Sunday, 20 October 2013

Seoul Trip Part 2 Day 3 to 6

Continuing from the previous post.

It's been a pleasure to continue my post. So from day 3 to 6 i visited the magnificent island of Jeju-do.

Day 3(6 October): GIMPO- JEJU

Traffic light near BoA Guesthouse
Gimpo Internation Airport

The trip began in the morning as our flight to Jeju is around 12pm. After breakfast at BoA Guesthouse, we make our way slowly to the metro line with our small luggage. We took the AREX line to Gimpo Airport station. Once there, we checked in and went opposite to Gimpo Lotte Mall. The Shopping Mall is quite huge and there's a department store located since its a Lotte Mall.

The shopping Malls provide a rooftop garden where one can see the whole view of Gimpo International Airport. It was really sunny on that day but the view was fantastic. We had lunch by snacking along the way then we board the plane. It was quite a wait and we finally got on board the plane. We took Easter Jet to Jeju. There's a lot of Airline to Jeju but most of them are full so we took Easter Jet. It was my first time at Gimpo Airport and I can say, it's quite nice and the buildings is mostly made up of glass so there's view everywhere you turn to. The moment the plane got off the runaway I started to take photos of beautiful Seoul City below. I really love to look at landscape so i took quite a bit of photos. The journey took around 55 minutes after take off. The plane is quite spacious and the stewardess is quite pretty i can say.

Seoul from bird eye view
Jeju-do

Arrived in Jeju at 5 minutes past 1pm. It was a smooth landing and i praise the pilot who brought us to safety. The day i arrived it was raining quite heavily so we thought, it's going to be a wet trip nevertheless that didn't make us lose hope on the next two days of our stay in Jeju.

Checked in at Yeha Guesthouse a co-guesthouse to BoA Guesthouse in Jeju. They provide similar services which includes the Halal utensils etc. After unpacking our stuff we went for a walk at the youth street which is nearby. After about 6pm we return back to our guesthouse for dinner. One unique thing about Yeha Guesthouse is that they have community room where all the guesthouse can dine together and share travel experience with each other. One thing that you need to aware of is that in Jeju after 6pm there's no activity, usually the community is full. At 7pm they have happy hour where each guest is provided with a drink of their choice all the way till 11pm. It's quite a social-able area and comfy as we share and create new memories together.

Day 4 (7 October): YehaTour Day 1

The next day my Yeha Bus tour begins.[West Course] The itinerary is as follows. Hallim Park- Suweolbbong trekking-Lunch/Spirited Garden-Althr Airfield- Mount Sanbang- END

I shall let the picture do all the talking shall we? Anyway I met an Indonesian friend from this tour. Her name is Catherine. Initially i noticed her looking at me as the seat beside me is empty. From Suweolbbong trekking she sit beside me all the way and we talk to each other.She told me about herself and about her first time in South Korea. At first i thought she was from Thailand but after talking everything she told me she's from Medan, Indonesia. We exchange email address and bid farewell since she's not joining the tour on the next day.

Hallim Park
Suweolbbong trekking
Lunch/Spirited Garden
Althr Airfield
Mount Sanbang

Cheonjeyeon Waterfall

Day 5 (8 October): YehaTour Day 2

The following day Yeha Bus tour continues. Today is really an unlucky day for everyone to visit Jeju because the Typhoon is passing through this area. It was raining really bad and the visibility is bad. It is dangerous if you are driving and without much experience driving in Korea.

[East Course]The second day bus tour itinerary is as follows. Trick eye museum-Sangumburi Crater-Seonguep Folk village- Lunch-Woman Diver Show/Haenyo Museum-Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak-Manjang Cave- END.

Trick eye museum

Senguep folk village/Lunch
Haenyo Museum
Manjang Cave


That night after dinner, we went out for a walk to an underground shopping mall. It was quite a walk and the things there is a lot cheaper than Seoul. But Fashion wise the clothes available here is not of many choices compare to Seoul.

