Finally! Today's the day I'm going to be reunited with my baby! I never realised how big a part of my life my MacBook could be until its charger died on me a week ago. I could still live and breathe, but not having a working laptop when I'm in a foreign country really handicapped me in a lot of ways. For example, the computers in the PC lab in school and the dormitory use Internet Explorer. Or should I say the oldest version of Internet Explorer there ever existed. I have never expressed so much hate for Internet Explorer ever. I couldn't use the computers to access Google Drive, which I needed for school, and I couldn't even use Facebook properly. I couldn't even use Naver's street directory, which I will talk more about here. (it's the coolest thing since air conditioning and ice cream)
Four days ago, I ordered the Korean MacBook charger head from Seoul and the order has arrived! *cues fireworks explosion* So I headed out to TUVA early in the morning to pick it up.
As a penny-grabber, I took the subway instead of a straight bus so I could save 400W ($0.50). It might seem little, but if I do this three times, I could take another train ride for free! (sort of) Since TUVA is all the way on the other side of Busan and I had time to spare before class, I decided to visit Zoolung Zoolung in Jangsan, just five stops from Centum City, where I was heading. I was counting down to the number of days I have left on exchange before I had to return to Singapore and I realised that time really is running out. What on Earth have I been doing the past two months?! I didn't even remember travelling around that much, so from now on I'll diligently travel more.
To get to Zoolung Zoolung, the easiest way would be to take
Line 2 of the subway to Jangsan Station (201) and go out of Exit 5. You should see NC Mall right opposite you and Zoolung Zoolung is located on the 12th floor of the mall. So just cross the road using the zebra crossing and take the lift up!
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| Look up once you are out and you'll see this! It's like any other department store, so you can find shops, food and even a cinema! |
Zoolung Zoolung is an indoor animal park that operates throughout all seasons, every single day from 10:30 to 20:00. Tickets are priced at 8,000W for adults (aged 19 and above), 12,000W for children and teenagers (aged 2 to 19), and 6,000W for infants (aged 12 to 24 months). Each ticket entitles you to two hours in the park and there's an overtime charge of 500W on weekdays and 1,000W on weekends for every 10 min exceeded per person. Don't be daunted by the time limit for two hours are more than enough for adult travellers, unless you take a hundred selcas with each animal then perhaps not. I took my time to visit every single enclosure and I still had half an hour to spare!
The lift brings you right to the ticketing booth at entrance of the park where you'll be warmly greeted by their talkative parrot! There are several discounts available, which you can find out from their brochure. I got my brochure from the Gimpo Airport I think, I forgot! The brochure entitles you to a 10% discount on the entrance fee upon presentation so I paid 7,200W for my ticket!
The park rangers are very particular about the time so be sure to stick to the timing stated on your receipt if you don't want to accumulate any overtime charges! I guess this is a good initiative on their part to prevent overcrowding and keep our park experience enjoyable, considering the small size of the park. It stretches across an entire floor of the mall, but is loads smaller as compared to regular zoos.
Despite its size, the park boasts a collection of 1000 animals of 50 kinds, of which many are available for visitors to interact with and touch. Although there is a small corner specially dedicated for visitors to touch, feel and learn about various small animals, the park rangers are very friendly and they either let you into the enclosures of the other animals or they pick them up for you to touch. Most of the visitors I saw were pairs of mothers and their children so I guess this park is more suited for little kids! But I had loads of fun nevertheless!
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| I took so many rubbish photos before I had a decent shot of the squirrel because it was so speedy and fidgety! |
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| What does the Fennec fox say? Yip. |
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| I think this Wallaby is a new addition to their park because I cannot find it on the map in the brochure! |
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| Poor thing, it looks so lonely though. |
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| The prairie dogs were originally lazing in one corner and then the park ranger came over and woke them up for me! |
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| I forgot the name, but the map says it's a coati. From its enclosure, there's a tree that holds up a bridge, which it can walk across to get to the other side where visitors are free to get up close with it! It's so cute and chubby! |
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| At the top of the stairs, there's a library full of children's books about animals. I guess parents can sit here with their children and educate them about the animals they see in the park. Who knows, they might be visited by a friendly coati! |
The log-shaped enclosure you see in the previous photo is a part of the Small Animal Experience Site that allows visitors to touch and feel tiny animals while learning more about them. There are three of them in total and since I noticed the enclosures do not have fixed signs, the park rangers probably alternate the animals every now and then. During my trip there, they had frogs, hamsters and lizards, to my horror. But thankfully all the lizards I have seen here are in zoos. Please don't jinx anything. :<
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| In the tiny logs, you can find small animals that you can touch, feel and learn more about. Here's a frog, which can be bought at supermarts for 4,000W. I liked mine broiled with porridge. :< |
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| I was staring at the adorable little girl rather than the hamsters heehee, she looks like one herself! (gushes) She was really fascinated with the hamsters but when the ranger tried to hand her one, she was afraid. |
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| My best friends. Please stay here and don't move anywhere. Thank you. |
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| I forgot to take note of its name but I think it's something close to a salamander? Anyone? |
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| I tried googling, and I think this one is a horned lizard. It looks so beautiful up close! Nothing like its domestic cousin. :< |
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| The way this white lined gecko stares at people really unnerves me, but for the sake of my readers, I spent some time trying to take a perfect photo of it. Lizards and I, we have a mutual aversion so I'm glad I'll never see it again. |
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| Sitting comfortably in its bowl is an anaconda. I thought anacondas were supposed to be long and huge, but maybe this one is a baby? Or perhaps a smaller cousin of the anaconda? |
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| The ferrets were all sleeping comfortably against each other, oblivious to the presence of a poor tourist who was trying to frame them in the most interesting way possible. |
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| Then her fairy godmother came! (the same park ranger) And she picked up one, which let out a long yawn to show his displeasure of being woken up. This reminds me I have to visit my dentist the first thing I get back. |
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| The geese were really active and surprisingly, hard to capture! They kept honking and waddling about, it was really difficult to get a clear shot of them with just my iPhone. Oh well, compare the two shots to get a good look at their faces! |
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| Like parents, like children. These little geese were equally difficult to capture and they kept waddling about, but in a neat line interestingly. |
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| The badgers were sleeping really peacefully and it wouldn't be polite to disturb so many sleeping animals in a row! So here you have one sleeping albino badger sleeping on its ordinary badger pillow. |
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| The racoons were a stark comparison to the badgers as they ran about their confined enclosure, chasing each other. |
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