Emotions are brimming, heaven is pouring. Will you make it through the rain?

Our flight to HK departed from Changi Airport at 6.15pm on 29th June.

First flight with dar, first overnight flight, first cathay flight, first time going to korea.
My family came to send us off. It was also the first time my parents saw javin's dad.
Amazingly, my dad and his dad had things to talk about haha.

Flight to hongkong was fine, except for my cough. been coughing for 2 weeks before the trip. Tussils 5 was my antidote whenever I start coughing non stop. We had 2 hours to rot on arriving at hongkong. Customized our lock at the airport and went online to chat using itouch.
The flight bound for korea left at 12plus am. Was quite an uncomfortable ride cos it was really cramp in the plane and food was served at 2am. hardly got any sleep that night.

Arrived at incheon airport at about 5, carried our backpacks and started our adventure =)

First task was to get to bangrang--the hostel which we'll be staying in while we're in seoul. We were a little confused initially but slowly got used to it. Its really not that difficult, just have to be more alert and observant. Bangrang is locaten at chongeongo station. It was drizzling when we reached the station. Walked uphill for quite a distance trying to find bangrang, but no sign of it until a kind lady showed us the way. It was actually at the foot of the hill =_=". We walked past it without seeing the place haha.

On entering the main entrance of the hostel, we reached a door which has an automated lock. Think we were in the rain for...20 minutes before one of the travellers heard our call for help haha. The manager forgot about our arrival cos we even had to wake him up from his sleep and wait for him in the living area for quite a while.

Anyway, by late morning, we had our bags in our room and were ready to explore seoul =) First stop, Geongbokgung. The largest palace in seoul. Its located in the centre of seoul and could be reached easily by train. This day wasn't the best of days. continue reading and u'll know why. We got out of the train station and dar exclaimed tt the palace was under renovation =_=. The front entrance was under renovation so we had to find our way in by the side doors in the rain. Wanted to watch the change of guards ceremony but it was cancelled. Next up, we went to The blue house, also known as istana in singapore context. Beautiful palace with a long history.
Security was extremely tight. We were not allowed to wander around or take photos as and when we want. It was a free tour and we were given mugs as souvenirs! how nice =) *This mug just broke yesterday...think it was my maid =(*

On finishing the tour, we had our first meal in korea. All we could do was to point at the pictures when ordering. The food turned out quite good! We had beef stew and bibimbap. Made an exception to eat beef during the trip cos koreans eat a lot of beef and its also one of dar's fav meat.
From the geongbokgung area, we wanted to go to the kyobo bookstore in that area. Dar has always wanted to show me that place cos its the place where he bought the stickers and key chains for me. but guess what...renovation again..Perhaps this is the only season thats ideal for renovations =p. In the end we moved on to our next loction, Dongdaemun! Lots and lots of shopping malls. Almost the entire shopping mall sells clothes! There is good morning city mall, am/pm mall, migilore, doota etc etc. However since it was only the first day, the shopping queen in me was still in the 'look see look see' mode haha. Didn't buy anything there that day. Ate our first street food at dongdaemun and went to the beautiful Cheonggyecheon stream. They have places to sit down for picnics, fountains along the stream and rocks to go over to the other bank of the stream. Dar's plan was to walk to the end of the stream in the direction of the palace but hahaha. we ended up walking in the opposite direction =pppp So we ended up at an unknown place which has an e mart nearby. E mart saved his life or else i would have murdered him for making me walk so long in the wrong direction =p

We stayed there for quite long, surveying all the yummy foods and checking out their prices. Left there at 9 plus pm and headed back to the hostel. Was a long way to the subway station and had to transfer trains.

It was a loong first day. Knocked out almost immediately when i laid on my bed. But it was amazing. Couldn't believe that i was already in korea.

LiJEin
Tuesday, July 27, 2010