Travel Log - South Korea Day 3

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😄

Day 3: Train to Busan & Night Scenic Tour with Klook

9 June 2018, Saturday

We had booked and reserved seats on the 11:00 am KTX train to Busan prior to the trip... so, we left the hotel for Seoul KTX station at 9 am (yes, 2 hours ahead of the scheduled train ride because 1. with the parents, 2. with the luggage) despite it being just 2 stations away (Euljiro 1-ga ↦ Cityhall (transit) ↦ Seoul Station).

Euljiro 1-ga to Cityhall (Subway Line 2), switch to Subway Line 1 to Seoul Station

So, having left the hotel 2 hours ahead of the train schedule, we arrived extremely early and the family sat themselves down at Paris Croissant for breakfast at the KTX station.

Found this at Seoul KTX station, from Dunking Donuts 😍

Lunch bentos can be bought from the KTX station before heading to the platforms

Each train carriage has 16 rows, with rows 1-8 in one direction & 9-16 in another direction (rows 8 & 9 are facing each other). When I reserved the seats on the KTX, I didn't know of the seating arrangement. Thankfully, for both our KTX journey, we were facing in the direction that the train was moving in. #woes of someone with motion sickness 😅

In Busan...

At Busan KTX station, you have to exit and walk across to get to their subway station. Took us awhile to understand how that worked. From Busan subway station, we headed to Jagalchi station (just 3 stops away) which was where our hotel was located at.

Hotel Foret Premiere, Nampo

Map (Metro: Jalgachi Station, Exit 7, walk straight)

The hotel is actually located between Jalgachi Station & Nampo Station.. but it looked nearer to Jalgachi Station on the map, hence the decision to walk from Jagalchi.

It is actually like a studio, 1 bedroom & 1 living room with the TV

Street food market near the Hotel (a.k.a Busan International Film Festival)

Our dinner at Busan KTX station before our Night Tour with Klook in Busan

Our meeting point for Night Tour in Busan

Unlike my tour experience for the tour to Nami Island where the company in-charge placed every travel group in a Whatsapp group, this one didn't have any contact points. Groups of travellers just appeared at the meeting point and waited for the tour guide to show up. The tour guide for the trip, Mr Kim, led the group in Mandarin.

The main highlight of the tour was the illumia park at Let's Run Park. I like lights. 😆 According to Mr Kim, its not easy to get to by public transport as it is quite far away from the city of Busan (it is about 40 mins away by car) and the frequency of the public buses is quite long (I would do a fact check on that if I ever learn Korean someday, he was promoting a lot about the tours so I can't help it but feel a little doubtful).

We were given about an hour and a half to walk around the park which was simply huge. A lot of potential picture spots... If only I had a camera that captures night scenes well. 😂

Following that, we were brought to two scenic spots just to view the night scenery of Busan.
1st was at the Gamcheon Culture Village, the colourful village of Busan. According to Mr Kim, despite the popularity of the place, the residents actually dislike having uninvited visitors into the village as they are not getting any revenue/benefits from the visitors. There is a history behind this cultural village that dated back to the Korean War which was quite interesting (about how the poor ended up living on the hills and the rich lived near the ports, or something like that).

The 2nd spot was... a viewpoint on the other hill/mountain, showing the night cityscape of Busan.

Having the choice of alighting at one of three locations, we chose to alight at Nampo as it was the nearest option to our hotel. Despite asking for directions from Mr Kim, we ended up being quite lost and the GPS on our maps weren't quite working (the importance of having a physical map 😅). Thankfully, we managed to find our way after asking for directions at one of the stores.

Next post: Travel Log - South Korea Day 4 (Busan back to Seoul)
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Travel Log - South Korea Day 2

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😄

Day 2: Nami Island & Petite France Tour with Klook

8 June 2018, Friday

Crown Park Hotel's Breakfast/Dining Restaurant

International Buffet

"Hotel's breakfast? no need bah, we're in Seoul"... That was what we said prior to the trip.
So why. 😒😑 [We were given discount vouchers for the hotel's breakfast upon check-in and the family decided that we'll just use them instead of heading out to find food since we were going on a tour with Klook.]

