Seoul Trip 2010 - Day 1

I had intended to start recording my short trip down but I was caught up with my health and then there was the boys comeback event that I didn’t have time to sit down and recall what had happened..
After typing out the first day, I realised why I never bother to record down any of my trips..lol..
I had this in my draft for the longest time but I just thought that it's too long that I can't bring myself to click the "publish" button.. (^^ゞ
So.. I decided to “re-write” it but before I could even finished writing this....
I realised that this draft has been pushed back to the 2nd page of my posts.. lol...
So here's my long overdue for record purpose travel post.. (^^ゞ

2010.05.04 - Day1 : Tokyo ⇒ Seoul
My day started out with the terror of dragging my 26'' luggage for 10 over mins all the way to the train station and squeezing into a train packed full of people heading to town.
After a short lunch meeting with a Japanese friend, I had rushed over to collect my luggage at the locker which I had left earlier and make a dash for the bus heading to Haneda Airport.
I had choose Haneda over Narita as it’s nearer to Tokyo and of cause the flights lands at Gimpo..^^

Haneda has been known more for domestic than international flights. This was my first time travelling from there. The limo bus only stops at the domestic terminal, so I had to take a shuttle bus to the international terminal. N on my way, the view in front of me was exactly the same as the arrival vids that we always see.lol..

When I stepped in, I came to realized how small this international terminal was..
I look on my right, there is a café and beside the café, is the arrival area. Looking at the center, there is the check-in counters and when I looked to my left, you see the departure area. So in other words, all the arrival/departure vids/pics all happened within this one level terminal..lol.
Ironically, there’s actually 2 domestic terminals with a few levels each…
As I was early, after checking in, I head over to the café to have a drink. 1 min after settling down, I thought I had reached Korea…lol.. Surprisingly everyone around me was speaking in Korean.

Even though I know that this whole terminal is pretty small, I didn’t think it would be that small. I headed over to the other end of the terminal for departure and to find the bag checking right at the door and right after the security check, the immigration counter is right there. N right behind the immigration counter, there’s an escalator heading up. While heading up, there’s adverts/posters of certain Korean artiste (no idea who is it..^^) displayed on the wall. N when I reached the top, woah… I’m at the gate already! lol.. Right before boarding, I head over to the omiyage shop at the corner to get something for a friend that I was going to meet later and while making the payment, I was surprised the staff spoke in Korean telling me how much it cost..(@_@)

Waiting for boarding... a blurred pic taken with my mobile..

After all these lil episodes, I’m on my way to Seoul! I read about in-flight meals serving Korean food and was anticipating it. Surprise, surprise… I forgot I took a codeshare flight which was operated by ANA...(――;)

Rice with cold side dishes, soba and milk pudding

During the flight, I could understand the flight attendant saying that it takes 1hr 50mins to reach Seoul in Korean..(cheap thrill.. heh..XP ) So after an hr and 50 mins, I have landed in Gimpo!
Whee!!! (I even reminded myself to take a deep breath as I’m breathing the same air as leader..heh..but I realized I’m still in the airport so I better do that when I step out later.. ^^)
To avoid the crowd, I made a dash for the immigration counter but to find that there’s sooooo many counters for Korean residents while there’s only 2 counters for foreigners. My first bad encounter starts the moment I reached...>_< the immigrant officer had scanned my passport so I asked if I could leave but instead of answering me, he looked at me, took my arrival card, scan it and do whatever he was doing, practically ignoring me. So I asked once more and ......... I got a bit irritated with him and just grab my passport and walked off. Even if he can’t speak English (I thought they speak abit?), he could just give a nod or a simple gesture would be enough. Guess it was just my luck getting one like that? So while waiting for my luggage, I was looking around hoping to catch a glimpse of the boys’ pictures or something.. Nope, none of them in sight and all I see was some actor? Had his face on all the trolleys.lol.. N when my luggage came out.. great..my luggage tag is gone.. >_<

