The unforgettable travel journey to Seoul

Apparently i saw Korean Air Southeast Asia is holding the Asian On Air Program 2013, the contest title is my Unforgettable Travel Story. Immediately, my trip to Seoul pops up in my mind.
Hurry! Participate the contest as it will end on 29 September 2013! Stand a chance to win a trip to Seoul! 

Seoul was my first country which I have been to that is away from Malaysia more than a thousand miles. 

During my January trip to Seoul, of course, the season would be Winter. Bahaha, it strikes another reason why this trip is memorable! It's my first time seeing snow after living on earth for 22 years! Few days after Golden Disc Awards 2013 in Sepang, i flew to Korea. Jan19, the day my virgin passport get a kiss all the way from South Korea's immigration. Which i'm totally proud and excited of!

Few reasons why Seoul is my unforgetable trip 
1.SNOW, Winter Season

As i mentioned earlier it was my first time experiencing winter season. I was so overwhlemed that i get to see real snow (not the fake ones in Genting Snow World lol) in front of me! snow laying on the path of Seoul Tower Ville

 

 speaking of winter season, i planned to drop by Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival , it goes on from 5th January 2013 to 27th January 2013. Check out my Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival for detailed info! I was attracted to this festival as there are many types of activities such as  

Ice fishing , lure fishing, bare-hand fishing, Ice sledding, bobsledding, ice football, slides, snow sculptures, snow sledding, World Snowman Square, ice rink, ice train, snow train

 It's a fun and enjoyable experience fishing on ice and to eat fresh trouts! you can taste the freshness of the trouts in your mouth! Yet those are the trouts that we caught by ourselves! it added flavor to it! NOMS.Moreover, having hot red bean pastries during the cold weather made me feel good!

 

Fishing on ice! it's quite easy to get one fish lol. but it's difficult to remove it from the bait.

The awesome surrounding in Hwacheon. Too beautiful to see the whole land covered with white snow

 Some beautiful ice scultptures 

On the downside, my cheapskate boots spoilt when i arrive to Hwacheon... my foot shiver in the cold weather. Melted ice water even get into my boots. Sucha "awesome experience"

 

Oh yea, during winter season, i get to experience using hot pack. Usually i see variety shows, they tend to use these hot packs. so it's cool and fun using it! it keep my hands warm!

2.Food! Korea's food taste good!

I managed to grab a quick bite from the famous bakery Paris Baguette before taking the commuter subway , looking at their pastries made me drool. i choose the sandwich since my sis strongly recommended it to me.

Another yummilicious food that u should eat will be fried chicken! Two Two chicken taste really good! it's boneless and it's nt oily at all!

 Follow by Andong Jjjimdak!Jjimdak is a dish made with chicken, various vegetables clear cellophane noodles marinated with some Korean based sauce. check out my previous post on Andong Jjimdak for more info

 omg, looking at these food makes me drool! This will be Kongbul! it's located at Hongdae.  

This consist of (PORK) Bulgogi, Cheese, Udon, Friend rice and a pack of fruit juice

U-sujebi serves good and healthy Bimbimbap! they use brown grained rice instead of white rice! The seafood clam soup taste good too!

The famous yoogane! 

Move on to street foods! I believe those who watch Korean dramas knows that there are many good street foods! there's tteokbokki, pajeon, oden etc! Every street food makes me feel so Koreanish. Hot food makes you feel great during winter! Moreover, once you grab yourself one of these food, you will stand like the locals around the food vendor!

Korea is also famous of Cafes, there are variety cafe themes available

 Love the cafes environment, there are lots of teenagers, young adults, working adults etc sitting in the cafe spending their time there. their cafes definitely make people feel comfortable. I like Angel-in-us! the caramel latte there taste good!

 One of the girls' favorite theme cafe- Hello Kitty Cafe! check out my blog post for more info on Hello Kitty Cafe

 surprisingly the waffle and mocha taste not bad  as i saw some bad reviews about their food

Oh yea, when you are in Korea, you must try their Makgeolli (rice wine), soju! Koreans love to drink it so much! I only tried Makgeolli thou

 In Korea, not only Korean food taste good. I managed to try out this Japanese restaurant at Ewha that served yummy Japanese cuisine! I miss this already

 Move on to something more traditional or cultural wise. You can always drop by Gwangjang Market. you can see various Hanbok stores, seafood stores, traditional cuisine 

 Star Miss Lee Cafe also serves traditional lunch box, dorisak! from We Got Married, i saw Seohyun and Younghwa dine at Star Miss Lee Cafe. In the old times, people bring dorisak to school. They tend to shake the dorisak before they eat so things mixed well.

 there are also some fun things to do in Seoul. Taking funny pictures at Trick Eye Museum

3. Shopping Paradise

I am soo excited that i get to grab nice bags for RM30 below! Shorts are cheap also! There are many unique products selling too. Don't worry, men also have nice shirts!

