Linora Low | travel

Currently viewing the tag: "travel"

Korea Trip 5 – DMZ Imjingak, Paju Premium Outlets and K-Story

On June 24, 2012 By Linora Low

The second last day at South Korea. It was free and easy day, which means no more crazy tour plans.. just our own to explore. I had a couple of places i wanted to see, one of them being the N Seoul Tower where the Teddy bear museum was. That didn’t happen, but i made other plans.. It was time for even more shopping and seeing stuff like the North Korean border.

First let me show the third hotel we stayed at while in Korea. This is Hotel Riviera, a 5 star hotel located in Seoul. Because parking is a tad difficult, they created two lobbies and different levels for the hotel. The one you’re looking at above is the lower ground lobby. I really liked the hotel and wouldn’t mind staying there again in the future.

Here’s what the room looks like.. i hadn’t realised i took more shots of the bathroom. The place is complete hairdryer, bathrobes, laundry bag, a safe for your passports and other valuables, hangers, and a toilet seat that will warm, your bum bum.

The next morning we woke up up and had breakfast at Cafe Vista inside the hotel. Some shots of the spread and there was one particular food i loved from the entire breakfast. The bread with cheese spread.. oooommmyygoooshh i was in love. I purposely took that and spread the cheese on the wholemeal bread i found at the bread section.

After a hearty breakfast, we made out way to Imjingak, DMZ to see the border of North Korea. Along the highway, we could see North Korea which is just separated by a very long and large river. At the river coast there were little huts set up, each with a soldier at guard all the time. Above was Imjingak where you can use speacial binoculars to see the border of North Korea.

The center temple piece where they give you a rundown of the steam locomotive and the ribbons you see on the side are all the messages of peace.

Just take a look at those bullet holes.. yes BULLET holes!

Nearby DMZ was of course the most talked about place for shoppers. Paju Premium Outlets which is such a BIG difference compared to our Johor one. Here you could see discounts ranging from 25%-65% off and the items you get maybe off season but totally worth it. I got a pair of sneaks from New Balance for only RM200+ and usually they cost aroun RM300 over. Superbly happy about it.

Later on in the evening, went to the streets of Yonsei to have Grilled Fish and i must must talk about the high tech looking parking. Ok fine, they may have had this a while now, but i’ve never seen one in real life, where cars are parked above one another. It’s so cool and it saves space! Why can’t they have this here in KL… or at least more of this.

Walking to the restaurant, at every single nook and corner, there would be a bar or pub. They love their happy time as much as their bakeries.

This the Grilled Fish restaurant and the fish we had was mmmppphh.. awesome. hehehe i think the bulldog, Annie is like the mascot of the place.

Checkout the food! Oooooo i want the fish. It may look oily but that is all the fish oil goodness after it was grilled. Ahh thinking about it now, i really really want to have grilled fish.

After an early dinner, we went to the famous K-Story Cafe. The K-Pop Cafe was actually setup by the sister of Heechul one of the Super Junior members. The guy in the purple shirt is Bruce, the Ceo and Manager of the cafe. He’s super tall and it was funny how we struck a conversation about working out. He’s truly a friendly person and really knows how to take care of his guests. The gathering at K-Story was actually to interview Alexander Lee Eusobia. He’s such a darling and his mannerisms are just TOO adorable!

The following day saw us going off and on the plane, we had some yummy food. I really wished they had the Soyday pack in KL. So handy and easy to eat. It’s just instant tofu which would settle my hunger pangs in the office for a healthy snack.

I must say once again thanks to Korea Tourism Organisation for giving me such a wonderful and fantastic time in Korea. Mee Leng and her family had a wonderful time. Best travelling experiences are with the company you keep.. and the of course the places you visit. ^_^ No doubt i’m definitely going to make my way back to South Korea to see evenmore interesting places, like N Tower, Jeju Island and Nami Island.

You can Read Korea Trip Day 1 Here, Day 2 here, Day 3 Here and Day 4 Here. I really hope to share more of my travel adventures with you

All the photos were taken with either the Samsung Galaxy SIII or the Samsung Note.

Korea Trip 4 – Myeongdong and The Nanta Show

On June 24, 2012 By Linora Low

The 4th day of the my Korea Trip thanks to Korea Tourism organisation was the beginning of a lot of shopping. Korea Tourism Organisation really knows how to show a foreigner a good time.. an adventure packed with things to do!