Day 6 (9 October): JEJU-GIMPO

The end of 4 days 3 nights visit to Jeju and stay at Yeha Guesthouse. It was really a good experience despite the Typhoon which cancel our woman diver show and Ilchulbong sunrise peak. Disappointed but satisfied with the overall experience.

We board the plane at around 12pm also back to Gimpo. We took the bus 95 to Airport opposite Yeha Guesthouse City Hall. The bus ride took about 20 minutes and the bus is not crowded at all thankfully. Arrived at Gimpo and back to BoA guesthouse where we stay the rest of our stay in Seoul. I have make a separate blogpost about Boa Guesthouse for Muslim. It's also available on their website. Please take a look and if you have any questions I'm always here to answer any questions you have.



Saturday, 19 October 2013

BoA Guesthouse for Muslims

Asalamualaikum everyone,

Muslim Tour Guide Review


I would like to give a detailed review of my last stay at BoA Guesthouse Seoul. For Muslim Guest who is
thinking of visiting Seoul in near future look no further!
BoA Guesthouse offers the service from a

  • separate cooking utensils,
  • Kiblat Directions,
  • praying rooms,
  • Halal Foods,
  • lots more.

You will be warmly welcome by their receptionist on duty and you will feel homely. Make sure to ask them about the password code to open the HALAL utensils cabinet.

Cooking Utensils

Inside the HALAL cabinet, there are various cooking utensils like pots, pans ,plate, fork spoon. What's 
more there are some herbs and spices and packet food left by other Muslim
guest. Please Feel Free to use them.

* If you feel like eating rice, you can get it from the nearest convenience store or from the fridge that is
located at the reception. Price from W1,000.

Kiblat Directions

If you look through "Muslim Click Here" there's a section where they show Kiblat Directions. Kiblat Directions is available in each room and I have personally used my compass and the directions are accurate.

Praying Rooms

Masya Allah, There's even a praying room if you prefer to pray inside the Surau. In the Praying rooms, 
there's Sajadah, Al-Quran and many more. It is located at 5F (Floor).
Take a staircase up and you can see it there. The view is remarkable and make sure to bring along a jacket as it can get really cold especially in autumn and winter.

Halal Foods

At BoA Guesthouse there's this section where they provide you Halal Restaurant Nearby. I visited one of
the restaurants.

Shop Name: 털보고ᄃ되니( Teolbo godoeni)




Final Verdict: The fish is fresh and delicious. MUST TRY!

Lots more

Honggik University Metro is accessible to Itaewon station. Itaewon is where the Seoul Grand Mosque is 
located at. Journey takes about 20 to 30
Minutes by Metro.


Food can be expensive and a luxury for Muslim visiting South Korea. You can find many Middle-Eastern 
Restaurant at Itaewon and the price of food is quite expensive. I recommend bring food rations like canned
foods and cup noodle and if you still have balance, you can donate it to BoA
Guesthouse for future and other Muslim guest to use as well.

Friday, 18 October 2013

Seoul Trip Part 2 Day 1 to 3

Anneyonghaseyo,

To all my dear readers how have you all been? Its been a long journey for myself and my family members for this trip. This long post will be separated into 4 to 5 different post as i would like to give an in-depth review of my stay at both BoA Guesthouse Seoul and Yeha Guesthouse Jeju-do.

Day 1 (4th October): SIN- SGN

The day begin on a fantastic Friday the 4th of October 2013 exactly two weeks back. We board the airplane on Vietnam Airlines VN0658 bound for Ho Chin Minh City,Vietnam. Upon getting on board, the first impression of Vietnam Airlines is really good. Even though it is Airbus A321, the seating layout is separated by threes. There's plenty of knee room and headroom compared to most of the budget flight I've taken so far. The flight journey is 1 hour and 35 minutes after taking off. Distance approximately 1097km or 681 Miles. Arrived in Tan Son Nhat International Airport at around 930pm local time. Vietnam timing is -1 hour behind Singapore time. We took the aerobus bus to the main terminal and we waited nearly two hours before hopping on the next flight to Seoul, South Korea.

