Korea Trip Day 7 - Apgujeong, Sillim

오랜만이야~ It has been more than a year since I was in Korea. Oh, does time fly. After the long hiatus from my Korea trip posts, I present you, DAY 7. We were spending a few nights at Hyekyung's place and tonight would be our last night in Sillim. We had promised to meet up with a fellow CSer, Boram. She's interested in knowing more about Malaysia as she plans to visit here soon. (Hmm.. I wonder if she's visited Malaysia by now.) We promised to meet in Jongno-3-ga. After a warm cup of coffee and a doughnut in the good ol' Dunkin Donut, we made our way to Apgujeong. As I have mentioned in my previous post, every neighbourhood in Seoul has it's own character and charm. Apgujeong is an upscale district, evidenced by the sky-high price of real property, grandiose shopping mall (equivalent to our Pavilion, Bukit Bintang) and it being the go-to place for celebrities to get their hair and make-up done at the exclusive salons here.

I can't remember the mall's name. hehe. Apgujeong's Rodeo Street. It was nearly deserted that night. I was hoping to bump into any celebrities but even commoners were hardly around.

I was eyeing my prey - PASTRIES.

Boram actually taught us an important survival tips for travelling with shoe-string budget : FREE FOOD! Hahahahah! We can actually sample the food at the food court. The fact that the mall is on the high-end side doesn't hurt either. Being the typical hospitable Koreans, they gave us not just the small pieces of samples, we got newly-baked pastries. Few of them. I love Korean service. :)

Goofing around the emaculate powder room. Boram tried to ignore our jakun act. hehehe.

Tak mampu nak masuk Gucci. Amik gmbr je pon jadi la ek?

Earlier that day, we planned to go to the Korean sauna - jjimjilbang with Hyekyung and maybe spend the night there. I have seen countless dramas, movies and variety shows (Happy Together. hehe.) filmed in jjimjilbang. Finally, I get to experience it myself.

The staple food of jjimjilbang. RAMYUN!

After exploring the jjimjilbang, we tried laying down in the big hall where everybody sleeps. It was awkward at first but imagine sleeping with your family kat kampung, at the living room, ramai2. Instead of family, you're sleeping with strangers. hahah! I can't actually post the pictures here. Malu la. hikhik.

The floor of the jjimjilbang is heated. For Koreans, they like their skin to touch the floor. As they say, 시원한다! Believe me, after 10 minutes of laying on the floor without any lining, you'd feel as if you're in a crock pot.

At about 1 a.m. I had to retreat and headed to the second floor where they have cool chambers that would fit one person in one chamber. It's like a cave made out of cooling rocks. I took a sleeping pad, a square pillow and slept soundly in the chamber. I was quite afraid that a drunken uncle might crawl into my cave but I ignored my anxiety as my eyes were rebelling for sleep.

At around 3 a.m., I felt really cold in the chamber. So I dragged my sleeping pad and slept in the big hall again beside Nuur. I woke up at around 6 a.m. and found a man sleeping soundly beside me. I was so sleepy that I couldn't care less. Hahaha! Around 9 a.m., Nuur and I got ready to leave and Hyekyung was nowhere to be found. We knew she had to go back home early so we weren't that worried.

After a week in Seoul, we can get home from any bus stop or subway station. :)

The jjimjilbang basked in the morning sun.

Muka baru bgn tido. :) Lovely morning.

When we got home, Hyekyung immediately asked where have we been. We told her that we were still in the sauna when she left. She thought that we had left her because she can't find us in the sauna.

We told her about the stranger sleeping beside us. She thought she saw a family of three sleeping together so it didn't occur to her that it was us all along. HAHAHAHA!!!

Hyekyung's affectionate mom. She looks like a typical ahjumma right? I miss her. :)

After a quick morning shower, we packed and was ready to head to Konkuk University station to meet our next CS hosts, Chad and Sue.