Day 48? 47? of MCO and 2 months post travel, and I finally have the mood to jot down the trip I had to Seoul. For some reasons, I just can't seem to bring myself to write a post padahal this is the time to note about this memorable time. The trial time where we had to be homebound ourselves due to the deadly Sars-Cov-2 virus or notoriously known as the Covid19 disease. I remembered complaining about how tiring it was to work since the new semester started especially now that we are one man (or woman) down and bammm suddenly we were out of work for more than a month. What a time to live in huh?
Okay back to the main point...my trip to Seoul. The shortest planning time ever. Motivated by the airfare discount by MAS last November. I was kinda reluctant to go because I just came back from Japan last September. Usually it would take me at least 6 months to plan for a trip. Most of the time, more. I need to plan my finance wisely. My leaves. However after some convincing done by Wany, I followed through. The very least prepared trip. I don't even have plans where to go until the last days before going.
Around the time we were going, they were already outbreak of Covid19 cases around the world. We had dilemma, but since it was still quite early and the number of cases were around 50 in Korea when we were about to go, we proceeded anyway. However I must say, traveling with being very cautious of not catching the disease is no fun at all. I had to be paranoid to almost everything I was touching. I tried not to touch the train pole. The staircase handle. I even took less pictures because most of the time I had my mask on and my hands inside my coats to avoid touching unnecessary things!
We flew with MAS on February 19th with midnight flight and reached Seould early in the morning. Took bus to the hotel in Myeondong to leave our luggages. Too bad they did not allow early check in so we decided to just proceed with going to Gyeongbokgung Palace on that very first day. Yeap, we haven't showered for more than 12 hours already by that time 😓 Rented the traditional Hanbok and we burst to laughter seeing ourselves in this very girly Hanbok with very princess-ish vibe. SO not me. Had lunch at Kampungku restaurant, went back to hotel to shower, rest a bit and went out again to experience Myeondong street and food at night. Also pergi the 11 floor building of Daiso. Ye, kita experience most of the floors okay. GIgih tak. Oh we stayed at Days Hotel by Wyndham. Very strategic. Near to the famous shopping street and train station.
 |
| Day 1 - Gyeongbokgung, Myeongdong Street. 11-floor-building DAISO! |
On the second day we already pre-booked trip with Klook to 3 places - Railbike in Geongchon (?), Petit France and the ever famous Winter Sonata Nami Island. Costed us around RM200 I think for the journey all-inclusive except for food of course. The journey took 1.5 hours bus ride from Myeondong. Firstly we cycled on a railbike to tour around this Gongcheon area. It was kind of chilly. Interesting kind of tourist attraction. At least dapat la senam sikit kan. Petite France - miniature of houses and all-things, French? Ada Eiffel tower etc. This was significant place for Running Man fans sebab one of the episodes was filmed here. Jeju Island took around 10 minutes ferry ride from the jetty. Kejap je tak sempat nak tido pun. We had lunch here, and there was a praying area too. Senang boleh jamak Zohor Asar sekali. Honestly takde apa sangat pun melainkan the winter vibe, the trees tapi betul la, the way you market the place matters. Entahnya kalau Pantai Senik dekat KB tu kalau properly marketed pun bole jadi hype macam Nami ni kuhkuhkuh.
 |
| Railbike tu bole naik 4 orang. Dekat Jeju ada jugak memorial coffee house where the couples were filmed etc. |
On the third day we had free and easy day. Went to Namdaemun to shop for brooches. Too bad the main place was already closed down due to the Covid19 outbreak. At that point, there was already chaos about the Shinniseoji temple outbreak. We remained cautious. Nak jalan pun seriously risau. Masked on almost full time. Anyway, nasib ada a few small shops still open so we get to shop brooches and souvenirs at Namdaemun. Ada window shop winter jacket ingat nak beli sebab affordable dan cantik tapi terlupa nak patah balik! Kahkahkah. We then proceeded to Bukchon Hanon Village, a residential that still retained the traditional houses. Menarik ya how they managed to preserve the are until now. Kalau kat Malaysia dah lama nak robohkan dan dibangunkan semula. Petang tu kita attempted to go to Namsan tower tapi it was too windy so the cable car didn't work. Malas nak naik bas so we just decided to go the next day. Malam tu buat last minute skincare shop semua and found my skincare holy grail - Mamonde! So glad I made the decision to try it because I'm lovin' it.
