Korea - I: Arrival
Having taken off the night before, we were hungry. Unlike the more rural island Jeju, the mainland is a bit easier to find halal food. Right at the airport itself there was a food court of sorts with a halal vendor. I got myself the Hot Stone Bibimbap with Spicy Chicken & Corn Cheese for 12000 won. For being situated at the airport, that's reasonable.
It honestly is quite good. The portion size was enough, and it was savoury. Tasted authentic in the sense that it had flavors and ingredients that were new to me. How authentic it actually is can really only be evaluated by a local, but I digress. I also quite like the novelty of it being in a stone bowl. Speaking of novelty, check this out:
A WHOLE ROBOT ARM MAKES THE COFFEE. That is so cool. I'd take this over a standard cup dispensing drink vending machine any day.
The provided cover is also really neat. Unlike a normal cup cover, the lip section protrudes out and the hole is moved from the lip section to its base. This makes drinking feel similar to a normal cup. I don't know about you, but I've always disliked standard cup covers simply because it doesn't feel like drinking from a cup. Food establishments could learn a thing or two from this.
We then proceeded to take a rental car and left the airport.
Among the things I didn't expect Korea to have was...traffic jams. The traffic leaving the airport sucked. It's not a terrible crawl, but you never get to go above 20 km/h in sections. The road manners here are also a bit more aggressive. Throughout my trip I saw a motor doing wheelies, cars cutting each other off and illegal u-turns. I feel like the speed cameras here are fake too, with how fast cars go in general. During a rainy night, the road markings sort of disappear and make it
Our first objective was to go get some ingredients. Near our destination, we pulled up to a random outdoor carpark and was met with a culture difference. Apparently in South Korea, it looks like some carparks are manned. The cars are just parked flush, like Tetris, preventing deeper cars from moving. You leave the key in the car and there's a person in charge of looking over all the cars. When needed, it seems like the person will just drive your car to make way for the blocked cars to move out. Quite interesting, though I'm not sure how owners of expensive cars will feel about that.
Down that aesthetic alleyway and turning left, we find the foreign food mart. You'd expect to find foreign ingredients in it, but the variety is actually impressive and it's all halal certified. It's better stocked than the big chain supermarkets back home. I envy the residents here.
Not pictured, but there was also Mediterranean, Mexican and Indonesian ingredients. The freezer section has slabs of different meats, from your typical beef cuts to mutton. I'm sure there's more cuisines, but I can't really tell the cuisine from the ingredients.
Having stocked up on ingredients, we headed down to our accommodation in Yongpyeong. It was a long drive to the east. In the middle we dropped by this rest stop and got ourselves this tiny cake of sorts?
It's filled with red bean paste and is addictive, if not for the seeds on top. The filling is great, the flour is great, then the seeds just mess up the mouthfeel.
We make a move and arrive at Edelweiss Pension.
Arriving, we're greeted by a lovely lawn. It's nestled in a residential area, adding to the homely atmosphere. Stepping inside, the wooden flooring and architecture makes you feel like you're home rather than at a hotel. The adornments give a cozy feeling. I could go on and write about how great this place is, but I could also just show you pictures.
I wouldn't mind living here.
