Hari pertama/Day 1 in Seoul

It took weeks for me to finish this entry. Sorry sangat2 sebab saya busy sangat2 (alasan yang sangat cliche). Here we go..

Lepas selesai urusan imigresen & picked up our luggages, kami terus mencari kaunter tiket Airport Limo Bus. Biasalah some taxi drivers akan cuba dapatkan passenger. Abaikan mereka cuz taxi charge from airport sangat melampau, beratus-ratus ringgit. Senang je nak jumpa kaunter Limo bus, keluar je cari booth bulat sepanjang kaki lima entrance arrival hall. Tiket berharga KRW10000(~RM30). Sebab takut tersalah sebut, kami tunjukkan saja print out address apartment kami pada ticket girl. Rupa-rupanya our apartment memang one of the main stops. So agak lega, tak payah jalan jauh mencari lepas turun bus nanti. 

Bus kami nombor 6005 & kami kena tunggu di bus boarding point, menghala ke kanan kaki lima arrival hall. Sepanjang kaki lima ada banyak papan tanda biru macam dalam gambar bawah ni. Signboard ni lah tempat tunggu bus ikut destination. Nampak tak Vabien dalam tu? Pada signboard tu ada banyak info macam main bus destinations, time table & bus routing. Bus 6005 paling awal dari airport seawal 6.15pagi.

Kami ada masa dalam 30 minit sebelum bus tiba. Sejuk sangat nak tunggu kat luar, masuk balik dalam arrival hall.  Banyak benches dekat dengan pintu so takde la risiko terlepas bus ;p Sempat nak refresh diri sikit-sikit. Sempat juga grab some pamplets & maps dari information center. Along the way to information center, perasan ada kaunter untuk mobile phone rental & 3G package. 

Bas service di Korea selalu on time. Make sure ready kat pick up point seawal 10 minit. Beberapa minit sebelum bas tiba, ada ajishi (pakcik) dah sibuk menyusun semua luggage passenger ikut size, kecil ke besar. Nanti senang dia susun dalam bas. Lepas tu dia siap lekatkan sticker pada semua luggage tu. Oh sticker tu memang ada pada tiket bas. Nombor siri pada tiket tu sama dengan sticker, so nanti takdelah yang memandai tersalah ambil bag. Rajin pakcik tu. Driver bus pun rajin, setiap kali turunkan penumpang, dia akan turun sekali ambilkan bag. Memang beretikalah, tak rugi bayar RM30. 

Dari airport ke Vabien ambil masa dalam 45minit to 1 jam (ikut keadaan traffic & windy weather). Disebabkan kami sampai pagi & check in time start pukul 3 pm, kami plan simpan dulu luggages at the check in counter. Lepas refresh ourself, we are ready to explore Seoul! Tapi sebelum tu kena beli T-Money card. Apa tu? Ala macam kad Touch n Go kita. Kad ni boleh guna untuk subway train, bus, taxi & untuk shopping. Scan saja dimana-mana anda suka :) Harga kad T-Money ni KRW2500 & top up seberapa banyak korang suka. Korean biasa guna word recharge instead of top up. Haritu saya top up KRW10000. Senang je nak dapatkan kad ni, just cari convenience store macam 7-Eleven or G25 yang merata-rata ada sekitar Seoul. Apartment kami ada 7-Eleven at ground floor, memang senang. Lagi satu yang bestnya guna T-Money ni per trip kita just bayar KRW900 je, kalau beli tiket kena KRW1000 (~RM3). Tak payah nak stop kat ticket machine tiap kali nak beli & refund ticket. Tapi baru2 ni noticed inside visit korea website that subway fare dah naik jadi KRW1150!

Now we are ready to hit the subway! Excited sebab ni 1st time guna subway or they call it metro. The closest subway station to Vabien II is Seodaemun station. Dekat sesangat, tak sampai 2-3 minit berjalan. Dari exit door Vabien II tepi belah kanan, jalan menghala ke kanan. Lepas 2 bangunan dah nampak belah kiri ada small signboard warna kuning turun ke bawah tanah. Itu exit number 5. 

Sampai ke bawah, agak blur nak ambil direction kemana. Pergilah tanya 2 young guys yang dah nak ready nak refill ATM machine. Selamba je kacau orang tu nak buat kerja, dah lah siap pegang senapang. Fuhh lega sebab diorang boleh speaking sikit-sikit. Kami nak pergi Namdaemun market, tak sure nak ambil direction mana sebab kat signboard tu takde tulis Hoehyeon pun. Diorang siap buka map from hp to suggest the best line to choose. Errrr line mana & which transit I tahu, just wanna know which way left or right. Check-check balik subway map baru dapat sinar hehehe & diconfirmkan lagi oleh info kaunter staff.

Dari Seodaemun station yang dalam line 5 (warna ungu), kami naik train menghala Gwanghamun/Cheonggu/Sangildong. Kemudian kami turun di Dongdaemun History & Culture station, transit ke line 4 (warna light blue) naik train menghala ke Chungmuro/Oido. Finally turun di stesen Hoehyeon. Overall time dalam 15-20 minit. Station ke station sekejap je 2-3 minit tapi yang lama tu berjalan dalam subway nak transit ke line colour lain. Tak lah susah mana pun. Announcement made in english for every stop memang sangat clear 

Cute guy huh?

