South Korean Trip - Arrived & First day

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

So, after months of letting the pictures rot in my computer and since I was really bored playing with words for the seminar paper that have to be hand in tomorrow, I decided to start writing my exciting journey to South Korea!

First and foremost, this is quite a long time ago, (read, Summer and now is Winter) there might be some information outdated, but I can say we pretty much travelled all around happily without any tour guide.

It was thrilling, at the same time exciting.

Basically, I found out that I can read maps! (yeay for that since I even find it hard to differentiate left and right. Lol)

Second, I went to South Korea with GBP i.e £, so don't be shocked to see how much money I basically spend to have a comfortable travel to South Korea.

But basically, it is rather affordable. Hehehe.

Oh, gosh, let's skip[ the boring frugal economic part and get into the start!

We went to fly off using Lufthansa Airways from Birmingham Airport on the 14th of May, in the afternoon, around 1300 hours, British Summer Time.

Yes, I am a perfect detailed person, so don't be shocked. Kekeke.

I was quite nervouse since my bag was quite heavy, but then, hey, it's a 21 days journey, alright? Hahaha.

So, I basically threw my cabin bag inside as well, and that left me with just my laptop bag (I still don't understand why I didn't upload all my pictures then. maybe because it's rather trivial, and really, I can't be bothered. Hahaha.

We flew from Birmingham to Frankfurt for 1 hour and 15 minutes and have a lay over for 3 hours before continue flying to Incheon, South Korea for the next 10 hours.

A beautiful picture of the plane flying, Subhanallah.

Oh yeah, did I say that I'm actually afraid of height?

Oh well, I do.

So, credit to my seat mate who did that for me. I love you, Ripa. Lol.

The happy, anxious, nervous faces before take away. But then, let's sleep people. Haha

We arrive in Incheon the next morning, blur and sleepy.

This girl, my all-time partner to South Korea even left er phone at the immigration board. Huhu.

And basically, we can't really converse, so it takes like the whole 30 minutes to explain the situation to the workers there, and bla bla bla.

Luckily, we got the phone back!

Or, she'll left her phone with Jaejoong there. Hahaha.

Relief and happy face!

We finally get the phone and get straight to the taxi counter to get a taxi to our lodgings.

The taxi cost KRW 55,000 for both of us.

The taxi driver was really kind and he really tried his best to explain everything in Engrish.

But anyway, it's not like my first language is English, so I basically understand everything he said.

Duri World House

We rent a studio in the guesthouse, fully equipped with double bed, television, which we didn't even touch, kitchen, and bathroom.

They even offered us free laundry service we stayed there for a long time.

Basically, it's rather convenient for two girls to sleep and rest after the long walk around.

They also offer dorm style and single studio, so I think it's really comfortable.

We also get free breakfast, well, standard breakfast with bread, jam, peanut butter, butter, bla, bla, bla.

You can also cook anything you like like sausages, eggs, and anything they provided for breakfast.

It's literally good for the start of the day.

And after settling everything, we climbed on the bed and yeah, sleep! Let sleep, people!

Bad bad jetlagged, you're just so bad.

We literally sleep the whole day, hahahaha, and at night, went out to have something to eat and then go back to sleep.

So tired and lazy, and first day was burnt...

But it's okay. Since we have another 19 days.

The next day, still jetlagged, we woke up at 5 am.

Getting ready for the first day was quite tough.

I have all the maps ready since we just sleep yesterday and do nothing.

After having breakfast, we are ready to go out!

Since there's a lot of cafe around, we stop by to have some coffee start.

But since I don't like coffee, I have my hot chocolate. :D

Mim and her hot chocolate

Simple morning tea before start to explore further.

Selfie is a must everywhere we go since, hey, it's the first day and we are... well... overexcited.

And the journey continued...

Well, since we didn't read the map properly and due to the language barrier, we got lost on the way to the nearest subway station.

Oh gosh... it was really funny how we try to communicate.

The lady keep saying 'yeppuda, yeppuda' and I hard a hard time trying to translate it. Lol.

But she kindly show us which bus to get on ad we realize then that we walked towards the opposite side.

We are not sure where to stop and finally decided to just get down and ended up at the junction near our guest house.

Fuhhh... I should have prepared thoroughly...

But then, there's this kind lady walked past us and finally we manage to communicate with her in English.

She showed us the way and we basically just followed the people who are walking and of course, we are led to the station!

Finally!

Our guesthouse is around 10 minutes walk from the Hongik University Station.

Subway station in Seoul has so many exit so choosing exits was also a few tough works. Lol.

I downloaded Seoul's Subway app on my iPad (How I wish I have my Oppo then...) and it perfectly help me getting around on subway.

They have exact times and exact exit and doors if we need to change to make things quicker.

They also tell us which line to take and stuff, so it's really convenient.

I used this app, if this help -> http://appcrawlr.com/ios/jihachul?_src=discover_group

They also have Busan subway map by the way, including big cities like Daegu, Incheon, Ulsan, etc. (I forget what else. Haha.)

