R16 Korea National Championship

Uijeongbu Art Center

Thanks to KTO (Korea Tourism Organization), on June 23rd, 2012, I had a really great opportunity to go to R16 Korea National Championship. Held at Uijeongbu Art Center, I had to take bus and it was 2 hours trip. Worth it? Hell yeah!
What is R16? If F1 is Formula 1, R16 is RESPECT 16. At least that is what I know after reading the introduction page on the R16 website, here. R16 is a world championship for b-boy. Do not know what b-boy is? Click here. The one that I watched was the Korea National Championship to select the best one in Korea and then become the representative of Korea at the World Championship.
Honestly, I do not have a lot of knowledge about this, but I do have interest. The competition was open by a performance from a b-boy: Animation Crew. They were awesome, I got goosebumps all over my body. It really heat up the atmosphere inside the room.

Crew Battle: Korean Assassins VS Fusion MC Crew

At the first time, I really did not know anything about what's going on and what is what. When the tournament began with performance by Animation Crew, I thought this was the competition and I was really excited because if every team was this good, this was gonna be super interesting. But then it turned out that they were only a guest for the competition.
There were three categories competed in this tournament: Poppin, Locking, and Crew Battle. In Poppin and Locking the dancers will have 1:1 battle with certain time duration. The judges then point with their hand who win the battle. It was really entertaining to watch Poppin and Locking dance battles, but when it went to Crew Battle, it was different kind of excitement.
In Crew Battle, two teams will do battle. There are 5 points that will be judged: foundation, originality, dynamics, execution, and battle. I think Crew Battle was more interesting than Poppin and Locking, because it was not one person but it was the whole team battling. Sometimes if both team got the same result then there will be an extra round.
After some tough battles, finally there left the winners who will be representative from Korea at the World Championship. The winner of Poppin dance is Boogaloo Kin, Locking dance is Du Lock (he tried to do some acrobat but ended up hurting his nose, but he won anyway), and Jinjo Crew as the winner of Crew Battle. I hope I can get the opportunity to watch them on World Championship! Fingers crossed!
Awesome b-boy, awesome performance. Worth it!

Want to know more about R16? Do visit their official website: http://www.r16korea.com/xe/

angga | 앙가

First Experience of Tour Guiding

Love locks on fence at Namsan Tower

June 18 - June 20, 2012. A three days tour guiding a family from Indonesia around Seoul area. There were a mother and two daughters, one is a 10-year old. This was my first time to be a paid tour guide. I was really nervous and afraid if I could not satisfy them. But it turned out well and I pretty much enjoyed it. I hope they did, too. Equipped with my experience wandering around Seoul, verbally-ok Korean language skill, and a smart phone with smart map, here is the story.
My client were pretty much shoppers. I actually made a list of what to do from the first day until the last day, but it turned out that we did not go according to the list. They decided to go to Namdaemun market (남대문시장) on the first day, to shop. Therefore, I took them to Namdaemun market after I picked them up at Gimpo International Airport. We spent the whole day just to shop. I translated what the seller said and what they wanted to say to the seller. Also, upon request I tried to convince the seller to give discount for them, which happened many times. I do not know if I do good in bargaining, but we did get discount like at least KRW 1000 for cheap things. Sometimes up to KRW 20,000 (They bought 8 pieces of DVD which originally costed KRW 100,000 but after bargaining they ended up paying KRW 80,000 only). I did many "moves" to convince the seller to drop the price for them. For instance, I said that they came from far away and it is pretty sad if they have to pay a lot, or sometimes I said something funny to them, you know, to make the atmosphere good, and we did get discount. They bought a lot of things especially clothes. Later that day, since the hotel that they were sleeping at was really close to Myeong-dong (one of famous shopping centers in Seoul), one of the daughter wanted to go to Etude House, a cosmetic shop, at Myeong-dong, so I took her there.
The next day was another shopping day at another famous shopping center in Seoul, Dongdaemun (동대문시장). Dongdaemun is a pretty organized and modern shopping center than Namdaemun. They are inside buildings so it was much convenience to shop around. I did nothing new this day since it was only taking them around and translating what they wanted to say or what the seller wanted to say. They said Dongdaemun was better because it was cheaper and the quality was better than the ones in Namdaemun.
The last day was finally a bit of non-shopping visit. Even though before I met them they did a little shopping (yeah, they shop hard!) we went to Namsan Tower. There were some traditional instrumental and martial arts performances and we watched it before going up to the tower. I think they were pretty impressed by the love lock on the fence. I was impressed to when I went there for the first time. The other thing that I think was pretty impressive for them was the view from the bus window on the way to Namsan Tower. They pretty much enjoyed the trip on the way to Namsan Tower. We took cable car from Namsan tower down to Myeong-dong. Then, we went to a cathedral. This was my first time to go to a cathedral and I went inside. It was really beautiful with ornament on the wall. There were people singing and praying. I think it was beautiful. Before going back to the hotel and making payment to me (^_^) they did again go shopping at Myeong-dong.
I felt so good after tour guiding. I want to do it again! Interested with my service? contact me!

angga | 앙가


PS: They paid me KRW 60,000/day and paid for food but it is negotiable, lol.

Odong-do at Yeosu Revisited

Odong-do Island captured from
Yeosu Expo 2012

This is the second time for me to visit Odong-do. I did post the story on my blog about my first time to visit Yeosu. Maybe want to check it out first? Click here. The first time I visited Odong-do was on December, 2010. I went there with my Malaysian friend who traveled to Korea. We took boat to go there but this time we took bus. I think the bus costed like KRW 500? I do not know, KTO paid for us. It was actually nice to revisit Odong-do. The last time I just knew a bit of Odong-do since the guide was speaking in Korean and that time my Korean skill was awful. This time I might not understand everything, but at least I got the point. It means my Korean skill has been increased in the past 2 years. Oh, so proud of my self, hahah.

Proof that Odong-do is
a love island. I hope they
do not mind I post this, lol.

Odong-do is an island in Yeosu City. You do not have to swim or take ship to go there, it is really close to the mainland you can even walk to go there. I learned that it was given Odong-do as a name because long time ago, this island was rich of Odong trees, but not anymore. And the guide said something about the king who was born in this island, but I did not really get it, though. The guide also said that Odong-do is a love island. It is funny because two years ago I made up a story that Odong-do is a love island, it turned out that it was true. This is the picture that I took 2 years ago and I said Odong-do is a love island.
You do not go to Odong-do island if you do not go to the observatory. Do not expect to much, though. You can see the landscape of Yeosu Expo 2012 from the observatory. Also, I learned from the guide that we can see the border of Jollanam-do and Gyeongsangnam-do. Impressive, huh?
Actually, there are still a lot of things to see in this island. But the tour ended since we did not have much time. The closing was the music fountain.

angga | 앙가