Return to Land Of Kimchi

Part 2: The Day!

Finally, the long wait is over.. THE DAY has arrived..! was not able to sleep during the night - super excited! ive always known to bring lots of stuffs when travelling. i just hate not being prepared so i make sure i bring stuffs just in case i need it for every kind of situation.. but, because now im travelling with a kiddo, I tried to packed light.. operative word here being - TRIED.. :-) well, at least i managed to cram our stuffs (including a portable cooker and loads of rations enuff to last a week) into one HUGE 30 Kg bag, 1 back pack, 1 hand luggage and a stroller. thats not bad isnt it..

our luggages

we board the flight from LCCT bound to ICN @ 2.20pm - which was a bit delayed due to disembarking a passenger's luggage cos he failed to show up after checking in. it was a boring uneventful 6 hour flight to ICN which feels like forever. luckily Q managed to behave considerably well, except that being a very active, chatty toddler, she just couldn't sit still for a bit and she did not slept a wink either! finally we arrived at the airport around 10pm local time. took quite a while for immigration to clear due to the long que.

in flight

long immigration clearance que

arrival time

 

we took the taxi to our hotel - despite having done extensive research which tells us NOT to take the black taxi, we took it - bcos we are not able to find the silver taxis. it costs us 90k won as compared to 70k won if we took the silver taxi. oklah, as long as we arrived our destination safe and sound. We chose Prince Hotel in myeongdong as our accomodation due to its location which we established thru reviews we read.. Frm actual experience, Even though the room is quite small, but i must say that the location is indeed SUPERB!!! Its in the middle of myeongdong (happening shopping / tourist area) where the subway, taxi stand , the seoul tour bus station and the 24 hr convenience store (family mart) is literally in front of ur doorstep. and the incheon airport shuttle bus stop is also just across the road.. if ur wondering why we took the taxi as opposed to the airport bus shuttle which only costs 10k won, its because the bus stop is on the opposite of the road which requires u to cross the road via the subway which involves flights of stairs, and were carrying a HUGE luggage which we can barely lift ourselves. so that's why. we booked the same taxi for our ride back to ICN in advanced @ 70k won, dont ask me why the price differs, its just like that.

tourist spots like the namsan tower, namdaemun market and a few other places are also within walking distance, if ur up for it (ill elaborate on this later :-P) or u can just easily take the subway which is only a few stations away..

We did have doubts about this place before since they do not provide some facilities like guesthouses do  - i.e. microwaves, but we solved the problem by asking the cashier of family mart to heat up the instant rice for us. We brought our own portable cooker which we used to fry eggs and heat instant foods we brought from home. Tip: Dont forget to bring some oil and salt from home, and most importantly, dont forget the kicap kipas udang of course..!  U can do much more with the portable cooker - explore ur creativity / survival instinct while ur at it :-).. We hardly starved during our stay in Seoul despite it might be challenging to source for halal food / food that suits our palettes - especially  if u have a hardcore Malaysian appetite (like the Captain). Other tips would be (1) bring your own toiletries as they don't provide them; (2) if uve read somewhere that there is a bakery beside the hotel (Paris Baguette), fyi, the bakery has closed shop and im not sure what kind of establishment that will take its place.

this product is revolutionary!

we survived on this

fyi, guesthouses are popular among msians travelling to Korea and from what ive read some of the popular GH are really provides descent and comfortable accommodation.they also provide free wifi, simple breakfast, cooking utensils and washing machines for diy laundry. one GH thats popular is the http://www.namsanguesthouse.com/

arrived at our hotel around midnight. we were the only ones in the lobby. check in was a breeze, barely a few minutes - the most effective ive ever experienced!. it was like they were expecting us. checked into our room, did a lil unpacking and hit the sack.. zzzzzzz

view our Seoul Trip pics here --> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/iamatinydot/3/tpod.html

Return to The Land of Kimchi

Alhamdulillah, we made it back to KL safe and sound.. im in the mood to write about our journey in Seoul, lets hope the mood last long enough until i finished all the parts.. haha ;-)

Part 1: The Preparation

This is going to be a series of entries relating to my recent trip to Seoul.. I cant remember when i last wrote travelogues before.. Ive read so many travelogues about trips to Seoul but there are v few logs written by parents travelling with toddlers/young kids.. So my perspective will be skewed more on this in hopes to fill in the gap. Perhaps it could be of use to give a rough idea on what its like to travel to seoul with a toddler in tow..

First things first, im gonna write a lil bit on my preparation for this trip.. Lots of infos came from blogs about their recent trips to seoul that i managed to google.. A few of the noteworthy sources are http://budgettravel2korea.blogspot.com/ and the cari forum -- http://mforum.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=644742&extra=page%3D1 .. From the infos i got there i managed to prepare a rough itineray as per below..

