Korea Travelogue (Day 1 & 2)

It’s been exactly 2 months from the day Sam & I depart for our 8D7N Korea trip with Hong Thai. So missing the chilly weather, food, scenery & shopping there :( #postkoreasyndrome

Due to my procrastination, I haven’t been able to finish drafting my blog post. To add on, going online nowadays means researching on wedding venues, bridal studio packages & AD PG & VG. Sad to say nothing has been finalised yet *stressed mode*

We are targeting to have the wedding venue & bridal studio package settled by end of May (1 year from our wedding date). I guess everything will fall in place better once these 2 major items are checked-off the list. *fingers crossed*

Day 1

Day 1 is our departing night, so basically our itinerary starts on Day 2. Flying off on a Monday night, just 1 day before my birthday :D For once we had NO Monday bluesssss cos we were too excited for our night fly to Korea ^^

WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO KOREA TO SEE SNOW!! Wooooo..Hooooo..Hoooo~~

We flew by Asiana Airlines, which we were thankful that our flight to Seoul was a safe & pleasant one.  We are thinking of trying Korea Airlines on my next holiday to Seoul (F&E). 

Shortly after we were on-board the plane, which were more than ½ filled with their locals, we were served our late dinner.

Choice of their local food, Beef Bimbimbap (what I had) or Chicken Stew set (what Sam had). My pick would be their Beef Bimbimbap :)

While I was sound asleep on the plane (Yes, I don’t really have problem sleeping on the plane), Sam, on the other hand, was fidgeting around, trying to find his perfect position to go into dreamland :SSS

Day 2 (MY BIRTHDAY!!!)

Thanks you everyone for the birthday wishes via the social media!! :D My first ever overseas birthday trip…just so thrilled!!! :DDDD

After around 7hours of flight, we reached Incheon Int’l Airport, feeling a little exhausted but enthusiastic all together!!! We collected our luggage, cleared off the immigration & hurriedly located our Korea representative (aka tour guide). Awaiting us is a chubby & Chinese looking guy, whom we addressed him as “Ah Bao”. Sam & I thought he really has those “Ah Bao” face, if you get what I mean. Teee heeee heeee :pp

You might not be able to see but I’m actually blowing cold air out when I talked. To keep ourselves warm, we changed into our heat-tec (from Uniqlo) & got our down jacket readily in our hands. Second day only, cannot get sick!

The scenery during our coach ride...

As we are still early for our domestic flight to Jeju, Ah Bao brought us to a wet market & also to have our first Korea meal.

I guess nobody will take a photo with a wet market as back-drop in SG right?

But Korea wet market is just different!! :p

It was pretty chilly inside the market.

Tons & tons of Chinese white cabbage for kimchi making.

This is not those normal standing by the road photo. We meant to take a pic of Sam with the stadium (top of the photo) as background.

A photo of me outside the Korea Bak Kut Teh eatery, which got photo-bomed by Ah Bao :/

Gamjatang (Korea Bak Kut Teh); one of our worst meals in Korea. The taste of the soup is weird, cos of the peppermint they added in the soup & the bak kut is full of chunky bones, not much meat. Well, not to worry since I can save my stomach for the rest of the better meals.

I like the rice though :D  

PS: One thing I love about Korean cuisine is there is rice most of the time.

 I’m a horrible 饭桶.

Bidding goodbye to the photographer (in black coat) that has been assigned to our tour group throughout our stay in Seoul.

Very Korean-ish ahhh!!

Left: The photographer, Ben.

Right: Our tour guide, Ah Bao.

A very touristy shot of us at Gimpo Airport (domestic airport).

Flight time to Jeju Island is approximately one hour.

1^st stop: Mysterious Road, where we can experience the unusual phenomenon of vehicles moving upwards the slope with the engine completely OFF. You can also witness parked car on a slight hill road rolls uphill instead of downhill.

I suppose our still pictures won’t be able to depict how “mysterious” is the road; you just have to be present there to witness this yourself.

2^nd stop: Ice Gallery, where huge ice carvings from all various display and patterns are displayed. The gallery also has a slide made of ice (which I enjoyed sliding down like a 3-yr old kid :p) and ice carving decorated with flower, making the unique flower garden a standout. We can also experience hands-on DIY ice carving taught by a specialist (the man in blue jacket standing beside Ah Bao in the 2^nd pic below), which we are supposed to carve out our drinking cups.

 With the help of Sam, I also have ice drinking cup :)

 Our ice drinking cups filled with orange juice.
건배 [乾杯] (geonbae)

There is a 3D Trick Art Gallery located within the same building as the Ice Gallery. However, I wouldn’t recommend going to this outlet in Jeju; cos the placed is really swarmed with tourists (it is worst if there are Cheena tour groups!!!!). They make it so tough to have our photos taken. IRRITATING MAX!!! Furthermore, the 3D backdrops are so so meh :/ Not very impressive or much 3D effect.

There should be another 3D Trick Art Gallery within Seoul, which should be X1000000 better. I’m sure you can have your photos nicely taken without any irritating photo bombers at the other 3D Trick Art Gallery . Pffffttt…

And how can we say NO to the “shio-shio” (sizzling hot) rice cakes & Korea style lok-lok to comfort our tummy? The cold weather just makes us hungry easily.

3^rd stop: Dragon Head Rock, a lava formation of a dragon head jutting out from the sea – one of the famous landmarks in Jeju. Don’t really know how to appreciate this place much; all I see is sea & rocks??? But one thing for sure is we were braving the strong sea-breeze to have all our photos taken. Brrrrrr….

Cute souvenirs from Jeju, but NOPE!! Don’t bring this back to SG thinking they are good gift ideas. They only add on to your luggage weight cos they are stones!! If you die die want to carry these back to SG, I recommend only 1-2 pieces the most.

Hanjeongsik (Korea Traditional Set) for dinner!

Love the steam egg & the grilled fish.

Cameras always eat first. Our first group photo before we tucked in to the traditional full-course Korean meal with an array of savory side dishes.

Finally after 1 & ½ days outside, we can check in our first accommodation, Jeju Oriental Hotel, for a hot bath & good sleep.

Sam wanted to get me a birthday cake since it was my birthday. We braved through the strong night wind this time and tried our luck in finding cafes/cake shops near our hotel but in vain :( All we spot is a long stretch of seafood/bbq restaurants. Even if there are cafes, they do not sell any cakes :( We ended up with a heart shape donut from Dunkin Donuts eventually.

Birthday wish made before the clock struck 12. Thank You baby for the simple & sweet celebration though I know you can’t wait to bathe at the point of time. HAHAHAHAHA :p

Stay tuned for #SCTRAVELOGUE Day 3 – 5 in Korea sooooooon :)