Travel Diary | Part 2 - South Korea: Turning Teenage Dreams Into Reality

Hi readers!

Related Post: Part 1: DIY Trip To Seoul, South Korea

Day 1: The Exciting Journey Began

I literally could not sleep from excitement a day before I started my journey. The flight was at 9am, and I kept checking to see whether I had packed all my travel essentials, especially K-ETA, passports, cash, and medicine. At that moment, I still thought that I was dreaming. A 16-year-old me must be thrilled knowing her future self finally could make it to her dream travel destination. Everything felt like a dream, but it started coming to reality when I actually checked in my luggage and sat at the boarding area. I could not stop smiling all the time, like a fool.

 

The flight from KLIA to Incheon Airport took six hours. An exhausting and rather dull journey for me. I literally slept most of the time due to the exhaustion from work the day before. I was swamped with a heavy workload a month before my holiday. I was travelling during the Chinese New Year. So, clients push it to submit and finish tasks before the Chinese New Year. I was literally drowned with all the deadlines to the point that I could not feel the excitement for my holiday until D-Day reached. It was absolutely wild, I must say!

After we arrived at Incheon Airport, I was a bit nervous to pass through immigration. I imagined the lines would be long, considering what I had researched online, but actually, at that time, it was just us. I guessed we were lucky at that time. The officer just asks something common, like why I am coming to Korea, what I want to do, what my itinerary is, and something like that. I just kept smiling and passed immigration. We directly searched for the ticketing area and bought a bus ticket to Jongno-Il Ga, Insa-dong. We checked into our Airbnb and went outside for a night stroll to get to know the area.  

 

Our Airbnb is very near the Cheongyecheon Stream, famous for being a filming area for K-dramas. The latest K-dramas are Lovely Runner, Queen of Tears and Love Scout. I was beyond excited. Everything literally looked like Kdrama to me.

Source: Netflix - Queen of tears

During that time, there was a Seoul Lantern Festival along Cheongyecheon Stream. The festival featured spectacular figures and a variety of colours through the light. The figures were a mixture of modern and traditional South Korean landmarks. It was beautiful indeed. We returned to our hostel and walked through Insadong Cultural Street because our hostel is in Insadong.

Day 2: Kdrama-Kpop Tour

We started our Day 2 morning at Namdaemun Market. Was it a wise decision? No, because we thought Namdaemun Market was like Pasar Pagi (Morning Market) here in Malaysia. Hahaha 😅 I realized after this trip that almost everything in South Korea started at 10am. If you are actually a morning person, you will though that everything took very late to start. So, for those who are planning for a DIY trip, a lot of research needed. Even though at first, I thought that I already made a lot of research, there was still lacking here and there.

 

We went to Namdaemun Market and bought some gifts and snacks. I also tried Hotteok and Sikhye, and I really love it. Especially I ate hot Hotteok in a cold weather. It tasted really good. I bought socks, some snacks for gift, hats and yada-yada. Ended up with one heavy shopping bag where I carried around the whole day. There are a lot of things you can buy there in Namdaemun Market and it is cheaper compared to shopping malls of fashion districts. A good catch, I think.

 

We didn't spend a lot of time in Namdaemun market and proceed to the next destination, Ewha University. Weather in Day 2 was really nice. Not too freezing and I could even drink iced coffee near Ewha University. Ewha University got famous for tourist because of Running Man. So, I went here and got excited because Running Man used to film there. We walked around Ewha University and took a lot of pictures. We went inside one of the buildings to pray for Zuhur and Asar inside. We pray at emergency stairs there (life hack: you can use emergency stairs area or fitting room to pray in a non-Muslim country). View in Ewha University was indeed beautiful. Since it was open to public, there were a lot of tourists, including us. 

For context, the checkered pattern shopping bag was so heavy, and I literally carried it around for the whole day. Lucky that I was not travelling alone so I could like divide the load with my friend. 

I really like the architecture in Ewha University. Everywhere build differently and had its own aesthetic value. I took pictures of the building thinking that I want to sketch it someday, which I haven't done it until now. Later after that, initial plan was to eat lunch at Gosame, but we decided to go to Yonsei University first then move to Gosame for a late lunch.

 

This picture taken somewhere on our way from Ewha University to Yonsei University. For you to know, Yonsei University is a very famous Kdrama filming spot. There are more than 10 Kdramas filmed there like Goblin, Lovely Runner, Cheer Up, Extraordinary You, Undercover Highschool, Our Beloved Summer and many more. As a Kdrama fanatics, I almost cried when I arrived Yonsei University. I have been watching Yonsei University in Kdramas a lot since I was a teenager and when I reached Yonsei University, I was being over dramatic. Hahaha 

 

The landscape at Yonsei University is well maintained and beautiful. I was lowkey hopping university in Malaysia focusing more on landscape by planting more trees to provide shades and walkable walkway for students rather than bare road which I do agree, easier to maintain because no trees. But not aesthetically pleasing and too hot because we are facing direct sunlight. But above all, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Source: Kdrama Extraordinary you

I looked too excited, obviously. From there, we moved to ate late lunch at Gosame. After we reached there, who would have thought most restaurant in South Korea got 1 hour break after lunch time. So, we waited around that area and ate lunch at Gosame. The food was worth 1 hour waiting time. It was delicious and I felt like my stomach almost burst trying to finish up everything.

By the time we finished our very late lunch, we headed to YG Entertainment since it was nearby. I was actually hoping there would be a merchandise store inside the building, but I guess my travel research wasn’t detailed enough. So, I ended up just taking photos and videos of the building, low-key hoping I might stumble upon my bias there. 😆

We went to YG Entertainment and took some photos and videos. There were two buildings there, an old building and new buidling. As a K-popper who grew up with 2nd generation idols, I was more familiar with the old building than the new one. After that, we headed to our final destination of the day: Mangwon Market. Based on some intense market research, it turned out that buying strawberries or other fruits in Mangwon Market was a better deal compared to Myeongdong, as the prices were cheaper.

Mangwon Market is a popular spot for both local and tourists, featuring local vibe for cheap and friendly seafood, fruits, vegetables, side dishes, snacks and many more. When I was here, honestly, I think the tourist was only us. There rest are local. Since we wore hijab, obviously we were like in a center of attention there. Most of the locals must have thought, "What are these two doing here?" Hahaha.

After we walked around there, we found cheap strawberry, we bought it and went back to our hostel to rest. It was indeed a very eventful day for us. I had a real fun and even the weather was good and not too freezing. I've got so much to share for this most recent trip of mine. So, stay tuned for my next part of the journey!

-Nana 💗