A Special Trip in Seoul

Day 1

A perfect week in Seoul it was. I arrived at Incheon International Airport around 6.40am on 3rd September 2014. As soon walked out to the waiting area, I was greeted by the program staffs then we took a cab to Somerset Palace Seoul with April Tan, Singapore representative who was already waiting at the airport. We had breakfast with Miss Jae Oak, who was in charge of greeting us at the hotel. I took the elevator to my room on 5th floor and greeted my roommate who arrived there hours earlier than me. He's Bilguun, a very cool guy from Mongolia.

During the orientation, we received our full schedule for the next two days which is quite short in my opinion. After we're done with orientation, we went back to our room, watched a random reality show about how two lovers spent their day. Yes, too random. Two single guys watching such a random show. The great thing is he don't speak English with me so it's a great chance for me to finally practice my Korean again.

If you click at the picture above, you'll see that there's only five guys out of 21 contestants.

Oh yeah, here's the view from my room:

Just perfect!

Day 2

Well it's day two or should I say we're already halfway into the final day? We started off with a trip to Korean Folk Village. I've seen it many times on the internet but you have to go there yourself to really appreciate its beauty.

Jang Ahreum is our awesome team leader. We were divided to four groups with one Korean team leader to guide us around.

At the Korean Folk Village, we caught a glimpse of Lee Jin Wook who I first saw in Nine:9 Times Time Travel. Looks like they were just done shooting The Three Musketeers.

After we're done at the folk village, we went to another location to shoot making Kimchi with Ms. Lee Mun Ja at Learning Center for Traditional Korean Foods. I also tasted injeolmi (rice cake covered with dried bean powder) for the first time and now it's my favorite tteok (rice cake). Ah I am loving this free trip.

KBS staff members arranging the shooting set. It was around 2.30pm and yeah it was hot!

Finally done with shooting outdoor after about 3 hours!

Final shooting location: Yongin University for traditional wrestling competition (ssireum)

Well the winner got a new action camera. I've been wanting to get one of those camera but I couldn't win against the stronger guy who beat me after 40 seconds.

He went on to beat the guy after me in less than 10 seconds. I guess I didn't do too badly. The referee was Lee Tae Hyun, the 'Prince of Ssireum' in Korea. 

Now time for dinner at Seoul Tower!

I don't know how much buffet at HanCook Seoul Tower would cost but the food is simply amazing!

No tripod no problem!

They gave everyone this skin care set. I've never seen the brand before but after checking the price online, my mom would be more than happy to use them. $550 for all three... and the cream in the middle costs about $400 for 60ml. Ugh...

 Day 3 - Final day of Quiz on Korea

Ugh okay it's the last day of Quiz on Korea already so the whole day was spent at KBS Yeouido doing rehearsal and finally recording.

21 contestants from 21 countries all in one picture!

Picture taken during rehearsal. The stage wasn't 100% done yet.

During the rehearsal, one of the directors talked to each of the participants. He said to me that Malaysians have been asking them (KBS) why there was no participant from Malaysia in previous years so he finally included Malaysia this year and asked me to do my best. Thanks a lot people in Malaysia! (and sorry I didn't win the first prize...)

Ah well... I wasn't expecting them to put up that picture lol. I don't know if you are going to read this but I would like to sincerely thank a Malaysian family who came to support me that night. The quiz ended very late so I couldn't get a chance to meet them. Also thanks to Foong Yi, Suyeon and her sister Sumin for coming!

There were three rounds with winner from each round will move to the final stage so I had three chances to book a place in the finals. Too bad I blew my chances. Erm, the questions were tough too to be fair. Well I do feel a bit disappointed for not making it to the final but those who made it really deserved it.

I actually called Suyeon after I'm done with the quiz and she said those questions were tough even for Koreans. Ahha yes! Definitely getting US$10,000 is never going to be easy!

Congratulations to Su Mei who won the first price of US$10,000 and six-month all-sponsored Korean language learning program in Korea! Taking the taxi to hotel with you on the first day was an honor lol.

 Souvenirs from the friends I've met during the program.

Oh yeah Maxim coffee mix set that we got during orientation! They should last for a few months.

Also thanks to Young hyung, Heejin, Juyeon noona, and Heeju noona for the gift! My mom would definitely make a super delicious dish when you guys come to Malaysia! Thanks to Seojin, Jiyoung, Suyeon, Sumin, and Foong Yi too for making my stay a pleasant one.

Although I did not walk away with any of the prizes (not even the action camera...sigh), getting to know these amazing new people is more than enough.

Thanks to everyone for all their kind words and support for all these while. I'm about to start my service as a Teach For Malaysia fellow this coming January and who knows after two years I might go back there for master's degree :)

See you again! Here's the video of the show. The server is quite slow though. Too bad I couldn't find the one with subtitle yet. The show was aired on KBS1 on 8th September 2014 10.00am Korea time and on  9th September 2014 KBS World 4.00pm Malaysia time.

Quiz on Korea 2014: Malaysia Preliminary Round

This is more like another personal post. 

I stumbled upon the Quiz on Korea advertisement on Facebook but I wasn't sure whether I should give it a go or not until I saw the video of the 2012 and 2013 Global Final Round of Quiz on Korea. The show will be aired on KBS as a Chuseok Special Program in September. One of the grand prizes for the previous event was Hyundai i40 Tourer. That time, I knew I had to give a shot.

Before the final round in Malaysia where 10 participants went head to head against each other, about 40-50 people attended the first round quiz. We had to answer 45 questions in English and the remaining 5 questions in Korean. To me, the Korean section was the hardest of all. 

