Snippets of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

We are 228 days to the opening of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. This is the XXIII Olympics Winter games and will be South Korea's first winter games, after hosting the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. Scheduled to take place from 9-25 February 2018, this major sport event will capture the attention of media around the world. While most of us will read about the coverage online, it would be an interesting experience to be at the event and watching the athletes competing for the medals. 

KTX to Pyeongchang

With the introduction of a new line on the KTX, visitors will be able to travel to Pyeongchang from Incheon Airport or Seoul area in just 86 minutes. The fuss-free journey will aid in increasing the number of visitors who are visiting Gangwon province - not just for the Olympic games. Gangwon province is also well known for other attractions such as Nami Island (my fave!), Seoraksan National Park and many more. I will cover these attractions in another post, so stay tuned for that.

The Venue

The games will be gathered around two main venues: Pyeongchang mountain cluster for outdoor sports and Gangneung coastal cluster for indoor sports. Both the opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, which boosts a seating capacity of 35,000. For those who are interested in attending the games, the online general sales will commence on 5 September. So, hop over to the official ticketing site to purchase your tickets! 

The Games

Athletes will compete in 102 events across snow, ice and sliding sports with over 100 gold medals to be won. 6 new events such curling mixed doubles, speed skating mass start etc will be added to the program. This will be the stage for the most number of mixed events in the history of Olympics Winter Games. 

The Olympic Flame

The Olympic flame will arrive in Incheon City 101 days before the start of the games. It will make its way around the regions of Korea, where a total of 7,500 torchbearers are expected to take part. A series of events/activities will be held in the cities, so people can share the excitement of the Olympic Torch Relay. 

The Olympic torch was revealed earlier this year. Designed by Korean designer Young Se Kim, the torch measured 700mm in length signifying the altitude of Pyeongchang which lies 700m above sea level. Dressed in white and gold tones, the torch mirrored the main colours of Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games Torch Relay while the 5 pronged shape of the flame is based on the Korean symbol for Pyeongchang, which is also engraved around the top and bottom half of the torch. The torch has been designed to withstand all weather conditions, so the flame will be kept lit throughout the relay.

Honorary Ambassadors for the Games

A total of 30 ambassadors have been selected for the games, with Taeyang (from Bigbang) being the latest to join the list. I was really glad to see Lee Min Ho on the list. Not forgetting Kim Yuna, the queen of figure ice-skating. 

Korean athletes in Pyeongchang Olympic Games

While watching the Olympic Special on Infinite Challenge, I got to know several athletes through the various games such as bobsleigh, curling and ice hockey. The bobsleigh team will be led by Yoon Sung Bin, Seo Young Woo and Won Yoon Jong. Yoon Jong appeared on the show, alongside with Lee Yong who is their coach and 3 of their team mates. 

Speed Skating Mass Start will be introduced for the first time as an Olympic event at Pyeongchang 2018 Games. Lee Seung Hoon will be the man to watch out for, having won the gold medal in the mass start race component of the World All Round Speed Skating Championships, hosted in Russia.  

Having read about their personal stories in interviews, I was impressed by the devotion of the athletes. They trained hard for many years and scarified a lot of family and personal time to be where they are. Hats off for their passion and let us cheer all the participating athletes in the coming games; get ready to scream "Daehanminguk"!

*all images are courtesy of Pyeongchang 2018 official website unless stated otherwise

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: Singapore Supporters' Goodies Bag

30 years after hosting the summer Olympics in 1988, South Korea will once again play host to Pyeongchang Winter Olympics which will take place from 9-25 February 2018. I was lucky to be selected as part of the Pyeongchang Olympics Supporters team, hence I was gifted with these official merchandise from KTO Singapore.  Thank you for the love! 

The Official Emblem

The official emblem draws inspiration from Hangul, with the shapes that form the logo stemming from the first consonants from each syllable in the word "Pyeongchang" when written in Hangul. The symbol ㅍ expresses the harmony of Heaven, Earth and Man. The 2nd character ㅊ signifies ice and snow and also symbolic of the athletes' performances. In short, the official emblem symbolises a "grand gathering of people from all over the world in celebration of Olympic winter sports, which is taking place in the harmonious land of Pyeongchang". 