Di Hoehyeon Station ada 7 exits, hah nak keluar pintu mana satu?? Don't worry keluar je train ada district map on wall yang macam kat atas pic tu. Namdaemun Market yang kat bawah dekat2 Lotte card. So the closest exit is Exit No 5! yeah dance to mambo no 5! Kalo agak2 takut tak ingat jalan snap je pic map guna hp or camera macam saya buat :)

Target utama ke Namdaemun Market? Nak tengok tempat borong brooch. Banyak kedai jual accessories yang cantik2, bling2 menawan tapi yang ada banyak brooch di kedai Leh Dang, naik 2nd floor. Tapi at which building saya tak ingat. Yang ingat tangga warna pink ( I know I'm not helping much on this info).

Memang rambang mata tengok macam2 aksesori bling2. Floor tu penuh dengan small booths yang melintang kiri kanan. Agak sempit & tak sesuai for those with big luggages. Ada brooch, necklace, hairband, bracelet, small pouch & butang baju melayu. Yes butang baju melayu, towkeh kedai tu sebut sebiji macam kita sebut. Sah2 memang ramai Malaysian datang kedai dia. Saya jumpa kat deret booths nombor 209, 210 & 211. Booths diorang ni memang ramai Malaysian singgah sebab banyak brooches. Don't limit yourself to these booths, jenguk2 booths lain which offer different designs & stuff. Saya suka design gelang kristal mereka & harga pun murah dalam KRW4000-KRW7000 (RM12-RM21). They don't like you to snap pictures here but I managed to snap few from my Iphone. Tapi ada towkeh yang kemut tak kasi kita sentuh. Terus tak jadi nak beli barang, hah ko yang rugi.

Lepas dah puas borong, kami keluar jalan2 sekitar area Namdaemun Market. Boleh terlupa nak cari kedai kebab dekat area situ, isk isk menyesal. Itulah lepas shopping terus lupa benda lain.

That lady just happened to be in the middle.

These strawberries are sweet!

Let's get back to the apartment for check in.

Winter night

Weekends

The cutest airline - Hello Kitty jet

What is the cutest thing in the sky? It's Hello Kitty jet! From it's aircraft, stewardess' apron to the foods, everything has Hello Kitty motif. It's a heaven for Hello Kitty sucker.

Departing Day - Off to Seoul

My flight was scheduled on 11.30pm,Friday. Due to workloads, I decided not to take leave on that day. 90% of packing was done on Thursday's night. Arrived home at 7pm, I only had couple hours to get ready & final packing. Chaos!

Arrived KLIA at 10pm, I saw the check in queue was super long. Lucky my friends already in queue & I just simply cut in the middle ( sorry ). After all the check in process done, I only had a small chat with mom. I don't know why I felt a bit sad. Maybe it has been awhile since the last time I'm away from my parents & family. My friends convinced my mom that they will take a good care of me ( which they did). Ah not to forget they thought my mom looks younger than her age. Many did. I wish will old gracefully like her too (but now just enjoy being young!)

Thank God the gate was not that far. While waiting to board in, saw quite a number of Koreans. I guess they just had their warm getaway away from winter. On board, glad my seat was not in the middle row. Sat next to me was a mat salleh. Tried to get him to swap seat with my friend but unable to convince him. Squeeze in the middle the last thing on his mind (everyone does). 

My oh my the aircraft was not equipped with individual screen. What a bummer. To make it worst I forgot to bring my Sony mp4 & my Iphone doesn't have a playlist. Good thing is I need a rest from the day hustles, at least I didn't get distracted by any electronic stuff. I only started to talk with the person next to me after we had breakfast. That was like 1 hour to arrival. He turned out to be a chatty person. Delon was his name. A white South African, teaching English in Korea. Later I found out he was a model too, no wonder I found his eyes are beautiful. He was nice enough to share some insight of Korea from language, culture to transportations. Thanks Delon.

We arrived at Incheon International Airport in about 6.30am. That was like 5.30am in Malaysia. Korea is ahead by 1 hour. We need to take train to the terminal. From there we head to immigration before proceed to pick up luggage. While queuing there we met someone who work in the same company with us, Kak Ani. She was there with her family & plan for a week stays. She was like planning to travel with us, but that was not easy cuz she's staying in different area. 


Okay, this one is way too long & boring. I'll make sure the next entry is much better & colourful :)

Hello Seoul! ( before that, what's to prepare?)

During the recent public holidays of Maulidur Rasul & Thaipusam, me & my colleagues went to Seoul, South Korea for a short trip aka farewell trip with Kak Erma before she's retiring. Some of our colleagues couldn't join us due to personal reasons. 

It was a very last minute plan. The idea came during luncheon with them. I had only 2 weeks to book, to plan trip itinerary & to gather information. Since it was my 1st winter trip, preparation was a bit extra than previous trips. So what I had to prepare before fly to Seoul?