Then 10 people were selected for the final round in Malaysia. 300 points were allocated for self introduction, a 3-minute talent show, and interview by the judges. The remaining 600 points were for the quiz. 18 questions were in English and the rest were in Korean. The first prize winner gets a 10-day trip to South Korea and a chance to participate in the Global Final Round at KBS.

My self introduction and talent show went well. I did a simple 'talk show' about Busan accent, which I practiced just the night before. Thanks to Hansuk hyung who helped me with the hardest part of my script. Before the quiz, there was a 10-minute break after the interviews which I spent by going through my notes outside the hall. Then to calm myself down, I went back into the hall, met some of the embassy staffs and had some talk with them about random stuffs. I also asked them about my Busan accent and much to my relief, they said nothing was wrong with it. They are a very friendly bunch of people. Hope to see some of them in Seoul this August!

Haha that was how I calm myself down before the final quiz.

Finally it's quiz time! I don't know what happened but I got the first question wrong for sure. The question was about an ancient painting. They asked us about man who painted the famous artwork, which I got it totally wrong. 

Right after the quiz, there was another break before the final results were announced. I went to the back of the hall and took a breather. One of the staffs was standing next to me.

"It was very confusing... I think I got three wrongs. That's gonna make it hard to win this," I told the guy.

"Na'ah. You're gonna win it!" he said with a calm expression, but failed to convince me.

Then the lady who was in charge of counting our marks came to us. The guy asked her about my result and it seemed as if she was trying not to let something slip out of her mouth while shifting her gaze back and forth between the guy and I. 

"Now it's time for the final result announcement," said Mr. MC. 

The final few minutes of result announcement was hard to be explained in words. I was left to the point of hoping for nothing but the first prize after the fourth, third and second place went to other participants. Mr MC looked at me for a second before he proceeded with the result announcement for the first prize. 

"And the first prize goes to....."

He paused, trying to control his laugh after seeing our nervous faces. I knew I was definitely going to get the 10-day trip to South Korea and a shot at the Grand Prize....or nothing at all if the first place goes to someone else.

Then I heard my name. Zulhilmi Asyraf Zamri. I smiled but was still in doubt. Before I head to the stage, I had to look at MC's face again to make sure if he was not joking. Nope, he was serious.

500GB external hard disk was for the fourth place, Galaxy Camera for the third place, Note 3 for the runner-up, and for me a chance to make my country proud during the KBS Global Final Round of Quiz on Korea in Seoul, Korea in August 2014.

      

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me. To my family, Prof Choi Yoon Hwa and Prof Lee Eun Hye who taught me during my days in Buffalo, friends, noonas and hyungs in Korea, people at the embassy, those who took the pictures, and everyone who has helped me to learn the language and culture, thank you very much. Preparing for the Final Round in Malaysia was not easy and I believe the Global Final Round is going to be tougher. 

Before I left the hall, the guy said to me "Actually I already knew it..." LOL thank you for keeping it secret.
"When are you going?" asked the lady.
"August!"
"Seoul?"
"Yeah!"
"Let's meet!"
"OK!"

Hope to see them in Seoul! I'm not sure how tight my schedule is going to be over the ten days in Korea but I really hope I'll also get some time to hang out with my friends in Seoul.

Feel free to read the short report about the event here.

Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Festival

From 27th-30th March 2014, the 6th Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Festival is taking place at Putrajaya. I woke up at 5AM on the first day of the event and reached the ticket counter around 7.10AM. The morning session was scheduled to start at 7.30. They are only letting in 180 people per session. Well, my number was...138 so I am very happy I wasn't late for another 5 minutes.

The fee? On their website they stated that it's just RM20 per ride with MyKad but on the brochure there's no such thing. Still, it's best not to leave your ID at home.

After standing in line for almost two hours, we finally get to ride the hot air balloon! It's a tethered ride so you don't get to go around the city. You'll just go up high enough about 20 meters for you to get a different view of Putrajaya. One more thing, if I'm not mistaken you have to be at least 4ft to ride the balloon and two to four people can get on the ride at a time.

Once you're done you can always go around the booths. There's definitely a lot of things to do in case you want to spend at least half a day there. If you're planning to come after sunset during this weekend, they'll have some sort of light show. I'm not pretty sure what kind of show. Fireworks perhaps? If you have extra cash, you can take a helicopter ride for RM130. Nope, I didn't bring that much cash on that day so I spent only half a day there.

Will I come back next year? Probably, but at night if they have the light show again. Putrajaya is a very beautiful city at night so I don't want to miss the chance to take some beautiful pictures!

Aiman and Sofiya's Wedding Reception plus Mini Reunion!

Let me start this post by congratulating Aiman for getting married to his beloved Sofiya last Saturday. Congratulations! The wedding was on Saturday evening and the reception was on Sunday. Despite driving alone for an hour, just the thoughts of seeing Aiman as a married guy and at the same time having a small reunion with my friends who went to UB together with me kept me pumped up on my way to Titiwangsa. Attending the reception as a guest gave me so much time and space to finally catch up with old friends. Now, time for pictures! 

From left: Ernest, Wani, Ali (Wani's little brother), Ikhsan, Sam, me, and Richard 

 Mmm cupcakes!

 Nawi and......?

 Mr. Ernest

Miss Dayah 

 Sam the Boss

 Wani and Ali

 From left: Alia, Ashee, Intan, Yat, Shima, Mira, Mas, Izzah, and Nawi

 Azizi with arms wide open!

Again, congratulations and may both of you have a blessed life together! And to you guys from UB, we should have another meetup soon!

Thank you to whoever helped me take some of the pictures!