Korea trip diaries: day 11

Day 11

Everland

I got up about 7am to get ready and leave at 8am to Everland with Anniina. We wanted to get to Everland before 11am so we left early because we knew the subway trip will take time. But it was worst possible choice ever; people, seriously take the bus to Everland. Even if you have to reserve it beforehand just take it. We literally spend about 2 hours to get to Everland's subway station. And there was 3 change of lines for us.

But if you still decide to take the subway, this is how our route went:
Hyehwa line 4 (light blue line) to Chungmuro -> change to line 3 (orange line) to Dogok ->
change to Suin line to Giheung -> change to Yongin Ever line to Jondae Everland.

There are buses to everland which take approximately 50 minutes but you have to reserve your seat to them. You can check information from Everland's site.

Anyway, we managed to get to Everland's station about 11.30am. There was free shuttle bus to Everland (it took only 5 minutes).

When we arrived to gates it was somewhat confusing because at their online site they ask to go to booth which is marked like 'ticket office for foreign guests' if you want to have foreigner's discount but it was closed and we had to ask from info booth that is the discount still valid in normal ticketing booths (it was). So we went to normal booths and got our tickets very fast. And yes, if you're foreigner you will get discount (also applies to Lotte World). You just have to print (or take screen capture to your phone) from their online site where they have discount coupon for foreign guests. Bear in mind that you have to have your passport with you to get the discount. Normal price is 52000won (approximately 48€) but with discount it's something like 47000won (approximately 41€).

When we got in there was amusement park music playing reeeeally loud and entrance was full of families and school groups but there were couple foreigners also. It was tuesday so it was "quiet" day in the park. A little advice: do not go on weekend!! We looked around and felt like there's already too many people. We decided to find t-express which is famous wooden rollercoaster.

We happened to walk through zoo part of the park. There were all kinds of exotic animals (for us they were exotic) and we propably were most excited about polar bears xD (nope we don't have them in Finland like some people would think...)

We wandered through zoo part and saw very popular attraction "Lost Valley" which is kind of safari ride. There was over 90 minute wait in queue but we still decided to go~

There was animals beside queue path so it was pleasant wait actually :P The wait felt still looooong but at least we had some enjoyment :P And then after forever we finally got into the ride~

It was very fun and worth the wait although it felt a tad too short. I saw giraffes which are one of my favorite animals so it was great! Our guide even fed one giraffe so we got close look lol. Ride was a car but at one point it went through water pool and kind of imitating safari cars going through water ponds, it was sooo surprising!

After fun ride we went through merchandise shop and decided to buy animal headbands. It's actual korean way to enjoy amusement parks by putting at least some kind of headband on you lol. I bought lion headband and Anniina took desert fox headband.

We felt kinda hungry so we went to eat before looking which ride to go next. By the way, food was cheap when comparing to european amusement park restaurants. It was a little bit more expensive than in normal korean restaurant but for us it was cheap! We ate filled sandwich, french fries and had soda as drink. It cost about 7300won. Restaurant we ate was rainforest themed and ceiling was beautifully decorated. Really appreciate how much they put effort in amusement park's look~
 After eating ourselves full, of course we had to try t-express finally so we went to line up for that. There was also over 90-minute wait. And let me remind you: this was a weekday and park wasn't even full of people.

  It's common in korean amusement parks that when you 'get in' to ride there is a queue inside also. In t-express it was first on ground level after getting in and then there was about 5 staircases and levels you had to line up. We enountered pretty rude american group while waiting.. they were a little ahead of us but outside there was first 3 lining up and when we were close getting inside to queue, there was suddenly 6 more people... this is _not_ acceptable. Koreans were glaring and even me and Anniina got some stares because "we were also foreigners." But we ended up glaring these people too because even when we were inside one of their friend came behind and was like "excuse me!" to us and then passed us to his friends! The others in queue were staring this guy like "did he just really cut in line casually like it was nothing"... seriously I don't want to generalise but these are the reasons why americans aren't that much liked in korea... because they think they own the world and won't care about anyone else. I have met nice americans too but I have seen this type of attitude too often.. and then they inflict us other foreigners too by acting like that. I was sooo pissed off especially when we were waiting because other koreans started to first point at them and then stare at us like if we're acting the same. On top of that, that american group started playing some american hiphop music reeeally loud and even dancing middle of the queue! I was just so frustrated...

Well anyway, it also felt like forever when we finally got in and ready to go.
Let me say, this t-express is something you have to experience once but I wouldn't go twice. I enjoyed it but first two drops were horrible! If you know wooden rollercoaster in Linnanmäki Helsinki, then that's like kid's version compared to this. Here's a youtube video about whole ride. Seriously, first drop is almost 90 degrees...

When we got out, Anniina was like 'let's do it again' and I was like noooo way xD There was some play booths opposite of t-express and Anniina wanted to play. She won a small plushie from one. My competitive drive hit and of course I had to try one game too. I also won a plushie yay. It was really amazing how hosts in those booths gave you extra tries and cheered you on! No way in Finland, you never get extra from sympathy if you do badly at first. Just amazing customer service in korea!!

Then after playing we headed to buy ice cream and went to look tulips because there was a tulip festival going on. So pretty!!

There is this famous tree in middle of park area where everyone goes and takes photos. What's inside of that tree is on right side photo.

We walked a bit and tried couple rides before heading to eat to KFC :P And then we wandered a bit here and there before leaving.
By the way it's so funny when in Finland everybody complains if you have to wait 20 minutes in queue at amusement park. In Korea, 20 minutes is a short wait xD So be happy my finnish friends that we don't have big population in Finland xD

This was funny :D I wanted to take it with me :P

With all the lights, Everland was sooo pretty~ I wish we could have stayed longer but clock being 7pm, it was time to leave since trip back to Seoul city center would take alot of time.

We were a bit confused where bus for center leaves but after asking around we got the place. It was full of people and there was bus for Gangnam but it was reeeeally full, no hope for us to get in. There wasn't timetables anywhere and for awhile we were totally clueless what to do. Then we saw bus which was heading to Sadang where we could take subway line 4 to Hyehwa. We decided to get into it because driver said it would take 1 and half hour. Well, turns out driver was wrong. We were only near nambu bus terminal when 2 hours were gone and we were getting pissed off. We left the bus near nambu terminal and searched taxi to Hyehwa. Anniina had one friend which she had promised to meet so she called him after we got taxi...

Now to most horrible event which we experienced; Anniina's friend (who was korean) asked the taxi driver to take us to nearest subway station (which was literally only couple minutes away). There couldn't be no misunderstandings because Anniina and her friend both explained where we wanted to go. But what does this driver do? Drives 10 minutes around small roads while we were both demanding him to take us immediately to subway station. Anniina got angry to the driver because she asked couple times how long is it going to take and he was like "it's around the corner" all the time... eventually taxi driver also started yelling to us and got angry at us. It was horrible because he refused to let us off. Then suddenly after 10 minutes he dropped us finally off... to a station that was faaaaaar from where we departed when we got into that taxi.
We were so stressed and angry... but later we got info that if you get scammed by a taxi driver (just because you're a foreigner) if you report that taxi car plate and company, driver will get fined. But apparently this driver thought that because we're foreigners it's ok to get more money from us by driving long... In the future we know what to do if we encounter similar situation. If you get scammed and have a korean friend, ask your friend to call that taxi company and report. You will also get compensations if you got charged way too much.

So that was end of our day. We were both exhausted and not happy because of that incident. Next day was better but we still were quite frustrated...


Next post: coming next week. Now I'm just planning to spend our national holiday (which is starting in friday). Happy midsummer day~