Weather:

South Korea is 4 seasons country. Thus you've to check what will the weather & temperature be during your stay. I checked it here, weather.com . Feb is still winter time & forecast temperature was between 2c to -10c.

Passport:

Make sure international passport is not expiring in less than 6 months. Had to renew my passport as it's going to expire in Feb. Did it in Port Klang cuz less crowd compared to Shah Alam. Due to time constraint & Chinese New Year holidays, I was only able to do it in the last week before flying. 

Clothing:

Basically you need to wear 4 layers before you go out to winterland. A long john set, a t-shirt, a sweater/jacket, a winter jacket, a pair of jeans, a pair socks, a pair of covered shoes, gloves & a muffler (if it gets harsh cold). My thermal wear/long john was bought at Universal Travelers for RM169. The SA said it can stand till -15c, great. At first I was planning to buy at Uniqlo because it was cheaper with promotion but they sold out their legging. They only had the inner t-shirt, if not mistaken only RM39.90 (promotion price). 

Winter coat? It's super expensive so I just borrowed from a friend :) If you don't have a friend to borrow from try to find at FOS or Uptown for cheaper option. At FOS, I found nice fleece jacket cost about RM99 & a bubble jacket RM129 but size is limited. Some said it's cheaper to buy in Korea but I forgot to survey the price. Regret that I forgot to snap a jacket while I was in Seoul. I guess the excitements overridden all my shopping plan.

If you already have both long john set & winter jacket, then you're ready. The rest are just normal clothes. T-shirts, sweater/jacket & jeans. Pack light cuz you won't be sweating. I survived 4 days with only 1 pair of jeans :) Oh ya if you're a hijab wearer like me, a pashmina scarf is good to provide you warm.

Socks, yes you need it to cover your feet from freezing. Recommended thick socks. Any type of thick socks will do but if you can't stand cold, get a wool type.

It would be great if you have a pair of boots as it won't get slippery on icy road. For me, I just make do with my Nike running shoes which I barely utilized it as running shoes.

I didn't wear any muffler neither glove cuz I find it uneasy & survived the winter cold. I can stand the cold but apparently my skin is not. Rashes appeared on my wrists due to dryness. Well it gone after I applied hands lotion religiously.

I look like a penguin.

Trip itinerary:

You don't want to be a lost puppy especially in a country where English is less spoken. Research well the destinations & what are your group preferences. My group prefer for shopping so our destinations mainly covered the shopping spots. Meanwhile yours truly prefer sightseeing & culture. 4 days is too short to squeeze all the favourite destinations but we managed to get a balance itinerary. 

My itinerary was,

Day 1 - arrived to Incheon International Airport - apartment - Namdaemun Market area - check in apartment

Day 2 - Deoksugung Palace - Dongdaemun Market area - Itaewon

Day 3 - Myeongdong - Lotte World (Star Avenue) - Kwangjang Market - N Seoul Tower 

Day 4 - departed from Incheon International Airport. 

Time management is important. My itinerary was not perfect as I was not aware that fabric shops at Dongdaemun Market are closed on Sunday. If your trip is still far in advance, do research well all the related information of you planned itinerary.

Blogs are very helpful source to gain as much info as you can. You can get lots of tips & learn what to expect. Plus their beautiful pictures will inspire you more.

Among of all the blogs I stalked, these 2 blogs are my top fav Budgettravel2korea , Jamieliew . Love them cuz  they feed me a lot about Korea. Also this Honvee boy have sets of lovely pictures of Korea. He is  only 17 years old but those pictures look like a professional work, I'm amazed. Kamsahamnida to all of them!

Visitkorea is another resourceful website, I would say Korea Tourism really made an effort to update this website from time to time. You can get pretty much lots of info from this one website alone.

Money!!! :

You can't get around without money (of course) let alone for shopping. Just to let you know almost all tourist attractions in Korea require entrance fees. For me a budget of RM1500-RM2000 is more than enough for subway, accommodation, shopping & entrance fee. It's advisable to change your currency before flying. Rate is far cheaper in Malaysia compared to in Korea. I changed mine during lunch break of the departure day (again time constraint).

Foods :

Lots of instant foods! Maggi mee for sure, bread, rice, 3in1 milo, canned chicken chunks & tuna.

Accomodation : 

I surfed a lot on TripAdvisor, Agoda, Bookings and found lot of good deals  before ended up with recommendation made by our colleagues :)

I guess I've covered enough what's to prepare before flying to Korea ^.^ Now are you ready to fly to Korea?

A day at Universal Studio Singapore

Universal Studio Singapore was the 2nd itinerary for my last year's (was it 2 years ago? ) short trip to Singapore. I'll just let the pictures do the talking here :)   (lazy me) 

p/s: ops! I just published an old draft. More pictures to come.

Random 2 : Who is Ayu Hashim?

Who is Ayu Hashim?? Check it out what does SimSimi think of her. SimSimi is soo cheeky & adorable!