events recap

salam.. i'll be doing summary of several events that happened couple of months ago. since i haven't got the time to write them in details (excuses,excuses), hehe..

11/05/2014: mother's day

on this this day, both my sisters and i celebrated mother's day with our beloved mother at putrajaya lake club. our brothers couldn't make it, so it just mother and daughters.of course, my sisters are already mothers on their own. we bought a cake for this occasion. i know that some people said that we should celebrate and appreciate our mother everyday, not just on mother's day. but for me, yeah we appreciate her everyday but to have one special day for her would make it, well special. just like you celebrate anniversary and such. my mother plays a vital and important role in my messy life. and the song 'i turn to you' by christina aguilera really summed it up for me...

13/05/2014: alif's birthday

alif turns three this year.he knows numbers up to 100, alphabets (lower & upper case), spells and read more that 30 words but still could only speak a little. one day i received a whatsapp message from my sister that read abcsong. i knew immediately who's the culprit. my sistertold me, one of her friend got elephant a smessage.alif thought whatsapp was a search engine.oh,he knows how to operate google and youtube. kids there day are soo gadget/tech savvy compared to me.

01/06/2014: fun run & syaira's birthday

miss a and i joined another run this day.this time we joined the masquerade run and got the chance to dress crazy without looking weird. i took this chance to wear my yukata. miss a wore the cute animal hat that we bought before. while walking, a tourist took a picture of us.. and that night we celebrate syara's sixth birthday at kak ala's house.

aren't we looking cute?hehe..

syaira's birthday

07/06/2014: awed's engagement

today is my bff's big day,well one of the big day. awed is finally getting engaged! miss a and i got there one day earlier to help what we can.we turned awed's bedroom into engagement looking one. we moved all the extra things to awed'd brother's room, hehe..and we helped cut the the beef and chicken for the engagement's meal. the ceremony goes smoothly and i really am so happy for her. couldn't wait for the wedding at the end of this year.

[busan/seoul] day 7: bye bye korea

28/03/2014 (friday)

now is the day to say goodbye to south korea. we took a bus from busan straight to incheon international airport. i slept throughout the journey. our flight was at 4:15pm. we got to the airport at around 1:30pm. we had checked in our luggage and then had some lunch. after lunch, we got back to the waiting area. and while waiting, a local man approached us to fill up some survey about our vacation here in south korea and we got a nice purse after that. flight departed as schedule. honestly, if i've got time and money, i'll definitely come again here. i think there are a lot of things i haven't seen or done. and this entry is the end of my south korea trip with my bestest friend, miss siti norhawa a.k.a awed...

[busan] day 6: busan museum, UN cemetery & haedong yonggungsa temple

27/03/2014 (thursday)

on our second and last day in busan, we first visited busan museum. we managed to experience to print on a rubbed copy. it's the traditional way to make copy and is called takbon in korea. you had to pay KRW2000 only to have this experience. first, you wet the printed block. and then, you put a piece of paper on it. after the paper is put, you rub it to stick to the surface by brush. once the whole surface is done, you use this special brush to put carbon powder all over it. and then it's done!

After the takbok experience, we got another chance to wear hanbok here for free once again. It's in this museum that we learned the different types of hanbok. the one that we tried here was for the royals or aristorats. after the hanbok, we began to explore the musem. there are several halls in in these museum:

• Exhibition Hall 1: Late Paleolithic Period, Samhan/Three Kingdoms Room, Unified Silla Room, Goryeo Room, Joseon Room-Public Affairs/Education, Joseon Room-Relics
• Exhibition Hall 2: Korea-Japan Relationship Room, Modern Room, Contemporary Room, Living & Culture Room, and Busan Folk Room
• Kiln Exhibition Hall: introduction to the process of making earthenware and tiles through kilns and displays tiles which visitors can touch
• Outdoor Exhibition Hall: displays stone monuments and statues (such as Dongnae Nammun Monument, Cheokhwa Monument, Yakjojechal Monument and Sacheoseokgyo Monument)
• Donation Center: displays items donated to the museum
• History Experience Room: Touching Relics, Printing a Rubbed Copy, Erecting Stone Pagoda and Wooden Brackets, and Trying Folk Crafts (Source: VisitKorea website)

our next destination is the UN cemetery.  The UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea honors UN soldiers from 16 countries that were killed in battle during the Korean War from 1950-1953. there was a hall here that shows a video  footage of the korean war. we watched the footage after strolling around the cemetery. it was a sad and tragic video. we learned a little bit about the korean war from it. once we've finished the video,we moved to our next destination, the haedong yonggungsa temple. on the train, we met this couple, an american guy and a korean lady. they asked us whether we're from malaysia and we said yes. it turned out that both of them had worked in perak for about three years, under some teacher programme. so, we talked for a while before they getting off at a station, earlier than ours.

haedong yonggungsa temple is is situated on the coast of the north-eastern portion of Busan and offers visitors the rare find of a temple along the shore line. Most temples in Korea are located in the mountains. it was first built in 1376. Many people often come to this spot on New Year's Day to make a wish for the new year as they watch the sun come up. there were a lot of tourists here.

since we still got some time before went back to the hotel to pack, we went to the shinsegae centum city.  is registered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest shopping complex in the world. the only shop that we visited here is the kyobo bookstore, hehe.. the bookstore reminded me a little bit of kinonukiya bookstore back in klcc, malaysia. we then went back to our hotel to have lunch again at jagalchi market and to pack up since we got a early bus to catch tomorrow.

