SEOUL 2023

 Hi there!

I start writing again after stagnation due to my laziness…eerrgggg…

Okay, let me tell you something: during COVID-19 and its isolation, I found another interesting hobby called still-life photography. I took courses and joined a photography community. So that’s why, travelling activities were suspended.

By the time COVID-19 was done, in 2023 I started travelling abroad again, and the first country was South Korea!

I went to South Korea only for 5 days, and Seoul was the only city I visited. I went there with my cousins; 2 people. So it was 3 of us going to Seoul; by ourselves, without joining a group travelling tour.

After 2 weeks of processing the Visa, which was very fast and pounding heart, they approved our visas. Okay then, off to Seoul!

We went travelling to Seoul at the end of May. Where there was no cherry blossom, all I got was only green scenery, very nice weather, and a beautiful city. We flew with Singapore Airlines, so, we had to do some transit in Changi Airport in Singapore.

During the 4-hour transit, we went around the airport and took a picture of the famous huge waterfall.

Finally, we arrived at Incheon Airport in Seoul around 11 PM. All public transportations were already closed for operation, and we couldn’t find any available hotel or capsule hotel inside the airport. So we decided to sleep on the airport bench until the next morning.

The sun started to shine and we were all ready to go downtown Seoul. We took the subway train to Myeongdong; our hotel. It was so easy to reach downtown. All the directions were clear and easy.

After kept our pieces of luggage in hotel reception, then we started our journey. First time was going to a famous international brand of coffee shop called Blue Bottle Coffee at Gangnam District. You know, I bought 2 portions of coffee, 1 cappuccino and 1 latte. I did this because the drink was really good, they had luxury taste of a coffee.

Then our next destination was going to the famous Starfield Library. We only took pictures and did some poses inside the library. This library is located inside the big mall, in the basement. Finish our activities here, then we went straight to find lunch. Much pork was served in the restaurant, so we decided to go to McD to eat chicken. It was almost afternoon, so we went out to the park and still took pictures of Korean celebrity's handprint monument.

At dawn, we went to Myeongdong to buy sneakers for me and go sightseeing, because Myeongdong is the very famous street market for tourist. I had several items bought from the market. Then we went to our hotel to have good night sleep and prepare for tomorrow’s adventures.

2nd Day

The second destination was Nami Island. We went there by train. After 1 hour on the train and 15 15-minute drive by taxi, we arrived at the ship and crossed the river to the Nami Island. We had beautiful time there for almost for the whole day. We also had ice cream; it was super delicious!

Not wanting to waste time, we went to Siheung Premium Outlet. We were there almost dark, so we had to do some shopping really fast! I got 2 items from there and enjoyed taking pictures.

We left Siheung Premium Outlet by 21.30 and went straight to our hotel in Myeongdong. Then we had a good night's sleep again for tomorrow’s adventures!

3rd Day

On the very first morning, we had a fast breakfast and then went to Bukchon Hanok Village. Thank goodness not many people when we arrived. We enjoyed our time there and taking many pictures of those beautiful traditional Korean houses.

The next destination was Café Onion Anguk. The café had a long queue ha ha ha… but we followed the rules and kept queuing. Finally, after 1 hour, we had our table. All the bread was good, and the coffee was really good. Wow…it was just amazing!

Then in the afternoon, we went shopping again in Insadong. We bought some souvenirs and enjoyed taking pictures. At dawn, we went home to our hotel, bought some fried chicken from Two Two Fried Chicken and bought rice from GS25 supermarket. We had a really nice supper in the front yard of our hotel.

4th Day

That day’s destination was N-Tower Seoul. We went up to the tower by a cable car. Since the tower was not so far from our hotel, we took a walk to the cable car station. We were in Namsan Tower until lunchtime, we took pictures and had some enjoyable moments.

From Namsam, one of my sisters separated because she wanted to go to the pop store of her famous boy band Korean actress. I and my other sister continued to our next destination. A small problem happened. We got lost! Wkwkwkwwk… we got off at the wrong station. That was all because Korean stations always have 2 similar names of the stations, and we couldn’t read Haneul. But it was easy, our right subway station is the station next to this wrong station.

Kwangya is a Korean modern music store. I didn’t know much about Korean music, I just followed my sister looking around the store.

Then we went to Itaewon District, we went to visit Seoul Central Mosque, the biggest mosque in South Korea, it’s a central activity for Muslims in Seoul. But since I had my period, I could only take pictures from the outside of the mosque, and I was not doing prayer inside.

For lunch, we had a beef meal from Lebanon Restaurant near Seoul Central Masjid, and after having a meal, we took a long walk to a small store while looking around the life of Itaewon housing. It just looks like the Korean drama scene. Good experience for us. For a moment, we faced a hard choice; should we climb up the stairs or walk for another 1 km (sad emoticon) Then finally I decided to take the stairs. It was a crazy stair! It was so high and so steep, oh my God! It was a real disaster wkwkwwkwkwk…but finally, we made it to the top and we continued our journey.

Our next destination was Banpo Park where we could see rainbow fountain from the bridge. We made first stop to Starbuck Banpo, bought some coffee and took pictures. It was delightful watching the rainbow show from Banpo bridge while drinking our coffee. Good and nice weather around 26 Celcius degree, we had a great time!

5th Day

Finally, it was the D-day for us to go to Jakarta. Bye, Seoul! Thank you for the best experience I have had!