DAY 10 / DAY 1 : KUL - ICN

Well, at first, I had intended to extend my stay in Amsterdam, for at least a week. There were some pretty awesome places that I wanted to visit, like the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. We conveyed our intentions to our travel agent but somehow we never got back any replies from them. Up till today, we do not know the reason why our request was never being taken into consideration ....

So anyway, since there was plenty of time left of the school holidays, I decided to find another destination to go to. I was just browsing around, and I happened to see that the flights bound for South Korea were pretty affordable. And South Korea is a country that I've always wanted to visit, since I loved K-entertainment so much. So I asked whether my friend ME wanted to go with me, and to my surprise, she agreed. Heh. That was in April. 

So I booked the flights, planned the itinerary and booked the hotels .... and off we went on our journey. Unlike my trip to Japan, this time around, I wasn't as worried as I would not be too illiterate. I was able to decipher Hangul phonetically, and having watched K-entertainment so much, I would be able to understand a teeny bit of Korean.

My party arrived in KLIA from Amsterdam at about 3.30 p.m. We waited quite long for our bags ... and after that, my 5 friends and I went on our separate ways. 3 were coming home to Kuching, and the other 2 were going to Penang. So that left me alone, and I made my way to KLIA2.

Fried kway teow with salted egg from Nanyang Food Garden
An expensive plate of mediocre fried kway teow .... but I was hungry so I finished the whole plate.

At this point, I was feeling rather uncomfortable. My last shower was early morning the day before. I tried to freshen up at the toilet ..... But after that, I still felt horrible. So I went to Plaza Premium Lounge and used the shower facilities there. 30 minutes use of the shower cost RM30.00. It was really money worth spending, as after I'd have a hot shower and hair wash and a change of clothes, I felt so much better. Now I was ready for the next leg of my journey to Seoul. 

My friend ME flew from Kuching to meet me at KLIA2. Her flight got delayed and she only arrived about 10.30 p.m. We printed out our luggage tags quickly, dropped our bags and then went in quickly to the departure lounge. We did have plenty of time as our flight was scheduled at 1.05 a.m. 

The flight to Seoul Incheon took 6 hours and 30 minutes. I got an aisle seat and because we sat at the back of the plane, the aisle space was larger in the Airbus A330-300 aircraft. It was also rather cold in the plane. I had 3 layers of clothing and that wasn't enough .... had to wrap my scarf around myself to feel better. I also managed to sleep on and off throughout the flight. 

We did not purchase any food nor drinks throughout our flight; though by the time we wanted to buy a hot drink, we were informed that "the cart had been closed". Heh. 

We landed in Seoul at 8.45 a.m.

Day 9 : Giethoorn

Today we were flying out from Amsterdam Schipol to Kuala Lumpur. But our flight was at night. So we had in fact the whole day in the Netherlands without an itinerary. So we told the tour manager that we wanted to visit Giethoorn. She insisted that we could only make the trip if everyone in the tour agreed to it. Well, everyone agreed to it, and we paid €30.00 for this optional tour.

Giethoorn is a small village at the province of Overijssel, and is often known as the Venice of the Netherlands. There is a water village there that is only accessible by boat, and in photos that we've seen, the place seemed so beautiful and so serene that we wanted to visit it. 

It was cloudy that morning as we set off our journey from Rotterdam. We'd be heading to the airport from Giethoorn, so we had our luggage packed and stored in the bus. It took about 2 hours to get to Giethoorn, but with the smooth traffic flow, we managed to reach there ahead of time. 

We went for a boat ride along the canal .... 

 Lovely houses along the canal

The boat stopped at the village and we could go out for a walk .. 

Lovely!

I had a salted caramel ice-cream here, €1.50

We got back in the boat and sailed back to the pier

We loved the relaxing boat ride ....

And enjoyed looking at our surroundings ... even the ducks attracted much of our attention .. heh

After the boat docked, we walked along the main road .... and admired the gardens outside people's houses ....  

Such a lovely garden with colourful blooms ...

The other tour members headed for lunch of fish and chips; a few of us decided not to eat and so we had a lot of time to kill while waiting for the others to finish their lunch. We walked and walked ... and we found a small supermarket here ....  

So I bought a can of beer and a packet of chips .... I wasn't hungry ... but I just wanted to snack. 

Less than €2.00

Paprika chips .... quite yum :))

After the others finished their food, we set out for the airport .... 

A stretch of wind turbine along the way ....

We reached the airport quite early at about 4.30 p.m.; my friend W and family would have to catch a train to Frankfurt to visit his daughter. The rest of us were going home. Our tour manager got us to weigh our luggage, and then brought us to do process our VATs. Then she checked us in, using the self check-in kiosk. The process took a really long time. Once we had our boarding passes, we had to drop our own baggage at the KLM counter. Then we could go to the departure lounge.  

Plenty of shops in the departure lounge, and plenty of places to sit ... we walked a bit and then sat down to chit chat ....

The return flight on KLM was not as comfortable for me. I sat between 2 of my friends .... and it felt cramp. I did sleep on and off though, thankfully.  

