Soul of Seoul

Seoul is the capital city of South Korea and since drama-drama Korea ni naik, semakin ramai pulak manusia yang pilih Korea as their vacation destination. Well, I’m one of them perhaps?

Ok synergy daripada my previous travelogue to Jeju, my sista and I headed to Seoul on our 3^rd day in South Korea. We departed from Jeju International Airport arriving at Gimpo Airport in Seoul. By Jeju Air of course. From the airport we took the metro or subway to our hotel. You can check the subway map in the internet or just download the apps if you’re smartphone users. There are plenty of them.

In Seoul we stayed at Noble Hotel, Insadong area. According to trip advisor, nearly all people recommend this hotel and I just grabbed it because they have good value for money after all. However,  the moment we set our feet in, my heart sank. LOL. The room was very small, enough for a queen bed and a dressing table, of course the toilet. Nak tau betapa sempitnya, we had to give way to each other every time we walked in the space between the bed and the table. Never mind that, just don’t stress out. Maybe it’s just us that were not really fortunate to have this room because when we looked at the room next door, it was quite spacious. Other than that, everything seem just fine.

We stopped at Anguk Station because it’s the nearest to our hotel. Unfortunately I thought I led to a wrong exit because we ended up being in front of a hospital. Luckily masa tu ada sorang pakcik ni dengan baik hatinya tanya kitorang nak pegi mana and he led us all the way to Noble Hotel. You see? Koreans are very helpful although they couldn’t really speak English, they are willing to bring you there themselves and we always feel guilty sebab susahkan diorang. Tup tap rupa-rupanya the ahjushi just now was a professor at Seoul National University so of course he can speak English.

Upon our arrival at the hotel, we checked in, perform solah  and had a good nap before continuing our journey in the evening. Before that, dekat lobby hotel tu ada Seoul guidebook. Easy nak plan our journey in Seoul =) So,basically all our journey depends on the guide book + tanyalah local people bila dah tersesat tu.

Around 5pm kitorang keluar,  kononnya nak cari Shuttle Bus Office to buy bus tickets to Nami Island the next day. It will bring you straight to the ferry place where you fetch the ferry and it cost you 23,000W including boat return and admission ticket to Nami Island. You can choose either one way or return. The bus will depart at 9.30am from the bus stop nearby the office building ( you can just ask the officer there if you don’t know) to Nami Island and at 4.00pm from Nami Island to the bus stop.

 Malang tidak berbau, kitorg sesat kat mane entah, and we asked this one female, I think she didn’t know the place either yet she helped us jalan sana sini sampai jumpa the building. We were very thankful for her and her endless effort. Sudah nasib badan, sampai2 sana office tu pon dah tutup, and if we really want to take the bus we have to come early in the next morning, before the bus departed.

Feeling sad chewaah takdelah hopeless mane pon, kitorang pon wander around that area. It’s kind of a street yang jual barang2 pelbagai from food to beauty products to antique stuffs and on. I’m so sorry we really didn’t know the name of this awesome street because we ended here randomly and unintendedly. And kat tepi jalan tu ade banyak stall (they call it pojangmacha) jual street food, you know the one you see in Korean dramas.HAHA. Hence, it’s my first time nak rasa tteokbokki which is rice cake with spicy red sauce.

Me : Sseul innoyo? (since ahjumma dah tunjuk which one yang takde meat or ham)

Ahjumma: Opseo

Apa lagi, terus mintak ahjumma tu satu pinggan =)

Oh, I forgot to tell you, since we cannot eat meat or ham or alcohol here, my sista and I specially made these laminated important phrases that we brought everywhere we go. And they’re proven practically to be very useful. So, if the ahjumma couldn’t understand what you’re trying to say, just show these to her.

The sky was getting dark and so we decided to have a stroll along the Cheonggyeocheon stream. It’s beautiful during the night with LED lights. A perfect ending for the day before we got back to our hotel.

4^th September

Nami Island is one of the top attraction in South Korea since the drama Winter Sonata hit the jackpot. Tengoklah mana-mana itinerary by travel agents, Nami Island is a must! And there is where we’re going todayyyy!!

I guess we really couldn’t catch up the shuttle bus to Nami Island because it departed at 9.30am and we hadn’t even  get ready yet by the time. Anyway be happy kiddo! We went for second option which is by subway but tell you what, it took us such a loooonggg time in the train before we reached the wharf. The journey most probably took nearly 2 hours.

