Wednesday, November 29, 2006

イメチェン

髪 切っちゃいました!! めっちゃミジカイ!!
でも 最初持っていたモデルの写真とは違う・・・
美容師の方はあまりにも親切で、文句も言えず「ありがとう」と帰りました。
ま いいやー 何とかなる☆

私と会うのを楽しみにしといてw

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Sunday, November 26, 2006

Last Day in Seoul

Although there was breakfast prepared at the guest house, we didn't have it as we always wake up on 9 or 10 hehe So we never had breakfast at Seoul but brunch everyday hehehe We had brunch in Insadong in this day. It was Konggugsu (콩국수), cold noodle with soy milk and Mandu (만두). Konggugsu is special dishes at summer. Quite surprise that we could have it in autumn.

The restaurant only have 3 menu, Konggugsu, Kalgugsu and Mandu. All is 5000 won each. Simple is the best :) Most of the local were having Kalgugsu, cause it is a hot noodle. I think no one will eat cold noodle in such cold weather except me. I saw Konggugsu before in tv and it looks delicious for me as i like soy milk very much. But after having it, I found it was not like as i expected. The soy milk/soup have the soy bean powder in it. I though it just like soy milk that we drink, no powder with it. And the soup was tasteless. Mix kimchi with it will make the konggugsu tastier.

Konggugsu Mandu the rice aution

There was an auction in Insangdong in this day. It was very interesting. The participants were asked to scoop the rice, and it must be as much as requested correctly. Then it will be weighed. If you can scoop the rice correctly, then you can bring home 10kgs rice. Of course i didn't try my luck at there. What I am going to do with the 10 kgs rice hahah (I think i can't scoop it correctly though :p)

We spent the whole day for shopping in Dongdaemun and Myeongdong. Although we came to Dongdaemun with my parents before, we didn't have enough time at that time. So this day we can explore more. After shopped a bit, we felt hungry so we ate in the food court in Doota. We had a korean style mixed fried rice.

Doota, the shopping mall in Dongdaemon Dongdaemon
the mixed fried rice that we ate at Doota Food Court

Shopped enough in Dongdaemun, we move to Myeongdong. We went to Myeongdong almost everyday hahah. Yeah we like Myeongdong very much. I like to shop at the street stall in here. There are many cute accessories sold in here. And also the food stall. We found a stall with many ppls were in line to buy the snack. It called Hotteok (호떡), kinda chinese pancake with melted brown sugar inside. It was very delicious, especially have it in this cold weather.

We ate the hotteok at the corner of street nearby the stall, and met 2 obasan who came from Japan. Have a nice talk with them. There are many japanese tourist coming to Seoul nowdays. Most of the seller in Myeongdong can speak some japanese. Even I didn't say any japanese with them, they always reply me in Japanese (some of them reply me in chinese tho- )
I think I will very very surprised if they can reply me in Indonesian hahaha

In Korea, Japanese is usable than English. One of the shop attendant in duty free shop in Myeongdong tried very hard to speak english with me, and I didn't expect that she would asked me "mousiwake gozaimasen ga, okyaku-sama wa nihongjin desuka " which mean, i am sorry, may I know if you are a japanese? Yes, she asked me in japanese directly, not in english! I told her that I can understand japanese, and then! You know what?!! Her japanese is very fluently!!! : )

Anyway, our main purpose back to Myeongdong in this day was for shopping in Duty Free Shop. I only know DFS in Myeongdong and I afraid we wouldn't have enough time to shop in airport. We bought in DFS Myeongdong and then we have to redeem it in the airport. Quite troublesome though.

