Annyeong Korea
- Clarissa Teng
- Dec 29, 2018
- 9 min read
It felt good to be able to travel again.
I've always wanted to grant my own wish of travelling to at least a country every year.
Being able to travel with my own ability by not using my parents' single cent has gotta be one of the best feeling I've ever had.
It always felt like an achievement to me whenever I'm able to get what I want without asking from my parents at the age of 19.
(It's my last year of being in the tenth by the way.)
So, I've just recently or maybe not very recently came back from Korea.
It was overall an awesome trips with a little ad-hoc.
Anyway, after a 2 years hustle on my studies, I made another trip as a reward for the hard work I've done for myself over the past 2 years.
This trip was rather different from my previous trip as we were really tight up by our work, we didn't have time to plan for our itinerary.
We only had a rough itinerary for the whole trip.
On the day before we left for Korea, we were busily planning out everything last minute.
The crazy thing before we even departed was when we were rushing to the bus station to head off to KLIA 2, we thought we missed our bus. Thank God after referring to the PIC, the bus was delayed.
What a nice start there lol.
Checking-in luggage and the other procedures were all smooth till we waited for our flight.
We were having our own sweet time chatting until they announced the last call for our flight when it was like 20 mins before it departed.
So, we were the last one to on-board the plane ha-ha!
After a 7 hours flight, we arrived safely in Korea at 8am (KST).
(I was really excited heh.)
The cold breeze we felt the moment we alight the plane got us feeling like breathing a brand new air.
After a long flight, we were starving.
So we had our first meal in Korea.
It was until we managed to settle down at Busan from Incheon Airport through Seoul Station by train,
you know it if I mention "Train to Busan" heh.
The moment we got to our hotel, Gwanganlli Hotel 1 near Gwanganlli beach, the view was insane.
It was so pleasurable I don't mind staying there for as long as I could.
We hanged around at the beach before heading off to Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) though we were left with the second half of the day after half a day moving from Seoul to Busan.
Walking around having good food to satisfy our stomachs,
we didn't even complain about that rainy night when this trip was what we've waited for so long.
To be honest, there's way more photos that I could show here.
And if I could share you my whole album, I would.
(Update: I was suppose to upload a vlog but my external hard disk decided to crash *sad face)
Going back to the hotel, it was a great stay at the hotel with cold sea breeze at night and it was so calming.
Waking up to a sea view, was what I've always wished for.
I'm not even done repeating myself,
I was really obsessed with the view & I can't forget how they gave me inner peace that morning.
Checked-out from the stay I loved most, we then marched our way to the widely known Busan Culture Village,
the place where houses are colorful & look like stacked up Legos.
It took all our breakfast energy walking up the steep hill slope.
As usual, walking around houses, stores and back lanes just to find the best spot to have the best view of all the houses.
Walking up the hill step by step with the scenery ahead of us,
we forgot the time until the moment our stomachs started to growl.
It's a sign of "LUNCH TIME".
Got ourselves hot-dog bun before heading back to Seoul.
Here is when the ad-hoc I mentioned happened.
It was because of our poor arrangement, we didn't manage to get the train ticket on the time that we wanted.
We didn't expect tickets to be sold out so crazily fast.
We ended up getting the later one.
This was nothing much until we arrived at Dong-Daegu,
we managed to get the free-standing tickets, and went to the platform to wait for our train.
We saw signage stating "To Busan" and were wondering why do we need to go to Busan when we just came from there.
We asked the locals there, and they nodded saying its the correct one.
You know that one thing on how to know if you've missed your trip,
is that Korea's transportation system is really something to brag about.
We waited over the actual ETA and realized something was wrong until we approached one of the captain who asked us to check it at the Information Counter.
Yes, you could already guess the answer by now.
We missed our train!
Luckily there's such thing as changing route ticket in Korea, or else our tickets are fully wasted.
Managed to get the earliest one we could, but had to wait so we were stuck at the Daegu Station for nearly 3 hours.
(Of course we made full use of the time there as well)
4 hours of standing wasn't a joke till we arrived in Seoul at around 11pm.
By the time we settled down at our stay, we wasted half a day!
Our schedules got pushed back after taking up half a day to reach Seoul the day before.
We went for the typical tourist spots on Day-3.
Firstly, trying out Hanbok for the first time.
It was a great experience roaming around the area with a few Seoul's Royal Palaces with Hanbok.
It is one of the prettiest traditional costume I've ever tried.
We went around one of the most prestigious palace in Korea,
Gyeongbokgung Palace to take pictures with our Hanbok, sadly it was closed when we went.
We could only take pictures around the palace but not inside.
Lucky us, a few really kind couples who were taking pictures around us offered to help taking pictures for us,
or else it will all be solo pictures ha-ha!
Went off for lunch after the 2 hours of Hanbok renting time, at a famous restaurant called Tosokchon Samgyetang.
Then it was a transport free journey from the restaurant to the next location we headed to.
We strolled along Samcheong-dong street, where they call it the rich people area,
alongside with Cheongdam-dong & Insa-dong.
Architectures there are just simply beautiful & unique,
its really peaceful even though there are huge crowds on weekdays.
Its filled with nice aesthetic cafes, designer boutiques and accessories stores along both sides of the streets.
Slowly walking along the walkway up the slope under trees & entering stores are things that you can't really do in Malaysia.
Going all the way in we reached at the housing areas, seeing all the big houses and cars everywhere.
Everything was perfect.
Sunny day, cooling wind, just walking into whichever stores you want to.
Its just relaxing.
That night, We then went to the express Bus Terminal Station Underground Shopping to shopppppp!
Most things there are really dirt cheap and you can't really help yourself but to KEEP BUYING!
