Asian Games Tour by KTO

Asian Games Tour by KTO.

September 2014 in Korea was well awaited for me and many others as Korea hosted the Asian Games 2014 at the lovely metropolitan city Incheon. As huge number of tourists planned to witness these games, it was indeed a good opportunity and yet the responsibility of Korean Tourism Organization KTO to facilitate these tourists.

KTO arranged a one day tour to watch one of the exciting games from Incheon Asian Games 2014, to visit main stadium built for Asian Games in Incheon named as ASIAD, and to visit the village and the festival held near the ASIAD stadium during the Asian Games 2014, including the Korean Cultural Festival and Asian Food Festival, with some great Korean Performances.

Yes it was indeed the package tour having all things which were mentioned above.

The day stated when we reached to the KTO headquarters in Seoul, having our snacks to eat we entered one of the two buses arranged for us. Lucky to have my friends with me as the travelling for me is a bit boring and a naughty company of your buddies, makes even the punishment, exciting and enjoyable.

First destination was a match venue of game Spektak kraw, the game may not be familiar to many but sooner it will be. It was unknown to me as well, so in short, I called it a foot volleyball. Yes it was like volley ball and you cannot use your hands. That’s why acrobatic skill are required and players should fit and flexible like of gymnastic players. There were three matches, and two were very close. The match between Korean women and Japan was too close and full of ohhz and ahhzzz. We all enjoyed the game and had a group photo outside the gymnasium.

The next destination was the ASIAD main stadium of Incheon Asian Games 2014, It is stadium where the spectacular opening and closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games were being held. The stadium is huge and magnificently build. The whole venue is designed splendidly and architecture is of no match. There were stalls and marketing events by the official sponsors of the Incheon Asian Games 2014 neighboring to the stadium. There were also many stalls of different handicrafts and like local market of any Koran festival. There was live performances stall as well broadcasted live by Incheon city television channel. The stall by Hyundi and Kia was very inspiring. There were public trial and demonstrations of next generation video games using brain waves. It was a unique experience for all of us. The stall by KTO was also full to crowd. KTO stall was providing information materials for tourists, then some cultural handicrafts. There was also a card making table with cultural stamps. We made some for us. There was medical checkup camp inside the KTO booth providing full body scan with individual diet and exercise plans along with some massage facilities.

There were two halls, one having segments of Korean culture experiences for all the visitors with a lots of segments like Korean marriage, Korean food making etc. The other hall was Asian Food Festival, having food stalls of many Asian countries like Thailand, Indian, Chinese, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Iran etc. Iranian food was Halal, and Arabian styles food. We enjoyed the delicious Iranian kebab with rice in the afternoon.

KTO arranged a dinner for all of us at a nearby Korean restaurant. There was special food for vegetarians. After dinner we came back to the ASIAD main stadium venue for a free showcase performance NANTA,  at the open stage. NANTA is famous in Korea and also worldwide because of its unique type. The comic musical of NANTA was indeed the best way to end a full day of excitement.

It was indeed a day full of memories and enjoyment. Thanks KTO, and Incheon Asian Games organizers to arrange such a tour for foreigners here.

R 16 Finals 2014

Like last time year, I made special plan to attend the world championship of B Boys and other dancing named R 16 at Olympic Park in Seoul.

R 16 is becoming more and more famous worldwide, as expected there were a lot of foreigners to enjoy the competition and to support their country. I attended the first day out of this two days grand world level championship.

I reached with my friends after a long journey as Ansan city a bit already far from the place and Olympic Park is also not in the center of Seoul. We took our tickets arranged and sponsored by KTO then had a little visit of the Park to have some fresh air to capture some photos.

The competition started on time with a most memorable showcase performance by Kenny Muhammad Ali known as The Human Orchestra. His performance was the mouth beatbox but it was more than that as he has the talent to make sounds and voices not only within the normal range and styles of beatbox but also many different light and heavy sounds simultaneously. All enjoyed his performance and he lift the atmosphere at a certain threshold needed for this competitions.

Firstly there were competitions of B Boys individuals. Then there was locking competition followed by the Popping one. International players were very sharp and competing well with local but previous world champions of Korea.

The judges were great with their showcases and performances but te players were dying for the win showing their every move, few were quite confident and other were desperate but no body loses the sportsman spirit and the Respect for each other.

In the end Issei, won the title of B Boy Individual while Cio for the Locking and Kid Boogie rocked it off for the Poppoing.