Two hours later we board the plane VN0408 bound for Seoul,South Korea. Journey took around 4 hours and 35 minutes after taking off. Distance approximately 3582km or 2225miles. After dinner is served, we get a good night sleep till South Korea the next morning.

Day 2 (5th October): SGN-ICN

Good morning everyone, we are 30 minutes from landing. That's what the captain said as the cabin interior light is switched on."Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of Vietnam airlines Captain and its crews as well as co partner of SkyTeam, we would like to wish everyone had a pleasant flight so far. We will make a descend very soon and please put your chair upright, your tray table back to its original position and seat belt fastened at all times". After that, we landed at Incheon International Airport and for me, my fourth Landing at Incheon and second for this year alone. I'm proud to say, I'm home!

After immigration clearance and collection of bags, we waited for an hour for the second flight consist of my neighbours from Kuala Lumpur. As they arrived, we welcome them to Korea with open hearts. The trip happened because of them since they want to visit South Korea with us. We greeted each other and then we bought EG prepaid Sim card from GS25. There we bought the W30,000 Data Sim card and we get it to configured before leaving for Seoul. Journey to Seoul took around 45 minutes by AREX(Airport Railway Express Train) from Incheon Internation Airport to Honggik University Station. Anyone can purchase a single trip ticket from the machine available or use T-Money card.  It was really good to be back, the weather is quite cooling and the flowers is going to turn red real soon. Since its their first time to South Korea, they focused most of the time on looking outside the window.

Arrived in Honggik University at around 12pm and we are ready to check in. Greeted warmly by the receptionist on duty, her name is Gayoung. She is very bubbly,cheerful and kind. Everyone would say the same thing if you meet Gayoung in person. Check in and firstly we prepared lunch as we brought cans of food from back home. One hour later, we walk around Hongdae University Area. Hongdae University is a youth shopping street where there's a lot of shops caters the need for the students there. Weekend is especially famous for street performance and night life is quite amusing. From my stay at BoA guesthouse to the street took around 10 minutes by walking. It's really very near. We walked around and towards the evening i went for a haircut at Hair by A.T.O.M located at the vicinity of Hongdae. It was my second time there and i still remember the lady who cut my hair, well it's too bad she don't remember. I was served a cold green tea before waiting for my turn. It was my turn and i kept my handphone near me. I use Google Translate and told her, It was my second time and she was shocked. It'll be more shocking if she know she was the one who cut my hair in February. We use Google Translate most of the time and she kept laughing and giving me a wide smile. She's really cute, i don't mind coming again just to get my haircut. It cost me around W25,000 for a good haircut plus a little head massage. Satisfied and definitely coming back again.

After that we had dinner at a nearby Fish restaurant. We ordered 4 tuna fishes. It is served along with rice, the side dishes and the lettuce. Next we went to Just SoPark to have a frozen yogurt. It's a homemade yogurt and it's really nice to have it in Autumn.


 I had a really sumptuous dinner and when we about to get back home, I saw there's an International Fireworks festival. I asked Gayoung where is the best place to view the fireworks. She told me it was Yeouinaru station. We took the train to gangbyeon station and oh my goodness. The crowd has started to build up from here. Four trains passed and we starting to lose hope. I was determined to see the fireworks so i managed to squeeze into the train leaving behind the other four people. Upon reaching the train stopped at the other train station which is Yeouido Station where KBS,MBC, 63 Building is located at. The crowd is really huge and I was alone, my first night in Seoul with millions of others braving through the crowd just to get a glimpse of the fireworks festival.





Monday, 30 September 2013

Doughnut

Hello guys!

How have you all been? Its a great pleasure to be here writing another post of karl's life adventures. Today's title is doughnut,inspired by my baby sister lenny. Let's add that honey glaze toppings shall we.

