Seoul (Final Part)

Day 4

My forth day journey was about city tour. We went to few places which was not visited during last trip.

After took simple breakfast at the guest house, we went to Namdaemun Market to shop for brooches. Korean brooches is high of quality in terms of its durability, designs and the shines of its stones. To reach Namdaemun Market, from wherever you are, you may stopped at  Hoehyeon Station and get out from Exit 5. Not only brooch, you may find anything you want here especially for souveniers.

Namdaemun Market

After having our brunch nearby, we walked from the market to the Gwanghwamun Square. Nearby, situated Gyeongbukgong Palace and the King Sejong Story Exhibition Wall. The walk from the market to the Square took around 20 mins. Not bad to burn out your calories after two days sat in the bus for hours journey, why not today, we have simple walking exercise? The weather damn cold, around 1 degree but we still make our move haha..No problem!

The admission to the exhibition wall is free. What actually they exhibit? This place displays Sejong's intervention in Hangeul and contributions to the artistics, scientifics, militaries and politicals of Korea. Outside the exhibition wall, there is a Statue of King Sejong, the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty (1397 - 1450, reigning from 1418 to 1450). The King responsible for some of the most brilliant achievements in the history of Korea among others are Maternity Leave for Bondwomen, Opinion Survey of Farmland Tax System, Ban on Lawsuits Againts Public Administrators, Respect for Elderly and Financial Aid to Poor Bachelors. 

Not many people inside hence, we just enjoyed our time, reading and taking pictures and whats most interesting when you came here, is, you may try to write your name in Hangeul for free. Just write your English name and they will write it in Hangeul for you to copy it down using calligraphy pen and paper provided.

Entrance to the Exhibition Wall

Statue of King Sejon

Writing my name in Hangeul

This is sun clock, one of the Sejong's creation

Sejong's Military Equipment. It has 100 arrows 

Armilary Sphere - Model of objects in the sky

After an hour inside, we got out from the wall, but, yeah, unexpectedly, there were a huge crowd at the square. We have been told by the volunteers around that, we are not allowed to walk around the square since there were few demonstrations took place at the same time. Peoples marched, queued and hold flags demonstrating what they were fighting for. It's normal in Seoul and they were free to demonstrate whenever they felt unsatisfied, threats or disagreements to any surrounding issues or situations. It was prohibited to snap demonstration photo but i managed to snap some. And the hot issue being demonstrated was about exploiting women in social media and filming industry. Since i am not Korean Drama fan, so no further comment. The demonstration was safe however and not causing any riots and injuries. 

The posters 

This is how the demonstration happened and took place

Not to interfere anything, we just walked passing by the Square, crossed the road to Gyeongbukgong Palace. 

Next to the Palace is National Palace Museum. While waiting for the change guard ceremony to be held at 2pm, we went in to the museum. 

National Palace Museum

This museum displayed old manuscripts,  imperial artifacts, and information about Joseon Royal and Korean Imperial Court. I personally respect and like how they preserve the culture of their late Imperial even the Dynasty lasts hundreds years ago. This is how the generations after would learn and know about the histories. From what i observed, every ceremonies, rulings and lifestyles has been properly described and written in the graphical manuscripts so that, we know actually how they were done and looks like during the reign. 

After an hour in the museum, we went out for the ceremony that took place at palace's compound (just next door). Crowds of people already gathered waiting for the change guard ceremony to start of. 

After the ceremony lasts half hour later, we tour the Palace, which was the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty. It was built in 1395, and was the largest of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongbokgung served as the home of Kings of the Joseon Dynasty, the Kings' households, as well as the government of Joseon.

The entrance fee is 3,000 KWon, but if you rent Hanbok (for 10,000 KWon), than you may enter for free 😁.

