why i should be selected to join the Touch Korea Tour?

simply because of these 2 reasons :-

1) i ♥ Korea

 

i love everything about korea, from its culture to foods to language to entertainment. i just love them all. why do i love them? read my previous post HERE hehe.

2) i ♥ 2PM & miss A

 

the winner for this contest will have the opportunities to experience the Touch Korea Tour with 2PM & miss A in June for 7 days & 5 nights stay in Korea. i love 2PM so much (everybody knows it already lol) & miss A unnirs, so i'm not going to miss this once in a lifetime chance to experience these 2 things at the same time - holiday in Korea + WITH 2PM & MISS A !!

for more info about Touch Korea Tour blog contest by Korea Plaza KL, visit their site for more info. :)

what inspires me about Korea?

1) k-dramas

my obsession towards korea originally caused by k-dramas. the first k-drama i watched (and most malaysians imo) is winter sonata. it was back in 2002 (10 years ago!) when i was still in form 3 (lol yes i'm 25 yrs old now). i was so obsessed with this drama prolly because of the different storyline, concept and beautiful sceneries (oh nami island!) compared to hk/taiwanese/etc drama that was an in-thing at that time. then local tv started to show more & more k-dramas, e.g autumn in my heart, full house etc. then k-drama became quite phenomenon in malaysia and everyone started to use korean words they learned from k-dramas like calling ppl oppa, eonnie, appa, omma, aigoo etc lol. 

basically k-dramas are more than just dramas. it's like a magnet, keep attracting people to learn more & more about korea. from k-dramas we can learn about korean cultures, foods, language, places etc. it also makes me eager to go to those places featured in those dramas i've watched, e.g nami island (winter sonata), namsan tower (boys over flowers), gyeongbokgung (deep rooted tree), dongdaemun (cinderella man) and lotte world (stairway to heaven). i'm glad finally i've went to those places when i visited korea last january hehe.

besides modern dramas, actually i like to watch sageuk (historical) dramas too! i think most ppl don't really like watching them lol. maybe i'm the weird one haha. at least i can learn about joseon history from those dramas. after quite sometimes, especially in my few last semesters in uni, i became more addicted to kpop and started to abandon k-dramas haha. but now, my k-drama addiction is back! currently i'm following rooftop prince (sbs wed-thurs), the king 2 hearts (mbc wed-thurs) & fashion king (sbs mon-tues) every week. and no, they are not sageuk dramas, just so you know lol.

and even now, my mom has become a k-drama addict /more than me to be honest lol/ starting from the day we subscribed onehd channel on astro since it airs so many family-type of k-dramas. she dragged & forced me to watch all these dramas too instead of those commercial dramas /coz they have more family & positive values?/ lol mom waylt.

2) 2PM (and kpop)

 

yes obviously it's because of my favourite oppars, 2PM !! haha. i might need 5 posts to finish my rants about how much i love 2PM lol but i'm gonna make this short. my addiction (and love) towards them started when i was  in my internship semester in uni. i was too bored in office so i started to watch some kpop vids on youtube and i became attracted with this 1 group and started to google about them and bla3. not gonna write or say anything about their past history coz everyone need to move on, is it? (insert junho & woo move on as bgm lmao). i'm happy both parties are success in their own way now. full stop :)

my love towards them grows bigger day by day. before this, when i was still in uni, i don't really care about buying their official merchandises, fansite's fangoods, even albums (obviously because i was still a student and student doesn't have $$$ lol). but starting from last year when i started working, i tend to buy.. well, EVERY SINGLE THING they produced lmao. korean albums, japanese albums, all those 45783783 merchs, fangoods (from junho fansites) etc. sobs why am i like this.

on nov 2011, 2PM came to malaysia for the first time (like finally!) for their 2PM hands up asia tour - kl stop. of course i went to their fansigning, concert & even stayed in the same hotel (sasaeng much? ofc not! :p) with my other hottest (2PM's fangirls) friends! it was such a bittersweet  moment during their 3 days stay in malaysia (bitter = coz of the amount of money i spent for it LOL, sweet = to see them live in front of my eyes).  and on feb 2012, i went to bangkok with my hottest friends for their 2PM hands up asia tour - bangkok stop. crazy much is it? and yes we do have a plan to go to seoul for their comeback later lol *fingers crossed*

junsu & junho bb were looking into my polaroid camera sobs :')

besides seeing their performance live during their 2 concerts, my unforgettable experience with them is when we went to bangkok for their 2PM hands up asia tour bangkok concert, i brought my polaroid then junho & junsu were looking into my polaroid! hehe. and also when me & my other hottest friends join the 2PM soompi contest & we won it! and also when junho read & answered my question during their interview with oneHD. kekeke. will never ever forget it sobs :')

