Seoul Day 3 - Skiing Day trip & Noryangjin Fish Market

On Day 3, we woke up bleary-eyed and tired. I booked a skiing day trip and the driver was gonna pick us up at 7am. He was very punctual and when we boarded the van, we realised we were his first stop, so he had to drive us around and pick up the others from other hotels around Seoul. After a while, he made us alight and changed to a really big coach. In any case, our group was not very big, 9 Singaporeans (including us), 5 Australians, 5 Taiwanese.

The drive from Seoul to Jisan took about an hour. The hubs and I slept on the coach. Finally we were asked to alight at a shop where we got our skiing gear including jacket, pants, gloves, goggles. We could also leave our clothes (but bring our valuables along) in the shop. Sleds are available (FOC I think) as well.

When we got to Jisan Forest Resort, it was sooooo uber crowded.

Here we are!

These were the intermediate and expert slopes.

Check out the throngs of people on the beginner slope...-_-

Eating cheese ramen from their small eatery on a cold winter day when you're surrounded by snow was uber shiok! I rate this one of the few "shiokest" moments during this trip!

We stayed until about 4pm...this is the intermediate slope. Goodbye beautiful Jisan!

Our day trip was quite okay, just a little tiring because we had to wake up earlier and it was really crowded so even equipment rental (skis and snowboards) took quite some time. Our instructor speaks really good english and overall we were very happy with our experience. It costs KRW142,000 per person (inclusive of skiing gear, equipment, ski lift pass, transportation and ski training) which my Korean class teacher says is not expensive at all. 

Tip of the day: buy a cup noodle back to your hotel the night before your skiing trip and eat it in the morning because the next time you are going to eat is about 1pm.

This is the website of the agency I booked with. You can look at all their other packages. 

http://www.triptokorea.com

After returning our skis/skiing wear, the coach brought us back to our hotel. We were famished by then so onward to dinner!

We decided to head to Noryangjin Fish Market (or Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market) for dinner. The selection there was so extensive we had a fun time walking about and just oohing and aahing at all the seafood!

The hawkers would tout and all but they are not very pushy so don't need to feel obliged. The prices of the stalls are more or less the same. Haggling is allowed though. :)

Small, medium or large prawns?

A dozen oysters for KRW5,000 (about SGD$6)! 

This huge plate of salmon sashimi cost about SGD$20 only

We ordered some big prawns and 4 abalones (really cheap too!). So how this market works is that you just purchase your seafood from any stall on level 1, then after that make your way to any restaurant in level 2 to ask them to cook your seafood for you. They charge a nominal fee for towels, tissues, water and "cooking fee". It'll cost more if you order soju (alcohol).

We didn't explore the restaurants as we wanted to find a reliable one. Hwangje came highly recommended online so we went there instead. 

The restaurant, still crowded at 9pm. There were Koreans, Japanese, Hong Kong tourists and of course Singaporeans (us! *waves*) in the restaurant.

They mostly barbecue the seafood as it is fragrant and can retain the sweetness of the seafood too. So we barbecued our prawns and abalones. You can also order their octopus or fish stew which seemed popular among the patrons as well.

This was the highlight of our dinner and this creature didn't come cheap. It costs about SGD$100-$150. The hubs went down to buy it (we decided to buy it as an afterthought) so I am not sure of the price. Anyway after barbecuing the flesh was so juicy and succulent and sweet! If I ever go back and this is in season again I'd definitely order it!