The Road to 40 Day 174/365: Everland Dress Up Day

The day was dedicated to Everland, and which was a bit of a trip for us.

We all agreed to be in costume for this day, but Che and I were not able to find one before we left Singapore. We decided to find one at the last minute.

The girls were all going to be school girls, so the best we could do was a school boy look. We decided to find a varsity-style jacket for me to use.

I set off early for Namdaemun market, thinking it would be cheaper to get from there. Holy freakin airball. The one shop I thought had the right design tried to sell it to me for 400,000KRW, and I quickly walked away.

Later, Che joined the quest, and we were off to a race. We needed to get back to the hotel before 12nn and it was past 10:45am already.

We got one at the last minute. just in time to get our things and ride the bus.

As a party of 18 people, we rented a mini bus to fit us all. We expected about a 2-hour drive to Everland, but we were there in under an hour.

There was still a bit of a walk and a matter of redeeming our tickets before we got inside.

We took a quick photo at the entrance before the sisters broke away to do their own thing.

It was a wise decision, I think. This big of a group with kids will have a lot of difficulty moving together, so it was good that those with similar interests form groups.

We had a quick lunch at the restaurant up front, and proceeded to walk around. We hoped to see the panda family, but the queue was a bit too long for our patience.

We saw some animals along the way and lined up for a safari. We didn’t realize it would be close to a two-hour adventure.

It was kinda worth it, seeing animals up close. I gave Vino my phone so he could take photos and videos.

The kids wanted to ride, but the adults didn’t, so Ten took the kids to join the other group.

I took a ride so I can reach the lockers to retrieve our things. There, I saw Caeleb, so we went down together using the cable cars.

The adults were planning the next steps on this night as well as the next day. We were thinking of just watching the fireworks near the exit, but ultimately decided on just heading over to where it was.

Che and I looked for some food for the kids to eat and ended up on the stairs where we would have a great view of the light parade.

We wanted the kids to see it, but they were apparently having a lot of fun with the rides.

It was a bit of a wait, but at least we were sitting down. And when it did pass by, there were about 8 or 9 floats with lights that came by, with the first three performing some dances.

After the parade, we followed the sea of people to where they were going. The other group with kids already found a spot to watch the fireworks, so we tried looking for them.

This is our third time in Everland, but the first time that we stayed this long. Usually, we leave before 5pm on public transport. But since we have a tour bus of our own, we could finally see the closing highlight of the park for the first time.

Coincidentally, the theme of the fireworks was a K-Pop Demon Hunters sing-along.

If you are a parent of kids under 13, it’s impossible to think that you have not sung these songs at least once.

The movie is so big here in Korea that you see merch and collabs practically anywhere. Kids are still crazy about it. It’s literally overtaken Frozen in terms of how kids love it.

The fireworks popped to the tune of the songs. It started with How It’s Done, followed by Soda Pop, Your Idol, and finally, Golden. By the last song, the sky lit up gold in the end.

Heading back up felt like a zombie apocalypse, with all the people heading to a single direction.

We found our bus and headed back to our hotel. On the way there, we learned that we needed cash to pay our driver. None of us had enough to cover the cost, and we didn’t have an ATM near our hotel. Fortunately, we were able to pool money together.

Back at the hotel, we realized the kids haven’t really eaten proper dinner so we ordered some Korean chicken for them to enjoy.

We went up to the sisters’ room to have a midnight dinner and watch an episode of Physical 100.

As soon as they finished, I asked Neo and Inno to head back to our room so they could sleep already.

We got some closure on one of the challenges, and decided to go down as well, as Vino already fell asleep on the couch.

We’re set to leave our hotel at 9am, so we ended the night without alcohol. It was a tiring and long day, and hopefully, just not having alcohol will help us wake up for the activities tomorrow.