   

 

besides 2PM, i like to listen to other kpop songs too. well i like korean music coz they are so freaking addictive. the lyrics, the beat, everything, it's something like u wanna listen to over and over again. well i'm glad i've seen nearly all my fav kpop artists (other than 2PM of course) to perform live in front of my eyes when they came to malaysia for concert/showcase; e.g super show 2 & super show 3 (super junior), beast fansigning, u-kiss fansigning & showcase, jyj showcase, digi live kpop party (beast, 4minute & g.na), twintowers live 2011 (wonder girls), 2AM fansigning & showcase, korean music wave in malaysia (gd&top, u-kiss, teentop, 4minute & ft island), mnet ultimate live (super junior, miss A, f(x) & b1a4) & finally, 2PM themselves during 2PM hands up asia tour! :) 

 3) foods

my most fav.. jjajangmyeon!

this might be boring. yeah i know. but i still wanna share it coz it's a fact that i love korean food so much! it was hard to find halal korean foods here in malaysia few years back. but now there are so many halal korean restaurants (e.g the street cafe, sweetree, pak z kopitiam etc - just to name a few). my fav korean foods basically are bibimbap, jjajangmyeon & kimbap. i can even have jjajangmyeon every single weekend if i was in my craving mood lol.

our lunch at myeongdong on day 2 - bibimbap, acorn jelly & mushroom pajeon.

our lunch at nami island on day 3 - dosirak.

during my trip to korea, i managed to try korean foods there, fresh from the oven! hehe. it was like the best experience ever. although it was quite hard actually to find korean foods that are edible (= halal :p) but we managed to do so! we got to try bibimbap, acorn jelly, mushroom pajeon, dosirak & street foods like odeng, kimbap & hotteok. i really wanna try jjajangmyeon in seoul so freaking bad, but i know there wouldn't be any halal jjajangmyeon there coz usually it has chicken/meat inside it. tsk =.=

4) subway system

seoul subway map :p

lol this might be weird and i don't know about everyone else, but for me, i was so in love with seoul's subway system when i visited seoul last january. we didn't use any tour guide & we're travelling on our own, thus we are solely depends on subway & bus to go anywhere. and yes it's a really convenient public transport ever! it might looks confusing for tourists at first since it has 10 different lines with so many stations, but with informative maps & directions at each station, it doesn't make me confuse at all. and the time intervals is only about 5-10 minutes, which can save our time (which is already limited). ahh thinking about this makes me wanna stay in seoul now! /exaggerates

5) language (hangugo)

my first hangul guru LOL

since my daily life is surrounded with kdramas, variety shows, 547358223 vids of 2PM etc, i feel so annoyed watching them but didn't understand any single thing without translations. thus i take one step ahead, to learn hangugo! at first i learn it online by browsing some free korean language tutorial sites. but after few months, i didn't feel improved at all lol. then i decided to join a weekend korean language class with my friend. now we're at level 3 already hehe. and yes it helps us a lot during our last trip to korea. we can understand whatever hangul things displayed everywhere, and we can have basic (at least.. lol :p) conversation with ppl there. ahh it feels so worth it. kkk. hopefully my hangugo skills can get better and i can be more confident to use it in my next korea trip hehe. :p

all these 5 things finally made me to visit korea on january 2012. it was such a wonderful & memorable trip ever. i've blogged about it in my 7 days trip to korea posts lol. sadly there are still some places i haven't yet visited since we only go there for 8 days ;__; obviously i will visit seoul again soon, and this time i'm gonna make it.. a 2-weeks trip! :p p/s: made this entry for Touch Korea Tour blog contest by Korea Plaza KL. do visit them for more info! :)

korea trip day 7 (final day).

