Seoul-searching for fun, food & fond memories #jenjochooiseoul2019

#bestiesturning40 Seoul trip finally took place from 6th to 14th Dec 2019, after 2 years of planning & praying that it will eventually happen. 

Praise God the trip was so much more exciting & meaningful that we can ever imagine or expect. 

We had such a wonderful 1st day in Seoul yesterday. We all met up in Incheon Airport and very quickly started our adventure to explore #seoulwinter2019
After a very early check-in to Creto Hotel in Myeong-dong, PTL 🙏🏼 for special favour, we took a quick shower to freshen up. Then we were greeted by a pleasant surprise - snow! ❄️❄️❄️ It was a light shower of snow, so wonderful for us who come from super hot Malaysia 🇲🇾😆😆😆
Lunch at Myeong-dong Kyoja was such a great complement to the super cold subzero weather 🥶🥶🥶
After hours of jalan-jalan on streets of Myeong-dong, we took a nice break at Billy Angel Cake Co for some latte & crepe. After dropping off our stuffs back to the hotel, we went to the largest ever Daiso we have ever seen! A whole building of 11-floors of Daiso products to buy!!!
At about 7-ish, we went for dinner of pork stew at Geugang Kum Kang in Myeongdong and called it a night.

Day 2 of #jenjochooiseoul2019 started early as we joined the ‘DMZ-equivalent’ tour hahaha coz the actual DMZ area is closed since Oct due to African swine fever 😬

We arrived at the 1st stop - Imjingak Park at about 9am. Our guide Chloe briefed us about the history of this place and showed us around - Freedom Bridge, Mangbaedan, Imjingang River, Dokgae Bridge & BEAT 131 bunker exhibition. We were given about half an hour after that to explore this area & to take pics. It was another very cold day here, there were frost everywhere and the ground was slippery 😅😆😁 

Then we proceeded to Odu Mountain 🏔 Unification Observatory. This place serves to remind/inform of the tragic reality of the division of the peninsula. We could take a peek into North Korea through the many telescopes here.

Last stop was The War Memorial Museum, where 13,000 items are displayed in 6 halls about the history of the Korean War between North & South plus the war equipment.

By the end of this tour, we were so famished and we quickly took the train to head back to Myeongdong to have a late lunch at BHC, superbly yummy fried chicken complemented with beer.. super yumssssss!!! To walk off the calories, we walked around Myeongdong streets and went to check out the TOM’S almond shop.... never seen so much almond in my life!! After a quick rest back in the hotel, we left to go for Nanta Show at the nearby Myeongdong UNESCO building. What a wonderful way to end the night with laughter & simple fun!

After a restful night, day 3 of #jenjochooiseoul2019 started off later, at least we had more time to rest & sleep in a bit. First stop was Starfield COEX Library in Gangnam. Such a beautiful place, we took some time going up and down the escalators to take beautiful photos of the tall cabinets of bookssssssss 📚 📚 📚

Then we headed to Bukchon area for Samyetang lunch... yummmsss ginseng chicken soup 🍲 there is glutinous rice inside the chicken... wow what a filling meal 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🤤🤤🤤 another superbly-yum meal and this place is famous amongst locals as well as tourists. 

Thanks to Chooi for the well-planned ‘food itinerary’ hahahaha 👏🏼👏🏼 After lunch, we walked up and down the Bukchon Hanbok Village, it was really tiring but worth the effort as we get to see all the old traditional Korean homes. We rewarded ourselves with warm hot chocolate & tea complemented with strawberry 🍓 🍓 🍓 waffle & tiramisu 😍😍😍 The night continued on with more walking hahahahaha as we traveled to visit Cheongyecheon stream. A little disappointed as the supposedly beautiful Christmas lightings should be on but it’s not 😅 Nevertheless we walked along the stream for about 500m and got hungry hahaha so we proceeded to dinner at Honamjip in Dongdaemun area. It was good meal of authentic grilled mackerel and a unique dish of octopus 🐙 in some special sauce. It was quite cold 🥶🥶🥶 at night and we had to walk to the nearby DDP area to board the train back to hotel. DDP has such a wonderful architecture design and the whole area is just so beautiful and futuristic.

Day 4 of #jenjochooiseoul2019 was a packed-day with many places to visit. Today we were picked up by the local tour bus at 10.00am in front of Prince Hotel in Myeongdong.

First stop was Gangchon Rail Bike 🚲 where we have to cycle down an old railway track 🛤 in a “family-bike” that seats four persons. We arrived here just in time for the 12nn departure of the bikes *phew* It was pretty tiring but a lot of fun pedalling and enjoying the scenery surrounding that area in this cold slightly foggy winter hahaha... weather was perfect too... not too sunny and no rain!

Then we headed off to Nami Island and arrived at 2pm. We had a quick lunch in one of the cafe before departing to the island via ferry ⛴. It was a short 5-min ride only. Nami Island is a beautiful place with trees lined up and very romantic place for honeymooners 😍😍😍 It was very cold 🥶 here but not as cold as a week ago according to the tour guide. Last week temperature dropped to -10 degree... OMG!! We spent close to 2-hours here, took many pictures of us posing with trees, nearby the tree and in between the trees. Since I am not a Winter Sonata fan... hahaha... I could not relate to the excitement of the fans 😎😎 Time flew by very quickly and it was 5.30pm - time to depart to Garden of Morning Calm. We felt as though we were entering into the Avatar Land... so magical with thousands of LED lights in the garden, forming different themes - romantic, sea life, children’s magical playground etc. We spent 1 hour plus here... and was so famished by the end of it that we rushed over to the food stalls to savour some Oden.

