Hello everyone, so it's been about 2 years or so since I last travelled overseas! Well, it was a school overseas trip to Vietnam. If you're interested to read my overseas trip to Vietnam, here's the link to the first part of the trip : http://geraldineyan.blogspot.sg/2015/10/bind-trip-to-vietnam-part-1-description.html
There are a total of 5 parts for this Vietnam Trip so the various links of the parts are in the first part if you wish to continue reading them HAHAHA. (Omg self-promotion XD)
Anyways, back to the topic. As you can read from the title of this blog post, I'm finally travelling to Korea!! It was a 9D7N Seoul, Jeju + Busan Tour by ASA Holidays. To be honest, I really enjoyed visiting various parts of Korea. But it was really tiring because we took lots of flights and checked out a lot of hotels, because most of the hotels we stayed for only one night! This is the overseas trip where I took the most airplane flights and stayed in the most hotels.
Let me bring you through my trip to Korea alright? ^o^
Various links to my Korea trip..
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//DAY 1
04:00PM. Finally finished our last-minute packing of our clothes and "winter" gear for our trip there!
Countdown to 6-7 more hours before we take off to the Incheon International Airport. ^o^
06:54PM. Still not believing that I'm flying off soon.
HAHAHA P.S I LOVE THIS FILTER A LOT.
08:10PM. My uncle brought us to Changi International Airport!! Thank you uncle!!
Reached kinda early but it's alright because when travelling with a tour group,
it's better to be early than to be late, honestly.
We were supposed to gather at Terminal 3, Row 9(?)
08:40PM. Waiting for the local tour leader, Sammy, to arrive so that we can check-in our luggages.
08:56PM. Received my airplane ticket. AND I GOT THE WINDOW SEAT!! Yesyesyes!! ^o^
We sat Asiana Airlines!!
08:58PM. Ready to check-in our luggages!!
We were taking the night flight at 10.40PM,
so we will arrive at Incheon International Airport in the morning!! :DD
09:24PM. Walking to the departure hall.
Last few pictures of Changi International Airport at Terminal 3! XD
09:28PM. Goodbye Singapore, see you in 9 days' time!
Departing at 10.40pm!!
09:32PM. Because we had a lot of time to spare before we board the plane,
so we just walked around Changi International Airport.
And I must say, it's really huge, and we didn't have the time to walk the whole airport.
(Or maybe we were afraid that we will not be able to make it to the departure hall on time and that the plane will just leave without us. XD)
09:40PM. Heading to the departure hall, B6! :DD
09:50PM. Reached the gate where we will board the plane.
As we were still early, the gate is still not opened yet.
So we found a place to sit down and relax a bit. XD
10:10PM. The gate finally opened.
Well, I was kind of curious, so I took pictures outside. XD
10:14PM. Gate B6 to the right. XD
The plane that will fly us to Korea!!
10:44PM. Economy Class. See you in 6 hours' time in Korea!!
Oh my.. It's so packed. ><
Through the tube, to the airplane.
My airplane seat!!
I finally know how to open this food tray. HAHAHA
Well, some of you don't really get the joke, because in the past, I used to have difficulties trying to open the food tray. Omg, reminisce the times during BIND. Okay, I'll summarise for you guys. During BIND, on our flight to Ho Chi Minh, my meal came in first because I had special meal. Then I had no idea how to open the food tray and my airplane seat partner had to help me open it.
HAHAHA SO EMBARASSING. But good times man, good times.
And I was told my meal was special again. Not vegetarian meal this time, but seafood meal.
Oh my, I hope my allergies to seafood isn't that serious and
that my skin won't get worsened because of the seafood. ><
11:04PM. We're departing!!
Squeaked a little when the plane is flying up towards the sky. XD
11:44PM. So my meal arrived first again, because special meal yo.
SEAFOOD MEAL this time ;-;
Oh my.. Prawns..
My mum would've stopped me from eating this because there were too many prawns inside this. XD
But I didn't want to waste food because IT TASTES QUITE NICE!!
And it's like a mini salad because there is tomato and cabbage!! ^^
CAKE CAKE CAKE. OMG I LOVE THIS ONE THE MOST!!
