Korea, Day 1; An Exhausting Start.

Senaskhah dua buat anak-anak untuk dibaca nanti.

Haha!

Mamak mu nda buleh cringe lagi.

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3rd September 2024

8:50 P.M.

Me and the rest met at the airport for boarding.

We weighed the hand-carries and mine was 7.5 kg.

Ah sudah. 

Nanti la fikir.

Did a self-checkin luggage and everything went okay.

Boarded as usual and touchdown at Incheon Airport at 6:40 A.M

At this point my heart was already racing so fast thinking of IMM

We went through the path and ended up queueing up for Immigration of Korea. There wasn't much people at that time so it was quick.

and....

It was my turn.

"Are you alone?" asked the immigration lady while going through my passport.

"No, I'm with my other 2 friends"

*DupDapDupDapDupDap* not even exaggerate.

She went through it again and gave me a skeptical glance.

AHHHH SUDAH.

In that moment, I recited all kinds of doas I could remember. 

"How long will you be staying?" she continued.

"6 days 5 nights" my voice were shaking.

"Ah okay" she nodded.

*CIT* sound of the automatic gates opening and I went through.

DONE, I WENT THROUGH. Alhamdulilah.

3 of us survived.

Now, into the unknown.

Those feelings of excitement will forever stick in my mind and I know when I get older I won't feel the same way as I did the day I stepped my foot in Korea. Appreciating these feeling of excitement will allows me to hold on to those moments and writing this entry will somehow help me to immerse myself back in those days if one day I decided to read my writing. Also, because I wanna make these memories lasts, hence, writing every piece of memories I could remember along with the details so that one day I could read them again with my cucus.

Yes it is that deep. Let me be. Geez.

Cont-

Collected our luggages and portable wifi. At this point, we thought we were all ready to go to the next destination so went to wait for our bus.

Until...

"Kita tak pickup dsp lagi kan?" asked Alya.

Bus will arrive at 9:15 A.M and it was 9:05 A.M.

"Haah DSP!" Putri shouted at us.

Apa lagi, 

From being Putri she suddenly became Usainiah Bolt and ran 240km/h to the nearest counter to retrieve the DSP. Correction: WE became the fastest runner in the world.

Phew. We got our DSP and we went back to the bus station at 9:10 A.M.

Lencun, exhausted and suffered from running while carrying our bags.

And to remind you, this is our first day.

Oh and the DSP stands for Discover Seoul Pass that we bought 3 months before and had to pickup at Terminal 1 Incheon Airport on the day we landed and somehow forgot, haih. Nasib baik ada yang ingat!

The bus driver dropped us off at Myeongdong street and starting from here we were puzzled of how to get to Myeongdong station because what the hell? It was confusing, really.

We asked around and used Naver Map to go to Myeongdong Station and another reminder, we were carrying two 28-inch and three 24-inch luggages with us, all while searching for Myeongdong Station, only to end up back at the same place.

We were cooked. 

When we finally arrived at the station, we were planning to find T-Luggage storage to store our luggages but failed too. Paid 9,000 won for 3 climate cards and top-up the climate card for 5 days for 15,000 won.

Settled one thing.

Okay, things were getting better....a bit.

We checked into our Airbnb at 2 P.M., and the good news was that it was only a few stations away from the places we were planning to visit. It was near Sookmyung University, just one station away from Seoul Station and Namdaemun Station 🚉 .

We settled down and went back to Myeongdong for lunch. We were so eager to try marinated raw crab so we picked Busanjib as our first stop.

Spicy marinated raw crab - 8/10

Spicy squid - 10/10

Banchan - 9/10

The price? 91,000 won for everything included rice for 3 persons times 3. You do the math.

YES. Hella expensive. 

But thinking back, that was the price you pay for an experience you know you won't get anywhere else. Atleast I get to taste spicy raw marinated crab made by the local ahjumma and yes it deserves to be known all around the world. Frfr. Especially the spicy squid, ugh. SO GOOD

Just look at the portion of the spicy squid. 

After a hearty meal, we went to Olive Young for some shopping spree. 

GUYS. 

Heaven on earth.

Skincare from all brands just name it and the one I've been eyeing was sunscreen from Round Lab.

23,700 won for 2 sunscreens, hehe rip bank account.

I ended up spending 150,000 won for skincare and have no regrets at all. 

We then went to Myeongdong night market to experience the busyness and taste their street food.

These was torched ice cream marshmallow and egg bun costed us 4,000 and 2,000 respectively. The ice cream was hella good, top notch, incredible, gimme 14 of em right now. It was spectacular and I don't know how else should I describe the tastiness. Trust me, the moment you step foot in Myeongdong night market, run to buy this ice cream. The egg bun was okay, first bite tasted sweet and the rest savoury.

Not so long after that we decided to call it a night and rest. 

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Day 1 was filled with carrying our luggages and late dinner but we enjoyed those moments so much despite being clueless of their subway lines to being exhausted of the endless stairs.

YES

THEIR ENDLESS STAIRS

I need 300 pages to story about how deadly their stairs made me feel. 

However, those moments were the ones that bonded us the most. I could now say;

We bonded through endless stairs in Korea.

It was hell. Those stairs, no wonder korean are all skinny. 

Most of the time, the subway is full of elderly Makciks and Pakciks carrying bags of food. Sometimes, you'll see Makciks just like in K-Dramas, wearing wigs with the same hairstyles.

Orang kata sepesen.

It was great but tiring and we hadn’t even really started yet.

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Jari ku penat, until the next entry,

D.