 |
| Bukchon Hanon Village and the pintu gerbang of Namdaemun. Tak ramai dah sangat orang time ni. Tapi kagum dekat most of tourist attraction, they placed guides untuk tunjuk arah takut orang sesat! Bagus gila. |
The last day we went to Namsan tower since semalam dah tak jadi. Tak masuk pun conservatory deck tu sebab kena bayar lagi. Took pictures. Pergi and balik the cable car area still kena menapak. Semalam the first attempt kita naik bukit very the gigih one tapi harini kita cheat skit sebab we took the escalator. Turun from Namsan, we strolled around Myeongdong one last time before we went to Coex Mall to take pictures at the library. Ye, semata-mata kerna gambar ya. Oh by this time, we already had our luggages sent to Airport, bought the service from Klook. Very convenient! Senang nak berjalan kesana kesini tak bawa luggage since our flight was 12 midnight. Went to Ittaewon and sempat jamak zohor dekat Ittaewon Mosque. I can't really imagine how big it was sebab kita solat tempat Muslimah which was quite small. Tapau Halal Guys fries on the way back (semalam dah makan the kebab aaa sukaaa...sebab rindu rasa Kebab oversea lol) and took Arex, the airport shuttle to Incheon. Pun bought from Klook for RM19. Took us around 1 h 20 m. Baloi la kan KLIA express 50 minutes 55RM kot.
 |
| Last day at our hotel. Took escalator to cable car. The view from Namsan Tower and tower itself. Ittaewon Mosque and the ever famous Coex Mall library. |
Food in Seoul? Not too bad. But I like Japanese food more. Hikhik. We tried the famous fried cikin, bulgogi, the bbq, coffeee, dessert. But I definitely had confidence to try street food in Seoul sebab diorang claim Halal. Harap deme tak menipu ler. Tried the strawberry soufle pancake (10/10 sedap woi!) Egg bun (8/10 cam bahulu telur tapi because aku peminat telur aku suke je la), fish bun apa tah pun sedappp (9/10) Tried a few coffeeshops memang sedap la coffee sana aku pun tak pasti kenapa famous kat sana.
 |
| Myeondong street food. Fish bun, mini gimbap, egg bun dan macam-macam lagi lah. |
 |
| Coffee shops - and my favourite bagels!! |
 |
| Halal Guys - kebab terbaeks. Jajangmyeon at Nami Island. BBQ at Myeongdong. Fried cikin at Kampungku and Bulgogi at Eid Ittaewon. |
 |
| Skincare haul! Tapi mostly untuk souvenir la sebab tu je affordable. Muahaha. |
All in all, it was a short one but definitely a memorable one. Tapi tak seronok la travel waktu camni sebab kau akan rasa paranoid sepanjang masa. Even when I reached home I tried to avoid meeting people as best as I could tapi apakan daya kerja aku memang berjumpa manusia. No order to quarantine by my superiors so I went to work as usual. But I noted my whereabouts just in case. Was paranoid of myself until almost a month. Alhamdulillah, Tuhan selamatkan kami. We could be like the famous case #136 super spreader dari Korea yang bawa ke jemaah tabligh tu kan, who knows. Dahlah katanya dia kerja Kampung Restaurant where we had lunch, twice 😞
Punyalah reluctant nak pergi, dijadikan cerita this could be the last time traveling oversea for this year, or maybe next year too since the virus is pretty much out there and no vaccine yet. Let us pray this nightmare will end soon, insyaAllah. Merindui kehidupan dapat bertebaran secara bebas tanpa kerisauan.
