KOREA I ft Jeju Island.

Annyeong! I'm finally blogging about my trip to Korea with my family last February haha. It was winter when we visited & boy it sure was cold. If you know me you would know i'm not someone who's afraid of the cold (ask my friends, or my roommate!), so when i call it cold, it is cold.

I took some (over 100 clips lolol) videos, planning to make a vlog out of it, but i'm not sure when will i ever have the time to edit videos, also i hate editing videos, i've only tried once, i told myself never again lol. I lost all the videos a couple of days back actually, i was devastated.  I also lost all my photos (again, yes, i hate myself, truly) on my laptop because i deleted them, permanently, on accident (shift + delete ugh). it took me two days to dig the files back (photos, videos & some notes i made to study, ah my blood sweat & tears), but i only managed to recover the videos so far. Fingers crossed i will be able to get the others back soon :( 

Fortunately i drafted about my Korea trip on my blog beforehand so i've always uploaded all of the photos i wanted to include in my entry. My family photos are also back up in google drive la. Once again proving that my blog is important to me as i have all my photos uploaded here for myself as i don't have the original copy anymore. 

We took a late night flight from KLIA to Incheon. We flew with Korea Air, it was quite a pleasant flight.  Oh i forgotten to mention that we went to Korea with a travel agency, Apple. It was not bad la, but i would have preferred going on our own as most of the Koreans can converse in English or Mandarin, so it wouldn't be too inconvenient to communicate with the locals. You will definitely get more freedom without a travel agent, only downside would be more homework & responsibility la. 






i look super bulky haha. but happy okay. 
Upon landing, i ran outdoor as  fast as i could to experience the coldness. I couldn't stop laughing when the coldness hit me, i liked it. Little did i know it only gets colder after this.

i saw this at the counter, how considerate of them to put this magnifier :D




Wherever i go, i'll always check out the local 7 eleven, or whichever convenient store they have, just to experience the local life haha. Some of the food & drinks they sell are just too cute! 


We met up with our tour guide, a local, Ricky & begin our journey. Our first destination was Imjingak, located near the Imjin River, 7km from the Military Demarcation Line. Honestly, I didn't do much homework to study about the places we were about to visit beforehand as i was preparing & sitting for my ESOTs right before the trip. I wished i had more research about the place & the history before visiting them la. I'm actually doing my reading online right now as i'm blogging haha. 

it was that cold.
I had to cover as much skin as i could, i looked like a total weirdo but i could care less lol 

remnant from the war - a battled steam locomotive on the railway
colourful ribbons filled with messages & prayers covered the fence on the side. 



A set of long johns, a hoodie, a skirt & a winter coat was clearly not enough. I didn't really explore the place because i was hiding from the cold :(


i went up the Imjingak Complex to the observation deck.
From here you can see beyond the Imjin River & towards North Korea.

//
despite looking sunny, it's still cold lol 

Mama Lau gave me an extra scarf so my neck won't freeze to death <3
ft me pretending to look fine but am actually freezing.

i'm such a tourist hahaha

this is the imjingak building where there's toilet & several shops that sells food & souvenirs.
 On the roof, an observation deck which i just mentioned. 

guess whatttttt
i remember keeping an extra face mask in my school bag (yes i brought my school bag lol)
in case i needed it in prostho lab which face masks are hard to get
who knows i'll be using it in Korea instead haha



Next, we went to the Odusan Unification Observatory. It was established to console the feelings of dispersed families and provide an educational site for the unification education through B5F to 1F in 1992. The observatory is situated in the northernmost ceasefire line of the western front where Hangang River, Seoul’s lifeline, and Imjingang River meet. The river which divides the two countries is 2km at its widest point and only 460 meters at the narrowest point.

obviously i copied that somewhere haha


On trip advisor, several people left reviews about seeing people at North Korea, but i didn't really see anyone,
probably because the weather is too cold for them to stay outdoors? i'm not sure lol
but i did see some houses & buildings through the binoculars (which are free & pretty clear!) 



a statue of Cho Man-Sik, Korea's Gandhi.


I must say the view was spectacular. At the fourth floor, we watched a video that provides information about North Korea, there is also a 3D map that outlines where we were and what we were looking at across the river and border.

Next, we tried their famous Andong Braised Chicken for lunch. I find it almost bland, maybe i am more used to having more flavour like our Malaysian food haha.


there's always tons of refillable side dishes in korean meals.
the side dishes are usually a variety of vege, but kimchi is a staple to every meal
i've eaten tons of kimchi in Korea because it is provided in every single meal,
read on & you'll see it! 



After lunch was our flight to Jeju from Gimpo Airport.

when i see good lighting & a full length mirror, i need a mirror selfie lol
this was in the airport toilet

Our first destination at Jeju was their famous Mysterious Road. Basically the Mysterious Road is just a road that gives the optical illusion that it is going up, but actually it's going down. Most people would drive on the road, shift gear to neutral & find their cars "moving upwards" & "defying gravity" & get really amazed haha. In reality it's just gravity doing it's job & your vehicle sliding downhill like it should. 



this is the road lolol nothing fancy tbh. 


It was almost sunset when we were there so it was extra pretty & photo worthy. 



waw is my hair defying gravity hahaha jk






Then we had dinner. One thing about this travel agency is that they take every single meal seriously lolol. There's always a lot of food on the table for us & i'll be eating twice as much as what i usually eat.  Highlight of the dinner was abalone soup in claypot. I believe that was the first time i had abalone. It tastes okay i guess. i'm a simple person, i'm fine with normal seafood, don't need fancy abalones lol.


my incredibly failed shot lol but i've lost all of my photos on my laptop & these are my remaining photos so i have to keep all of them on my blog so it will last foreverrrr. 

couldn't remember what was this exactly but i believe it's some green bean Korean pancake.
I think this pancake is the second staple to every meal we had la.
i like korean pancakes :D  





Abaloneeeeeeeee :D

After dinner we check in into our hotel for the next two days, Ocean Suites Jeju Hotel. I liked the room & i've taken a room tour video which you will see if i ever get it edited into a vlog lol. We were still pretty energized so we walked to Yeon Dong Shopping Street. We found various shops seeling mostly clothes & shoes but we didn't get anything because Ricky told us that the shops in Seoul has more choices & are more up to date. 

me rocking my face mask again

It's basically several streets with shops la, in a way it's like a single storey shopping mall. 

reminds me of tsum tsum hehs 





That's pretty much everything for day one. It wasn't much actually as we spent most of our time travelling, from KL to Incheon, then to Jeju as there's no direct flights to Jeju, but it's all part of the trip la so i enjoyed every part of it :)

 Honestly, the hardest part about blogging is thinking of the post title lol. I wanted something cute, creative or catchy but i couldn't come up with any so i ended up using the most basic title possible lol. Hit me up if you have anything in mind please! Thank you. Stay tuned for more posts & hopefully better titles haha.



Love, 
Sheunny



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