night we stayed at Novotel Gangnam Hotel where the location is at Gangnam area which we can spend all night at Gangnam Street Easily. At the Gangnam we found great restaurant, the restaurant name is wing cook. I totally recommend this restaurant because it has delicious food and so friendly owner 😀

With the owner of wing cook

In the third day, we visited Insadong, Cheonggyecheon Stream, Seoul Tower

Last day, we visited Jogyesa Temple, The Blue House, Gyeongbok Palace, National Folklore Museum and Namdaenum Market.

At the end of the tour, we watched Nanta Show. Nanta Show is is a South Korean non-verbal comedy show that incooperate traditional samul nori rhythm. The musical has a simple back story of three cooks attempting to finish preparing a wedding banquet within a strict time limit while the manager installs his incompetent nephew among the kitchen staff. The show involves acrobatics, magic tricks, comedy, pantomime and audience participation. The unifying element throughout the musical is the use of traditional Korean samul nori music, which in this case is performed with improvised instruments, such as cutting boards, water canisters and kitchen knives. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take a photo

My impression of Korea is fantastic, especially Korean. They have high nationalism, they always buy something which made in Korea. It is so rarely seeing people use foreign products. But i surprised the price of Samsung product in Korea is more expensive than Indonesia. Why ?  You can ask your Korean Friends. I think they have good explanation of this case. Fyi, there is interesting story behind that.