During the Chuseok holiday way back in September, there was a special admission price for foreign residents to the Everland theme park and its neighboring Carribean Bay water park. I hadn't written about it because I've been keeping so busy doing lots of other things in Korea, many of them school related. Since it's been a little slow and because I recalled I'd yet to write on the subject, today I will show you some things about Everland.

Firstly it's important to note that you can't get directly to Everland from the subway, so some transferring will be necessary. The park itself is in Youngin, the closest station to which is Suwon. After you've exited Suwon station (seen above), you can board the 66-4 bus at the nearby terminal and ride it all the way to the park or at least near it. Once at the stop near the park another transfer to the Everland shuttle is required to actually reach the park proper.

Before we get to the park, a note on the city bus system in Korea. For the subway you need to buy a T-Money card and charge it, but this card is pretty useful for getting around off the rails. City busses use the card as a standard ticket, so you just scan yours and get on, then scan it again when you depart the bus. Some taxis (largely in Seoul) can accept the T-Money card as well. Busses here get pretty full quickly, as you can see by the above picture; get in line early if you can and your reward might well be a seat. You'll want one if you're going to everland, because it's about an hour and a half's ride from Suwon station.

Once you arrive at the park there's a special office that can handle special promotions like the one we took advantage of for Chuseok. The regular ticketing office can't help you with such things so it's best to head directly for this office. Doing so will save yourself and the park staff time and possible language difficulties. From the front arches (seen in the picture above) head right until you see a sign for the 'guest services and group ticket office' (more or less). The staff here will need your alien card or at least a copy of your passport for the special foreigner price during seasonal promotions. With these you'll only pay about $20 to get in instead of the regular $40. Not a bad deal, really.

Just after you've at last entered Everland the first things you'll see are buildings of various different national origins and styles before you. As you can see by the pictures they include western style and Arabic minaretts, all mixed together in the global area of the park. Having known only that it was a theme park and that it had been mentioned in a dialogue during my Korean 101 class, I hadn't known I'd see that. It was kind of oddly neat to see such a mixed assortment of structures in Korea, even if the stores in them had mostly items that were a bit too spendy for a college student.

A newly opened attraction at Everland is the Pororo Adventure, featuring characters from the popular children's show of the same title. It seemed to be very popular with families, since the line was pretty long just after we arrived mid-morning. Many of the other rides had very short wait times early in the day, though. So if you do go to Everland go early so that you can get in as many rides as you want before the biggest crowds arrive.

As far as ride selection goes, Everland has more rides than Lotte World from everything I've heard from friends who've been to the latter. There are a few roller coasters amongst the rides at the park so you have a bit of choice as to what sort of ride you'd like to go on. Not being particularly partial to roller coasters myself I found a few rides that were still at least a little entertaining. There's even a ski lift to cut short the time it takes to get from the America-themed area to near the Europe locale. The wait wasn't bad and the lift seats each had room for up to four people; additionally the lift provides an amazing view of the park and the surrounding green countryside.

Another ride we went on as a group was the sort of haunted mansion/ghost house ride which invovled shooting a laser gun at targets to trigger 'ghostly' activity. Having enjoyed such a ride at Universal Studios Orlando, I thought this ride was fun to try - it was very short though, so maybe not a second time. On the other hand multiple tries might enable one to get a better score, so it could be worth it. Be forewarned however that the lines for any attractions, especially those that are indoors, will be very long come early to mid afternoon as temperatures warm up. There are no single rider lines at Everland, so there's no quick way to get back on if you're by yourself.

As you can tell by what I've written so far, the park is separated into different themed lands, drawing immediate comparison to Disneyland in my mind. At Everland though you will find America, Europe, fantasy, wild kingdom and global areas, from what I recall over a month later. It's interesting to see how another culture portrays my own - in America it was mostly about rock and roll and cars. The entrance to the ski lift was mocked up like a gas station, for example, and the roller coaster there is rock and roll themed. Europe is more German than anything and has a German village as well as an Italian restaurant. There's also a row of false Dutch storefronts, the only establishments actually being food stands. Concessions are expectedly spendy at the park, though not quite as much as at an American one.