My meal!! Noodle with LOTS of prawns and my favourite, egg!!
12:10AM. My mum's meal came in a bit later. BIBIMBAP!! So korean HAHA
My dad's meal. Well, I didn't take the full meal of his because he said I was really lame of taking airplane meals. Well, it's true but mehh, I don't care. HAHA
After my meal, I realised that we can listen to music and also watch television shows.
However, they don't have a wide variety of songs. ;-;
01:15AM. Above the clouds. WE CAN SEE STARS!!
03:00AM. Went to the toilet and yes, toilet mirror selfie.
I'm not sure if it's just me, but the toilet a bit got smell ahh.. ><
05:30AM. (it's all in korean time now)
MORNING SUNRISE(?)
//DAY 2
05:46AM. Reaching Incheon International Airport!!
Omg, can see the city lights of Korea from below!!
05:20AM. Well, we've touched down.
Welcome to Incheon International Airport!!
05:30AM. Featuring my dad's legs HAHAHA.
Getting out of the plane~~
Through the tube. XD
Last picture of the airplane we sat to Korea! Thank you Asiana Airlines!!
Other planes where passengers alight from. I guess this is the arrival area? XD
On the way to stamp our passport and to check our hang-carry bags!
Oh my, FLOWERS!! :DD
Passed through the Customs, and it's time to collect our luggages!
Oh ya, the Korea Customs is kinda different from Singapore one. Instead of using our thumbs to scan our finger-prints, we were told to scan our index fingers instead. Also, we were supposed to look into the camera where it will capture a picture of us, for verification purposes I guess. XD
Going to Belt 18 to collect our luggages!!
After collecting our luggages, we headed out of the arrival hall.
Picture with this mini flower garden <3
HAHAHA I had to guys, I'm too in love with flowers ><
07:42AM. Because we had breakfast on the plane around midnight,
we're already hungry by the time we arrived at Incheon International Airport.
So we had to have our breakfast in the airport and it's soooo costly.. ><
So we bought Crossaints and a cup of coffee for breakfast at The Twosome Place.
08:22AM. After breakfast, we gathered as a group together again before we head to meet
our tour guide, Jackie, who will be guiding us around Korea for the next 9 days!
Well, to our surprise, we know the tour guide, because he was the one that
introduced us about the tours in Korea at the NASA Fair about 1-2 months ago.
When we came out of the airport, we were welcomed by the cold and icy weather in Korea.
P.S The weather that day was about 3 degrees. While I was enjoying the nice and amazing weather, my parents were complaining how cold the country was. Thankfully, we wore thermal wear so it wasn't that cold as it seemed.
Heading to our first destination of the day!!
It's gonna be lots of pictures taken on the highway, so do not mind the spam. ><
Do you see the tiny plane in the sky? XD
My next bucket list in Korea is to sit a bullet train to different parts of Korea, like Busan!! :DD
Omg another train!!
09:40AM. Our first destination was driving past the Presidential Blue House.
Jackie told us that while driving past the blue house,
the bus driver can't drive too fast, but can't drive too slow as well.
What I saw around the vicinity of the Blue House was a lot of security guards and
of course, other small houses that I was unsure what's the purpose of them.
(Or maybe I wasn't paying much attention to what Jackie was saying, or maybe,
this one most likely, I took in the information that Jackie told us,
but being a short-term memory person, I had forgotten it already. :x)
We headed to our next destination, Gyeongbok Palace,
which was just a stone's throw away from the Presidential Blue House!
Walking to the entrance of the Palace!!
You can tell that the people from my tour group are feeling cold from the way they were folding their hands extremely tightly and pulling their hoodie on. XD
Well, to be honest, I was also kind of freezing but it's manageable because
the sun was really warmth. ^o^
It's just the strong winds that made the weather extremely unbearable and cold. ><
The map of Gyeongbok Palace!
According to Jackie, he said that only 40%(?) of the Palace is re-constructed, and to be honest I can't imagine how big the Palace will be when it is fully constructed! It was an amazing and insightful experience to walk around and visit different parts of the Palace! I've definitely learned a lot from this visit, will definitely visit different palace when I go back to Korea again!! ^^
I'll summarise in my own words what the Gyeongbok Palace is, alright? Well, firstly, this palace was built during the Josean Dynasty in 1395 and it was the first royal palace built during that period.
