It has been a long while since I've last updated. 6 years to be exact. Many things have changed. I'm running a small business now - 7th Heaven Collective. We specialised in perfecting celebrations. We provide venue space, food & drinks, customised cakes, pastries, decoration, and other entertainment services. Being an entrepreneur hasn't been easy, but it is a fulfilling path. I also don't get to travel that often as my shop still heavily relies on me, moreover, covid made it even harder. Things are slowly getting better for me and I managed to squeeze out some time to travel to Korea with my partner. We did went to Bali together in 2020. I didn't manage to update about it then as I was very occupied with work and I kinda regretted it because I can't quite remember where exactly we went, I only remember that it was a very good trip. So for this time round I told myself that I have to update my Korea trip here, for memory sake. Date: 20th May to 26th May 2023It was an extremely good trip for us. Most of my girlfriends go Korea for shopping, but as you know i'm not so much of a City girl, I tried to balance out things a little by adding some nature adventure, beach, and cultural stuff. We had a wonderful time! Cities that we have visited:
Total Expenditure: $4649.45 (for 2) Air tickets: $791.80 (I did use my krisflyer points to redeem about $300 worth of credit) We took scoot there and Jeju air back as we flew back from Busan Accommodation: $887.88 (for 6 nights) We stayed in a backpacker hostel private room when we were at Seoul (super good location) which was a lot cheaper. In Busan, we spent a little more on a much better accommodation for the seaview. Tour Packages: $474.82 (for Nami Island and Palace photoshoot) eSim Card: $23.80 It's $11.90 for one, very convenient. I got it from shopee. Rail tickets: $119.60 (from Seoul to Busan). Here's how to prebook. Insurance: $75.35 Food & Shopping: $2300 SeoulDay 1: We took a early morning 3.30am flight and arrived arrive around 10.50am in Seoul. Korea time is 1 hour ahead of Singapore. We bought 2 T-Money Card at the kiosks outside the subway station and took the AREX (Airport Express) train to city center. Our hostel is located just about 5min walk from Myeongdong Station. It's called Philstay Myeongdong Station. I choose to stay at Myeongdong area because that's where most shopping streets are at, meaning we don't have to carry so many shopping bags around and we can easily return to the hostel at our convenience. Best decision ever. The people at Philstay Myeongdong Station Hostel are warm and friendly. There's an open kitchen area there where you can cook and wash your dishes if you want to. There's also a water dispenser which was so convenient. Our room though was a little too small for us. We have quite a difficulty finding space to open our luggage lol. But for the past backpacker me, this is already a luxury, so I don't have much issue with it. When we arrived at our hostel around 1pm, our room was already ready so we could check-in and shower first (super thankful). Thereafter we went to Myeongdong Kyoja 명동교자 for lunch. It's an award-wining restaurant famous for their dumpling soup. There were long line when we were there but it moves quite quickly. The place is huge with many floors. We were surprised by the portion size, it's HUGE! We can't believe the ladies there could finish the whole bowl of noodle soup. Just look at the number of dumplings. We could have share 1 bowl. Overall, I felt that it is overrate... not sure if I expected too much, but I prefer Din Tai Feng. We then head over to an Award-Winning Cafe (Cafe Coffee Libre 커피리브레) hidden within Myeongdong Cathedral for some coffee. We were soooo tired. The coffee was good. I expected us to be very tired on our first day so I didn't plan much except walking around our area Myeongdong Shopping Street. My partner was so tired (we didn't sleep at all on the plane) so we decided that he should get some massage while I continue shopping. Massages there aren't that expensive, it's about 38000 won for 1 hour of full body massage. Around 6pm, we decided to head over to Banpo Hangang Park for the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain and street food. I used Naver Map (their local map, google map doesn't work quite well there) and found that we could take a bus there for just about 40mins. However, we waited an hour for the bus, and it didn't come. The Map actually shows the timing that the bus will arrive but it just didn't come. We were very sure that we waited at the right stop and we even tried asking the locals there but they weren't sure why too. We ended up taking a Taxi there and it cost us about 15000 won ($15). There was a huge jam when we were nearing to that area. Lots of people were there, not sure if it's always that crowded on a Saturday Night or there's some special function going on. It wasn't quite worth the effort going over for the lights and there were long queue for all the street food store. But we had a very nice grilled chicken stick :) Day 2: We took the train to Anguk area and had our breakfast at Anguk153. I heard that they sell very fresh and delicious local style bread. It was pretty nice. Their sitting space upstairs was cozy, decorated with a bit of Japanese vibe. We arrived around 