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

K-Pop Concert at Yeosu Expo 2012

Having the privilege to watch really close to the stage is one of benefit becoming K-Performace Supporter. Held on June 9th, 2012 at the Big-O Yeosu Expo 2012 was K-Pop Concert featuring Jay Park (박재범/Park Jae-bom), BTOB (비투비), 4Minute (포미닛), and Beast (비스트). Let's look at a glance at them and see what they sang at this concert.

Jay Park/박재범/Park Jae-bom

He was born in United States on April 25th, 1987. He used to be 2PM member but now he has a solo career. As far as I remember he sang 3 songs along with a very hot dance move that made all the girls screamed so loud that it hurts my ear more than the speaker. The songs are Know Your Name, Nothing on You, and Body 2 Body. Official website here.

BTOB/비투비

Alright, to be honest I just did some research about BTOB one day before departure to Yeosu. I really had not ever heard about this boyband. I listened to one of their singles, 비밀(Insane), and it was really good. I liked it. BTOB is a group of seven very young boys. They are 서은광/Seo Eun-kwang (leader), 이민혁/Lee Min-hyuk, 이창섭/Lee Chang-sub, 임현식/Lim Hyun-sik, 프니엘(신동근[Shin Dong-geun])/Peniel D. Shin, 정일훈/Jung Il-hoon, and 육성재/Yook Sung-jae. The youngest is Yook Sung-jae who was born in 1995. From their album, I know that they are new boyband. They are pretty good, though. They sang 비밀(Insane) and I think one other song which I do not know what (sorry). Check their official website and also their new single: 아버지[abeoji]/Father.

4Minute/포미닛

Who does not know 4Minute? They are one of famous girl groups in South Korea with their debut "Hot Issue" in 2009. 4Minute consists of five members: 남지현/Nam Ji-hyun (leader), 허가윤/Heo Ga-yoon, 전지윤/Jeon Ji-yoon, 김현아/Kim Hyun-a (rap), and 권소현/Kwon So-hyun. They sang their latest single Volume Up and 거울아 거울아 [keoura keoura]/Mirror Mirror. Check their official website, now!

BEAST/비스트

All the girls started to scream as soon as they enter the stage. It was so loud that it was the major cause of my ear ringing. Yeah, which girl does not scream when this boy group sings for them. A group of six handsome boys, BEAST, made the stage go wild. The members are: 윤두준/Yoon Du-jun (leader), 양요섭/Yang Yo-seop, 장현승/Jang Hyun-seung, 이기광/Lee Gi-kwang, 용준형/Yong Jun-hyung (rap), and 손동운Son Dong-woon. They sang four of their singles: Shock, Friction, Beautiful, and 비가 오는 날엔[Biga oneun naleun]/On Rainy Days. Know more about them by visiting their official website.

Hope to get more chances to see other K-Pop concert and share with you all!

angga | 앙가

PS: Even though the quality is not good, but all the pictures of the performers were captured by my own camera. and for KTO: mission accomplished! Thanks mas Ridwan for the picture.

Yeosu Expo 2012

Assuming that you all know what Yeosu Expo 2012 is, I am just going to write about a glance about Yeosu Expo 2012 and my personal experience. After all, there are tons of information on internet about this event.
Yeosu Expo 2012 is being held at Yeosu city, Jollanam-do province, south of South Korea. I have been to this city once I think 2 years ago with my Malaysian friend. At that time, they were still building this expo. There are a lot of pavilions, exhibitions, facilites, shows, and etc. You can see the details here.
Given only roughly 9 hours to explore Yeosu Expo, it was not enough. I have only visited several pavilions and exhibitions. The waiting line was killing, there were even people fighting because someone tried to break the line.