However, during the Japanese Invasion between 1592 and 1598, all the palaces were destroyed. The Gyeongbok Palace was re-constructing again slowly before most of them were destroyed again during the Japanese Invasion between 1910 and 1945. After the Japanese Occupation, the Korean government is slowly re-constructing and re-building the Palace!
Picture with the walls of the Palace because it looked super ancient.
BUT I LOOK SO TINY IN THE PICTURE!! ):
If you zoom too much into the picture, it'll be blur sooo.. ;-;
Why not a selfie with my parents with the entrance of the palace as the background?
Can you tell how cold my dad is from the way he wore his jacket? HAHAHA
09:08AM. It was the Sumunjang (Royal Guard) Changing Ceremony.
I was kinda surprised to be able to catch that because when I did my research on this, it states that the Guard Changing Ceremony is at 10am, 1pm and 3pm respectively. XD
It was really an eye-opening experience to be able to witness the Guard Changing Ceremony!
Heading into the Palace!!
The Heungnyemun Gate!!
The Yeongjegyo Bridge!!
The Geunjeongmun Gate!!
The Geunjeongjeon Hall!! (The Throne Hall Compound)
Even though we visited the place during a weekday, it's still pretty crowded with tourists and locals, especially around the Geunjeongjeon Hall!
According to Jackie, these stone statues were the ranks of the soldiers,
where the highest ranking soldier was the nearest to the Geunjeongjeon Hall!
Picture in front of the Geunjeongjeon Hall~
Because my bangs keep flying everywhere due to the strong winds,
so my mum helped me to style my bangs a bit. HAHAHA THANKS MUM!! <3
Family picture again!! Thank you Sammy for taking this picture for us! ^^
I look so tiny in this picture >< (or maybe it's just the camera angle hmm HAHAHA)
Time to explore the Geunjeongjeon Hall first! ^^
The Sajeongjeon Hall!!
The Manchunjeon Hall!!
The Gangnyeongjeon Hall!!
Pictures around the Gyeongbok Palace~
The Gyeonghoeru Pavilion!!
Back view of me, why not right? XD
So my dad wanted to take a picture of the tree with my mum. XD
And then he helped me take these pictures too sooooo HAHAHA
Another "under the tree" picture with my mum HAHAHA <3
Last picture before we headed back to the bus.
While heading in the direction of the bus carpark, I took some pictures of the palace on the way there.
Oooh, the spring flowers are blooming soon!!
Driving past the Gyeongbok Palace one last time!
The Gwanghwamun Gate, which the Main Gate as well as the South Gate!
10.24AM. Heading to our next destination!
11:38AM. Heading to have our lunch here!!
Lunch for the day : Ginseng Chicken Soup
We were served Kimchi and White Radish before the Ginseng Chicken Soup is being served!
I was extremely excited to try out Kimchi again, because it has been long since I ate kimchi ;-;
When the Ginseng Chicken Soup is being served, we pour the noodle into
the pot that contains ginseng chicken soup!
Because we sat at a 6-person table, so we had 6 bowls of noodle for 3 people HAHAHA. HOHOHOHO each of us have 2 bowls of noodles, but the noodle isn't that much lahh XD
The Ginseng Chicken!!
Forgot to mention that they had Abalone inside the soup too!!
There's rice inside the chicken!! Really a filling lunch!!
12:20PM. After lunch, we headed to our next destination!
12:54PM. We reached the Premium Factory Outlets where we get to shop for items at the stores.
However, we did not manage to buy anything there because despite sales and discounts of the items, they were still pretty costly and pricey as compared to Singapore. XD
So most of the time we were just walking around and then going into the stores to get some warm air because the weather outside was extremely cold and my parents could not tolerate the coldness. HAHAHA
There is the East Zone and the West Zone, but we only went to the East(?) Zone if I'm not wrong, because we walked past shops in the East Zone, the items were so costly in every store so we made the conclusion that we could not afford the items in the West Zone as well. XD
Toilet selfie there, why not? XD
I love flowers, so it won't be surprising if I were to take pictures of flowers right? :DD
Because these stone steps are super cool so why not take a couple of pictures? XD
Took a picture here because the scenery looks so good.
