Autumn In Seoul 2015 : Itaewon

Trip ke Seoul sudah pun tujuh bulan berlalu, tapi aku masih boleh ingat moment-moment aku dan rakan-rakan kat sana. Macamana rasa sakitnya kaki ini akibat berjalan kaki sepanjang hari.  Sampai sekarang kalau bercerita pasal Seoul, aku dan member yang pergi sama-sama akan bercakap pasal sakit kaki macam nak patah tulang tu. Berjalan banyak sangat, kalau boleh nak cover tiga ke empat  lokasi sekaligus sehari tapi memang tak dapat lah nak cover semua.

Okay, back to the topic. Itaewon. Jika anda merancang ke Seoul, Itaewon umpama heaven untuk anda ketemui restoran-restoran halal. Di Itaewon juga terletak masjid yang mana kebanyakan kita, orang Malaysia akan singgah dan ianya merupakan salah satu sebab kenapa aku letak Itaewon dalam itinerary kami. Dari bandar Seoul untuk ke Itaewon ambil masa lebih kurang setengah jam menggunakan subway - Line 6.

Dari Seoul Land, kami terus ke Itaewon. Waktu pun sudah lewat petang. Masing-masing agak kebuluran sebab makan kebab je tengahari tu.

Melangkah keluar dari stesen subway, Itaewon berikan satu vibe yang sangat berbeza dengan tempat-tempat lain yang kami lawati di Seoul. Kawasannya agak stuffy, dibanjiri dengan pelancong-pelancong dari pelbagai pelusuk dunia. Ermm.. unfortunately tahap kebersihan kawasan agak tidak memuaskan. Minus mark di situ.

Selain daripada restoran halal dan juga masjid, di Itaewon juga ada beberapa guesthouse/tempat penginapan. Tapi, secara jujurnya aku takkan pilih Itaewon sebagai tempat untuk kami menginap kerana kawasannya agak berbukit dan urghh.. agak membakar lemak dan membina otot jugalah kalau menginap di sini. Faham-faham je lah dengan aku yang tak cukup stamina ni. 

Bercerita tentang restoran halal, di sini kita tak perlu risau. Restoran halal kelihatan di kiri kanan depan belakang. It's everywhere! Lepas tu kat sini banyak kali juga selisih dengan orang-orang Malaysia. Bila nampak tu senyum-senyum dan masing-masing tahu, 'Oooo orang Malaysia... :)'.

Rata-rata restoran di sekitar Itaewon adalah Middle East Restaurant tapi kalau nak korean cuisine pun ada tapi kena pandai-pandai cari. 

Dalam banyak-banyak restoran yang ada kami nak pergi ke Murree Restoran. Dari stesen subway, lebih kurang ambil masa 15-20 minit berjalan kaki. Tapi masa tu bergantung juga sebab kami banyak singgah di kedai-kedai di sepanjang jalan. Macam yang aku bagitahu awal tadi, jalan di Itaewon ini agak berbukit jadi memang termengah-mengah juga la kami bila sampai di restoran tu (ker aku sorang jer mengah orang lain still okay...?)

Murree Restaurant

Welcome sign in Bahasa. Cool! :)

Dalam banyak-banyak benda yang aku makan kat Seoul ni, apa yang paling aku suka ialah seaweed tu. Siap minta extra lagi, haha. Ada juga orang pesan suruh beli seaweed snack tu banyak-banyak bawa balik Malaysia. Banyak sebenarnya tempat yang jual seaweed snack ni, kat Namdaemun Market ada, kat airport Seoul ada tapi kat airport tu macam mahal sikit rasanya. Obviously la, airport!

Selepas menjamu selera nyum nyum nyum, kami teruskan perjalanan ke masjid. Just walking distance sahaja daripada restoran tadi. Tapi agak mendaki bukit juga, again! Agaknya siapa yang tinggalkan sini memang tak perlu lah nak ke gym. Memang fit lah. Sepanjang jalan untuk ke masjid, jalan dihiasi dengan wall graffiti yang menarik.