Unveiling The Mascot

Soohorang, a white tiger which served as a guardian for its people, is the official mascot of the Olympics games. In traditional Korean folk tales, the tiger is often seen as a symbol of trust, strength and protection. Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear which is symbolic of strong will and courage, is the official mascot for the Winter Paralympics games. Their names are symbolic too; let's break it down further:

"Sooho" : the Korean word for "protection". To protect the athletes, spectators and all participants of the Olympics games.
"Rang" : derives from the Korean word "ho-rang-i", which means tiger. It also appears in "Jeongseon Arirang", the traditional folk music of Gangwon Province, where Pyeongchang the host city is located. 
"Banda" : comes from "bandal" meaning half-moon, indicating the white crescent on the chest of the bear.
"Bi" : to celebrate the Games.

*image courtesy of google

Interestingly, the tiger is also used in the 1988 Seoul Games. "Hodori" was an orange Amur tiger, portraying the friendly and hospitable traditions of the Korean people. "Dori" is a diminutive for "boys" hence Hodori is a male tiger. The female version was known as "Hosuni", even though she was seldom used. 
Fun fact: If you have watched Reply 1988 (strongly recommended! I super love this series man, esp with Park Bo Gum!), you would have caught snippets of the Olympics games on the drama. 

The Official Slogan

Under the official slogan "Passion. Connected", the game aims to bring together the athletes and game participants across 95 countries and gather in Pyeongchang, a place where everyone is connected with shared passion for the winter sports. 

You can purchases these merchandises from the official Pyeongchang 2018 stores in Seoul. The first store opened to public in last Friday at Lotte Myeongdong branch. Two more official stores will open next month at Lotte's department store and duty-free shop in Seoul. Currently, there are over 300 items available but the number of products will reach 2000 by October. So be sure to grab an item or more when you are in the vicinity! 

Lotte Department Store, Myeongdong Main Branch (9th Floor)
Address: 30, Eulji-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul

Lotte Department Store, Avenuel Branch (B1F)
Address: 81, Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 

Cycling at Yeouido Hangang Park

I spent the weekend catching up on my fave K-variety shows and I watched the Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 special on Infinite Challenge, with my eye-candy Park Bo Gum as the special guest (*.*) Having hosted the summer Olympics in 1988, South Korea will now host the Winter Olympics in 2018. In this special, they challenged winter sports such as bobsleigh, ice hockey and curling with the national Olympic team members. For those who have missed it, you could catch the specials on Viu (ep. 524 to 526) and witness the effects of "Bo-Gum" magic. I will be focusing more on Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 in future posts too. 

Now that the harsh and freezing winter has subsided and the weather has turned warmer, there is an increase in outdoor activities for friends and families prefer to spend their time outdoors after being in the cold for so long. Yeouido Hangang Park would be one of the top choices, for there is a wide range of activities to do in the park. We exited from Yeouinaru Station (Line 5, exit #3) and were greeted with this sight! 

It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we came out for this trip instead of spending our time indoors. During cherry blossom season, this place will be packed with people, who will set up "camp" on the open spaces with families and friends, bonding over drinks and food while enjoying the scenery. This park also plays host to the fireworks festival during fall. If you had watched "Legend of the Blue Sea", you would be familiar with the scene where Joon Jae and Shim Chung witnessed the fireworks display in this park. 

The main agenda for today's trip: renting a bicycle and exercise our butts, ha! There are plenty of bicycle kiosks scattered around the park. It was easy to rent the bikes even if you don't understand Korean: you just need to indicate the number of hours, how many bikes and surrender a photo ID as deposit. Also, try to use your driving license or student pass instead of passport just to be safe.

BIKE RENTAL INFORMATION
Min rental: 1h
Single/Child: 3000KRW/hr, 500KRW for every 15 min
Tandem/Advanced: 6000KRW/hr, 1000KRW for every 15 min

We selected our bikes which came with baskets so we can dump our stuff and ride with ease. 

Leecher testing out his bike and he looked like he's having fun!

We cycled for awhile; peddling furiously up the slope while cruising down slope. At this point, I was starting to curse under my breath for choosing this route. Well, we didn't exactly chose this but we just followed where the majority of the cyclists were heading, ha! I was beginning to feel the strain in my leg muscles, so we decided to stop for a quick break. Thankfully the weather was superb so I wasn't feeling sweaty even though I had a great workout. With Hangang Railway bridge as our backdrop, we took a couple of pictures before embarking on our return journey. 

That's the fun part, to feel the breeze in your hair after the intense workout of peddling up slope. 