We kinda freeze here because it's near the ocean and the wind was extremely strong there. XD
01:56PM. Heading back to the bus because there was nothing to shop. ><
So I asked my dad to help me take a picture of me walking past the zebra-crossing,
and it kinda failed because the shot is too far away. ;-;
02:42PM. Heading to Gimpo International Airport to fly to Jeju Island!
02:56PM. Reached Gimpo International Airport.
03:20PM. Ready to check-in our luggages!
03:26PM. Got my airplane ticket!!
03:30PM. Heading into the departure hall!
03:42PM. While waiting to board the plane at 4.55PM...
Omg I always wanted to try their Yogurt Drink because I find it very unique,
and of something that you can't find in Singapore
(or maybe you can find in Singapore, just that I didn't search hard enough. XD)
04:14PM. MOM BOUGHT SWEET POTATO. It's steaming hot but it tasted sooo goood!!
04:48PM. So we found out that our airplane gate changed from gate 11 to gate 14.
I wanna fly Jeju Air!! >:
04:55PM. Yay, we can board the plane!!
That's all our luggages!!
05:10PM. Ready to take off! Bye Seoul, see you in 5-6 days' time!
06:12PM. Touched down in Jeju!
There was no airplane tube at the airport in Jeju, so we alighted the plane outdoors,
where we had to walk down a flight of stairs.
We were greeted by the strong gust of cold wind. XD
There was a bus to drive us to the arrival hall.
It was extremely crowded with people, packed like sardine!!
06:22PM. We had officially arrived in Jeju!
Waiting to collect our luggages!
Omg this luggage belt is so cute because the luggages come out from the mouth of
the dol hareubang (grandfather stone statue in Jeju) XD
Hello Jeju!!
06:30PM. Heading to the bus that will take us around Jeju for a day!
06:48PM. Heading to our final destination of the day.
See the tiny plane in the sky? XD
We visited Yongduam (Dragon Head Rock)
To be honest, it was extremely cold because in front of us was the vast ocean and
the winds were so strong and powerful and we were like shivering HAHAHA
Did you see a rock that looks like a dragon's head?
My dad suggested me to move a bit to my right to get this shot of the dragon eating something.
A+ for creativity, dad!! XD
Pictures of us with the Dragon Head Rock!
06:58PM. Okay, time to head back to the bus. XD
But wait, the ocean view looks nice, so why not take a few shots? :DD
Picture with the dol haereubang!!
Picture with the rock that is translated to "Dragon Head Rock" from Chinese.
07:12PM. Reached the place where we will have our dinner!
Dinner for the day : Korean Meal Set
A wide variety of food, from vegetables (kimchi, radish, broccoli, etc) to meat and egg!!
Omg mouth-watering meal indeed.
(Even editing this blog makes me super duper hungry and
I'm currently craving for korean food rn because ya, how impactful this meal was)
I love the egg hot pot the most because, I'M AN EGG-LOVER YO!! <3
08:08PM. Reached the holiday that we will be staying for 2 nights in Jeju!
JK Ramada Encore Jeju Hotel
Omg the lobby hotel!!
Our hotel room for 2 nights!!
I'm in love with this powerpoint that the hotel provides!!
All you need is a USB Cable to charge your phone!! ^^
Ending the first part of my Korea trip with an unglam selfie of me. :DD
To sum day 2 (technically just day 2 because day 1 is just taking 6 hours to travel to Korea XD),
it was an extremely eye-opening experience for me because it was my first time visiting a Korean Palace and also viewing a rock that looked like a Dragon Head because of the way how nature shaped it. Also, I'm sooooo in love with the hotel I stayed in Jeju for 2 nights, because as you continue to read my blog posts about my Korea Trip, you'll know why. I shall not spoil you guys the other parts of my Korea Trip yet. Let you guys be curious to continue viewing my blog posts XD
Anyways, Day 3 in Jeju is filled with extreme fun and adventure because we went to visit different places in Jeju! Do look forward to Day 3 of Gerry Travels to Korea. See you soon in Day 3 blog post!
Take care~
~Geraldine (:
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