How to get to the wharf? Easy peasy. Just take the subway line going to Gapyeong station. When you walk out the station there are taxis lining to bring you to the wharf. The taxi cost us 4000W that time.

At the wharf, you’ll need to buy admission ticket of 8000W and also if you get there by shuttle bus (one way) you can buy your return ticket at the counter.

Therefore, we boarded our Naminara ferry to Nami Island. Here we goo!! It just took less than 10 mins though.

Arriving in Nami Island, we started off jalan sikit2 and around the island. To make life easier, we rent a couple bike, 10000W for 1 hour. People say this island is most beautiful during autumn and we just missed that.

We’re trying to find the statue of Bae Yong Joon and Choi Ji Woo of Winter Sonata sampai tersesat-sesat. Unfortunately, we’re actually in rush sebab it’s almost one hour since we rent the bike. And at lasttt!

By the way, Naminara Republic has their own established money. So, I changed 10,000W at the post office kot nama die, tak ingat. And I got as below! Duit ni boleh digunakan everywhere in this island, buy souvenirs, rent a bike or even to pay for your lunch!

Oh oh oh! What’s great about Nami Island is they provide prayer room for us Muslims. Don’t worry, it’s even showed in the map and if you have difficulty in finding the place just ask anyone there. It’s actually a room in the second floor of the library. The first floor is a restaurant or more to a cafe. They do have a place for wudhu’ in the room but the room itself is not separated for Muslimin and muslimat. It’s at least better than none aitt? So, you might want to have your wudhu’ in the toilet downstairs. Be careful not to splash the water all over the floor.

When we walked out of the restaurant from the main door,  there’re other restaurants to choose from for your superb dinner.  At last we walked into a Japanese restaurant, just turn right when you walked out from the café. Diorang siap tulis dalam menu if the dish is muslim friendly. That’s a good approach I guess.

Then, around 5.30pm, we board Namninara ferry back to the wharf and taxi to Gapyeong Station and start lah journey yang sangat lama dalam train.

Dalam train tu, suddenly there’s an old man riding a wheelchair calling for us. My sista approached him and he gave her a black plastic bag containing I don’t know what. Confused, my sister asked if anyone in the train can translate what the old man said. BUT! No one could speak English I guess because no one replied.  And the old man siap bagi hp die suruh cakap dgn receiver over the phone. He said bla3. We didn’t even understand a thing! Dah geram sangat, I took the phone from my sister.

Me: Yoboseyo, yeong-eo halsu isseoyo?

Receiver: *&%?!!#*& bla3. (C’mon! I just need a YES or NO)

Me: (stressful) ihaeka andoeyo. Bianata.

Terus hang off. KAHKAHKAH.

Untuk dipendekkan cerita, at last we got to know that the old man gave us a peach or so because it’s the last one he had. Maybe he looked us in hijab and thought we’re different from others.

We got off at Euljiro (3)-ga. Why? Because Nanta Myeongdong Theatre is located there! And so what about it? We’re gonna watch Nanta theatre la of course! Nanta theatre is about cookin’ nanta, non-verbal musical theatre and it’s one of the must-do for tourists. So far as I concerned, it has been established since 1997 and has extended to Bangkok. And tell you what, they’re awesomeeee!! You’re totally gonna love it!  Worth every single penny!(hyperbola) =) We bought our tickets online because obviously you can get cheaper price. Instead of 40,000W, we got to enjoy the theatre for 32,000W only, it’s for A type seat anyway. Oh yes, recording videos  and taking photos are strictly prohibited so we just took picture with this!

Before balik tu, we strolled along Myeongdong Street kejap just for window shopping. Aherher. Because we couldn’t afford them. HAHA. This street, as you might heard of it before, is full of brand outlets such as ZARA, H&M, Uniqlo not to mention beauty products memang everywhere.  Lebih kurang macam Oxford Street at London.

End of exciting day 2 in Seoul, day 4 in South Korea. It’s already late and tiring, I just thought of maggi sedap all the way to the hotel =p

5^th September

Aaaaaa!!! Penat from yesterday! Memang bangun lambat lah jawabnya. That’s another BIG reason why travelling by own is easy. You choose what, where, why, when you wanna start your day =p hehe. So, our plan today is to visit the Changdeokgung palace, Buchok Hanok Village and Namsan Tower together with Teddybear Museum.

