[25.11.2011] Korea Trip Last days

Hey guys... Sorry to not end the posts about this trip.. The original plan was to finish the post about the Seoul trip before a year has passed and unfortunately I have failed you in that due to the drama in my life.. and then lo and behold its 2013 already... So since this has been soo long, i'll just finish this up in one post.. 

Anyhow its winter for most of the readers outside of this jurisdiction and unless you are on the other side of the equator, I really envy you.. Hahaha.. I dont know why but I have this fond affection for all things wintery.. I love the bare trees which have no leaves which seem to sway with every breath the wind takes.. And I really love the winter jackets (that seem to just compliment everyone's figure.. haha) and lastly the smell of frost in the air which smells like my refrigerator sans the smell of poultry and fish but has that slight twang of cold mist to it.. Also another good thing about winter is that you have every excuse to keep on going to the coffee shops... The joy of holding a hot cup of coffee or warm choc is totally awesome...

Anyhow I want to finish this blog entry... So after the first few days of walking around, I had wanted to visit the DMZ.. But after consulting with Min, the proprietor of the backpackers that i was staying at informed me that most of the guests did not get to go as its full for the next few days...So all i was left to do was walk around the city and I had contemplated going to Nami island where they filmed the very popular Winter Sonata but since I was trying to cut down on expenses and since i wasnt a fan of Winter Sonata, I decided to stay in and chill out with the people..

Later on that day the boys invited me to go to shopping for souveniers... We went to Namdaemun and shopped for some of the souveniers... 

What's in Namdaemun? Well basically its like Central Market in KL but korean.. haha. and you can haggle here and also buy lots of stuff for family and friends. 

Me at the market

Buying brooches and stuff for mom.. 

Anyhow, the market is a nice place to go and buy souveniers and to see how the normal koreans shop I guess.. theres everything from tupperwares to food there....

Afterwards we were starting to get tired and adjourned to this Starbucks where I encountered some really helpful ladies yet they couldnt understand when I asked for "water"... ended up I sat down and gulped my coffee... haha

Anyhow, afterwards, we decided to go myeondong which was the shopping area equivalent to Bukit Bintang in Malaysia... and over there we went nuts.... hahaha

We have an inside joke amongst us that there is a Jin (ghost i think in english) in myeondong which makes us buy stuff everytime were there.. and guess what we got down there and went nuts shopping for SNSD stuff. At that time they were heavily promoting their new album which came out a few weeks earlier and we bought that and a lot more.... 

Here's some of the haul we got at SPAO.. 

Hehehe a fanboy's wish come true... I got the autographed sealed pics of Seohyun (my bias) haha and some of their albums...  :D Awesome haul...

We then proceeded to walk around some more

And then whilst walking around we decided to take pics with Seohyun herself whois the embassador for the face shop there..

Afterwards we called it a day and planned to go see the TV stations and recording studios in Korea.. but then we kinda failled in that.. haha...

We met up the following day and decided to chillax and have lunch and then we split off for that day. The following day was my trip back to Malaysia and I spent the whole day looking for additional stuff to bring back to KL and also stuff to carry the posters and such back... I managed to secure the premium seats again on the way back and of all the people I could sit next to in that plane, I managed to sit next to a senior lawyer from another firm who knows my boss.. hahaha.. BIG WHOOP!

If I remember correctly, I wasnt sure whether I wanted to come back to Korea.. however thinking back now.. I would definitely love to go again with a proper budget and planning... 

And that ladies and gentlemen ends my korean adventure...

[22.11.2011] Korea Trip Day 2 part 2

So lets continue from the earlier post.. when I was inside the Palace Grounds and Gardens..

The place is freaking huge as it has its own picturesque lake and small duck which waddle over and just makes the place a real serene place.. You can see a lot of ahjussi and ahjumma (uncle and aunties) exercising and doing their walks there..  I guess the size was also the reason why this palace was turned into a Zoo after the Japanese took over Korea. 

My aching feet however made my day there as I used it numerous times to find benches to sit down and just really 'chill' out there.. Anyhow, check out the different  views below:

I dont think the pictures can capture how nice the place is.. check this video I took.. listen to the birds and how happy they sound.. haha..

Not to forget another historic site right inside the palace which is the green house! Yes this green house has been in the grounds for quite awhile and was once one of the most modern architecture there (most new buildings are arent they?). I however found that inside it has err... nothing much as is with most green houses...

I know i am not a herbologist so lets leave the gardens and really enter the palace grounds. I am no expert in Korean history but the palace consisted of many buildings with some for kitchens and offices and such. (A normal traditional home also has many buildings). Seriously the emperor's back then lived like kings... haha..

Dont just throw a coin, throw lots of coins!

I'm sure driveways were necessary back then. 

