Korea Trip June 2017 Overview

I decided to pen down my thoughts and summary of the 14 days Korea Trip, to help faciliate the planning of the next long trip, in case I forgot some of them! So here goes!

The Beginning

I'm used to having a detailed plan when I plan my F&E travels. The exact detailed itinerary, schedule, directions and all the necessary maps to be prepared before the trip. The first trip I started planning into such details is probably the 2014 Jun Korea trip where I printed details and maps and pasted them in a notebook which I call it my Mi Ji  - 密集. 

.

Maybe cos I bought the air tickets very much in advance and I had lots of time to plan or perhaps just cos I'm so excited for the trip haha. I even learnt basic Korean and how to read Hangul from youtube in 2014.

Usually after I bought the air tickets, I'll start planning by listing out the places I'm interested in and mapping the locations. I'll drop those that are not convenient or shortlisting a few places to go.

So back to this Korea trip, I bought the tickets in Oct 2016, 8 months in advance haha. At S$725 per pax, including domestic flight to Yeosu. Prior to booking the tickets, I was checking out the various airports that Asiana flies to so that I can book a domestic flight together and cheaper. Since the flight to Incheon is a red-eye flight and arriving Incheon at 6am, it's too early to start the day in Seoul right away. Hence, I decided to travel south first and slowly make our way back up to Seoul.

After deciding the first stop, research starts right away on the cities to visit! I actually wanted to visit Tongyeong, but seems like the only way to get there is via Busan, which we did not consider visiting again this trip. Perhaps to KIV till the next one!

The Preparation

After shortlisting the attractions, I decided to visit Yeosu, Suncheon, Gwangju and Seoul for this trip! Here's the detailed itinerary for this trip. 

Putting the itinerary together actually takes a rly long time haha. I group some attractions together due to their proximity especially when they're out of Seoul, Like the days when we visit Nami Island together with Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm and the day when we visited Paju. But even the days when we're in Seoul, I played around with the sequence to the visit the attractions such that I minimize traveling time and to accommodate the opening hours. I also considered the days when it's best for visiting considering the crowd. Like shopping (DDM and Myeongdong) on weekends, Everland on Monday (when museums and palaces are typically closed), shopping at University street on the last full day so that I know how much money I can spend (so that I dont have to be worried that I overspend and to ration for the remaining days, though I ended up with about S$600 left lol!)

Preparing the Mi Ji also took up a lot of time. Whenever there's a change of plans or sequence of visiting the attractions, I'll need to update the Mi Ji as the directions to getting there will change. I used Naver and Daum maps to find the directions and it's super useful! Esp when Google Map doesn't work very well in Korea. And I find that being able to read Hangul is rly useful, especially the Korean apps like Daum and Naver do not recognise English inputs. And in restaurants or fast food that have English Menu, the burgers that they served are written in Korean. 

I also like to check street view of the places I'm going to make sure I'm able to recognize the place. I even check it the day before to make sure that I rmb how to travel to minimize the time spent finding our way. Since they kept complaining about the long walk around Samcheong dong the last time hmph.

The Review

Accommodation

We travelled across 4 cities so we stayed in 4 different accommodations. Out of the 4, 2 of the ones we initially booked through Airbnb got cancelled due to different reasons and had to book again. But it turned out that the 2 new bookings are a blessing in disguise! Haha.

Yeosu - 24 Guesthouse Yeosu

We stayed in this franchised guesthouse both in Yeosu and Suncheon. Both are new, though the one in Suncheon is much newer. It's probably the nearest guesthouse to the Yeosu Expo station. The rooms were pretty small, especially the triple room. It was originally a bunk bed with an extra pulled out bed. But the room's air con was leaking badly and wet almost all of BCX's clothes and we changed to a 6 pax dorm instead. Room is much bigger and we had the whole room to ourselves so indirectly it's also a blessing in disguise lah haha. Though at the expense of BCX's wet clothes lol. 

Breakfast was basic, we just had buttered toast and cereal. Dint get to have the eggs as we had to prep it ourselves and the pan doesn't look very clean.

Suncheon - 24 Guesthouse Suncheon  

Another 24 Guesthouse franchise, it's so new that it's not even on street view! I rmb when I first booked the accommodation in Suncheon, it wasn't even ready. The rooms we had are much better than the ones in Yeosu and the cafe area is rly nice and cosy. Furthermore, the guesthouse owner is super friendly and helpful, which made our stay so much more enjoyable. Location wise, it's slightly further than the Yeosu branch but still pretty convenient since we arrived in Suncheon via train but left from the bus terminal and it's located in between. There are also many food options nearby and of cos, the convenience store which we frequent every single day lol!

Breakfast was similar to the Yeosu branch, with toast and cereal. The owner prepared hard boiled eggs so we din't have to do it ourselves! Also, sliced cheese was available instead of butter, and with black coffee with milk available instead of the instant 3 in 1 in the Yeosu branch.

