South Korea Trip: Day 1

For all K-Pop fans, going to South Korea (the country where handsome oppas and beautiful eonnis live) is our number one dream. Being a hardcore K-Pop fans, I am so grateful that finally my dream came true. So my family and I went for a vacation to South Korea on December, which was winter season there. Winter is a perfect time to visit Korea, coz you can enjoy the romantic atmosphere with your loved ones (just don't travel solo haha).

We boarded the Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Incheon at around 2am local time (there is no direct flight from Surabaya to Incheon). Initially our flight was scheduled at 11.25pm but got delayed for 2 hours wth. Since it was a midnight-to-morning flight, I slept all the way and woke up for breakfast haha.

Airplane snacks: Nestle bottled water - Sunripe orange juice - blueberry muffin

Airplane breakfast: beef fried rice, sliced fruits and strawberry yogurt. I did not know the beef was rendang hais. I hate rendang by the way.

The plane touched down the South Korean ground at around 10am local time (South Korea time is GMT+9, which means 2 hours ahead of Jakarta). Incheon International Airport is so big, probably as big as Changi or HKIA. Immigration was smooth, then we proceeded to meet our local guide named Lee Eunjae. She can speak Bahasa Indonesia well coz she is majoring in Indonesian language in her college. Awesome! Upon going out of the airport building, the harsh winter wind chilled me to the bone. It was -7 degrees Celcius that day. No choice, I had to adapt to this situation for the next 5 days.

We had lunch at 불고기브라더스 (Bulgogi Brothers) located inside Seoul Finance Center at Gwanghwamun. I love how every Korean meal always includes many types of banchan (side dishes) alongside the main course.

옥수수차 / oksusu cha (Korean corn tea)

I really adore Korean rice! It is dense and has beautiful sticky texture.

Raw beef bulgogi before being cooked and stirred. This could feed 3 people, so we ordered 2 portions.

Eunjae eonni cooking the bulgogi. She looks like SNSD Taeyeon ya?

Grabbed a cup of hot drink from Caribou Coffee after the meal

Went to our first destination: 남이섬 (Nami Island)! Driving from Seoul to Chuncheon (the city where Nami Island is located) took less than 1 hour. Then from Gapyeong Wharf, we took Nami Maid Ferry to Nami Island (if you are up for something more challenging, you can take a Zipline ride which is like flying fox). The ferry ride only takes around 5 minutes to reach Nami.

Nami Island is such a beautiful winter wonderland! If you watch Winter Sonata, the scenery in Nami Island should be familiar for you. One awesome thing about Nami Island is that this island adopts 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) policy. There is no electrical pole, and you can spot some ornaments made from recycled goods like cans, bottles and books. There are some spots with bonfire where you can warm yourself (it became my favorite spot haha).

The infamous Metasequoia Lane. Ikr, this photo is so blurry ><

It was dark already when we left Nami Island. We then headed for dinner, still around Gapyeong Wharf. We had 춘천 닭갈비 / Chuncheon dakgalbi (Chuncheon marinated diced chicken in spicy gochujang sauce). Dakgalbi is Chuncheon's specialty dish, you have to try it when visiting Nami Island, because there are many dakgalbi restaurants within the vicinity of the ferry pier. By the way, one of the staff really looks like MissA Suzy when she was filming Dream High series! My brother even said it might be Suzy who worked part-time in that restaurant lol.

If you are wondering where the chicken is, it is hiding underneath the cabbage hehe

Dakgalbi after being stirred. 맛있었어요!^^

Kimchi, a compulsory banchan in every Korean meal

We also ordered a plate of fried rice, which later was mixed with the dakgalbi

After dinner, we headed back to Seoul and checked in into our hotel, Grand Ambassador Hotel. And now we have come to the end of my day 1 trip. Till my next post!