The Palace 

The Change Guard Ceremony

Among the buildings of the Palace

Next, we went to Bukchon Hanok Village which located around 30 minutes walk from Anguk Station. Hanok means traditional houses which were dated back to the Joseon Dynasty. The admission is free, but bear in mind, since this is local residential area, you are not allowed to make noises here. Please pay respects of their privacy life. You can walk around and snap pictures here, no harm as long as you keep your mouth shut up 😏.

And after walking thousands of steps today' my leg asked me to rest. We went for the sotong pedas dinner at Dongdaemun before went back to hostel to rest. 

Final Day

Today is my final day in Seoul. After packed my stuffs, we checked out from the guest house heading to Seoul Station. I  have stored my luggage here since my flight back to KL was at 11pm, so we still have plenty time to hang around the city. 

I took the smallest locker since my luggage was only 20'. It's cost 2,000KWon per day. Cheap i think.

We moved our steps to Dongdaemun Design Plaza. This modern and unique building was designed by the world renowned architect, Zaha Hadid. The building was the world’s largest atypical architecture and comprised of five halls: Art Hall, Museum, Design Lab, Design Market, and Dongdaemun History and Culture Park. As we walked around, i can see few pianos also here, but in not so good condition (still can be played). 

Outside the building ~ Hello Strange Sculpture, the winner of Sculpture Contest

The design ~ the most popular spot for photos

LED roses garden. This is permanent exhibition. The roses will lights up automatically once the sun sets. Located next to Yigansumun Exhibition Hall 

We, after that, heading to Ewha Woman University. To reach here, you may take subway to Ewha University Station.

Nearby the University was Alchon Restaurant. Me and Tim stopped by here to have our lunch before the university.

We ordered the same meals, Alchon as it is labelled as Halal on their ordering machine. So, without any doubtful, we orderred and paid. After finished eating, as usual, i have uploaded the meals picture to my IG Story. But after hours, few of my followers DM me, and told me that the sauce used for the meals is non-halal. Contains pork. Oh My, its already in my stomach and its impossible to spit it back. So, i just accepted as it is but reminded other people not to go there unless you want to ask personally the restaurant owner. We didn't ask since we are far away from the restaurant when we got the non-halal alerts.

Looks Yummy hahaha

Alchon, the controversy restaurants. The Halal labelled has been placed at the door and order machine. So confusing if you are the first timer here. 

Life goes on. We headed to Ewha University after the meals. It is a private woman university in Seoul which was founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. We only visited the Campus Complex which consisted library, cafeteria, mini banks, students registration counter, lecturer's room, seminar room etc. We spent around 1 hour here for photos. 

Ewha Woman University 

If you visited the university, you can stopped by at Subway Sinchon Station. There are small bulding of Sinchon Tourist Information Centre located in front of the station,whereby you can perform your prayer here. A small room with sajadah has been provided but you need to have your ablution at the washroom at the station (upstairs). 

You can perform your prayer here

One thing about Seoul, if you lost or need directions within the city, there are Police Tourist which will patrol around the city especially in tourist attractions area. You can see the tag on their cloth which language they speaks (English, Korean, etc). 

Korean Police Tourist 

As I am not really a city person, so I felt a bit bored to hang around the city. Final destination before we ended up lepak at Starbucks for hours before went to Airport is...Korean Tourism Office at Myeondong. I have been brought here just for the purpose of wearing the Hanbok. I used to wear it but the picture took last time not very nice. A few selections of designs and colours you may choose from. Located at 5th Floor. After snapping some photos, we went to Myeondong Starbucks for drinks.

At 7pm, we left to Airport via Express, ready to check in and get boarding to fly back to KL...

Me in Hanbok

Not forget here, if you wish to go to Seoul & Jeju, you may contact my friend, Breathandbeing (IG) or +60196442402 (Tim) 

Seoul Part 3

Day 3

Another long journey today!

Rode a bus from Myeongdong Subway Station for 3 hours heading to the Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. Another choice is to ride KTR from Seoul to Jinbu Station for 1.5hrs.

