Seoul, Korea 2: Namsan Park, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Nami Island

Our list trip yang seterusnya ialah Namsan Park, Gyeongbokgung Palace dan Nami Island. Sebelum berangkat ke Jeju untuk menghadiri konferens, since masa very tight, jadi rushing jugalah nak melawat tempat-tempat ni semua.

1. Namsan Park - N Tower, Love Padlocks dan Teddy Bear Museum


The first place that we went pada hari tu ialah Namsan Park. Apa yang ada di Namsan Park? Well, di sini ada tiga main attraction utama iaitu N Seoul Tower, Love Padlocks Bridge dan Teddy Bear Museum. Kalau tengok daripada hotel yang kami stay tu, boleh nampak dengan jelasnya Tower tersebut. Tapi, bila jalan kaki nak ke cable car stationnya, boleh tahan jauh juga (#IBlameYouHusrulNizam). Tak salah saya ada dua option untuk ke sini, samada naik bas atau nak cable car. Since saya jalan kaki dari subway, jadi saya kena naik lift ni dulu untuk sampai ke cable car station. Kami sampai awal pukul 9.15am, tapi bila dah sampai ke station kat atas tu, kaunter tiket tak buka lagi, pukul 10am baru buka.

   a) N Tower

Lift untuk ke cable car station

Dalam cable car menuju ke Namsan Park

I'm wearing Korean traditional dress called Hanbok

Guard yang di sebelah kiri tersengih kerana tidak serius mengawal istana

   b) Love Padlocks Bridge

Di sini jugalah adanya Love Padlocks where the couples may cherish the eternity of their love,  mengunci padlock cinta anda dan pasangan pastu buang anak kunci tu ke bawah bukit #kenapatakkuncitangandiasekali 

Ni baru starting..now turn down...

Love Padlocks

 

Selain padlocks, this magnetic mosaic pun boleh digunakan untuk declare the eternity of your love

   c) Teddy Bear Museum

Selepas tu, we all masuk Teddy Bear Museum which is next to Love Padlocks. Mula-mula, rasa pelik juga kenapa ada museum untuk teddy bear. Harga tiket 8,000 won seorang lebih kurang RM24). Bila dah masuk baru tahu, muzium tu sama juga macam muzium lain, cerita pasal sejarah, Cuma props yang digunakan adalah teddy bear instead of guna patung orang. 
.

Entrance di dalam muzium



Bersama mak dan bapa teddy bear. Mereka bekerja sebagai petani



2. Gyeongbokgung Palace


Our next visit ialah Gyeongbokgung Palace..a place for the royals dulu kala. Next to it ada National Museum of Korea, but at that time, it was closed due to renovation. Ramai sangat visitors kat sini. Since it was summer, memang berpinar-pinar la mata. tiket masuk 3,000 won. At first, nothing much interesting here, cuma kat sini banyak gate colorful and all the gates tu ada fungsinya. manage to watch the guards tengah berarak untuk buat tukar position la kot, sambil diiringi bunyi muzik tradisi Korea

3. Nami Island / Namiseom

So, last visit ialah Namiseom atau dikenali juga sebagai Nami Island. Since this island agak jauh juga dari bandar Seoul, and we choose to go there by train, jadi harus bergegas awal. Dua kali tukar station dan memakan masa lebih kurang 2 jam setengah.  

Dalam train KoRail menuju ke Gapyeong Station. 

Bila dah sampai ke stesyen terakhir untuk ke Nami Island iaitu Gapyeong Station, kami naik teksi pula menuju ke terminal jeti sebelum naik feri ke Pulau Nami. Teksi ke terminal lebih kurang 5 minit, harga teksi lebih kurang 2,600 won.

Feri untuk ke pulau Nami

Pulau ni sebenarnya berbentuk half moon shape and it is actually quite a small island. Yang menarik kat sini cuma scenery dan pokok-pokoknya tu lah yang tersusun, tinggi dan cantik. Di sini juga tempat penggambaran drama yang famous tu Winter Sonata. Yelah..time saya belajar, itulah Korean drama yang sangat famous ditonton and satu lagi saya suka drama Successful Story of a Bright Girl played by Jang Nara yang comel. Tapi, saya takdelah hardcore sampai tonton berpuluh kali. Cukuplah tontonan free di tv saja..hehe. So, enjoy the pics.

Jun Sang is behind me...kehkehkeh

Welcome to Nami!

Pyramid of books

Stone of love...if you manage to place the stones vertically without falling, kononnya your love last forever...

Omaigod...love the scenery...love Ginkgo trees!!!

Next, travel ke Jeju island pula dari bandar Seoul!

Seoul Korea 1: Namdaemun Market, Itaewon, Myeongdong

Salam semua. Sebenarnya, minggu ni memang sangat kritikal buat saya sebab this is the exam week for degree students. Saya sedang "berperang" dengan masa untuk siapkan marking and settle all the coursework marks. Tapi, ni curi-curi juga masa untuk update sebab saya takut terlupa momen-momen few weeks ago that I've flied to Korea. Hmm..not in my list before, frankly... Tapi, teruja juga sebenarnya, yelah kan tak pernah jejak pun ke negara orang yang chinese-japanese-korean look ni. Since ke sana pun sebab ada conference, so, I'll share with you guys pengalaman saya and hubby ketika ke sana. There might be few entries regarding on this trip after this post..harap tidak termuntah :p.

