Day 7 - LG Konjiam

today, we made our way to a ski resort - LG Konjiam!

we checked out from metro hotel around 10am and deposited our luggage with the concierge. armed with only our smaller luggage, we were ready to made our way to LG Konjiam ski resort for our 2D2N getaway. lol. we feel like this is a mini getaway within our Korean trip.

 

once again, I think hubbi and I are very resourceful. as usual, with only bit of information from internet and a fair bit of asking around with the locals, we managed to make our own way to the resort!

it took us 25mins to travel by subway from myeongdong area to jamsil area (where lotte amusement park is located anyway). from there, we found the bus-stop to take a local bus which is supposed to take us to Gonjiam terminal (out of seoul anyway).

when the bus came, I was trying so hard to check with the driver if it's going to Gonjiam terminal and the way we pronounced "Gonjiam" was vastly different. lol.

 

in any case, we boarded it and for the first half of the journey, I was trying my best to look at road signs to see if we were travelling in the right direction.. but the further we moved away from seoul, the road signs with english words slowly ceased until all were in Korean. @_@

so I cant be bothered and retreated to watching show on my hp. :P

from the website, I was supposed to be a 2 hours ride but either its wrong or traffic was very smooth for a weekday, we reached the terminal in slightly over an hour time. and it was the bus driver who called out to us, he was shouting "oedi?!" repeatedly and luckily I know that is "where" in Korean so I shouted from my seat "Kon-jee-am" (the way they pronounced gonjiam...) and he indicated we have reached the stop so we quickly scrambled down.

 

and the bus stop was in the middle of nowhere in a sort of sub-urban town. we tried asking the receptionist of a nearby hotel only to be ignored for the guy seemed to understand no English. and it was way colder here than in seoul so in desperation, we seek refuge in a café. luckily, the waitress knew some English and told us that the resort shuttle bus pick-up point is right in front of the café! what luck!

 

so while waiting for the shuttle bus, we had our desserts break! :D

 

angel-is-us café with their yummy thick toast

 

the shuttle bus came and we reached the resort in 15mins time!



 

left: at the resort lobby

right: our very nice hotel room/apartment

 

and after touring the place, we noted that there was minimal snow on the slopes, definitely not enough for any skiing or sledding. so we went to check with the reception on when will the man-made snow be sprayed only to be told it will be done so on 1st of Dec. @_@

major face-palm moment. no wonder the hotel rates were so low as compared to a month later!!

it was like 150+ compared to a 300+ in Dec month and that was because the resort is operating as off-peak in nov with no snow-related activities going on! OMG.

 

still, the resort has its fair shares of activities to do in-house but I was a little disappointed for the boys' sake.

but the good thing is they enjoyed their stay here still doing other stuff. and I think that is the beauty of having no expectations! ha. for this trip, I promised them nothing and told them upfront nothing of what we will be doing. the way we positioned is more of a just come along and enjoy whatever we are doing kind of trip to them. :P

 

anyway, within the resort, there were gorgeous walking trails which we did for the first day there.

it was a good afternoon spent just walking with the boys and taking photos.

 

traces of autumn left before winter comes

much colder here than in seoul - *brrr*

 

we checked out some of the activities in the resort and the boys opted for the 4D rider which was surprisingly quite good.

in any case, i was a little scared when on it. YZ has chosen a roller coaster like ride for us. :(

 

the boys enjoyed this ride!

time flies and it was dinner time. we settled it in an Italian restaurant in the resort. and we were the only patrons! LOL. how off-peak huh...

but the food was really good. especially my roast chicken risotto! absolutely yummy!
yz got his pizza fix and the husband enjoyed his boring yummy spaghetti bolognaise so it was a good meal!

@ big-6ix restaurant

 

spent the night channel surfing! the resort tv has over 100 channels which is crazy. the boys finally get to cartoon characters sprouting english instead of Korean! and after they slept, hubbi and I were spoilt for choices for movies too.

 

so that is how they keep customers entertained during off-peak season. :P