As sikulat remarked I am further away from Jakarta, as many of you thought. I am now in the 5th most expensive city in the whole world. To save you all from finding the statistics (bravo to those who can guess already), I am now in Seoul, Korea 5th most expensive city after Tokyo, Osaka, Paris and London (in no particular order).
After 8hrs flight from KLIA (departed at 1a.m. 3rd September 2006 Sunday) we touched down at Incheon International Airport. A relatively small (compared to KLIA) but modern airport stood proudly on an island which is 45minutes drive from the city center. Similarly to KLIA and KL City Center. And like KL, the traffic jam is testing your patience. Furthermore the roads are narrow with just yellow line dividing the traffic flow. Ngeri kekadang tu bila berselisih, barely a feet away. Plus, they all drive big cars. It's hard to find Kancil, Picanto, Aveo, Savvy equivalent on the road. Mostly their national cars. We've seen one Honda and a few Merc so far. Oprta is known as Lasetti. Motocycles are scarce as well especially during the day. And most cars are in silver, white, grey and black. I have not seen shocking green or even light blue except for buses. As the tour agent said, we Korean are not good at decorating.
Oh, I am honeymooning with a group of about 30 people. Actually, I am tagging along mdh's mba's gang. They are here for a 5-days seminar. There are 5 tag-alongs, including me. We made a gang of 7, inclusive of 2 reps from the travel agency. So, while they're at their business, we are enjoying ourselves shopping before we adjourned at around 3 or 4pm to prepare dinner for our beloved husbands (who ate like nobody business at some muslim restaurant somewhere, anyway). By the way, Korea has a population of 34m people, with 13m in Seoul. Seoul is a packed, rather unsystematically arrange I think, city. They have no skyscrapers. Buildings are close between one another. Shops lined the streets barely 2 or 3 meters from the curb.
After we touched down, collected bags, passed through immigration, settled ourselves in a coach, we immediately started our trip with visit to a Seoul Folk Museum and Changdeokgung Palace. After torturing ourselves in somewhat hot day, we had lunch at a Pakistani restaurant. Suddenly we felt close at home, savoring nasi beriyani and roti nan. For that, we paid RM60 each. After lunch we checked-in at Sejong Hotel (strategically located for shopping enough to make you husband's heart pound stronger each day), a 15 storey building with some rooms with no window at all! Kami beruntung sebab dapat bilik with a view. Tho it's a bit sempit as compared to any hotels I went before, we are thankful. Some friends didn't get bath tub, or tiny-miny closet or room without a view.
Anyway, after checked-in, we rushed to Korean Ginseng Government Store. This particular ginseng, is controlled by Korean Government. You cant even shoot photos in the store. Unfortunately, we have got some communication problem there as the sales girls, all of them don't speak English. Communication is made via the travel agent, as medium. We gawked rather obviously at them. They have flawless skin. Udahlah putih melepak, licin pulak tu. Khasiat Ginseng lah tu. The travel agent himself, looked barely 35 when he's actually 48! Seriously! But anyhow, niat kami untuk sama2 berkulit flawless terus padam when we were told the price. Pack of 3 powdered ginseng costs about USD189 -> almost RM800.
Next we went to Amethyst Shop. All products were with 50% discount. Cantik banget. They're in white gold or white-gold plated silver. Mdh bought me an amethyst ring, with 2 crystals on each side. They have nice, to-drool-for arrays of accessories -> rings, bracelets, bangles, necklace, brooch. One problem -> only one person speaks English. Thank God for the wonders of calculators -> untuk tawar menawa maaa!!
Tho we were all jelly-legged by then (the sun was gone, we were busuk from sweat, muka berkilat and all), we still had one more destination to go -> Namsan Park. To go there, we took a cable car (which was sardine-packed) and then to our surprise, we had to climb tangga and more tangga to reach its peak before we could actually naik to Seoul Tower (the tower is located on top of the hill). From the tower (KL Tower equivalent), we saw all of Seoul in the heat of the night. Lights could be seen as far as you eyes allow. Memang pack sangat in Bandar. After ½ hr of oohhh and ahhhh we lined up to get back to Sejong Hotel. It was Monday night (Ahad malam Isnin) and yet these local folks flocked to Namsan as if (1) they're the tourists (2) it was Sunday night (3) young and hip. No 3 refers to makcik and pakcik yang berpusu2 ke sana in their heelsssss, mind you. Some even dressed in suit and dinner gown and heelsssss. We concluded the khasiat of Ginseng. Hemmmm if only they were cheaper.
After 'Khamsa-hamnida' to the travel agent (who looked a bit older at the end of the day), we parted ways to our respective sarang and settled down for the next day.
I'll be back for more updates. Now I want to go count my money left maaaa. I have 4 more days to go and yet my ration is running low. And btw, the internet access is da** expensive. About KRW500 -> RM2.00 per minute. If you hook-up for 24hrs, it is KRW25,000 -> RM95.00. and that is my 2 months payment of non-stop access of Streamyx dengan baki RM5 somemore.
Have a nice day everyone.
