Halal guys was great

Salam! 

hiiii guysssss. im sorry for not updating…bcs….i was lazy. (goal ke tiga in 2024: nak jadi rajin). 

that took like 70% of the reason and the rest was actually bcs theres nothing more to writeee. the last time i wrote was on jan 9, and now its still january. can you believe it? i think january have 60 days or smth. 

anyway where was i? 

Day (i dont remember), 7? 

If you look at the itinerary i made for day 7 onwards, if its not for the strict entry, i’d combined everything into one. All thats left was shopping. 

actually there are a lot of places that we didnt cover yet and ended up not going. first, bcs of the weather. second, we need to get that souvenirs checked. and we havent shop anything yet so we had to skip. 

(i cant believe 10 days is not enough to cover everything) 

but before everything, i need to make my compulsory stop at the bookstop first thing first in the morning. I got ready earlier than everyone so that I can wait for them in the bookstore. it was snowing when i got out. still amazed by it everytime. I went there with a really firm decision, heart? i dont know, there’s a phrase in korea that says “마음 먹다“ that literally translates as “to eat heart”, which means, to make a decision to do smth. so I “ate my heart” to buy some books that morning as it might be my last chance going. 

the only photo i took at the bookstore. not wise. 

the time was limited I struggled in selecting the (atleast i think) the best few books. I straight away went to the mystery novels section cause i duh love it. I searched specifically for Japanese authors cause im in love with their crazy plots. picked some. went to the best sellers, there were books im familiar with, there were books that i want, there were books that really caught me. I picked everything. oh yeah, all the books are in korean.

ending up with 9 books on my hand.

.

.

.

.

. my thoughts were, 

1. “are u crazy” 
2. “sofea you’re being impulsive stop” 
3. “you luggage wont fit” 
4. “youve bought 1 book yesterday that adds up to 10” (i did bought 1 book)
5. “dont lie. you wont read all will u” 

wise.  

“We’re done and waiting!!” -my sister texted me. 

I quickly chose 4 out of them and paid out. happy that i have more on my to-read list. 

4 books

Ran to the house, put down the books, and we started our journey. 

I brought them to Namdaemun that day. This is the, (im trying to find something similar in malaysia) like a pasar? Malaysians ahjummas love it here. There were souvenirs, brooches, fake bags, korean handcrafts, foods, um and more. 

Namdaemun. Foreigner friendly. 7/10 
Photo cr: Thaqif terbaik

It was the first time, i saw mama and my aunt’s happy faces (over la first time) but the first time i saw they were really invested and interested in shopping. The brooches there were crazy a lot. It took them a long time my cousins had to leave us. they went to myeondong by themselves and promised to meet again in itaewon for zohor. 

i dont mind staying with my mum. as long as mama and my makcik happy i okay. 

But they were seriously so happy they asked to come again the next day. I didnt get the brooch hype seriously. but okay- request accepted. 

We then went to itaewon because we didnt get to visit the mosque the other day. Oh and before that we ate at “Halal guys”, guys it was so sedap. the sauce was spicy the bread was soft the rice was aromatic the meat was so tender it doesnt hurt my teeth. omg why did we even shared at that time???? i…miss it. i might go there again just for that.

dont be fooled by its mediocre look

anyway, we ate and joined with my cousins there and went up the hill for the mosque. I love the mosque. and Alhamdulillah i went there twice but that was the first time I prayed there. It wasssss niceeeeee i love it. subhanallah dalam banyak banyak tempt, out of all places, the mosque is actually the best place to go. It was so calm and warm. I wanted to sleep and rest but cant help being so excited. 

“Allah’s the greatest” being at a quite high point of seoul looking down to the busy bees. ironic. 

happy that i got to solat here

groupp shot

We then went to a place ive never been to called Seonsu-dong. Okay, so, my mom wanted to buy a handbag from a korean brand. sure. i did some research back in KL and ppl said theres a lot of branded shops there. so i brought them there.  

mama is so cute

errrrrr….not a good idea 

omg. i think, bcs it was christmas (dont go on christmas), there were toooooo many people. and that people, were all locals, young and teenagers and they were couples everywhere. It was already night so it was dark and cold. We, being the only people with hijab, with my mama and my aunt, being quite out of the age range, the only foreigners, were feeling so out of place. I found only one of the shops i saw from the internet. i cant find anything else and we’ve walked all through the alley. i think the shops must be somewhere near there but we’re too tired of walking and of the crowd; we gave up. My mom gave up her korea handbag. sorry ma. oh yeah, but i did bought something there. 

really wanted to join. though i might ruin their play

funny story. this shop’s whole concept was astronauts and spaces. and there were austronauts everywhere it was unique. and my sister looked like one (with the hood) and happened to wear the scarf similar to one of their product. so there she is, fitting in. model kedai. 

then we decided to have dinner at a halal indonesian restaurant before we went back to airbnb to rest. it was a fuuull day. But everyone was happy :) 

p:s. guys. i messed up my bookstore visit timeline. this day was the first visit…no…this was the second, and i bought one book. and the next few days after this was my third and last visit which i bought 4. oh whatever.