Biking, bears and something else starting with 'b' (that I haven't thought of yet...)

I know this blog is turning into a bit of a 'things to do in Korea' travelogue at the moment, but it is school holidays and we do have two ridiculously active kids to entertain.  However, the step-sons are heading back to Sydney tonight (*sad face*) for some Australian school holiday fun.  So, only a few more things-to-do-in-Korea posts and then I'll be back to some normal posts about, well, nothing much...

Super fun things we did last week:

1. Biking in Yeouido

Aside from being a  front-runner in the 'hardest Seoul suburb to pronounce' awards, Yeouido is also an island on the Han River with a heap of great parks and immaculate bike paths.  If you don't own a bike, no problems, there are rental places everywhere.  3,000 KWN (about 3.00 AUD) will get you a bike for an hour - at that price don't be expecting things like gears, suspension or helmets.  Mine did have a basket though, which I was quite happy about.

After duly instructing the boys to please not fall off the bike and to please not get concussion, we spent a rather pleasant hour riding along the Han River Park.  And if bike riding isn't your thing, there's also play grounds, paddle boats (in the shape of swans!  yes!) and floating chicken and beer joints (so awesome!).

2. Bears at Everland

I wrote about our first trip to Everland a little while ago, but it was a rainy grey day and half the rides where closed and there were some things we wanted to do - so we went back.  The second trip proved two things: theme park food is universally appalling; and that Everland is a bit light on in the rides department (fine by me!), but it is heavy on in the amazing animals stakes.

This visit we paid 150,000 KWN (about 150 AUD) for the 'special' safari experience.  Basically the extra dosh gets you 15 minutes or so in a 4WD type safari car (fitted with cages over the windows) with a guide who drives you around and introduces you to all the animals.  You get to feed tigers and giraffes and bears.  Typically, our Korean driver apologised for not speaking English and then preceded to tell us everything we could possibly want to know. In English.  The tigers were beyond impressive, the giraffes just beautiful, the elephants spoke Korean (seriously!) and the bears were surprisingly intelligent and entertaining (ever seen a bear do yoga?).

If you don't like zoos, this is obviously not for you.  But if you don't mind them as a way to get up close and personal with some animals you'd probably never see in 'real life' - this was one of the coolest things we've ever done and I'd highly recommend it.  

3. The third 'b'?  Still haven't though of it.  I did want to do some baking (a banana loaf actually), but haven't got around to it yet.  I've been drinking the odd beer?  And reading some books?  Any other suggestions?  Oh, and how are your school holidays going, if you're in the midst of them?