21.10.09 Wednesday flying off tonight.. Had packed my luggage over the weekend.. Not expecting anything, not feeling very excited too.. duno what to expect since it's a totally new experience.. I just know that I'm away from office, from home and from computer for the next 7 days..
The 1st time I'm gg to a place where I do not know its language. I have heard negative things about this place, like how the people there do not know english and they shun off when u tried asking. No shuai ge on the roads, shuai ones are all on tv programs. but i'm kind of familiar with its shows.. i watched alot of their variety shows and it's really interesting..
I did some research beforehand but information seems vague.. 1 thing that i did not reseach on is how to speak its language.. i think it would be useful if i know abit.. =P
I decided to bring only a jacket and a cardigan as the highest temperature is 20, lowest is 8. so it should be okie..(I'm wrong..) brought my boots, 2nd time I'm wearing since I bought it last year.. it's a 2 person trip again, this time with my primary school mate. I quite like going on a trip with 1 or 2 friends. few and sweet. even though there may be periods of slience and not as loud as a trip with many people. while I wanted to have a getaway to anywhere, she's interested in going to korea, so off we go!
Audrey was sick. Sounds serious by the way she cough and sneeze.. Ahhh.. It's really hard and tiresome to travel when you are sick.. the flight to korea is super empty that we can take a row of 3 seats and lie down to sleep.. =D
22.10.09 Thursday Day 1 it's cold when we arrive, wearing my jeans jacket does not help and I know I'm dead.. Haha.. we bought the ticket for airport bus to our service apartment @ only 9000won.. it's a 10 - 15 min wak from sejong hotel. I never imaigne the place that I'm going to stay is so prefect! Makes me want to stay there forever.. I'll definitely visit Korea again because of this wonderful apartment.. we went around myeongdong then to dongdaemun and back to myeongdong for the 1st day.. dongdaemun has many shopping centres but are quite deserted. So it becomes difficult to shop. Moreover, we are unable to communicate.. myeongdong has all the beauty products! The sales assistants in each shop can speak in chinese, japanese and of course korean. It's wonderful isnt it..
23.10.09 Friday Day 2 We are suppose to go to Everland today, but I guess we are still not quite ready for an adventure yet. We went to Lotte World instead. it is like genting highland, has an indoor and outdoor park. We only spent like 4-5 hours there before we went for 'lunch' then back to myeongdong for shopping.
Because of the late lunch, I do not crave for dinner that night.. the variety shows are really interesting to watch even though we do not understand its language, we could laugh at actions they did.. I want to watch the new "WE GOT MARRIED"!!
24.10.09 Saturday Day 3 went to convenient store to grab our breakfast before we went to myeongdong cathedral. There is a couple getting married and we sit in to watch the process. It wasn’t like drama that we watched, it was such a loooonnnng process….. next, we went to ewha womans university station. I guess because it is near school, so it has more shopping that can be done..
after that it was to hongdae university free market that is only available on saturdays.
suppose to go back myeongdong and watched "break out" but I did not do time check so did not watched in the end. decided to forgo since it is quite ex for a 90 min show.. better to spend on shopping!!
went for lunch cum dinner again before we set off for Seoul tower.. the walk to the cable car area is kind of far.. There was this long queue when we reached.. I guess it is because it's weekend.
when we reach seoul tower, we had to wait for our turn to go up the tower.. up in the tower, there was this machine where it took our picture and generate into a piece of drawing @ only 5000won if I'm not wrong.. Quite cheap for the sake of fun and memory.
on our way back, we forgo our cable car ticket since there is no end to the queue and walked down instead.. Had wanted to go on the 1st day and the 2nd day @ 9 or 10 pm.. Luckily we did not as we spent some 4 hours overrall.
