#SeoulsearChing 101 for first-timers

A very belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

I've just gotten back from my two-week escape from reality to South Korea :) I spent Christmas and New Year's there and had a wonderful trip! I think 2 weeks is a good time for a first time to South Korea. I would've preferred longer but we all have our responsibilities (credit card bills, anyone?)

I will blog about my South Korea trip here and share my itinerary and the lovely things we ate during our visit! We stayed in Seoul for 11 days, and 2 in between in the seaside Busan.
I will share the basics with you that we learned on my trip to South Korea for the 1st time.

Our airline

We took MAS airlines from BWN-KUL-ICN, and were very unfortunately caught with a flight delay from 11PM to 4AM the next day. We had no choice but to book ourselves a 6-hour "comfort" stay at Snooze KL, which is a small hostel-like stay which consists of a bunk bed, phone and laptop charging facilities, a room cooler, a desk and storage space for luggage.. You can find out more information about it here. It was alright and we managed to rest a little while waiting what felt like forever for our flight.

Incheon Airport

We arrived at Incheon airport in the afternoon. Incheon airport is their largest international airport. There is a smaller airport, Gimpo airport that flights to Jeju and other parts of Korea fly from.
Much like KLIA, we had to take an express train to get to the other side of the airport after we've passed immigration.

My boyfriend ordered a SIM card online from KT, and they give you instructions on where to pick up your SIM. It was quite easy. You can also rent a Wifi Egg and give it back before you fly home.

Here you can see the prices of the SIM card based on days. Roughly it is around $38.50 for 5 days, $54 for 10 days and $100 for 30. It has unlimited data only, so no calls or SMS are allowed.

After picking up the SIM, we bought tickets to take the AREX Express Train to Seoul Station (also very similar to KL Express going to Sentral). 

(Pretty sure) it was 15,000 Won for two of our tickets

The express train takes a little less than an hour to get to Seoul station, and does not have any stops in between. The train was very clean and had free wifi on board.

Our accommodation

We booked an apartment via airbnb, and were lucky enough to find one in a very strategic location, which was 2 minutes walk away from the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park subway station. The area had a lot of restaurants and malls that open late into the night, and were all walk-able to. I can recall at least 6 big malls nearby! The apartment also came with free use of the wifi egg, wifi in the apartment, as well as 3 pin plugs, USB plugs and cables. I was very thankful for the plugs because the international plug I brought did not include Korea -_- The wifi egg was also very convenient, and saved me at least B$50 from buying a local SIM. Although I did have some issues where the egg ran out of data on the 4th day because the data quota has been used up, undoubtedly by the previous apartment tenants. The host did however make the effort to see if he could do anything about it and when he couldn't, he was very obviously distraught and offered to buy us dinner, which we politely declined as it wasn't that bad as public wifi is almost readily available all over Seoul. The data quota did renew 4 days later on Jan 1st so all good.
Overall the stay was really great and I would seriously consider staying with the same host on my next Seoul trip.

The apartment was just right for two of us. You can't see in the photos but there is a makeup table on the other side. There is also a washroom, and we're not sure if it is a Korean thing but the shower did not have a door so all the water splashed out to the sink area. There are also pots, pans, plates, bowls, mugs and everything that we may need if we ever wanted to cook (haha, I heard myself). And most importantly, there was heating. On the floors and in the room, as well as in the shower.

Transportation in Seoul

Initially before we bought ourselves a T-Money card, we bought a one-way ticket from Seoul Station to Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park, which is where our apartment was.
A T-Money card works like the Oyster Card, Octopus Card, and the EZLink Card from other countries. You basically use the card like an e-wallet by reloading money into it, and you can then use it for subway and bus rides in Seoul (and also in Busan).

This is my T-Money card that I got from a GS25 store (think 7-11) right below our apartment. I think this cost a couple of thousand Won only. They vary depending on the design of the card you purchase. My BF itchy-handedly grabbed a Kakao one which cost more than my regular POP one. Lol.

The card is very convenient; you can reload it at any of the reload machines in the subway stations. You can also get a refund for it if you like at the refund machines.

Overall, I think we spent quite a lot of money reloading our T-Money cards but I think that is largely due to the fact that we moved around a lot. I did not keep track of how much but I would think it was less than B$50 for the two weeks. And I am also pretty sure I double-beeped more than once...... *smacks forehead

The subway in Seoul can be quite complicated, and we had some subway apps ready, such as the Subway Korea app. I am also very lucky because whenever we travel, I will just say where I want to go and my BF will be the one navigating us there. :D

The weather and what we wore

We went on Dec 24th to Jan 5th, so it was during wintertime. It was particularly freezing the first few days where it went to as low as -10 degrees Celsius. I remember my fingers freezing until they were numb whenever I took my gloves off. I have decided that gloves are the worst because they make using your phone (photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) near impossible. Those touch-screen gloves are all marketing lies. We had to dress very warmly, and we managed to do that with the heat-tech thermals from Uniqlo. I got heat-tech inner wear, socks and leggings! I brought a thick (heavy) coat I bought from Asos that ran to my thighs which was great because it really helped keeping the wind out down til my butt. We bought wool gloves while strolling around in Myeongdong.

