My flight tix to Seoul was saved by the brief group whatsapp, when one of us shouted that the departure was on the next day, but at that point of time, I was still packing my luggage all the way in Paka! Had the conversation not happened the night before, then I might end up having good night sleep in Paka and wake up next morning just to find out that my fellow friends have boarded into the flight. Huwaaaa~ Ok that was the brief story about the incident prior to the departure when I was on the verge of missing flight, again..
We boarded at 8 o'clock in the morning and the trip took us about 8 hours to reach there. As soon as we touched the Seoul land, we were welcome by its chill air, ahh..the execitement was slowly rising among us.
Our first tour kicked off as soon the night after arrival. It was meant for free and easy, but when Nadh suggested to go to Seoul Tower, we were on our feet immediately. From our stay to the destination, we took public bus followed with the subway.
Everyone of us was on our first time in Seoul, but like it or not, we have to make ourselves comfortable maneuvering the trip, silently prayed that we won't get lost in effort to read the maps and understand the routes of subway.
Operating the facilities that all written in Korean was one thing that we learned in hard way, because nobody seemed to bother to approach us. Another panicky situation was when we hopped onto the bus that accepted only coins in the transaction. We just arrived with only big notes of Korean currency available in our purses thus what we did was to ask people around rather than going to the shop nearby. I'm telling you, communicating with Korean people has never been always pleasant and easy. We tried to communicate with the Korean passers-by to change the notes to coins. Some of the them simply ignored us when we waved them to stop, while some of them were very sweet who were trying to help, but the 'ayam-itik' communication wasn't less than funny to see.
Nevertheless, we finally reached our destination safely ,and we had fun throughout the 'try and error attempts'.
One of us, Indah is hard fan of Hello Kitty. When we learnt that Hello Kitty got its own cafe, all 6 of us were dragged to enjoy the caffeine.
Truthfully, I was amused with the creativity presented in every cup. Awesome and rare!
Oh, another pic from Seoul Tower, notice bench is made bend? Macam-macam..
The next day was heading to Naami Island and Skiing! It took 45 1 and half hour to reach the jetty. It was not an island by the beach and whatnot, at least that was the island that I was expecting. It was untrue, but the scenery in the island has taken my breath away. The air of excitement rised another knots.
The beautiful island was one thing, and the opportunity to have fun in the snow was another reason for a perfect choice to be in Naami Island this trip.
It was approaching lunch, we were brought to enjoy our first Korean lunch. Upon seeing so many plates filled with little dishes before us, we looked at each other wondering the same thing " is this enough for a lunch? " But beggar can't be chooser,no?
The next destination was to go for skiing!
Apparently it wasn't as easy as it looks to get the ski board moving. It took loads of hard work that we felt shameful to the kids who were skiing effortlessly around us. Nevertheless, it was such a fantastic experience .Ha ha ha.
Our stay in Seoul was not for long. So we have another night left in Seoul before leaving to Jeju Island. We went to Myeongdong market afterwards to do some shopping. It was freeeezing cold in night time, but we have no choice, the shopping needs to be done, or we gonna missed it.
On the next day, our last day in Seoul, we went to Insadong to do last minute shopping, mainly the souvenirs to family and friends.
We went out quite early in the morning, seeing that our chartered van will pick us up before noon. There were not many local seen around at this time, and the atmosphere was very peaceful in chill wheather. I fell in love with Seoul instantly... :)