Nanta

Nanta with no doubt is one of the most famous shows in the Korea and also recognized by the whole world by its successful world tours. So you may easily expect the world class performance of diverse flavors and colors.

Nanta is different with other non verbal performances in Korea, like Sachoom, Kaboom and Jump, as it involves real cooking along with basic ingredients of a successful international performance like comedy, music, dancing, a story line, thrill, and characterization.  Yet the show also involves acrobatics, magic tricks, pantomime and audience participation.

Nanta is creative and unique as music is made and played with simple kitchen and cooking stuff like cutting boards, water canisters and kitchen knives. The show is more mesmerizing when this music is played with sharp knives and vegetables are like torn into pieces and the music beats get fast and the whole show is put on another level.

Comedy is the integral part especially in a non-verbal performance, it becomes more and more important when the show is of international level, and your audience is also foreigner and also dpressed by the language barrier. Comedy is the common language to make all the mood light hearted over all. That what I like in all such performaces in Korea.

in Seoul you can experience this worth seeing must watch event in theater at Myeongdong & ChungJeongno

For more detail

Homepage

www.nanta.co.kr (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)

Myeongdong theater http://nanta.i-pmc.co.kr/nanta/en/about/nantaTheater02.aspx

Chungjeongno theater  http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=1792935

Location: Chungjeongno, Chungjeongno 3(sam)-ga, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Kaboom

Like many other live performances event in Seoul, Kaboom is unique as it has many diverse performances with wide range/ Like if there is a classical cultural Korean music played by a professional females band then on the other hand there is a thrilling, exciting supersonic performance by frees style B Boys dance moves, similarly some astonishing magic tricks are also there to make you wonder and at last but not least there is a whole laser show in the end. So Kaboom has all the x factor.

Near Insa Dong, the famous downtown of Seoul’s heart, this event is there throughout the week and especially on weekend. I had a chance to witness it as sponsored by Koran Tourism Organization with my friends.  

As I told there are many segments in this event beginning with Va Va Voom, the girls group playing and singing the traditional Korean Music fused with modern style, beautifully and ceremoniously. This girl band then perform in between different other performances.

Performances of magic tricks, named Magic Trunk, were also quite impressive and were unique there is a whole romantic, love and revenge story to be performed during some quick as flash magic tricks.

I have been following the B Boys competitions in Korea, for more than a year and a half now, and world champions B Boys Group, from Korea, named Morning of Owl, also performs in Kaboom showing there winning moves in the world championships. There are very professional and creative in there team moves and formations also are quite artistic with respect to Choreography they have included.

PID (Performance in the Darkness) - "You can't take your eyes off it, black light laser performance!", is the trim card of the Kaboom to me, Waow what a great laser show it is. Really fascinating, captivating,  A must see performance that will you surely make you wonderstruck. The run time of this laser show is also long enough so that you can enjoy every bit of it. The performers in the laser show are very hardworking as I witnessed there were sweating off at the end of the show.

So Kaboom making a mark in my memory book of my Korean life.  

Sachoom

SACHOOM" is a one of the famous nonverbal performances of Seoul down town. It is purely a musical dance performance. Like K pop, K dance is one of the most emerging dance performed with music and song in groups with some simple to dynamic but highly synchronized dance moves. so if anyone want to see true K dance with some K pop music live then he should go to Insa dong, a famous down town spot in Seoul and grab the Sachoom tickets.




It was a hot summer day of 14th June, I went to Seoul to enjoy Sachoom on the honorary tickets i got from Korean Tourism Organization as its registered member. The place was easily found by me and my friend. We were just a few minutes late but entered the already going on performance.
There were different styles of dances by some young boys and girls who amused the audiences with their singing and dancing. The songs were subtitled in different languages also in English, 
Overall show was divided into different segments with some story lines. Main story line of the show was life, like from its birth till the climax. All phases of life and various issues in each phase were beautifully performed there. 


Choreography was awesome with respect to the story line. There were characterization of performers according to the need of story like there were mainly three characters throughout, one girl and two boys, who compete each other for her love, since their childhood then through school, high school then in college. All these eras were performed with music and K dance. 
Overall the show was very colorful and diverse, it was quite funny and entertaining, audience interaction was also very interesting and was there till the end. Performances were very dynamic, colorful and unique in their own styles.
I liked couple of acts very much which have more comic flavor. After the show there was sometime to interact with the performers and capture your photos with them as some golden memories of your visit to Korea.
Overall It was a vivid and worth seeing musical performances package so i thank to KTO for providing this opportunity

. 

