Seoul lovin' Day 1

Annyeonghaseyo!

Yup you read right, Nadia & I are currently visiting the city of (my) dreams; Seoul!

Duuuude, it has been a dream of mine to visit Seoul since I first got to know about k-pop, I might just cry writing this post.

Day 1

Kuala Lumpur Int'l Airport 2 -> Incheon International Airport

It's Nadia and my first time flying with AirAsia and traveling from KLIA 2, so we left the house earlier than we would if we were traveling from KLIA. We've heard stories about KLIA 2 and how it's huuuge so we wanted to just be early.

Ok so I don't want to go too much into what happened before our flight.

But lemme just tell y'all something, AirAsia: get. your. shit. together.

My God, I get that you provide low-cost flights, but that don't mean your attitudes have to be shitty, which it was. Big surprise..

Not expecting too much from them because well, Malaysians. But looking up when replying a customer's question instead of playing with your phone would be a great start, AirAsia!

Senang cerita lah, we were told to go from one counter to another 'cause nobody had a clue about what they were doing. Last-last Nadia and I just randomly went to this counter that was initially closed, but the guy looked pretty nice so we went and asked (read: begged) him for help.

He ended up being the only decent guy in the whole bloody airport, thank God!

Like I said, the whole row of counters were closed and that specific counter was only open for stewards/stewardesses. But he was nice enough to not only help us, but to also check us in.

He even talked about some good places to check out at Seoul. Cutie bear!

So after all that, we went in and had dinner at the food court.

It's true; KLIA 2 IS HUGE!

So big that it looked more like a mall than an airport. From the immigration check point to our gate was a workout, mateeee.

After the 6-hour flight, Alhamdulillah we reached Incheon Int'l Airport at a bit over 8am local time

We had breakfast at this Mnet cafe called Twosome, and there were probably 7 different TVs showing 7 different K-Pop music videos at one time..

Hello, is this heaven or whaaaat

We then took the Airport Express train from the airport to our accommodation here in Hongdae Station in Mapo-gu, it took us about 50 minutes - which is pretty quick compared to the 1 & a half hour ride by car

Sampai-sampai Hongdae St., we followed the hosts instruction to the apartment and it was conveniently located not even 2 seconds outside the subway exit. Yessssss!

We rang the doorbell and this 20-something Korean lady greeted us with a hug. It's not my first time staying at a Airbnb accommodation, but it was my first time doing it alone without my parents.

I'm so so glad our host, Jenny, was so sweet!

After settling down at the apartment, we decided to go to Myeong-dong which is a famous (if not the most famous) street in Seoul. And my God, was it packed!

It's also a very touristy area, so there were Tourist Information guides walking around in all-red uniform ready to help any lost-looking tourists ....which were Nadia and I..

Met some of my baes along the way, too.

Scoooore.

I've also heard that Myeong-dong was more of a place to go to buy make-up and skincare and not clothes, but how to not buy when they're so prettily displayed like this!!

Seriously, man. Koreans really know their stuff when it comes to marketing their stuff.

Their window display outfits look like something a professional stylist would come up with, but I'm talkin' bout EVERY SHOP HERE. What the.

A sales assistant also managed to sell me a whole load of skincare, and I obviously was sold when I heard "I will give you a free Shinee shopping bag, photo card, makeup bag, TWENTY Shinee masks.."

Twenty, beb. You didn't hear that wrong. She gave me 20 masks..

You don't get that in Malaysia. The most they'll give you is free plastic bag. Kalau tak, bayar 20 sen.

Chait!

After the exhausting (such a good type of exhaustion, though) 5-hour stroll around Myeong-dong, we finally decide to settle on a Western buffet restaurant for our 2nd meal of the day.

We were still too scared to try any of the Korean restaurants, so Western pun Western lah.

Our view of the streets of Myeong-dong from our restaurant on the 5th floor.

Got home at around 7pm and plonked on the bed immediately!

The streets of Seoul is so hilly that you either have to walk up macam naik bukit or climb stairs

No wonder lah these Koreans are all so slim, no choice rupanya..

 Didn't take too many photos that day because Myeong-dong is so crowded and we were still so new to everything so we were excitedly rushing and hopping from one store to another.

Seoul is so so beautiful and it's only been day 1.

Cannot wait for the next few days in this city. From the looks of such a great start to this trip, I'm going to fall in love with city more and more everyday.

Til tomorrow, annyeonghaseyo!

xoxo,

Tania