Tuesday, November 9, 2010

LCIS 2010 - Muju Resort

As expected, after a hiatus from blogging scene, I am back (albeit a temporary one)! I am busy with my assignments and of course trips to here and there. The latest being a trip to Seoul, a detour from Suwon. Few weeks ago (lol, I had forgotten the date) I went to Muju Resort.



A fantastic resort actually if you are staying in Tirol Hotel (stayed there before :)) and have money to spend. I am lacking of it these days. Too much unnecessary spending... haiz...

LCIS stands for "Leadership Conference for International Student", with a diverse participation of over 60 countries, it was a chance not to be missed by international students in Korea. I am lucky to be selected but was quite reluctant to go after being selected because I had exams.



My main purpose of this trip is of course, to meet new people. Kinda bored after being in the class for too long, seeing the same people day in day out. haha. I need some change.



The camp was a 4D 3N experience but I could not attend the first 2 days because I had exam, chemistry. I am seriously not well verse in chemistry but I can be said to be good in biology (if it's in english and not korean ;)). Nevertheless I insisted on going there, alone so as not to miss this once in the lifetime experience.



To reach Muju Resort, one had to consider the timing. I went there on early autumn and not winter (for skiing) so there was practically no direct bus to Muju. I arranged my own trip list, with transportation plans and stuff like that. *Thanks to my department teachers for helping me too*



The way to go there to Muju is by stopping at Yeongdong (영동) from Dongdaegu Railway Station (동대구역). After arriving there, one have to take a bus or taxi to Yeongdong Bus Terminal (영동 시외 버스 터미널) to Muju Bus Terminal (무주 시외 버스 터미널). From here there are 2 options. Either take a Muju shuttle bus (which is free!) or a bus to Kuchungdong (구천동) which is next to Muju Resort and take another bus there. Only 3600 Won for this bus.

However, my advise is to take the free shuttle bus directly to the destination, very very convenient compare to the normal way because it was quite cold when I reached the Muju Bus Terminal at the foot of the hill.



Nevertheless, when I reached Yeongdong, I am lucky to have a nice Korean lad (that was sitting next to me) to assist me. He told me that it was quite late and would be better to go there only the next morning.

Well, the camp is more important and I am already planning to walk up the hill (lol) if I could not find the way up here. Just kidding. He offered me a ride up to Muju Bus Terminal because his home is in Muju and his mum is fetching him there. Great.



I was quite embarrassed while in the car with him and his mum, because the trip to the station was sooooooo long... Luckily I can converse in Korean well if not... hahahahaah, I will be lost in the jungles of Korea. :)

The trip to Muju was dark. Maybe it is located in the countryside, very few cars were spotted and street lamps were rarely found, the car's headlamp being the only source of light. hmmn.

I reached there at 7pm something. Most events were over by now but I was hungry.. I did not eat a lot during lunch (exam stress) and looking forward to have a big, hot, delicious dinner (Sometimes I treat myself after exam) which turns out to be, well, another far-fetched dream when arriving late.



Nothing was served and I grabbed whatever food that came to my sight, in this case 떡 which is s***y for LCIS participants whom had already ate their dinner and it was like Malaysian food to me because I am soooo hungry.

Along the way to my room, I bought a burger (I did something bad - I remembered I microwaved a burger while it was still in its packaging. Not gonna to repeat this anymore, very carcinogenic...) and 2 rows of kimbap for my dream dinner.



I did not stay in my room because my roomates were having drinking party until late up night and I was already exhausted by the time I reached Muju. Frankly, I slept really late packing my bags for the trip and studying all night for my exam on the day I went Muju. So not in mood to party lah.



The next day, we had some games and a halloween party. Nothing special because I think halloween to the Koreans was still another "Western" party so nothing interesting. The following day, we went Jeonju which is famous for its food (Note - bibimbap) but spent our time here doing nothing more than eating the food. Not much sightseeing too.



The camp was just so-so, really not as I expected but what can we say, it is the first time the Korean government organized this camp for foreigners. At the same time, sometimes the foreigners themselves were pretty wild. But met lots of people, be it with Koreans or the non-Koreans.

Updated.

9 Nov 2010

1 comment:

keh jun said...

thumbs up for this post. haha =) an interesting one to read just for my break from those books! aaahhhhhhh....

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