We ended our journey in one nice street stall in Myeongdong. Most of my travel, I will ended my last dinner in a nice restaurant. But not in Korea, I will more like to eat in street stall. Will prefer to order some "anju" and have "soju" hehehe We ordered Pajon ( 파전) , the green onion pancake which more popular called Chijimi. And fried egg, and also the mussel, just like the one we ate at the first day. And of course with soju :) Surprisingly, we could pay the bill by credit card. Thumb up!! hehe

the mussel with soup the mussel, fried egg and pajon the last food stall that we visited

The next morning, for the first time we had the simple breakfast at the guest house. Then check-out and took the airport bus to Incheon airport. We had our lunch at airport. I had kimbap and my brother had a chige. I always wanted to eat kimbab while in the city, but always ended by order another food that i never tried before.... too bad, the kimbab in airport is not as delicious as I ate before in city. Wouldn't order kimbab in airport again! :P

If you read my Seoul travelogue from the first day, you will find that we were not doing any sightseeing activity in Seoul. Yes, we just shopping and eating and eating hehehe And for me, plus for practice my korean ;) Although I can't speak korean fluently, my bad korean still usable when buy something, ask for bargain, ask the direction when we get lost etc. I think my korean will improve if I stay longer : ) Sure will visit korea again!!

inside the airport bus korean soldier?
the scenery on the way to airport kimbab seafood chige food from asiana when fly back to Osaka

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Saturday, November 25, 2006

3rd Day in Seoul

Left Riviera Hotel at 7AM. That's why I hate a tour pack. You have to wake up early!!.... Then my parents continue their tour to Mt. Sorak and we continue our Seoul journey hehe

Bringing the hostel map which show in my camera display, we asked some peoples for the hostel location. There was a kind ajuma who run a groceries shop nearby. She is very kind to call the hostel for me. But too bad no one picked up the phone. Ajuma can speak korean and spannish but no english. She always spoke spannish to me although i always tried to speak korean with her hahaha I think i can understand korean more than spannish though....

The hostel was Beewon Guest House. The room is ok. Only differs 3000won with the hostel at first night, we can have a private ensuite room + tv + refrigerator + breakfast. But only can score this hostel 70 from 100 cause the bathroom was too stinky :P I have to spray my perfume everyday at the toilet --; It was a new perfume and i did like the smell. But after stayed at this hostel, every time i smelled my perfume, it will remind me back to toilet smell.... gosh! I think i will not use this new perfume for one year, maybe... haha

For brunch in this day, I had a Sundubu Chige (순두부 찌게), a tofu chige and my brother had a Cheyugdopbap ( 재육덮밥 ), spicy pork mixed with vegetable and rice. We just order by picture and asked the name after ate it. My brother quite disappointed that he ordered cheyugdopbap because his korean friend always make this kind of food for him. All the pictures looked same on the menu as all is red heheh He should order another dishes that he never eat.

As it was too early, the shops in Insadong had not open. So we went to Namdaemong directly. Found nothing interest in there, we bought a fish cake stick (don't know what is the name) and walked to Myeongdong. We tried Jimjilbang ( 찜질방 ), a korean style sauna in here. If you ever watched korean drama, I bet you know what kind of sauna it is. There are many facilities in here such as game center, internet, nail-art, massage etc. You can sleep all day in here or even stay a night at here. We stayed 4 hours in here. It should be a refresh station for me from tiredness but dun know why after i had the sport massage in here, i suddenly got a terrible headache. Couldn't sleep well in Jimjilbang.... but it seems like a great refresh for my brother though. Lucky him!

We met my friend, Heesun-shi after out from Jiljimbang. While waiting for her, we had a korean style sausages which they call "Sunde" (순대). There are really many kind of foods we can try in Seoul. Although we had promised to Heesun-shi that we will have dinner together, we still couldn't reject the sunde charm hehehe

We had a nice nice barbecue and Kalbeechim (갈비찜), korean steamed beef ribs for dinner. My first time to have Kalbeechim. It was spicy and a little bit sweet. I am so sorry to Heesun-shi that I couldn't had a nice drink with here due to my headache. So she drank with my brother . Seems like every korean can drink very well ^^;

After dinner, we went to karaoke which the koreans will call it Norebang (노래방). I saw many norebang in seoul, and i think it much more than in Japan. Koreanese must be very like to sing more than japanese, i think hehe. Karaoke in korea is much cheaper than japan, as the fee is per room not per person. More ppls then more reasonable the price will be. Same as Indonesian system.