The Wild Kingdom area of Everland, here featuring a riding area for children.

Everland's German village becomes the Horror Village for the park's Halloween celebrations and events. Because after all, what's scarrier than Germany?

In addition to rides there are performances to catch all day long, just as you'd find at a park in America. Here though, you can see a traditional Korean puppet show! I didn't stay for it, but I did find it interesting that even in a very western-style attraction you can find snippets of the traditional still sneaking in. Elsewhere there are stage performances, including the Circus Elysion, which I did attend and can reccommend. The performers are mostly acrobats, making it sort of a Cirque de Soleil Lite; it was worth it to head in and watch though. Plus there's the added bonus that it's inside and thus out of the hot weather Korea has during summer and early autumn.

My family being part Dutch, I couldn't not take a picture of this.One of the park's squares, used for bigger performances and as part of the daily parade route.

Everland's lion mascots, reminding me even more of Disneyland.

Many of the items for sale in the gift shops are pretty cute or really cutesy (depending on your opinion of such things). A lot of them are animal themed, and obviously aimed at children looking for something to remember Everland by. Here are a few of the animal keychains, most around 4,000 won (approx. $4 US). However...

If violence is more your thing they also have, for some reason, heavy metal gun shaped keychains as well. Here you can see just some of the firearm keychains Everland has on offer: a handgun, a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Why does Everland have these for sale? Maybe it's because of the ever-present reality of military service for all men, maybe not. Maybe it's just to give boys an alternative souvenier of the park. Whatever the case it was incredibly strange to find these keychains, and I ended up buying one for a friend in the U.S. for 4500 won ($4.50).

Another thing I've noticed about Korea is that many places have their female empolyees dress up in costumes while on the job. This of course is to be expected at an amusement park; the young lady above was working at a souvenier stand near the German/Horror Village and graciously allowed me to photograph her. People here will usually agree to let you take their picture but always aske first or prepare to get a weird look. But back on the subject of costumes as uniforms, you'll find the same kind of thing in two places for sure. For one I've noticed that in department stores, especially in the gift set department (usually shampoo and toiletries or fruit, as both are expensive here), some female employees wear hanbok, the traditional Korean garb. Cosmetic stores also regularly have a sales girl in a cute outfit standing outside an loudly trying to attract customers, sometimes literally pulling them into a store. Very peculiar and not something you'd see in the USA.

One of the many places to sit and relax, or take a nice stroll in Everland.

Honestly I have no idea what this sign means. Is it pottery crafted to contain beer? Is it pottery made from beer? Is it beer made from pottery? I don't know. But it's one of the false storefronts in the Amsterdam market street area.

It certainly looks nice, but I don't believe that burgers are European. Remember that just as at any other theme park the food at Everland is kind of spendy. Places like this are even more expensive than the food stands.

Finally it's worth nothing that there were many decorations up celebrating Everland's 35th anniversary this year. It seems that there has perhaps been a park on the site longer than Everland itself has existed. Case in point: the old ferris wheel, which is no longer in service but has been part of the park in one form or another since the beginning in the 60s or 70s. Some history of the ferris wheel was available, but most of it was in Korean. Since I am not fluent in the language yet I couldn't grasp the full story of this piece of Everland history.

So overall, what was Everland like? It's a nice park though smaller than I had expected to be honest. Walking around the park took perhaps 45 minutes or an hour, including stopping to window shop a bit. Many of the rides are more intensive than I was willing to try on a hot day but there are a few indoor and water-based attractions too. During the summer I would strongly suggest the log flume and rapids rides if you don't mind getting wet. I don't know that I would pay full price to go to Everland, but at a discounted rate it was a fun experience.