Korea Trip Day 1 Going Nowhere

Wifey wanted so much to go Korea, in fact, our initial plan for our wedding honeymoon was to go Korea but has been cancelled due to the Tsunami incident. Tourism package price has been dropping down significantly recently due to the Swine Flu outbreak. Nobody wanted to travel anywhere during the outbreak period and on top of that, nature disaster strike many countries in the recent time. Flood, hurricane, earthquake and so on, people really did ask me how would I dare to go travel at this time. Not afraid of die ar?

Well, I don't really know but I think the outbreak thing has been much better now and I just can't keeping myself too worry about something which has so little chance to happen right. So I decided to get on with the holiday trip. It was a trip of 8 days which include 6 days at South Korea and 2 days in Shanghai, China.

Its 2 o'clock in the morning, waiting for departure at KL International Airport. Hmm.. its getting excited already. The flight is scheduled to take off on 4.00am and will be arriving Pudong International at Shanghai at 8.30am.

Breakfast at 4:30am in the morning 30,000 feet above sea aboard of China Eastern Airline's A320 plane. Certainly something to remember. Going to take a good nap after the meal.

It will be a 4 hours wait at Pudong International Airport for the transit to Korea. We took our lunch at Pudong airport while waiting for our next flight. Eating at airport certainly isn't cheap but well, I wouldn't want to have roti kosong on holiday huh.

I ordered a bowl of noodle with some minced meat and egg. It tastes somewhat good though.

Wifey ordered this chicken rice which taste really good.

By the time we touch down at Incheon International Airport at Korea, it’s already evening. It is winter season here and the sky turn dark earlier than usual. It is night time before the clock reach 6:00pm. Oh yah, Korea time is 1 hour ahead of our Malaysia time so when it is totally dark at 6:00pm, it is only 5:00pm back home. We head towards Mt Sorak on a 2 hours journey. It is really cold here, winter season mah.

We had our very first meal for dinner at Korea. Korean love their dishes to be serve in a simple manner. They have this steamboat with some mushroom, vegetables and tofu on it and then some cold side dishes comprised of preserved vege such as Kim Chi, dried seaweed and soy bean sprout. Kim Chi is Korean famous cold dish. Over the next few days, we're going to live with it on every meal basis.

Everyone got their own pot of rice. It has some rice on the bottom and then some shredded vegetables and a raw egg topping. Add some sauce and it mixed up into a very well done dish. It’s really delicious. Everyone got their thumb up on the first Korean meal here. Bravo.

We arrived to Daemyung Resort at Mt sorak at 9.00pm local time. The temperature outside is dropping down near to zero and gosh, it’s cold. There are nothing much in the nearby area so we're not likely be able to go walking around outside for some reason. So we just took some time crawling inside the resort and it has a mart for some groceries. Bought some snacks and ice cream and just before we knew it, it cost an additional of 50 won for a plastic bag for the groceries here. Of course, you can opt not to take the plastic bag and just grab your stuff and move on.
Well I do see their effort to reduce the use of plastic bag to save the planet from these polymer trashes but I hope it doesn't happen elsewhere when I went shopping. I can't be grabbing everything on my hand right.

Our lodging place for the night. If you wonder if our bed was in the other part of the room, then you're wrong. There is no bed here! All we have is a few blankets and floor is where we sleep!
Well, they want us to fell the traditional way of how Korean people sleep, just on the floor. Of course, during the winter, the floor is heated so you will get all the warm you need on the floor. If you feel too warm, just open the window and the freezing air from outside will cold down the room.
It has been a tiring day for all of us and bed or no bed, everyone want to sleep to gain enough strength for tomorow's schedule. We will be going to the Seoraksan National Park in the morning.

One of the main problems here is our electronics appliances. Ya know, you got to charge battery for the cell phone and the camera from time to time. And this odd looking power plug here, well, how to use this? Well, Korea uses the same current we have back at Malaysia which is about 220V AC. But their power plug is differrent from ours. We follow the British standard plug while Korea uses a different standard. For some of our appliances which have a plug with two pin, it should be able to fit into this power plug without any problem. But for those with three pin, you will need a special adaptor for that. Unfortunately, most hotels here does not provide the three pin adaptor, they have a two pin adaptor instead. Luckily, I have prepared myself the adaptor earlier back home.

Read Also
Leaving the chaotic Shanghai
Shanghai Huangpu River Cruise
Going Suzhou Couple Retreat Garden
Leaving Korea Going Suzhou Jinji Lake
Going Korea Deoksugung Palace Museum