Its has been a great week so far since school ended two weeks ago. Many things happened and always there's a particular reason behind it. Alright I've been working since the last few weeks. I met quite a lot of people during work and everyone there's a story that comes along with it

There's a lot of people but I want to bring attention to one particular girl. Meet Jessica. She's two months younger than me and we share quite a few interest. We met on that Friday during the Friday rush hour, I remembered there's a lot of people since we are working in the public area. That day really happening! Two guys and girls won a total of 150 in total! Thats a massive amount of.prizes in a day and its at public! It was really tiring day but at least I get to spend the day with Jessica. Nothing much I can tell you about her. Haha its a secret.

Fastforward the next day I work with Brenda and sarah. Well nothing much to say about them really. I only talked to sarah most of the time as I've known and work with her before. As usual she will be talking about branded stuff these and that. She was talking about decorating her room and ask.me.for.some ideas and about the perfumes and cosmetics too. Well yeap that's about it. She was missing in action most of the times and clock out when I was busy didn't really get to say bye to her. The day continued with Brenda and another kpop girl fan. As usual even her iphone sticker is a hallyu idol. Nothing can describe that. Then lulu was the 530 shift girl and we basically just have fun and laughter all the way till shift ends.

On Tuesday I worked with Sophia and basically where everything begins. What I meant was that was the day when the wifi at airport goes up and down the whole day. What were you guys thinking.otherwise? Its kinda of annoying but we managed to finished everything before the shift ends. Ot was in terminal 3 and I'm quite excited as usual. I learn those lines that Rose translated for me and I did quite well. I was speaking Japanese more than Korean though but it was fun! First break we had lunch at kopitiam and seriously its cost quite a bit. Its like a.daylight robbery.Okay then second break I just when to perform my prayers and catch up with Sophia at subway. We were.siting at the side in those large chairs. Its quite.comfortable there. There's this ang moh guy signalled to me to take care of his stuff. I remembered him going towards the toilet with a cup of fresh orange juice. We were searching high and low for him then when he came back he thanked me and say "you're the best!" That really made my day so.its like "you're the best karl!".

Okay dokie here's to Wednesday. I was late for my early meeting with Jessica. I felt so bad to make a girl wait for me.Its like a debt the feeling. Well I should make up for it for.the rest of the story. Today I work with Jessica and Nazurah. It was kinda of weird to see Nazurah for the morning shift because she only did the night shift. Okay I was outside helping people most of times as I.promised Jessica that ill treat her good by asking her to stay inside the booth so she can sit down. Her previous day experience wasn't that bad at least Marie allowed her to sit inside for.3 hours that's considered nothing to standing 12 hours outside. It was kinda weird that I didn't talk to Nazurah so while she is surfing the internet I try to.find.topics I can talk to them.  That's it! Blogging. She told me about.blog and I tell my side.of the story too. What she is doing I have do it before and have vast experience about it.

I told her to get a domain name and hosting if she want to expand her business to a professional level. I shared my experience with Jessica and Nazurah. They were surprised that I know so much about blogging. These days there's not many guy blogger out there and I considered myself as.one. hmms I think I've gained two new readers to my blog. If you guys are reading this thank you so much and have a good time at yeunkarl.blogspot.sg! Thanks so much for the support guys. Alright I shall carry on. So once Nazurah left it was only Jessica and I. Well a lot of things happened and guessed we are quite close after that. Hmms we did so much things together. I don't know why am I being too good to her. She wonders too. I helped her carry her food, bought coffee and basically anything and everything. I shouldn't tell anything personal about her as I will keep it to myself. Thanks Jessica. So after the second break we got like more playful. She hit me quite a lot of times and I keep disturbing her. Well no.wonder the other girl is at the other side. She must be thinking there must be something going on with these two. Guess what since she felt.cold I disturbed her by turning the fan on and off and evrytime she will give me a soft whack on my chest. Haha seriously its not painful I admit. Well she drew on my hands and I did for hers too. Yeah she's all smile today and she told me I made her laugh everytime. Well even to those lame joke. What that's quite rare because I don't really treat a girl.like that unless I want her to feel special. Okay I took a.photo which is for our memories and I shall post them here and you see what she did to my hands. The day ended and I kind of like confessed to her. So then she's my newest sister! Well there's stuff in between that's why I don't want to mention here for.privacy purposes.