Yeouido Hangang Park

Address: 8 Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul

Tel: 02-3780-0561

Directions: Yeouinaru Station (Line 5, exit #3)

Winter in Korea: From Incheon to Pyeongchang + Lepovill Pension + 그곳에가면

Hello December baby, my favourite time of the year! Oh, did I mention that my heart is still in Korea even though we have been back for almost a month? Ha, serious withdrawal symptoms. My life feels so empty recently; is this what they call mid-life crisis? To make things worse, Facebook reminded me of my winter memories from 2-3 years ago. Can I just hide in a hole and hibernate? That seems like an excellent idea now. By December, most of the ski resorts would be opened and there are several ski resorts which you can explore - Jisan, Yongpyong, Alpensia (just to name a few). Being an avid K-drama fan, Yongpyong was my top choice since this is the filming location of Winter Sonata, tsk tsk. We decided to save costs by staying at the pension instead of the resort itself, for a room within the resort could easily set you back by at least KRW200,000/night, which I will touch on later. 

Our tired faces after a long flight. After immigration, we hurried to the nearest convenience store and bought some snacks/drinks for the next leg of the trip. I'm not a coffee drinker, but somehow I always ended up drinking coffee in Korea. I think I'm more attracted to the packaging than the drink itself, ha. From Incheon airport, we headed directly to Pyeongchang where the ski resorts are located. 

How to get to Pyeongchang from Incheon Airport?

The ticketing office is located outside of the airport, opposite the arrival terminal. Hence, you will need to head outside, cross the road and look out for the office at 9C. 

The pension that we will be staying at was nearer to Alpensia ski resort (알펜시아리조트 스키장), hence we booked tickets from Incheon to Alpensia. A single trip ticket is KRW$29,000. The whole journey takes around 3 hours, with several stops along the way including one at the rest point for toilet break. We arrived at Alpensia and called Mr Kim, the owner of the pension for pick up. While waiting for Mr Kim's arrival, we booked our return journey (back to Seoul) from the concierge at KRW$17,000/pax. The bus will bring us directly to downtown Seoul, where we can then transfer to metro for the next part of the journey. 

We stayed at Lepovil pension for KRW$100,000/night, way cheaper than staying at the resort. Well, the downside is that we will have to call a cab whenever we head out or Mr Kim will give us a lift if he happened to head out at the same time. Cab rides mostly cost us around KRW$15,000 max (from city back to the pension) so it was still more affordable to stay in a pension. Plus, we had a great interaction with Mr Kim and his family/friends, hence it was a great experience for us too. 

The river flowing through the pension, which froze overnight due to the cold. We took a stroll around the compound on our last day, which I will share later in another entry. 

We were shown to our home for the next couple of days. I fell in love with the house and the surrounding, which reminded me of our Europe vacation. Mr Kim gave us a mini room tour, then left us to unpack/settle down. 

Our room came equipped with a small kitchen but we didn't cook anything apart from boiling water for cup noodles. We loved eating cup noodles whenever we travel, for it was so convenient to curb hunger pangs. Especially in cold weather, slurping up hot noodles just warms the body. 

레포빌 보드하우스 Lepovill Board House

Address: 대관령면 횡계리 14-343, 232-950 Pyeongchang, South Korea
Tel: +82 10-5755-8698

Our tummies started protesting once we settled in comfortably. We have not had a proper meal since we landed, for we were rushing from place to place. We asked Mr Kim for recommendation and he kindly drove us to this restaurant serving BBQ. 

Choice of floor or table seating; of course we had to go for floor seating - just for the fun of it. 

The standard drink for every meal. These are so cheap in Korea that it was hard to justify buying these in Singapore for personal consumption.

Check out the tray of meat; I'm so hungry looking at this.

I absolutely love the range of banchans that were served. Meanwhile, the fire is ready for cooking; can't wait to start! 

The most agonising part was waiting for the meat to be ready. Ahjumma helped us with the cooking while our duty was just to eat. 

All ready to eat, yum! I normally wrap it with half a lettuce, meat with a bit of gochujang and alternate between either kimchi or garlic (heck the smelly breathe). The meat was so tender that we devour ate pieces after pieces without stopping. 

그곳에가면

Address: 대관령면 대관령로 192

Tel: +82 033-336-9290 

Ahjumma helped us to call for a cab. With our tummies satisfied, we headed back to the pension for another round of gathering at the cafe with Mr Kim & friends; I will leave that for another time. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Pyeongchang (^^)

  ☃☃☃ Read the rest of our Winter adventure here  ☃☃☃