[busan] day 5: jagalchi market, beomosa temple & busan tower

26/03/2014 (wednesday)

we took a bus from seoul bus station to busan. the ticket cost around KRW24,000. our bus was on 6:15am. the ride took four hours. when we arrived at busan bus terminal, the first thing we did was buying the ticket from busan to incheon international airport. and this time, the ticket costs a little more expensive, around KRW33,000. as usual, we took subway to get to our hotel which was located in the center of jagalchi market. again,  our hotel was quite hidden. we had to ask the local for help. and this one guy didn't only showed us the way, but he also called the hotel for us. the manager of the hotel personally came out to the place we stood (it's not far), and helped us with our bags.. seem, the hotel manager was quite fond with women wearing hijab. he said that we looked pretty in it, huhu..

after checking in, we had a big seafood lunch. jagalchi market is quite famous for it's seafood. the market also sold a lot of things such as fresh fruits. we bought some strawberries and a big local pear. it took me three days to finish the pear.our next destination after lunch was beomosa temple. this temple is located at the edge of Mt. Geumjeongsan, a famous mountain in Busan. we took the subway until beomosa station. from there we took a taxi. we spent about one hour there. then we walked down. it was drizzling a littlebit. while walking down, we enjoyed the breathtaking scenery. there was a stream that flowed downhill. once down, we again took a taxi to beomosa subway station. we stopped back at jagalchi market and then walked to busan tower.

busan tower was not as famous as namsan tower in seoul. so, there were not so many people around. the entrance fee is only KRW4000/person. still the view from the observatory was beautiful. there was also a place for love  padlocks here. i think the tradition is still new since there was not so many padlocks around. i had a little accident here, huhu.. while trying to put my padlock at this high place, i borrowed one of the plastic chair that belong to one of the tower shop. i put in on a bench. once i climbed the chair, one of the leg broke (obvious fact that i'm heavy). we then took the broken to the owner. maybe i sound a little bit hysterical and i almost cried. the only thing i could say to him was, 'ajussi, mian haeyo.' several times. and the owner, seeing me said, 'gwaenchanayo ..' i thanked him in korean many many time as well..

then we walked back to our hotel. along the way we did again some window shopping and stopped at another coffee house. i think the local people treats hanging out at a coffee shop was one of their culture. after coffee, we continued window shopping and finally had our dinner at lotteria. it is a famous fast food franchise in korea. we had this seafood burger; squid and prawn. you could use your t-money to pay for the food here. since i've mistakenly overload my t-money, i used it here. the food was quite okay according to my taste bud. we ended the day after dinner and it's mean the end of this entry.. until later, peeps...

[seoul] day 4: korean folk village & korea house

25/03/2014 (tuesday)

on our 4th and last day, we went to the korean folk village. the entrance fee is KRW24,000. to get there, we must first go to suwon station and then took the shuttle bus provided. we arrived there around 10am and still among the first visitors. we rushed to the performance area to catch the 'farmer's music and dance' that started on 1030am. it was very amusing. the performers where this special hat with feathers and a rope. when they turned their head, the ropes moved beautifully. they did a few acrobatic things as well.

after the dance, at 11am, we watched the tightrope walking performance. it was done by this elderly man. it's quite amazing,watching him not just walking on the rope, but jumping and many other maneuvers as well. and while performing, he cited a few traditional korean poetry. there was also a tightrope on the ground for those who wanted to try. actually i want to try it, but since only children are the one who did, i cancelled my earlier intention, huhu...

we moved again to the performance are to watch the next performance, equestrian feats. this was performed by several young youths. some of them even performed in the farmer's dance.as usual, they don't only ride horses but did several amazing and interesting things that required a lot of experiences and skills. they stay horse, the ride it backwards, they made a human tower on horses, they did archery and many other things.

the last performance we attended was the traditional korean wedding. if you're used to watch korean drama, you may know how it was done. there was this special setting made especially for the wedding with cock and fruits and such. then the groom came first and did the bow several times to the elders. then the bride was brought in by several elder ladies and both bride and groom started bowing to each other. in the end,the bride was brought into a tandu (i don't know the word in english. the only word that came to my mind was carriage, huhu..) that was carried by several people and the groom rode a horse. they newlywed now will move into their new home, usually the groom's home.

after watching all four performances, we went to roam the area. but first, we had a very lavish lunch. i think that was our first real lunch/meal since we arrived here. we ordered a lot of things. here in korean folk village, you have to buy the coupon for the food you want first. only then, you gave the coupon to the stalls that sold the food you want. there are many stalls and various choice of foods. done with lunch, we continued strollling around the village and visited several traditional workshops. it showed us how things such as straw shoes and silk traditionally made. we left the village around 4pm.

