The plane was pretty empty... we were sitting at the aisle seats. 2 people to 3 seats. Other people, solo travellers, had 3 window seats to themselves.
Breakfast on plane! Took 1am flight and then reach Korea at 8am Korean time
Its pretty lame but here u go! picture of the toilet on the plane! I mean... for people who dont go overseas or went overseas without visiting the toilet... its quite cool lol
and there you go! after 6hours flight! ANNYEONGHASEYO!
waiting to get our luggages...
we had McDonalds! I prefer sg's nuggets though but... korea's chicken i.e. fried chicken n drumstick with chilli sauce tastes REALLY HEAVENLY...
afterwhich we went to get our sim card! the airport is really wide....
the sales assistant helping us to get the cards! At Kbooks! What we did was to register online for the eg sim card, and download the eg sim card app to top card the card!
The nightmare comes... After getting 30,000 calltime on the receipt (just go to i forget which convenience store) keep a look out for convenience store that states eg sim card top up/recharge... should be readily available in the airport :) I couldnt upload the id number on the app :/ it refuses to load... in the end I got it done with the help of the convenience store sales assistant who thankfully speaks chinese! I mean... he really went all out to help! He lend us his phone and helped us called the eg sim card working personnels to settle this issue...
Despite so, eg sim card is really good! and cheap! better than SG singtel prepaid card! cos Im singtel prepaid user so i definitely know the difference! haha just get eg sim card! tho it might hurt a few brain cells when recharging.
Note: they dont call it top up when u are adding money the second time. they call it recharge.
Up and running! So we went to take subway to Dong dae mun from Incheon! interesting to navigate around the huge seoul station (transiting there), going up escalators and down and searching while lugging heavy luggages... lol interesting experience
usually people just took a cab down to their destination or take the airport limousine to the place if they are carrying bulky items. but we took subway instead. amazing.
at Seoul station
Stayed at hotel tong vivace at dong daemun. i think it is a new hotel, so its pretty nice and clean! and bathroom is really spacious! But though its a "hotel" i think its more of a guesthouse just looking at the price. but its a decent guesthouse if comparing to... uhm backpacker hotel at hyehwa...
anyway, the hotel itself has electronic lock and you set your own lock. the cleaner wont be able to enter your room anyhow. and its near ddm! exit 4 or 5! and anyway, in case u havent been to korea or seoul in particular... sometimes their exits are just beside each other (not across or opposite the road kind...) its like from exit 5, you just have to walk a few steps without crossing roads or road, to exit 4 lol pretty lame leh
and yeap! the guesthouse is near the station! we didnt know at first! cos its in the alley! korea a lot of alleys ah... and google maps dont read it! just trust the directions given online if u have searched for it. if really no idea where, then ask the locals! BUT then again... even the store owner working at exit 5 wont know the location of the guesthouse... lol cos we tried asking... but they have no idea why it is... last resort! go explore yourself! be street smart and alert! u wont get lost :)
that damn stairs. we lugged our baggages up!!!!!!!!!!!!! and had neck aches and aches all over -.-
NOTE: bring travel adaptor! and if it doesnt work, go and get from lotte mart! or miscellaneous store that sells door knobs, locks, tools and plugs. u need to really search for it... cos most stores wont have it and if ur korean is really basic u cant converse with them even if u use google translate. partly cos koreans dont need the korea adaptor. even the travel adaptor i bought in lotte mart was loose when inserted into the power plug in my dorm...
after settling down, we went to Sindorim to visit our SGI Kaikan!
I think not many blogged about this and so I shall! just briefly :)
exit 1 or 2 is fine... exit 2 has the bus interchange. from exit 2, u should see techno mall and u are on the right track. anyway we took cab down... according to my friend, u can just walk over from sindorim...
tada! ITS CLOSED ON MONDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we went on Monday =.=
took bus to techno mall!
place we had our dinner! I had udong/udon! while my friend jjajangmyun/jajangmyeon!
Eateries in korea provide u free water whether hot or cold. and free tissues after meal :) just get them yourselves.
in korea, some eateries allow u to pay after meals. but pls rmb to pay! there was a few times... like twice? i almost forget to pay till my friend reminded me opps
--
Koreans are generally helpful and nice and courteous and welcoming! they welcome u once u enter their store! no matter its restaurants or eateries or make up shop or exchange shop or book store or hair salon etc
They are pretty cool at pushing people lol Ive heard once the reason being they have low distance towards other people meaning they can be quite touchy? (in extreme terms la) even skinny people have this strength to push me aside! powerful sia
and try to learn some basic korean like the hangul and a few greetings like annyeonghaseyo, gamsahamnida etc and a few common questions like, "where?" "how to go?" "how much?" a few common phrases, "really expensive" "can cheaper?" "toilet"
i believe toilet is really important lol
anyway, the subway has English signs so it should be fine just that at some stations where u need to transit etc, it can be quite confusing... even when recharging the tmoney, it is quite simple. just follow english instructions on the machine!
-
a few useful apps
Jihachul
Korean food guidebook (in case they dont have english menu)
visit korea 2.0
eg sim card
and other seoul or korea related guides u need
-
u can visit the Korea plaza? or is it samsung plaza? at raffles place! there is a KTO there that provides u with free brochures!
prior to this 1 month trip, I planned so far ahead, as far as Jan/dec haha and the trip itself is in end june lol too excited! and everything about korea then was too interesting to read! so, i read up on almost all blogs that talk about korea. Im serious about it... till now i have like up to at least 40 of the blog webbies saved under SIM SUMMER Folder in my google chrome! lol
this trip was really wonderous! and its not enough!
No comments :
Post a Comment