We later strolled along Myeong-dong street, the cosmetic heaven.
Didn't plan to get anything since we'll be back on the last night in Seoul.
But we couldn't keep our eyes off those promotions, discounts and colorful cosmetics.
Lotte World, was one of the best memories we had in Korea.
It's the 4th theme park I've been to after my last one & I had one of the best experience right here!
A mixture of all sorts of fantasy elements in there & its pretty dreamy-like.
It isn't really a very big place for you to roam around but it surely takes up a whole day to finish most of the adult rides.
We had loads of fun going through the extreme rides, the ones that make you lost your soul after one drop.
Gyro Drop, Gyro Bungee Drop, Gyro Swing, Gyro Spin etc. were extremely fun.
You know how it feels when you experience free fall and after that all your stress are just gone when your mind went blank during that fall?
That was exactly how I felt at that moment & its the best feeling I've ever had!
Its an Instagram worthy place at every single corners so of course we didn't miss out the chance of updating our Instagram with beautiful picture.
Goal checked: Having fun at a theme park with my bestie!
(Lost my camera pouch there with a cable inside here cause we were so into the fun we had at that time ha-ha!)
D-5, back to the nature is when we headed off to Nami sum, Nami Island.
The place that gives you different emotions & energy every time you go.
Its a pretty place you wish to stay forever.
Its an island for you to walk around and relax your mind.
Took a short boat ride to the island.
Trees are just colorful as it is, lined up neatly along every rows.
Wanted to try out their cycling but we were out of time.
I wish to come back during a different season.
Left the island before we miss out the last trip back to Seoul.
Coming back, we went to Hongdae area which we missed out on the wasted 2nd day.
We wanted to visit the prestigious girls university of Korea, Ehwa Women University.
The buildings there are either really modernize or very classic, there's no in between.
Took some typical tourist picture before walking down to the shopping streets at Hongdae.
Hongdae shopping streets are one of the most compact streets after Myeong-dong street.
It is told to be larger than Myeong-dong street and has more varieties.
Look around to see if we could get anything we were tryna get.
We also went to the LINE Friends store to meet the iconic bear!
Got a few stuff here and there till we were almost lost cause there's so many sections!
Quickly we went off to one of the Korean BBQ on rock restaurant around the area to meet up with one of my Korean ex-colleague, Ara.
There's so many cool experiences in Korea but nothing beats this experience that gives me goosebumps every time I think of it.
(Ara treated us this expensive meal in Korea omg)
SIDE NOTE: THIS IS SO FREAKING GOODDDDDDDD~
Ara was my Korean colleague when I used to work for my previous company with Mediheal.
It was actually my first time seeing her in person.
We had a few chit-chats regarding work then slowly we got into more personal topics.
Something really interesting happened when we were at the BBQ store.
There was a mother and son sitting at the table beside us.
Ara was staring at them weirdly until I asked what was the matter.
She felt like the mother and son was a lil lost on how to order the food to how to actually wrap the meat.
She initiated to help but they couldn't understand Ara.
Luckily my friend understands Cantonese and later found out they were Hong Kongese.
We started talking to each other and even exchanged extra food heh.
After the meal, Ara suggested to go to a flowery cafe nearby and we were more than happy because cafe hopping was part of the plan.
She even asked us to asked if the mom and son want to join and they were cool with the idea.
(Then Kenny treated us this *tears of joy)
So we went to Florte Flower Cafe at Hongdae area too.
We had so much fun with the drinks cause the art was so pretty.
I've never thought I would meet up with people coming from different countries but I really love impromptu it was.
We really had so much fun knowing each other.
On the 2nd last day in Seoul, we were all over Gangnam then to Myeong-dong.
That Friday was really casual, we just wanna walk around and relax on the last day before we came back the next day.
At Gangnam district, most Korea cooperate companies & all the luxuries brands are located there.
So we decided to visit SMTOWN Coex Atrium.
It's a place for all K-pop fans to visit especially if your bias is from SM Entertainment.
In there, there's museum, café, theater & merchandise store for you to visit.
I've always wanted to get SHINee's SW V DVD and Taemin's MOVE-ing album at that time.
Though I could get it cheaper outside, the price was about the same at SMTOWN too!
Got it all together with late JongHyun's Poet Artist for my brother, I was done with my album searching!
(It's actually half of the price sold in Malaysia, therefore getting it in Korea is way much cheaper!)
Skipped the museum part cause we were short of time and we had to pay for the entrance fee,
but went to the café and got a SHINee mousse, just for fun ha-ha!
(I lost all most of my pictures that was in the hard disk therefore I couldn't show what's in SMTOWN :'( )
BUT I MANAGED TO GET A PICTURE WITH "TAEMIN" HAHAHA
We hangout for a short while at the café where many variety shows took place,
then left to MCD for lunch.
Pretty interesting, trying out Shrimp & Beef burger
(Why do we not have it in Malaysia ishh)
We visited Stylenanda cause it was instagramable heh!
Isn't it pretty?! OMG I can't handle this place...
Lots of interesting stuff happened throughout the 7 days.
And to summarize, it was a great one.
That's why this blog is probably by far the longest blog I've had.
Loads of great food, great views, great people.
Korea is really a very comfortable country to travel in, and I'm definitely coming back again to visit places I've yet to go.
I'm sorry it took me so long to get this post done.
I was suppose to get it done together with my vlog but my hard disk decided to crash after editing the vlog :(
(If you have any idea how to fix it or who/where to send for repair please do tell me!)
I was suppose to have more pictures for this as well and this blog was not suppose to be so wordy with the vlog.
But anyways, I promised to get it done before 2018 ends so here it is!
Till next time,
Lots of love. x
- Cla -
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