bought dinner cum supper home.. Delicious! my legs was aching with the continuous walking. Having sprain my both legs before, it always have the feel of being sprain whenever I walked too much.. Too bad I did not bring salonpas.. because of the weather, I brought eyedrops in case, eyes become too dry with contacts on. because I always have the problems of constipation, I brought fibre(which is kind of useless) and medicatred oil.. because there will be times where I ate too full and feel like performing the merlion act, I brought sour plum..(thought I will not be able to finish even though I only bought a 100g but it is useful when Audrey felt like puking after too much exciting rides.. =P)
25.10.09 Sunday Day 4 went to have fresh seafood today! Gave up Busan since it cost too much to travel. Wise choice as we would have more money to spend.. good thing there was this lady that called out to us in mandarin. We bought the seafood from her and went up to the restaurant where they cooked up the food for us immediately.. 1st time eating live squid and abalone. after having a very filling meal, we went to gyeongbokgung. The 1st historical place we came to.. Hehee..
Next, we went to COEX, to kimchi museum. COEX is such a huge shopping centre that we did not have time to cover.. Sad.. The KimChi museum was so small but it displays all the different kinds of kimchi.. what was tiring was to take transfers within the subways. It has 9 lines and there was so much walking to be done from one line to another..
if I'm not wrong, within the 1st 1km, it's 900 won, deducted when u scan your way into the subway. when u exceed the distance they will minus the amount from your card when u exit. something different about seoul subways. U could eat and drink. I do not see any signs saying no eating and drinking or be fined. Next, people do sales on board. Hahaa.. because of the very long transfer lines they had, there are shops within the subways. after that we went to 63 city building. Had wanted to catch the sunset but it's already so dark when we finally reached.
spent sometime there before we proceed to Han river. Audrey wanted to go to the place where water musical is performed. By the time we did all the train transfer, it's already 10pm. Too late. But we still went there for a walk. As we did not know the direction to the place, we asked a lady who turns out to be able to speak a good command of english(with an accent and better than me.. hahaa) since she was not too sure of the direction, she helped us asked an old couple who said that they will be going there for a walk and we could tag along! How nice! the couple can speak english enough for our understanding. After 4 days here, I seldom heard people speak english that well, not even youngsters. the thing that I did not like, is adults and children alike, they pushed their way through without saying excuse me or sorry. but when I tried asking for directions, they would be nice enough to tell me or ask others on our behalf, even to the extend of showing us the way. This bursts all the myth people had been telling me.
25.10.09 Monday Day 5 Everland! My 1st time taking so many different kinds of rides which I do not think I'll be able to if I went on this trip with other friends.. Lol.. many of my close friends share similar characters as me so I could roughly guess what can be done and what cannot. Audrey seems to have similar interests with me in general but different in tastes. She is a more adventurous person. maybe I just need some push and encouragement from friends.. A new try.. We spent the whole day here till it closed @ 2130. Could not get more souvenirs from the shops as they are already chasing people out of the shops. The EverMart sells so many stuffs that I think foodstuffs should be bought from here instead. We went to an eatery near our apartment. I should not have ordered any food cos I'm actually kind of full.. Haiz.. The sad thing is the noodles I ordered was not tasty at all. I'm gorging food down my throat these few days, eating more than I could.
26.10.09 Tuesday Day 6 The day where I spent most of my won.. Lol.. It's like the 2nd last day, I do not want to bring home the won.. we went for myeongdong jiaozi for our "branch". Ordered too much.. Lol.. then we went to itaewon, the place where there is most foreigners. A few people introduce us to go this place but obviously it is not very suitable for us. We went back to Ewha again, this time covering more areas and buying more stuffs. Wahahaa.. lastly back to myeongdong again. Bought kimbap, fried prawns, sausage and cook cup noodles. I love the prawn soup~ we slept at maybe 2 or 3 am every night, woke up at 9.. tonight, our last night here, we slept at 4 plus as we are doing the final packing.
