I Made A History - Winter Olympic 2018 In Pyeongchang, South Korea

If you thought that I made a history by competing in the 2018 Winter Olympic, you're wrong and I didn't, although I wish I did. The history I made was for my own personal book, I went to the Winter Olympic for the first time in my life. There are many "first time" moments for this trip and it was all worth everything I spent for it. Being poor and being from the country where I am, going to such event is almost impossible and a long shot. I could only dream of going to the Olympic or any huge sporting events for that matter. It require a very big budget for everything going for such trip but this time, I've been planning this trip since last year and managed to saved enough money to go for it. I was a bit lucky in some ways but that is a story for another day.

I was here at the 2018 Winter Olympic, Pyeongchang, South Korea.

When I planned for this trip last year, I was very worried of many things because it will be my first time going for the Winter Olympic and I don't know what to expect. So I told myself that I will just go with an open mind and open heart. I will just have to figure things out when I'm there and so I did.

This trip alone is me making a very big history for my own life that I could only imagine before. It will be an experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life and probably one of the best trip I ever made. Although it was only a short trip but I got to strike off many things from my wish list. There is actually one big reason why I was there at the 2018 Winter Olympic but that will require one whole post of its own. I will write it up soon.

Like I said, there are many things I've fulfilled and achieved during this trip. If this is like a RPG game, I would've probably get a lot of stars and exp points from this trip alone and went up a few levels.

Main entrance to the Gangneung Olympic Park. This is where all of the venue for ice sports is. The Olympic park also consist of exhibition area and merchandise superstore

So, these are all my first times during that trip:

I. This was my first time going to Korea. To be honest, Korea is one country that is not in the top of my list of places I want to go. Not sure why but I have some other countries that I want to visit first. I also don't like K-Pop and Kimchi... LOL. But I managed to go to few cities in this trip and that include Seoul. I must admit, Seoul is a very beautiful city, I might want to come back in the future.

II. This was my first snowy winter. Where I came from, we only have two seasons in a year, rainy season and hot season. I live in a tropical country that doesn't have four seasons so this is one of the biggest dream came true for me personally. I've been dreaming of playing in the snow since I was a kid.

One of the venues for snow sports events in Pyeongchang mountain area. It was snowing but I don't think you can see the snowfall in this photo.

III. This was my first time playing in the snow. I was lucky when I was there, one day it decided to snow and I was right in the middle of it. I was so happy because according to the weather forecast, there should be no snowfall during my trip but it did!

Playing in the snow! They said must use winter boots, I use my Timberland boots instead :D

IV. This was my first time touching and playing with the snow, although I instantly regret holding it with my bare hands but hey, experiencing it for the first time need to be raw, right? LOL!

Instant regret holding the snow in my bare hand, luckily I didn't get the frostbite

V. This was my first time building a snowman but I didn't get to finished it because it was too cold even when I'm wearing my ski glove.

VI. This might sound the weirdest but this is my first time tasting the snow. Yes I did. Don't worry, I purposely went to a place where no people were standing on the snow. Although one kid caught me and he stared at me like I was doing something very wrong. I hope I didn't taught him to eat the snow or something... LOL! Anyway, it doesn't taste delicious like what I always imagine eating snow cone during the winter or maybe it need some syrup :D

VII. This was my first time playing snowball! While waiting for an event to start there were some people throwing snowball at each other. I decided to join them and we had fun although at the end of it, one of them asked me "do we know you?". I said "it's a sporting event, we don't have to know each other to have fun, do we?" we laughed and then we talked about how fun it is to be at the Winter Olympic.

VIII. This is my first time going to the Olympic. I've never been to either winter or summer Olympics, I'm a virgin at that. This year I decided to go because of some reasons and one of it is because this is the first time my country send a team to the Winter Olympic. Although I wasn't be able to watch them but being there knowing that the country is making history is already enough to make me feel so proud. Apart from that, I was also there because my state, Sarawak was sending a dance team for the Cultural Olympiad. More on that in the next post, I promised, because it deserved one whole post for it. It was also the first time ever a team from Sarawak and Malaysia to perform in the Olympic for the Cultural Olympiad. Only few countries were invited for that. So, our country is not only making one history but two, it feels so awesome to be able to be there with them.

It would be awesome to be the volunteer and the official photographers for this Winter Olympic.

Sneak peak of the Cultural Olympiad event that our team from Sarawak performed at. We brought the whole Malaysia to the Winter Olympic through the dance performance. More details on another post about this soon.

IX. This is my first time watching Olympic sports in person. All this while I only able to watch it in the television and never would imagine that one day I will be there right in the middle of it all, I did... My favorite event is snowboarding because I'm a big fan of extreme sports and also because I was a skateboarder during my younger days. They might not be the same but they share the same category and concept. My only event-watching mission for this trip is to watch snowboarding live in person. I did just that and nothing feels better when I was also able to take their photos. Mission accomplished and even until now, thinking of it still make me smile ear to ear. I planned to watch other events as well but due to some transportation issues, I missed them...

Snowboarding Slopestyle event that I managed to attend. It was so awesome to be able to watch it in person!

X. This is my first time I'm having a photography trip in the winter and taking photos in below freezing temperature. I was worried that my camera won't be able to function well in that temperature and also worried that it'll be dead but it survived and performed very well. I was impressed by the weather-sealing it has and there was no condensation whatsoever happened to it. Even my cheap lenses that I brought along survived as well although I think they doesn't come with any weather-sealing. I took a lot of photos and the best part is taking photos of the snowboard slopestyle event. I'll include a few photos here but more photos in another post because that also deserved a post of its own.

My camera survived the below freezing temperature thanks to its weather-sealing. It performed well eventhough I didn't put any heat pack in my bag.

