Yonggungsa Temple 해동 용궁사 @ Busan, Korea

Ah.. I have been neglecting my blog again. I find it getting harder to sit down and really write out my travel experiences while trying to remember the details of at least how to get to the place. I wrote a summary of getting there in my itinerary but here I will share what are some of the alternatives as provided by our hotel. Mr. SON actually gave us a printed paper on various alternatives to go to this temple. I was actually toying the idea between this temple or Beomeosa but since the weather forecast to be raining whole day, we just went for this one. It's ironic that in Malaysia, I never appreciate those weather forecast as 90% of the time it is wrong but here in Korea, 100% of the time it is accurate even to the detail hourly forecast.

This temple is located by the sea and by looking at pictures from the internet, it is supposed to be a very pretty temple with nice scenery but sadly when it rained, everything looked white and foggy. Nevertheless, we went there anyway and it was so cold and I regretted not to bring a thicket jacket. yea, I am that vain as I only brought two thin nice jacket and I wanted to save my luggage space for more masks, skincare products and shopping. 

To get here we just follow the instructions from the piece of paper provided by Mr. Son and it was another 10 minutes walk into the temple. Inside the temple, there were still bits and pieces of sakura left but it was miserable to see mostly had fallen. I think I had maxed out my sakura luck in Japan last year :(

As the sky started to pour, it was getting foggy and we were so cold that we spend most of the time inside a cafeteria. We quickly take a few shots and then left the temple shivering while waiting for the bus. My plan was to catch the bus back to Dalmalji hill but after we stopped at one of the departmental store for directions, we changed our mind. The staff told us that the sakura flowers had withered and not worth going there. Ok, then let's go for shopping, haha. We went back to Nampo and start the shopping madness by buying 10,000 won bags. Seriously, the bags here are so cheap and nice and so Korean, haha. Yup, so Korean.

Recommended Dessert in Hanoi

One of the reason why I enjoyed Vietnam is because of the food and the pho. Ok, mainly because of the pho and the dessert. I am getting a bit nonsensical here, haha. You see, before we left for the trip, I gave the task of food to my travelmate and she is the one who dictates what and where to eat most of the time. We tried a few places but majority of the time, we just spent sitting at those small portable food stalls eating pho. I can only read pho ga as chicken pho and most of the time, we just ordered those.

But I am not gonna dwell much on pho and bun cha and those stuff. What I wanted to share here is more like the dessert we had while we were in Hanoi. We did not try much but these two are my top favourite dessert.

Fruit Ice Kacang style at To Tich
To Tich is a very short road and once you turned into the junction you can find many of the shops selling similar kind of dessert. Look for the one with the most people. There are plenty of choices on the menu and you can even order this topped with ice cream. Price starts around VND 25,000

Photo from internet courtesy of Alexis Fong
The fruit ice kacang. Do not judge the dessert by it's bowl, it's one of the best I had so far

The location of the shop
Photo courtesy of Alexis Fong (ripped from the internet)

Coconut Icecream with sticky rice at corner of  Hai Ba Trung and Phan Chu Trinh road
This shop has no name and basically it's at the corner of the two roads. You won't miss it as it was quite packed

Mango sticky rice with pandan flavour

the famous coconut ice cream with pandan sticky rice topped with coconut flakes

The shop, look for the green rooftop

Vietnam in a Nutshell

Finally had the time to sit down and write some stuff happening over the few weeks. After Korea, I went to another impromptu trip to Hanoi, Vietnam but this time with my colleague. Hanoi is a place I wanted to go very badly especially Sapa Valley after I have seen the photos.

For this trip, I just booked like some sort of ground arrangement tour with our hotel, Glance Hotel. I send them my planned itinerary and they gave me a quote on the things I wanted to do and see. And it seems ok, hence the booking. This must be the shortest research I ever done for my trip and also the most relaxing one since the hotel already arrange everything for us. The details of my itinerary is as follows:

View of the paddy fields in Sapa 

Day 1
Arrive in Hanoi and wow..I got such a good impression of the airport. From landing to picking up our bags in less than half an hour. Small and compact airport but yet not suffocating. Much much better than our klia2 which takes forever to reach the boarding gate. We got picked up from the airport and send to our hotel in the old quarters. I asked for a day use room as we reached early in the morning we wanted to take the overnight train to Sapa on the same day. Actually before the trip, I have compared the cost of going on my own and taking the arrangement offered by the hotel. It's not much difference, hence we took up the offer. If we to take the overnight train itself, it cost about USD 40 per way. So we spend some time to wash up, sleep, walk around the old quarters and then dinner before being transport to the train station. First time sleeping in the train and it was really eye opening but nevertheless the journey was quite comfortable.

