The rumbling sound of Rolls-Royce engines woke me up just before dawn. As our plane glided above western mainland of China, I could see the sun was starting to rise. All my friends still fell asleep. It was only a couple hours before we landed on Incheon Airport, Seoul.
We had a marvelous flight with the A350 by Vietnam Airlines that we booked six months earlier. We flew from Kuala Lumpur, and had a nice layover in Hanoi then continued to Seoul. Lucky us, we got a good price deal for the airplane ticket on this trip.
Me and my friends had thoughtfully planned this 4-day-trip to South Korea. Though financially, there were lots of inaccuracy (I wasn’t blaming you girls, who rather take a taxi than walking for just another one block :p). In fact, the biggest financial missed came from the unbelievably delicious foods and the hard-to-resist banana milk. Nevertheless, we were so excited for this holiday!
As the gorgeous A350 landed on Incheon Airport, we directly continued our trip by bus to the apartment that we also booked in advance via Airbnb located on Dongdaemun District. The 2-hour-bus-trip offered beautiful city scenery of Seoul, yet we were too tired from the 7 hours flight. Upon our arrival on the Dongdaemun apartment we were delighted by the CU store that lied just around the corner and how lovely the apartment was!
Koreans are so brilliant to maximize minimal apartment space. Too bad that I completely forgot to snap the picture out of that cute apartment. Here is the picture I grab from the site Airbnb.com
Go book the apartment from here!
DAY 1 – Strolling around Seoul on Hanbok
It is a must to wear a Hanbok! The only rightful way is to wear it on Gyeongbokgung Palace and strolling around the Bukchon Hanok village. Ready to immerse yourself as the ancient imperial guard of South Korea. It cost us KRW23,000/person
DAY 2 – Winter Summer Sonata on Namiseom
To reach Namiseom was rather a challenge, as we had to take a long ride via metro from our cozy Airbnb apartment on Dongdaemun. The total trip from Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station to Gapyeong Station where Nami Island is located, was 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once arriving at Gapyeong Station, we had to take another bus either a local bus or Shuttle Bus. The last option is actually more convenient though it will charge you for a higher price, KRW6000. The ticker can be used unlimited time for one day to go to all the destination on the bus rute including Petite France and The Garden of Morning Calm. You can buy the ticket price directly on the bus.
Yet, we didn’t choose the option to go to Nami Island via the Shuttle Bus. We choose the local one and it charged us significantly higher in total because we had to take taxi from the ferry wharf to Petite Island and we paid another KRW6000 for the shuttle bus to take us from Petite France to Gapyeong Station. Yes, lost in translation happened folks.
The shuttle bus from Gapyeong Station will take you directly to the ferry wharf, pay another KRW8000 for “Entry Visa” and you are good to go to the Nami Island via the ferry. It was a short ride only took 10-15min.
Nami Island was gorgeous. The trees were beautifully planted and taken care of. Since when we visited there in late September, the trees and the grass were still green from the Summer so we missed the chance to feel the Autumn vibes in Nami.
We also visited the Petite France, a French cultural village where many Korean Dramas were shot here. If you were a fan, you would love this. The ticket price for adults is KRW8000
DAY 3 – Everland!
Not a big fan of a theme park myself, especially if I had to wait in line for a loooong time to ride the rides. Everland is the Dufan (theme park in Ancol, Jakarta) of South Korea yet way much bigger. It has its own zoo inside the park!
I got to see another pandas in there, how lovely!
One of the highlights indeed is the one and only: T-Express Ride. It is the world’s fourth steepest wooden roller coaster. It is also the world’s ninth fastest, fourth tallest, and sixth longest wooden coaster. Thank you, Wikipedia.
The experience of riding the roller coaster was thrilling, insanely fast and it gave you the kind of ache due to its high acceleration. This ride is a must-ride ride if you are coming to Everland.
Who’s on earth dare to snap picture from his iPhone just before the fall. Pictures were taken from here
We paid a visit to the famous Gangnam district on that day. And for dinner, we had the best tteokbooki-with-mozzarella. Tasted like heaven!
DAY 4 – City life
On our last day in Seoul, we committed to act like a local people. Though, there was a man that we met at the train said I was exactly look like every Korean boy nowadays. What a lovely compliment (?)
We enjoyed ourselves by visiting various shopping districts: Myeong-dong, Namsan Tower and Itaewon.
Funny stories on how we got to the very top of the N Seoul Tower: We didn’t know what kind of demon that possessed us that made us willing to climb those millions of stairs to get to the top. It was unbelievably tiring. Yet we had a chance to see the beautiful scenery of Seoul on of the Rest Stop along the hill.
Finally on our last day we tried the famous Korean barbeque! We also visited the cute Line Store, such a meaningful experience as now I recognize which one is Brown or Cony.
To sum those up, Seoul did startle me. At first, I imagined the city and all would be just good, with all the high buildings, shopping districts and K-Pop fandoms everywhere. Yet when I truly experienced those things here, it was a completely different. From the astonishing areal scenery on Namiseom, the lavish night life of Gangnam, the pretty sewn clothes of Hanbok to the thrilling rides on Everland Park, surely exceeded my expectation. What a lovely journey we had on South Korea.
Still, there was one thing that could make this a five star holiday: alluring color leaves of autumn. Well, it made the perfect reason for me to go back to Seoul in several years to come with my loved one (Amen!)
안녕!
-R
Journey on Journal 