Funnily enough excitement was the last thing on my mind as the days to my Korea trip grew near enough that I could almost taste the kimchi. And there was only one reason why. My period, which is usually punctual to the point of arriving early, decided, "Oy, I hear Amy has a trip coming. I'm going to be SUPER LATE." So, my period decided to do something unprecedented and be an entire week late.
Isn't that just perfect?
Luckily for me, I had Xin Yii from Triba-East covering my back. She had arranged for a local, James, and a Malaysian currently in Korea, Jonathan, to pick me up for dinner, so I could spend the first day being lazy. Or at least that was the plan. The moment I landed, I wanted to be on my feet 24/7. Who needs rest?!
For those of you who're unaware, I had contacted Triba-East a while before my trip to help me plan almost everything about it. ^^ Previous post here:
For those of you who're unaware, I had contacted Triba-East a while before my trip to help me plan almost everything about it. ^^ Previous post here:
The flight from Kuching to Korea was an absolute nightmare. Some people are blessed with painless periods that comes and goes without making a fuss. I'm lucky that only the first two days of my period is painful, but since my period came on exactly the day I was due to fly, it created a bit of a problem.
Nevertheless, I took a shot of liquor and then pretended everything was fine. ^^ The foodcourt in KLIA2 had a stall at the very end that sold surprisingly good pan mee! Here's my better half enjoying almost the entire plate by himself, because it was a bit too spicy for me. The air conditioning was off, on account of us being there almost midnight (KL - Seoul flight was a little past midnight), so we enjoyed this outside.
The flight from Kuching to KL took an hour and forty five minutes while the flight from KL to Seoul took another six hours and twenty minutes. I took the midnight flight since it allowed me an additional day there. There's only two additional flights there, with one arriving around 8 and another arriving later in the evening.
Remember To Get Internet!
There are multiple internet options available in Korea. The one that I ended up getting is one recommended to me by Triba-East, which they managed to source for me so that I could pick it up at KLIA2, and then upon returning to KL, just drop it back at the counter at KLIA2.
Getting the pocket wifi was remarkably easy. It came with a universal plug that was super useful in Korea. I brought my own universal plug, but the one they provided was a nice spare! ^^
Transportation From Incheon Airport to AREX Seoul Station, then Myeong-Dong
I narrowed down two of the cheapest ways to get Incheon Airport to Myeong-Dong, which is actually by bus, but in the end decided to use the train. While Bus 6015 with a fare of KRW10,000 (it's probably increased by now?) would take me directly to Myeongdong, it would also take a little longer.
The Arex train tickets to Seoul cost 9000kwn per person whiel the myeongdong tickets was 1350kwn per person. Getting to the station was a breeze, with signs pointing us to the right direciton the entire way. Just follow the signs to AREX Seoul Station. Oh! Try and get the tickets from the vending machines instead of buying from the ladies! There's a 500kwn discount, so it's 8,500kwn per person instead. Ahh, I wish I had known. The vending machines speak perfect english.
Be sure to get the AREX tickets, since that's the one that's express non-stop from airport to Seoul Station. The commuter stops in a couple of stations that will just take longer. If you find yourself ever lost, most people in the station are friendly and a couple speak English, so you could just ask anyone behind the counter. ^^
Look at me and my stupid face. See why I call him my better half now? ^^ You could also get the T-money cards if you're planning to travel using the Seoul Subway station
Since we weren't planning to use the train to travel around all that much. Most of the days were tours that Triba-East had planned for me beforehand. The tours were arranged such that we just needed to wait at the designated area in Myeong-Dong.
Day 1 - Myeong-Dong
Reaching Myeong-Dong revitalized me! The weather was nice and cold there. We left our luggages in the place where we're meant to stay, which is a decent Airbnb place that I'm... not a big fan of. While I was showering and washing my hair on day 4, the hot water suddenly stopped working, which aided to my getting sick on Day 5 and the entire week after I returned to Malaysia. Since I planned the trip to reach earlier, we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves! Which basically meant lots of eating!
There were quite a few places selling these really spicy rice cakes along with an assortment of local streetfood.
We made our way to have coffee in one of the fancy coffee places to get our bearings (and for my better have to get his daily dose of caffeine. It ended up being 6000won for a forgettable cup of takeaway coffee. Hardly worth the money.
This, however is very much worth the money!
We had a good lunch at Myeong-dong Kyoja, which is a highly recommended noodles & dumplings restaurant that has franchises around Korea. The restaurant is known for their knife-cut handmade noodle soup, and dumplings. These two dishes cost 18,000won in total, which was super filling because they're as big as they look.
