A journey to South Korea pt. 1

So on my last week of semester break, i went to South Korea with my family, relatives and friends. Before departing on our flight, we prayed together that we may have a safe journey all the way to Korea. It's a 6 hours flight, and lunch was served early.

Vege biryani rice. i rate it 5/10. LOL.

We were really excited when we arrived there, i especially looked at the super tall and good looking guys there. HAHAHA, everyone is so fashionable there i just can't. We're still in the Incheon airport in the picture below.

The first thing my aunt did when we arrived at Korea was to buy every snacks written in hangul letters. And we've gotten a taste of each of them.

Selfie in the airport. 

Our first proper meal in Korea was in Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant. The lady in charge couldn't understand us at all, so basically we were communicating in complete body and sign language. We had a good meal, but it was really costly (airport food). 

We travelled to Jeju that same day at night, checked in at The Forest Hostel and Guesthouse.

The hostel do provide morning self-service breakfast, we had some good times toasting our breads and buttered them with margarines and strawberry jams. 

Love the concept of the hostel, practiced widely in Korea, where they divide their trash into recyclable items and non-recyclable items. 

My sister purchased 6 banana milk (which she had been going on about non-stop before coming to Korea) and i must tell you, these things may look small, but once you drink them, you get really full and could not eat anything else! They totally fill your tummy, you don't even need to eat anything if you drink these. That's why Korean girls love them i guess, they make you slim. HAHA

The forest hostel manager! William! Great and friendly guy, provided us with great hospitality and company. 

Just a Korea street view in front of the hostel we are staying in. 

In Jeju, we mostly travelled in this mini bus. The driver's a really friendly guy and he suggested us to go to many amazing places in Jeju. Drivers in Korea suit up, so our driver's wearing suit and tie even when he's sweating bullets, indeed professional. 

Striking a cool pose.
Okay, so these are known as the guardian of Jeju island. They are basically everywhere in Jeju. You can see them frequently like they wanted the guardian to be known to everyone who visited Jeju-do. It was said that when you touch the tummy you can be healthy, and if you touch the shoulders you'll be rich and so on so forth. Oh, i touched everything. *smirk

This is all in spirited garden in Jeju, also known as the world's most beautiful garden. Many bonsai plants and stone crafts.

It is such an honor to meet the man who created this garden! He's also the one that you will see in the brochures for spirited garden. 

Next, we went to the Glass Castle. Like the name suggest, everything's made of glass material. I was expecting something like see-through glass, mirrors and stuff? But not all of em'.

Well the bears are not made of glass. 

O' sulloc green tea farm and museum. 

In the O'sulloc green tea cafe, everything sold are made of green tea and/or green tea flavoured. We ordered green tea ice cream. 

And you bet! It tasted so good! 

Innisfree is just somewhere near to the green tea farm, many teenagers and ladies went in to buy their facial routines and innisfree products. 

Following that, we went to Seogwipo (龙头海岸）and this place is stunning! They have hills, grass, horses, flowers, beach, sea, stones, seafood goods and more!

Wearing the safety helmet before going down to the seashore. 

Selling fresh abalones by the sea. Eaten raw. 

Young people

The big group.

I can never get enough of this place.

My fiance of the day. 

Our driver brought us to a nearby restaurant somewhere beside the sea, and we dig in for our lunch. The food was TASTY and the seafood was just pure amazing. 

It's fresh and juicy. The owner suggest us to eat it raw. Plus, the price were set at reasonable amount. 

A short stop at waterfall. 

And we went to the mysterious road, a place famous to many. As we approached one part of the road, our driver turned off the minibus engine, and without stopping, the minibus kept going forward. Every car that passed by that part of the road turned off their engines and all the vehicles started rolling forward without fail.

We visited the local wet market.

A snack that resembles their guardian. 

My first Tteokbokki in Korea! The texture of the rice cake was just amazing, and the taste of it somewhat resembles ramen paste. 

That night, my brother bought a bottle of soju and rice wine, we grabbed it in the hostel and went to the dining place, William approached us and asked us if we know how to drink it the Korean way, of course we don't, so he helped us mix our drinks with sprite, soju and rice wine. We had a great laugh, great talk, and someone got drunk! HAHAHA. 

The next day, we went to Eco land theme park. Where we travel in the train provided, and stopping at designated stops.

