Annyeonghaseyo Korea Part 2 - Itaewon and Seoul Tower

Well, we continue our journey to Seoul. But before that I have a scary-funny thing that happen to us on the way to Jeju Airport. Our flight is at 8.30am and we are late. We are supposed to take 6am bus to airport but instead we took the 6.30am instead. We overslept because we were so tired the night before.

So when we arrived at airport it is 7.50am, and we were so worried that we will not able to get on the plane. Then, there's along queue to check in with a lot of bags, from the language, they are from China. Then, I've done something I never done before, I cut the line and and beg to the counter girl, to let us check in first because our flight is 30 minutes away. Luckily, she said ok and I know the China delegates said something bad about us but I don't care because I need to get on the flight pronto.

Then, like The Amazing Race we rush off to the gate and the funny part is, our flight has been delayed to 10.30am, after we've been told off by the China delegates. And the most funny part is, they are in my flight. Hah!


Our flight, Jeju Air








Itaewon


When we arrive to Gimpo and took bus to Myeongdong. Our hotel, Namsan 2, doesn't look at hotel at all. We didn't notice it first. We book two room with Korean sleeping style. Oh boy the room is so small but very clean. The toilet is so small and only one person can go in at one time. So we have to change outside the room and one of us need to close our eyes or not looking while we are changing. Funny memories.

Supposed our plan to go to Nami Island but because it is late already Beriyani Rice and it so we plan to go Itaewon instead for lunch. It is different side of Korea where we saw a lot of Arabic, Turkish restaurants and Halal shops. After scavenging we decided to have lunch at Foreign Restaurant. I ordered Beryani Rice and it was the most expensive rice ever about RM 30 (10 000 won) but it does taste good and have a lot of portion. Tehn we went to Salam Bakery, to buy bread for our dinner. I tried pavlova for the first time and it was sooo sweet. We tried to find where is the mosque then we decided to ask one of the shop owners there. The masjid was big and beautiful. There's children playing there, they are Korean but they are Muslim, there's not a look that you can see everyday. The entrance for man and woman was separated so when we decided to take the photo in front of mosque, the cute little boy was saying something but we do not understand until one of the tourist, which is a Korean told us that we can't take photo there because it is for man area only.

After that we went to Nandaemun but unfortunately, a lot of stalls close already. Then suddenly, we heard people screaming and guess what we saw some of stall owners fighting. We not sure what they are fighting about but it involves both ahjumma and ahjussi. Physical fight. I was quite stunned but the best part is, my friends able to go to the nearest shop bear the fight incident to shop. I was like, seriously? And that is the first glimpse I got about the Korean people. It was not as portrayed in dramas. Far from it. We just bought some spoons and other knick knacks then straight to hotel.

Seoul Tower

At night, we decided to go to Seoul Tower, which was behind our hotel. We walked there around 15 minutes  and a very could weather. The cable car to go up is ok, perhaps because it was at night and I can't see what happen down there. The tower is quite high and the scenery was night. They have this wall where people put locks and also they have a hearth shape poem which every couple try to take photo with it. My friend was so happy to get there because if I'm not mistaken, one of the restaurant was in the famous Korean drama which I forgot already. I didn't get good photos here as my camera can't take good photo at night, so we use Kak Ain's DSLR camera instead.

After coming back from the tower, we decided to have Maggie mee party at the pantry. I love the pantry, it has the biggest fridge I've ever seen . It was spacious and we have the place for ourselves. You can surt internet and make internet phone calls here. It also a mini gym. They have bag scale which we use to weight ourselves instead. Then we called of by 12pm as we need to wake up early tomorrow to for Nami Island.
To be continue.....

Cable car to Seoul Tower

Love poem 

Wall of padlocks

Seoul at night