Brushing all these aside, I headed out and suddenly it dawned on me that the view infront of me is what the boys would always be seeing. ^^ I stopped halfway and looked back..
hey, that’s the background that always appear in the arrival pics/vids at Gimpo..XP
I wasn’t exactly prepared well enough for this trip that I have no idea where the bus stop would be. But I was glad that there is a “Information Counter” insight. So I head over where a nice young cute staff came over.^^

May I know where is the bus stop?
.......... *I dun understand you look*
Thinking that maybe I should make it more simpler,
Bus.. bus..stop.. where?
..........*I still dun get you look*
I began to feel silly and stupid but I said..
Bus...bus.. Myeong Dong?
...... ah... *I can speak japanese you know..? look* (――;)
どこへ行きたいんですか？(where do you want to go to?)

So I told him where and he wrote in a small note giving me the directions all in Japanese..(@_@)
I headed over to the bus stop to realized that there are quite a number of buses heading to different areas.

I must have this puzzled look that this old uncle staff just said..
どこまで？(where to?)
So I end up not having any problem getting the limo bus tix either..lol..

limo bus tix, luggage tix and the scribbled note

The seats were pretty spacious but I was surprised that if you don’t board early enough, you will have to stand and wait for others to alight in order to get a seat. In the back pocket of the seat in front of me, I found this small booklet.. I’m not sure of his name but I do know that my friend in Japan mentioned to me about him before..So I decided to take it for her..^^ Since the journey was long.. I started flipping.. and guess who I found??

Ji Hoo sunbae!! Heh....

Flip, flip.. hey.. I didn’t know I would see Taiwanese artiste too.. lol..

Due to the jam, after more than an hour of bus journey I finally reached. The guesthouse owner had come over and drove me to the guesthouse as it was quite a distance away from where I alighted. While waiting for him to get my keys..I saw this Japanese couple who had just returned back from climbing the “stairs”. So I casually asked if it takes long to travel to Myeong Dong..
The guy was kind enough to answer…
は．．．は．．．はや．．．いよ．．．じゅう．．．じゅう．．．ぷんぐらい
(basically if it’s in English, he would be saying.. ve.ve..ver..ry …fa…fa..fast… 10…10…mins* while trying to catch his breathe..lol..)

So the guestowner came back with my keys and said with a smile.. 5th level..
Thank god he helped with carrying my luggage up and I followed him… and to find out. my room is right at the rooftop.. (I always love attics but not at times like this.(――;))

After settling down for a while, with my friends, we headed out for late dinner..
Since it was my so called “first time” to Seoul… they brought me to try out..

安東찜닭 (Andong Jimdak/Andong Chicken)

We ordered a medium sized to share and it was really YUM!
In it, there’s something like glass noodles, potatoes and of cuz chicken meat all cooked in this soy sauce like mixture with a lil spice. (Sorry, I ain’t good at describing…)
By the time we finished, it was pretty late.. So we just casually walked around Myeong Dong and our last stop was Krispy Kreme to get some donuts for tomorrow’s breakfast..^^

Check out their range of donuts..^^
There’s even an episode of the cashier not sure what language to speak to me.. lol..
She started speaking in Japanese first but when my fren gave a Eh? … she panicked thinking she had got it wrong and apologized and repeat the amount to be paid in Korean…
We burst out laughing and told her it’s alright.. lol..

Thereafter, I parted with my friends and headed back to the guesthouse.
Since I had only just arrived and I decide to restrain myself from spending much on just the first night.. lol..
Then again, I only had like an hour or so of shopping time.. (^_^;)
My buys of the day...


A lil from innisfree and krispy kreme for my brekkie~ ^^

So what have I got from Innisfree?

Some yougurt mask pack and a foaming cleanser.. (N some lil bottle samples.. lol.. )
As I have read about it and I always wanna tried out this particular cleanser and I must say.. it does really smells good!
For the mask pack.. well.. I always have this thing with cute packaging of mask packs.. and so.. I just grabbed one to try out..XP

Seoul Trip 2010
Seoul Trip 2010 - Day 2
Seoul Trip 2010 - Day 3
Seoul Trip 2010 - Day 4