Xavian 20-Apr-2008

The little twerk slept thru'out the 3 hours I was there, only sound that emerged from him was a 30- second-cry after jackie's barks disturbed him....oh well, hope he'll be awake when I next visit him on his 1st mth's celebration ^^


poor jackie....he really looks like an oversized chihuahua hahahahah

i like spending money

who is to stop me? >:P

Seoul, 4-12 Apr 2008

Yes, I've been there for many times already....1st 3 trips were in May, Oct, Dec 2006 and the 4th in April 2008....I wanted to go tw but Jie juz went there last sep and she wasn't keen to go again...so....

It's my 2nd holiday trip with Jie. The 1st being an all-expense-paid-for trip (albeit it's paid by her) to Melbourne in Nov 2002, and now the 2nd, and one for which I can pay for myself :)


"Diary"

• 3 Apr
  

• Jetted off at close to 11pm on Asiana
  

• 4 Apr
  
• Took the airport shuttle bus to Sejong Hotel. Got Shin from Namsan Guest House to pick us up as the lazy cousin didn't want to lug her luggage down and up the infamous staircases of Seoul subway stations
• 1st stop was Yongsan - to try to find the stylus that Ling and Sandra wanted but alas! that is only available online. Had a really nice and dirt cheap shabu-shabu lunch @ 5,000 won ea.
  
• Hit Myeong Dong straight afterwards and the 2 of us were like prisoners set-afree, buying things as if they are FOC....and we managed to stuff ourselves super-duper full with street food
  
  
• 5 Apr
• Went to HRC at Itaewon. We didn't know there's a HRC in Seoul until we saw a recommendation of it on the travel guide on the plane...Jie had to go there to purchase her signature pin and I had to get a tee of coz. Oh, and this is where we got our first sighting of sakuras hehe...
  
• We then hit Namdaemun. Got waylaid by a v friendly china lady and we ended buying all the seaweeds we wanted to purchase at a later date....we then paid a visit to Namdaemun Gate which is under repair from that fire it suffered a couple of months back...nothing much to see since it's all walled up, but can see tons of writings on the walls by good-wishers or maybe not since I don't understand hangeul.
  
• Dinner was my long-missed spicy rice cakes at Sindang. *slurp*
  
  
  
  
• 6 Apr
• Insa-dong. This is where you get chopped like a carrot cake if you are a foreigner :0 but it's worth a visit for the layout of this area is vastly different from the usual haunts
• We then went to Samilgyo, that beautiful stream that Ling and I chanced by on our last trip. It remains a wonder to me that they can construct something like this in a middle of a bustling city.
  
  
• Dongdaemun was next. Nothing much here except for the usual shopping
• Night was when we hit Namsan Park. Even at 8pm at night, there's tons of pple making their way up there, and most of them are couples! It's rumored that if you propose in NP, you will not fail. The night view from Seoul Tower was beautiful. If you have been to NP in the day before, then you should go once at night too as the view and atmosphere is very different. There's even a 'fire' display show.
  
  
• 7 Apr
• Flowers time. We hit SeoulLand for tulips. And that's all we got. Not a place worth going unless u wanna see tulips in seoul during spring
  
  
• We then hit Kim's Club - that 24 hour supermarket that Lucia showed me and ling before...I love korea's supermarkets with their galore of stuff :D
  
  
• 8 Apr
• Finally, Namiseom! The place where you get to see tons of '2 rows of tall birch trees'. It's a small little island which can be navigated within 2 hours, on bicycle...If you walk, might need 5 hours. Koreans come here for picnics, team buildings. It's amazing.
  
  
  
  
• We then headed to Yeouido Park back in Seoul, in the hope of seeing '2 rows of sakuras' but that is not meant to be...the ones we saw are scattered all over the area, not shiok enough....
  
  
• 9 Apr
• Sokcho - a four-hours express bus ride from Seoul. This is where Mt Sorak is located. We stayed at Kensington Hotel, one that is highly recommended on the Internet but erm...both of us think it might be haunted.
  scary not?
  
  
• Having checked in at close to 2pm, there really isn't much chance to go trekking the longer routes so we settled for the dunno-wat fortress. The view up there is breathtaking but super cold! From there, the mountain we saw is all rocks. Not much greenery in view but hey, it's a very nice place for foto-taking. The 2 of us started fooling around with the cam and yes, my fave pic from this trip was taken here.
  
  my fave foto!
  
  
• We then paid a visit to the gigantic Buddha statue and we had our wishes written on a brick for 10,000 won. Is it for charity? I'm not sure.
  
  
  
• 10 Apr
• We asked for late checkout at 2pm so morning, we decided to head down to the beach for some sightseeing. We ended up getting down the bus, in the middle of no-where, coz' we saw rows and rows of sakuras! Cam-whoring begun, right smack in the middle of the road hahahahahahahaha
• After about 1 hour plus of sakuras, we then headed back to the hotel, but instead of going back to our room straight, we decided to take 'artistic' fotos in the huge hotel garden area. Anyone who saw us would have laughed at our antics but that's one of the nicest and fun mornings we had :D
  
  
  
• We reached Seoul at around 7pm. Ended up shopping at Gangnam for 2 hours. That's one of the shopping places I will recommend. You can get more stuff here than at Myeong Dong, Namdaemun or Dongdaemun!
  
  
• 11 Apr
• Relaxation time at Dragon Hill Spa. A nondescript bathouse located next to I-Park mall at Yongsan. What we saw on korean dramas literally came alive. For 10,000 won, you can stay in there for hours and steam yourselves silly. We had to eat the eggs but no, we didn't try to crack them with our heads, it's too hard! Oh, and nakedness is really required when you have to shower. No cubicles to hide in. But ok la, all ladies mah. Just have to get used to it
  
  
  
• We then hit Ewha Uni at Sinchon for lunch and shopping. Had a not-so-yummy seafood thingie. But nothing much here to be exact, it's pretty much wat you can find in MD or Dongdaemun.
• We followed up with last minute grocery shopping at Lotte Mart. We met a fellow Singaporean here! She overheard us talking and tot we sounded just like her hahahahahaha. I bot chocs and sweets from here to feed the hungry ghosts back in Savi.
  
  
• 12 Apr
• We only had time to get more masks :P and a quick lunch at Andong Chicken. I missed that pot of well-braised chicken, potatoes, carrots and dong fen. Yummmmmmm
• We reached the airport at 2.30pm. Were worried sick that we'll get charged for excess baggage - me 25kg, Jie 31kg. But thank goodness, it's our lucky day coz' the tourist next to our counter got charged :P
  one of only 2 pics i took of his royal ah-pui
  
  
• We finally landed in SG at 9.30pm. Seng came to pick us up, otherwise really dunno how the 2 of us gonna get home, with the amount of baggages we are lugging around.

In all, a fun-filled trip. And it's one which I went for a pure holiday, no star chasing involved. Seoul itself is only worth around 5-day travel, so it's a must to travel out of Seoul for max fun. Next time, I'll want to go Busan and Jeju ^_^

ahh...my best buy - that pair of boots for 5000 won (SGD7! muahahahhahaha!!!)