The start of another journey – this time to the most intriguing city in Asia (or so claimed the Lonely Planet guidebook), Seoul in South Korea. The idea of the trip was born a couple of months back as a 21st birthday present for Shafik. Now presenting the fabulous trio who will soon terrorise Seoul with their total random bout of nonsense and insatiable hunger for food and drinks.
Here’s the birthday boy, Shafik, whose birthday was actually last month but it was not until today that all three of our schedules were able to make it for the trip.
And here’s the lovely Cheryl, who had to go through a lot to be able to go for this trip. She totally deserves this holiday, and Shafik and I vowed to make it a happy one for all of us!
My airline of choice was Malaysian Airlines, over Singapore Airlines (which was too expensive) and Korean Airlines (which didn’t give me the confidence for a good ride). Alas, my previous wonderful experience on MAS to Sydney did not extend to this trip. The plane was tired looking and the seats were donned in a lurid combination of colours. Worst of all, there were no inflight entertainment! A far cry from my experience on SQ during my winter trip.
In addition, the flight also took way too long. First of all we had to fly into KL for transit, which include a 3-hour wait at KLIA. Then enroute to Seoul we have to stop at Kota Kinabalu for an hour before moving on. It was an ironic experience for me to return to my birth town after leaving it almost 30 years ago… and not being able to even set foot on the ground.
All in all we took about 12 hours for an otherwise 7-hour journey and it was definitely tiring. Remind me only to choose SQ next time!
How would a holiday be complete without the compulsory accompaniment novel? For this trip, I brought along the latest novel from Cecilia Ahern title “The Giftâ€, which was totally engrossing ten pages into the tale. It was not until the end of my trip when I finally managed to finish the entire novel… in a flood of tears. Ahern has the impeccable capability to weave a TV-like magical quality to her stories, and this was one of her best. Highly recommended!
So… we only arrived at Incheon International Airport in Seoul the next day, so the tale of our arrival will continue on Day 1 of my “The Seoul of Korea†series!
Click here for the full set of photos taken pre-flight to Seoul.