11am which was pretty late, a lot of the breads were already sold out. I had the chestnut one which was good. We then walk around Insadong which is known as an artsy district with lots of souvenirs store. The above is a picture taken at Ssamzigil mall. It's not a usual kind of mall, it's has a very nice vibe to it. Then we walked down to Cheonggyecheon Stream, we were just so thankful for the great 20 degree weather, it's simply nice to walk around. Thereafter we headed back to Myeongdong area and had Fried Chicken at BHC Chicken Myeongdong. As usual, the portion size is just too huge for 2. I find that the chicken were alright, I mean I had better ones in Singapore, but I really love the cheese ball. I had so much Cheese in Korea haha. We also had Tea and dessert at METCHA which was nearby. The matcha was good. I initially plan to go to N SEOUL TOWER on Day 2 (Sunday). but we found out that all department stores in Korea are closed on Mondays. So we decided to switch our itiniery for shopping instead and leave N Seoul Tower for the next day. We had dinner at Wangbijib 왕비집 王妃家 (BBQ). The queue was so long that we almost couldn't have it. Then the waiter found seats at their other outlet which was about 10mins walk away, and a whole bunch of us around 20pax who were queuing followed him over to their other outlet. It was quite funny, we met many Taiwanese tourist there. The food was quite good. Day 3: One of our most favorite day! I booked a package from 그날 그 한복 The hanbok of that day for Hanbok rental + Make up + phototaking at GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE. The package price was $276 for 2. It was a very nice experience from make up to walking around in Hanbok taking pictures. We are still waiting for our photos to be ready and we are so excited to see them. We had our lunch before the session at Cityfood Noodles Myung-ga, a mum & son noodle store, which was just beside the Hanbok store. Food was alright. After the shoot we walked around the area, had lunch at some random store, bought coffee and Matcha Ice Cream from Osculloc Tea House MMCA. I'm a huge fan of Matcha that's why ;P Then we headed to Bukchon Hanok Village where hundreds of traditional Korean houses called hanoks are. There were narrow alleyways lined with charming houses all made from stone and wood. Best for street photography. We had so much fun taking photos and we were glad there weren't many people on a Monday. We then stop by at Café Onion Anguk a very famous cafe. It was crowded, but not as bad as i expected probably cause it was already in the late afternoon. We had some of their bakes, coffee, and a chestnut drink. It was alright. Their place is situated inside an old house which was charming. Then we head to N Seoul Tower. We took the cable car up and hike down. It was nice. We had street food at Myeongdong for dinner Day 4: Another favorite day. We booked a Klook tour to Alpaca World, Nami Island and Gangchon Rail Bike. Initially I wanted to travel there on our own and I wanted to visit Nami Island, Petite France and The Garden of Morning Calm. Then we heard from a friend about the Alpaca World, it is located a little far off from Nami Island so it will be hard for us to head there on our own. But my partner seems really excited to see Alpaca, so I rearranged our plan and booked a Klook Tour instead. With the tour bus we saved a lot of time on transport which allowed us to explore each area more. However, I would highly recommend spending more days in Nami area if you have the luxury of time so that you can explore each area more. I chose to go for Gangchon Rail instead of Petite France and The Garden of Morning Calm because I read that the scenery is extremely pretty. Indeed it is and we love it so much. Petite France seems like some manmade tourist trap and I've already visited many Gardens during my days in Japan so I thought doing a Rail Tour will be fun for us. No regrets. The meet up time for our tour was 8am (super early) and the first location was the Alpaca World. The Alpaca were so adorable, there was a show at 10am where all of them will run to a centre fence area and we get to feed them. We felt like little children, super excited to see all the Alpaca surrounding us. It was a fantastic moment. There were other animals there too like deers and goats, but the highlight was really just the Alpaca. Then the tour bus took us to Gapyeong Wharf where we have to take a ferry to Nami Island. We had our lunch there at Gapyeong Wharf, the area is famous for Dakgalbi. Nami Island was nice, it is good to be surrounded by nature, but it wasn't as good as I expected. I dont know, probably because it seems very touristy and lack of some real island vibe. We should have rented a bike to explore around, we only went by foot and the timing was a little short for us to complete the whole tour around the area. If we have 2 days in that area, I will totally take the zipline down to Nami Island. It seems super fun. Then we headed to Gangchon Rail and had a super great time there. One thing we regreted is not selecting the private rail. It wasn't quite clear on Klook what is the difference between the private and non-private, so I selected the non-private one thinking I could simply change it on the spot if i want to. But apparently, the private