Day 2
Sapa 
Reach Lao Cai in the wee hours of morning and again we were transported to our hotel, Panarama hotel in Sapa to freshen up and breakfast before the hiking. The journey up the hills took about an hour and by the time we reach Sapa, we were famished and dashed to the breakfast counter. We did not even washed up as since we are going for trekking and will be sweaty afterward, why bother to wash and sweat again, haha. And we even wore the trekking clothes as pajamas the night before in the train! We went to the Cat Cat village and some rivers nearby for swimming. While the rest of our group's Ang Moh swam, the Asian us sat under the umbrella and shade. At night, we walked around the Sapa town.

Day 3
Sapa
Today, the trekking was a bit tough especially going down and we were swarmed by Hmong women offering to accompany us during the trekking. I was glad to have one of them to hold me while I descend the rocky trail and end up buying some souvenirs from them. Later on, I realised I paid double for that but it's ok since it's for repaying her for helping me. We took the night train back to Hanoi at night.

Day 4
Hanoi

The famous red bridge in Hoen Kiem lake

Reached Hanoi early in the morning and the hotel arrange for transport to ferry us back to our hotel. We stayed at the same hotel, Glance. We slept for a while more before getting down for breakfast. Today, we explore the attractions in Hanoi. We walked from the old quarters to the Temple of Literature and to the One Pillar pagoda and then to the other side of the Hoan Kiem Lake for the dessert before ending near the bridge. Walked about 30km in that one day!

Day 5
Halong Bay
It's the day for the 1 night cruise in Halong bay. It's a 4 hour journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay and we stopped by one of the places for souvenirs. Did not buy anything here as it was pretty expensive but I got to admit the embroidery was pretty impressive. I almost wanted to buy one myself. We checked into our cruise by lunch time and we had lunch while the boat cruising along the bay. After that we went for kayaking into some of the more secluded area and this is the first time my friend experience kayak and she is pretty good at it! Even better than my husband. Our cruise had a mother and son from Malaysia but we were intrigued with the couple from Thailand. Was speculating whether they are really a couple or the girl is just an escort for the much older guy. And who the other older woman who followed the couple along? These are some of the questions we were so dying to ask but refrained from doing so. At night we had squid fishing but sadly we did not manage to catch any squid.

Day 6
Halong Bay

Sunset at Halong bay

The next morning, it was raining and there was no sunrise to catch. So continue sleeping until breakfast and then off to one of the caves. We alight from the cruise around noon after lunch and then it's another 4 hours back to Hanoi.

Day 7
Tam Coc
I wanted to go this place after hearing raving reviews from my dad but boy, we picked the wrong time to go as it was hot as hell and I just practically sweating by just standing outside the aircon bus. It took us about 2 hours to get there from Hanoi and this is another day trip we booked with the hotel. The highlight will be the sampan kayak by the locals using their feet instead of hand. I spent most of the time hiding under the umbrella in the boat. One of our tourmates, a Polish guy kept asking me to help him take photos and dictate me how to take them. I was a bit pissed off and ran off after the first time helping him. If you want me to take photo of you, let me do it my way la. So when the guide suggested him to share a boat with us, I quickly dragged by friend to a boat while the Polish guy is busy showing off his photos to another Singaporean couple. Luckily we did not share the boat with him as I can foresee that he will block most of the view with him in front. After that, we went for biking along the paddy fields for another 45 minutes. I almost forgotten how to ride a bike.

Train tracks in Hanoi town

As it was the last day in Hanoi and the only day we can go to the night market, we spend almost 4 hours walking around the night market trying to finish our dong. It was good have someone helping out with the bargaining, haha.

