Lil’ one is all so excited, the trip that she’s been wanting to go for the longest time.
* got tired as I was editing this blog entry so I think I shall just leave it in point form as when I typed these in my phone
16th Sep
woke up 4.30am. Left house at 5.35am. Arrived airport 5.49am, hubby dropped us at the departure area and hugged lil’ one. Excited girl didn’t even turn back to wave goodbye to daddy
Luggage weight : 13.8kg
Starting boarding at 7.30am
Cpt Poon
IFM Dennis Khoo
6h 25mins . Cpt informs light bumps expected
8.21am - pushback, safety video
Slept and didn’t finish a movie. Lil’ one slept laying on two seats. 3x the crew were asked to be seated. I dozed off during two of their announcements so was woken up. Crew also didn’t walk to check cabin. Anyway, if people are seasoned travellers they should know to keep their seatbelts on right? Even my girls as young as 3 or 4 knew the moment they board the plane, they put on their seatbelts until they need to go to the toilet. Why can’t adults comprehend. Also can feel the crew frustrations if they can’t finish the meal service on time. Think for JFK-SIN, FUK-SIN meal services were interrupted. The SQ 321 LHR-SIN incident happened on 21st May when I was still in BOS.
Cpt descent announced - Fair weather 30deg cel. WTF! Expected to arrive 4.08pm
Arrived. Initially wanted to get T-money card but noticed a bus leaving in 1min time so kindda grabbed that 6015 ticket. Tho buses do come regularly interval but since all I need to do is to drop by convenience shop, I can do that later. Korea is like Japan with lots of conbinis in every street. It’s already close to 5pm now and by the time we get to the hotel it will be 6+. If I had chosen to wait for the next next bus, presumably it’ll take time to get / find convenience shop in airport, I’ll arrive hotel much later. Nothing much planned for today anyway. Worst come to worst, I can try to get T-money cards the next day.
The ride to the hotel is so comfortable. I don’t remember much about Seoul coz it wasn’t a place a really fancy during flying days. Our last holiday to Korea was 12-13 years ago.
Love the accessibility to the hotel. The bus dropped us outside the main road and I made a right turn into a small single road, the hotel is only 100m after that. Bustling with people, and tourists either just arriving or leaving their hotel and dragging their luggage/s along the street.
Night market is near us. Church is near us too so went there first. Managed to get T-money cards at a convenience store near the church. ₩6000 deposit for the cards each.
During my research, I noted there’s a Yoogane next to our hotel. We used to frequent the NEX outlet and were sad when they left our shore. We had that for dinner, tho not in that outlet near our hotel. There were at least 2 more other outlets in Myeongdong!
17th Sep
Slow day. Left hotel a little later for lunch near the stream. Wanted to see the place where the revolution took place, and there’s no bell in the pavilion.
Had lunch at a western place. Wanted to only order pasta for lil’ one and I’ll share with her. But so paiseh to only order one dish. Ordered a salad for self and my goodness! I hate the leaves. Arugula and I think perilla? Salad tastes damn weird and bitter. We had leftovers and felt the $ pinch π. We leisurely walked along the stream.
Had street food for dinner where she made me hold the chicken skewer in the street, just so she can take photo in the room π€¦π»♀️.
In the night, I recheck next day’s journey. Thought I checked a bus but dunno why now they keep directing me elsewhere with a 10min walk, which we’ll do in 30 under the hot sun. Then did the Kakao taxi coz couldn’t deduct my money in SIN. But they refunded again. So went with k.ride which had approved 100won deduction in SIN when I set up. Now I changed default card to Revolut instead of credit card, am trying to minimise using my credit card for this trip.
Costs approx S$5.60 2 pax to take train and bus and then walk under the hot sun. Costs slightly less than S$10 to cafe so will just take cab down.
18th Sep (Wednesday)
A day where we took cabs wherever we went. The reality of having no car at my disposal finally sinked in. #toopamperedlife#
Found this better way to clear the photos NOT needed for iMovie into SanDisk so what’s left is for editing. Just incase can’t transfer into SanDisk, at least I can do it back home. Thing is I can’t delete the photos in my camera roll at all otherwise the videos in vivavideo draft will go missing. Doing this will mean I have one less thing to do back home. I hope I can do this new method all the time, only if I’m not so tired after a day of sightseeing and being an ah-soh scrubbing their undergarments and socks. Next holiday, the girls are going to do theirs on their own.
