Seoul planning progression + packing

I have too many new tabs in my already too many tabs in phone safari 😂 if you understand what I’m saying. I’ve got 400+ tabs in my Safari, I didn’t know it’s possible to have so many tabs, what’s the max anyway? This is the problem with me getting easily distracted by so many things. I can be wanting to research things and then my mind needs to wander off about planning and then I do other things. Ok! Come back Lily! U need to do your itinerary planning. I’m desperate to delete space in phone and I’m desperate to do the planning (or maybe not. Sometimes I really want to just sit down and stare at the 4 walls)

11th July - checked on transportation card. Is it a necessity to have one? We don’t go Korea that often compared to Japan, so should I purchase tickets everytime we want to travel? Anyway, if I decide to have a stored card I shouldn’t put so much money inside. There isn’t any transportation card for Korea in iPhone wallet. Found out later that their card is T-Money and no expiry date to it.

8th Aug - booked hotel for the first part of Seoul. I’m still working out the itinery. How many days to stay in Busan? 

8th Aug - Bought x2 SIM card from Shoppee. No e-SIM as I'm afraid I can't do it. Save the frustrations so got the card from NPN Travel. It's Ultra Daily 2GB + Unlimited for 12 days for $29.90 each. 

9th Aug - Card received at 6.22pm. This is efficiency at the top level! 

Think think think 🤔

Busan - so tempted to make a trip to Gyeongju. So alot of contemplation if I should do a Busan - Gyeongju - Seoul on the return back to Seoul? Enough time? Or stay additional day in Busan to make a day trip. Is there a luggage locker in Gyeongju train station so I can do my sightseeing? Should I go back and stay in the same first hotel in Seoul so I can leave my big luggage there for the return stay and just bring a small day bag to Busan? Will the hotel entertain? What time the airport limousine bus departs from Myeongdong in the morning? Considering the peak hours  I may need to leave even earlier on the day for our flight home. So many questions no time to find all the possible answers to all the scenerios I play out in my mind. Think so much, it’s no wonder my hair turn white so much faster.   

I did consider an open jaw ticket, meaning flying into ICN and out of PUS but tix was more expensive. So I made it up by staying in SEL for 5 nights the beginning of the journey.

16th Aug - set up the Kakao Ride account. Made a deposit of KRW100 maybe it's just service charge. But after that received a notice that it's refunded. Huh? So can I use my Kakao Ride when I'm there? 

23rd Aug - Finally booked both Korail tickets from Seoul to Busan vv

23rd Aug - at 1243hrs on 24th Aug actually I finally after all the ‘ding ding dong dong’, I decided to book back at Asti Hotel in Busan. Was looking at Nampo-dong but it's not easy for me lah. Considering that lil' one is the always 'stand there and look never help' kind of traveller, so I need something that is easy for me and something that I won't end up losing my temper at her. Moreover I reserved a 七早八早 train back to Seoul, I definitely do not want to make any train transfers. 

23rd to 24th Aug - After finalising the Busan hotel. I sourced for hotels in Seoul. Go back to Myeongdong? Stay in another area? But most importantly I need a hotel that is convenient when I reach back in Seoul from Busan and an easy transfer to the airport 2 days later. I spent my time searching and brain and eyes tired that I went to bed without shutting down the computer so all the tabs remain. 

It seems like I had so many things to do on 23rd late night all the way to wee hours on 24th. Infact, it’s me getting distracted or should I say ‘sick and tired’ of doing one thing that I changed to do something else. Who n explains the number of tabs in search engine 😂. And when I need to find back information on where I had left off, I can’t seem to find it so I need to click on every tabs 🤣. 

24th Aug - Coz I was too tired to do anything the wee hours, I had to re-look at all the options again.

(a) go back same hotel? Transport board from? Where to get tickets? 

(b) other hotels with bus limousine stopping nearby? Same question as above on payment and boarding spot? 

(c) hotels near Seoul Station. Can take bus? Board from? AREX? The train station in Google map looks so complicated, so where is AREX platform? 

(d) stay near Incheon? How to get to airport and where to board the transport?

Finally made my choice and settled for one near Seoul Station and then booked the AREX ticket to get to the airport. It's Seoul Station. I can’t remember Seoul that well coz in 2010 we joined a tour that took us to the ski resort.  

I still can’t get over the old ladies and old ah-pek poking my back so hard that make me think thrice of wanting to go back to Korea while I jump at every chance to go back Japan. However I must admit that while planning my itinerary this time, I realised there’s a lot I haven’t seen in Korea. (Last trip to Korea was in 2010) Haiyah! I give up liao. Booked the hotels at midnight (I think I'm a night owl, tend to be productive in the night. Haha!). If budget wasn't the issue, I had so many good choices near Seoul Station. In the end I chose K Pop Hotel and chose the Deluxe Room instead of the normal Twin Room. Their Twin Room is only 10sqm which is even smaller than the Wing something hotel che-che and I stayed in Fukuoka and .. I think also smaller than the hotel near Namba. Although now we only have one fatso moving around the room instead of two, I'll prefer to have a bigger space to walk around and not struggling to find space to open up the luggage to pack. Will we buy a lot of things? I doubt so coz lil’ one is not a snack queen like her sister. 

