Backpacking Korea - Itinerary

Day 1
Singapore > BeiJing > Incheon Airport
17 December, 12am > 17 December, 1150am
I was so excited I felt that I could hyperventilate anytime.
But the transit at BeiJing was... yawns. It was so early and I forgot to bring RMB so I had to rot around for 3 hours before my next flight to Incheon.

Reached Incheon Airport earlier than expected. I was supposed to meet Grace at the subway near our hostel but she gave me a shock when she popped out from no where when I came out from the exit. Thank god she came else I have no idea how was I going to drag my luggages into the trains and carrying up the stairs. The subway stations are crazily crowded with freaking rude people who just push you upside down and they have so many transit stations with long flights of stairs. If she hadn't picked me up, I'll probably take 3hours instead of 1.5 hours to reach our hostel.

Left the luggages in the hostel and went for lunch. I had 'Udon with various stuff'. Its...ermz...really with various stuff - eggs, udon, rice cake, squid, crabmeat, hotdog blah blah blah. Maybe thats our version of rojak.

Met Esther and headed down to Myeongdong for shopping and then to N'Seoul tower. That was really the highlight. It was beautiful at night! Couples should all go there!

Day 2
Woke up early in the morning and went for a day trip to DMZ - Demilitarized Zone. Its the world's most heavily fortified border. Its cool but very strict. But we got to see North Korea from the Dora observatory. North Korea sounds so mysterious and the discovery of the 3rd tunnel would totally freak me out if I'm a Seoulite. Its only a freaking 52km away from Seoul and the North Koreans could have infiltrated Seoul within...say hours? Don't know... just...a very interesting experience.

After which, Esther went back and I visited the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. Love it. The kinda art I like. But it was a waste cause I only spent say...30minutes there cause I'd to meet Grace. Rushed off to Jamsil station and met Grace in Lotte World. Ermz...it was very expensive because we only sat 3 freaking rides. We had to queue for an hour for each ride and it was really...quite...dull.

Headed back to Hyehwa station, which is near our hostel and caught a Korean movie with no subtitles at 12am. As usual, I fell asleep because I was really...dead tired. Reached the hostel at 3am and I collapsed on the bed.

Day 3
Visited Chengdeokgung (palace) which was really nice! They filmed 'Jewel in the palace (Da Chang Jing)' there I think. It was a guided tour through the secret garden. Grace, Esther, Didia (A French guy whose name I can't really remember)and I headed to the war memorial museum but it was kinda late to go in so we just walked around there. It was not too bad, there were quite a number of exhibits.

Next, we went to COEX mall, an underground mall which was overated. Shopped around and headed back to Hyehwa.

Day 4
Woke up early in the morning and took a sub down to the bus terminal. Took a bus down to Daegu, which was around 3 hours South of Seoul. It was.... ermz... odd to me. Because its sooo different from Seoul. Took quite a long time to find for the hostel we wanted to settle down in. The hostel was quite heavenly as compared to Golden Pond (Seoul). We had the bathroom and room all to ourselves. Ermz, but it looks like a love motel with dull lightings, pink furnishing and porno tapes along the corridors. But other than that, it was not too bad because we even had a TV in our room!!!!

Spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Daegu and settled down in a nice lil cafe for the rest of the night.

Day 5
Woke up early (again!!!) and took a bus to Haeinsa temple, up in the mountains. The temple was made famous as the home of the Tripitaka, one of the National Treasures of Korea. More than 80,000 wooden scripture blocks were carved in the 14th century by Buddhist monks, after the Mongols had destroyed an earlier set carved in the 13th century. Its very quiet and serene there and thats what I like bout it.

Headed back to Daegu in the evening and as usual, settled down in a nice cafe and spent the rest of the night there.

Day 6
Took a bus further down South to Gyeongju and visited TImuli Park, Anapi pond etc etc and the place looks very surreal! Its the oldest town in Korea and its really...old. Alright, at this point, I must say I'm very tired of typing with this tiny laptop of mind. ARGH! Ok, thats besides the point. ANyway, in short, the place is filled with huge tombs of the Shilla era. And to cut everything shorter, we explored further and spent the rest of the night walking around and sitting in cafes.

Day 7
Returned to Seoul and we headed our seperate ways from then on. I went down to the Chongeakchong (spelt something like that) river and saw the lightings, walked to Insadong, walked round and round and realized I was back at the river after 3 hours. Continued to walk and reached Myeongdong and ate street food every hour. Thats where all my money went to). Coincidentally met Grace on the streets of Myeongdong and took the sub back to Golden Pond, put down our stuff and went for coffee.

Day 8
Grace left for Singapore at 5am and I spent the earlier part of the day exploring more of Seoul. Went to Kyobo bookstore and left all my money there. Randomly walked and visited Dongdaemun, walked along the streets and walked passed Hongik and back to Hyehwa which was really kinda far. Stopped by some random museum and explored a lil more before going back to Golden Pond, packed my luggages and bid farewell to our hosts. Dragged the luggages to the subway station and met Esther there. To my horror, she had a huge box of chocolates with her and both of us dragged/carried our stuff down and up the staircases, squeezed with everyone in the trains.. got real pissed by the Koreans cause they were so rude and pushed us left right left. arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh We figured out no one would undertsand if we start splurting vulgarities at them since they don't know english so to vent our anger we started to do so. ahhahahahah and they probably think that we were just talking among ourselves.

