Day 1 Monday. SG - Seoul, Incheon, Myeongdong
Our flight was at 11:15am on Korean Air :)
Timing was good as we need not wake at an unearthly hour to go to the airport. But the air fare was damn ex la! SGD 2K+ for 2 person. There were cheaper alternatives but i didn't want to transit somewhere and waste time.... plus my colleague was telling me to take Korean Air cos they serve Bibimbap on flight! Yay, i wanna experience it! so lor....
We took Uber from our place to Changi Terminal 2 and had mandatory McDonalds' breakkie there! YUMS!
Our plane ^^
Hubs has been wanting to go Korea. i think he planned to go Korea for our honeymoon, but we opted for Maldives as it's my childhood dream to go Maldives for honeymoon. Moreover, we would be too busy with the wedding to even plan for a trip to Korea, so going Maldives is good. No need to plan, just chill and relax by the pristine waters ❤
waiting!! Can't wait!! haha this is like the best place to be haha...
Woooohoooo!
of cos when the lunch came, we both ordered the Bibimbap!
it's quite tasty i feel, but hubs didn't really fancy it.
The flight was 7 hours, but it did not feel that long as there was on-flight entertainment and food. i watched 2 movies and slept awhile. If 7h on budget airline i think i will die, haha
We reached Korea Incheon Airport in the evening. Was 18:30hrs already. Korea is behind Singapore time by an hour.
Feeling excited! waiting to claim our check-in luggage.
it was not very cold when we landed on the first day. It was only 13°C. Hubs couldn't wait to go out of the airport to feel the cold weather haha. It was his first time experiencing winter thus he ran out so quickly leaving me behind -_-
I've experienced winter in HaErBin before and it was -20°C. no joke :( but it was exactly 5 years ago and i sort of forgotten how i felt? wahaha....(until i read back my blog post zz hehe)
Us outside Incheon airport
We purchased 2 tix for our Airport Limousine bus at the counter and waited in the cold haha
Our bus finally came after 10 minutes
The bus ride was around 50 minutes and it was a very comfortable ride :) We were able to recline the seats and bus was very spacious! There was pre-recorded announcement in 4 languages (korean, english, chinese and japanese) before every bus-stop so you would not miss yours.
We dropped off at Namdaemun market. Super happy to see pretty yellow autumn leaves on the ground! When the wind rustled the leaves, blowing them off the tree, i squealed in delight cos it's too pretty!
Our hotel, Hotel ShinShin was supposed to be right opposite so we had to cross the road. We used the underpass instead. WRONG CHOICE cos we had to lug 2 heavy luggage down a long flight of steps and then UP again on the other side of the road zzz.
Should have just walked to the traffic lights.
Once we were across the other side, we missed the 'small alley' which leads to our hotel and walked further down.. It was freezing :( and we U-turned after realising we were lost.
i remember i read that the hotel was only a mere 3-4 min walk...
So we looked around and saw the hotel name on the top of the building at a far far place haha... almost 15min away, so we walked back.
Hotel ShinShin we've finally found you
checked in and this was our room.
it was tiny and the floor is not carpet one :(
Hotel ShinShin was ranked 1st Hotel in Korea Traveller's Choice. Really meh?
Service was good and hotel very clean though. Maybe it's just me. i prefer carpeted flooring, feels more like a hotel.
Anyway, it did not really matter as i've packed our itinerary so much so that the time we have in the hotel is just to have a place to sleep at night nia, haha.. no need to waste too much money.
This cost around SGD 150 per night. Located a 10min walk to Myeongdong.
After we put down our baggage, we were ready to walk to Myeongdong for dinner!
I changed into boots. My high boots were bought from Taobao for only SGD 7+! Super good buy cos very cheap haha...
but couldn't really walk too long in them. Made my toes squeeze together and painful after long hours of walking.
We had dinner at Yoogane Chicken Galbi. Had their fresh cheese chicken galbi! It was soooo sinfully tasty! Lol
that whole outer rim of Mozzarella cheese! YUMS!
but of cos, the downside was smelly hair and clothes right after dinner :(
First day and clothes smelly liaoo. sian haha... no choice, when it's winter, the shops close their windows and doors and on the heaters, making the smell even more intense.
Pretty Chirstmasy lights!
We walked along Myeongdong, known for its Make-up stores and street food. Innisfree, Laneige, TheFaceShop, Nature Republic, CLIO, Etude House, Saem, Missha, Tony Moly etc were everywhere haha..
but i'm not a korean-make up/skin care junkie so.... it's like no use putting me there haha!