The bus dropped us in front of Tower Plaza around 11.30am. We need to meet up with Klook representative at 1pm to collect our Gondola tickets, hence still plenty of time for us to hanging around the place.

We walked around the plaza. Yes, i can see the frozen river nearby. The snow is everywhere on the road side. It is cool and breezy day.

The frozen river. I felt like jumping into the river

After walked around and snapped some photos, we went inside Tower Plaza for lunch. There are Turkish Restaurants (Efes Restaurant) inside the plaza selling Turkish foods. The price and tastes not so bad. At least you can have something for the day.

You can see this signboard from outside of the building

This is what i had. Forgot the name but it was something to do with lamb 😅

There are variety of shops in the plaza ranging from groceries, sportswear and restaurants. They have indoor games also at the basement level. The crowd was not that huge here.

Row of shops and restaurants 

Halal restaurant ~ Efes Kebab

Indoor games at the basement level

After having our meals, we went outside the plaza to wait for Klook representative. We got our tickets after 10 minutes of waiting.

The river outside the plaza

Then, we proceeded to the ski resorts, Yongpyong Ski Resort at the next door for photos. This time, no skiing haha...I still suffered back pain after fell down during skiing yesterday.

I just walked around the resorts watching people skiing

The skii rate for Yongpyong. A bit expensive

And the slope. Wider and steeper than yesterday 🤣🤣

Skii rental

Mountain Bike Trail also here

This resort is the largest ski and snowboard resort in Korea. It is also became the venue for Alpine Skiing Event at 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. But, comparing the ski rate to Elysian, this resort is a bit expensive! However, it is still your choice where you want to skiing. This resort completes with major facilities such as Restaurants, Ball Rooms, Meeting Rooms and Leisure Sports Facilities.

Can you see the slope? Too steep enough as compared to Elysian (so that's why it became an Olympic event!)

In summer, this resort became a route for mountain bike activities. As you can see in the picture above. There are a quite number of biking trails with a distance ranging from 64m to 980m. I am not a biker hence correct me if I am wrong hehe.

Not many Malaysian came here, maybe its a bit pricy and of course its distance of 195km from Seoul will influence the visitors to come here.

We not taking to much time at the resort, we proceeded to the Gondola Station for Gondola ride to peak of Mount Balwangsan.

Gondola tickets counter

The ride

Me in Gondola 😁

The Gondola price is 18,000Kwon returned. The 3.2km Gondola ride took about 20minits to reach the peak (which also known as Dragon peak).

Resorts view from Gondola

Mount Balwangsan with a height of 1458m located just next to the resort and became one of the shooting location for the drama 'Winter Sonata' in year 2002 (I was only 20 this time. So young!).

You can see this poster once you reach the peak

This mountain also is the 12th highest mountain in South Korea. It is also a place where the history of Korean winter sports started whereby the first modern ski resort in Korea, Yongpyong was built in year 1975.
Once reached the top, the weather damn cold and we just walk around the snowy mountain. We attempted to hike into the summit but due no sticks and non suitable shoes, we just hike halfway, just 50m before reaching the summit. Sigh! The view? Just look at the picture. Nothing much to explain!

I love this! 

The stunning view from Dragons Peak

Just 50m from the summit

And the view, again. Breathtaking 

After spending around 2 hours on the top, we went down the mountain. Its getting dark and we need to go back to Seoul by bus at 5.30pm. We perform our prayer in the fitting room inside the plaza.

The fitting room next to the toilet

Again, 3 hours on the bus, reached Seoul around 9pm. We had our dinner at Honam Restaurant, Nandaemun. Nice dinner of course.

Braised Mackarel with aged Kimchi

After the dinner, we went back to the guest house to rest.

Tomorrow is another journey but will be less hectic than these two days.


