Today is the free and easy day! So, means we can go wherever we want to at our own pace. We decided to pay about 20,000won each to get the bus and the tour guide so that after every shopping, we didn't have to walk around Korea with bags and so many things in hand. Plus, if we take the taxi, it's going to cost a bomb.
There were about 30 of us who decided to follow the bus. We decided on a few places that we wanted to go and David (our tour guide) sort of putting them into place for us, you know to see if it's on the way and stuff. We wouldn't want to spend most of the time on the road in the bus.
We went to a few places.
Number 1: Dongdaemun Market.
I've always heard people saying that this is better than Myeongdong. Errr.. I prefer Myeongdong. Maybe because this one is an indoor kind of shopping, like in a mall. I ended up with nothing from Dongdaemun Market except 2 boxes of fresh strawberries. That also I bought it by the street. So big and juicy sumore and super cheap!
After buying some seaweed and ginseng sweets (oh! I did get a few things here.. Hmm..), we makan-makan at the food court. Kimchi Jiggae for me please thank you.
Boys and girls, here you can see the city of Seoul, from the ladies toilet.
While waiting for the bus to pick us up to our next destination, why not some selfie with the boys :)
And the mama and bimbo. It looks like super hot right the sun, but it was super cold. Standing under the sun makes it warmer by 0.001%.
Number 2: N Seoul Tower.
The smile. Boy, you melting people's heart.
So, it's one of those kinds of place where lovers/couples/families come here, get a lock, write on them sweet lovely notes then lock it at the fence surrounding the tower.
We were on top of the hill and you can opt to go higher with a certain fee (I forgot how much!). For us, this is good enough. This is perfect already :)
Number 3: Ehwa Women's University
This is the only photo I have of this place. No, we didn't go here just to look at the only-women's-uni. The whole area around this uni is shopping heaven! Serious! Everything is relatively cheap since it's mainly targeting the students there. So, I kinda spammed few thousands of won there. I think..
After all the jalan-jalan, we went back to the hotel to drop off our shopping goodies and about 16 of us continued with the bus to our last destination of the night.
Number 4: Gangnam.
David wasn't too sure about Gangnam as that is not his territory so we explored the city for quite a bit in the cold weather. We couldn't tahan the weather so we took shelter for a while in McDonald's. In the end, we took the subway to the makan place in Gangnam. Something like that. I became pretty lost somewhere along the line.
Finally, got to sit down in a warm bbq restaurant. It's a restaurant that usually only locals would know, as in if we're to explore Gangnam by ourselves, we will never be able to end up here.
The food. OH GOSH THE FOOD. BEST THING THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE TRIP.
We had pork and beef and kimchi.
That's all it takes to make the 16 people happy.
That's all :D
After dinner, we took the subway back to the hotel but this time without David. Finding our way home was rather challenging. Then again, my sister, the heroine of the night, together with Mrs Choo and others who have a good sense of direction brought us back safely.
No more snow tonight though.
Phoebe then called us to go to her room and surprise Kai Chee for her birthday. I was a bit confused because when we went in, Kai Chee was there and everybody else also. So, I wasn't too sure if it's a surprise or not. Speaking of that, till today I still don't know. We just kinda went in, sat down and start talking about everything.
Her cute cupcakes. Apparently, she told me it was very expensive but Phoebe insisted to get for her. Best friend forever, guys. Nice! :)
Blessed Birthday, hot-supermodel-like-cousin!
Day Five (10th March 2014)
Boohoo. Time to go back home. Double boohoo.
We checked out of the hotel at about 6am. Had our breakfast at the last stop of shopping. This one, I spam quite a bit also. Wanted to just spend finish all the ka-chings, but didn't lah. Quite expensive eh the foodstuff there. One thing I like is they packed our stuff into a box for free. If Malaysia, prolly will charge like RM2 per box.
Then, we checked in at the airport. Security became tighter since MH370 so there was quite a long line at the boarding place. Whoever wears belt must take out. Something has to happen already baru mau tighten security. Too late.
I went for another round of last-minute shopping since we were given two discount vouchers. I wanted to get a box of ramen but totally forgotten about it! We were shopping nicely until Leroy texted and said, "Where you guys? Final call d!"
We straight run like there's no tomorrow. Hahaha. Okay, not that extreme but we did run for our lives. Incheon Airport quite huge okay.
Goodbye for now, Korea. You are deeply missed. So happy this time I get to have the window seat.
MH67 --> Incheon to Kuala Lumpur --> Flying time: 6 hours and 50 minutes.
After getting settled down and be comfortable, peanuts and juices are served.
Then, snack time. A chocolate wafer and chicken filling wrapped with a tortilla. So dry and un-yummy. Hah.
After a few hours and few naps in between, lunch is served.
You can either have Beef Bulgogi or..
Sweet Fish something. I can't remember.
The flight was pretty smooth and all. Then, another one hour from KUL-PEN MH1162.
What a trip it has been.
Conclusion: I have so much to learn when it comes to tour leading and tour leading is prolly one of the toughest job. Okaylah, it's not lah. It's not as nice as people think it is, although get to travel and all. Haha.
I enjoyed myself completely, especially the cold weather. I realized now that I kinda like putting on winter clothes. I can literally feel that I will be getting some winter clothes soon.. or maybe not that soon.. buy for the future. Hah.
Ahhh. Feels good to finally finish all the parts of this chapter.
Thank God it's Saturday tomorrow! :)