Day 1 (19.5.2012)

Depart from LCCT - ICN @ 2.20pm

Arrive @ 9.20 pm (local time)

Take Taxi to Prince Hotel

Retire for the night

Day 2 (20.5.2012)

National Museum Korea

Lunch @ Itaewon

Namsangol Hanok Village (closed Tuesdays)

Chandeokgung Palace (Closed Mondays)

Stop at Insadong to buy souviniers

Back to Hotel - Rest / Dinner (Yukaney @ myeongdong)

Namsan Cable Car / Tower

Day 3 (21.5.2012)

Namdaemun Market (Closed Sundays) 

Dongdaemun (Closed Sundays)

cheonggyecheon stream

Lunch at Dongdaemun - Jeonju Sikdang

Yeouido park

Han River Cruise

Dinner (Yukaney @ myeongdong)

Back to Hotel

Day 4 (22.5.2012)

COEX Mall – Aquarium

Lunch and last minute shopping myeongdong

Depart from ICN - LCCT @ 12.20pm

* Pls take note that normally ull only get to do half of the things u planned.. So try to  draft up an itinerary that is flexible, especially when ur travelling with a toddler. Ull see how fluid my itinerary has become by the end of this trip..

Friday Ramblings

The Captain has a peculiar way in preparing his fried eggs. i used to make fun of it but recently i tried the egg that he cooked and it tasted superb! cant seem to forget the taste and today i secretly made the eggs myself during lunch (its friday and we have long lunch breaks on friday. i always go back home to laze around on fridays :-)) he'll surely tease me on this one if he gets a whiff of this.. lets see how he prepares his eggs..

 the ingredient - ur fav soy sauce, an egg and a glass!

crack the egg carefully into the glass and pour a few slush of soy sauce into the cup. 

fry it in a small wok..

and tadaaa.. well, my egg is not that pretty today.. the yolk was broken :(

my lunch for today - sardine fried rice extra spicy + "special" fried egg

kinda look like kimchi fried rice or kimchi bokeumbap ;-)

Bitten By The Travel Bug

Last year, after almost 2 years of (air) traveling hiatus, i secretly planned that 2012 will be the year for me to start hitting the road (air) again.. hmm, let me see.. my last airplane trip was in.... early 2010 - to Seoul, Korea. During that time, i did not notice that i was pregnant with my 1st child.. after that, it was like - well you know the drill. being a first time parent and all, it was quite challenging to adapt to the whole situation, but now you can say that im, in my own way, already a pro (cheh) when it comes to travelling with a toddler. We did our fair share of domestic (spore included) travelling last year but we drove ourselves to those destinations. In the middle of last year i booked our ticket to Seoul which will be our daughter's first overseas trip (spore did not count as overseas to me, haha). I chose Seoul as our destination as i personally think that Seoul is a tourist friendly city and pretty convenient to get around. 

We started the year with a trip to LGK (in March) - to let our daughter have a look n feel being on an airplane - in preparation for the long haul flight in May. The flight to LGK was not that smooth due to the bad weather but our daughter kept it cool, despite her expression did looked really cuak.. hahahaha.. i act as normal and pretended like nothing had happened.. when in fact, everybody in the plane including me held their breath and were relieved as soon as the plane landed, thank god.

Time passes by so quickly and now its May.. yeay! Our trip to Seoul is next week and im pretty psyched about it.. hope i can contain my "excitedness" to prevent it from jinxing the trip.... have been busy juggling work and "researching" about our destination which i cleverly named the file as "My Seoul Survival Kit".. hahahhahaha. poyo ok-i know..  i could say im almost there and im keeping my fingers crossed and hope that it will all go smooth until the day of departure..

Well, our journey will not end here, as last night we booked our next adventure in September.... where to? i guess you'll just have to wait for that...... ngeeee...

KLIA @ nite..

Since we r free on a saturday nite, we decided to hang out at the airport which is just a stone's throw away from our hse.. we love the place as it is like a huge playground for our little daughter where we can easily keep a watchful eye on her. the viewing deck also is a cool place to hang out and kill time where u can watch planes come and go.. mind you that KLIA is not as crowded as other international airports even though its a world class airport as far as im concerned..

Cameron Highlands-Revisited

i recently created an account with travel pod - in an effort to document my travels (lah kononn). i dont know how long it will last but do have a look at my CH entry. im trying to find time to upload my other travels..... (yelah tu)


http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iamatinydot/2/1336440816/tpod.html

 

Sulking

am NOT IN THE MOOD to be positive at the moment. I just want to SULK in self pity. 

blearghh..