Nuts and red wine ...

 Meal 1 was dinner ..


The food wasn't that great ...

Meal 2 was brunch .... not nice either; I only liked the fruits and the yoghurt ...

We finally landed at KLIA at 3.30 p.m. the next day!  

Day 8 - Brussels - Rotterdam

The breakfast at Mercure Orly Paris was just fine.

Breakfast ... 

We were having breakfast in France, lunch in Belgium and dinner in the Netherlands that day. Sounded really cool, eh? We left our hotel sharp at 8.00 a.m. .... and traffic was so good that we reached Brussels earlier than expected!

Upon reaching Belgium ... Nuclear plant? 

 The Koekelberg Basilica 

Street in Brussels 

A river in downtown Brussels 

Inside this really artistic structure is Starbucks!  

The Notre Dame of Brussels

Our Lady of Sabion Church

Karel Buls Fountain

The mayor of the city of Brussels 

Brussels Town Hall at the breathtaking Grand Place, the town square that is a UNESCO Heritage Site

Manneken Pis

A small mannequin that dates back to 1618; this statue here is a copy of the original, and had been at the square since 1965. 

Jeanneke-Pis

Manneken Pis' counterpart at another side of the square .. 

We had lunch near the square; can't remember the name of the restaurant. We liked the food, though.

 Mussels in white wine .... yummy

 Fried chicken with French fries

Belgian waffles

After lunch, we were so excited to go shop for Kipling bags. We must have spent at least 40 minutes in the small shop. I bought a sling bag and a purse .... very cheap indeed. Was so happy with my purchases!

Then we left for Rotterdam, back in the Netherlands.

 Rotterdam 

We were asked to go dinner first ... at China Town Chinese restaurant. The food was good here .... 

After dinner, we checked into Best Western Rotterdam Airport Hotel. This was the same hotel we stayed in the first night.

A walk to the airport ...  

 Pretty small airport, there was nothing there ...

 Some horses grazing in the grassland, just next to our hotel ....

The horses saw us and came near the fence ... 

We went back to our hotel room after that. We had to pack as we were flying back to KL the next day ....

Day 7 : Arc de Tromphe - Eiffel Tower - River Seine Cruise - Shopping

Paris is really beautiful. It was a pity that I did not have a chance to explore the city further. Must come back one day!

Arc de Triomphe

We merely made a photo stop here; did not have a chance to go near the arch even! 

Then we drove by Champs-Elysees, and glimpsed at all the luxury brand shops lined along both sides of the road.

 LV Flagship store at Champs Elysees ... look at all those people queuing up when the shop isn't even open yet!! 

Champs Elysees led to Place de la Concorde ....

Approaching Place de la Concorde - a public square, the biggest in France 

The obelisk of Luxor at the centre of the square. The obelisk is purportedly 3000 years old and once stood at the entrance of Luxor Temple in Egypt

Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation, one of the 2 fountains here at the square; The fountain dates back to 1840! 

Next, we drove to Palais Louvre. Nope, did not go into the museum. Merely had a photoshoot at the Lourve Pyramid. What a pity. 

Palais Lourve 

Lourve Pyramid  

The next photo stop .... 

Dome des Invalides 

That's where Napoleon's tomb is 

Next, we went to Eiffel Tower. And we wasted 3 hours here to queue up to go to the observation deck at level 2. Had it been up to me, I'd not go up at all. But since it was in the itinerary, the tour guide had to bring us regardless. 

Eiffel Tower .... 

I'd just passed the first security checkpoint at this stage ...  

We were at the Eiffel Tower grounds queuing up for the longest time .....  

View from the top

We couldn't really go round the deck, as it was just overly crowded!  What's worse was that we had only 15 minutes there ... and we had to queue up for the lift to go down again. 

AL and I lingered a bit .... and we found that the others were already gone! We saw the big crowd queuing for the lift .... and both of us decided to walk down .... 

Walking down the tower ....  

 A busk of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer whose company designed and built the tower

The landmark of Paris ....

At this point, I was walking back to the bus ... 

It was already about 2.00 p.m. and I was super hungry .... and we were taken to La Fontaine de Jade for lunch.  

Lunch was not bad. Perhaps it's because I was hungry. After lunch, we went on the Seine River cruise. It was hot ..... and

Beautiful scenery ... 

But the I wanted to see Notre Dame the most ... and all I could glimpse of it was this ... 

Sigh .... wished I could see more of Notre Dame, though. 

 We sailed past Eiffel Tower again .... 

Pont Alexandre III

The most beautiful bridge in Paris ... 

After the cruise, we went shopping at Galleries La Fayette ... but the thing was that we only had about an hour to do so. I went to Louis Vuitton to check out the prices .... but ended up buying a Longchamp Neo for €116.00 after tax rebate. 

We then went for dinner .... an early dinner at a place named Chez Eduoard.

 Escargot 

I liked it. It was so yummy! 

French bread to cleanse the palate ... 

 My piece of steak 

 Apple pie 

We then drove back to Orly, where our hotel was. 

 I wound down with a cup of tea.