Autumn Trip to South Korea 2024: part 2!

Twelfth day!

We went to Suwon.....! It is one hour ride, by train, from Seoul. Suwon is very very very beautiful. First, we went to Mong Ted cafe, a shooting location of popular k-drama, lovely runner (I didn't watch it tho, I am not into the main actress, I am sorry). My friends are huge fans of lovely runner, so we took a lot of photos there. Since it was quite early, the neighborhood was quite empty. After taking photos, our original plan was to have lunch in a muslim-friendly restaurant, recommended by the travel guide book. However, after taking one bus and walk a little, we found that the restaurant was CLOSED. Omg. You know lha, it is not that easy to find a place to have a meal in Korea for muslim. So, we decided to go back to our previous place, by taking one bus, to explore the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress.

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress is sooooooo beautiful. I wanna cry. We explored the fortress, took a ton of photos, and went to a cafe with Fortress view. The cafe was called "Paletscent". I ordered cheese cloud something, I forgot the exact name. Pretty good. After chilling in the cafe, I need to go find a prayer room. At first, I wanted to go to a hotel who has a prayer room, recommended by the travel guide book. However, my friends insisted that they doubt the hotel will have a prayer room and let me use it. My friend tried to search for a mosque in google maps and found one! Apparently, there is a new mosque in Suwon city. I am very very happy :)

We took one bus to go to the mosque (not so close from the Paletscent cafe). Arrived in the mosque, we went to the second floor and found the 'mosque' sign. We tried to open the door, but the door was locked! We tried to search for the password, I searched it in the google review (maybe someone wrote how to enter the mosque), but found none. We spent some time in front of the door, ready enough to break the door, LOL. We nearly gave up and planned to pray near the stairs. When finally, one of us curious what's upstairs. We took a look upstairs, and VOILA. The prayer room is upstairs!!! And it was opened!!!

Turns out, we mistook the previous room as the prayer room. Maybe it is an office for people who manage the prayer room. We took our time for me to pray and had a little rest before continuing our trip. Alhamdulillah...

We went to the Starfield library in Suwon. As far as I know, there are 2 Starfield libraries in South Korea, one in Seoul and one in Suwon. The library is inside Starfield Mall Suwon, on the 4th until 7th floors. The library is stunning, so we took some pictures. However, I was quite hangry (hungry-angry) so I didn't have a great time. My mind was busy searching for a lunch spot. Actually, there is a halal Indian restaurant inside the mall but the price was expensive. So we decided to eat outside the mall.

We crossed the road and went to...I forget whether it is CU or GS25 or Sevel. We browsed what to eat. I spent some times deciding. I think I was craving for cup noodles but I wasn't sure it is save enough to eat (regarding the halal issue, is it contains pork or alcohol or not). In the end, I picked my go-to porridge and a triangle tuna kimbab. I put my porridge in the microwave. But... I think I set the time a little too long. It got quite messy inside the microwave due to my porridge. Cry out loud. Why was it so hard to eat. I was very hungry and I needed to clean the microwave first before eating 😭😭😭

And, my lunch problem didn't stop there. Unfortunately, I picked the WRONG TUNA KIMBAB. It was not purely tuna kimbab, IT HAS pork. CRY. At that time, there was no other customers beside us. Then, a couple entered and turned out, they were Indonesian! Interesting. We were in Suwon, ate in a convenience store, there were only two groups of customers, and both were Indonesian! I cautiously asked them whether they ate pork or not, and they didn't. So, in the end, I threw the kimbab. I am so sorry. In Indonesia, I will say, "Jangan gegabah" or don't be reckless.

After having a not fulfilling late lunch, we were heading back to Hwaseong Fortress. We wanted to see Hwaseong media art show, where they displayed lightshow performance. We waited some times since the show started around 19, when the sky had already dark. And we enjoyed the sunset while waiting for the show. The show was around 20-30 minutes. I personally enjoyed it so much. And finally, we were heading to back to Seoul by train. What a nice and memorable trip in Suwon!

Thirteenth day.

We decided to take it easy today. Nida' went very early in the morning to Busan. She will have Busan trip with her friend, whom I met and accompanied me before.

Ema and I decided to strolling around Hongdae. We were shopping in Nyunyu store. I bought a sling bag and I think Ema bought a cap for her father. Then, we bought salt bread in Jayeondo sogeumppang, Yeonnam branch. I personally love their salt bread. In the same time, I love many things. My love threshold for food is not high. We enjoy our salt bread in Gyeongui Line Forest Park. As far as I remember, it was cloudy that day. We didn't spent much time and went back to our airbnb.

Before actually going home, we stop by a coffee shop. We visited a low cost coffee franchise, Banapresso. Ema wanted it because the brand ambassador was Lee Je Hoon. We had a very slow and relaxing day. We just sat and enjoyed our drink in Banapresso. I ordered Sikhye. I like it.

I think that's all for our thirteenth day.

Fourteenth day.

We attended the first day of ICDM conference 2024 in Grand Walkerhill, Seoul. But, before that, we first visited a park!

Our first stop was Olympic Park Wildflower Garden, where we got to see many kind of roses. It was very beautiful and quiet. Only the two of us there. Then, we continue to search for the hill filled with yellow cosmos flowers. THE YELLOS COSMOS FLOWERS WERE SO BEAUTIFUL. There were many visitors, but we still could enjoy it to the fullest. And of course, we took tons of photos there.