yeah finally, our final day in korea! not that i'm happy to leave seoul (sobs =.=) but i'm happy that finally i can wrap up this korea trip posts lol. so on our final day, it's a schedule-free day, so we were free to go anywhere. woke up ard 8.30am and get ready to check out from the guesthouse. our plan is to leave our luggages at the airport then went back to seoul again. so me intan jue & niza took 2 cabs to the airport since it's impossible to drag our 4873363647 heavy luggages thru the endless staircases at the subway lol. the cost for a cab to the airport? 50,000 won per cab. =.= while the others took subway to the airport. coz they are badang lmao.

goodbye seoul backpackers goodbye~

with the taxi ahjussi lol.

work why why are u hunting me even at korea OTL.

after finished dropping our bags at the luggage storage (not free tho. need to pay 24,000 won for abt 25kg luggage) we went back to soeul. while intan stayed at airport (idek how did she spent her hours at the airport lmao) and jue & niza went somewhere else.

1) myeongdong

our first destination is myeongdong cuz these guys can't stop themselves from buying more & more clothes at f21 lol. ugh me too anyway lol. bought 4 shirts from f21 for 38000 ~ rm110! it's so effin cheap ok. usually i can only get 2 shirts with that price at f21 malaysia. sadly i didn't have much money left (it's final day, what do u expect) or else i would've bought any nice winter coat there sobs.

while waiting for subway to itaewon~

2) itaewon

then we got so hungry and decided to have our late lunch at itaewon. kebab timeeee! but anne was nowhere to be found. after half an hour wandering around f21 & zara looking for her, we drop a msg on whatsapp to inform abt the lunch plan and went to itaewon first. sorry aney =.= then we had our late lunch at mr kebab. i ordered a chicken + rice set for 7000 won & coke for 1500 won. it was so naiseu! (maybe i was too hungry lol).

yummyyy!

3) dongdaemun

after finished stuffin ourselves with kebab, then it's time to go back to the airport. but i still haven't found my 'beg makcik' yet lol. wth beg makcik. so i decided to go to dongdaemun alone to look for that beg makcik (cuz i thought i've seen it before at the stall outside goodmorning city when we went there on day 4). and yeah one of the ahjumma at the stall area sell it! mansaeee. i can drop whatever small things/bags inside it and check in the bag later lol.

the stall where i bought that begmakcik lol.

they were dancing to kara's mister!

it was still early at that time. so i went to goodmorning city with my 30000 won and bought a hoodie for 9000 won hehe. and there was a dance competition or something in front of hellow apm so i just stood there and watch their perf. it was bittersweet to think that i'm gonna miss all these happening sights sobs =.= i miss kl ngl but to think that i'm gonna have to leave seoul & back to reality in kl (= work) tomorrow is just.. hmm.

4) airport

ard 10.30pm then i went back to airport (with subway ofc lol). and we slept there! and make the airport like our own home haha. nobody was there at midnight so it's quite convenient to just lay around there on those chairs and sleep kekeke. our flight gonna be at 8.30am (the next morning) so there is no choice other than just stay there. actually our initial plan was to rent a room at the airport sauna nut it was quite expensive (plus the fact that we are dead broke already lol). so yeah.

eating on the airport's floor #likeaboss kkk.

my checked in luggage. less than 25kg yaww!

that's a wrap! it was such a wonderful 8 days at seoul sobs. obviously it's not gonna be my last trip to korea. definitely will go there again soon (with improved hangugo tehehe). till then, annyeong~

korea trip day 6.

lol i just promised myself to finish my korea trip post in my day 5 post. sadly i didn't! cuz we just got fast connection internet installed at home weeeeeehooooo! so my k-drama addiction is back. i keep on downloading/streaming latest k-drama. spent my night after work & weekend for k-dramas #likeaboss now haha. so now i'm bored already. let's finish this day 6 post. :p

so for day 6, everyone has their own plan. me & anne went to apgujeong to fulfill our /kpop/ wish again haha. it's the time to visit JYPE & SME! mansaeeeee. oh and BNS too cuz anne like block b haha.