Seoul Central Mosque, Itaewon

Inilah masjid di Itaewon. Tak sah kalau tak singgah sini. Masjid ni telah lama teguh berdiri sejak tahun 1976. Masa kami sampai di sini, waktu pun dah nak menghampiri Maghrib. Nampak ramai muslimin-muslimin yang bergegas masuk untuk solat berjemaah. Walaupun di sini masyarakat muslim masih lagi minoriti, kekuatan Islam terlihat di situ. Impressive!

Allright. Itu saja yang kami sempat explore kat Itaewon dalam waktu yang terhad. The next post will be regarding Namdeamun Market and Myeongdong. Till then, see you next time!!

Autumn In Seoul 2015: Seoul Land.

Unbelievable! Unforgivable!

It's already more than two months since my last update. Throwing back then I was so excited and seemed committed on having this blog. Trip ke Seoul bulan November tahun lepas pun tak habis update lagi. This is so embarrassing!

Okayyy fine! This time I need to be more serious in blogging. Last few blogposts pun aku just paste gambar-gambar, dan cuma letak info pasal tempat tu sikit. Ya Allah betapa malasnya aku. Kali ni kena sungguh-sungguh habiskan post pasal Seoul sebab dah ada plan nak travel ke tempat lain pula lepas ni. InsyaAllah.

Orait, tak payah nak membebel banyak-banyak. Ada beberapa destinasi lain lagi yang aku belum cerita. Itaewon belum cerita. Namdaemun Market belum cerita. Myeondong pun belum cerita. Apa cerita ni banyak sangat belum cerita?? 

Well, this time aku nak cerita pasal Seoul Land.

I think as compared to Everland, Seoul Land is less famous for Malaysian. I just guess so because most of the travelblogs I went through did not mention about Seoul Land. Everland was quite far to go from Seoul city and definitely will be a one day out. Because we only had a few days left in Seoul, so I just found somewhere not far away from the city, a theme park for us to have fun!

Seoul Land is a theme park under Seoul Grand Park. And under Seoul Grand Park, there are a lot more parks. Errr.. uummm.. okay. It's a huuuuge area and impossible to cover all the places so we went to Seoul Land only and spent half day there.

It is suitable for parents to bring their kids (and for adults who wish they were still kids) and it's one of the reason I wanted to go there so Elman could have fun. Fair enough, all of us included my friends enjoyed at the park. We really really had fun there. 

How to go there...?

We went there early in the morning using subway train and get off at Seoul Grand Park Station. It took about 30 minutes+ from Seoul Station. As we came out from the station using Exit 2, the Seoul Grand Park entrance was just 200m away. 

Along the way from the station, there were a lot of hawkers selling I-don't-know-what's-the-name-for-that-food but maybe it's for breakfast (because it's in the morning). Apart from the hawkers there were also street artists and people selling toys (too expensive I didn't buy any for my son).

This is the entrance to the Seoul Grand Park. So as you can see in the photo, Seoul Grand Park has :

Seoul Zoo

Seoul Land

Theme Garden

Seoul Grand Park Camping

National Museum of Contemporary Arts

From here, you can either walk or hop on elephant train. Because we thought Seoul Land was not too far so we walked and actually it's almost one kilometre away from the entrance! But we get to see picturesque landscape of the grand park on the way and took a lot of lot of photossss..

The entrance fee for Seoul Land is a little bit pricey (can't remember how much) but we got a significant discount for non-Korean nationality.

I wished I could be next to you sharing that laugh. Nope. Mommy so big, tak muat kapal. 

Mommy, this giant icecream looks so delicious.

Good news, halal food available!

There were two halal Turkish Kebab stalls available to entertain our empty stomach. One inside the Seoul Land and another one at the grand entrance.

Yeah.. that was it. I think we really burned a lot of calories here, walking around, screaming and laughing out loud on roller coasters. But nope, that was not the end of that day because all of us made our way and marched to the next destination which was Itaewon. Yup, will be on my next post. ;) 

Autumn In Seoul 2015 : Namsan Tower.

Nearest subway station : Myeongdong Station, Line 4, Exit 2 or 3.

Namsan Cable car :
Operating hours 1000H - 2300H
Round-trip ticket : 8500 W