 People who are a kpop lover, you will be so happy to see kpop artist's poster all around the cosmetics shops and apparel shops! I get so excited when i hear kpop songs playing everywhere. i love KOREA!

 Lastly! cheap cosmetics and skin care products! i bet girls like me grab lots of skincare for yourself and friends when you drop by Korea!

Blogging bout this makes me miss Korea badly! omg! i want to go back again!

Seoul Itinerary 7 Days

Guess i'm concluding my post for my Seoul's trip *finally*, i'm going to summarize everything in this post, and some of the restaurant or sight seeing, i actually posted a post for it, so do click on the links i provided down there for more info!!!

WINTER

 Day 1- 19th Jan 2013 
Incheon Airport-Myeongdong-Lunch(Andong Jjimdak)-shopping at Myeongdong-Dinner (Namdaemun night market)- Lotte Young Plaza

I travel to Seoul by Air Asia, and the flight landed around 8.30am KST (Korea TIME)
Before getting down the plane, it's better to fill up this form to save time

  
 Some specs for visitors to use
 
 After passing the custom check

You can see the board, showing you which place to get your luggage

Take a train to get your baggage
 

 
Besides that, we rent internet (Olleh), for more info, check out my post on Rent internet in-korea olleh wifi

After renting Olleh, it's time to have a quick bite at Paris Baguette

After my quick bite, we took Commuter to Seoul Station and then to Myeongdong
For more info on the direction to AREX and commuter, check out this
 Transportation from incheon airport to Seoul

 Then from Sejong Hotel, the bellman of Sejong Hotel help us to call Mr.Ko from Seoul Tower Ville.
For more info about Seoul Tower Ville, check out this post Seoul Tower Ville Accommodation

 After check-in procedure were completed, we head out to Myeongdong for lunch

Myeongdong's underground terminal shopping

Entering the street of Myeongdong

 SPAO!!!!

Some street food

 

We had our lunch at Andong Jjimdak, for more info about Andong Jjimdak check out this post
Andong Jjimdak

After brunch, it's time to have a walk around Myeongdong, I love korea! everytime i walked passed any shop, Korean songs are everywhere!

 

 the 1st day i already bought these much of skin care and cosmetic

Heat pads which helps to keep ur hand warm

At night, we walked to Namdaemun Market to have dinner

 

Our dish we ordered. For more info check out my post Dinner at Namdaemun Market

 At night, it's the best time to hop over to Lotte Young Plaza as they have a bridge where you could look down to the busy road of Myeongdong.and also their rooftop.

 Chilling at Angel-in-us cafe, their caramel mocha and mocha taste great!

 

  Day 2- 20th Jan 2013

Hongdae- Breakfast+Lunch (Kongbul) - Trick Eye Museum- shopping around Hongdae- Hello Kitty Cafe- Myeongdong shopping- Dinner (Yoogane)

Our initial plan was to go Hwacheon Ice festival on that day, however, we were too tired to wake up so early, so we postponed it (we actually postponed it many days). So, i decided to drop by Hongdae.
Some vending machine in the subway

We dined in Kongbul, for more info, check out my post on Kongbul (콩불), Hongdae
This taste really good! must go okay! By the way, it's PORK yea~

After lunch, it's time to head over to the Trick Eye Museum,
for more details about it, check out my post about Trick Eye Museum

After that, it's time to shop and wonder around in Hongdae Street ^^

 Found this cotton candy stall, the owner has a huge dog

 Haha's BBQ shop

Old school snacks

Noraebang (karaoke)

A really nice building

This shop sells many cheap 1,000Won ear-rings and accessories, some are more expensive.
It's located near Hello Kitty Cafe area

 After that, we drop by Hello Kitty Cafe for a rest, check out my post about Hello Kitty Cafe

Then at night, we had our dinner in Yoogane, Hop on to my post about Yoogane

   Day 3- 21th Jan 2013

Gwangjang Market- Edae(Ewha Uni)- Zoo Cafe- Edae Shopping- u-sujebi- Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping

For more details, go to my Gwangjang market post
Gwangjang Market's  Ground Mung Beans Pancake which is really good! go try out yea~
in Gwangjang Market you can find many traditional stuff and local foods =)

Since it's raining, we gave up going Dongdaemun, so we head over to Edae and once we reach there, as it's quite cold cum raining, we rest our foot at Zoo Cafe
again, go to my Zoo Cafe post

Teeheehee after that, again, it's shopping and sight seeing time! my favorite!
Edae sells many cheap 10,000Won bags! be sure to check it out okay!
 
