South Korea Trip 2017 : Raccoona Matata and Hongdae Beach

4:54:00 PM

Hey hey hey!

I know i stretched this South Korean series for far too long already it's 2019 for goodness sake, but not to worry because this is the final post of the entire trip - yahayyy! Finally! 2018 was a year of travel for me (not as much as 2017 in terms of variety, but it was definitely packed with new firsts!) and each trip has left me with so much memories and experience - i just can't wait to make 2019 is more packed with new experiences and memories!

This post is pretty much the summary of our last few days in Busan and since both of my parents gotten pretty ill towards the end (they are not used to the wind and the schedules - although we already made it very relaxed with plenty of rest for them) so we took it slow and just enjoyed the city.

Finally visited Hongdae beach after staying there for quite a few days already

If you don't know yet, hunny's and my bdays are just exactly a week apart (in contrary to popular believes, i am older than him. Just by a week but people actually thinks that he is like, years older than me. Poor hunny, just his luck marrying a woman who constantly looks 12) so we also celebrated his bday in South Korea that year.

One of the reasons why we are so compatible : we never grow up :)))

Cake in bed courtesy of KC's family again. The bakery didn't have 3 and 4 candles so it ended up being a declaration of love from them instead :)))

LOL

Blurry but precious

MOTD

My outfit that day was so extra. Wrong choice for the day. Learn more why below

Curry lunch at the mall (i just tried hunny's because i was still stuffed)

I think this is Wagyu cubes from the stall next to the curry restaurant

Look at this Apeach cake, it looks so good that it looks plastic!

That night we decided to visit a raccoon cafe. I've never been to animal cafes before and while cat or dog cafe is not something i am entirely interested in (honestly, i am not much of an animal person. I don't mind them and i would never harm or hurt one, but i am just not a huge animal lover like Au, or hunny or #Undecided - you know? I feel pretty neutral towards them), other, more "uncommon" animal cafes are a different matter altogether so when i heard that Au wanted to go to a raccoon cafe, ofc i wanted to tag along. FYI, i am a scaredy cat and growing up i was deadly afraid of dogs and cats (thanks to my mom who instilled the fear in me), it's only a few years back that i am comfortable with cats and dogs enough to play with them *seriously* (i have always loved rabbits tho) - and i thought raccoons are cute and THOUGHT they are tame too so what's the harm - i mean if they even have a cafe for people to play with them... They should be friendly, right?

Well. Not always :((. My fault for not doing a research first i guess, remember that raccoon is still a wild animal, they are not pets like cats and dogs - and they are very unpredictable. I guess they are not dangerous (or could they be???) or whatever, but if you are an anxious, easily panicked person like me - well, i think you need a few pointers before you decided to go to a racoon cafe. I know i would appreciate a head's up! Btw, we went to Racoona Matata.

Racoona Matata
1314-7 Sangyeok-dong, Buk-gu, Daegu, South Korea
+82 10-9302-0260
Like most animal cafes, they have a minimum order. I think it was one drink and one snack, price was not outrageous but a bit overprices (again, normal for animal cafes like this) - the taste is also so so because nobody goes to animal cafes for the food and drink, and that's a fact

Unlike dog or cat cafe, the raccoons (at least in this cafe) are not let loose in the actual cafe, they have a separate room for you to play with them and the door should be closed at all time. This... should be an indication that you need to be more aware of them because they are not cats or dogs!

The cafe's pretty simple and minimalistic with some cute touches

Warning : for people like #Pink, you should stick to raccoon dolls!

So that's the raccoons area

You can buy packets of their snacks that is an assortment of what looks like a mixture of cat's, dog's and hamster snacks *LOL*

Oh there you go, here's one cute (most of them are super duper lazy. Which is good. I prefer them lazy than in attack mode :))) raccoon

Now. This one... I think this one that doesn't like me (or she likes me a bit too much, i can't decide)

I was still feeling happy and snapped pictures nonstop

Look. Most of them would just laze around like this and refuse to move

They would accept tributes, but would not move an inch for peasants like you

Most of the raccoons there were like.. Obese. Except for this one. This black one is pretty slim and ugly (she is the ugliest of the bunch) and turned out she is the oldest too. While the others were too fat to be bothered with us, this one is different. She is super active and moves around fast. She is also the most enthusiastic about the snacks. Now, my first mistake is my outfit. Apparently you have to dress as simple as possible when you are interacting with raccoons, but the staffs had a good look at me at various times, they saw me entered the room a couple of times and didn't say anything (i think Korean and Japanese staffs would not let me enter a premise if they don't think i should based on my outfit or other reasons) so i didn't think there's anything wrong. But (we did a lot of research afterwards to figure out this raccoon's behavior) raccoons (the natural thieves. Oh yeah, you're not supposed to wear any accessories that they can snatch off, and you must clear your pockets from coins because they would find it and eat it! Which would be dangerous for them) are super curious and they are anything but shy. I was wearing a furry top and tutu skirt, everything was fine when i was standing around and stuffs, in fact none of the raccoons seemed to be interested in me as they are drawn more to the more animal-persons - but when i sat down for a pic (i didn't end up getting any because i was too shook), that's a different matter altogether.