Cheyugdopbap Sundubu Chige a fun wall painting in one of corner in Insadong
We were here! the karaoke room the remote control in karaoke :P
small tv, small refrigerator the room is very small....

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Friday, November 24, 2006

Everland

Check-out the hotel at the next morning and had brunch around Daehanong. I had a Manduguk (만두국) and my brother had a Bibimbap (비빔밥), one of the famous dish in Korea. At first I ordered Manduguk cause i wanted to eat porridge but it was not a porridge!! I had forgot porridge is "cuk" not "guk" hehehe Btw, "guk" means soup. The Mandugug was ok anyway. There is only dumpling and soup with egg, but one manduguk can make you full enough. The portion quite big.

Then we move to Riviera Hotel at Kangnam area. My parents will stay at this hotel with their tour group so we joined them in here. As the tour group will arrive at night after back from Everland, we left our luggage at the front office. I didn't know if they will give us such service as i didn't book the hotel at there. Thanks to the japanese girl that I met in guest house. She taught me this brilliant idea. I don't need to left my luggage at station :P

But too bad, she also gave me a not-so-good idea. She said the bus stop from the hotel is not so far so we can take taxi instead of subway. But it was sunday, the road quite crowded, so our taxi driver took us by another route through high-way. And know what, the cost was 15,800 won!!! And the worst thing is the driver took us to wrong bus terminal.... then we still have to take subway to the bus stop.

And the result, we arrived in Everland at 3 PM ... raining... bad time bad condition. Met my parents and sister with her family in here. Just took some pictures in here. Didn't enter any attraction. Enter fee was 26,000 won (Free pass ticket is 33,000won)

From Everland, the tour group will going to Dongdaemun so we left first to take public bus and meet them later at Dongdaemun. From Dongdamun, was planning to visit Myeongdong but cause the rain, the tour had canceled the plan and back to hotel directly. I handed my luggage ticket to my father so that he can redeem my luggage first when he arrived at hotel. Of course, I have wrote my father's name on the ticket :) We didn't join the tour group bus as the guide said she will feel bad to another customer.

The bus stopped at Kangnam so that we still have to take subway to Dongdaemun. Still raining... we were thinking to buy a umbrella so we went to convenience store. But we didn't buy it (too expensive) and turned to buy beer instead haha Since we have beer, we stop at a dalk gochi stall and eat. Dalk gochi with beer. hmm good combination :p We had odeng as well. My parents were having samgyetang, the ginseng chicken soup at the restaurant at that time ^^;

We searched hostel for next day at subway station (free internet) and found a hostel at Insadong area. Called and booked directly to the hostel. We also took the picture of the hostel map on the monitor ^^; So fond of this korean station service. Almost all big station have computer inside the staion. You can browse internet, transfer your memory card to computer and simply send to your email. And also you can recharge your mobile's battery. Feel secure for the next day things, we back to Riviera hotel to join our parents. At last, we met our parents only on this day. We supposed to be can meet one more day when they back from Mt. Sorak, but too bad the tour had changed the schedule.....

Mandugug Everland 30th Annivesary Haloween in Everland Beautiful Flower Garden in Everland bad weather the free computer in subway station

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Seoul First Day

Already one month past since after I went to Seoul. Too busy..hmm or must I say, too lazy, honestly hehehe. Went to Seoul on Oct 21~25 with my younger brother (3 days after back from Hongkong!). Our main purpose going there was for meeting my parents and sister who were joining tour in Korea but at last we only met them 1 day in Everland due their tour schedule suddenly had been changed T_T.
Our ticket quite cheap. Only 23,200yen + tax 9250yen. We would not be informed what flight and what time will we have until 10 days before the departure. Well, since it is not my first trip to korea, it was ok for me. Cheaper ticket is better. Quite lucky we had Asiana Airline and could earn 1000 more mileage on this low fare (I thought I can't earn miles from this kind of budget ticket). Flight time was not bad too!

