Korea travelogue ! #part1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalamualaikum semua ! Heee masuk klinikal ni makin aktif pulak mencoret *ewah* kemain ayat hahaha. Tapi dah lama simpan hasrat nak berkongsi kisah perjalanan ke korea saya. It was quite dramatic and last minute. Kenapa? Tentulah sebab JUST dan takwimnya yang berubah-ubah, dan seorang faziera membeli tiket terlalu awal.

But nevermind, what's meant for you will never miss you. Maybe that's just what happened back then. Yang kawal gerak hati kita semua ni kan mestilah Dia.

Tho I have to bid farewell to some sum of money (sebab tukar tarikh flight, don't ask how much. Just, hm that much) , but I didn't regret my action. Bukan senang nak jumpa sekaligus kawan-kawan ni let alone travel pulak. I haven't even met Nur Ezlyni for 3 years! Well, you can't buy memories can you? ;)

So let's start our journey ! *warning; this post is going to be long

Btw, nak kata betapa last minit nya si faziera decided to join the crew, sampai Che Syaza Syamimi pun tak tahu yang saya jadi join. Masa jumpa dekat KLIA 2, berdrama lah (kena cubit ok -.-) heheee but it was fun tho. I'm not good at making surprises but I guess I nailed this one. *grin

Our trip was for only a week (6 days to be approximate) , 3 days Seoul and 3 days Jeju.

Day 1 (17/8/2015)

We took off with an Air Asia X plane, at 7 am. So that's mean that we have to be at the airport by 5.30 am ! And so we did heee and met everyone near the departure gate. Nothing happened much except that I've got a warm welcoming gesture from Che (hehehee). There are four of us in this trip; me, Che, Ezlyni and her cute little sister, Ezrynn (we called her Angah). The flight to Korea is quite a long one (approximately 6-7 hours) and there's nothing much you can in an Air Asia plane (no tv and stuffs ye la sebab tambang murah kan) so I slept all the way hahaaa 

Oh by the way, I just arrived from Jordan on 15th 

We reached Incheon International airport at 3.00 pm and we started searching for our friend's home (near Seoul University) Oh right, we purchased the T-money card (very useful for those who would want to use the public transport) Ala-ala oyster card sikit tapi lagi comel, Biasalah, korea apa je tak comel kan. 

Then, we settled down for a while dekat rumah kawan, her name is Czah btw, dan keluar balik malamnya sikit (oops no muraqib, haha :P) *jordan people will get this jokes. We went to Myeong-Dong. That place was very festive and lively. There's a lot of stall foods (aaa yang ni boleh tengok jeeee tapi Czah kata boleh je nak try kalau yakin halal dia *nangis) and a serious abundance of makeup/skincare shops. And the prices are way too cheap *nangis lagi* Jalan-jalan , selang beberapa ratus meter je eh jumpa kedai yang sama hahahaaa weyy tolong la fahammm

tell me if there's any girl who can resist to such temptations.......

And then we had a nice first dinner at a restaurant nearby. Keluarlah bahasa korea yang saya tahu sikit-sikit. Sikit je lah, Che lagi power hahahaa :P

"Kogi opso ?" means; no meat ? 

Just to make sure there was no meat.

I had Bibimbap (korean mixed rice with assorted vegetables and supposedly with meat) and it was good !

great, now my stomach growls ..

footnote; I didn't edit most of the photos that I'm sharing with you guys. So yeah, raw and #nofilter :P and some are Ezlyni's. Thank you Ezzz for taking such great photos ! :) 

After doing a bit of shopping and eating then we're set to go home and take some rest. The only problem was, we missed the actual stop near to Czah's house. Hari first kan, what do you expect. Perasan je dah lalu Korean University, tapi tiba-tiba entah macam mana boleh terlepas from the actual stop. Lagi 2 atau 3 stop je nak sampai perhentian last. Dan it was 11 ++ pm and that bus might be the last bus hahahaaha well. Day 1 adventure, begin ! Berbekalkan portable wifi czah, we went through the google maps only to realized we were that far from her house ! Masa tu dah pukul 12 malam.. Alhamdulillah we got each other's back and the journey continue. Tengok dekat map macam boleh je make it within 30 minutes, sekali bila dah jalan 30 minit, baru macam 1/3 of the total journey. And kitorang terserempak jugak lah dengan sorang dua orang mabuk. That was a bit scary tho. Bila sedar macam tak make sense nak jalan then baru kitorang naik teksi. Cuak takut tambang mahal, sekali okay je sebenarnya hahahaa apakah and we arrived dekat rumah Czah few minutes before 1 am. What a great adventure for a first day. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day 2 (18/8/2015)

Plan; Itaewon-Namdaemun-Namsan Tower

We woke up a bit early that morning, pusing2 dekat Myeong-Dong kejap and had this great, tasty dan mengenyangkan banana-uyu :) sedapnyaaaa 3-4 kali jugak la beli banana uyu tu heee (during the whole week kat korea) 

nyums ! 

Pusing-pusing kejap cari hello kitty cafe. Shopping sikit sikit (sikit ke :P) and then to Itaewon we go ! 

For you information, dekat Itaewon ni ada banyak kedai makanan yang halalal toyyiban, including satu kedai makan yang agak femes (nama dia Eid), owner orang Korean muslim. So memang kalau nak rasa makanan Korea betul yang disediakan oleh orang Korea dan halalal toyyiban, serious kena datang sini. We had our superbly delicious lunch there with Czah :D

such a humble ahjeossi :)

Bulgogi. 