We had breakfast Brahim instant yang diterbangkan khas dari Malaysia, tanah air terchenta. Bersama-sama denggannya roti loaf bread yang dibeli di CU store di sebelah Noble hotel.aherher. Then, first off to Changdeokgung palace yang terletak very the opposite of the hotel. Walk out from the hotel, turn right to main road and cross the zebra. Terus terpampang palace depan mata. So, the fees are 5000W for entrance to the palace only plus 8000W for the secret garden. It’s an option, you can go either the palace or both palace and garden. Oh yes, the secret garden is permitted only with scheduled tour depending on your language preference. Luckily, by the time kitorang sampai, the tour is just about to start. So, we bought our ticket and rushed inside.

Well, actually, there’s nothing secret inside the garden. You are CHEATED! Haha! The female tour guide said so. She can speak English very well. The tour took about one hour ++. Therefore, here’s my recommendation. If you’re NOT INTERESTED IN HISTORY, you might as well want to drop off the secret garden. The garden is so big that you have to walk all through the journey. There’s a part yang kita kene mendaki bukit yang agak cerun lah juga. The tour guide kept on with all the history during Joseon era and she didn’t even use a microphone or something. So, I started to lose track of the story which made me less interested than before.

Then, jalan2 sampai end of tour, we already reached the inside of the palace. Since we had paid for it, we had a tour around the palace.

Waktu solat Zuhur pon dah masuk. Disebabkan hotel across the road je, we decided to perform solah in our room and had our lunch before making our move to Buchok Hanok Village. Ingatkan nak lunch Brahim or maggi lagi but luckily, we came across a restaurant juga di sebelah hotel (See how convenient this hotel is?). What drew our attention to the restaurant was the aquariums in front of it, ada banyak sotong beserta kaki-kaki mereka.HOHO. Lagi satu, nak masuk restoran ni kena buka kasut okay! Because we sit on the floor =) Before that, seperti biasa sebelum order, tunjukkan phrase magic kita.huhu. Kalau dah green light, baru jalan okay!

This time, we ate Bibimbap, macam fried rice together with the veges and benda2 lain die letak, not forgotten the side dishes. Mine was octopus bibimbap and my sis’kimchi bibimbap. Both cost around 8000W each kot, if I’m not mistaken.

Around 3pm, kitorang keluar to go to Buchok Hanok Village. And again, it’s a walking distance from the hotel. So, we walked and walked till we reach a tourist information booth. Went inside to get the maps and infos before continue jalan sampai the village.

Actually village ni tersangat besar and ada few museums inside, the entrance fees ranging from 1,000W – 6,000W. Other than that, village ni menunjukkan rumah tradisional korea (hanok) and one of the houses is the filming area of drama ‘Personal Preference’, the one called Sanggojae.

At 5.30pm, we got out from the village and pegi nearest bus stop, take bus no 2 to get to Anguk station. Sebenarnya boleh je jalan but we’re quite tired that time and it was time-saving.HEHE. So, from Anguk station, naik train and get off at Hyehwa station to fetch the cable car nak pergi top of NamsanTower.

Keluar je from Hyehwa station, we were quite lost actually sebab macam takde direct sign to the cable car. So, we asked this one female and she showed us the way walaupun dengan bahasa isyarat and us pula angguk bajet faham. Anyway, we did reach the lift going up half the mountain and take the cable car from there. It cost 8,000W return for each person.

When we reached the stop at the top, we still had to climb flights of wooden stairs leading to the ticket counter. Untuk combined ticket (Namsan Tower + Teddy bear Museum) the total fee is 14,000W. I think it’s cheaper if you buy the combined ticket instead of single ticket for each. Anyway ‘locks and keys’ punya tempat tu is just around the corner of the counter.

So, what did we have for dinner? Urm, we were quite full by then, so I just grabbed a banana and milk from CU store. Nak balik buat maggi pon dah tak larat, nak terus tido je ==’. Anyway, today was another great day! Alhamdulillah.

6^th September

The last day in Seoul has come finally T.T

Therefore, we specifically made this day a relaxing, leisure and shopping day! Perasan tak, up to this day, we hadn’t stopped for shopping ait? Sebab our aim here isn’t for shopping but for the mother nature. Chewahh. Please bear with it.huhu.

As usual, pagi-pagi nak keluar singgah CU store beli red bean bun sebab die murah dan sedap! First off to Trickeye Museum, stop at Hongik University Station. Very easy peasy nak cari referring to the guidebook. We got to enter Trick eye Museum and Ice Museum for 14,000W.