Day 8
Flight home
It's time to head home.

Korea Itinerary: Seoul and Busan in 9 days

My favourite shot along way up to the N Seoul Tower

I finally had the time to properly sit down and recalled the itinerary of my trip to Korea recently. Better to pen it down before it get lost in my memory box and sit somewhere collecting dust. You see, the trip was planned in a time to coincide with the cherry blossom in Korea. Yea, you can say I was a bit addicted to catch all the pink flowers after Japan last year. After this trip, I realised how lucky I was last year when I was able to catch the sakura perfectly but no so this time around. We were slightly a week late and most of the flowers already dead by the time we reached Busan and in Seoul, there were still pockets of sakura.

Initially my plan is to spend all 9 days in Seoul and hence the booking of the flight to and fro Seoul. I did a big mistake here as I decided to fit in Busan. And to take the KTX all the way from Seoul to Busan. The better option is to fly into Busan and fly out from Seoul.

So the summary of my itinerary is as follows;

Day 1 
KL to Seoul to Busan
We reached Incheon around 3.30pm and came out from the immigration around 4.20pm. We went straight to the KTX counter as we wanted to catch the 4.30 direct train to Busan from Incheon and to reach Busan around 8.30pm. Yup, the train ride is almost 4 hours long and imagine my horror when the girl at the counter told us that the sitting tickets were finished and there was no more sitting tickets for the rest of the day. I actually thought of booking it upfront at Korail website but since I was not certain of the timing that we can land, I decided against it. Double horror as it was Sunday weekend!! So we were discussing which were the best options when there was this couple in front of us decided to take the standing tickets instead. Suddenly, I remembered that Korail also provide standing tickets but at a lower price. But still, 4 hours of standing, I was not sure whether hubs can take it (he had worse stamina than me). Standing or left stranded in Incheon. So standing it is. We were able to get seats from the airport until Seoul station and luckily only stand for an hour. For info, for standing tickets you can sit as long as there was no one at the seat. After all the mishaps and adventures, we reached Busan station around 8.30pm and proceed for dinner in one of the restaurant. We then take the subway and stopped at Nampo station for our hotel, Elysee hotel. I really love this hotel for the strategic and the hospitality of the owner, Mr. Son. He even send me the detail descriptions to reach his hotel from the Nampo station along with photos!

Day 2
Yonggusa temple
It was forecast to rain when we were in Busan and it rained whole day we were there. So we decide to just go to Yonggusa temple and spend the rest of the day 'lepaking' around Nampo after knowing that the sakura flowers in Dalmaji hill had also died. So we ask Mr. Son for the directions there and he gave us a paper which comprise of all the alternatives of going to the temple. I will share the details in a more detail post, lol.

The sea of canola flowers hidden among the tall buildings in Busan

Day 3
Canola flowers and Gamcheon
Initially I planned for Gamcheon and combined with Beomeosa temple but my friend texted me and asked me whether I was going to see the famous yellow flowers ie the canola flowers or rapeseed flowers in Busan since I told her that the sakura flowers already dead in Busan. She gave me a link and I read that there is a festival going on to celebrate the flowers. To reach there, take the metro line 3 and stopped at station no. 315, Gangseo-Gu Office. You can see the yellow flowers even from the metro. The best time to visit should be around early to mid April, I think. Not too sure on the timing as we were there in mid April.

Gamcheon, the Santorini of Busan

Then from there, we went to Gamcheon also known as Santorini of Busan. To reach there we take the metro line 1 and stopped at ToSeong exit 8. After exit turn right at the intersection walked a few metres until you see the Cancer centre. Take bus no. 2 or 2-2 to the Gamcheon village. You won't get lost as there are a lot tourists going the same way.

Bulgoksa temple in Gyeongju.
One of the UNESCO heritage and a must visit temple in Korea.