Instant noodles for dinner. Passed by an instant noodles store after cab driver dropped us. It’s the Nongshim Neoguri brand. So weird, I don’t mind giving her a nice meal for her birthday. Afterall it’s a whole day of celebration right? But she didn’t mind this so… take it as longevity noodles.
Began to notice in double charges on k-ride on Revolut with all the emails about being charged and being refunded. Huh?
On her birthday, mummy has to be the laundry woman while she nuah on the bed. Nice to have a washing machine in the hotel but there’s only one, so need to do it at a much earlier time. Thankfully we always return to hotel early. The dryer is another machine, I had to go up to the room 3x just to do the laundry. When I came down for the final time, I saw one old lady walking away with her laundry. A boy was sitting on the floor with one pile in the washing machine and another on the floor. So the lady wouldn’t have any chance to do her laundry until an hour later.
20th Sep (Fri)
Train to Busan today. I’m a little excited myself as I’ve never been there before. Took a cab to Seoul Station and was surprised to see a nice modern building. The old Seoul Station which I remember vaguely is next to it. A check shows the new station was built in 2011.
Arrived Busan and left luggage in hotel which is only next to station. Very convenient.
Went HuinnYeoul Culture Village by bus. A pretty nice place if not for the rain that made it so troublesome to walk around with umbrella. Rained the whole time we are there. Bus-ed back to hotel after the cab just drove by without stopping for us. At first she sat on the elderly seat, gave up seat when she saw an old lady boarding. The lady stood up wanting to alight, so we pointed to another old man standing nearby. At that moment the bus jerked and she almost fell. π. They all ask her to sit coz she was struggling to balance. I found it funny n show action of her rolling to the front of the bus. The elderlies told her to sit “Anjda ” muahaha! The elderlies are more fit than her, she needs the seat more than them.
Have been too busy or tired just want to stare at blank walls that I haven’t been diligently deleting unnecessary pics from phone. There goes my “I think I can do it here.” Then once I get back home, I have tons of things to do that I take a superbly long time to do my iMovie. Sigh… I should have a solo trip to an island where I’ll stay in room all day and maybe will be able to clear iMovies. I’m saying maybe coz I do get distracted most times. Haha! Maybe I can do in the plane? But I sleep more!!
Busan hotel bed hard - body pain. Other than that I don’t mind this hotel.
21st Sep (Saturday)
A super slow start, plan was to bring girl to Seomyeon area before heading to Haeundae. It’s another shopping area but we don’t shop, the rain actually kinda dampened our mood, we just want to hide out from the heavy rain. So took the bus all the way to Mipo
21st - shoe cover made useful. Rained too heavy and no time to wear no place to balance and wear so went into bus 1003 and then wear it. My shoes is a little wet but at least it’ll be easier to dry it now compared to July 2023 where my skchers was entirely wet that it’s beyond my drying it and it smells
Korean drivers are as impatient as Singaporeans. One car horn, bus horn. π
The sky capsule rides were interesting. Another thing which lil’ one wanted to go on. So we took it to and fro. At Cheongsapo, we only sat a cafe for donut and drink for close to 2 hours. Rained non stop, how come the clouds can hold so much water? No time and mood ☔️π§️to go to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. I bought the 1pm capsule ticket to Cheongsapo and 5pm ticket back.
Hiao girl wore her crop top with huge hole here and there was cold. She was caught in rain, somehow the raincoat is not 100% fully covered. Plus it was adult sizing for her. She was feeling cold so bought her a top in the sky capsule and slipped it on.
Back at Mipo on way back, wanted to walk to the bus stop but at the area near where we had lunch. Suddenly the wind was so strong, flipped our umbrellas and we were in complete mess. I was so afraid skinny girl gets blown away. Felt like we were stuck in the typhoon. Lucky we were using raincoat too. Tho it’s short n still little wet but better than being in the rain completely. Tried 3x to book a ride, many people around us were desperately booking for one too. We wanted to hide out in a cafe but the owner seems to know the sudden influx of people who came in and said no more space π€£.
Ride came and coz of distance cost more for sure but no choice.
No chance to go across our hotel, wanted to walk around. Hopefully the next day is better. Give us a break from the rain and so we can explore properly.
My itinerary was planned with a stop at Gwangalli for the fireworks but with the rain it’s definitely off. That’s why I planned to take the ride at Cheongsapo at 5pm and slowly make our way there.