By the time we got back to Seoul town, it was pretty late, almost 9-ish. We got down from tour bus at Hongik station 🚉 and walked over to the most yummy 🤤 Korean BBQ I have ever tasted before. The restaurant name is Palsaek Samgyeopsal in Hongik area. It has been a veryyyyyyy long day yet fun-filled and wonderful day spent with my besties.

Thank goodness day 5 is a free & easy day with no tours hahaha 😆 We decided to drop Gyeongbokgung Palace from the list and headed off straight to Gwangjang Market, arrived around 10am.

There are sooooooo many food stalls, fabric shops, bedding shops, gifts shops etc etc... every end and corner is constantly hustle bustle. Very very crowded everywhere! 🤓😎

We tried out raw octopus 🐙 today, it was still moving when we put the pieces into our mouths!! 😲😲😲 We had an early lunch today... we ate bibimbap, jiajiangmyon, japchae, mung bean pancake & millet pancake... so much so much food!! After that, we proceeded to Insadong-gil, an artsy area - we hang out in this mall Ssamziegil for almost 2 hours... so much to discover 👍🏼🤩 We then went to a nearby traditional tea house to enjoy some local delicacy and Korean specialty tea.

Dinner was at Migabon, a famous place for porridge in Myeongdong. And after walking for 30mins or so, we got hungry and went to have another dinner at BHC 🍗🍗🍗 hahahaha. The night ended early as we needed to wake up very early the next day for skiing.

Today is THE day we anticipated for sooooo long - ski 🎿🎿🎿 day!! hahahahaha... the day started very early for me, woke up at 5.30am to get ready for this adventurous day hehe. Pick-up was prompt at 7.15am and we headed straight to Oak Valley Ski Resort ⛷⛷⛷ We arrived at the resort around 9-ish after grabbing our ski jackets and ski pants from the nearby rental shop. Actually it’s not as cold here compared to the city area ❄️❄️❄️ PTL we got a really good coach, JK to teach us how to ski 🎿 ⛷and he happened to be the boss of the tour agency we engaged hahaha 👍🏼👍🏼 He taught us for 2.5 hours and we managed to ski ⛷a bit lah... I fell down many many times 😂😂😂 It’s so hard to walk in ski 🎿 boots, they were so heavy and too tightly-fitted OMG 😮 Yes PTL also for the perfect sunny weather despite news report of dropping temperature the night before.

After returning to the city from Oak Valley, we had dinner at Honamjip grilled fish again hahaha.

Day 6 started free & easy as we rested from the tiring skiing ⛷ session yesterday. The day started late at about 9-ish and we went to eat porridge (again! hahaha) at Bonjuk in Myeongdong. I ordered the red snow crab 🦀 porridge which cost 13k won (a whopping RM45 for a bowl of porridge 😂😂😂), very sweet taste and plenty of crab meat. Then we walked around Myeongdong whilst waiting for Lotte Plaza to open. We headed over there to buy seafood kimchi 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🤩🤩🤩🤤🤤🤤 at about 11am. I bought loads of chocolate. After unloading our purchases back at the hotel, we headed over to Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. We spent close to 1.5 hours here admiring the masterpieces. Around their closing time about 5.30pm, we took the bus to go to Namsan Hill. Such beautiful city 🌃 lights from here but it was just wayyyyy too cold 🥶 🥶 🥶 up here. We didn’t stay very long up in the hill area, quickly took a bus to head back down.

Next stop was Norwangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. There were loadsssssssssss of seafood 🦞 🦀and a lot of price negotiationssssss! We decided on a medium-sized plate of sashimi, some local scallop and 1kg of la-la 🤤🤤🤤😍😍😍 paired all that with local Seoju... what a wonderful way to end our trip with this scrumptious meal 🤤🤤🤩🤩😍😍 cheers 🥂 🥂 🥂 to 30+ years of friendship and to the next 30+ years 😘 Happy blessed 40th birthday to my besties!

Day 7 of #jenjochooiseoul2019 marked the LAST day of our besties holiday. This 1-week long holiday spent together, exploring many places and savouring many different local Korean food, doing many adventurous and crazy activities together, will be a very priceless memory for all of us.

We started the day very busy in the morning trying to fit all the items into our luggages hahaha 🤣🤣🤣 For the 1st time, my luggage exceeded the permitted weight allowance 😅😅😅 usually I do not spend much buying things from my holidays but this time I bought loadsssss of almond as gifts & souvenirs, plenty of sheet mask also.... and some other food items like kimchi, chocolate & some local candy.

PTL for a blessed trip, with perfect weather everyday, laughter throughout the day, a lot of eating and many many hours spent together catching up & just chit-chatting away. Thank you Lord for your protection and provision for this trip.

I have made a simple short video for this trip, click here.

*****