I
had promised to bring my niece, la niña, to Korea as a reward for her PMR
results last year but the trip didn’t materialise last year. Subsequently, I
promised to bring her youngest sister, niña chiquita, also to Korea if she aced her
UPSR. Since I was already bringing the two of them, I decided to include my
nephew, el niño, along. It would make room sharing
arrangement easier for sure. So I spent a long time at the MATTA Fair in
September trying to find a good package. In the end, I settled for a
Mandarin-speaking package because (i) we would be flying MAS; (ii) it would
include a trip to Jeju unlike most Muslim tours; and (iii) I feel more
comfortable travelling with non-Malays. I requested seafood and vegetarian menu
for the four of us. There aren’t many Muslims in Korea that can cater halal
food for Muslims anyway so to me, it didn’t really matter if we joined a
Mandarin-speaking group and travelled with non-Malays.
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
I went to do some last-minute shopping among others
for the trip and when I returned home, dad told me that my uncle (by marriage)
had passed early that morning in Johore. It was too late to pay our respects so
we just performed prayers for him. I tried to get some rest in the afternoon
but I had only just drifted into a nap when my brother and family from Johore
arrived. There went my kip.
I had a late lunch after showering. Dad sent me to
Ampang LRT station (I decided against Ampang Park as I suspected the traffic
would have built up by then) and I rode the train to Bandar Tasik Selatan
before switching to KLIA Transit. I detoured to TBS but didn’t really explore
it as my bags were too heavy to lug around. That’s the downside of travelling
during winter: you have to pack winter coat, boots, mufflers, gloves, thick
socks etc. I also had to bring over Akak’s winter coat for la niña as she
forgot to bring it when she last came over. And then there’s the food for the
hungry kids: Snickers, Oreos and Mamee Monsters. Heh.
I rode the train to Salak Tinggi (it was crowded)
and met up with ZS there. We had an early dinner before returning to the
station to perform prayers. We caught the 20:00 train to KLIA and sat waiting
for Akak et al to arrive.
They finally arrived at 20:45 and Yen, our tour
leader, helped us check in. Oh, before I forget: in October, the travel agent
called and asked if we wanted to change our flight and fly Korean Air instead,
citing it was better to fly Korean Air. I refused and asked what she meant by
that. Did she mean because two of MAS planes encountered tragedy this year? She
didn’t admit it but said that the departure back from Incheon would be later
than MAS so we would have more time to shop. I told her that she shouldn’t
assume that everyone wanted a later departure time. I for one don’t care to
reach KLIA too late and besides, there’s only so much shopping one can do. After
a couple of calls, we finally agreed that the four of us would fly MAS while
the rest would fly Korean Air. I checked between the two airlines online and
guess what? It cost less to fly MAS than Korean Air so I’m not sure why the
travel agent decided to fly Korean Air when the profit margin would be less.
The departure time between the two airlines from KUL is only 25 minutes.
We went through the usual rigmarole. The kids were
unhappy that they had to take off their belts and shoes for the security check
at the gate. Me? I skipped over to the next queue. Heh.
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
I didn’t manage to sleep much as usual bar the
occasional brief nodding off. I performed prayers just before we landed in the
dark cold morning. We had to walk to the terminal train station and board the
train (frequency is every five minutes) to get to immigration. After collecting
our bags, freshening up and donning the winter gear, we walked over to the
carousel for Korean Air from KUL to meet up with the rest. We didn’t have to
wait too long.
We
then left the arrival hall and followed Yen who led us to Peter, a part-time
photographer who would follow us on the trip except to Jeju, and our tour
guide, Mr. Piao. They then led us to the bus but we had to wait before we could
approach our bus. We finally had our bags loaded and boarded the bus.
We
drove away from the airport heading to the waterfront and as it was still
early, we got down from the bus to take in the morning chill. After ten
minutes, we re-boarded the bus and it went down the ramp and onto the waiting
ferry. I went to the bathroom and when I exited, saw that the others were
taking some shrimp crackers to feed the seagulls (though el niño was also helping himself to some!).
We crossed over to Wolmido which used to be an island a hundred years ago
before the Koreans built embankments and connected it to the mainland.
After
that, we went for an early lunch which was tosokchon or ginseng chicken soup. I
was happy to see the restaurant had a halal sign although we quickly discovered
ginseng chicken soup got rather bland after a while.
Lunch
over, we drove over to a kimchi school and learnt how to prepare kimchi. Yen
helped to translate as the instruction for this (and henceforth) was in
Mandarin. After the instruction, we prepared our portion of kimchi (all
ingredients were already on the long table in front of us). We had to don an
apron and plastic gloves. The instructor also taught us how to fold the
cabbages and then roll up our plastic gloves and the plastic covering for the
plate for disposal. Apparently our kimchi would be given to an orphanage. And
of course, there was a promotion for the various kimchi produced by the school
for us to purchase and some sample for us to taste. As we didn’t plan on
buying, we went downstairs and put on hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. We
then posed for pictures and had a good laugh.
Shamelessly nicked from here
After
all the poses had been done and the photos shot, we returned the hanbok and
made our way back to the bus. Before long, we had reached Gimpo Airport. Group
check-in took a while though. Mr Piao went to the counter and after ten minutes,
brought us to another counter to drop off our bags. Eh? I told Yen that we
wanted to perform prayers first and would make our own way to the gate. In the
end, we performed prayers in the baby care room. It was spacious and no one
disturbed us. Actually, we probably disturbed a nursing mother opps. After
prayers, we rushed to clear security. The queue was oh so long and we made it
to the gate a couple of minutes before they closed the door. Phew!
We
took off at 15:35 and landed an hour later. There were a lot of people
travelling to Jeju. Maybe because it was Christmas Eve and they wanted to return
to their hometown or take a holiday in Jeju. It was almost dark when we finally
emerged into the Jeju cold and made our way to the bus.
We
stopped for about 15 minutes at Yongduam (Dragon Head Rock) before continuing
on to dinner. There’s one thing I hate about Korean restaurants: the grill
smell lingers on your clothes for ages. Ugh! We checked into Jeju Ocean Suites
Hotel (good thing we had adjoining rooms) and were informed to assemble at the
lobby at 7 the following morning.
El
niño and I ventured
out into the freezing evening to check out the nearby E-Mart. There were three
levels to it and there were a lot of frenzied last-minute shoppers there so we
left empty-handed.
To be continued
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