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May 12-17, May flew to Hanguk for Seoul International Book Fair 2009. “An yong haseyo!”

 

 

“Oh! What a beautiful name ~ May”, said those Korean that I had meetings with. ‘May’ in Korean language refers to spring, and that’s exactly the season during my visit. Weather is cold, taking a little time to adjust ‘coz KL was damn super hot few days before my departure. Luckily, health is good throughout the trip apart from being exhausted, totally.

 

 

All along, I’ve been wondering if I have the gut to travel alone one day, and how is it going to be like being solo. Quite recently, a pal in Melbourne & I were exchanging thoughts about travelling alone and with companion, since most of the times, he travels alone & I always with friends. We talked about the pros & cons of each experience.

 

 

Not sure about personal travel plan, but for this very first business trip on my own, I survived. I have done it, oh what a great independence!

 

 

It was a very good exposure and eye-opening trip to meet people and make observation on the country people & culture. As many would have known that communication is a problem in Korea as they hardly speak English, but it’s still Ok although sometimes it’s a bit tricky situation to let them know what we want. My newly acquainted Thailand publisher friend, met at the fair, even draw out a pig and a cow picture at a restaurant to have our order taken, topping up with body gestures requesting for less spicy. In place like this ‘chicken & duck talking’, body language is the best universal communication to go with, isn’t it? Haha…

 

 

About the people, I actually don’t quite fancy Korean. I think they are quite rude in general, but of course they are still minority of them who are nice. I guess probably due to the language barrier, they rather act ignorant. Oh, have I not mention that they don’t like to give way when we are walking in from opposite direction? And they will just langgar you just like that, unlike the Nihon-jin who actually will give way for you to walk instead. Rude, rude… I don’t like it.

 

 

Korean oh Korean. Thanks to the girls, Korea cosmetics making big bucks. Who doesn’t envy & dream of having their beautiful, fair and spotless skin? Even my Melbourne pal, who is so in love with Korea, is also going routinely on his skincare. And I even see school children are having make-up at such a tender age. Early start, huh?

 

 

One of the day while I’m in Seoul, it was raining the whole day. I came into surprise seeing majority of the Korean, even youngsters and those dressed in trends, actually brought umbrella along for their outings. Back here in Malaysia, I think many urbanites like me rather left the umbrella at home as we are lazy to carrying around especially when we are going shopping. It’s quite leceh to carry another weight going out, right? That’s what I personally think, at least.

 

 

Well, because that day it rained morning till night, the weather is extremely cold as if I was there for winter 2 years back. I think it’s around 10 degrees Celsius plus minus. I was freezing walking on the street looking for makan place. Rest assured that Korea is a safe country to walking alone at night. There are no stealing or ‘ragut’ cases like what we heard and seen daily in Malaysia *sigh* The country is so safe that the Korean can even left their bags unattended in a public spot like food court while getting their food/returning the tray to the stall. If in Malaysia, haha… if you do that, it will be gone in just minutes; ‘now you see, now you don’t’.

 

 

Hmm, I always wonder why ‘Malaysia tak boleh’? Why can’t our country be as safe and advance as Korea or Japan or even our closest neighbour, Singapore? I wonder what all the ministers are doing when they visiting other countries. Don’t they have eye to see how progressive their counterparts are in terms of public transportation like LRT? There are 8 lines in Korea, and link from a one line to another. Travelling is made so easy with interchange located within each line, not to mention the many exit points *sigh, sigh*. Don’t know when our rail transits can match up to HK, Singapore & Thai.

 

 

If possible, can we also request for clean toilets? I noticed that toilets in Korea are so clean. Thumbs up man! The toilets at the convention centre are so orderly and it smells good too, auto-parfumed regularly. And guess what?!! It even have music inside, all the classical pieces ~ Mozart, concerto orchestra, etc. Wow! It was so pleasant and who would mind to stay a little longer in such cosiness. The toilet seats are dry, not any stains. In Malaysia….. urhhh, eewww & yucks. Do you need me to go further? I guess it’s just the mindset that Malaysians are brought up in such a way.

 

 

Enough of pathetic stories, now back to some cheerful ones. Honestly, didn’t have much time to go around places since meetings are scheduled for daily. Busy & lazy, afterall had already been to some of the interesting places before. However, I made my way to one place ~ Dong Dae Mun. Well, the area is well-known for wholesales shopping. There are a number of new shopping malls built, and I revisited Doota again since didn’t manage to hangout long as it was Christmas eve back then, fully crowded. The interior recently renovated and the new look is so classier, but the prices remain same, errmm…. still expensive in Malaysian Ringgit though.

 

 

One thing I enjoy is spending time checking out their trendy gifts/accessories shops ~ so many cute & attractive gadgets inside. Some come in vibrant colors, very nice and make one happy to look at indeed. Each gifts shop is full with Korean youth getting stuffs for their room, handphone, stationeries, etc. just like all the items we seen in K-pop dramas. It’s just so irresistible that I also got for myself a cute lil’ car display….yippie!

 

 

Solo in Seoul at spring, 5 days 4 nights; what a good experience. Next destination? Don’t know yet. Maybe Bangkok? Dee, no problem…quite familiar with the places already and I can eat my favourite ‘khao nam mu’ (pork knuckles rice) over & over again. Or Frankfurt? Well, really looking forward if chances are real. Keeping my fingers crossed, to be flying around one day.

 

Till then, “an yonghi Hanguk!”