1) apgujeong/cheongdam (SM entertainment & JYPE)

woke up a bit late, ard 7am since it's a free-activities day lol. then we took subway to apgujeong station and went to exit #2 (as per TIPS we got from internet lol). our first destination is SME, since it's just located along the main apgujeong road. but it's quite far from the station, thus it's impossible for me to walk my ass off there. maybe not for anne haha. so we went to exit #2 and approach this 1 cab.

me: SM entotaemen juseyo~
ahjussi: mwo?
me: *show him the address i've wrote on a piece of paper*
ahjussi: *took his glasses and read but looks confuse. then he started type the address on his gps thing. but results shows 0*
ahjussi: erm *gives pen and asked me to write the address again (in hangul? idek lol)*
me: *write the address in hangul* OTL OTL OTL
ahjussi: *type the address (hangul) on his gps thing. still no results shown*

then he started the engine and drive along the main road. i know the building is just a bit in front but suddenly he turned left! omg ahjussi waylt. then he stopped nearby and started playing ard with his gps thing again. then i was like OTL we better walk then. and asked him to just drop us at the main road. then we just walked abt 10 mins. and tadaaahh, SME building was in front of us. haha.

in front of SME!

the next destination is JYPE! oo yeah i like this one. cuz it's my oppars company haha. i can predict which junction we should go from the main road, thanks to google maps. after about 15 mins walked past the junction, we saw JYPE sign already. oo yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh. finally my dreams has come true! sobs cries ;_______; ofc usually fans will go to the dunkin donut in front of this JYPE building instead of just stand up in front of it haha. so we went to dunkin donut, warm up ourselves, bought coffees & donuts. and i even passed my birthday gift & card for junho bb to the dunkin donut's cashier eonni. she laughed a bit when looking at my present haha hdu. idek how she's going to pass it to junho or even JYPE stuff or whatsoever. but at least i did it. it's better than doing nothing is it. lol. but i really do hope she already passed it and he already receive it. kkk.

in front of JYPE! finally my dream has come trueee sobs :')

how to go to SM entertainment:

-get off at apgujeong station (exit #2)
-walk past the main road about.. idek how long LOL till u see the SME building
-or u might wanna take a cab and show the ajussi your address. good luck! kkk
-address: SM entertainment, 413-80, Apgujeong 2-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

how to go to JYPE:

-get off at apgujeong station (exit #2)
-walk past the main road till u see SME building. walk again till u see a really big junction
-turn left at the small junction right before the big junction
-walk about 5 minutes til u see JYPE building on your left and dunkin donut on your right
-address: JYPE, 123-50, Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

2) yeoksam (BNS)

heh this is the most challenging one. i'm not really into block b so i don't really know about this entertainment company (brand new stardom) compared to anne. cuz she's the one who like them. kkk. so she did all those research about how to go to this place. the only thing i knw is it's located next to a church. so we took subway to yeoksam station and walked past this gangnam road (as per the TIPS /again/ lol). and i saw a church. but i didn't expect the BNS building gonna be around this area cuz from google map it looks a bit far from the station. so we walked again and keep on looking at the number for each building & shop. cuz we have the address already - it's #683. so we walked again and again til we reach #650 ++. but we was like it's quite far already how come we haven't reach 683 yet?? and we keep on mumbling about how tired and hungry and everything. then suddenly..

boy: bisa saya bantu? (may i help you?)
we: eh? haa? *blur*
boy: mari saya lihat alamatnya~ (let me see the address~)
we: ahaha thanks! boy: oh tempat ini sudah lepas di belakang. nombor yg di bangunan ini format yg baru. di alamat ini format yg lama. x mngapa saya bisa bawa kamu kesana~ (oh you've missed this place. the number on those building is the new format. the number on this address is the old one. nevermind i can bring you there~)
we: oh kamu indonesia? kamu nampak mcm org korea! kkk (oh are u indonesian? u look like korean! kkk)
boy: oh saya memang orang korea~ tapi belajar di indonesia di SMA~ (oh i'm korean~ but i've studied in high school at indonesia~)
we: hahah! ok ok

lol it was awkward tbh haha his indonesian is really good. at first we thought he's an indonesian-korean mix or something. but no. he was a korean but his father worked in indonesia so his family stayed there for few years. now he's back to korea. he's a daehaksaeng (uni student) now lol. so anak hekan! but he's quite cute tbh lol. then he brought us (we even took a bus cuz it was really far not gonna lie). and we stopped in front of the church i've seen before. like wthhhh. it was too near to the station!! why we have to walk about 45 minutes to.. idek where we're heading to /kills self. then we reached BNS and anne dropped her presents to the security ahjussi coz nobody was in the office rn coz it's weekend. and said byebye to the cute boy haha. should've asked for his twitter/me2day sobs.