After that, we headed to Hello Kitty cafe, just at the alley next to the alley yang ada Trick eye Museum tu. For Hello Kitty fans, you must fall in love with the interior! Everything about Hello Kitty Luvluvluv! We ordered a waffle and a hot caramel mocha. They gave us something like a beeper so that when it beeped we had to go and get our order at the counter later on. Cool aitt?

 On the way down the alley, we met 2 females in red shirt. FYI, they are actually tourist information bergerak. So, bila berjalan anywhere kat tourist attractions and you meet them, don’t hesitate to ask them anything. That’s another good thing kat Korea ni. Nampak sangat they have good will yang ramai tourist akan datang Korea dengan bantuan K-pop nya.Luls. Since dah terjumpa mereka, we asked the direction to Coffee Prince Café, filming area of ‘Coffe Prince’ drama. The owner decided to maintain the interior as in the drama.

We drop by at the café and again, ordered white chocolate latte. Oh yes, on the way to the café, we stop by at a stall selling kimbap and I’d longed for a kimbap. At last!ada jugak kesempatan nak beli kimbap tuna and vege. Kimbap is like a sushi. Ada kimbap ball, ade kimbap roll.

To Itaewon off we went! Seoul grand mosque terletak dekat Itaewon ni haa. And this place ni memang selalu menjadi kunjungan Muslims because there’re lots of halal restaurant here. Mainly middle eastern cuisine lah, from Turkey, Pakistan, Syria and also India. So, shouldn’t be a problem for Muslims. But, halal restaurant serving Korean food seems like belum banyak lagi. The only one I know is Muree Restaurant. It’s an indian retsuarant but also serves some Korean food lately. This was where we had our lunch after performing our solah at the mosque.

Alhamdulillah perut kenyang, jiwa pon kenyang, hati gumbiraa huhu. We planned to go on a cruise at Hangang river but  we got lost HAHA. At last jumpa these 2 guys who can speak English, baru lah dapat direction yang betul. We missed the 7.00pm trip =(The next one is at 9.00pm. Rasa macam lambat sangat pulak. Ada banyak jenis trip actually and setiap tu ada masa tertentu. The one yang kitorang nak pergi is 11,000W and if I’m not mistaken, paling mahal pon 15,000W or more. Therefore, we again jalan-jalan kejap dekat Hangang river tu before made our move to Gangnam Shopping Arcade. By this time, we didn’t take many photos because both our camera batteries died.

It’s located at the underground of Express Bus Terminal station, by line 3,7 or 9. People who visit Korea keep brag about that this shopping arcade sells goods for a very cheap price, from bags, shoes, shirts, hardwares and some other things. Nevertheless, we were not quite interested in the things anyway because it’s not our aim, remember?HAHA. But indeed, there are some cheap things and you can still bargain more and more. I just bought some souvenirs there and beauty products sikit (biasalah gegirls =).

 After that, kitorg went to Myeongdong street balik sebab I thought I saw a shop where we can wear hanbok (Korean tradional costume) but disappointedly there wasn’t. My eyes make mistakes sometimes. Or my memory hehe.

Nampaknya malam sudah tua.aherher.

7^th September

We woke up at 5am in the morning, not want to miss the shuttle bus to the airport. It’s very convenient to be living at this hotel, the shuttle bus stop is just across the main road. You can see a bus stop there. Oh, there’s schedule also, you have to check it first so you wouldn’t miss the bus. The journey of 1 hour to Incheon International Airport cost us 10,000W each. I would recommend to use this bus instead of subway because you need to transfer stations unless you go for AREX that depart from Seoul station to Incheon Airport.

We arrived at the airport a little bit early. So we wandered around tengok duty free huhu. And had our breakfast. We brought along our instant mushroom soup and then asked for hot water at the food court. Save money! Oh! Remember I said we were disappointed that we didn’t get to try the hanbok? Alhamdulillah Allah listens! Ada cultural centre something like that at the airport but we had to ride on the train to our gate which I don’t remember. Tak pon, tanya sahaja information counter over there.

What a good thing! We got to try it for free! Perfect ending before coming back home huh? =)

Aaaaahhh!! Having chance to travel is always a good thing. Subhanallah. Alhamdulillah. Allahuakbar. He’s indeed the Greatest Creator of all. Home sweet home~

By the way, I spent less than RM3000 for the whole journey including 2 return tickets for Air asia and Jeju air. Therefore, I’m very satisfied with what I’d achieved sebab kalau ikut travel agent yang pergi Jeju, mostly akan cost you over RM4000. Plus I have lots of advantage travelling by my own, I can do and go whatever and wherever I want. This is super saver!! So, happy travelling everyone =)