I bought these boots while subway-shopping in Myeongdong (more about that later... Subway shopping is a whole new level of shopping in Seoul!) Pretty sure I overpaid for it but the ahjumma in the store was so enthusiastic and I had no clue what she was saying because she could only speak Korean. The boots were very comfy for our relentless walking.

It gradually got warmer over the next week, and by warmer I mean it is no longer negative, but around 0 to 6 degrees, which I thought was really nice! There was the occasional wind that would enter your soul and touch your cold, cold heart but that's okay. We could go without gloves after that so photo-taking became much easier..

Also, we way over-packed for our trip. We brought too many jumpers when we really didn't need to, because frankly its winter and you don't sweat. And you basically keep your coat/ jacket on all day so you can't really showcase your cool knits inside. So don't over-pack, whatever it is, you can buy it in Seoul. I regretted bringing so many clothes over because it really robbed me off luggage space going back! More on that later.

Other kiasu stuff

Fun fact: Did you know your iPhone will malfunction under extreme cold? Yep. When it gets below -4, your phone stops working properly and will shut down by itself even when it is fully charged. I did not know that, but I was kiasu enough to have not 1, not 2 but 3 power banks with me on my trip! I just recently bought the XiaoMi one on Lazada and it was really good and worked very well, I could charge up to 4 times with it (10,400 MaH). My phone kept dying throughout my trip so it was really, really lucky that I had my power banks with me at all times.

Our language barrier

Its a fact that most Koreans cannot speak or understand English. What baffled me was that most of them could speak Mandarin. Perfect China Mandarin.Almost every restaurant and store we went to, we were greeted by Mandarin-speaking staff. I am ashamed to say that their Mandarin was so good that I had no idea what they were saying, especially those from the cosmetics/ skin-care store.. I am pretty sure they were telling me what a disaster my skin is but I will never know for sure.

Most signs in Seoul have English on them, so that was very helpful. At certain stations and in certain subway trains, the signs are only in hangul so that can be rather difficult. We got quite confused on one day when we wanted to go to Eonju but we hopped on the subway train that went pass that station so we had to get off at the next stop, and go back to the stop before and hop on a different train on the same rail. Yep. Exactly.

Ordering food was OK because most menus come with pictures. They usually also have tourist-friendly menus for tourists. 

Money for Food & Shopping 

We brought along Singapore dollars (with a bit of Won for airport transfers). We had a money changer right below our apartment which greatly had higher rates than the other ones nearby. 

I am not a good candidate to ask about food spending because I only paid for 2 meals through the whole trip....... :| I will refer you to my BF if you like. Haha. However, I think it is good to note that street food in Seoul is not cheap. They go up to 5,000 won which is around B$7.

Shopping wise, I spent a lot on skin care! I went with an entire catalog of what I wanted, some of which I was unable to find but I bought other stuff to make up for it. I think I have the entire 10-step program now after I settle down and sort my stuff out. I did however get a bad breakout on my chin because I did not drink enough water.. So make sure you drink a lot of water even when it is cold!

Because it was winter time, I could not really shop for any clothing. It was all winter wear; coats, jackets, sweaters, knit wear, boots..... I think I only managed to get 3 or 4 blouses from subway shopping and Good Morning City Mall. I think I spent most of my money on skin care, makeup, shoes and other random things like souvenirs. And street food (that I rarely finish....).

I also bought 3 pairs of Korean contact lenses because they were so cheap and were going at 1+1, which means buy 1 and get 1 free! So this means I had 6 pairs to last me for half a year. Yay. They went as cheap as 1+1 for 15,000 Won only!

I also bought a Lee Min Ho 2017 calendar for 6,000 Won because I love him. 6,000 Won was the cheapest I could find, some Korean con artist was selling the same one for 15,000 elsewhere!!

Oh also, I spent money on doing my hair and nails, which I will blog about in my later posts. 

Koreans

Koreans are basically quite friendly. Those that seem off- I think it was because they couldn't speak English. Koreans are also huge on the K-Pop and K-Drama scene (naturally) and they are everywhere- in the form of posters, banners and in screens because they're all ambassadors for all the big brands there. BigBang and Black Pink (and TT by Twice) are played in every other store we went. 

Also, I have to say this. 90% of the Koreans I saw have such bright and flawless skin!! Even the men... I don't know what it is they use or consume but I am really so envious!

Our itinerary!

Here is the summarized itinerary of our trip. I scheduled one landmark per day so we had plenty of time for shopping and other stuff after we are done for each day. We also went to Itaewon on one of the nights but I cannot recall which day...... hehe so I left that out. Itaewon did not particularly fascinate us..

*****

Day 1 in my next post! :)