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| Adam and I in our casual clothing |
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| Visiting the Korean War Memorial |
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| Our young Korean Tourist Guide |
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| The King, Fong and I |
We were given a day off in our 11 days in Busan. Not
to miss out on that opportunity, Adam Tee and I bought a City tour at one of
the booths in the Games
Village. We requested for
an English speaking tourist guide.
On that day of the tour, we were allowed to wear our
casual clothes. During the Games, all of the athletes and officials must wear
the sponsored clothing and shoes. In other words, we must wear the clothes and
shoes which were given by our sponsors. We will be reprimanded and warned if we
are caught not wearing the sponsored clothes and shoes during the Games.
However, since it was my day off, I wore my normal clothes. Our tour was to
start at 8.30am. However, we did not get to meet our tour guide cum driver
until 9.30am due to miscommunication as to which gate she was supposed to wait
for us. Our tour guide was a young Korean girl whom I have forgotten her name
now.
Anyway, we started moving out from the Games Village
at 9.30am in the tour guide’s car. It was a private tour – just Adam and me. We
went to visit a few places of interest such as the look out tower and the
American cemetery where the servicemen during the Korean War were interred. We
had a nice lunch where we ate the famous Korean Chicken Ginseng soup and “bulgogi”
(Korean barbequed meat).
We got back about 3.00pm, just in time for me to
catch the “free tour” organised by the Games Village
for the athletes and officials. The “free tour” was to visit Hyundai, a heavy
industry company. For that particular tour, the bus was to leave at 4.00pm.
Fong (from the Malaysian Secretariat and now General Manager of Olympic Council
of Malaysia) and Ng Ping Loong (now Sports Marketing Manager for Milo) were
there with me waiting for the bus inside the Games Village.
While waiting, suddenly we saw a black Mercedes Benz with a Malaysian flag
flying. I saw that it was our then King (Yang DiPertuan Agong), Sultan Azlan
Shah. Because I was not in my standard uniform, I waved at the King, thinking
that it would just be a passing thing. Oh boy, was I wrong! The King must have noticed
and asked the driver to stop the car. The King came out smiling and waving at
us. The King asked me, “Are you a Malaysian?” I replied, “Yes” and asked if I
could take a photo with him. The King smiled and replied, “Of course”. After
the photo was taken, the King asked for another photo to be taken, just in
case. It was all fun. I really enjoyed that particular day.
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