Everland Resort - 1st Theme Area: Global Fair

Date of Visited: 10th September 2011

Welcome to Everland Resort, the Land of Festivals for 365 days a year.

After taking 2 different routes which I shared in my previous post on How To Get To Everland Resort where took us almost 2 hours, finally we reached South Korea's largest theme park. One of my travelmate told me that die-die must also come here. For me, I'm not really sure where did I came across of Everland Resort and can't recall which Korean drama had I ever watched before that promote Everland but it's seems like six sense that I must go to Everland, and believe me, once I step in, I won't feel regret for travelling so far away from Seoul city.

Everland Resort is so claimed by most tourists that it's look alike Disneyland Resort, which I couldn't agreed more but if I thought I were in Hong Kong, I would feel like it has the both combination of Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park. You will find out why I said so when I showcase the photo that my friends and I took at Everland Resort.

As usual, going to buy admission ticket before enter into the park but while queuing up with the local, we're being requested to go the group ticket office to purchase the tickets. According to the research that I done, the admission ticket for foreigner is 38,000 won per person but came to our surprise, the total amount that we paid was 23,000 won per person. We're not really sure why but for sure it was our lucky day.

A group photo once we enter the park.

Just like every other amusement park, Everland Resort is distinguished into 5 different theme areas that offers more than 30 types of attractions full of high thrilling and various fun; Global Fair, American Adventure, Magic Land, European Adventure and Zoo-Topia. And because of too many photo that my friends and I took (I guess most of you will do the same thing when visiting any theme parks), hence I decided to post all of these 5 different theme ares into 5 different posts. So, for this post is mainly all about Global Fair.

"Located near the front entrance of Everland, the Global Fair is home to a large bazaar decorated with reproductions of castles from France, Middle Eastern countries, Spain, India, and Russia. Not only visually captivating, the various architectural styles invite visitors into the culture and history of other nations, such as the Ancient and Medieval Periods of Europe." - Wikipedia

Once we entered the main entrance, we waited no more and ready our camera. This theme area makes me reminiscence I was in Italy instead of in South Korea. 

It's Halloween everywhere!

Almost every year when I visited any theme parks: either Disneyland in Hong Kong and even DisneySea in Tokyo also during Halloween time. This is because some of my friends and even included myself at that moment were auditors. Fyi, auditors are not allowed to take long holiday period during peak season especially April - August. Therefore most of my travel period is after month of August. Pity, right?

Global Fair is primarily a place for food, souvenirs and pictures as visitors make their way into and out of the park. There are many shops, and restaurants as well as special services such as stroller rental and lockers.

By the time we reached Everland, it was lunch time and because we were so lucky that we save a lot from our admission fee, therefore we used the extra money to dine-in one of their restaurant.

A set meal of pork cutlet curry rice cost 9,000 won and a bottle of orange juice cost 2,000 won

That's cover the first theme area from the five of Everland Resort. Will cover more on the next theme area in the next post. Have a great day!

NOTE: By the way, AirAsia is having a big promotion now. Has anyone of you bought any ticket to anywhere next year? For me, of course I won't miss out this chance and I was damn surprised that I managed to buy a ticket within 10 minutes with smoothly and fast once the promotion started without get through the most irritating "Waiting Room". Plus, bought a ticket for 7 people. Guess AirAsia has improved their booking system.

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Prague's Attractions & Sightseeing

Date of Visited: 2nd October 2008

Prague is one of Europe famous tourist destinations. There are lots of old buildings with beautiful murals on them. To get true sense of Prague, the best way is hitting the pavement like I mentioned before in my previous post. So in this post as what I promised before, here are few of attractions and sightseeing which I experienced before that must visit and see if you plan to visit Prague in future.

1. Prague Castle

The Prague Castle is the ancient symbol and the most significant Czech cultural monument. As Prague Castle has been recorded as the world's biggest ancient castle, hence it is the number one tourist attraction in Prague.

The other side view of Prague Castle

Just like the other Royal Palaces, there is an hourly changing of the guard ceremony. At noon, the ceremony includes fanfare at a flag ceremony as well in the first courtyard.

A photo group with the whole tourmates and tour guide in front of Prague Castle

The Castle is accessible by everyone and it is open daily. However, there are some areas require to buy a ticket for entrance. In that case, we decided to visit the other attractions instead.

2. Charles Bridge

Among of all the bridges of Prague, Charles Bridge is the famous historic bridge that connect between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town and other adjacent areas. It is also one of the most famous attractions that you shouldn't miss out when visit Prague. Charles Bridge is richly adorned with sculptures - coats of arms of the countries belonging to the Czech Crown.

A full details of Charles Bridge was written on a wall of a high tower

A whole view on how the bridge looks like

Numerous of painters and musicians when crossing across the bridge

And if you are looking for shopping around Prague, Charles Bridge does offer various of stalls that selling anything from black and white photos of Prague to home-made jewellery. This is where I search for my travel knick-knacks; keychains and fridge magnets.

3. Old Town Square

The Old Town Square is one of the two main squares of Prague. This is one of the most beautiful historical sights in Europe with numerous of ancient buildings and magnificent churches surrounding the square. Take a look on the photo above, on the left-hand side is the world notable famed, Astronomical Clock meanwhile on the right-hand side is Church of Our Lady Before Tyn.

