Seoul, South Korea 2019 [Pre-travel and Day 1]

Previously, I had shared how we applied for our South Korean Visa for OFW and for Families/Employed using BDO credit card promotion.

Past those days, the day finally came and we are now fulfilling our awaited dream trip.

But before you read this long post, watch this :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om51DBD0LoA

Because I am travelling with my family, considering my parents, I wanted the trip to be as convenient as possible. Although I'd visited Seoul before, the itinerary and all other things will surely be completely different.

Part of my pre-travel plans was to make sure we have the T-money card prepared and well-planned itinerary. I had ordered Discover Seoul Pass from Klook with 48 hours validity.

So this Discover Seoul Pass can be used as your T-Money card (for transportation) and a pass for several major attractions in Seoul. It's available for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours. The timing starts from the first major attraction detected using this pass. Meaning even if you use the card as T-Money for 2 days and you still have not been to the attractions using the card, meaning it is still usable until its validity. There are several locations you can pickup the card, ours were at Incheon International Airport.

Apart from the pass, the Pocket wifi was supposed to be ordered prior which I recommend however I missed the order period so we just went with the public wifi available (since everywhere you go, there is wifi).

Onto our trip, we took the AirAsia flight from Manila to Seoul in the afternoon and arrived at 11pm. Due to the confusion, we didn't know that our bags were already at the lost and found which took us an hour.

We took the late night bus N6001 to Seoul Station. Since it's very late, we were unable to catch the last subway schedule so after taking the bus, we took a taxi which costs us 15,000 won from Seoul Station to Myeongdong.

I specially chose Myeongdong for our accommodation as it is very accessible, near to local street food and shopping area. I booked a Family Room through Booking.com at Myeongdong Time Hostel , the hostel is fine, its just that we arrived late, we do not have adapters and our room smelled smoke and we just informed the person next day (who can't speak english and don't understand each other at all).

On our very first day, this was our itinerary. Please note that we were travelling with my parents so I tried to make the itinerary very easy and flexible if in case they are unable to walk further.

0630 - 0900	Travel from Myeongdong station - Gapyeong station
0900 - 0910	Take Gapyeong City Tour Bus (Unlimited Ticket )
0930 - 1030	Garden of the Morning Calm
1100 - 1200	Petite France
1300 - 1600	Nami Island
	Lunch
1600 - 1900	Go back to Seoul
1900 onwards + Dinner	Dongdaemun
	Cheongyecheon Stream

To Nami Island/Petite France/Garden of the Morning Calm..

From Myeongdong Station, stop to Dongdaemun, change to the line going to Soyosan, then go down to Hoegi station, change the line going to Chuncheon and go down to Gapyeong station. From Gapyeong station, right outside the subway, a bus stop awaits you where you will see the Gapyeong City Tour Bus. It goes around Nami Island, Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm for 1 price of 6,000 won.

We weren't able to visit Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm as it was raining and as mentioned, they are unable to walk further. We just spent half of our day at Nami Island till after lunch time.

Arrived at the port

It was actually raining hard when we arrived Nami Island but because of the tall trees, we were well protected and was able to snap some pictures. We walked around even though it was raining and just decided to dine in to one of the restaurants while waiting for the rain to stop.

We opted for a Korean cuisine so we chose Seomhyanggi. Considering that it is inside the Nami Island, we already assumed that it will be pricey but the rain is not favoring us so we just ate anyways. The menu was simple and not as pricey as I thought but we do not have enough cash with us.

The restaurant overall was cozy, staffs were wary with foreigners but they would still help us. There are unlimited side dishes by self service.