Hanwa Aqua Planet Yeosu

I had to wait for 2 and a half [freaking] hours in the line to enter this Aquarium. On the website, it says that this aquarium is the largest in Korea and this is also one of the big ones at Yeosu. I do not know if that is true, but for me it was a disappointment to know that this one is said to be the largest. Even though it has this rare beluga whales and some other rare animals, there is not much variety of animals. There is, though, a really nice room with glass wall and glass ceiling, meaning it feels like we are underwater and we can see what is inside the water. There is also this big-screen type of aquarium that has tiny sharks in it and schools of small fishes, but I have seen that one at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago with more variety of animals, so not a surprise. What else? Penguin? I know I write as if it sounds boring, but actually for those who have not been to many aquariums, you might enjoy this aquarium.
Conclusion: worth visiting, but it really does not worth waiting for 2 and a half hours. Consider it.

International Pavilion

International Pavilion is really big. There are many countries participate and open their pavilion. I went to only several. Here they are:
Norway
Well, I should say it was pretty boring. we had to wait for 15 minutes then we went inside. They said we were going to ride a ship, but when we entered the room there was nothing but a captain explaining about something. Then we went to another room, we sat down on the floor and there were 3 screen and a pilot-type room. Oh, this is the ship? The screen then shows videos about Norway. It is good if you want to know about Norway. But if you want to have more than just seeing videos, do not go there.

Indonesia
My own country, huh? The screen was huge, maybe half of the room. I really enjoyed watching the video, I did not even know my country was that beautiful. There are some exhibition, too about batik and other stuff. But still, I expected something more.

Australia
I just got inside than got outside. What was inside again? lol. But the twitter-like bird was very cute.

Philippines
It's more fun in Philippines! Wrong. But I think it really is more fun in the real Philippines, though. Me wanna go there!

Malaysia
I did not go to the pavilion, but they had this traditional dance just beside their pavilion. It was so cute and I watched it for a while. And they were all good looking *grin*.

Many of my friends said that Germany was really good. But too bad I did not go there.

Expo Digital Gallery
I think it is easier to understand what this place is by watching this :)

Marine City and Civilization Pavilion

Now this one is pretty interesting. Starting the journey from the past. Human started to discover the buoyancy, then they made floating boat, row, sail, then a modern ship. People can travel a lot far across the sea and discovered new places. Also, people start trading things. It was interesting enough to experience the history of this. But little did I know, the most amazing part was after this.
Leaving the past, we proceed to the future. It was just very amazing how people can design the whole futuristic plan about life on the sea. First, they design a boat-type house with complete facilities. It has bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, etc. Power source is solar and water is purified sea water. You want to go to some island? Just enter the name of the place, and auto pilot will take you there.
Not only a house, they also designed the whole city floating on the sea. Isn't that just amazing? And everything looked very futuristic. But I was a bit scared, though. What happen to the life on the land? Has the number of people on the land grown so much that there is no space left on the land?
Anyway, I enjoyed this place very much. Recommended!

Posco
Besides their exhibition about their research, there is one fun thing: A giant (balloon?) dancing doll. They are really cute and they dance like crazy. You are so going there!

Lotte
Let's ride a hot air balloon! Even though you will not really fly to the sky, the experience is going to be real. The simulation was so good that I felt like really flying.

LG
It was started with a group of TV screen hang on the ceiling. Then the screen go up and down based on the video it was displaying. For example, if a boy is jumping, then several screens with go down while he was jumping. It was not really interesting. Then we watch 3D video on a very big TV screen. I guess they just want to promote their 3D TV screen.


Samsung
Waited for about 50 minutes just to find out a big disappointment. Samsung only gives like a theatrical show. Nothing "techie", even worse it really was nothing.

The Big-O Show

This is the main star. My friend told me there is a similar thing in Singapore. But I have never been to singapore nor have I seen thing like this, so it was ah-ma-zing! Lasted for about 30 minutes at night. The Big-O is a very huge O-shaped thing at the center of the expo. Surrounded by fountains that sometimes shoot the water up. The Big-O can produce mist and water, and can "breath" fire and glowing lights. Now the interesting part is, when the water falls inside the inner circle of the Big-O somewhere back there the light shoot the water and it becomes a water screen, producing image on the surface of the inner circle of the Big-O. Moreover, the Big-O makes some kind of mist that floats all over it. The light also shoot it and it becomes a really pretty aurora kind of light effect. The show has story and with combinations of those effects, it is a masterpiece. It was my first time to witness such a smart and beautiful show. This is a must. You see this show and nothing matters anymore.

