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My WCG Experience Part 1:

Was so excited to go to Korea that I ended up waking up pre-maturely, couldn't go back to sleep and hence this blog! My flight leaves tomorrow night, although I have been to Korea 6 times previously it was always just to Seoul, this time I'll be going to Busan, the 2nd Biggest city in Korea! Chloe says theres a sort of rivalry between people from seoul and busan cause they are from different provinces, speak slightly different etc. I always think this "us vs them" mentality is silly but there's a lot of valid psychological reasons why "group/identity" are so important to people and to not bore you any further its basically stems from people's inclination to survive (can you believe it?! lol) and these behaviours are so hard-wired in our systems and society that even today culture /religion groups, cliques, etc exist everywhere in society albeit sometimes responsible for the negativity in the world (gangs / religion based terrorists etc) but always having very tight bonds between members.

Anyway in this series of blogs I'll be recounting my WCG experience, taking lots of photos and sharing my experience so you guys can feel like you were right there in Busan with me! I enjoyed EscapisT's, light's, jazbas's and Maynarde's blogs alot and wanted to do something similar. So how have I been preparing for WCG? By planning my travel itinerary of course!


I always like to do a few hours of research before I go on a holiday and usually print out a mini document I've compiled containing attractions places I'll like to visit / restaurants I'd want to eat in, basic maps and key phrases I need to know so I have everything i need on the move. I find a little effort can result in a lot smarter travels! I normally use tripadvisor.com and wikitravel, they imo the best general resources out there. Applied for "auto-roaming" so i can use unlimited internet on my phone. Although the Singapore organisers sponsored the plane ticket, theres no transport / food allowance provided and theres only one other player (Asphalt) and team (LoL) coming along. Auto-roaming costs 80 USD for a week and there goes 6 days of leave, ouch what a costly vacation.

Heres what my current (incomplete) copy n pasted itinerary guide looks like, with of course some added my thoughts for this blog.





Tuesday - Took the day off to cram in some last minute practise in Singapore. Not going to play in a PC Bang in Korea, I'm on a vacation! Flight will be in the evening, stopping in Hong Kong first. Sucks that there isn't any direct flights to Pusan but i guess i prefer this way then going to Seoul directly. Total flight time is 7 hours.

The hotel used as the "player village" http://www.ecentumhotel.com/

It looks really nice and love that its so near the city / Haeundae area. Apparently we can walk 5 mins to the games center where we play our games. I remember back in WCG 2001 we had to take a 2 hour bus ride to the Co-EX mall haha.

Wednesday - I touch down at 7am! Haeundae Beach day. Looks like the biggest tourist spot in Busan.


My first stop will be the "Shinsegae Centum City Spaland" "I've visited several spas in Seoul, some of which are very famous, however, Spaland in Busan is beyond expectation. It is inside the largest department store in the world, Shinsegae, and the spa alone is 3 to 4 stories high. The common areas have over 15 theme rooms, and the rest areas have reclinable chairs with built-in tvs. It was a great experience!! "


Never visited a spa / hot spring in Korea before and really look forward to it, would be ideal since its freezing outside.


The Busan Aquarium looks pro too, reviews are good and entrance fee is cheap. Would probably check that out then spend the rest of the day walking along Haeundae beach and shopping.


Thursday - WCG Tournament day which starts in the afternoon. Yay I will be the flag bearer for Singapore in the opening ceremony. GOnna beast it up with my sc2sea tee lol!!!! As for the games Xigua will win the group with #2 being between Kas / Happy. I've seen some replays of them and planned a particular BO win cheese accordingly for one of them haha wonder how that will go! Might produce an upset or two but extremely unlikely to finish in the top 2. Definitely gonna take pictures with KiWiKaKi my idol which would be the highlight as well as wrap up the Starcraft 2 component of my trip.

Friday to Saturday - Might stick around in the afternoon to support the other SEA players playing on that day. If they win it would be really awesome for SEA and if they lose we can have a SEA party time so its win-win both ways!! Leaving Friday Open in case of any WCG events etc that happens. On Saturday might watch the finals in the morning / afternoon. At dinner time I'll be meeting my lovely ex house mates who are a brazalian / chinese married couple now living in near Busan.

Sunday - In the morning i'll be off to Seoul to visit Chloe's Mom / Sister / Sisters Hubby. KTX train takes under 3 hours and its called the "high-speed" train, curiously how that turns out. Apparently the internal transportation system is very efficient, you can send stuff anywhere in Korea by mail and it gets there the next day, fast and cheap. And Korea is HUGE! Also keen to meet my new born niece. I'm gonna make her cry of course lol babies. Conversation with my mother in law will as usual be in the highly evolved form of communication called hand signs.

Shopping in Korea - A cool thing Korea has is a very advanced form of "fake branded goods". Unlike their Thai counterparts, these fake branded goods are an industry itself and have various classes and the A* class ones look and feel exactly like the real thing, and is impossible for a normal person to tell unless you work in the manufacturing industry or something. They are expensive but like 20% the price of a real thing so for e.g for $100 instead of $500 you can get a decent LV wallet and they are extremely popular with Koreans. I mean why buy the more expensive version if no one can tell the difference and it gives you the same feelings?

Koreans are very brand concious, its a sign of your social status and if you're in a "good" job and not head to toe in identifiable branded goods you do not "fit in". Again, a silly culture/group identity thing like i talked about above. Its easy to just classify people wrongly as "Superficial / Materialistic" and "Brand concious". But you have to understand the social implications here and it has been all around in their lives when they grew up. Wearing brands also has to do with signalling theory, the buying of fake goods allows them to send out the same signals / representation as a person with high social status without the high costs resulting in people treating them better, like they would a person with high social status. I find that stupid but thats the world we live in and I feel instead of fighting it and being an idealist (feminist women growing armpit hair come to mind) just embrace it and go with the flo yo! Anyway I will talk more about this next time. If i would attempt to change the world, i would only do so if i was actually able to, otherwise its just makes life difficult for myself.

Monday to Tuesday - Seeing some more of seoul then at night its back to Busan to catch my flight on Tuesday morning at 8am (terrible flight timings unfortunately couldn't be helped), thus ending my week long odyssey in Korea.



I already know what I want to eat since I've been there tons. Always love the food! From the street food (actually safe to eat unlike some other azn countries) to the small cafes and delicious "bbq meat" galbi places, everything is so tasty in Korea. I especially like "army soup" which is basically a spicy soup base they dump meat into, I guess the stuff they eat at army camps and hence the name? Food for MEN! Yummy meats!



One of my other favourites is Kyochen friend chicken, it tastes fantastic. Its very unusual to the KFC / MacDonalds style chicken you are used to where the skin is very heavy with flour. Instead the skin when fried becomes wafer thin and melts in your mouth, drenched in their special spicy sauce recipe. You get a basket of 8 pieces or so for $10 USD. In comparison the BBQ chicken outlet (kinda a rival brand) in Singapore sells two piece chicken meal for like 13$ USD which i feel is a complete rip off capitalizing on the "Korean Wave" in Singapore. Oh yea heard the seafood in busan is really good too but have no idea where to go!

Anyone with any suggestions on what else to do in Busan / Seoul for those living or who have been there let me know!

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Coming soon!

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Part 2: Thoughts on sc2 games and meeting players

Part 3: Pictures & Recaps