The  main hall

The main hall is where the action is at. Thats where the Emperor sat and did his Emperor-ly duties. If you notice outside it, theres like a walkway of headstones, dont worry as they are the standing locations of the officer's if they are in formation. The closer you are to the Emperor, the more important your post is I guess.

I took a video of the area the other day. Check it out.

The headstones..

Not a bad picture right?

One thing I must say about this palace is that its HUGE! I ended up walking till it entered the other part which is the Secret Garden.. I however didnt try it as it would cost me another 10,000 won (about 28 Ringgit) I believe and I was kind of tired of walking around in gardens by then.  So I found myself at another gate on the other side of the palace and I decided to get lost... I thought ok.. a city full of subways, lets just walk and see how far I can go..

So I crossed the sidewalk from the palace and I guess I made my first tourist mistake there.. ( If you are crossing the street, you wait for the traffic light to change to red then cross, do not.. do not press the button to cross the street as it will almost definitely change and I saw people almost jump and try to say no to me.. haha but it was too late.. ) 

As you can see, they have such a cafecoffee culture, that even the Nescafe didnt want to be left out. 

I walked by this  institute of traditional Korean Food. At that time I still havent tried kimchi and the issue about halal-ness of things kind of didnt inspire me much to go see.

So I walked and walked and ended up here... where is here? I have no idea.. There was a cinema in that building and there to the right was the staircase leading me to the subway! haha.. So this would be my first time there. So where did I head to? 

I went to Dongdaemun! Basically Dongdaemun is the largest shopping market in South Korea and it has its own station. As you exit the station, you find yourself staring the gates below

 

These gates were part of the walls surrounding the city. When I arrived however the gates were being restored as rain had collapsed part of the roof of the gate. The gate has offices inside which houses the commander in the area.

Here's a look of the market.

I am not a big fan of markets and as i walked along and just looked at the things to offer, I stumbled upon this!

to those who  dont know, this is the world famous Cheonggyecheon. The Cheonggyecheon is a 8.4 km stretch of an old river that was covered up after the second world war and placed with a high way overhead. The history of this place goes back to the start of city of Seoul.  

Basically after the second world war, everybody was poor and living off the land and the small stream that used to be there, the place was filled with disease and such and caused soo much problems that they ended covering it up.. literally. Then forward to 2003, the high way was beginning to crumble and they decided to do a major haul up of the area and turned it into the place it is now. The place is filled with life and love as you can find lots of fishes in there and there's lots of couples walking around hand in hand.

At that time I had read up soo much about the place that I had to try it out.. Unfortunately my mistake was i began in the middle... The best part is at the end.. I eventually head there but not on this day. The best part about places like this is that in Korea, the crime rate is pretty low and its a relatively safe country.. So walking down there was not like walking down an alley..

How the top part looked like.. You can see it stretched for kilometers..

lil duckie..

The place is filled with art and culture..

See the love birds..

For some reason I really love walking in the cold.. Brings back good memories of my days back in the US where I used to play near streams that was freezing like this.  After the walk down that way which I think i walked for about 2 kilometers.. I was thoroughly cold.. and decided to call it a day as the temperature was falling... (It would fall alot more the next day!)

As I returned to the comfort and warmth of the common room at the backpackers, I remember Min asking me how was it?.. and I remember my response of the day was.. "Its damn cold..." hahaha I got a chuckle from Min that day..  That was a good day and afterwards I chilled/warmed down in front of the tv with Christian. 

Christian is this German dude who just finished his PHD in Mathemathics and was rewarding himself with a 3 week stay in Korea. The German Bundesliga was on and watching german football was really funny. He would quote things like that guy, he is just married, that other guy just got a new baby and such.. It was his favourite team.. The place is really comfortable.. I liked the different nationalities there (there was this Chinese National Tourist, American, Phillipine National there with me). 

Anyhow, after coming back and warmed up, I finnally was back in touch with the world as my phone was back to being connected to the wifi.... and I received texts from Enche Fahmie and Enche Fadzly to meet up that night. 

So we decided to go meet at the metro station and for me to show around the place to them. After picking them up at the metro, the first thing we did was.. GET SOME COFFE!!! hahaha

Since winter was approaching hard and fast, and christmass too, they had already introduced the Toffee Nut Latte and I think all in all during those few days there each one of us had about at least 10 cups of it.

Never bought coffee that costs thousands before

here's the intersection. Filled with students. Really lively at the road on the left after the intersection. 

A picture with Enche Fadzly

Enche Fahmie with his coffee

So after getting some coffee we decided to have a walk and get some dinner as it was nearing 8pm at that time.

Found this huge doggie on top of this restaurant there.

As we were walking we  chanced upon this place which was selling Halal Kebab's and  we decided to have dinner and  to plan what to do for the next day...

You know what happens in Korea right?

So