Fly to Seoul D2

Day 2! woohoo! i survived the cold.

We had so many places to visit this day. First stop, U-City in Incheon. This superb "future city" has everything for everyone. This city was supposed to be an interconnected city for economic, trades, offices, residences (which in this case means apartments), and entertainment area and will be done by 2020. 

yesss! there's 5D theater in this building. Altough they only playing the "advertisement" movie about the prospect of this city, i still feel amused, this proved that they doing marketing to the next level.

Then we went to.. i didn't know what it was called but i guess is a museum about Incheon bridge. And did you know? the Asian Games 2014 will be held in Incheon?

Why all coffee shops in Korea has to be this cute? makes me wanted to live here! ooohhh *faint*

After finished eating in that super cute coffee shop, we went to TS, a company that inspect the safety for every vehicle, the fun part starts after visiting TS.. we went to Insadong. This area is famous for it's art shops, especially traditional korean art. Unfortunately wet snow starts to fall that evening :( the roads are mainly still covered in snow so the wet snow made it more slippery.

Apparently, i accidentally went to this place, i forgot what it was called since i can't read hangeul. This place was used in the Seoul Song video clip where there's donghae and sooyoung, also ryeowook? i guess. (Fan- mode ON!) 

I was really thrilled since Seoul Song was the first song that made me hooked with K-Pop. I was standing exactly like the clip i captured there, and that's why i remembered it.

Meet Ratih! the tour guide/ translator for our trip in Seoul, and yes, she's Indonesian. I was also trying this ddung cake. Ddung means "poop" in Korean. Basically it was a soft cake, made by order with read bean paste filling and it was really delicious! The perfect thing to munch on a cold day. I was also tried hotteok, i didn't know what it's exactly made of but it's basically a batter, fried with something sweet almost like sugar in it. 

Then we went souvenir shopping here, and yes, everything was packed nicely. how can't you resist them?

And we had our dinner in here too! a big dinner. We had bulgogi, seafood cooked in gochujang, seafood cooked in a pot, another japchae, fried fish, and makgeolli (korean rice wine) that tasted exactly like "tape" in Indonesia.

That's it i guess for our trip that day. super exhausting yet exiting. See you on D3!

Fly to Seoul D1

So, on Feb 4-8 i had a business trip to SEOUL! this is definitely my biggest lifetime wish. I've been longing to visit south korea because well, ehm, my obsession with k-pop and stuff :p but i really interested with the country as well, whether its culture, food, technology and their fashion. This is definitely a true blessing to start 2013. Alhamdulilah, i still can't believe my 2 biggest lifetime wish had been achived which are visiting South Korea and watching BIGBANG concert :)

To start off, i was aware that it's still winter in South Korea, but i was taking it too easy. i just prepared a coat, 2 pair of socks, 2 shawls, and a pair of winter legging for my winter gear, but boy i'm wrong! I was landed on a snowy runway! according to my last research, its not going to be snowing anytime soon when i get there, but that was definitely wrong and yes it's freezing when i get off the plane. By the way, Incheon airport is definitely DAEBAK! so cool with all their facilities and not to mention, how HUGE it is. By the way, back to the topic. I just wore a tanktop, shirt and a pair of jegging, i think it's about -2 degrees on that day. Since it's my first time having a trip on winter, i was shocked. I couldn't handle the wind.

First stop, of course hotel. We stayed at Ibis Myeong-Dong which happens to be in the middle of shopping area (read: Lotte Department Store, tons of skin care shops, and international clothing brand like Zara, H&M and Forever 21). Then off for lunch, we went to a chicken restaurant around our hotel, and boom! look where i went to..

YES! BIGBANG visited this restaurant before. By the way, I was eating samgyetang (a whole chicken soup filled with rice and cooked with herbs). With warm tummies, we start our schedule by visiting Samsung SDS followed by visiting Yonsei University which many says that this is the best private college in South Korea, and indeed! it's not only HUGE (this means literally huge) but also full of technology.

Look closely! those are the facilities on their library..awesome! by the way, i ended my first day by wandering around Myeong-Dong area (shopping area) with freezing hand. 

I ended up buying a pair of wool gloves (which in this case doesn't make any difference at all) and sweater from SPAO.

We had our dinner at this specialty restaurant (still in Myeong-Dong) that serves traditional korean food and we tried bibimbab (rice with mixed vegetables) and Japchae (stir-fried vermicelli noodle mixed with vegetables and mushroom). I guess korea loves mushroom and bean sprout because they're everywhere on the dish and banchan.

 In my experience on korean food, this particular dish is my only NO! i really can't eat something with that raw gochujang (hot pepper paste) tangy smell. Other than bibimbab, i can eat all korean food that cooked with gochujang, including kimchi.

I think those are the recaps from my first day. See you on other D2, D3, and D4 diary post :)

Fly to Seoul