Reached combini in our hotel 6.19pm. Heated spaghetti, I cant remember what transpired but I made a comment which made 2 caucasians laughed in the conbini. As I was walking towards the lift, the two ladies asked where we were from. They are a group of Canadians who just arrived today. Had nice lovely chat with them, I mentioned I haven’t been to Canada except Niagara Falls area in Toronto but many times to the east and west of US. (Yup! My team was rostered for Vancouver when I was on leave!!) They gave me a funny look when I mentioned about US, as if the two countries are not on terms π . They were superbly jealous of my shoe cover. Muahaha! One lady said she put a plastic bag after wearing her socks, so she kept her feet dry. That was a marvellous idea tho I’m sure it won’t work well with my Skechers shoes. We went up I think 6.28 or 6.29pm. Let her shower first while I place the disposable ponchos, shoe covers n umbrellas in the study table and sofa area to dry.
Had to type in phone after checking on items that we brought minimal. Haha! Practically most items are minimal. Told her : My bra n her socks - X. her bra n my socks - wash. I had to do it this way as sometimes it doesn’t take a day to dry and I do not want to pack a damp item into the luggage as we’re travelling back to Seoul on 23rd. I can wash it when we’re back in Seoul as we have 2 nights there. If only they have the toilet dryer like some Japanese hotel bathroom have I don’t have to do this kind of planning.
22nd Sep (Sunday)
It’s Chubun（ε，η§ε）- autumn equinox today.
Weather was nice and clear for a while then it started drizzling in Gamcheon village. Still not too bad. All stood patiently for pic taking for Little Prince.
Went to another place, Somang Stairs (μλ§κ³λ¨) , which I found out coincidentally. Seems like there’s a lot of these hilly hilly houses. Took the stairs monorail.
Topped up 10,000 each t-money. Now have 18200 left
Tapping bus card different greetings maybe it’s to let driver know the difference between a child ticket and adult tickets?
Went to BIFF and had some street food. Lil’ one don’t eat as much snacks / street food as che-che so our expenditure is lesser.
Thing about the advantage with lil’ one is that we both walk slow. Che-che walks fast so I always end up chasing after her. However two girls still have to wait for me when I take photos, lil’ one doesn’t show much irritation whenever I stop. Maybe coz that’s a good time where she can stand and relax.
I’m not sure but people says it’s good to stay in Nampo-dong. Although I didn’t walk around much with her around, I even skipped the fish market coz she was tired.
Reached back hotel between 6.28 - 6.35pm
This concludes our short trip to Busan. There’s definitely a lot of places we have missed, hopefully we have a chance to go back with hubby. During my itinerary planning I realised that Korea has so many old buildings. But che-che don’t like Korea coz she says it’s too K-pop-py country now. Ehh….how about her Japanese boy bands? Frankly speaking, it didn’t bother much of our trip as we weren’t going to places certain kpop singer went to or their training building etc.. we don’t even listen to kpop at all.
23rd Sep (Monday)
Told her last night we will leave hotel at 7.50, but set alarm for self at 7.48. Finished everything at 7.47am. Good time execution. Arrived station early coz just keydrop and boarded train at 8.03am. Very little space at the carriage for huge luggage. Cabin size luggage fits the compartment above seats. So lucky I boarded early. Both trips, I noticed not many people board with large luggages at all so I was able to put them on the rack outside near the boarding area.
Wow! Temperature dropped. It’s like autumn! So she wanted to be here during autumn and now she gets to experience it. After all the hot hot days in Seoul and then the rain never stop in Busan and now temp drop. It’s easy to fall sick with this kind of changing weather, I need toboil chrysanthemum for her in hotel.
After the 21st experience, she’s afraid she might get cold. So wore her room t-shirt and then the new sky capsule short over it before leaving hotel room, just incase the weather turns chilly. We didn’t bring any warmer clothes at all, so we can layer up if need to.
Dropped luggage in hotel. Wow! I felt prying eyes looking at me when I was dragging the luggage up the slope to the hotel. There were people, police officers in plain clothes, standing around smoking. That’s coz Namdaemun Police Station is just next to our hotel. Talk about safety, surely I’m in a safe place. Reception looks small and … okay I think I’m somehow prepared how the room might look like.
Lunch at eggslut. Our first time trying this and I love the fluffy brioche bun.
Went to Starfield Coex to instagrammable library n Ghibli but I can’t find Ghibli. Where is it? How is it that nobody downloaded videos on how to walk to Ghibli store?
