First night in Seoul-- I lived to tell the tale.

Decided to throw in some pictures of my comfy traveling get-up too. I have decided that maxi dresses are possible the most comfortable things to wear while traveling. That, and leggings. And my ratty tatty pajamas. Actually, anything that enables me to cross my legs comfortably and not flash my lady bits will get a plus point in my books.



Comfy dress and NOT comfy shoes.


Hate hate hate these Salvatore Ferragamo flats! I got TWO blisters within a couple of hours from wearing these shoes. Till now I am able to see the scabs on the back of my foot from these dratted things, ugh.




KLIA departure hall.





Cheesy self-camwhore pictures.




Airplane food always remind me of prison food... Though I do love the variety I will get-- main meal, fruits, dessert, some sort of energy bar/ chocolate bar, ice cream (for some airlines), beverages of your choice, soft bun...

That, and airplane food also signifies adventures to come!




Waiting eagerly for the plane to take off. My woven shrug kept me warm in the plane.




Transiting at Hong Kong airport.
Reached at late 10, stepped into Zara. Qe stepped out again after a few minutes, to find all the airport shoppes closed. -__-



Sitting on a random piece of shiny rock (I believe they call it art) in HK airport:




Gray striped tank maxi tank dress: Bangkok
Peach woven shrug: Topshop
Black belt with silver buckle: Bysi, Singapore
Silver choker: Topshop
Silver cross: F21
Silver bracelet: Thomas Sabo
Peach ring: Topshop
Pony hair flats: Salvatore Ferragamo
Bag: Miu Miu

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Back to my first night in in Seoul. Dinner was a huge FML.


I was brought to eat sannakji. Sannakji is a local delicacy. A local delicacy THAT IS LIVE OCTOPUS. T____________________T


Live nakji (small octopus; san means raw) is cut and served immediately, and the pieces will still be like wriggling on the plate. Like worms. Or snakes. Whatever it is, I HATE LEGLESS THINGS like snakes or milipedes or worms. In fact, most Koreans actually prefer to eat nakjis as a whole! They will knot a nakji on a stick and take the bad boy in with one bite... And chew it to death while the nakji struggles and squirm... I am feeling all squirmish just thinking of it.




Fresh nakjis being caught.


Video of a nakji being caught:




Nakji being served. T___________________T




You are supposed to dip the nakji pieces in the sauce... by letting it swim and cover itself with the sauce...




My strategy was that I will try a small, teeny weeny tip of a tentacle (wanted to avoid those evil looking suctions, y'see). But my Korean friend kept on dishing many thick and fat tentacles onto my sauce platter despite my protests!! (thus forcing me to watch them splash around violently in front of me)

I also witness one stray FAT tentacle which managed to escape from the plate and wriggle towards me. I just looked at it with paralyzed fear while it continued to charge towards me (big fear of snakes I have). In the end, I resorted to whacking it with a chopstick in an attempt to kill it before it reaches me, heh.

And you know how usually when you dislike something that someone gives you to eat, you have the option of spitting it out or throw it at a side when the person is looking? It occurred to me that that would be futile, as the tentacles could wriggle their way into my butt (once again paranoia strikes again).

The scariest part of eating nakji (besides all the wriggling), is the suction cups on the tentacles! It actually latches itself onto your tongue, your teeth, the roof of your mouth, your throat... basically any surface it could get its hand (no pun intended) onto. If you are not careful, you could easily choke on it! (and die).

Taste wise... It wasn't as fishy or slimy as I thought it would be-- I expected to taste the seven seas on my tongue. In fact, it could be considered 'fresh', I guess. One tip though, do chew very very thoroughly before swallowing!




Just when I thought I have survived the grossest meal I have to eat so far, the waitress brought this out.

NAKJI HEAD.

You dip it in wasabi and let the brain and ink pouch explode in your mouth.

Honestly, it tasted like sashimi (the wasabi helped), but when the ink burst in my mouth, I couldn't help it, I cringed. And had black teeth for the rest of the night.




More nakji. But this time cooked.


Thinks it looked innocent? We had to watch them in front of our eyes:






Fried fish. You have to eat the entire the thing, including the bones. Crunch crunch crunch.




We were at Gangnam area, which has loads of restaurants, eateries, pubs which open til the wee hours.




In a whim, my Korean friends decided to make us go have our fortunes told-- with them taking on the role of the translator.

I am always really skeptical of going to fortune tellers, tarot card readers etc. Mainly because I am just the type who would easily get influenced... And I kinda don't like the idea that my fate is all written in the stars; I believe I make my own life.

Nonetheless, I was told that I am quite aggressive (only for things that I love), that this year was filled with some unhappiness (unfortunately true), that next year is going to be a terrific year (hopefully). That, and I should try to curb my spending (will try).




Random stall in the middle of the road which we patronise. Think game booth in an amusement park.

See the boxing glove on top of the pile of tiles? The idea is to punch the tiles, and the number of tiles that you succeed in breaking will win you stuffed toys of varying sizes. Haha, maybe I should open one in our local pasar malams.



They won a stuffed cow for me! :P



It was then on to more food (BBQ seafood this time). Koreans like to move from venue to venue (unlike us Malaysians who can yumcha at the same mamak for 5 hours straight).





There is a military theme going on, and all the staff are in army uniform.


Men in uniform? Yummy.



'Cause I think Korean kids are cute.



Rain was here!





Fresh seafood. Thankfully there were no octopus in sight.




Our menu/bill. Which look like Greek to me. Come to think of it, I could be eating snake and raccoon meat that night for all I know. T_T





Very very very delicious grilled seafood!



Some shellfish (at this point I stopped questioning the type of seafood I was eating, I just dished them into my mouth obediently) dipped in a spicy hot sauce. Great combination!



Different types of shellfishes as mentioned.



Yummiest grapes IN THE WORLD. I swear, when I bit into it, it felt like the world's supply of berries exploded on my tongue!!!

Apparently a bunch of this would cost >RM100 in M'sia. -_________-




Unknown sex.


We then adjourned to yet another restaurant for grilled pork. By this time, I was literally surviving on a small spare bar of energy. Vaguely remembered my night ending in me hugging my stuffed toy cow in the cab, while looking out deliriously at the nightlights, excited for what Seould would bring for me in my days to come.