On the way to the meeting point at Lotte Hotel, Myeongdong (Euljiro-1, Exit 8) which was a 10-15 min walk from Crown Park Hotel...
[Quick note: was looking at the same tour on Klook and it seems they might have updated their meeting points & time...]

SO COOL. its like modern cafe housed in traditional exterior

All these traditional-looking sculptures in the city, near Westin Chosun Hotel

Interesting Building

Meeting point was directly opposite this building, at Lotte Hotel

A day before the tour, I was added into a Whatsapp group by the tour company in-charge (Wonder Trip) along with the tour guide, Jade Jung. It was very reassuring having a contact point in the unlikely event of an emergency situation (like.. not being able to find the group, etc). 😇 

Super professional, & extremely reassuring

It was a breeze finding the meeting point as my sis & I did a recce the night before. Our tour guide, Jade, was very proactive in making sure each group got the right meeting place.

Despite being on time, we were actually the last group to reach the meeting point. LOL. The bus set off once we were on board and the bus journey to the ferry point for Nami Island took about an hour 10 mins~.

Ferry to Nami Island took less than 5 mins. Prob similar to SG to Pulau Ubin.

You could actually zip-line to Nami Island instead of taking the ferry for a fee of 30,000₩.

LOOKS EXCEPTIONALLY FUN, but since this is a family trip, I'll leave this in my bucket list for next time. 😉 (that actually gives me a reason to go back to Korea in the future)

All the flags~

All the sculptures are so pretty~

Nami island is named after General Nami!

Xiao Piglet @ Nami Island 😂

 Okay, I should just pick a couple more pictures..

#relationship goals

Winter Sonata!

Maple Leaves~

These are so good. The handmade one on the left can't seem to be found in Seoul (correct me if I'm wrong).

This reminds me of the typical Korean Palace Kitchen... hahahah

Hey! Merlion at Nami Island... whatt.

We loved how free & easy it was... the time allowance we had at Nami Island (approx. 3 hours) was more than sufficient. Jade gave us the option of meeting him back at the ferry point on the side of civilisation if we wanted to try his lunch recommendation, which we did.

Dakgalbi

According to Jade, at Nami Island area, about 99% of the restaurants are chicken restaurants... and the remaining 1% are convenience stores. 😂

After lunch, the tour group set off for Petite France which was a ~30-40 mins journey from Nami Island Ferry Point.

We were given about an hour and a half here at Petite France. I like how colourful the place is, definitely a great place if you like taking photos with wall murals and posing with friends. My family didn't enjoy it much though.. the place is kind of hilly which was bad for the parents, they were out of the place in barely 40 mins. 😔

This tour by Klook with Wondertrip was the best decision I made for this family trip. I think if there is one thing the parents remember about this entire trip, it has to be Nami Island. At least, that is the one thing my mom would tell people about if anyone asked her about Korea [ps. she is extremely into the story of General Nami].

If you're interested in day tours in Korea, could consider dropping him a msg ^

We were back in Seoul by 6pm and we had a quick rest at the hotel before heading out for dinner at Arirang Restaurant, Myeongdong right next to the hotel (which is.. apparently a Michelin star restaurant).

Photo moment at the Hotel

Almost every dish had a tint of beef in them (which was bad for le dad). Ordered too much as usual... 2 servings of beef, Bibimbap & Japchae. The beef was pretty good, barely any smell to it. This was the most pricey meal throughout the trip I believe, totalling 147,000₩.

After the meal, we went our separate routes... the parents went back to the main streets of Myeongdong for street food (since the dad didn't eat much at Arirang) while my sis & I went to recce Seoul KTX station for our trip to Busan the next day~!



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