ugh finally we found this Seolleung Building OTL.

how to go to BNS:

-get off at seonrong station (exit #7)
-walk past the main road about 10 minutes til u see a church on your left. the building is just next to the church
-address: B101, Seolleung Bldg, 683-26, Yeoksam 1-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

3) insadong

we parted ways after that. cuz i was a bit tired but anne wanna go to itaewon & buy 45362727 handbags again. so i took subway back to our guesthouse. but i went to insadong station first cuz i wanna buy handbags too! it's just that i don't have much energy left to go that far (to itaewon) lol. so i went to the same shop (i've wrote about it in my day 1 post lol) and bought 4 handbags for 40,000 won (10,000 won each)! haha cheap isn't it? 1 handbag for my mom, 1 handbag for my sister & 2 sling bags for myself. oo yeah.

the shop where i bought those bags!

insadong again~

then i went back to our guesthouse and sleep for 2 hours before anne crashed in and wake me up and show off those 45637829478 bags she bought at itaewon lol. then she went out again to go to ewha university (edae). alone. coz i'm still tired and i wanna sleep lol wailt.

4) hongdae (hongik university)

then i woke up ard 6.30pm and i'm ready for hongdae! so me & anne promised to meet at hongdae station at 7pm. well hongdae is very happening at night. there are so many clubs, bars, coffeeshops etc. basically hongdae stands for hongik university, thus obviously explains why there were so many youngsters there lol. my intention was actually to go to luxury noraebang, the famous karaoke place that 2PM went in wild bunny episodes & jaeson-pilsuk (woo-IU) went in one of dream high episodes. but since only me & anne were into kpop, and i dont really think anne wanna go there (lol), it won't be fun then sobs. maybe next time :\

then we wander around hongdae and omg there were so many ppl! like so so many u cant ever imagined. i dont really get what are these ppl doing there actually. just walk and walk then do what? haha. then papp! suddenly we stumbled upon mr pizza! hahahaha. like ok this is the timeeeeeee. let's go in! /besides the fact that we were so hungry to death/. well mr pizza is.. so full with oppars haha. coz 2PM is their latest endorser so ofc their faces are everywhereee. ofc i was so essaited and happy lol. we ordered 1 regular lobster pizza (the one that they endorsed ofc lmao).. which costs 26000 won ~ rm75!! oh wow this is like the most expensive pizza i ever ate lmao u can get 3 large pizza from domino's or pizzahut for that cost at malaysia ok. but domino's got no oppars' face in their outlets lol :p well practically i paid 70% of the total cost coz i'm the one who wanted to go to mr pija so much lol ok fine. anything for u oppars! keukeu. btw the pizza is so naiseu sobs cries i wanna eat it again =.=

lobsetar pija! omnomnom!

it was 10pm. they wanna close the shop already.

i even steal this poster that they put at the entrance lmao.

haayy khunnie boi~~~ kkk.

the take-away box is so naiseuuu!

after finished stuffing ourselves with those yummy lobster pizza, we wandered around hongdae again. and saw 2 street performers, a band & a solo singer. that guy /who looks like kim soohyun imo lol/ sang i'm yours while playing his guitar. oh i love this kind of nightlife! if only we came at the right time~ when jinwoon filmed his scene at hongdae for dream high 2 :/ sobs lol.

street band.

street singer.

how to go to hongdae:

-get off at hongdae station

4) edae (ewha university)

our last destination is edae. well anne went to edae already when i was still asleep happily at guesthouse lol. but i insisted to go again since this is our 2nd last day at korea already and i dont have much time left! so we went to edae but sadly most of the shops has closed already! =.= so we just go to whatever shops that were still open like holika holika, face shop etc. bought quite many face masks (10 for 10,000 won), hand cream, lipbalm etc from these shops haha #happy. if you like cn blue, holika holika is a must-place-to-visit cuz they are their endorser lol.

holika holika! haaayy yonghwa! kkk.

lmaooo.

how to go to edae:

-get off at ewha university station