27.10.09 Wednesday Day 7 Last day. Cannot find any supermarket around to buy foodstuffs. Even the lotte department store did not offer decent food. last check on stuffs to buy in myeongdong. I also did a crazy act of buying 300000 won worth of stuffs to get a new cute luggage..
i realised i buy things in a flash. i dont look around to compare, i dont say things like,"maybe the next store would be cheaper.." in buying stuffs, i believe in love @ 1st sight. lol.. things that i like when i 1st saw, i must quickly buy. no room for hesitation. if i were to ponder again, then i should not buy as i'm sure i'll regret buying. hahaa.. Audrey did inform me that she likes to spend time looking around.. no hurry, just dont feel stress to see me done with shopping and stand one side.. i just dont continue looking when i felt that there's nothing else to see.. that's me.. hehe..
with 2 luggage, a bag and a plastic bag, I set off from apartment to the stop for airport bus. It's so hard to pull and we had to pull the luggage alongside the cars. Imagine that. When I went to hokkaido for 10 days last year, with all those winter clothing, my luggage is not as heavy as now.(well i did not buy much stuff in japan) at that moment, I wish I was staying in sejong hotel. There would be someone to help me with my luggage and the airport bus is right at its doorstep. But that's out of question cos it's expensive..
did tax refund in the airport. Only get to know on the 2nd last day. Now I know, nextt ime I shall buy all goods together and not a bit here and there. If not the amount is not enough for refund.
when there is not enough space at the storage cabin above us, the idiot steward actually point to the other side, signalling me to put it in. uncle, what for pay u to be steward? Looking at how tall I stand, do u think I can reach and squeeze my stuff in? kns..
the flight back is so crowded, with all indians sitting in the middle wing. There's this long man sitting on our row. Audrey had to tap him so many times before we can have a chance to visit the toilet.
I watched 2 shows, Enchanted and Night at the museum 2 before I took a nap. It was already 2am when I reached home. My dear brother who normally did not sleep so early was already sleeping. Even though I msged him and he agreed to come down and help me with my luggage, he did not appear in the end. ==" I could still pull the luggages back home by myself. no problem. the taxi uncle asked y no people came down to help me.. sob.. I still had to open my luggage for my keys. When I was opening my door, the door swung open and my sister went:" you are back!" great.. So u were not asleep yet. Forgot to check with her if she had offdays when I'm in korea.
28.10.09 Thursday I slept for less than 4 hours and I reported back to office the next day for stocktake. I took forever to key a few invoices. My soul was still lying in bed.. My heart was still in seoul.. Hahhaa.. Even though my supervisor says I'm still able to rush my work, but I could not resist the sleepness in me and I quickly exit from office when the clock strike 1730.. one thing I forgot is to bring tweezer to Korea. My brows are very out of shape and messy by the 3rd day? Before I head home to look for my soul in bed, I went for threading.
31.10.09 Saturday finally finished unpacking before going to aloha for my baby sister's 21st birthday celebration. ate and ate and ate again. my birthday gift to her was the 2kg cake from awfully chocolate. Tasty!! hope she had a fun celebration~ a nice gathering for all the family members.
Thinking back, my trip to seoul was quite an enjoyable one, covering most of the places we wanted to go.. I spent all my won and sign visa for another 400 plus but I still think I did not buy enough.(well out of it, about 300 dollars are orders from friends..) I did not buy enough masks! Only bought 4 packets and I gave away half.
Audrey was quite sick but she look very fresh and hyper. Lol.. I'm the one who looked sick instead. Too constipated and awful pain from legs.. Wahahaa..
I realised many times, she would go" u understand what I mean?" lol.. I must have gave the look of not paying attention.. Haha.. Don’t worry, I'm just listening attentively. I'm not the kind to prompt, oh, so what happen after that? I would just listen and listen, think before i reply.. so maybe after u had talk and we continue walking for a while, then i'll go," ya just now u were saying blah blah, i think..." kekeke.. my eyes are kind of blur when I do not sleep enough, so I would have the very sian look by the end of the day.
I would love to go Korea, Seoul again for a more relaxed trip. Can sleep till 10am in the morning and sleep earlier at night. spend more time in the serviced apartment to relax, not just to sleep. Visit other places next time. There are so many yet to cover in seoul!
To Audrey: Hope u also had a fun time there! I have downloaded the few songs which I repeatedly heard in Korea. Sent me the photos someday. Cheers! =D
