South Korea Trip
Tuesday, January 30th, 2024DAY 1 – January 25, 2024
I had a trip to South Korea with my aunt, Tante Rian, from 25 January until 30 January 2024. It all began when months ago at Roti Romi, my family found out that Tante Rian had a program trip with the university that she worked in called ARS (Adhirajasa Reswara Sanjaya) collabing with Rihla Wisata. She offered my mom if I wanted to join her since it has been my dream to go to South Korea and I gladly said yes, although the trip costs RP 17,900,000 per person. During the trip, I skipped school for 4 days (Thursday, Friday, next Monday and Tuesday) which I had to do some school assignments in Korea. First, I arrived at the airport with my mom at around 9 AM and met Tante Rian next to the check-in area along with her other colleagues. After my mom left us at the airport, I had to wait for everyone to arrive at the airport for at least an hour and finally got through check-in and immigration. I took Vietnam Airlines for a transit at Vietnam and boarded the plane at 2 PM. The (3-3) flight provided a meal consisting of spaghetti, beef breast, carrots, cucumbers, bread with butter, and a banana. Overall, it was edible but in my opinion the beef was way too hard to chew. After a few hours at around 5:50 PM, I finally landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN), whereas the views from the plane looked very similar to Jakarta. It was my first time at Ho Chi Minh City despite being just a layover. When we stumbled upon some souvenir shops, I wanted to get some Vietnamese coffee and magnets for my family and I realized that these Vietnamese employees could not speak English that much, which I had a hard time communicating with them. I eventually bought a magnet for US$5 while learning how to buy stuff myself using an unfamiliar card used for overseas. After we made it to our gate, there was also another souvenir shop, where I finally bought Vietnamese coffee with Tante Rian for my brother, other magnets for our fridge, and nothing for myself. We all had to wait for at least 3 hours until we could board the next flight to Incheon using Vietnam Airlines again. During the waiting time, we had to perform sholat right? And since there was no place specifically for praying like mushollas, they asked for permission from one of the janitors if we could pray here at the gate, and he allowed it. Luckily, we were the only ones at the gate so there was no one there. So, we all had to pray in the corner of the gate and taking wudhu from the bathroom inside the gate. It was shocking for me to realize that the bathroom in the Vietnam airport did not have bidets, which was surprising because usually in cities it has bidets. Therefore, it resulted in me having to carry a plastic water bottle. After the time hit 10 PM, more and more people especially foreigners arrived at the gate until they filled up all the chairs. However, we all realized that the gate we were supposed to be at was next to this gate, so we had to take the crowded elevators since the escalators were one-way only. We finally boarded at 11 PM and the plane was much bigger (3-4-3), it even has a functioning TV and I got to sit next to Tante Rian (although she sat in the middle and I was on her right). We received our meal at 12 AM and the meals provided for us had halal stickers on it, which meant that it was designated for us. The meal consisted of chicken curry, white rice, vegetables on the side, fruit pudding, salad and raw shrimp. This meal was much better than the previous one and I got to watch movies with headphones for this long flight.
DAY 2 – January 26, 2024
We finally landed at Incheon Airport at 6 AM, and when I stepped on the bridge, I felt the coldness from the outside breeze and I was so glad to finally feel cold temperatures again in a foreign country. The group gathered in a corner inside the terminal right next to the air bridge at 6:10 AM and the tour guide gave us instructions and comments. After taking many escalators, we had to take the train inside the airport to get to immigration and I was so happy to take a Korean train for the first time since the announcements were in Korean, some of us in the group were the only ones in the train since it was so empty. After filling out our information on a piece of paper, the immigration line was not insanely crowded and I was shocked to see that these Korean employees really took care of their skin since it was so clear. When we all got our baggages, we had to change clothes, brush our teeth in the bathroom, get our coats out, then perform subuh prayer. The bathroom, sinks, and toilet were sooo clean that it even has bidets in the form of buttons, although the water was super cold. Later, the group met our Korean tour guide who can speak Bahasa Indonesia and she even guided us to buy Korean banana milk (I was so happy to get this viral milk) and cold Yonsei chocolate cream bread which were delicious. When we stepped outside and got to our bus, the air and atmosphere was sooo cold, even the trees had no leaves. Every morning we will get a bottle of water from the bus. Our first stop was at the Indonesian embassy at around 9 AM and we took group pictures with the banner, although it was really boring for me to wait for the others in their meeting but I got to walk around and feel the cold air. Then, our next stop was Itaewon and on the way we went past the viral Han River, Hybe Entertainment building, and we arrived at a halal Arab restaurant which has a buffet. The food was amazing since I was familiar with Arab cuisine and I grabbed a lot of it. It was a friday, so the group had to go to Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon to perform friday prayer. During our walk on the way there, it turns out that Itaewon had a lot of halal restaurants although the streets were not the expectations of what you would see in Korea, but it was very clean. Inside the female section of the mosque, there was a lady who was giving out free bread and I eventually got 2 pieces of bread, then I prayed along with the group despite having to be separated from Tante Rian. Afterwards, we went to a nearby drink shop? similar to Starbucks but serves slushies and smoothies. The Korean tour guide bought me a “unicorn slushy?” which tastes good but I got to have a cold drink in this cold atmosphere haha. Then, our next stop was a hospital and I had to be separated from Tante Rian since she had a meeting with the group, so I had to be with some people who weren’t part of it which was boring and took a long time until it was evening. Later, it was 6 PM and we stopped at a building that has like a lobby? but upstairs there was a buffet restaurant. I got rice with seaweed and noodles. I figured out that in Korean restaurants, they always serve cold water from jugs and we drink from paper cups. This was our first dinner in Korea. Then, we took some pictures outside next to a small plaza since it has nice lights from other buildings which kind of looks like Japan. Then, we arrived our hotel (1/3) called Ramada Encore Hotel and I obviously shared a room with Tante Rian which was for one night. The room was a twin style but small, and the bathroom was a not functioning bidet. I also ate the Yonsei bread but did not finish it I don’t know why.
DAY 3 – January 27, 2024
Tante Rian and I were the first ones to go down and have breakfast and packed up our stuff. The breakfast area was in another building and it kind of looked like a very simple ballroom. I don’t remember what I ate, but there was a lot of Chinese tourists who were all elderly people. When the rest of our group came, our Korean tour guide brought a whole bucket thing from the buffet full of chicken and she told us to take more lol. After taking pictures outside of the hotel with the group, our agenda was ____ and Nami Island.