But first we were taken to JNJ Dragon restaurant to have more Korean BBQ. In the pic with me is Mee Leng my RedFM Winner!

Hmmm that was BBQ pork and i was told you need to wrap the meat and condiments into the huge letuce you see at the bottom left. Koreans then roll it up and stuff it into their mouths. It’s an ineresting way to eat, i wouldn’t recommend if you have a small mouth or a small throat. Mee Ling’s cousin and i did a little competition whereby i would feed her my big lettuce wrap and visa versa.. Let’s just say i ended up choking… because of laughter with food in my mouth.

We were taken to the duty free cosmetics store, where the price is a lot cheaper to the ones that are shipped in to KL. Certains brands would be found here not in KL. We were taken to the streets of Myeongdong. Another favourite shopping area but imagine it to be the Bukit Bintang of Seoul. In other words the Myeongdong is the more up market shopping area. In Korea cosmetics is in abundance, so cosmetics stores would usually be willing to giveaway free samples. A number of them had a girl standing infront of the store just ranting about their products. Never have i seen such dedication to a job. Wow!

When you travel you are bound to eat “rubbish” and i mean nice rubbish. But the guilt.. ahhhh nevermind, i just loved these cute lil biscuits with chocolate in them hehe like the Meiji Pandas.. LOOOOOVVEE

Some of the street food i saw in Myeongdong like grilled squid.. they looked like something out of Aliens. I love dry squid, but i was a bit skeptical cause i saw humongous flies on one of the tentacles. I found another store that was more umm hygienic and had my yummy grilled squid hehe. Dinner time i had Bibim Ice Noodle. i love eating cold stuff!

My theory on cosmetic shopping in Korea… for every store you go into you will get a freebie, like a face mask. Go into about 10 stores and you’ll get 10 masks. Just walk in thats all. I also found out, the type of freebie they give you is base on how you dress.. huh. If you dress in a fancier manner they’ll give you something higher end and if you dress not as fancy they’ll give you something simpler. Above was just some of the things i bought as i walked the path of shopping at Myeongdong. The nail polish were only going for 1000 won = RM3 omgosh CHEAP!!! I just went ballistic.

At night we were taken to see the Nanta Show a famous Korean theater performance. The actors on stage will use pots, pans, mops and knives to create music. There’s not much dialogue and everything is communicated via physical acting. The show was immensely funny and i would definitely be keen to watch it again.

Lookout for more travel stories in the next blogpost. You can Read Korea Trip Day 1 Here, Day 2 here and Day 3 Here.

All the photos were taken with either the Samsung Galaxy SIII or the Samsung Note.

Korea Trip 2 – Everland Themepark, Insadong and Dongdaemun

On June 23, 2012 By Linora Low

On the second day of Korea, my true love gave to me… Saying a big thank you once again to Korea Tourism Organisation for sponsoring my amazing trip with my Red FM winner Mee Ling and her mom.

First day of my Korea adventure was packed with places and things to see. The second was just as packed. We woke up to my dismay at 6am in the morning..Didn’t have much time to recuperate from the night before but hey you gotta keep moving with an exciting trip like this.

Woke up and we were taken for breakfast, and you have to remember that everything comes with KIMCHI!!! I love the stuff and i’ll eat it with just about anything. i especially think it would taste awesome in some of the healthy dishes i’m making at home. Anyway back to the story, in the morning it was refreshing to see people going for brisk walks, taking their dog out, seeing kids rollerblade.. you don’t see that too often in KL.

We all assembled on to the bus after getting some snacks along the way. I managed to get some yummy bread from a famous bakery franchise in Korea called Paris Baguette. Oh here’s something interesting, I’ve come to the conclusion Koreans love their coffee! At any convenient store – be it 7 Eleven, GS or 18 Mart, there will all sorts of coffee drinks made available on the go. Along the road you will see a variety of cafes… italian,french, english.. all on the street. Here i am camwhoring with some of the delicious bread and i was so happy to find my doriyaki ^_^

The bus ride was about 2 hours from Seoul city to Yongin. We were going to visit the popular Everland Thempark wheeee!!!! I’ve never been to Disneyland, so this is as close as i’m going to get.. for now Taking shots outside the main entrance, yes we all went trigger happy.