Next day day I went out with my bro Hadi to check out the latest samsung Galaxy note 3. He told me he wanted to change to note 3 so I kinda told him let's have a closer look and feel. To my surprise the device its actually quite nice then the one I saw online and it feels quite light. But the most disappointing part is the gear. It looks very metallic and it doesn't look great and bulky.on my hand. I will attached a few photos about it. So we walked around I bought my travel necessity for my upcoming trip. That's right its very near. I'm very excited and I'm sure Rose is excited as well.

I shall leave the cooling down of the glaze with cousin wedding. Yesterday marks the first male cousin ever gotten married from my mums side. He married a beautiful bride and I will post photos too about it. I met a lot of people and as usual mum will say this is my.last son. Everyone were like he's quite handsome and they wish to see the next in line to be married from.my family! Pressure! Pressure. What am I.supposed to do. Maybe I give myself 10 more years at least to grow my business, have a stable.job and ill marry at 30. That's not too far I guess and it can be faster well depends. Okay initially there's this girl from my mums cousin siblings daughter. She's quite a hottie and I remembered her coming to our house evry year for hari raya. This year I never get to see her but guess what when I saw them at the reception she just smiled at me. Her sister was writing at the memories book and I was like " ohh noo why is she smilling at me". I was quite confused so I return her the smile and she blush. Hmms that moment I remembered her instantly. Wow we just smile at each other but never talk. Considering me at work and real its quite.different. well that's the way how I work haha. What was she trying to tell me? I also.don't know. I wish I am brave enough to talk.to her actually I can but I don't want to do.it when there's a lot.of.people. situation can get awry I can say and people will start gossiping. I really hate that unwelcome gossips about me. Okay so I had a blast yesterday and I shall leave it here for today.

I'm leaving for Seoul soon and my date with Rose shall begin soon.I'm already prepared what to wear and what to do. I hope to see all.of.you soon. Take care and goodbye.

Monday, 16 September 2013

After School hours

What's up my dear readers. How have you all been. Let me guess, fine as usual, alright every time the same things. Before I begin my post for this week, I want to open this post with a nice picture.
 

This is a picture taken from Google. You guys already can guess why I post this picture. It's already the fall season in Southeast Asia, unfortunately only the Monsoon season for us living near equator. We have been experiencing a lot of rain lately and thankful it is not so hot as usual. So in today's post I will cover everything from, school, work, holidays, technologies,random etc.

School

Since the last post I mentioned that we met the client for the project review and 50% on overall we need to redo. Well I spent the last few weeks redoing every single animation while Aaron and Joel redo their part as well. We put our mind and hearts to it and a few sleepless night to complete the project on time. I can say this major project, I learnt quite a few things. There's personal reason so I should not touch on that. Like I said before redoing of stuff is not my type of thing but I have no choice since we are working with external companies and a client we need to deliver all the project scopes. It looks quite easy at first but as time passed massive amount of stress and challenges fall upon us. Luckily the leader managed to manage the group well and I Salute him to have such a good leadership skills. Alright, this is like typing for my final report which requires 1500 to 2000 words. Considering I'm quite used to writing long sentences and reports, I'm quite comfortable in completing the report way before the deadline. However some of the report stated is for hardware so there's multiple of question that are needed to be changed to software and suite our course of studies. 21 weeks over and it's quite an experience I can say. Shall end it hoping to get a good marks since I redo the animation an average of 4 to 6 times. Nothing to complain, all is for my own good and experience.

