Disclosure: Travelled to South Korea on a sponsored trip, as a prize winner for Samsung NX Traveller, Smart Photography Asia, photo competition. This trip was also co-sponsored by the Korean Tourism Organisation. All opinions are of my own personal view and does not reflect the opinion of Sponsors.
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I screamed out loud and was jumping for joy in my office, when I read my email that I had won a photo trip to South Korea, from a Samsung photo competition that I had submitted earlier in February. Firstly, I am a novice photographer, an amateur, really I am, and I never imagined that I would ever win! So, I was really happy and surprised that I had won!
In less than ten minutes after responding to the email that I would be happy to attend the photo trip to South Korea, I was on the phone, organising my travel insurance, boarding kennel for the furkid and plans to offload the boy to stay with his Nanna during that period.
Finally, the day came, when it was time to fly off to Seoul. I had the jitters about flying, plus that I would be with a bunch of top, respected, well known, experienced photographers. I feel like a fraud! However, I had to remind myself that this was a great learning opportunity, to be among the learned ones, to learn and be mentored by the professionals.
And that at some point, I will have to step into a plane and this trip was the great incentive to get me to board a plane. I did managed to get on without any dramas, and was fine as soon as I saw the white fluffy clouds.
We arrived late in the evening at Incheon Airport, to be welcomed and picked up by Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) representatives. Wow, I am already feeling like a celeb! It takes about an hour to drive from the airport to Gangnam. I was very excited to be staying at a top 5 star hotel Intercontinental COEX at Gangnam. Ooh ooh can we go celeb spotting??
As soon as we arrived, we were hustled over to the convention room to join the other teams for a briefing. There were teams from the Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. It was a friendly atmosphere as most of us had been chatting on the Whatapps chat application from our phones prior to the trip. After briefing and check-in, I went up to my room. I have no words for it, it was just wow! I love the room!
The next morning, we went to Samsung Dlight, in the city for our Welcome ceremony. After the ceremony, we had our last western meal because from there onwards, we would be eating Korean all the way. Yippeee for me, as a food blogger, this was another great opportunity to widen my culinary experiences and my waistline. Heheh!
I thought that the Mad For Garlic Italian restaurant was fantastic, I love garlic! The pasta was al dente, the sauce was rich, the garlic pizza and breads was phenomenal! It was dripping in garlic butter! Noms!
To be continued...
My heart twinkle twinkle for this phone :)
Some light refreshments.
Yeppuda! A reminder of more Blossoms to come our way!