Before entering the themepark, there will be Korean dressed up in cute lil outfits to great you. They would say hi and by to you by waving both palms at you. I found this so amusing and cheery. Inside the themepark there were just too many things to see. My eyes were overwhelmed by the massive architecture of all sorts. There was one building that had the illusion of a city up a hill, very cool!

We only had till 2pm – half day which meant we had to be fast and make the most of our time. First place we visited was the Safari World which was a 7 minute ride, but well worth the time.

Just look at the “intricate” art and deco they had before the Safari Ride.

We were practically within touching distance with the animals. The bears are very intelligent, they understood Korean words to sit, beg and high five!! CUTE!

There were a number of rides and houses to visit. A haunted house, another safari, some planetarium and big food courts.

The next big stop was the Holland Village where you could take a mini train ride to see the lovely fountain at the centre of the village.

Train ride!!! The place had bright and colourful buildings.

Nearby was the Renaissance area or also Greek area.. i’ve no idea why they mixed it up.

Just across from Grecian fountain was the vast flower garden.

Oooooo my i was in heaven! In the garden there were huge rose hearts and benches that you could pose with.

i love looking at pretty flowers and taking micro shots of the them.

And i had to try the picture of where i was hidden among the flowers. Can you spot my red head? ^_^

The lovely buildings at the Holland Village. Even their toilet was fascinating! See the one saying Traditioneel Kleren.. yeah i was fascinated with their toilet architecture lol

Time to go back, so instead of walking all the way back up, we took the cable car. There were two types, you could either take the two seater or the four seater. Systematic and reasonably fast, can you see how they propped prams at the back of the cable car seat? Smart!

Saying goodbye to Everland Themepark at Yonging, we then made our way back to Seoul City and on to the street of Insadong.Insadong-gil is “well known as a traditional street to both locals and foreigners” and represents the “culture of the past and the present”. A cool fusion of the two.

A spot where one can buy traditional trinkets and also shop for souvenirs cheap prices. Please please buy your souvenirs here,it’s way cheaper compared to buying them at souvenirs stores for foreigners.. duh..

Just showing some of the crazy food i saw on the streets.

Then we made our way to Dongdaemun market, which is THE spot to shop cause if you know where to look, you will find wholesalers. For example a long dress can be bought for about RM30 over there. Worth it! Buying long dresses at the bazaars in KL, cheapest would be RM45-50. I had a serious headache when i stepped into the mall. Cause i couldn’t understand what the ladies were saying.. i found out if you just talked random jibberish and made hand gestures, you may even get a cheaper price. LOL.

For dinner we had Korean BBQ at a packed restaurant some at the center of Dongdaemun. That was my first time having to cook the meat and stir rice and veggie all in one go. Loved it!

Read of my travel adventures on Day 1 here. ^_^ More stories coming up.

All the photos were taken with either the Samsung Galaxy SIII or the Samsung Note. Great stuff i didn’t need to bring my camera at all!

Korea Trip 1 – Beauty Town, Gyeongbukgung, Jimjilbang and Food

On June 21, 2012 By Linora Low

I tried to stuff everything into the title. LOL. Jotting down the event of Day 1 for the Korea Trip that took place about 2 weeks ago. The trip couldn’t have happen if not for the amazing prize I was giving away on my radio show on Red FM (The Red Hub), all thanks to Korea Tourism Organization. We were flying Korean Air and this my very first time flying to Korea so i was real excited to experience the different cultures.

ooooo Ooooo I have to mention on the day of the trip, i had a new toy to play with in Korea. The Samsung Galaxy S3!!! A very powerful phone and I really couldn’t wait to try out all the features and see how it would enhance my trip. Lemme just say i was not dissapointed at all!! I didn’t even bring a camera.. just this phone and the Samsung Note

The lucky girl who won my Flyaway to Yeosu Expo contest on Red was Mee Leng, who wanted to win it specially for her mom who’s never been to Korea. Very sweet of her! The trip was not just with Red but also with our Chinese sister station 98.8. With me in the first picture are DJ Nic and DJ Hau Min, who look pretty korean themselves.

First time having seaweed green tea porridge.. i like it

Was so amazed by the usb port allowing you to charge your phone.. yes i’m easily awed!

