my upcoming trip to south korea

i was actually planning on writing about the asian, most specifically korean, dramas and movies that i have watched but seeing that i'm months from flying to korea.. i'm writing about it until my actual trip and maybe get a little help too! so here goes!

i'm going to korea! a friend of mine went to korea last year and i could have gone with her but i had a different trip then so i said to myself - 2013 is going to be my year. 

picking the date is definitely not that easy. but i was eyeing two seasons from when i would want to visit and that is spring and autumn. but due to some crazy circumstances, i picked autumn and i am flying during the chuseok festival. ^_^ i guess spring will have to wait. 

i'll be flying on the 18th of September and will be leaving on the 23rd which gives me 5 days and 4 nights - wait, actually it's only 4 days and 4 nights as my flight on the 23rd is on the wee hours of the morning. hihi! and have i told you that i'm going alone? yep! travelling alone. i'm not that experienced with it though - travelling alone. it's my second time. my first was in singapore, but i dunno if you could actually count it as i have been there once before
venturing alone and that  i was living with my cousin. i'm saying that i was alone as i was 75% alone the whole time - so what d'ya think does that count? anyway, let's just scratch that - this is going to be my first time travelling - solo. yaiks!

anyways, where was i? ah! 4 days and 4 nights. so whattam i gonna do? the first thing that would come to mind would be filming locations! been researching about it and has found the following sites really useful:

i love littlemisshoo, she has this awesome collection of filming locations and even has directions on how to get there. and in her book, she has grouped those locations which are in the same place which makes plotting your itinerary way easier.

the visit korea website has a list of filming locations of known korean dramas and korean movies. it has directions on how to get there and the working hours, admission fees, etc. 

visiting filming locations is not the only thing that i'm gonna do though..  i'm thinking of doing a bit of cultural tour, food tripping here and there and a lot of shopping in myeongdong, namdaemun, insadong and gangnam.

i have no definite itinerary yet. the question of whether i'm just gonna stay within seoul or venture out to gyeonggi-do, gangwon-do or maybe busan is still hanging on my head. plus, also, i'm still looking for a good hostel.

guess i still have a lot to do. speaking of which, i still have to learn some korean phrases! oh well.. as do most koreans say FIGHTING!


till next time and feel free to post your comments and suggestions - they are most welcome. thanks ^_^

*screenshots from dramabeans

how it all started

i started seeing chinese tv series when i was a kid. i remember it being the only thing up on tv every sunday morning. i dunno what it was about though. then came bioman, shaider, ultraman, masked rider black and all sorts of japanese tv series. it was a normal thing for a kid back then to watch these kind of stuff. i mean, everybody at school watches them. and you have to, or you'll be off the loop! haha!

anyways, years passed, and asian tv series came back to my life in the form of the taiwanese tv series meteor garden. it was translated or should i say dubbed in our language and i have to admit, i was not at all interested at first, but there's something about it that got me hooked! (or maybe because my dorm mates are watching it and since we only have one tv, i have no choice but watch it.) and it became a hit! everyone's watching it! even the show's soundtrack was being played in every radio station you could ever imagine. and even though the songs are sung in a foreign language, you can here people singing it (and that includes me, speaking of which, i think i could still sing a few lines...)

after that, korean tv series became the trend. there was my girl, full house, princess hours, coffee prince and the korean version of meteor garden (or should i say, hana yori dango), boys over flowers, among others. aside from the eye candies, the story line are light, quirky, heart-thugging and most of all feel good. it's the sort that you would want to imagine yourself to be involved with. there are also those that are more on the dramatic side like endless love, which is actually entitled autumn in my heart, and winter sonata both belonging in the endless love series or what i like to call the seasons series.  

then someone introduced this korean movie to me - my sassy girl. it was the first korean movie that i've seen and the first i've watched un-dubbed. watching a show while reading subtitles is not a new thing for me as i'm a big fan of naruto, and i've pretty much watched a hundred eps by then. aside from my sassy girl, i also watched windstruck, my little bride, my wife is a gangster, spy girl, etc.

my curiosity grew, i began following actors and their works. i would search for old and new titles and without knowing it, i have started following the "currently airing" tv series. the first of which i followed was cinderella's sister. and now, i'm currently watching 5 tv series. ^_^