rail is limited, thus we weren't able to change. We shared the rail bike with a couple and a young kid. Didn't managed to sit infront where we can take better pictures, but overall it's still awesome. The whole journey was about an hour and I the tunnels part was the highlight for me. They were so creative in making sure we have a wonderful journey, there were music and lights all, simply fantastic. We arrived back at Myeongdong around 8pm, had dinner at Yoogane Chicken Galbi. Yes Galbi again lol, cause we past by that restaurant so many times and it seems really yummy, so we had to go in. It was our last day at Seoul, so we went around to buy some last minute gifts BusanDay 5: When I told my friends that I'm going Korea for only 6 days and that i'm going Busan too, they felt that I was too ambitious, they said 6 days is not even enough for them for Seoul. But I'm not a City Girl, I really prefer nature so much more, so I knew I needed to add places with my favorite to-do in our itinerary. We took a KTX Train from Seoul to Busan. It takes about 3 hours. We bought our tickets online. We stayed at H Avenue Gwanganri Beach. The hotel is charming, it has an awesome view of the whole beach. It cost about $182 per night. The service was awesome and the room was lovely. The only thing is that it is not located in the city center, so it was quite inconvenient for us to get around. We took cab most of the time, otherwise bus will take around 1.5 hours and we have to change quite a bit. Thankfully the Taxi fare in korea is slightly cheaper than Singapore, it doesn't cost a bomb like in Japan. The first place we visited in Busan was Igidae coastal walk. We took a cab there from our hotel. Initially, I wanted to hike from Oryukdo Skywalk all the way to Igidae Coastal Walk, but the hotel receptionist said that it is quite a hike with lots of ups and downs. Our knees were already hurting from all the walking in Seoul, so we only took the shorter hike at Igidae Coastal. It was a good hike with nice view, I only wish that there was another route back instead of having to walk back the same path. Then we walked back to GWANGALLI BEACH which is where our hotel is located to catch the sunset. I heard that the sunset view there is amazing. But we got so hungry on the way so we stopped by a shopping mall to have a bite and we kinda spent too long there, so by the time we arrived the beach, the sun was already almost down. We had our dinner at 숙성도 광안점, i found them on google maps. Apparently they are quite known for their bbq pork and it was the best i've ever tried. But thereafter I got really sick of BBQ lol. Day 6: Our favorite day in Busan. We took a Taxi to Gamcheon Culture Village. We thought there would be a lot of restaurant there where we can have Lunch first but no, they are mainly cafe. Found a random food store and tried Gwaejigukbap, a friend told me that it is a must eat in Busan. There are so many Cafes at Gamcheon Culture Village, we chose to have coffee at Voda Vom, a small little cafe with very nice roof top view. There's so many nice spot for Photos at Gamcheon Culture Village, we had quite a great time. But what's best for us is that we found this super awesome cafe called DUF Coffee. We were randomly walking around and my partner saw that the cafe has a backyard with ducks, so we went in to check it out. To our surprise this cafe has so much more to offer and it only cost us 2 drinks. There were so many interesting things inside and lots of instagrammer spots. And yes there were ducks and they provide food for you to feed them upon entry. This is really a GEM place. We then took a bus to Busan Air Cruise Cable Car for some cable car ride and we explored the Amnan Park there for quite a bit. Yes another hiking day and it took us about 3 hours walking around. My knee was breaking during that point lol, but i enjoyed my time with nature. Took a the cable car back and then bus to the city center where the Busan Tower and Biffs Square is. Passed by Jagalchi Fish Market, my partner is not a fan of fish market so we only had a glance of it and also i heard the food price there is expensive. We ended up having Lotteria fast food instead because my partner wanted to try the fast food in korea lol. Didn't intend to visit the Busan Tower, but we randomly walked ourself to it. Shopped around and then headed back to our hotel. Day 7: It was our last day in Korea and we were really sad. Our last day was simple, took a taxi to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, as we had to be at the airport at 3.30pm My partner is a Taoist, I felt that the trip wouldnt be complete for him if I didn't bring him to a temple. Moreover, this temple is extremely scenic. Head back to our hotel area, bid goodbye to the beach and had our last meal at a random restaurant which turns out to be one of the best meal we had, with a view. 나사리식당 광안점 They sell really value for money fresh seafood soup with pancake and sushi set at just around 38000 won. We had the sit facing the beach which was awesomeeeee. It was truly a very enjoyable trip. We both felt extremely rejuvenated after this trip. Thankful for the good weather and the very nice experiences that we had. It stays in our heart and memories forever.
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