Flying off to Korea

The flight was 6 hours long but i’m very happy to say i was well entertained and fed on the flight. I found the porridge very yummy hehe – seaweed Green Tea porridge. The service of the air stewardesses was wonderful cause they always smiled at you and the most important part was they could speak English!!! The pilot for the plane must be a dad, because he landed the plane so gently for his passengers. I’m always critical about the landing of the plane I’m on. I would also surmise that the plane track was very smooth.

Korea’s airport Incheon Airport has been Named the Best Airport Worldwide for the 7th Year in a Row and i can see why. Everything is made so conveniently and the one thing i loveeee the most about Korea. There IS FREE WIFI Nearly everywhere.. So don’t worry about your data plan too much, cause you would still be connected with your social media.

There was no rest for us, after the whole tour group assembled together, we got on to the tour bus and headed straight for Skin Anniversary Beauty Town. Originally thought it was a TOWN! But actually it’s one big building lol. Beauty Town consisted of three floors. LG : Food area, G: The 3D photoshoot area, Makeover and the Cosmetics, 1st Floor was where you get your skin analysed! So i found out that my skin is pretty dry and i would need more moisturizing… eep!

Here’s something that was new to me – but apparently it’s been in the beauty market for sometime. Snail Mucin has been used in face masks because it has some antiaging, whitening properties. I found that quite iccchhkkk but hey if it works and makes the skin better why not!

Bulgogi

The next stop was a quaint little restaurant which was located on the 1.5 floor. Yes you heard me right the restaurant was located on a floor which is situated half from the next floor. There we had the famous Korean dish BULGOGI!! Yumm. A mix of veggies and some meat.

After filling our tummies we went to further into the city of Seoul. A mix of high rise with modern and along the road you could see buildings that still had a tinge of traditional architecture.. Almost like what you may find in the states (I base this assumption on too much US TV shows) Oh by the way, i visited Korea in the summer but despite it being called “summer” it wasn’t hot, in fact it was a nice cooling weather. Imagine yourself siting in an aircondition roomed that is not too cold but at a comfortable temperature.

We passed by the humongous humongous Yonsei University which is the oldest in South Korea and one of the top three universities in the country. Our main stop was to Gyeongbukgung Palace, which is the Main Palace of the Josean Dynasty. Gyeongbokgung Palace is arguably the most beautiful and remains the grandest of all five palaces. There is much to be told about Gyeongbukgung, cause there were a lot of little cultural stories about each building and since i can’t write it all in this blog post..i’ll write about it in separate post.

Me and Maryn camwhoring at doors.

We also went to an area of Seoul that had buildings which still maintained it’s traditional architecture. Something i realised was that Korea has very hilly terrain. Perfect for going on challenging brisk walks.

After spending about 2 hours at Gyeongbukgung we made our way to a Jimjilbang at the Korea World Cup Stadium! Yeap an open concept bath place where everyone just gets naked together..literally..LOL!

A Jimjilbang is a large, gender-segregated public bathhouse in Korea, furnished with hot tubs, showers, Finnish-style saunas, and massage tables, similar to a Korean sauna or mogyoktang I shall say it was a shocker at first, but hey you’re in Korea only once and you should take advantage of the moment and just try this.

Finally after a lonnnnnnnnggg day which i honestly felt as though i had already spent a week in Korea, we were dropped off at our stay for the next two nights. Lexvill Service Residence, situated at Jamsil-Dong.

I was delighted with the service apartment. They really built it in such a way where each space was not wasted

Everytime you opened a cabinet drawer you would be in awe… well for me anyway. lol it had everything i could possibly need and the room was incredibly complete. With pots, pans, hairdryer, cutlery, tv, aircond and WIFI!!!! Happy traveller indeed ^_^

More to tell about Korea in the next post!

All the photos were taken with either the Samsung Galaxy SIII or the Samsung Note. Hehe real excited to play with the new toy, and it was so easy too. Didn’t need to bring any camera with me. The two Samsung Mobiles did complimented my journey beautifully. ^_^

Are You Ready?
Follow me on Facebook!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Follow Me On Twitter

Categories

Korea Trip 5 – DMZ Imjingak, Paju Premium Outlets and K-Story

Korea Trip 4 – Myeongdong and The Nanta Show

Korea Trip 2 – Everland Themepark, Insadong and Dongdaemun

Korea Trip 1 – Beauty Town, Gyeongbukgung, Jimjilbang and Food

Are You Ready?

Follow me on Facebook!

Follow Me On Twitter

Categories

About Me

Recent Comments

Recent Posts