The place is filled, with a little queueing involved to get in, but the dishes were all prepared beforehand, since they serve only a few items on their menu, with these two being the main attraction. Money exchanges hand early in the process, so once we finished our meal, we only had to leave.
The noodles were 8,000 won and the dumplings 10,000won. The noodle is simple, but delicious and very filling! The noodles themselve were very well done, with a slippery smooth consistency that reminded me of udon, but better. The chicken broth had a nourishing taste to it that wasn't too heavy. ^^ There was a bit of kimchi given as well, which went well with the soup. I really liked the dumplings. The transluscent skin hid a wonderful concoction of pork and vegetables that was still slightly wet and tasted frankly amazing.
On the way, we saw this lady selling deep fried small crabs, so naturally we bought some as snacks for the way up! It was 5,000 won for a pack. I also stopped into a convenience store to get a small bottle of chocolate milk for 1,300won.
After the super filling meal, we decided to literally walk up to Seoul Tower, because we weren't sure if the 200,000won that we brought would be enough to cover excessive spending and we decided we liked walking. Halfway to the destination, I was blaming him for getting us to walk up instead of using the cable car. Everything hurt.
The way to Namsan, where Seoul Tower was located, was basically up, up and more up! I followed the instructions here and even drew a map, but basically what you can do is look up and check out where the tower is, and then move towards that direction. XD
There's a quaint restaurant halfway up Seoul Tower though, which was a nice view. We also walked past the Namsan Cable Station to continue climbing ever upwards. If you're not up for the walk, the fare was 8500won for a round trip, or 5500 one way.
Unfortunately, we went during the winter, where most of the trees have dried, else the view would've been breathtaking the whole way. There were steps all the way up, and we ran into a few locals exercising up and down the hill, which made me feel weak af because I was panting by the time I got to this sign.
There was a gym in the middle of the route that some locals were using! Koreans are so healthy! After a year of moving upwards, well, it was actually more of an hour instead of a year, but it certainly felt like a year, we were finally there!
The view was spectacular! I wish there was more greens, but the view from Namsan allowed us to see exactly how high we managed to climb up. Lol. The buildings were alright too, I guess. Hahaha. We could go further up if we wanted to, by buying tickets for N Seoul Tower, but I wasn't interested enough to shell out money for that.
If you're into looking at places from tall buildings, Triba-East sells tickets for a discounted price, so you should definitely let them know that you're interested, or just purchase the tickets directly from their site.
There was a few very nice views up Namsan, but my favorite is the steel trees that's been decorated with so many locks from tourists that they look like blooming trees! Each lock is a promise and a token of yourself that you can leave in Seoul forevermore. :) I didn't bother getting one cause I'm not that sentimental.
The journey back was full of pain and aching muscles, but given the chance, I would climb up Namsan all over again. The walk was nice and calming and gave us a nice view of all that Myeong-dong has to offer.
By the time we reached our airbnb place, it was time for dinner already! I forgot to bring painkillers for the headache that came with my period, so I walked down the road to a pharmacy and spent 2,600won for Tylenols.
Afterwards, we made our way back to the airbnb, where James and Jonathan were waiting to bring us to dinner! ^^
We walked a little down the road to have dinner at a local eating place that didn't have an English name. XD James and Jonathan were our local hosts for parts of the trip and they did a great job of working together with Triba-East to get us an authentic experience of Seoul. ^^
Majority of the dish arrived raw, with some cooking on the flat pan necessary. Jonathan was so kind as to handle the cooking for us, since neither me nor my bf knew what to do. XD The meat goes to the pan to cook, duh. It took a little while, but also allowed us to know how hosts a little better. Jonathan is a Malaysian who had been working with James to handle tour groups here during his studies, while James have been in the business for more years than we could count. Both were seasoned travellers and we were grateful to have them lead the way.
There were like, a billion condiments to complement the dish as well. And soju, which I quickly discovered I wasn't a fan of since it was bitter. >< James and Jonathan works as travel agents in Korea, both for groups and individual travellers in order to curate travelling experiences for them. Triba-East has been working together with them in order to ensure that the customers they send from Malaysia have an authentic Korean experience.
Before we parted ways, James was so kind as to walk us to the meeting point for Day 2 of our trip which was next to a fountain. 😕 We explored a little, but eventually managed to find our way!
After we went about our seperate ways, my bf and I decide we could still eat a little more, so we got our hands on the french fries and hotdog bun as well a bowl of spicy rice cake. We paid 6,000 won for them. The spicy rice cakes were a bit too spicy for me, but was perfect for my better half, who enjoys spicy food a lot more than I do.
Total money spent on day 1: 69,600won, or RM271.
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