The only korean make up i had was the two-tone lipbar from Laneige. i bought cos i watched like 3 episodes of the drama, Descendants of the Sun and the female lead was using it? hahaha. I do not even like their facial products ahha.. i had a sleeping water bank eye gel which i used like 10% and left it untouched till now. oh no, that reminds me. i need to throw it out liao, cfm expired le.
It was cold and we couldn't wait to go back to our hotel.
When it's freezing, only 5min outdoors in the cold feels like 30min haha! Buay tahan!
Day 2 liaoo -Everland!
We were deciding between Lotte World and Everland, and i decided on Everland cos Lotte world is for kids lehhh.. Most people want to go Everland but it was too far off from Seoul, but we had 10 days in Korea and had ample time, so we opted for Everland.
Booked our tix from funtastickorea.com
They have discounted prices! 47,000 KWR per person (SGD 57) for both Shuttle bus and Everland admission tickets.
Our hotel was around 8min to the subway City Hall station so we walked all the way there for the bus which would pick us up at 9:30am.
We cut through using the underground shopping centre cos it was warmer in the underpass! Bought 2 breads for breakfast and headed to City Hall.
On our way,
we wore our down jackets today cos the temperature dropped to 2°C.....brrrrrr it was FREEZING!
My down jacket was the one i bought from WinterTime 5 years ago for my Harbin trip.
I bought sam's jacket from Taobao! Very affordable and the quality was superb!! It cost SGD50+ (anything bought from taobao that costs 50 dollars is very expensive liao haha. cos usually my stuff costs less than 20 bucks each)
My ombre scarf is SGD 7 dollars plus, teeheehee!
On board the shuttle bus... Egg muffin, super nice to eat!!! yummy. it had one whole hard boiled egg inside haha
The ride was close to an hour or so (worth it! cos it will usually take 2.5-3.5hr by public transport. Eat full liaoo) so it's highly recommended to pay abit more for the shuttle bus.
Now i know why people would rather go Lotte world than Everland, haha.
We reached!
My mission at Everland was to buy a furry headgear from here and take photos in it. wahaha...
Bo lang one... hehe.. i purposely chose to go on a weekday so we do not have to queue for any rides or squeeze with the crowd.
Everywhere is so Christmasy! i love it!!!
Feeling cold and happy haha..
We bought a selfie stick with a remote on the day before our trip haha.. Served us very well! We also bought a tripod stand from qoo10.
:D we took a series of wefies haha
love this!.. like a candid Lol.. it was staged hahaa
❤
my hair was in a mess!! After one whole day, it would just tangle up into a massive ball of mess, totally unable to comb through one. Then need to spend half an hour with my untangling comb to fix it before showering at night.
Hubs
White Christmas!
was wearing nude thermal leggings. but realised the colour abit off (too yellowish!) and i never wore it again.
why is it so cold!!!!
We went on a mini roller coaster ride and played Bumper cars.. There was no queue so we just went for all the boliao rides. We didn't go on the T express cos it was too scary! (the world's 4th steepest roller coaster!! Almost 80° drop!)
And i got my furry hairband! YEAH.. there were many to choose from but i got the teddy bear ears haha.. i realise not many people chose this but i think it's the cutest ahaha. Mission accomplished ✔
We went into the candy shop only because it was too cold and we wanted some warm from the heaters. haha..
and we each bought a packet of old school gummy bears and candies!
munching on the coldest sunny-side up! Heh :o)
It was sundown very early.. like 5pm and the sky's dark already! Winter days are so short!
and everything lights up prettily!
acting sibei high haha
we left Everland for the shuttle bus at 6pm.
and they brought us back to City Hall. Walked over to Myeongdong :)
Dinner was at this very popular place which serves gyoza, Myungdong Kyoja.
i'm never a fan of dumplings but THIS IS DAMN GOOD! LIKE SUPERRRRR GOOOOOD!!!!!
i finally know how it feels to be made happy eating good food. haha
Street food
We had these! Egg on muffins!
and tornado potato!!! they sell this in SG but we have never tried it before haha..
hubs rolling the stick in cheese powder. Coated way too much!
yums!
Pretty yogurt roses!
too cold to eat these ahha
After all that food, we left for our hotel cos we were gonna wake up early the following day to fly to Jeju!
Will continue part 2 tomorrow :)