That's one really beautiful windmill behind us. 

Everywhere you can see flowers lying around, it is just indescribable beauty of nature. 

And then when we arrived at mazeland, where it started pouring. We did some weather forecast check up previously, and that is the day where it'll rain non-stop. And so it started. Glad it didn't start pouring while we're in eco land.

My raincoat's completely torn! 

We went underground too! Jeju volcanic island and lava tube.
We went all the way to where the lava tube starts. It took us about an hour to and fro. It was no easy journey walking on the floor of the lava tube. My feet hurts so bad after that.

Next, we visited the place where Da Jang Geum was filmed. The people there are mostly old aged and they live a long and healthy live. Around 10 of them are more than 100 years old.

We get to visit the places and houses where they live last time.

And this is the thing they use to grind pony's bone. As female held a lower status last time, so the males get to eat the pony's flesh, while the female eat the pony's bone. So they found out that the bones are actually very nutritious and are good for the bones and growth. There's more, which i forgotten. 

And we'll end with the ever so famous Jipangi. 

To be continued in Part 2.
Kthxbai.

The things we said that we would do and the trips we said that we would take

This will just be a simple update of my life, seeing that i've been ignoring my blog once again. Do i not have any other way of starting a blog post, except for the "sorry i've not updated in a long time" opening remark? 

But yeah, sorry, i've not updated in a long time. *smirk* 

You see, wanting to write a blog post and really writing a blog post truly is a totally different story. I wanted to write something when i have the oomph to do it, not simply as a duty or for the fun of it. Enough of craps, let's just enter straight into it.

Like any other college students approaching their semester break, we planned ours too, 3 days of vacation at Klang/KL. Because they're just so near. Amongst us, there are 3 from Klang, 1 Malacca, 1 Teluk Intan, and 2 Sabahans.  

Girls from left, Christovery, Me, Marion, Irene, Stella, and May. The guy behind is May's brother, Jun. 

Marion had been going on about meeting Heartsey, because you know, typical dog owner think their dog is the cutest. I would spam Heartsey's photos and videos when opportunities are slammed in my face, I was actually quite happy to hear someone wanting to meet Heartsey, know her, play with her and snap a photo with her.

You see, Heartsey is an anxious dog, she tend to feel uncomfortable beside strangers. But it all changed when Marion turned up at my place that night. Heartsey did not bark at her like how she barked at ALL the friends and relatives who came to our house for visits, she was welcoming us. Great achievement in her 2 years of dog life. I was very impressed with her behaviour i kept spitting "HEARTSEY OMG YOU GOOD GIRL" in her poor cute face, caressing her over and over and over and over again, she must've thought "my master had gone cray cray".

The thing is, I kept warning Marion before she even came, i told her "She would definitely bark at you, you would go deaf, she would run away, keep her distance from you, damn anxious dog this one." And Marion was all like "I'm anxious and excited at the same time."

I had so many scenarios running in my head, but never did this one fit in any of the scenarios that i planned. Looks like my worries are of no use. Look at them! Being so bonded like nobody's business.

Once everything's settled, we went on to May's house, the place where we'd be having our naps for 3 days. Her house is only few minutes away from mine. Everyone was in their sleeping attire ready for a good night rest. But do you really think it's that simple? What is sleepover without a little bit of sleepfies?

I have more, but this blog post can't go on too long. Sorry.

The next day, May's father treated us a jolly good breakfast, Dim Sum. A table full of goodness and the taste of heaven. But oh dear, such a heavy breakfast. My brother was there with me, and he turned to me and said "I just woke up and had to finish all of this." I laughed at him. 

The breakfast was a really good one. Everyone left with a satisfied stomach.

We went on with our schedule, it is said that Time Square is great for shopping and therefore, we took the public transport there. It is our first time taking public transport to Time Square. 

Just us, being Asians. 

It took us an hour and more to reach time square as we kept getting down during interchange stations. Finally, when we arrived there, everyone was sweating bullets, and our legs, MY LEG, bearing the weight of my body, it's so sore. 

THAT, my friends, is just the beginning. We had to proceed to walk a whole day at Time Square, my poor legs. 

Before that, we stopped by to buy some beverages, none of us carry any liquids with us, liquid weights are just too much for long journeys. We're like vampires thirsting for liquids to soothe our burning dry throat. HELP! I am losing water. I'm dying. But yeah, we drank 许留山's drinks, although they don't really satisfy your thirst effectively like how mineral waters do. 