Day 4
Gyeongju and KTX to Seoul
I had intention to see the famous cherry blossom festival in Jinhae, hence the pit stop at Busan. However, upon consultation with Mr. Son, he mentioned that most of the flowers are dead..sad..I had been repeating the flowers death for many times now. He suggested to go to Gyeongju which we may still able to catch the sakura as it was little north of Busan. He gave us directions and alternatives to reach there. We took the KTX, fastest but more expensive as we had to rush to Seoul in the evening. And this day, I did a very big mistake, an accountant should not make. I forgot about the Korea day pass that I booked from Korail for KRW120,000 + for two person which I could have use for this day, the day I traveled using the most KTX trains (and also it is the day we going to Seoul using KTX) and could have save back on at least KRW 40,000 for two of us. We stopped at Singyeongju, which is a little outskirt from the town and took bus no. 700 from outside the KTX station which lead us straight to Bulgoksa temple. I will share other alternatives to Gyeongju in another post. This one is getting too long and my hand is aching trying to type as I recalled my itinerary. We also went to Seokgurum grotto, not too far away from Bulgoksa temple. You can take the bus no. 12 from the tourist information centre or just hailed the bus from the bus stop outside Bulgoksa temple. Cost is KRW 1,500 per person.

After that, we took the KTX back to Busan, take our luggage and went to purchase the ticket for Seoul at 7.30pm. As it was a sunny day and I did not want to waste a sunny day in train travelling, I decide to only go to Seoul late evening. And the worst has yet to come. We stayed in Myeong Dong and the guesthouse I booked was at top of a hill. By now, my husband already in foul mood and blamed me for booking such cheap and inconvenient place to stay. I was really upset as not only he did not help out with any of the booking and itinerary but I was the one dragging the big bag up the hill and the room. So I ignored him for the rest of the night.

Day 5
Gyeongbukgung, Changdeokgung (including secret garden), Insa Dong and Myeong Dong

A secret garden amidst the palace ground. I felt transported back in time

It was raining the first day in Seoul, sadly and I was not in a good mood to go anywhere after yesterday's night incident. We just visited the famous palaces around Seoul, the most famous ones and also the secret garden in Changdeokgung. We bought the KRW10,000 ticket package which includes going into the two palaces we went, Jongmu shrine, and also Changyeonggung. If we buy separately, it would cost total of KRW 14,000 for 4 palaces and 1 shrine. As it was raining, we did not really enjoyed the palaces that much except for the morning trying out costume at Gyeongbukgung for free. After secret garden, we went to Insa dong for souvenir shopping and later Myeongdong for shopping.

Day 6 
Yeouido Park, Deoksugung, Namsangol Hanok Village and Seoul Tower
Still holding to my hopes of seeing sakura, we went to Yeouido park near to the National Assembly. We took the line 9 subway and exit 1 or 6. We walked for about 5-10 minutes towards the sea and then we saw it. Too bad, again half of the flowers were dead. We did not spend much time here and rush over to City Hall subway station to Deoksugung. We managed to catch the change of guards at 2pm and after that proceed to Namsangol Hanok Village after recommended by my colleague. From there we went back to Myeongdong for fried chicken (will review that later) and then proceed our 'Mt. Kinabalu' hike up to Namsan park/Seoul tower. The 'Mt. Kinabalu' hike is more like what my husband describe, haha. For me it was not that difficult walk up with all the beautiful scenery and sunset. We locked our lock at the famous lock place and then proceed with going up the tower with popcorn and coke for the night view. Normally, I won't spend such money on popcorn and coke on top of the tower but since it was a tough hike for my husband, got to reward him.

Day 7
Nami Island and Petit France, Dongdaemun and Cheongyecheon stream
Check the weather forecast and this day, it was also sunny. We took the 8am ITX train to Gapyeong from Yongsan. I will elaborate more on the mode of transport to get to Nami Island in a more detail post about Nami Island and Petit France. I feel Petit France a bit overrated but since it's the filming location for My Love from the Star and also Running Man. A bit advice though, do not take the local subway from Gapyeong back to Seoul especially on a sunny weekend. It's madness as we were packed in sardine for an hour standing. I can't barely move an inch. After that, we went straight to Dongdaemun market and to see the famous Cheongyecheon stream.