Old Town Square is also another recommended place if you want experience slightly more cultural shopping experience where you could find typical souvenirs such as Bohemian crystal and hand-made Marionette Puppets.

4. Old Town Hall with the Astronomical Clock

Prague Astronomical Clock is the third oldest clock in the world and it is still working until now even thought it was installed in 1410. If you notice the first clock on top, it is the zodiacal ring with the signs of different zodiac whereas the yellow clock on the bottom is added with calender.

5. Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

Dominates one side of Old Town Square, standing a church named The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, or the pure Gothic Tyn Church where it can been seen all over Prague city. Its unique twin towers with many spires is useful as bearing and meeting point for the tourist.

Last but not least, enjoy the magnificent night view of Prague which will truly amaze you.

For your information, Czech Republic is among few of Europe countries that use their own currency instead of Euro currency. The currency of the Czech Republic is the Ceska koruna or Czech Crown (Kc). There are few shop and eateries that accept Euro but we prefer to change a few.

Leftover Czech crown from my Europe trip.

[Credit To: Wikitravel, Praguewelcome.com, Pragueexperience.com]

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Splendid China Part II: Miniature China

Date of Visited: 30th May 2011

Continue from the previous post of Part 1, the other part of Splendid China is Miniature Park. This theme park is one of the world's largest scenery parks where it showcase the replicas of China's historical and ancient buildings, marvellous scenes and exciting culture.

Not only surrounded by the replicas, but the exhibits are also surrounded by pleasant and beautiful gardens with many flowers and trees.

At here, you can see replicas of all the China famous landmark and buildings in one day where it was perfectly being constructed in a ratio of 1:15. The exhibits are even positioned to replicate their geographical locations. Consequently, you will feel like you are visiting the entire China without have to travel so far away.

The long and masterpiece of the replica of Dazu Buddhist Stone Sculpture.

One of the must seen replicas is The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, where it was being replicated exactly the same like the original one which located at Xian City, Shaanxi Province.

The famous landmarks and building in China. Can you name them all?

There are even some replicas being built on the water, which really impress me.

For your information, this is the second miniature theme park I visited whereas my maiden visit was the one in Taiwan - Window on China Theme Park. Both have their own unique and distinctive features and showcases different kind of replicas but somehow, I think the best miniature theme park will be the one in Taiwan. One of the reason I said so it because Splendid China did a low maintenance for their replicas as I did saw some of them are damaged.

Anyhow, it is worth to make a visit to this theme park with your family and friends as it is comes with two different kind of parks, including China Folk Culture Village with one single ticket. The recommended time to visit this second part of the theme park might roughly be 2-3 hours. It is more spacious than the first one.

There even a park where those trees were planted by the most famous people in the world. Wander around and seeing all the name, sorry to say I can't recognise any of them.

Opening hours: 09:00 to 18:00
Admission fee: 120 RMB including China Folk Culture Village
How to go there: Shenzhen Subway Line 1 and stop at "Huaqiaocheng" (Overseas Chinese Town) station. Upon reaching there, find Exit D and Splendid China is situated on the right-hand side.

[Credit to: Wikipedia, Travel China Guide, Startinchina.com, Passportchop.com]

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Splendid China Part I: Shenzhen China Folk Culture Village

Date of Visited: 30th May 2011

After shopping like mad for the past 2 days (Day 1 & Day 2 post), I decided to make a visit to one of Shenzhen's attractions on the third day. You know the sinful when brought your camera along to a trip but never fully utilise it.There are few of attractions to name of when comes to Shenzhen including Window of the World, Splendid China, Happy Valley and so on. Upon all the list of the attractions, I more interested with Window of the World and Splendid China as these two are the top list. But due to time constraint, I can only pick one and after done with all the research and findings, Splendid China is my final choice.

Both Window of the World and Splendid China are located so close to each other and if you really have a whole day around Shenzhen, you can visit it both in a day. The reason I choose Splendid China is because I can visit two distinctive parks with a single ticket of entrance. Splendid China is split into two parts; China Folk Culture Village and Miniature China. This is what they call "Travel with Smart". Hence for this first part of post, I will blog about China Folk Culture Village first.

There are many ways to reach Splendid China but we prefer to take subway. Take Shenzhen Subway Line 1 and stop at "Huaqiaocheng" (Overseas Chinese Town) station. Upon reaching there, find Exit D and Splendid China is situated on the right-hand side. The admission fee is 120 RMB for adult and 60 RMB for children.

The performance time and map.

Do take note that the admission fee doesn't include to watch few of the performances which requires you to pay extra.

The vividly coloured Chinese umbrella hanging around the culture village.

Maybe due to cause we reached there quite late, we were unlucky to see those people dressed in ethnic costumes and the portrayal of ethnic village life. Therefore, the only we can do is wander around and took a few photo around the theme park.

The stage for the performance

Loves these huge Chinese changing masks "Bian Lian" hanging on the way

There are few stalls that could buy some local snacks and small gifts.

We took more than an hour to venture around the first part of this Splendid China, whereas you might eventually need at least two hours if interested to watch the performance. For the second part of the Splendid China will be blog soon. So stay tune!


[Credit to: China Highlights, Travel China Guide, Startinchina.com]

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