I stumbled upon 2 boutiques which have my name on it. Anna and Anna's. HAHA. Well of course i took shots with them. 

Proud Anna-rians.

I claim myself to be a loyal customer of Auntie Anne's, their pretzels are just the best. You know why? Because i haven't had any others, YET. Let me know when you've tried better pretzel than this. I would love to try them out. 

We settled at Kim Gary for dinner. Everyone bought stuff that day. Clothings, souvenirs, bags, and more. 

The next day, everyone was so tired, because we hadn't had any good nights' rest. We arrived at my place around 10am where my mom had already cooked Bah Kut Teh for the friends. Everyone ate to their hearts' content, and the next stop that we take : Setia City Mall.

I entered 'Urbanfresh marketplace' upon May's request, i thought neh.. just another marketplace with different name. BUT I WAS WRONG IN ALL LEVELS OF WRONGNESS. This marketplace IS AWESOME. I found the hottest spiciest noodle from Korea, and dry shampoo from England. All these are only available for online purchasing, and i've been looking everywhere and they were no where to be found but HERE. Okay, i am being a little bit too overreacting. But hey, they really have everything. Organic stuff, korea stuff, Japan stuff, imported goods, and more. 

Another best thing about this place? I met my friends. They are my ex-prefect mates. One senior on the left, Weini, and one junior on the right, WeiZhen. We did some catching up, and i continued on my way. 

We watched a movie called "Paul Blart : Mall cop 2" at the cinema and then it's shopping again.

I, am a person who doesn't take risks. But my friends have different opinions. Suddenly, we all became risks takers. 

What risks you ask? Snapping photos in shops when the sign clearly stated : NO PHOTOGRAPHS.

This shot was taken seconds before a worker approached us in the speed of light "Miss no photos ya. Thank you" and went on his way. Did he just walked away because he was embarrassed that he just talked to 3 narcissist ladies or he had some important business to attend to? I don't know. Though i wanted to believe that he was embarrassed having to said that to us. And that we were embarrassed too, we took off the sunglasses, pretended to look at other clothings and apparels, then the next thing we know, we were walking out the shop with swagness on our faces as the security guard and some other workers of the shop watched on. 

Did we learn from our lesson? No. Did we got caught again? No. The following shops, we were watching the promoters with hawk-like eyes. When they approached us, we pretended to be looking at things, when they look away, i took out my phone and held it real low, we made our faces and snap snap snap snap snap snap snap off it goes in burst mode. 

I guess you can only do these things when you're with your friends, they serve as great memories when you look back next time. You tell your grandkids, "Hey! You know, granny used to take photos in shops when the signs clearly stated no photographs allowed".
I guess my grandkids will just laugh at me saying granny is being silly and all. 

In mandarin, we all call this “鬼鬼祟祟” 

Towards the end of the day, everyone was dead tired. 

We went out the mall, sat in front a really impressive looking high pressured fountain overlooking a seemingly endless field with families, couples and friends sitting there picnicking, playing kite and just looking at the sun setting. We sat there too, on a staircase, looking at the amazing fountain in front of us shooting up and pouring down of different patterns and colours, until the sky turned dark, the fountain lit up with different colours one at a time, changing frequently. I couldn't help but feel amazed, i sat there for an hour, just staring into the fountain and making "OH WOW, AHH, GOSHH, WOWWW" occasionally. 

Our last stop for the day was at Setia Alam Pasar Malam. We had our dinner there basically, we just walked to and fro whilst buying our dinner. Quickly, yet surely, our tummies are filled with street food of different kinds. And the day ended with the movie "The Kingsman" at home with everyone snugged tightly together on the bed staring into my Macbook Air.

It's the last day of the trip and a Sunday, i went to church early morning with Christovery. When we came back, the table is filled with scrumptious food for lunch all cooked by May's mother before everyone part their ways. It was delicious i tell ya, but we couldn't finish the food.

Like what Marion said, the faces you see in the picture explains our feelings that time. Everyone was sad, and was not ready to end this journey.

But did you know? 

Taking this last photo was the last challenge of this journey, cars HONKING behind us because we were blocking the traffic (That explains my unprepared facial expression).

WINS ALL THE WAY. 

kthxbai.