Kebetulan tarikh untuk pergi ke sana ada promo fare from MAS, so we decided to have a direct flight from KL to Incheon Airport via MAS. Yang sedihnya, probably since its promo fair, there's no private screen for each of the passenger in the flight .hehe...Tapi, as usual, the food is splendid.

We reached Incheon Airport at 7.15am (local time at Seoul) and for your info, KL dan Seoul beza waktu cuma sejam aje, dan di KL suppose pukul 6.15am. Since we have booked hotel earlier and the hotel is lcoated in Myeong-dong area, so we decided to go there via bus. It's cheaper i tell you. Actually you can either choose AREX (airport train) or bus from the airport. Tapi memikirkan AREX susah sikit kalau bawa luggage besar-besar sebab pengalaman naik subway & trains di luar negara ni, you should acknowledge that each time when you exit from the station to change lines,  you have to go up and down, vertically and horizontally to change..hoh sangat penat ok. Tak payah banyak cerita, naik je bas, senang.

Arrive at Incheon Airport

 

This is the bus route to go to Myeongdong area

 We've tried this Banana Milk (bingrae kot nama dia). Sedap! Now at Jaya Grocer pun banyak dah banana milk ni :)

This is Hotel-Y House (located at Namdaemun - Myeongdong area) our stay in Seoul and its actually quite confusing to search this hotel at first. Kami sangat bernasib baik jumpa Azlin, our new friend met in the same flight and inform us to take the bus with her to reach at this hotel. She is awesome and ingat landmark nearby...Lin, nasib baik jumpa u, kalau tak, macam ayam itik la kitorang menanya orang-orang kat airport tu...T___T

 

 The front view of hotel. we booked this hotel from Agoda. It costs us around RM200 (malaysian ringgit) per night.

 Areas in vicinity  - lots of korean dish restaurants here.

Since we reach the hotel agak awal dan check-in is only allowed after 2pm, so, kitorang pergi la jalan-jalan dulu. Lepas letak beg kat lobby, we head to Namdaemun Market which is located only at the opposite of the main road at our hotel area. So, apa ada di Namdaemun Market ni? From our reading through blogs and websites earlier, you can find almost any goods in here - clothes, shoes, women's accessories, souvenirs, streetfoods, bags, leathers, ginseng, kitchenware - its like pasar malam tapi sangat sangat luas.

1. Namdaemun Market.

Kat sini pun banyak cosmetic shop and skincare products, which is what Korea is famous for. The familiar brands are such as The Face Shop, SkinFood, Nature's Republic, Missha, TonyMoly and Etude. I do admit that those cosmetic/skincare products like face mask, BB cream, facial cleanser is quite cheap here. Tapi, barang-barang lain selain cosmetic/skincare, for me, its quite expensive because of the currency.

 Ginseng is also famous here.

 

You can spot The Face Shop & Missha easily here!

 Hello Kitty shops

At Namdaemun ni, I've entered one lower ground malls sebab terpandang dari luar, baju budak-budak je tau. Banyak sangat dress comel-comel especially for girls...cute sgt. Mostly dress yang diaorang jual is for wedding theme, banyak design cantik2 tapi sayangnya tak boleh ambil gambar di dalam. Saya rasa kalau beli kat Lovely Lace pun dah beratus-ratus, tapi kat sini price range around 20,000 - 40,000 won. Quite reasonable juga.

Childen's wear wholesale market

Jewellery market - pening kepala sebab space dia kecik, peniaga semua sombong taknak layan customer foreigners. Sebenarnya they can't speak English, jadi, nampak foreigners ni, diaorang akan lari-lari taknak layan. But, for those yang gile jewels, memang cantik sangat kualiti jewels kat sini.

 

 Jewellery market/shops

  

  

2. Itaewon

Its quite hard to find halal restaurants here and I was late to know about Lotteria (ohemji..why..nanti cerita later ok). If you have friends in Korea or you travel via agent, I don't think it becomes hard for you to eat sebab of course, diaorang boleh bawa ke tempat restaurant yang halal. But for us yang free-easy ni, memang rasa nak menangis tak tau nak makan apa. Dah datang tempat orang, teringin juga nak rasa Korean local dish kan. But to be frank, we don't have guts to try...entahlah mungkin rasa was-was. Jadi, kalau nak cari restaurants yang lebih play-safe, you can find at Itaewon area sebab tempat ni banyak Middle-East/Arabic cuisines. Kat area sini pun ada masjid jadi bolehlah solat dengan selesa. Basically, nothing much interesting here, only filled up with lots of foreigners because ada food streets serve western dish. A lot of pubs and bars too.

3. Myeongdong area

 

 

Myeongdong is famous place of fashion and urban style. The Korean teens are everywhere here, so envy because their skin cantik and so skinny hehehehe #insafnakmakannasi. The street adverts are encumbered with faces of K-Pop stars but don't ask me who, sebab saya bebal sikit bila datang Korea ni, bukan KPop fans T___T . So, just enjoy sightseeing sahaja. Ok, there goes our first day there

View inside Hotel Y-House

View inside Hotel Y-House...serve free wifi 24hrs!