Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Seoul Travelogue : Day One

Finally went on my long awaited trip to Seoul !
I say long awaited cause we booked the plane tickets last Dec, LOL.
Seoul wasnt our initial choice but we decided on that due to the typhoon season.. 
Which in the end was ironic. :x



Anyway, thanks Dad for the lift to the airport!
As well as picking up le bff bimb.
Who nearly forgot I was going to the airport *ahem*.


Pre-flight selfie :D


My Meh Meh luggage tag !


Group selfie ! 
Thanks jiefu for sending us off. :D



#newsstandgirls #shoppingseouls 



Levon's hand, as always, is unstoppable.


My travel buddies !
Its our first overseas trip together :D


Pre-flight ootd !

Our flight was booked with Scoot, 
hence there was a transit at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport.
Three of us didnt exchange Taiwan money, but Sok had leftover coins from her previous trip.
LOL we practically survived on the lifesaving coins by sharing a bottle of green tea.
Hahahah drama situation much.


Arrived at Incheon Internationl Airport!
As with Taoyuan, the airport was fully wired with free WiFi, yay!
The first thing I did when we deplaned was to report to my anxious family on whatsapp. 


And then take a selfie to send to my equally worried bf. hahaha.

We had to take a tram from the arrival area to immigration, then to the arrival hall. 
Its the same when going to departure, so please allocate enough time.

Underwent a mad rush to complete a list of things at the airport!

First up we had to collect the portable WiFi router aka the famous Olleh Egg 
Our flight arrived at local time 9.35 pm, 
so we had to collect from a 24 hour counter at the Arrivals floor (1F), Gate 10.

Other counters available are open from 6 am to 10 pm, 
you may see the list of locations here
But a word of caution: the counters are sometimes closed before the actual timings :x

Regarding the price, you can refer to the link here.
We had a discount voucher so our rental was 6500 won per day.
But please take note: the prices do not include the 15% service charge, 
which is included in the per day rate, not the overall cost.

Another point to note is the mode of payment.
You may choose to leave a deposit of 200,000 won, and they will deduct the total amount.
OR leave your credit card details.
And credit card is really credit card, not debit card hor. Dont be like me LOL.


Behold, the almighty egg !
Connects up to 5 slaves to technology at one point of time.

Second mission: to catch the Airport Express train !
The train ticket is priced at 8000 won , 
and it's express because it goes all the way to Seoul station without stopping. (45 min)
Its quite a long way to the AREX station, and supposedly the last train is 23:43 (website)
HOWEVER, when we got there at around 22:30, the ticketing booth was already closed :x
Moral of the story: Websites are never 100% accurate, lol.
Later on I'd have many more rants regarding this.

Lucky for us though, the KTX subway was still operating, 
So we paid around 4000 won for the all stop train. 
Which is actually cheaper!
The journey took 1 hour 15 min, but no complaints since it cost us half the price.
We were even able to take the connecting train to our hotel, 
instead of taking a cab as we had planned.
AGAIN, no thanks to the unreliable websites, which gave inaccurate info about last train timings.
All aboard the KTX Train !

I highly recommend this app, which made my life really easy!
Search Subway Korea in your app store (both Android and Apple) and download.
This app allows you to select the start point and end point,
and also provides information about the cost and last trains.
Use it to check before your journey! 
It saved us once because we overlooked the last train timing and nearly failed to make it.


With this icon, you won't go wrong.

Oh and get the T-money pass instead of the M-pass for tourists, 
unless you're planning to make more than 10 trips per day or going really far.
The Subway works by deducting 1050 won per tap in, then based on additional distance. 
We didnt travel very far, so our average per day was maybe 4 trips?
Still considered cheap. (Y)



Old school metal seats.


Our HQ, Jongno-3-ga.
I really love this station cause it's an interchange, so we were able to connect to many lines easily.
Kudos to Levon and Bimb for finding such an awesome location for our hotel :D



Hotel Rian.
My two awesome bffs found this through Agoda,
Its located in a small alley, not facing the main road, but still generally safe.
Best is the presence of two convenience stores nearby :D


Paid a visit to Dongdaemun for some late night shopping.
Walked there cause it was truly too late for the subway and we wanted to save on cab fare.
The funniest shit was that when we wanted to cab back, none of the cabs wanted to pick us up!
Apparently it was too nearby for them.
Like wut uncle, its 3 subway stops away leh!
Urps and bimb got very traumatised cause this is the first time she got rejected by 3 cabs.



Love the fusion of modern and traditional.


Dongdaemun is a place for wholesale shopping, and by that I mean really wholesale.
Unlike Bangkok's concept, the buyers really bought truckloads of clothes.
Most of them were even winter wear; one season in advance
So we didnt get a lot of shopping done.

We did enjoy the street food though!


Cabbage Pancake.
Flour was tasteless but the cabbage was sweet.


Tteokbokki 
Chewy chewy chewy rice cake! smothered in sweet spicy sauce.
Generally all stalls had this and it was super chewy, 
but I cant finish one bowl by myself cause it was quite filling.

Wandered further down to Migliore Shopping Mall, cause there was a nail supply store there :BBB
AND I HAD VOUCHERS SO DOUBLE THE :BBBB

Spent 30,000 won there but I was so freaking happy.
Bought a pump dispenser, two ultra thin brushes, a good quality nail file and tape.
AND found a pretty duochrome polish which was only $2. 

ahem #nailaholic #sorrynotsorry

This awesome fried food stall was outside the mall too.



French fry covered hotdog, smothered in mustard and tomato sauce. 
YUMS.
Though you may get sick of the starchy dough in between, but I was hungry. *shrugs*

Shall continue Day Two tmr !

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