We supposed to arrive at the guest house on 5 PM but we didn't notice when the bus driver asked if anyone getting off at the stop that we would like to go. How could we understand what he talking about as he spoke korean!!! (-_-); Feeling fishy so I went to ask the driver but he dun understand english at all.... Thank God that there are 2 ajuma in the bus who are working as a tour guide. They don't speak english but japanese ^^; As the result, we keep stay at the bus till the last stop and turn back again to our bus stop and arrive at guest house at 6 PM! (_-_)

First night stayed at Daehangno (대학로). We had booked a room in a guest house nearby (Windroad Guest House). The peoples in there very friendly. We have a nice talk at there. But too bad, we don't like the room. We got a private room as we requested but we had to enter the dormitory before enter our room. When we coming back at night and going out at early morning, it makes us feel like we are disturbing another guest who are sleeping in the dormitory. We don't like that feeling. And the room that we saw in web is different! The room was as big as shown, but not 2 single bed in the room. It was 2 single beds place closely and 1 bunk bed. You can imagine how narrow the room is. So that, we decided to check-out at the next day. It was 34,000won per room per day.

We just explore around Daehangno and Myeongdong at first day. Quite funny in first day as we didn't know how to order in the food stall. We saw an odeng (fish cake) stall which full with customers. It must be delicious, we think. But at the end, we left the stall cause after standing at there for a while, as no body told us how to order!! hahaha Too stupid :P Everything goes well when we visit another stall. Become cleverer after explore more stall hehe (anyway, we still stupid when we take the cold tempura just like that and didn't know that we can ask ajuma to warm it up hahaha stupid! stupid!) Then we also had dalg gochi (kinda chicken satay or japanese will say it yakitori) at Myeongdong.

Okay, that was a small stall and we just stand at the front of stall while we are eating. Next we went to bigger stall, so we just sit down and order soju. They brought us a bowl of mussel with soup. Hmm.. we didn't order mussel... maybe everyone will eat mussel so every guest coming they will serve mussel, we think... after waiting a while, still... our soju haven't coming. We asked them again to bring us soju. "Anju! Anju!" the ajuma replied us. Hmm? Is she asking us to sit down and wait? gee.. what must we do??!!

Seeing we confused, there were 3 kind girls helped us. One of them can speak english a bit. She told us that we can't order only soju. We must order the food as well. And the mussel, it was free! No wonder they serve us the mussel even though we didn't order it :)
Then the kind girls helped us to order a bowl of snail, same as the mussel, it come with the soup. All the dishes very tasty especially had it with the soju hehehe

Back to the guest house, a japanese girl who is a friend of the guest house owner told me "anju" means snack and "anjo" means sit down. OOOoooo I thought the ajuma told me to sit-down, but actually she were asking me to order a snack hehehe Must learn korean more ^^;
She also told me that almost every stall have different system. Just like the stall we visited, the customer have to order the original food from the stall first before order a drink. :)

Although we had some problems in a short day, we found it was a splendid day. Found that the koreans really helpful :)

food from asiana crowded myeongdong in saturday night
the mussel and snail with soju - delicious!!

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Thursday, November 16, 2006

Cheap!!

Very cheap!!! Osaka - Cairns return ticket only 20,000yen!!! Limited for sales on Nov 17 only!!
But! travel on Sep~Oct 2007 hahaha
Yes, travel on next year and you book from now.
Anyway, if you have flexible time, why not? Too bad, I am not so flexible....
How I wish can visit Cairns T_T

Seira, Sydney - Osaka only AUD 399!! Visit me next year !!! ;)

www.jetstar.com

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Thursday, November 09, 2006

Google Earth

Have you tried Google Earth? Wow! It really awesome!! I wonder how could google provide such faboulous things and it is FREE!!!! Haven't try? Browse earth.google.com and install it! But be careful for those old computer (above 4 years old for PC and 2 years old for Notebook) cause it might not run properly. Btw, my note book already 4 years old and when at the first i had installed it, suddenly my computer hang and i have to reboot it. But after that, everything was normal but it run very slow.
For US and Japan and some big city, it show very accurate data. You even can input your full address and find the location accurately. It really awesome. I tried to find my home at jakarta and here is the result ;)
Click the picture for bigger version.