Two photos of the snowboarding event. I guess I have to make one post just for the photos I took during this trip because there are a lot of it. Will do that soon.

So that's all that I achieved during that trip. There are many more small things but I think they're some common things like first time eating this and that food and all. I figure that was not the highlights of my trip but those above are. Some or maybe all of those might sounds funny or childish to some but I don't care, I fulfilled many of my wish list and dreams there, that maybe not all people have any chance to. Also, there's always a child inside us not matter how old we are, right?

There were many challenges I faced during this trip especially when I went around to go to the event venues. Transportation is one major challenges because the transportation system (buses) that they come up with was kind of not really efficient. From the Olympic Park to the venue for snowboarding I have to wait, hop on and out of 5 buses and the journey took almost 3 hours, including waiting for the bus. I met a guy from Norway and he has been to 17 Olympics (including summer Olympics) and he said this is the most difficult transportation system for Olympic to navigate. Due to that there were some people I met said that they missed some of the events and it cost them a lot for the tickets. Even I missed one of the event I supposed to go to because the bus that supposed to take me there doesn't even arrive, I have to just let it go. Much regret and disappointment because it cost me a lot to buy the ticket but nothing much I can do that time.

Image source: https://www.pyeongchang2018.com
Look at this transport map, it was kind of difficult to take a few buses just to get to one venue. It was a bit easy at the Gangnueng Olympic Park area because the venues are clustered but not for the Pyeongchang area. It might look simple in this map but not that simple in real life.

I'm not an expert but they should've made a few transportation hubs and all the buses going to all the venues from there instead of taking one bus after another just to go to one event and venue. If they want to avoid congestion with that kind of system then they failed big time. Other transportation apart from the free buses provided specifically for the Olympic is very hard to get. The taxi is not easy find and the fare is very expensive. There's no alternative such as Uber so basically I just have to rely of what I can find. I thought my biggest challenge was the language because I don't know a single word of Korean language but that was very easy to overcome. I used translation apps to communicate and it helps a lot.

This is how packed the bus is. Everybody want to get to their event's venue as fast as they can. If you missed one bus, you'll have to wait for another one. According to the information I got, there are supposed to be 700 buses going non stop along one route but when I was there, it doesn't seems to be much less than that.

One of the bus stop to get the bus to get to another station.

Good thing that they have tea/coffee making facility in the bus. I get to make myself warm drinking it. Every bus I took have this.

One of the bus station at one of the venues in the mountain area.

But all in all, it was a great experience! It might be my only chance of going to Winter Olympic in my lifetime and I'm glad I made the decision to go. I'm sure I'm just a few single number of percentage of the people from my country to be in this Winter Olympic because this sports is not our thing. I hope with the first ever team from Malaysia competing in this Olympic, it will boost the motivation for more people to be in this sports but our biggest limitation is the facility. We don't have snow so we won't have any chance to play things like ski and snowboard. The only facility we currently have the ice skating ring.

I've also bought a lot of merchandise and souvenirs from the Olympic and I managed to go to the merchandise superstore in the Olympic park. It was huge! There are a lot of things being sold there and people were so crazy about it. It was like they're shopping for a branded goods on super crazy sales. I really wish I can buy one of each merchandise on sale but I have some limitations, sadly. I really want tot get the Olympic commemorative 2000 won bills and coins but it was sold out... in fact that was one of the main souvenirs that I planned to get.

Some official merchandise and souvenirs I bought at one of the venue. They have small merchandise shop at every venue but the queue is very long.

This is the superstore for the official merchandise and souvenir of the 2018 Winter Olympic. Some items being sold here you cannot get it in the other of their stores.

Some of the items being sold at the superstore. Loads of them and I wish I can buy them all! :D

This is what I really want to buy but it was all sold out. I really wanted that 2000 won Olympic commemorative bills, so sad I couldn't get any of it...

While I was there I stayed at a hotel resort in the city called Sokcho. They said it was the northern most city of South Korea and it's quite far from the cities where the Olympic is being held. It is a small city but it was so beautiful. With all the mountain view and town of mostly selling fruit and seafood, they have everything a traveler need. The street food is so good! I wish I had more time exploring it but sadly I only have a few hours for it.

Downtown area of the Sokcho city where I stayed. This place is so beautiful.

This is the front yard of the Del Pino Resort where we stayed in. They have Stonehenge there I tell you! :D

This resort doesn't provide bath towel but they have full fledged kitchen so I cooked some bacon and pork chops for me and my wife for dinner :D

In this trip I met a lot of people and made some new friends. Some of them helped me in some ways especially with the transportation. In one event, I don't know who to support and one guy asked me to hold the Canadian flag with him so we cheered for his country's participants. I also met a guy from Norway who is a collector of the Olympic pins. He trade it with the participants and he have collected many of them. He has been to many Olympics and he told me a lot of story and gave me a lot of information that I didn't even know before. I also bumped into a fellow Malaysian who worked with Visa and she was selected to be on duty during the whole of this Winter Olympic, I seriously envy her.

Anyway, with this, I would like to wish good luck and all the very best to Julian Yee and Jeffrey Webb for their events. It might sound a bit impossible but I do hope they will bring home some medals. Although I wasn't be able to watch them but I have high hopes in them. I believe they can compete with other big competitors and I believe they can be the best! I mean, being able to qualified for the Olympic is already one big achievement for them and now they have the chance to make more history for our country.

Dear @iceskatermom good luck and all the best to your team, I will be supporting you, Julian and Jeffrey from far! I'm sorry I won't be able to watch their events.

Follow @iceskatermom for the updates on Malaysian Team in the 2018 Winter Olympic and cheers for them.