It's Like Korea, But South!

Admit it, you smiled a bit and remembered the little Carl and Ellie. Dont you? Cross your heart? ^_^


Alright, going back to my South Korea trip... Forgive me for this copy paste and some more add ons for this blog post. Trust me, I really wanted to disregard this day 1 of my South Korea trip, it's just I knew I wanted to document my whole trip.

As I've mentioned in my previous blog entry, I exchanged currencies at Sanry's Glorietta. This time my peso is directly exchanged to won.

1 won = 0.038 pesos
i exchanged P25,000 to ₩657,894. good enough, considering we wont bother ourselves exchanging currencies upon arriving in Seoul

I purchased a seat on the first row for my Manila-Incheon flight. My 1F seat only costs P100. How convenient and comfy it is to be seated on the 1st row. Do I need to mention I had a very good 4-hr uninterrupted sleep in the plane? Priceless.

comfy seats = good sleep

My travel buddy Penggay and I arrived in Incheon after 4.5hours of flying time. The airport is huge and fabulous, but this toilet seat amazed me the most. A plastic is placed to cover the toilet seat. You just need to press the red button and the used plastic will be replaced with a new one. Fantastic! (slow claps.

revolving toilet seat cover - super like! ♥

Korea's train system is very systematized but Im happy we chose to ride the Airport Limousine Bus as we stepped out off the airport. Yes it's not that cheap compared to taking the train going to Seoul but just so you know it's such a hassle to transfer train lines, walk for a kilometer, and carry all your luggage from level3 subway up to the ground floor - without the use of elevator. Not all stations have elevators, and most of the time these are only for old people and pregnant women.

do yourself a favor and take the airport limo instead of the train

Getting out of the airport is hassle free. Airport Limo Buses are just steps away from the airport gate. I admire Seoul for having these systematized transportation. I mostly appreciated the people who politely assisted us.

very systematized (and convenient) bus transportation from the airport to the main city
Incheon to Myeongdong = ₩10,000 (P375)

For breakfast, we had the best tasting Cheese Muffin from Dunkin Donut ₩1,800 (P67) and perfectly blended Iced White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks ₩6,000 (P225). Oh dear, these are heavenly! I think I ate 4 cheese muffins during my stay in South Korea.

i got addicted to this combo. cant resist to have them whenever I see them ^_^  

Okay moving on, the 2nd amazing thing I noticed as I reached Seoul is their taxicab. Hyundai's Sonata for a taxi, seriously?! Flat rate is ₩2,400 (P90).

oh my, the ever sexy looking Hyundai Sonata is used as a taxicab? whoa!
and for the record, I've not seen a single Honda car in my entire trip. #kalaban

On our first night, we chose to stay in a guesthouse near Myeongdong shopping area. A good choice of location specially for those who love to shop. It's also very near the train station, so perfect!

twin room at New Myeongdong Guesthouse = P2,500
with ensuite bathroom, hair dryer, tv, fridge, aircon, room temperature controller
  

These are the common electrical sockets / power plugs in Seoul. Good thing I was advised about this so we came prepared. Power Adapters are available at CDR-King. ^_^

electrical sockets in Seoul

After we left our luggage in the guesthouse, we wasted no time and walked towards the shopping area. Myeong-dong is Korea's trendiest shopping area, with over 300,000 square meters of shops selling clothes, shoes, handbags, accessories, and cosmetics. Though it's not cheap at all. The only cheaper finds are of course the cosmetics. Biggest size of BB creams only cost P500 to P600, cheaper compared to Manila price of P900-P1,000.

tour assistants are around the area

The Face Shop is on sale! Buy 2 Take 1 on BB creams!

a lot of nicer freebies are given after my purchase ♥

More and more shops in Myeongdong area.

shops and more shops in every corner

We decided to have lunch where most locals go. We had Yoogane Dak Galbi and the seafood one. The waitress said the spicy level is just mild but it's not at all. Anghang - but it was indeed yummy!

Yoogane Dak Galbi - ₩10,000 for 2 meals

crave!

We skipped dessert but we're very delighted to find Gong Cha's branch here. Yay, Black Milk Tea, the Korean blend.

Gong Cha Milk Tea for ₩5,400 / P204

So there, we didnt really exhaust ourselves strolling the whole shopping area. At 2pm, we decided to go back to the guesthosue to catch some sleep. It's really nice to have an accommodation that's just walking distance.

shopping on day 1

Honestly, Im not really a fan of shopping and city-hopping so I included to watch a Korean Musical Drama in a traditional theater instead. Miso (meaning Smile) is a performance that not only showcases the UNESCO World Culture Heritage of Pansori (traditional Korean narrative song), but also presents a variety of other traditional instrumental performances including Samulnori (traditional Korean percussion quartet), and the beautiful Korean Buchaechum (fan dance). The live music, the costume, production, and overall performance are all awesome.

Miso ticket costs ₩45,000 (P1,688)

We had dinner in one of the nice and homey restaurants near our guesthouse. We ordered 2 meat plates because the servers told us it's the way it should. Okaaayyy. So hindi uso ang sharing ng grilled meat or maybe lugi sila sa dami ng side dishes so minimum order should be 2.

pineapple juice and Soju

taas ng alcohol content ng Soju, di ko bet!

On the next morning, we decided to visit the palaces in the city. Since there are some many of them and Im not really interested to see them all, we just chose the greatest one - the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

entrance fee = ₩10,000

Gyeongbokgung Palace - details

Lucky us, we were able to witness the opening Changing of Guards ceremony. The whole area was filled with bright colors and traditional music.

Changing of Guards

Changing of Guards - Upclose

lakas maka-KoreaNovela ^_^

After witnessing the ceremony, we then proceeded with the palace tour. This palace may not be that impressive compared to Thailand's golden palaces, but this one's not to miss as well.

Gyeongbokgung Palace - Interior

traditional lantern

I didn't really enjoy this tour but I loved looking at the backdrop of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

beautiful view behind the palace

In reality, we visited this palace on our last day in South Korea. Not really our priority eh? ^_^

Next posts would be about Jeju! An all-original post, i promise! ♥