we then went back to the city and did some window shopping, killing sometime before our 8.30pm performance ant korea house. we also went to seoul bus station to buy our ticket to busan tomorrow morning. i bought the ticket for performances at korea house online while still in malaysia. the ticket was a little expensive, KRW50,000/pax. but, i assured you, you'll get what your money worth with these performances. we arrived at korea house at around 8pm and while waiting, i saw this unique group consisting of several turkish and japanese ladies. they were all muslims and wore hijab like we did. i called them unique because of their way of communicating with each other. they talked in their mother tongue but still the other party understood and could reply.

we watched the performance with a group of japanese and german people. they had a welcoming party for one of the workers at the banquet hall. and then, the person that sitting next of me was sort of my dream man, haha.. first, he was japanese.. i have this weakness for japanese man, influenced by all jdrama and anime that i watched. second, he could speak german and english.. and it would be complete if he was muslim and single as well, haha.. he is quite handsome and during the performances, i kept secretly glanced at him.. i think he didn't notice my glances, since he was focused on the performance and the colleague beside him, haha.. end of story.. we were allowed to take photo with the performers one the performance ended. and it also the end of this entry. only a few entries left for this trip.

ps: since we did a lot of walking, my shoes was damaged. i had to buy a new pair. and while choosing the shoes, i came into this pair that i really liked. i almost paid for them but remembered to check the inside in case it was from 'pigskin.' and it turned out to be true. i chose another pair and need to 'samak' my hand and socks at the hotel, huhu..

[seoul] day 3: nami island, hanbok & souvenir shopping

24/03/2014 (monday)

on our 3rd day, we went to nami island. nami island is famous for the korean drama 'winter sonata.' i watched this drama a long time ago. my sister borrowed the cds from her sister in law. there got about 12 cd altogether, i think.. i only watched the first two cd and skipped to the last one. really couldn't wait to know the ending, haha.. i'm not a fan of long long story.

we started our journey as always, around 7am. to get to island,  we had to change several trains. the final station is gapyeong. from there, we took taxi to get to the jetty terminal. you could go by bus but since we were not sure which bus to take, we took a taxi. at the ferry terminal, we bought the entrance ticket to enter nami and cost KRW10,000 each.we arrived nami island around 10am. there are a lot of things you could see and do while here at nami island.

we explored all around the island and as you could guess, we took quite a lot of pictures. during this time, there was a 'nami world's children's book exhibition.' you could see signs with stories for children along the way. the stories came with illustration and it was fun to read them. the story from malaysia was about two flocks of different birds; black and white. they always fought each other but when a common enemy (human) appeared, they let go of their feud and worked together, sound a little bit like 'rio 2,' isn't it?

we had our lunch here. i forgot what it's call, hehe.. i just remember that it was rice, egg and kimchi in a metal box. you had to shake it before you ate it. the metal box was hot and you had to wear gloves. the food was quite simple but it was very delicious. we also ordered a kimchi pancake which ended up being shared with fellow malaysians in the restaurant, since we were quite full..we chatted with them for a while and it turned out, one of them was my boss' neighbours. what a small world.. we continued our walk after lunch and even rented a tandem bike (bike for 2 person) and cycled again around the island. we left the island around 2:30pm in order to get back to seoul for our hanbok wearing experience.

we arrived at seoul around 5pm and managed to made our reservation at seoul global culture and tourism center. this center is located at the heartog myeongdong and it's in a tall building, like an office building. you won't see the sign outside. you could only see the sign for the center once you get inside. we were given 15 minutes to wear the hanbok. and you have to take the photo yourself. they provided tripod for you to use.or you could just simply asked another nice person to take it for you. the hanbok is free for you to wear.

once satisfied with our cute and pretty photos (hehe), we made a move to namdaemun market to finally shopped for souvenir. we didn't actually explore the whole market because we planned on going to dongdaemun market next. we only shopped everything at this one store. since, we bought a lot of things, we got quite a good bargain (we think), and a few free gifts. the price for souvenir here is reasonable. as always, don't forget to bargain. on our way back to the subway station, we stopped a while to watch an ajussi doing caligraphy on the corner of a street. we rushed then to dongdaemun market to buy some korean silk actually. unfortunately all the stores were already closed for the day. they closed at 8pm.

after dongdaemun, we went to gwanghwamun gate in order to see king sejong monument. we didn't realized that king sejong monument was actually of gyeongbokgung. the reason was, yesterday, there was some sort of market in front of it and it was blocking our view. done with the photos and all, we went back to our hostel to get our beauty night sleep. we need to start early again the next day.. well, until the next entry.

ps: all the while we were here, we would perform solat at any place that is quite hidden from the crowd. we don't have to wear 'telekung' since the clothes that we wore was already covered our aurat. we just brought along clean socks..