This raccoon immediately approached me, and even though i kept on giving her the snacks, she seems to suspect that i kept more in my clothes (wth, i don't even have pockets), she was also soon mesmerized with my skirt and kept on rubbing and scratching it. As i was afraid she might rip it, i decided to stand up - but she wouldn't have it. She started rubbing, grabbing and clawing at my skirt and top - and like i said, i am an anxious person and i started panicking. I don't know the right way to calm the raccoon down (because when i tried to ignore it, it became more savage) but i made a mistake of starting to scream because CL was screaming when it started baring its teeth! Our screams immediately made the staffs ran in (one even jumped out of the cashier table *LOL*), and the raccoon ran off immediately too. They told us that we should never scream, but seriously... i couldn't stop myself because it was so scary! Mind you, after i scream it did became more agitated and bit my *of all place* armpit! It's not like "i'm gonna eat you!" kind of bite, but they do have sharp teeth so i did find little punctures on my armpit later (like a vampire bit my armpit LOLOLOL)

Honestly i was really really shook and i am turned off by raccoons for life (although the other raccoons didn't do anything to me *LOLOLOL*). I also read that they are attracted to smell so you probably shouldn't wear perfumes when you visit, if you know me in real life you'd know that i wear a lot of perfumes. I guess that's the problem, my super extra outfit (raccoons are into textures, apparently) and my smell - WTF, maybe the older female raccoon thought i was her rival or something because she seems to be enamoured by hunny -_____-. Whatever the reasons was, i don't think i would ever want to risk it again. No more raccoon cafes for me. I would still visit other animal cafes in the future, but knowing my luck if there is one not-so friendly animal there, it would definitely find me so i would keep my distance at all times now. I am not an animal person and i guess they know it so it's best to just have a little distance between us! Please please, don't let my experience stops you from visiting them tho! It's still a fun experience and the staffs are so responsible, i do believe it's perfectly safe to go there - you just need to pay attention to some things to avoid what happened to me (you might find this hilarious and KC wouldn't stop teasing me until now, but a quick search would show you that mild biting and scratching are common for raccoon cafe visitors, you might set them off somehow like i did) and if you are easily panicked like me, you can still come and enjoy but maybe don't try to feed them (coz this would mean they would come too close to you or even climb on you), don't sit down and don't spend too much time inside. it's better to stay in short intervals, you can always get back in

Anyway, the staffs didnt speak a lot of English but they are very attentive. After i calmed down (they were lucky i didn't burst into tears because y'all know i am a huge cry baby), they grabbed this huge raccoon (who was like "What did i doooooo???", sit him up in this chair and threw snacks on his belly *LOLOLOL*. I guess it was one of the calmer raccoons so they get it for us to be close with without any risk of having another incident. Btw this dude in this pic is Au's ex (her bf back then *LOL* because my blogging timing is so bad that i had to wait until they broke up before mentioning him in my blog hahaha) and we took this pic because they look so similar sitting like this :)))

Fake smile for the pic, honestly i was super rattled hahaha

The next day was our last full day in Busan.

A selfie a day...

We found this fish restaurant nearby our AirBnB, we're getting sick of pork by this time so we wanted to eat there but we were turned down twice! LOL. They operating hours are so weird, but like all girls who are attracted to mysterious, cold guys - we kept on trying to eat there! And we finally got the dude LOLOLOL.

I think they tasted great. I developed various allergies in 2018, one of the firsts are to fishes so i've been avoiding fishes lately (which is sad because i actually like fish more than chicken!). I didn't know this fate back then...

Honestly have no frigging idea what this was *LOL*

Then we strolled to Hongdae Beach (there is also a Sea Life Aquarium nearby, i would've gottin in if Little O was with us, but since he was in Surabaya with my in law, we just went to the souvenir shop hahaha). It was deserted because i guess people don't really go to beaches in fall? Haha. It was not very cold yet when we were there but the temperature dropped crazily as soon as we got back (ZZZ just my luck) so if you want to experience a real fall in South Korea maybe you should visit in late October or early November).

Hunny took a series of failed OOTD pics of me and i started to get upset that annoyed KC, he then insisted on taking my pics - as he is my older brother i couldn't get angry at him even though his photography skill is probably just a step above hunny's (which is a minus) LOLOL

Hongdae Beach at fall

Must snap a selfie wherever we go

My mum is a serial snacker and she would never be able to resist getting anything remotely interesting/weird so she bought these shellfish and yep... It wasn't good so we all struggled to eat it LOL (it was hard and tasteless :))))

Nearby the beach, there is this area that's littered with local food

And i had my first sanakji there. It's a food that i though i would never, ever try since i don't even like raw food - but after some peer pressure i finally tried a tiny piece. Although i am still not a fan, octopus sashimi is actually better than fish sashimi for me! It doesn't smell fishy and i prefer the chewy but firm texture (fish sashimi's texture makes me gag :(....). Ofc, the sanakji was so fresh it was still squirming around and they suck on your tongue as you chew, super weird experience hahaha

And that marks the end of our lovely trip! And the end of this series, finally! I still have other past travels that i want to post, maybe i should do the cruise one first ^^. Hope you enjoy the series and looking forward to "travel with me" again soon.