Finally, we reached Esther's hostel and Meiping and her Taiwanese friend, Tim was there. They went to Jonggak but both Esther and I had been there before so we walked around the streets near her uni. Bought a tub of baskin robbins and they bought Tiramisu cake and we had a lil christmas celebration later at night.

Day 9
Slept for a couple of hours and got up at 5am to catch the airport bus. It was bloody cold and Esther walked me out to the bus station.Reached Incheon airport at around 7am and obviously, took a flight back, transiting at Beijing for 5 freaking hours which was painful. I was so darn sleepy but can't just randomly sleep and I didn't kno what to do in the airport. But at last, I couldn't stand it, I just sat at a corner and hugged my bag to sleep. And my flight was delayed for round 2 hours. So I waited for...SEVEN FREAKING HOURS!!!! argh. China airlines was...boring. No entertainment system and I either just stared at the ceiling or sleep.

And...finally, I'm back in SINGAPORE!!!!!
Ok, I've yet to upload any photos cause my miniature laptop is really giving me problems and the internet connection here ain't fantastic. So, later!

south korea

Finally, I am back in vibrant Seoul. (Daegu and Gyeongju seems as though they have been left out in all types of advancements in the world).

I reckon this is a trip which really really exposed me to very very extremely different places/things/food/people. Although I felt very uncomfortable (I still feel a lil surreal now)I guess I've learnt a pretty substantial amount.

My idea and my parents idea of the trip was traveling and sticking together but it didn't exactly turned out the way I'd expected. The hostels we stayed were substandard and the one in Gyeongju was...really...one of a kind.

There were many occasions which made me kinda...speechless. Like...ermz.............

Ok am I making this sound bad? Its not that bad its just that I found it odd because its very different from the trips I've been to. But it pushed me out to learn more, do things which I wouldn't do given a choice, realized that traveling alone is really no big deal and that Huiling should grow up now.

I knew these all along:
1) Everyone is different
2) Huiling shouldn't think so much
3) Huiling is not very street smart
4) There are all kinda people out there

But I realized these during this trip:
1) Everyone is SO different - They think I am weird and I think they are odd. We cringe at each other's perspectives and can never deceipher nor understand what the opposite side is thinking.
2) Huiling really should STOP thinking so much and lead life as it is.
3) Huiling should learn how to read maps and have a better sense of direction. She would stop relying on random people on the streets for directions because due to that, she reached the same spot after 3hours of walking.
4) Really, there are really ALL TYPES of people out there. Although I know it, I still wonder how they lead that kinda life (city girl's point of view) and they probably be wondering how I lead my life

In short, this trip is kinda a realization trip. Not really fun per se (considering the odd places we visted, the dodgy hostels and buses we took) but its kinda the first time I traveled alone for a day or 2 in a foreign country without knowing their language and just randomly walking around.

Although I felt a lil demoralized and frustrated at times, I reckon I've a lot to improve on and....
Open-mindedness is really the crux of backpacking.
I must say that I haven't reached that level of open-mindedness and still cringed at the thought of traveling alone and being very hesitant about many stuff. But oh wells, I hope my next trip would be a better one after this experience. I thought I was relatively well prepared but apparently not.

My cracked heels, cold sore on my lips etc really spoilt a large part of the trip and me dwelling on certain things did in fact make the trip less enjoyable.

But after this experience, I realized that really, the world ain't small. Don't wonder so much bout how people lead their lives, what they eat, what they wear etc. Just know that they are very different and none is superior than the other. I guess I should stop living in my own small lil world and be more receptive bout other stuff. And...I should stop being so paranoid traveling alone. Its not that dangerous as it sounds.

So Huiling! Pack up your past into a small lil box and chuck it into the corner under your bed. There is a whole new world out there for you to explore! You have no time dwelling in your past and being so caught up bout you and your random senseless thoughts! Remember that!

updates in korea

this is my 3rd day in seoul and all i can say is that............
i'm really so freaking tired and drained.
its quite frustrating at times when things don't work out and the language barrier can be really a pain.

its thrilling but very draining. the weather is cold and very dry here and my heels have been cracking in an unprecedented rate and my skin is peeling. it makes walking tough and makes me a lil moody plus the lack of sleep and difficulty in communicating.

grace is sick and i'm very annoyed with my cracked heels and peeling skin. hope things would get better.

on a lighter note, it was pretty interesting traveling free and easy, kinda feel as if you are really living in the country as a resident not just a tourist. I'm only here for 3 days but I feel as if its been ages cause we've been traveling from morning till night with all the koreans, such that i feel that we are kinda a part of them.

its actually not as intimidating as i thought it would be. Went to several places alone, went to the night market at 1130pm alone, and its not as scary as i thought it would be. although i don't know the language, i reckon they kinda understand my actions.

well, we're leaving seoul tomorrow and heading down to gwangsangbuk. hopefully everything would be fine.

KOREA

ok i'm in the airport now and leaving for seoul transiting in beijing very soon.
i just wanna say that i'm so freaking nervous and scared now cause there are so many uncertainties and stupid grac'es phone is spoilt.

screams my head off.

first time doing this and i hope everything goes well. ok damnit i realized i forgot something. good luck huiling!!!!!!