Our second stop was Nahollo Namu Hill. It is still inside the Olympic Park, but at the opposite side. So, we went outside the park first then took a bus heading to the hill. After getting of from the bus, we found JYP Building! We took a turn to visit JYP building first. I have a friend who love Xdinary Heroes (at that time). So I sent her some pictures of the building. Actually, there was a cafe in JYP called Soul Cup and there was a huge red cup in front of the cafe. But, is was permanently closed.

We finally arrived at the Nahollo Namu Hill. There was a single or sole or lone tree in the hill. It was famous for the view. There were many visitors, but again, we could enjoy it and took tons of photos. There was also couples who did pre-wedding photos there.

After spent some times in two spots in Olympic Park, we went home and getting ready for the conference.

Nothing much for the conference. We attended some lectures, had free lunch, free coffee, took a photos in front of our e-poster, and grab some goodie bags. Oh! I met dr. Bagas and sis Dagun, there. Dr. Bagas is a lecturer in Public Health Department and sis Dagun is her research assistant. I once attended the same lecture with them, but mostly went separately.

I discovered something interesting. I attended GBCC conference (about breast cancer) last year, in Grand Walkerhill. They didn't provide a prayer room there. However, I noticed that in ICDM conference, there were a lot of participants from Malaysia. Thus there were many Muslims and the committee provided a prayer room. I love having a prayer room in International conference venue so much.

After attending the conference, we went shopping in Oliveyoung. We bought many korean skincares. Love it so much. Then, we bought some foods for dinner in a convenience store. We went to Banpo Hangang Park to watch the rainbow fountain show while having dinner by the riverside. It was on my checklist. This was also a lovely time.

Fifteenth day.

That day, I went to the conference venue quite early because I wanted to have free breakfast!!! IT'S A MUST. I rushed there and went directly to the breakfast buffet. I went alone because my friend was not interested in getting free breakfast. I think I ate macaroons, pastries, and shine muscat. Love it!

I only attended today conference till noon. I ate my lunch, went to prayer room, and was going to meet my friend, who had already come back from Busan. We decided to meet at the subway station near Namdaemun market. But I forgot where it was exactly.

After getting out from the subway station together, we found a hotteok stall! OMG we can't missed it. And the hotteok stall sold a gorgonzola hottoek. Definitely get a gorgonzola one! OMG, now I want it so bad😭

The hotteok was delicious but very hot. So it took me quite a long time to finish it. We continued to shop in Namdaemun market. My friend wanted to buy some souvenirs for her family.

After that, we took a bus to go to Myeongdong. Actually, it is very close but we wanted to save our energy. However, the road was heavily congested. It took a longer time to get there than by walking. But it's alright since we were not rushed.

I think we went to Oliveyoung again in Myeongdong. After that, I am not remember which shops that we entered and what we bought. I just remember we wanted to eat. And we happened to stand in front of a traditional Korean full-course meal with a lot of side dish (hanjeongsik) restaurant, called Chaeum Hanjeongsik. Actually, we were very curious but we expected it to be very expensive. So, we decided to walk further to Kampungku. A halal restaurant serving Korean food, fried chicken, pizza, etc. Kampungku is not only Muslim-friendly but also wallet-friendly, a.k.a affordable. That was the second time we ate in Kampungku in this trip. I ordered ramyeon (again), because it is delicious and cheap. Oh, before actually having dinner, we stopped by Kampungku mart. We bought A LOT OF Korean halal almond snacks, and my friend bought a pack of banana uyu a.k.a banana milk.

Can you imagine, our shopping bags were fully loaded. Overcapacity. So, we had to go home while carrying these heavy bags. Fighting!

Safely arrived, but super tired but very happy, at the airbnb, I decided to buy a chocolate milk tea at Gongcha. I bought it several days ago and suddenly craved for it because tomorrow we will go home. CRYYYYYY.

We spent the night by packing and going bed early. We will be leaving early in the morning.

Sixteenth day.

Going home :(

We went to airport very early in the morning by airport bus. It was still dark. The journey to the airport was smooth. Alhamdulillah.

Arriving in the airport, completed counter check-in. There were some times before boarding time, we still able to buy some foods at CU. I bought a tuna kimbap, without making a mistake again, and melon uyu. I LOVE melon uyu. I don't like banana uyu. But I love melon uyu. After that, we went to the prayer room. The prayer room is great! And finally, boarding time. Even though, it was delayed a little bit.

HOWEVER, before our first flight was delayed, we had a VERY HECTIC transit.

I am not sure, where it is, Pudong? Yeah, somewhere in China.

Our original transit time was already short and our flight was delayed. So, after getting off from the plane, we were rushing. Racing against time to catch the flight was so nerve-wracking. Frantic. WE RAN. And WE CUT a security check queue line because we didn't have time. Fortunately, there was another Indonesian couple who were racing like us. So, we were not too afraid to cut a queue line because we had to. In the end, WE MADE IT. We could flight back to Indonesia.

The Indonesian couple who ran with us did Korean "jastip". The did shopping in Korea for other people. A business. Actually, it was a very potential business. I already had the intention to do "jastip". I had taken some photos of the products from Oliveyoung. But, NAH. Not gonna work. Already occupied with other things. Couldn't manage "jastip" at all. Maybe next time. Hopefully. So we can go to Korea without spending our saving.

Alhamdulillah, we safely arrived in Indonesia around midnight. One of my friend stayed in the airport to take another flight to her hometown. While my friend and I ordered Gocar to go to my friend's house. I stayed there for a night, then going to my brother's boarding house by KRL in the next morning, and finally going to my hometown by train at night.

End.

WHAT A VERY LOOOOONG TRIP. A VERY PRECIOUS EXPERIENCE.

2 transit countries, 3 cities in Korea, 4 airbnb, 2 conferences, and an additional city in Indonesia :))