Those are things I visited during my time at the expo. I wish I could visit more and tell you more about Yeosu Expo 2012. But the waiting line was argghhhh.
Interested to go there? Yeosu Expo 2012 will stay open until August 12, 2012. Hurry!

PS: looking for a place to stay while visiting Yeosu? Check my posting here.

angga | 앙가

BnB Hero: Introduction, How To, and Personal Experience

Have you ever heard about BedandBreakfast.com? For European or American maybe they know about this handy website. But for Asians, including me, I had no idea what that is. Well, I am not going to write about BedandBreakfast.com here, but instead I am going to write about "the Korean version" of this website: BnB Hero.

Alright, so what is this BnB Hero? nope, it is not one of the character from the famous Marvel. It is actually a website which provide you a room searching engine. Maybe you, especially those who like to travel or out of city, familiar with the keyword "cheap hotel at [cityname]" on any search engine and give you the list of hotel room websites. Well, this website is a bit different. It is not searching for a hotel or motel room, but it is searching for someone's room that is rented by the owner. The rooms are relatively cheap and beneficial for both the owner of the room and the guest (and I guess the website owner, too). Interested? Keep reading.

This website is applying the principle of what so called Collaborative Consumption which is one of TIME’s top 10 most influential idea which can change the world. Or we can just simply say, everybody (or even everything) gets the benefit. Here you can rent your room, the website will post it and announce it, and the guest who found your room and interested in it will contact you through the website. Nice and clean.

What if I want to rent my room and list it on BnB Hero?

The website explains really really detail about this. Visit: http://www.bnbhero.com/about/how_it_works

How do I search for a room and book it?

Assuming that you already have registered and logged in, you just need to type the place that you are going to or you can easily select one from the popular place options, check in and out dates, and number of guest. Then click Search. BnB Hero will give you the list of matching rooms. The list then will show you the basic information like the main picture, the price, location, etc. Click on whatever room you like to go to the more detail of the room. There will be some detail description about the room. There is no address written on the information, though. The owner of the website said that it is for safety reason and actually there is a rough location map on the page to help you figure out the surroundings of the place.

Not enough with the information on the page? Ask directly to the owner of the room by sending them message. Satisfied with the information and want to book it? Just fill out the information and "Make a Reservation!".

One inconvenience thing is that the payment is quite less optional. You are only given 2 choices of payment method: credit card issued in Korea or PayPal. You don't have any of those? You would want to consult with the website owner or the room owner first.

Personal Experience

On June 9th - June 10th 2012, as K-Supporter member, I got the opportunity to go to Yeosu to see the Expo and K-Pop concert. And for the accommodation we were assigned to some rooms selected from BnBHero. I and my partner got to stay one night in somebody's apartment located near the city hall. I was not expecting much since I saw the picture on BnBHero and yes, it was not more than my expectation. The room has one double-sized bed. There was no air conditioning but the owner offered us a fan. One shared bathroom and they prepare us towels and toiletries.
There is this one nice thing, though. The owner of the apartment was very welcoming and friendly. They are one grandmother (who really looks young, though) and two of her grandsons, one works in a company and one is a student in middle school. It really felt like a family. My partner brought food and he was reheating it and the owner offered us more food. The next morning she made breakfast for us and coffee for my partner. Moreover, she gave us, I think some kind of tea powder, to bring in case we were thirsty. She told us about her story, her family, what she does and what they do. It was really something to listen to her story. She does not speak English at all, one of her grandson, even though with a really limited English, always tried to translate what his grandmother says when we did not understand.
Overall, I really liked and enjoyed this homestay. It really did not feel like a room that we had to pay to stay. It was more than that, it felt like a family. She said we were the first one to stay there. I hope we left a good memory for them. She did give a very decent experience for me. Thanks Mrs. Myeong Cheol-rim .

(from left) Me, Mrs. Myeong, and my partner

Want to get your own experience? BnBHero now!

angga | 앙가