To be continued....final part

Seoul Part 2

Day 2

Early morning, 7am at the temperature of -4 degree, we walked to the Myeondong Subway Station, just 15 minutes from the Guest House to wait for tour bus that we have booked via Klook to Elysian Ski Resort. Why Elysian? The fees for skiing is among the cheapest here and we were not expecting more other than playing ski (as we were both the first timer).

The rates

The journey to the resort took about 1 hour bus ride. The location is just nearby Nami Island. The bus reached late from the scheduled time which was 8.30am. A lot of busses stopped by at the road side waiting for passengers, heading to different locations, hence we need to search around which one was our bus 😅. After 10 minutes searching, we managed to get into our bus.

We, first stopped by at Equipment & Ski Suits Rental Shop which is located just nearby the resort. Anything about skiing can be found here - suits, helmets, gloves, googles, socks and many many more. Since I already had my own gloves and socks, I only decided to choose the suits and google only (Both of this were already included in our package so I no need to pay extra!).

Choices of suits 

There are variety of sizes and colours, so no worries. you can choose your preference and desires. I choose red, which is my forever favourite colour. We change our cloth in the fitting room and ready for skiing!

Wearing the suits and ready to go! 

We got into the bus and being brought to the resort nearby. After obtained our tickets, we went to the ski boots and pole rental counters for foot and height measurementiin orfer to ensure I got the right sizes of boots and poles. Me & Tim changed our shoes to the boots. Mmm..so heavy and I walked like a robot. I felt like lazy to walk with this heavy shoes and how to ski with this burden on my leg?? Sigh..

Being the first timer, we need to join the ski lessons. They taught us few things:

1) How to read the slope map. Normally for beginner, the colour of the slope is green (it might be differs between countries)

Elysian Slope

2) How to wear the ski boots. You will walk like a robot when you wear this

3) How to carry your ski and poles

4) How to start skiing and brakes the ski using your knee.

After half an hour joining the lessons, we started skiing. Most of our team went to the beginner slope, which was slightly higher by riding the chairlift. To go there, you need to pay extra 50k Kwon for the chairlift fare. As a beginner, i didnt want to spent more for the chairlift. Just enough to practise myself at the lower level slope as shown in the picture below.

In front of me was the entrance to the beginner and intermediate level. Both need to ride chairlift. 

So, i fell down for the first time as i cannot control my leg hahah.. And i cannot wake up since the boots were too heavy. And i also cannot pull off the boots from the ski. So many drama here 😁😁😁. Finally, Tim helped me to pull off the boots and pull ny hands to get me up.

So, i fell down 🤣🤣🤣

I cannot wake up myself

After 2 times fell down, we had our lunch, Bimbimbap. So yummy when you having your meals i front of white snowy field. 

Bimbimbap 

After the lunch, we went up to the higher slope, just a bit higher 🤣🤣 using the walkaway. 

The walkway. Self carrying the ski and poles

A bit crowded up here, we tried to skiing here, end up fell down again 🤣🤣 (sakit dowh!) 

Nice view at my back! 

Around 4pm, we stopped skiing and went to the changing room for prayer, return our boots, ski and poles and waiting for the others to come down. Very tired since i pushed hard my knees and legs to get the ski to move, not forget the pain suffered every time i fell down huhu.. 

So, i concluded that skiing is an extreme sports.. 😁😁

Around 5pm, we get into the bus, stopped by at the rental outlets to return the suits and google and heading back to Seoul. 

More than hour journey due to bad traffics, we reached seoul around 8.30pm. Felt lost energy already 😭. 

We had Mc D as our dinner and walk around Myeondong street before we went back to guest house to rest. Tomorrow is another long journey.. Gegegegege

Me, in front of the rental outlets

To be continued... 

Seoul Part 1

Seoul 15/12/18 - 19/12/18

My second trip to Seoul went well in last December 18, from 15 to 19. My only aim was to skiing. Since my good friend, Tim was in Seoul cum a tour guide there, so i have decided to join her private trip. At the same time, i deemed supported my friend's business as well right?