R16 Eliminations Korea 2014

After a long wait, at last this year’s R 16 eliminations came at the same place as that of last year’s. Uijeongbu city. This city is one of the nearby cities of Seoul, and surrounded by beautiful lush green mountains. It was 14^th June, initially I was not willing to attend this event as the place is too far from Ansan but then my friend and another K supporter, Arsalaan Ansari, was also selected for this and we both decided not to miss this one. It took more than 2 hours just on subway to reach there, we took taxi as we were getting late. After having tickets we waited for the grand event to start. The stage was all set and the all the participants were ready to give their best.

First round was of Popping, there were 8 Dancers competing against each other. I personally like this style of dancing and try not to miss this segment. Among this the judges short performances are always worth seeing and you get satisfy that these judges are capable enough to judge and decide about each performer. There were three judges, Popbong, Popkun and Super Dino (China). Hoan won the hearts in his very first performance and then J one was also very impressive in the end the Poppin DS won the competition with his some very technically accurate popping moves

Next was the solo Locking dance battle, this hip hop style of dancing moved the spectators and we enjoyed the music and atmosphere. There was a female judge for it also named Yukari from Japan. Her judge performance was also very impressive. There were some really good locking dancers in the competition like Luffy, Rebel, the lady Luna, but the battle was won by Loking Khan, who was consistent yet very diverse till the end.

The next round was the real team b boys free style dancing. There were 5 judges: Physicx (Korea), Snake (Korea), Katsu (Japan), Menno (Netherlands), and Venom (USA). There was proper scoring of different categories and so the judging the close competitions were not so easy. There were many of new crews and groups. Honestly speaking I missed the last time winners Morning of Owl. The level of dance and synchronization was not there for a couple of groups being there, yet all others were very competitive and professional. TG breakers and Fusion MC were good as well as the Drtifters Crew but The Goonies and Gamblerz Crew were the best for me, and so Gamblers Crew won this time R16 Eliminations Korea.

Recompose

Promotion

Yet another musical performance at National Theater of Korea.

It will be the blend of modern and the historical Korean music

June 13, 2014

South Korea welcomes Muslims

Brief Information with thanking note to Korea for providing these very basic needs of Muslims in the country. 

Mentioned below is the link of my blog written for Incheon Asian Games 2014, happening from 19th of September till Oct 04 this year.

South Korea is expecting a lots of Muslims to come to Korea to enjoy these games, and we welcome them all from heart.

http://blog.incheon2014ag.com/korea-muslims/

Spring Smiles in Pakistan

Famous spring festivals of Pakistan, are just being described briefly about here in the blog written for Incheon Asian Games 2014, for introducing Pakistan as one of the most important and influencing countries in the region.

so happy reading at......


http://blog.incheon2014ag.com/spring-pakistan/

K Live Hologram Concert

It is was 26th of April, on Saturday with half of dozens of my best buddies, I went to witness my ever first experience of Hologram Show.
K-Live hall on the 9th floor of Lotte Fintin plaza, at Dongdemun History and Cultural Park subway station, was arranged to shop your favorite stars dresses and fashion accessories.
It is not the first time for us to encounter with what we have been watching in Hollywood movies fewer years back. Hologram technology have been shown to us in movies but now the technology made is possible even to use it in a very commercially professional way for the entertainment.
So the K -Live is the concert of K-pop holograms of famous bands and very entertaining live performance of dancing of locking and popping.
After getting honorary tickets arranged by Korean Tourism Organization KTO, the show started with first act of dance performance by three of young dancers dressed in red, in front of the K live hall...and in front of us. Unexpected audience interaction is now the integral part of Korean performances. All enjoyed this locking n popping dance moves with music beats form surprisingly so near.
The K- Live hall is specially designed to give the 3D look, there are three screens, one in the front and one on each side of yours.

The holograms of Korean three famous bands, the Big Bang, PSY and 2NE1, were showed with some spectacular dance performances in between.
The show was full of entertainment. It was made very dynamic. Holograms were near to reality, and the show was made to give you the full taste of this technology with some beautiful 3D interactive hologram videos. The songs were indeed ever famous, and PSY no doubt being an international hit was enjoyed by all the foreigners.

There was gifting for the audiences, with their pictures floating on 3D hologram screens, all were amassed  to see themselves on the screen. There was English subtitle of the little talk by the stars in between the performances. we enjoyed all the performances, It was indeed a memorable experience.