Work

So what should I say about work since nothing much in particular. My friend Hadi recently joined the job by my recommendation and he is working permanent part time. Here's the thing, for permanent part time, he need to complete 20 days in a month of 12 hours shift. It's crazy and hectic! Those who survived are up for any challenges in their life. So my shift has increased from once or twice a week to five days a weeks. It's been so long since I last work on a weekdays. The crowd, the people, the problems all different. Maybe I should tell you a few encounters during my duration of work. Some background information about the event. This event is called One millionaire at airport. Passengers need to spend a minimum of $30 to be entitled for a game card. There's four event area situated at different terminals. Alright so back then when I was working in T2, there's this Arab national. He spent quite a hefty sum on a watches and he won 20 prize. That is considered normal for T2 and big spenders. What's worse we need to do small data entry on the lucky draw tickets to input the prizes he choose. So 20 cards is considered a lot and my partner that time its quite new and she stress herself out. I told her I will do it while she attend to the other customers. So this Arab national insist he want to drop his lucky draw tickets himself and standing infront of me to add to my stress. But I take it he's invisible and try my best to complete as fast as I can. Thankfully at the end he said Syukran in Arabic it means thank you and tell me to have a nice day. From angry to delighted he appreciate my hard work. That is one experience I definitely will remember throughout my experience.

I need to think quite a few and it takes times to recall. So basically now I mostly doing permanent T1 shift with Hadi. One bad thing about T1 is that they have a lot of short range international flights. There's tons of China people and Indonesian people. There have been quite a lot of encounter that a pretty girl or lady will ask me for help instead of my partners. I'm not sure why also maybe because I look friendlier? I doubt so right haha. Yeap there's a lot from Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia passengers. What I like at T1 is that I can speak to them in Bahasa Indonesia that I'm quite familiar with. One look and they know I can speak Bahasa with them. I can't deny the fact, my great grandfather was a Indonesian Chinese convert and from there my family roots has a lot of inter racial marriage, so there's no surprise that my cousin, brother and I are more interested in the Chinese girls instead of the Malay one. Well what to do, its a heredity thing I guess. I still have 2 more weeks of work before I'll be flying off to overseas far away from the red dot.

Holidays

 Since school has ended for me it's time to for me to spend most of my time at the Airport working. It has been decided and I'll visit Seoul for the fourth time and second time for this year. Remember in February I went to Seoul with my first brother, this time I going with my sisters and neighbours. Well nothing much to look forward to, but yeah I going to meet Naeun Rose. For the first time I will meet her in Seoul and we already planned months before. Guess both of us are excited to meet each other? Alright its kinda of weird of how I met her, we don't even remember how we met, maybe fate bring us together. She always said that she is jealous that I know Seoul more than she know her hometown herself. Since she studied in the US on my first time to Seoul and that time third time she haven't go back to Seoul yet. But definitely we are going to meet this fall in Seoul. Looking forward to it Rose. I'll be flying with Vietnam Airlines this time and will have an hour of transit at Ho Chin Minh City. I'm very excited for this trip and there's a lot of things I wanted to do and see!

So for December holidays, I thought of visiting my baby sister in Kuching. I have done research quite a lot on Kuching but I guess it's just difficult to get around other than backpacking. Planning to go there alone for a 3D2N trip. Well I guess she must be smiling reading this post because she going to meet her brother from Singapore. After almost 2 years plus knowing him online it's actually the first time we are going to meet. I read her blog the day after we Skype that day, she said like my accent. Well, my Singapore accent I guess? I barely can hear her because she is using headphone and afraid to talk too loud in case her mum hears her. I liked her voice too very nice and I agree with her, we talk as though we are childhood friends. Another thing to look for this year and very excited to go on the trip alone.

Technologies

Few days back, Samsung and Apple announced their next weapon for the ultimate challenge for the best smartphones of 2013. Samsung unveiled the third generation of the Note series which is the Galaxy note 3 and their first ever Smart watch Galaxy gear. While Apple reveals their Iphone 5S and 5C. For me as an avid android user, I would say galaxy note 3 is a preferable choice for me. I love how big the screen goes, the weight is light and the design its quite slim and powerful at the same time. Whereas the Iphone 5S they came out with a finger print technology for everyone even for those who doesn't secure their phone with a password. To me since my fingerprint sometimes has problems I wouldn't see how difficult it is to use the Iphone if they can't detect my fingerprint. It's quite a hassle to me and 4 inch screen for me its too small. I will never go below 5 inch phone for my next phone.