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!