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Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Twn & HK Hotel

Hari ini tiba2 tambah dingin lagi. Mana angin kenceng banget pula. Taunya tadi sore liat di news, tornado telah membunuh 9 orang di Hokkaido... iihh seereeemmm

Well, back to the topic. Oct 11 - 17 kemaren bisnis trip di Taiwan dan Hongkong. Ga ada yg bisa diomongin masalah bisnis di sini hehehe Cuman sedikit review mengenai hotel yg gw nginap.

Hotel di Taipei kali ini yg paling gw suka, dibanding hotel2 yg dulu gw nginap. Btw, hotel yg selama ini gw inap yg paling bagus tuh di Kaoshiung, yakni di Grand Hi-Lai Hotel. Supplier gw yg booking-in n dikasih upgrade. Kamar gede banget, bisa liat night view, sampe di toilet pun ada tv kecil. Selama ini di Taipei selalu ikut Boss nginap di Hotel Brother atau ikutin hotel dari tour-pack. Boss gw udah 20 taon nginep di Hotel Brohter terus, tapi belakangan ini dia sadar selama 20 taon royal ama hotel ini dia ga dapat benefit apapun. Hanya kartu ucapan ultah tiap taon tanpa mendapat diskon yg layak. So dia skrg ga bakal mau lagi nginap di situ heheh Ek kok jadi ngomongin hotel laen seh...

So gw disuruh nyari hotel sendiri n ketemu Hotel Riviera, dimana hotel ini ranking pertama di site taipeinavi.com. Dapat 12700yen per malam. Karena bayarnya advance di jepang, harganya dalam yen. Pas pertama booking per email, gw dikasih tau kalo harga ini khusus untuk orang jepang n korea. Wah beda negara beda harga... Trus setelah dicek ternyata WNI juga bisa dapat harga yg sama.

Kenapa gw suka sama hotel ini, pertama hotelnya bener2 bersih dan semua perlengkapan lengkap, sampe setrika dan papan setrika pun ada. Ketel-nya juga yg bagus, stainless punya so gak berkarat. Kedua breakfastnya bervariasi. Mau western, chinese, japanese semua ada. Ga kaya di Hotel Brother tiap hari sama semua, sampe gw bosen. Bayangin waktu itu gw biztripnya seminggu tiap hari makan breakfast yg sama.... Tapi anehnya tiap client ato supplier gw nanyain dimana gw nginap, ga ada yg tau sama hotel ini.




Lanjut hotel di Hongkong. Oct 13 - Oct 16 Electronic Show di Hongkong, semua hotel muahal banget. Terutama sekitar Tsim Sha Tsui. Gile2 pokoknya harganya, di atas HKD 1000 semua. Akhirnya ketemu Regal Oriental Hotel, sekitar old airport Hongkong. Itupun HKD 805.7 per malam.

Kamar gw gede buanget. Bisa tidur 4 orang. Kalo udah gitu berasa sayang banget ya buat gw seorang doang. Pas baru masuk ya ampun bau rokoknya.... Tapi katanya baru ada kamar ini yg udah diberesin, ya mau ga mau .... Standard deh hotel sini. Lucunya gw kirain dapat breakfast so hari pertama gw ke restorannya. Langsung duduk, taruh kunci di meja trus ambil makan. Selesai makan ga ditanya apa2 so gw langsung berangkat ke pameran. Pas hari kedua, gw diminta voucher breakfast. Gw bilang gw ga ada voucher n ternyata setelah dicek, rate gw itu ga termasuk breakfast. hauahahuahha ternyata hari pertama gw makin gratis LOLOL

Hotel di Hong Kong rata2 buat akses internet mesti bayar lagi. Di sini HKD 150. Hebatnya manager gw pake acara bilang "mahal banget ratenya!", eh taunya dikasih HKD 80. Ternyata mereka ada rate promosi tapi pada awal tetep bilang rate normal dulu ....



Sebenarnya hotel di atas difoto untuk forum travel gw, sekalian deh bikin versi indonya di blog gw sendiri ;)

Hotel review in english version please see my virtualtourist page.

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