HOLIDAY IN KOREA DAY 1 AND 2

I realised that I have not really travelled overseas except for a few trips to Thailand and Indonesia..  Nearing 60, I told myself I must make an effort to travel more frequently. I cannot wait anymore as age is catching up. So when my colleagues suggested going on a 8 day 6 night trip to Korea in mid November during the school holidays (18 to 25 Nov 2013), I jumped at the chance. My daughter took leave to join me. So the two of us started to prepare for the trip. We spent quite a tidy sum buying winter clothing to prepare us for the cold weather, consoling ourselves that it was money well spent as we are going to keep them for other future trips. 
There were 25 of us in the group. 15 of us are colleagues, friends of colleagues or family members, the rest being 2 couples and an Indian family of 6. We took the night flight by Korean Air and reached Incheon International Airport in the early in the morning.

Our passport and our boarding pass

On board the bus to KLIA

    Arrival at KLIA

High above the clouds on the way to Korea

Breakfast on board in the wee hours of the morning at about 4 am

Arrival at Incheon International Airport

Outside Incheon International Airport 

Our tour guide's name was Nicky Pui Pui from Overland Tours and Travels Agency who accompanied us from Ipoh to Korea and took good care of us. We were met at the airport by our Korean tour guide, Jason who had a bus already waiting to take us to our first destination, The Walmido Seagull Ship. Jason drew our attention to the slight snow fall outside the window of the moving bus. All of us were thrilled to bits upon seeing the snow as it was unexpected for snow to fall so early.

So happy to see snow for the first time. Like a small kid!

While the rest were feeding seagulls, I was trying to catch the snow flakes with my hand

A group photo in front of the Blue House, the official residence of the President of Korea

Me all wrapped up like a cocoon

At Cheongwadae Sarangchae, ( Presidents' Museum) we took a picture with the President of Korea (photo only!). The picture will be emailed to us later. (They really do email the picture to us)

Do I look like a President?

About about CEO?

Can you see the specks of snow?

Fallen leaves

In front of the revered King Sukjong in a square in Seoul

Cute shade with colourful plants

In front of Cheonggyecheon, a pollution free river right in the middle of Seoul

Another view of the river

  Saw a parade of palace guards

Lunch was Bibimbap, one of my favourite Koean food

With mushroom soup

 and slices of wafer thin pork

    Getting ready to eat; the green thing is pancake

Then it was to Gimpo Airport for our one hour flight to Jeju Island. Our first stop after claiming our luggage was the Mysterious Road, where vehicles were able to move with the engine switched off.

At the Mysterious Road

Bought a sausage and a bun at 3000 won each to try.

Also bought the banana drink I heard so much about .... nice

 Miss Lee ML bought this corn which tasted like pulut

Then it was off to Youngduam Rock, a volcanic formation along the coast. We were supposed to appreciate the unique formation .........but how to appreciate when it was so bitterly cold, dark and windy. To escape the cold, we went into a shop nearby and landed up buying the famous Jeju chocolate of different flavours. Each packet of 5 cost 10000 won......a purchase of 5 packets came with 3 free boxes of chocolate biscuits.

In front of the signpost

The name of the place carved in stone.....

A photo of the place...............

The guidance god that can be seen everywhere on Jeju Island

The chocolate we bought 

 The next destination was an underground mall ........didn't buy anything there.

Dinner time......seafood galore

Seafood Steamboat

Every meal from breakfast to dinner comes with a plate of kimchi, seaweed, preserved paku (the dish on the right), preserved radish

After dinner we checked into Jeju Ocean Grand Hotel for the much needed rest.The hotel only provided 2 bottles of mineral water...........all the rest of the things if used were chargeable. No soap/shampoo ........only toilet paper was free. Ha ha

At the back of the hotel.....we stayed 2 nights in this hotel.

The comfy hotel room