But oh well, we just got on the subway and walk following the arrow.

If you are able to read hangul, it's better.

I spent two weeks learning how to read, so it's quite easy.

So we went on the Airport line towards Seoul station.

Seoul station is like KL Sentral in Malaysia.

So, to change to the next line, we walk quite far.

And we saw the CJem Building in the centre. No picture, sorry. CJem is an office to JYJ and Song Ji Hyo if you're familiar with those people. Hahaha.

Continuing the journey, we stop at Myeongdong Station, Line 4 and walked our way to the top.

Walk!

Walk...

Walk.....

Nearly there!

The forest....

The cable car is here!!

Finally! After a long walk... (We should have take the shuttle bus...) we arrived at the cable car platform!!

We're here!

Let's wait for the cable car!

Platform to wait

Anyeong Namsan Tower!

So high! Gayatttttt....

Climbing again...

Those steep steps and those sweet couples... Lol

Here we are!

An interesting fact about Namsan Tower : The 236.7m Seoul Tower sits atop Namsan Mountain (243m), Seoul Tower offers panoramic views of Seoul and the surrounding areas.

So high, right?

Without wasting time, let's go up!

We paid KRW 12,000 each including the free entrance to the Trick Eye Museum.

N Seoul Tower main door welcoming us.

The beautiful scenery from the observatory

Got a souvenir picture as well.

Since there's really nothing to do on the observatory level, T_T and I'm quite scared of height, we come down after 20 minutes walking on the observatory platform.

Let's start the journey to 3D world!

Playing on the moon with Mr Rabbit

Save me from the shark please!!

Drawing 3D elephant

Smokes is unhealthy!

Thrilling play at the stream

Bye everyone, see you again!

And while we were inside, trying to find the way out, (Yes, we got lost. Lol) these aunties came at us.

Now the 'yeppuda' make sense to me. Finally I understand what it's mean.

'Yeppuda' means beautiful, pretty. (I'm not(?) bragging by the way. :P)

These aunties asked for pictures.

After a certain research I did back then, well, they rarely saw girls with scarf, maybe that explain why they are so interested in us. And oh! I feel like celebrities... Kekeke.

Taking pictures with the Korean aunties.

If you go to Namsan Seoul Tower, this is one of the things you must do. Haha.

Locking the love.

The tree made of love locks. \\O//

Of course we did it too. Lol.

Throwing the key away.

Theres a lot of things you can do on the ground.

While we are taking picture, there's this uncle, he keep following us and taking picture.

Oh my... that's quite scary.

Feel like being stalk by a paparazzi, we ran away. Lol.

But then we continue taking pictures again! ^_^

WGM Hallyu Bench (WGM means We Get Married, a reality show in SK)

Raibow from the fountain

Inside the round fountain.

Sibuk ja beg Hello Kitty tu... T_T

In front of the ticket counter

Haechi Seoul

One of the KhunToria shooting set. Kekeke.

Since we are quite hungry for the afternoon, we decided to end the visit to N Seoul Tower.

Ready to go down...

Those steep steps again...

Stop by for a picture...

...literally...

...everywhere. Lol.

So, finally we went down via the cable car!

Until next time, N Seoul Tower!

Part time cable car's model.

So, we decided to go and have lunch in Itaewon, since it's easier to find Halal food.

We took the subway through Line 6 to Itaewon station and walk around 10 minutes and we arrived at the restaurant.

Uphill walk...

This is where we eat for our lunch.

Those side dishes... and I haven't had my lunch. (Drool...)

We have bulgogi, grill marinated beef and galbitang - korean short rib beef soup.

Yummy, yummy!

The price is quite okay, a bit expensive, but still affordable for a rare Halal Korean food.

Next stop is the foreign food mart to get some halal ramyeon and tea.

Groceries shopping!

Do you know ramyeon in Korean at not Halal?

Yes, the're not.

So if you're Muslim and you're planning to eat ramyeon in Korea, forget it. Lol.

Better have it back home rather than from Korea since most of them have animal gluten, which is pork.

And seafood ramyeon also have that, so please beware.

After that, we went home to pray and rest for a while before going around Hongdae at night.

The first destination is Hapjeong where we go and eat croquettes.

Okay, what is croquettes?

A croquette is a small breadcrumbed fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, mashed potatoes and/or ground meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey), shellfish, fish, cheese, vegetables, and mixed withbéchamel or brown sauce, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, beer, or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, e.g. sauteed onions, mushrooms, or boiled eggs (Scotch eggs). The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder, disk, or oval shape, and then deep-fried. The croquette (from the French croquer, "to crunch") gained worldwide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food.
So, now you know what croquette is?
We went to eat Korean style croquette which is of course, suitable for vegetarians.
The small croquette restaurant is located in Hapjeong, just one station away from Hongik University where we are staying.

Model croquette pun boleh. :D

Next destination is Hongdae!
Since my friend here grew up in the UK and I've been living in the UK without night life for 9 months, we went to enjoy the night market in Hongdae.