4th April 2012 (Wed)
Joyce is going (*went) to 한고!
We were planning to visit Alaska this year, but due to $$ factors, we changed our travel destination to Korea! A free & easy trip with my parents. :)
As usual, so as not to waste a day, we chose an early flight out. Thanks to SIA promotion, we've gotten considerably cheap air tickets (as compared to Asiana or Korea Air).
We reached the airport at 6am for our 8am flight! :D
We were given 2 meals on the flight to Korea - breakfast & another light meal.
And they served my favourite poached egg! :D
The other meal was beef bulgogi with rice.
We reached Seoul at Singapore time 2.55pm, which was 3.55pm Korea Time. And that's Incheon Airport below together with the section of the airport whereby their trains are located.
Upon reaching, we had to settle our KTX tickets (fast train in Korea - something like bullet train) to Jinhae first. We had already bought the discount 'coupon' for tourists online, but we had to be there personally to book the train tickets. Due the ongoing cherry blossom festival that is held in Jinhae yearly (and that's the main intention of our trip to Korea - Cherry Blossoms!), tickets to Jinhae were hard to get! Most of the KTX train tickets were either sold out or the timings were just not right (like in the middle of the day kind).
So we had to change our plans and visit Jinhae on 6th April, stopping over at Busan. Due to the language barrier and the multiple stops we were planning to make on that day just to get to Jinhae, we took a while to purchase our tickets. By the time we were done, it was 5.20pm Korea time.
We then proceeded to take the commuter train to our hotel in Seoul - City Hall. There's also an airport express train, but that cost so much more then the normal commuter train. (13,000 won vs. 4,450 won)
First look at the super complex train system in Seoul itself. 12 lines in total!!
Even though we chose the cheaper option, the train ride was just 44mins to the city centre! First look inside Korea's trains, which will be our means of transport for the next few days in Korea~
Me and my trusty red luggage on the train :) Nothing to do ma.. :p
We stopped over at Seoul Station first to get our transport tourist pass (or so we thought.. cause it ended up having stored valued that we had to use to buy things. Transport money was just a very small fraction of the value of the card. The staff didn't explain and the bronchure online wasn't very clear on this. Tsk tsk..)
But in any case, snapshot of Seoul Station! I think Running Man was filmed here before! (And i will continue to spot more Running Man filming sites during my stay here :D)
As we have been indoors since we got out of the plane, when we stepped out of City Hall station where our hotel is located, it was cold!
Weather on that day!
We stayed at Best Western - New Seoul Hotel. Located at a super convenient location, easily accessible to all the tourist/shopping areas!
After putting down our luggages and refreshing ourself, we headed out to find food!
Time - 7.35pm as reflected on the City Hall Building.
The busy street just outside our hotel.
And we spotted free shuttle bus, with one of the stops along this street. We didn't attempt to take the bus during our trip this time round, maybe next time?
Walking walking walking along the route to Namdaemun Market, we came across this eatery. A very small shop with delicious food which we will patronise a few times over the next few days. :D
I guess the food is considered quite good as lots of locals patronise this shop while we were eating there. And its open 24 hours! So no worries that food cannot be found after we have shop/travel the whole day.
Our first meal in Korea consist of Korean Rice Cake (떡벆이) - 3,500 won, Tofu Soup (순두부찌개) - 5,000 won & Meat Dumplings (고기손만두 ) - 3,000 won alongside their side dishes. Yum Yum!
All the other dishes that the small eatery served. Long list of Korean Food!
After filling our stomach, we continue our walk towards Namdaemun Market.
During our walk, we had to use underpasses which was a common sight in Seoul. These underpasses are means for people to cross the road in Korea, which are also shopping arcades and also connection to various places in the area. One could just use these underpasses to get to various areas or subways.
As it was quite late already, the shops in the underpasses were closed when we walk through it.
First sight of roadside stalls which we didn't manage to see during our previous trips to Korea!
Random street view of Bank of Korea before we entered into Myeong-Dong area.
And then we came across 7-11, and bought Banana Milk!! The famous drink in Korea! yum yum!
And since Singapore does not have it, i drank a lot of it during my stay here :p
(and even bought some back to Singapore!)
Snap shot of Myeong-Dong before my shopping spree starts! :D