Gwangju Apartment - Universiade Hillstate

This is another one of the new bookings we made as the previous one cancelled on us. The owner even came to pick us up at the bus terminal and we only had to make one taxi trip down the apartment. The apartment was huge and fully furnished. We even get to wash our clothes and piggy could even game in the apartment lol. 

It's also very convenient with the bus stop right outside the apartment and just 4 stops away from U square. We enjoyed staying in this apartment as it's new and clean and had lots of space. BCX could study in the kitchen island top till late without disturbance.

Seoul Apartment - Poong Lim Apartment

We took rather long to decide on this as there were many options available. I prefer staying at Seoul Station for it's central location and though it is not a tourist attraction itself, I like that it's near the KTX and Arex line, so I do not have to lug the luggage so much! Plus, it's near Lotte Mart, we dint even had to pack the snacks in the box to bring it back. 

We decided on this apartment as it was having a reopening promotion and BCX wanted to try living in a duplex lol. Downsides are that there's only one toilet and it's rly small. There are bigger rooms around Seoul Station just further down the road in the opposite direction. 

Location wise, it's rly good, just diagonally across the Gyeongeui Jungang Line exit and Seoul subway line 1 and 4. And just opposite the new Seoujjo bridge, with a ministop just right downstairs. 

Attractions

Yeosu

The Yeosu attractions were reshuffled due to the change in the flight times. Initially wanted to skip Hyangilam since the travelling time is long. But ended up skipping the Seafood Market instead though it was part of the plan but decided against it at the last min due to the time required to walk to the seafood market and that the seafood restaurants are actually readily available everywhere. The Manseongri Beach and Ocean Railbike gave a good sea view and nice night view from Dolsan Park.

Both Hyangilam and Odongdo required long walk to reach but the scenery made it worth it! 

Suncheon 

The first attraction (though well, it's not rly an attraction) Ji Woo Spa, gave us an experience of the famed JJimjilbang we see in dramas all the time! It's actually just for us to bathe (though non of us did cos we're shy haha), rest and watch tv and sweat it out in the sauna. Pretty much the same as in Spaland but Spaland is much more atas!

We had one full day to explore Suncheon, and planned to visit 3 key attractions on a Public Holiday! I was expecting crowds but it turned out fine, except for the continuous heavy rain. 

The Film Location was featured in one of the running man episodes which many of us liked hence, it was on our to go list! It was smaller than what I expected so we only spent about an hour there before setting off to the National Garden.

The National Garden was pretty and huge, pretty similar to the Xin She Hua Hai in Taichung. Except that it has better facilities like clean toilets haha. Also featured in one of the RM episode. Then it started pouring heavily and we left the garden before we were able to complete the whole garden.

The last stop was the Suncheon Bay, which is like a Wetland. But due to the heavy downpour, we did not visit the Wetland area but just view from a distance from the observatory via binoculars. Such a pity!

Gwangju 

Actually though we stayed in Gwangju, the attractions itself are not within Gwangju. We visited Juknokwon, a pretty bamboo forest and Gokseong Train Village. Wanted to visit Soswaewon as well but had to miss it due to time constraints.

Seoul

Most of the attractions were repeated from the last trip as those were like must-go places in Seoul. Quite a number of new attractions in this trip as well like Iwha Mural Village & Naksan Park, ChangDeokGong, Everland, Konkuk University Street, Odusan Unification Observatory, Provenance Village, Hyeri Art Valley, Paju English Village, Nami Island, Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm.

Some are smaller than what I've expected and slightly disappointed by their scale like Petite France and Provenance Village but at least they were just attractions around the same area we visited the rest of the day so we did not waste time travelling there. 

The Cost 

Cost breakdown shown below. 

 Gotten almost everything at promotion or discounted rates. LOL.

Even the skin care and cosmetics that I got in Korea, none are full priced items. Gotten everything at 30 to 50% the usual retail price in Korea, which makes it at least 70% cheaper than in SG!

Lesson learnt from the last trip that I did not get enough skin care products and mainly on BB and masks. So this time round, I limit the number of BB I bought (well I did for masks as well but Mum was the one buying lots of mask at the end) and gotten more skin care products like emulsion and cream! But then as soon as I'm back, I regret not getting loose powder and make up sponges! 

Also, rmb the last time when I did reflections, I did regret not getting those cute items from Artbox and hair accessories. Din't get any again this time round. In fact, did not even step into an Artbox outlet! I knew I wont use it but just looking at other blog post makes me feel like getting haha. OH yes, and the clothing that I bought this time is of a different style from usual due to their fashion now haha. But then again, I'm always wearing the same old clothes and still have quite a lot of new ones from BKK trip!

And till the next trip~  Maybe to Busan (again) and Tongyeong! See you Korea!