Suncheon

So our friend and past colleague had moved to Suncheon at the end of last year. He's invited us out to visit whenever we're free. The last couple of months have been busy but finally we decided to take him up on the offer and take the 2.5 hour bus trip there.

We woke up a little later than we intended to and ended up getting there around dinner time. Ashley and his wife Amy picked us up at the bus terminal and then we all took the bus to a buffet restaurant. I can't quite recall the name but it was popular so we had to wait a little bit. After a nice buffet dinner, we decided to go for karaoke. 

At first we entered an establishment that reminded me of those 80s karaoke lounge from Chinese shows. There's a huge stench of old ladies' perfume and there were booths covered with purple velvet. Most of the patrons were well into their 50s? After stepping into this place, we quickly realized this was not what we were looking for so we said our goodbyes and hightailed out of there. 

The next place is very much the typical karaoke place so we planted ourselves down for the next two hours and belted ballads, rock songs, etc. It was  a great way to spend a Saturday night! After sufficiently wrecking our vocal cords, we headed back to A&A's abode. Their apartment is in a newly developed complex - even area. Everywhere around that area looked so new and clean! And their apartment was gorgeous! It was a three bedroom, with 1 bathroom and an ensuite, an open floor plan of the living and dining/kitchen space. Amy told me that she bought a lot of her future online - I wish I could do the same but alas she is Korean so it's a lot easier for her. 

After a night's rest, we spent the next morning walking around their area. It's very spacious with very tall buildings. There's not much traffic or people walking around because it's still new and people are slowly moving in the area. But because it's so far from the city center (very much a suburb), most people would need to have cars as the buses don't run that frequently. After walking around the area and having some lunch, Ashley decided to take us to the Suncheon Bay Gardens. It took us a long time to find a cab, reminded me a bit like Vancouver (lol). Amy almost had to call a cab for us but eventually we found one and started off on our adventure. 

This garden is not little, it was massive! We were too early for many of the flowers to be in bloom but I bet it would be so beautiful come spring and summer. There were lots of people there and we spent a good few hours and still couldn't walk around the whole place. One very interesting thing we did here was ride the SkyCube. It's a compact unmanned streetcar. It sits on tracks above ground (like a skytrain!). It takes about 12 minutes to get from the garden to the next stop. It fits about 8 people and costs $5 for a round trip. According to the brochure because it's run on electricity, it's suppose to protect the Suncheon Bay (world top 5 wetland) from exhaust and traffic congestion. From this experience, we also learned that Suncheon wants to be known as one of the most green cities in the world. As we were walking through an exhibition hall, I saw Vancouver named as one of the top green cities in the world. Made me miss Vancouver a little bit and feel a bit proud of my hometown. (both pic on the bottom if found via google)

After we got back to their apartment, Amy had make a wonderful roast chicken dinner for us! By the way, she has a full size oven that I am completely envious of! After thanking our hosts, we headed to the train station to head home. Unlike Gwangju, after buying our tickets we had to line up to get a seat on the bus rather than having it assigned. Needles to say, the station was super busy! Never knew so many would head back to Gwangju on the same night.