Day 1:
Start of my solo Korean trip and I got my flight timings wrong. Somehow my mind kept telling me 1.30am was the departure time when it was actually 12.10am. I was lucky that I could still managed to board the plane, but my luggage had to be checked into the next flight which will arrive some 8hrs later! So that was how I experienced my first 'sleep-in' at Incheon Airport.
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| crashing in at Incheon |
Once my luggage was at hand, it was a mad rush to Seoul station to meet Christina! The last time I saw her was also in Seoul 2 years ago! It was a wonderful Korean BBQ dinner at Itaewon with another ex-CW colleague. Surprisingly, I couldn't eat as much as I thought I would, given that I only had a small bun for the whole day. Must be the mad rushing.
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| Wonderful first meal! |
Post dinner was a private chitchat session over coffee, tea and a light chocolate cake! Time whizzed by so fast when u r catching up on things with good friends. I was so beat that I slept almost 10hrs!
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| Post Dinner |
Day 2:
Woke up naturally at 10.30am! It's been so long since I woke up so late. After a hot morning shower, it was all the way to KwangHwamun Palace, the grand dame of Seoul! The palace was actually quite impressive, given that it was almost completely burnt down and Seoul is rebuilding from scratch. It is currently only 25% completed, and aims to be 75% completed by 2030! Given the scale, the admission fee of 3,000Won seemed partly.
After a historical tour, I went to hunt for food. I was aimlessly walking around in the vicinity when I saw freshly bloomed Sakura flowers! On a small scale of course.
My early dinner was bimbimblang, which comes with a raw egg and raw strips of beef! I didn't know until it was served. Well, it tasted quite nice but the raw beef was sometimes hard to chew due to some tendons.
Next up, a nice evening stroll along the Cheonggye Stream. There was this sense of peacefulness jus sitting by the stream and taking in the people walking around, the sound of flowing waters.
Last point of the day: Deoksu Palace. Koreans really do not charge high admission fees for their historical relics, only 1,000Won! But this is really a small palace compared to KwangHwamun Palace, and I finished the round in an hour.
Heading for Siloam Sauna, another jimjilbang night! For those who do know know what jimjilbang is, it's a place similar to a bathhouse. The wet area is gender segregated and nude, with pools of hot waters and wet steam/ sauna rooms. The dry area is communal, mixed gender with the dry saunas of various types: salt, cedar wood, ice etc. This is also the place where I slept over in my own private 'cave'.
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