 
Yes apM, a shopping mall, which also sells some fashion clothing, but not much, cse not all of the shop lots were occupied

Dinner time at U-Sujebi, we had bimbimbap there, so go to my post for more detailed info U-Sujebi

 We then drop by Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping, it do have some florist shop, shop selling bags and cloths. i manage to get a long sleeve shirt for 5,000won =)
Near Express Bus Terminal, there's an underground shopping mall which sells many clothing, bags etc. Express Bus Terminal also have many Korean Restaurants which are pack with locals, got chance i will go there again

  
We bought some noodle cup, Angel-in-us caramel mocha (TASTE GOOD), cheese stick, Makgeolli, banana milk(Muz Try!) but some people dislike the taste =(

 

 Oh yea, we also bought Twotwo chicken back to our hotel for supper, for more info, click on my Twotwo Chicken post

 Day 4- 22th Jan 2013 
Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival- Myeongdong

We woke up around 6am KST and start our journey to Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival. So for more detail info, click on my Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival 
It's really fun, but i think it's somehow best to drop by during weekends. and this is also a must go festival during winter!!

 When i were there, my boots spoiled, i couldn't enjoy much cse my foot is freezing

 After sight seeing in Hwacheon, we headed back to Myeongdong, when we reach there, it's around late noon. We had many street food, for more different street food click this post

 Deli Manjoo, a must try snacks too, for more info, click on my Deli Manjoo post

 In Seoul, we continously rest our foot and warm ourselves up in cafes
 So this time, we drop by at Siwon's Twosome Coffee at Myeongdong

 That time, they were giving out some espresso for customers to try, lucky us

 Day 5- 23th Jan 2013 

 Insadong- Buckhon Hanok Village- Star Miss Lee Cafe- Ssamziegil- Apgujeong(Kona Beans)- Edae

A morning walk at Buckhon Hanok Village, unfortunately, it's raining AGAIN piff, and i were coughing all the way there.
 





After that, we went to Star Miss Lee Cafe for brunch, for more info and directions, hop on to my Star Miss Lee Cafe post. Star Miss Lee Cafe serves Traditional Lunchbox(Dosirak), traditional rice snacks, Patbingsu etc

 After our brunch, it's time to head over to Ssamziegil which is really near to Star Miss Lee Cafe, Ssamziegil sells many artistic things and cute things, but the price there ain't cheap

After sigh seeing in Insadong, i asked my boo to bring me to Kona Beans LOL. so yeah. we went to Kona Beans kekeke, for more info and directions, go to my Kona Beans Post

Since, we did not spend much time at Ewha that day due to rain, we decided to head back to Edae.

Again, my boo went to Yes apM to buy some cloths, and the men's cloths looks nice!

 Remember i mentioned earlier that Edae sells many cheap 10,00Won bags? i got myself 2 bags there

Heathers which keeps people really warm, i love standing beside it

 Then we had Japnese Cuisine for dinner lol. but no regrets, it taste awesome!
Check out my post for more info Japanese Cuisine

 
 This time we bought this packet of coffee, apparently we like it too

 And i spot Suju's campaign poster in the subway ^^

 Day 6- 24th Jan 2013

Myeongdong

 It was an extremely freezing cold day, wind was way too strong and we couldn't stay out for so long, so we just hang around in Myeongdong, do some last minute shopping and chilling in cafe
But we manage to find this yummy restaurant which serves Bulgogi etc.
 
Side dish

 

Their Menu

 

 The marinated beef was cooked with a mouthwatering stew with onions, mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and green onions instead of BBQ. And the texture of the beef is so tender and juicy. As the beef soaks it's own juice, whenever i bite the beef,  sweetness and savory of the beef are flowing out in my mouth. With the sweet and savory beef, the fragrant stew, it's an excellent combination with white rice!

After brunch we walked around, somehow i spot us on the screen *shy*

 Time to chill at Angel-in-us Cafe

Kim Soo Hyun!

Some Selca at Mplaze to use their washroom, their washroom are clean ^^

 

 Our things!
 

  Day 7- 25th Jan 2013
 
The day where we flew back to KL TcT, we went to Incheon Airport by Bus, which cost 10,000Won from Sejong Hotel.
We saw people wearing costume getting around Incheon Airport for visitors to take pictures

 

 And then, we dine at this restaurant, and we had bulgogi again for our last meal in Seoul

  
It taste good too

 Here comes to the end of my Seoul trip, overall i had a great time, but i hate it when it rains, i rather it snows at least i saw something i never seen before in Malaysia lol

 Seoul, i promise i will be back soon. =)