It was so good ! Korean food is just so mashita ! (read; delicious) 

meet sam gye tang ! Korean tradisional chicken soup with ginseng! 

It was good too :P

The central mosque of Seoul pun ada dekat Itaewon juga. Untuk pengetahuan semua, it is the first mosque that was built in Korea. Masa kitorang datang pun (untuk solat zohor+asar), nampak ada few brothers tengah bawak tourists pusing that mosque. The mosque is indeed beautiful.

Meet the squad ! 

and meet Czah and her cute scooter ! 

After bidding farewell to Czah (sebab dia ada hal lain, kalau tak boleh ikut sekali) perut dah terisi, kewajipan pun dah ditunaikan, apa lagi ayuh ke Namdaemun untuk shopping souvenirs ! Heheee. 

#traveltips 

1. Learn their language (for the non-english speaker country). Either read or speak. Kalau yang guna untuk pertuturan at least belajar yang simple macam; "Hai" "Terima kasih" "Ni dekat mana?" Percayalah, that few simple words are going to make your life easier. Biasanya orang local akan sangat impressed kalau foreigners can speak their language. Alaa macam orang putih boleh cakap melayu, macam tu la :P As for the reading context, kalau nak pergi korea ni belajar kejap macam mana nak read hangul. Sepupu saya ajar saya within a night je, and it was easy ! tapi takde lah terus hafal ==' make a note at least you can spell tempat mana yang awak nak pergi. Nak cari signboard kedai ke apa. Nak guna waze ke nanti :P (we'll get to this part later on). 

2. Learn a bit about their culture. The yes and the no. Contoh paling mudah, orang Korea (macam Japanese jugak la kut) cara greeting diorang ada tunduk (bow) sikit. Macam cakap anyeong haseyo sambil bow down a bit, diorang akan balas dengan sangat happy :)

oh right sambung about Namdaemun. Dekat sini memang biasa orang beli souvenirs sebab a bit cheaper dari tempat lain. Kena pandai cari sikit. And ada kedai2 jual brooches yang cantik cantik sangatt >< macam-macam bentuk ada. Entah macam mana tiba-tiba makhluk berwarna hijau mint masuk squad kitorang. Nak tahu siapa? 

eh ? hahaaa :P

Setelah masing-masing berpuas hati dengan souvenirs yang dibeli untuk yang tersayang :P perjalanan diteruskan ke Namsan Seoul Tower Cable Car! Target nak naik masa sunset, macam cantik je kan tengok sunset dekat tempat tinggi. Tapi tak nampak sangat pun ==' Banyak awan masa tu.. and by the time kitorang sampai dekat NamsanTower (area love locks) dah gelap pun. k. 

just for the record, please buy the 2 ways ticket hahaaa

Namsan tower at night is such a beauty isn't it ? No filter needed for this beauty :)

Maybe around 8 o'clock and we're too tired so we called it a day and went searching for the bus station. There's suppose to be a bus station but we have to go to the top but we didn't. Instead we go down searching for it. And, yes with that cute new mate (the mint luggage). Yes, we climbed down from Namsan tower only to realize we weren't anywhere near the cable car place as we get down. So, day 2 adventure, begin ! HAHAHA

But really, with the help of  Czah's egg (the portable wifi), google maps and Korean helpful citizens, alhamdulillah we made our way back to the nearest train station (which isn't actually that near). Kitorang siap lalu tempat yang sama dua kali nak kata betapa lost nya kitorang hahahaa ended up tergelak terduduk-duduk terpusing-pusing macam orang tak betul. What a great experience hahaaa 

well at least I can have this beauty from a different angle hehe *positive vibes in need! 

Day 3, (19/8/2015)

We started our morning with banana uyu (hehehe again) and visiting Bukchon Hanok Village. For your information, this village memang an old Korean tradisional village yang memang ada orang tinggal kat situ sampai sekarang. Tapi diorang preserve the architecture and everything. Sangat-sangat cantik and sangat Koreanish drama-ish  >< and then we visited the Gyeongbok palace. Dan pusing2 dekat area city sekejap

a traditional village in a middle of a city. How beautiful is that ?

Then pusing2 area Ewha women university. 

I mean look at these notebooksssss ergh -.- tahan je lah whyy jordan no got this hahaa *nangis

meet my dearest banana uyu and the gang ! hee

For that day, we went back a bit early sebab czah nak ajak makan luar. Dekat area Korea University tu, ada kedai abc (bingsu) yang famous and there's this sotong pedas (cikumi) yang sangat pedas tapi sedap :') rugilah kome kome yang tak makan pedas tu, hahaa :P So here we go ,

you must try these cikumi. so good !

the bingsu place :)

 

real pictures taken by ezlyni. really. it's that good ...

So alhamdulillah, the end of our journey in Seoul. Sedih sikit sebab tak sempat ke Han River tapi takpe, satu hari nanti insyaAllah. Then kitorang balik and get ready untuk bertolak ke Gimpo international airport pulak. Rasa macam terlalu panjang membebel padahal baru tiga hari .. takpe dekat Jeju nanti lagi laa banyak sangat gambar lawa2 yang saya nak kongsi :D

Okay feed yourself, and thank you for reading ! I hope my travelogue helps you if you're about to plan a trip to korea ke apa. insyaAllah part 2 akan menjelang nanti :)

Baai !