Korean Trip Experience

During the CNY period, i planned a Korean trip for my parents and my immediate family members. A total of 11 people, including me, went for this trip. Only my aunt has been on Korean soil, so most of the things i would consult her for advice. As for photos, i will post a link to the album. It's difficult to link photos to the days so just see it after reading this post or vice-versa.

Flight Day:
Flight was on 8am, so we had to check-in by 6am. Our flight was at Terminal 3, the new terminal. Its very nice and very spacious. Though it was only catering to Singapore Airlines flights the service is still slow and there is always a long queue to check-in. Everything was smooth and dandy and we are on our way to Incheon, Seoul.

Upon arrival at Seoul, you can really feel the winter chill. Its like 2-5 degrees in the day and below 0 in the night. So i guess you can say its really, really cold. We paid for airport transfer which is actually a bus loops around Seoul city. Amazing that our hotel is just outside the busstop. Check-in to hotel and we are all hungry as its dinner time. Dinner was settled in a korean bbq styled restaurant. Dad ordered too much as he was hungry. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and rested for the night.

Day 2:
Started with meeting my family members for breakfast. We had breakfast at starbucks. It was pretty cheap as breakfast for 2 included regular latte and cuppa, bagel, sausage crossaint and espresso shot cupcake. After breakfast we proceeded to Nandaemun market for a little shopping. As it was the first day of CNY, all shops were not opened. It was almost like a ghost town. We walked around except a few stalls are open. Finally, my mom crashed into one of the stalls selling Korean fare and bought a big bag of stuff. Meanwhile i visit the Nandaemun gate. It was rather impressive. Few centuries old structure still surviving till today. Took a few photos and seperated with my family.

Our group seperated into 3 parts, my parents, aunt and grand-aunt went to the casino. My uncles family and cousin went on another part of shopping trip. My brother and I went walking just about everywhere. While on the way i bought some strawberries. Imagine a lunchbox size portion of strawberries for only $7! What a steal... Bought 1 box and happily continued our way back to our hotel. Along the road picked up some roadside foodstalls. See photos for more explanation.

Day3:
As planned, my brother and I decided to climb one of the peak in Seoul. The mount is call namsam park. Situated just south of the CBD area and at 200m above sea level. An adventure junkie like me would never give this a miss. So we started our journey after breakfast at Coffeebean joint. Halfway through, my brother was panting and than he saw hope of going up the top without sweating a bead of sweat, cable car. I would say its more of a gondola. I cursed at him and told him i will pay for the ascent to the top but we will walk down. Up the cable car and up to the top. At the top, we went up to the Seoul Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It was a spectacular view from there. You can see the whole of Seoul city and the surrounding distant residential area. At the top, i realise something. The sight was almost the same as what i saw at Taipei 101 tower. The city has a river flowing through it and surrounded by natural obstacles of stone. I guess that is how a capital was chosen, abundant life with the river and natural defenses of mountains.

We came down from the tower and looked around the base of the tower. It was then i saw something unique. On the fence, there was thousands of locks on it. Im confused and wondering why the heck do Koreans put a padlocks on these fences for? Than i saw a mandarin speaking guide so i made my way there and listened on his explanation. The padlocks are locked here by couples, it meant to them eternal love. All locks will have 2 keys at least and if one day they are truly seperated, one of them will come here and unlock it. It is like a token of love. It also shows how romantic Koreans are. Hehe...

In the afternoon, my dad requested to see the palace. Da Chang Jin made him want to look how magnificent the place is. So we got into a taxi and went to the palace. It was lucky enough for us to be there just nice to see the change of palace guards ceremony. Something interesting and special. Comparing that to our change of guards parade at the Istana, its like comparing shrimp and lobster. After touring the palace grounds, my mom decided to give a treat. She won quite abit during the the previous day at the casino. So we had the international buffet. The spread was amazing. I never had so much tuna belly sashimi in my life. Great buffet. Damage? $70/pax. Ouch! Still lots of leftovers for my mom in her winnings. So my parents contined the night to try their luck while i walked back to the hotel with my brother. On the way back, we saw snow! Yes. snow! Haha... After so many years of my life, its my first ever seeing snowflakes falling on to me. It was a wonderful experience.

Day 3:
It's now the 3rd day of CNY. Most of the shops are opened now. It was the last day in Korea. So i decided to tell my parents of my plan. Main objective is to go to their Coex tower to buy kimchi and visit Lotte World for once. In the morning, we went to a local shopping centre as my cousin wanted to buy a toy. Lotte Mart was the name of the store and the prices there are pretty reasonable. After checkout, there is this packing station. Empty cardboard boxes is stacked neatly by the side. You can take box, put whatever you want inside and carry it home. They even include free tape! That is what i call cash and carry. Haha... We carried everything in plastic bags and head back to the hotel.

We continued our journey to Coex Tower and Lotte World. At the Coex Tower, the shopping area is huge! It's comparable to Vivocity except its only one level. I kept trying to find the Kimchi museum but its hard to locate it. Hunger overwhelmed us and we finally head to Mcdonalds for lunch. I had shrimp burger while my brother tried their tomato and bacon big mac. Interestingly, they big mac had a cardboard ring around it. Making it hard to topple while still keeping the cut lettuce inside. We ate at the location so the server gave us plastic cups for our coke. Its nice to see them save the environment. After lunch, we continued our search for the museum. Finally submitted to asking the information counter. The lady showed me the way and when we are there, its closed. So sad... Then we proceeded to Lotte World. Finally got tickets to their famous themepark. Shan't say more, the pictures tell a thousand words.

Finally, we head back to our hotel late into the night. We went into this 24hr Korean Restaurant. Ate the BiBimBap as they are famous for it. After that, we went back to the hotel and packed our stuff for departure the next day.

Day 4:
We woke up and had our last breakfast in Seoul City. Heard of a chicken store that sells good baked chicken. So we had the set for brunch. Overall it tasted simple. Not as good as Cute Chicken in Clementi. Then we shopped for one last time and went back to the hotel. Packed our stuff and left Seoul City with so much still waiting to be discovered.

The photo album link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v395/scopion/Korea%20Trip/