After the show we responded to an one page survey to make this show more successful.
There was a lantern festival walk on that day at the same area. We enjoyed the walk and joined a bit also while walking to have dinner at Halal pizza and burger form Pizza Plus at Exit 5 of the Dongdemun Station.

It was yet another day of hangout and ultimate friends fun with my royal and loyal buddies.

   

Incheon Asian Games 2014 English Bloggers

Incheon Asian Games 2014 English Bloggers

Here is the next recruitment for Incheon Asian Games 2014 English Bloggers

Application form can be downloaded form
http://blog.incheon2014ag.com/3rd_crew/

The email to apply is
iagoc@incheon2014ag.org

It has been a great experience and honor, working with  Incheon Asian Games Crew of English blogger for 2nd Batch.

RODFEST

K-ROCK of the ROD FEST

My 2nd Saturday of April (12th of April to be specific) was full of musical experience of my first official hard rock event which I would like to say a real K-Rock Music Event.

Thanks to KTO yet again for providing us yet another chance to enjoy this rock musical event by providing us with Free tickets. It was my first event of being 3rd K-Supporters members of KTO and this start was with this super sonic musical event.
The Rodfest 2014 held at Yes24 MUV hall near Hapjeong Station, we reached there a bit late as I lost my beloved jacket in subway, thanks to Subway lost and found department and concern offices as I recovered it at the end of the day later on.
So after having tickets, with my friends I headed towards the basement hall which was full of Rock Music lover fans, and a band was singing loud and rock...with electronic guitars and drums, lights and flashes.
The environment was full of hard rock music with its same style and fiction.

The next band was Transfixion, their song, "Tonight" is a hit one, with a very good rhythm and music. They sang four songs,if I am not wrong and all were quite musical and made the fans to dance along. I liked their music and style over all that's why added them and their this song in my playlist as well.

After that there was a band "Silent Y" with a typical hard metal rock style and music. This was my first time I have seen the real American style hard rock band in Korea. Though this musci is not of my type but I liked the energy over all and the performance of the group.

After that I have to left the event to go to collect my lost jacket from a subway station, very far indeed from the central Seoul.
It was a nice experience to enjoy that event, a recommended one who are hard music lovers.

K-Live.

K-POP event...named K-Live.

For K Pop lovers..

http://www.klive.co.kr/
https://www.facebook.com/kpopklive?fref=ts

Thank You and Welcome Party by KTO

Winning the Season 2 of K -Supporters by KTO

It was indeed a well awaited event for me. Thorough out the year I manged to attend most of the events by KTO in which K Supporters of season 2 were exclusively honored.

We have been invited by KTO for this Thank You party for prize distribution for 2nd K supporters and Welcome party for 3rd K Supporters of this year. Starting with a delicious buffet dinner at VIPS we are asked to rush to a theater of Kaboom. I was a bit wondered that whether where will be prize distribution ceremony, as I was super excited being on the top position for last season. But yes it was held at the same Kaboom theater stage, which was not suitable for such a prize ceremony. As there was no space to stand properly neither pics can be taken with ease.... :-(

Anyhow....as it was a matter of great honor for me, so I was expecting, if not more than the last time scenario but at least a similar one. But this time I with my all friends and many others were a bit disappointed. The prize distribution was done in a hurry as to fulfill the formality. Still....I felt honored and a very unique pride while raising the flag of my country Pakistan there among many others. Both times Pakistanis won the first prize, with last time winner my friend Fakhar Khan, who remained 2nd this time to honor me as well.
It was a speechless moment for me while showing my flag first to all then myself to others, truly one of the most memorable moment for me especially of my Korean life. We all were awarded by prizes, though it was less than the last time first prize, unexpectedly, still it was the first prize so I am happy. For me honor to hold flag of Pakistan in front of people form all over the world is more than any prize.
My this success is dedicated to my parents, family and friends, with  thanks to Fakhar Khan for letting me know all the opportunities and guiding me in all aspects along with a special thanks to KTO for the whole season passed and ahead. I am lucky enough to have a lots of friends who not only gave me a yes call whenever I asked their company for any event, but also they wrote their reviews for me and KTO as well. So thanks to all as well. This success is not mine alone but belongs to all of my friends indeed.

After that there was the Kaboom show. I liked the laser show part then B boys were quite good but not as good as they were at R-16 World Championship. Magic show was also entertaining with the musical portion.