Day 8
Bukchon village, Ginseng chicken, Myeong Dong

The rainy atmosphere of Bukchon

Another rainy day today as we head towards Bukchon. As we only woke up around 10am, we took our own sweet time to get ready. I kind of regret not going to Bukchon when it is sunny as the place is amazing for portrait shooting. To reach Bukchon, stop at Anguk station exit 3. After that, it's lining up for the famous ginseng chicken, Tosokchon near Gyeongbukgung.  And then it's more shopping in Myeongdong and Lotte Department store. I managed to nab a few tops from the Myeongdong subway underground station.

Day 9 
Flight back to KL
We use the airport express (AREX) to the airport. To take the AREX, stop at Seoul subway station and walk towards the KTX Seoul station. You can get the tickets at the Korail counter or the lower ground counter before the entrance of the AREX.

Pray For Nepal

Heard about the Nepal earthquake today and feel sad for the casualties. The quake even affect those in India, Bhutan and Tibet and also coincidentally, these are the few places I had a chance to visit three years back.

When I looked at the photos of the demolished UNESCO heritage in Kathmandu, my heart sank. I quite like Kathmandu honestly and its quirky traits and now most of the buildings were in rubble. My prayer goes to the people of Nepal and not forgetting those who are affected by the earthquake. I will forever treasure the memories and the good times I had when I was in Kathmandu 3 years back.

Anyeong Haseyo

I am back from my one week trip to Korea, spending time between Busan and Seoul. Man, this trip is much much more expensive than Japan last year. I think I spend almost double the amount including on shopping. I don't dare to see my credit card statement. Sigh..why the hell I end up buying more than 100 sheets of face masks while I only have 1 face to use?? Guess I had to sell some of them to earn back some money to pay off my credit card debts. The only consolation I can tell myself that this will be the second last trip for the year at least.

In summary, I enjoy Korea but sadly we reached when most of the sakura had fallen so we left with pretty much bare sakura trees in Busan. But with very pretty yellow canola flowers. There are still some left in Seoul but pretty much the rest of the sakura had fallen. I will share my itinerary and cost for the trip which I am not very satisfied this time as I did a few stupid mistake and end up costing more than what it suppose to be. I could have save back at least a few hundreds by just opening up my brain...sigh

Stories wise, quite some adventure happened here and there, with my husband forget to bring the tripod plate and end up we had to buy one in Busan to even bargaining for the clothes which I thought the Koreans don't really bargain and to speaking Chinese in Seoul, mostly in the shopping area.

Backpacker or Flashpacker

I kind of abandon my blog for a very long time due to personal reason but now I got to stay positive and think positive. Just hope I can stay in this state for some time before another emotional breakdown. I find that whenever I have a upcoming trip or travel, I will automatically feel better, think more positive and focus all my energy into researching for the trip or trips.

I think I have gradually graduated from a backpacker to a flashpacker. I feel that I was more a backpacker when I was in my twenties and now being in thirties and married, travelling takes a whole new different view and off course packing involves two instead of one person. Even when I called myself a backpacker in my twenties, I rarely carried those gigantic backpack save for the Tibet, Bhutan & Nepal adventure. Most of the time I used a rolling luggage bag and carried a small backpack for my big ass camera. I find that giant backpacks tend to consume me as I was quite a petite size (which I keep telling myself that) comparing to the giant backpack.

In my twenties I love staying in hostel and plus the budget constraint I had, it suited me well. I think the last time I stayed in a hostel for my whole trip was in New Zealand and Japan. Ok, it seems like I am still much of a backpacker in my thirties as well. So how do you classify yourself as a backpacker or flashpacker? For me, it's the accommodation, my style of packing and what bags to used, budget constraint in buying food or shopping and mode of transportation. I find that the older I get, I am more incline towards a bit of luxury. I still use the occasional excel worksheet to work out my itinerary and cost just like how I am doing now for my Hanoi trip in May, which it will be definitely a flashpacker trip. And I find that only my friends who are accountant / auditor background will use an excel worksheet to work out the itinerary and cost, haha.

So in conclusion, which mode would I prefer now? I guess it's mixture of both flash and back. I still tend to find cheap accommodations such as B&Bs, hostel but at least with a private bathroom. I still cut on my transportation, getting the best and most cost effective way to travel around. I still haggle like mad eventhough it was just to reduce a few ringgit (probably I feel happy and sadistic just to get what I want according to what I am willing to pay).