Had the hotels and train tickets printed out in the afternoon.

Once that is done, I can plan the itinerary slowly out. Still gotta do housework, still gotta .... wanted to cook meals for the girls end up I also can't be bothered already. Just cook ramen or order Grab.    

25th Aug - I dunno why but I'm not super productive this time. My mind is filled with so much worries about other things (not related to holidays) that I had no zeal to sit down and research and type type type. I only had Day 01 itinerary typed out yesterday and Day 05 and it was really nothing on those days, just where to get the Korea Tour Card (after all the research on which card to get - TMoney or Korea Tour Card and whether it's worth it etc.. I think too much, no wonder I tend to zor-boh aka act busy) and where to get the tickets for the airport limousine to Myeongdong on Day 01 and hotel. As for Day 05 train departure details and hotel details. THAT'S IT!! 

In the night at close to 11pm, I decided to do something - register e-MFA. I cannot help but mention that this is an important thing every travellers must do, tho I must admit I haven't had any of the consulate staffs calling me for anything. Not even when we were stuck in US in 2021. I mean, what can they do? They also need to comply to regulations and not like they will fly us on a private jet home. Whatever we needed to do, even the desperated lack of medications for hubby's HBP they really cannot do anything to help us. Worst is to alert them at that time... we definitely can't move around if they are alerted. No chance to go Palm Springs and a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, driving out for lunches and dinners and the trip to Getty Museum and Getty Centre won't materialise. They'll probably alert hotel and either house us in a bigger room where we might end up killing each other for reporting to the consulate for help.   

Between 25th and 2nd Sep, it was do abit of planning and then getting more distracted than anything. Read here 

2nd Sep @wee hours and @post dinner time : Spent a long time going through the different shops. Actually I only sat down infront of laptop only after dinner. 

The basic package is just wearing the hanbok and you go on your own with your haversack on your back, no make up, no hair styling. The cheapest can be less than $20. It’s really affordable. But because it’ll be an experience of a lifetime for her and me, I decided to go big (not that big) and get one with make up and photography. Afterall her mom takes shitty photos so it’s a good idea if I had a photographer coming along. Daehan Hanbok was a good choice, also going into the $300++ range for the two of us, but unfortunately that date is already booked out. And I just found out they have another transportation card - Climate card. 我的天啊‼️Just stick to T-money can already. 

How did I came to choose THAT day for photography?

Most of them have pictures taken in the palace grounds, and they'll state where they go. But one palace closes on Monday, the other on Tuesday. Chuseok is on Tuesday with a 3 day holidays from Mon to Wed. I checked their website and they didn't mention anything about Chuseok affecting their opening hours, so I booked for a Thursday which happens to be her birthday. With that day in mind, I sourced for which available photographer.

Okay, I think I'm set. Whatever I needed to consider I've considered already.   

**edit on 19th Sep : Guess what?! The make up lady was telling me all the palaces are closed today. What?!?! Turns out that they were all opened during the Chuseok holidays and they all closed today for their rest. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Finally booked the Hanbok experience on 2nd Sep night and printed out the voucher, typed information into itinery and too tired to get it printed out so will do it tomorrow. 

$301.85 poorer. Swiped my credit card too much already, already spent more than 80% of my credit limit 🤣. I didn’t go for the $495.80 (it’s also another popular big shop) coz it’s too expensive. Altho I said I’ll go big, but not that big . 又不是大富翁、要花钱也要有一点分寸啦！

I hope she’ll have a fun time on her birthday. 🎂 

Emailed them on arrival time at the shop coz I read from somewhere that we need to arrive much earlier than the appointed time, as the timing means the photographer’s time. 

3rd Sep - my 2 tickets for the Sky Capsules ride in Busan came into my email. Printed them out including the itinerary at 10pm. I give up on doing the booklet, I can’t seem to do the alignment now, especially for the last 2 family holidays my booklet looks really weird. 

So now everything is ready, purchased and paid for except for the bus ticket to first hotel upon arrival. I can spend the next few days clearing my iMovie. I hope I can clear more photos. 

** edited : as at 12th Sep only managed to do one day iMovie - 21st May (Boston Day 2) 没办法啦! 

Luggage packed with last bits of items I need to take from car - my cheapo sunglasses. 14th Sep (Sat) 4pm 

15th - packed these yesterday but suddenly remembered I needed to paste the tape to secure our SIN’s SIM card to the holder. Might as well just label at home, since the Korea number wouldn’t matter.