Day 1

Arrived at KLIA around 10.30am, the crowded is not huge, hence, within 10mins i managed to check in and dropped my luggage at the counter (this time i became a trollypacker) . Since i still have plenty of time before boarding, i have decided to utilise my Golden Lounge voucher given by CIMB Enrich Credit Card. At least, i can had a rest, ate some meals and perform Jamak Prayer there. I never use these facilities before nor entered into the Golden Lounge 😅. There are 3 Golden Lounges at KLIA namely Domestic Lounge, Regional Lounge and Golden Lounge Satellite. So, i went the third one since it is the nearest to the boarding gate.

Located at Satellite Building, near the Surau

The luxurious interior. Yeah, i felt like a rich people 😝

The deserts

So, i took only this few among the choices 😁

Muslimah Prayer Room

I spent around 1.5hrs here before proceeding to the gate for boarding. 

After 6hrs flight, i reached Incheon International Airport. Tim was already there waiting for me. We not met each other since last Hari Raya. 

Tim brought me to the guest house, riding subway from Incheon Airport to Chungmuro Station. To ride Subway, you need to have T Money. You can purchase it at Subway Station and top up at vending machine which is also available at the station. 

T Money Card

It was really cold weather and the temperature outside is about 0° at that time. The guest house located about 10 mins walking from Chungmuro Station. 

Arrived at the guest house, i took a bath and had a rest. The next day will be a long journey to us 😁. 

The Subway Station

Chungmuro Station 

To be continued... 

Live the truth

Going through these hectic days, i really need a vitamin-sea. The datelines, workloads and the tiredness. Even its recurring but yet frequent changes in reporting requirement enough to make accountants getting crazy all the time, something like that.. 

By the way, the picture above reminded me of my solo travel to Sydney in 2017. I miss to travel solo again, thats much more suits me, i believe. 

Its not even in the list to go to Sydney but my misfortune to fall sick in that year lead me there. What happened? Me and my good friend supposedly to go to New Zealand in Sept 2017, ended up I fall sick (for few months) and need to cancel my flight and Air Asia had converted the tickets  value into the Store Credits. Rather than letting the store credit points burned, i bought another tickets two months later (when i am halfly recovered) to go to Sydney. Why alone? Too last minute ticket and trip. Nobody afford to cover such expensive expenses. Why Sydney? With my condition, thats the safest place and public transport friendly. 

I know i took a lot of risks by going there alone with unwell conditions but its just a matter of self couragement. When people knocked you down, not necessarily you let yourselves always on the ground. Wake up, rise up, walk and run! We need to always believe ourselves no matter what and always remember The Almighty will always be besides you as long as you remember Him.

The journey in Sydney is not so easy since I cannot move so fast and I cannot eat everything (even its halal). I brought my own pot to cook there (yeah) and I always need to take care of my timing to catch the transport since i cannot move so fast. 

What i am trying to say, we cannot expect things going through in our life as expected.  We can dream but dont give too much hope. Everything can happened, everything can changed. The best is to always expect the unexpected.

At the first place, I dreamed that me and friend will have our joy in New Zealand since it was my long due dream vacations. Ended up, the other way around happened and plans changed. Don't ever give up, however. As long as you can breath, there is always a chance, and opportunity. The question is whether you want to take it or leave it? You want to fight it or surrender it?

Know your abilities. Do something at your pace. No need to compare with anybody. I know that i am sick so i didnt push myself to follow exactly my itinerary. Just free up myself and go! Sometimes, we pressuring ourselves just because we want to be at the same pace with other people. Maybe someone that we admire?? Please, dont.

The six days trip to Sydney ended up with beautiful trips, I'd met with kind and nice people which made me forgot that i am actually sick.

Don't limit your rights, the rights to be happy and the rights to life your live to the fullest. Don't ever restrict yourselves with thousand of reasons. I make my choice and the choice makes me today.

Life the truth.

* i will share full story of Sydney trip a bit later.

Zaira