She wanted to go to Korea to do some shopping but it wasn’t the right time, and all shelves and racks are displaying autumn wear. But she managed to find a long skirt which will need alteration back home. I did some shopping for facial masks in Olive Young.
She refused to take the subway just coz she thought it was going to be a long ride back. (I made a mistake earlier on at Seoul Station. Wanted to take Line 4 to Sadang and change to Line 2 BUT I walked to Line 1 so took a long way to reach Samseong. Anyway, we weren’t rushing for anything and we had seats so sat all the way) I tried convincing her it’s not, we can go back the other way but it means more transfers. The way I chose seems longer coz only one transfer is needed. Not convinced and when I checked the cab price. Aiyah! Took a cab. Back to Myeongdong to eat. Haha! Did the almond HBAF shopping. This is the second souvenir shopping. Tomorrow is the last day so need to shop for food souvenirs for the family. And also needed to drop by Samjin Amook to buy che-che’s fishcakes. But I also wanted to go to Eunpyeong Hanok Village but she doesn’t want. Sigh…
Topped up ₩10,000 for her T-money but can’t do mine as I used my last small note for hers.
Reached Hotel - regretted
Kpop hotel not as convenient as Myeongdong. If wanted night market food, Namdaemun looks near on the map but it’s not possible to cut across, I had to make a huge detour to get there. So only Myeongdong Night Market is the next nearest from our hotel. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that we’re always gallivanting in the streets till late, we’re always back at 6+ or latest 7+. I chose this hotel coz of convenience to train station. I don’t even know where to buy the tickets for the return for the bus in Myeongdong if not maybe could have opted for it too. But take it as an experimental trip for us, at least I took the airport limousine and AREX. I later found out I can always use T-money to pay for the ride. AREX tickets purchased before we left SIN so ….
Another counting stuffs. Noted that needed to wash her bra n our socks. The other dirty laundry are in a bag, will wash this tonight, tomorrow I can’t wash anything anymore.
24th Sep (Tuesday)
Topped up 20,000 on tmoney
I’m left with 7700 after exit to ikseong dong (17700 - AR)
Bought the famed shio bread for ₩12,000. Bought 2 packs
Bought perfume. What’s with my obsession? I haven’t even started using the MAC’s perfume. Lady told me if I pay in cash she can give me discount- 96,000 but she gave another further 10,000 so only paid 86,000. This amount for 3 perfumes. It’s really cheap.
Only close to 2pm going to buy fishcake at Lotte. So the best area to stay is to be somewhere near any subways near Line 2.
Final tap card. Left with 24,900. Must write down on post-it pad and put in money pouch.
Only positive in staying here is 0647hrs AREX train. I can leave hotel at 0615hrs since I already know how to walk to the main train station from subway and I know where AREX platform is. The worst is getting lost and not knowing where to go in the morning then making me very panicky.
Packing was relatively easy, as all our items (except toiletry bag, chargers, clothes for next day) are usually left in the luggage. Just packed in the dirty clothes for the day into the cannot-compress packing cube. Simply packed what we bought for the day into some slot space I can find in the luggage and the rests go into the pink snacks bag.
25th Sep (Wednesday)
Despite the 2* hotel room look, the pillow is at a good height for me. 70% of me still regret not booking back at a more alive place - Myeongdong. 30% of me like the fact that I don’t have to wake up extra extra early.
Left room at 6.07 instead of 6.15
Check in 7.46am when there’s another flight still not departed (0900hrs) yet. Yah I’m early but having said that it’s 3hrs before for international check-ins in Incheon
Was queuing to have our passports checked before entering the secured area. I suddenly remembered that there are skewers on two of the fish cakes. Quickly left the queue and sat down to remove it @ 8.22 - rejoin queue
Till the next holiday in Dec
in the meantime to enjoy the service or maybe my orh orh...
Drank OJ n then fell asleep for 1/2hr n woke 12.45pm
Watched Dog Days, first time I ever completed a movie but I dozed off 1/4 into the show and was awake coz of meal time.
Slept 2h 10mins straight.
After the trip
K.rides started refunding me on 26th Sep with first 4 rides. So I learnt that taking k.ride is more ex than Kakao T. I guess I didn’t have the choice then as I couldn’t register with Kakao. I had to make sure that the ride that I had cancelled in Busan gave me back my refund.
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