Incheon Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Seoul 2019 Day 8 – Fairytale land, Chinatown and back to Seoul

Posted on April 6, 2019July 7, 2019 by ziyi

Woke up refreshed after getting the sleep that I missed the day before. Gave K his milk before he went back to sleep and I completed my note before realizing that breakfast had ended at 9am, the one where we spent money to purchase for 6k per person during check in.

Morning was mostly similar routine now. The YouTube songs made the activities smooth, from getting out of bed to brushing teeth and then to eating breakfast.

We completed most part of the packing and left the room for the line of eating places at the promenade to have breakfast. Found one that was still in operations and opened and went in to find a nice decorated cafe, The Caffe Soul, manned by a single senior lady. Ordered a cheese cake, a cheese muffin and a chocolate muffin and a hazelnut latte and an americano for 16k. The muffin and cake was quite delicious!

As we walked back to the room, we went past a UFO machine that had some Hachiko dog soft toys. Thought we would try to win one with 1k won per game but the machine wasn’t taking my money note.

We returned to the hotel and checked out. At the reception tried my luck to get a refund but it wasn’t possible. Then we drove to Fairytale town 15mins away.

Found a carpark at the opposite side of the road and was guided in by the traffic warden. I supposed it would get messy later in the day and thus that’s why the wardens were there though it didn’t seem that busy. We crossed the road and found ourselves in a mural village of sorts with wall drawings and models made up by familiar cartoon characters. Had fun taking photos with them though we had to walk up a slope and then down again to see the entire street. There were also shops that that sold stuff like toys and other cute stuff. Mommy bought Pink Fong items that her friend had asked for from one of these shops.

Just a street away was Chinatown, characterized by the red displays all over. We went over into a really crowded street, I supposed it was very popular tourist destination. We went to a certain Gong Hwa Chun restaurant that was known for its jjajiangmyeon and queued up to get in. The queue thankfully moved pretty quickly and soon we found ourselves on the second floor ordering one jjajiangmyeong, one fried rice and one tangsuyu.

The food was indeed delicious. The black sauce seemed to fit everywhere, in noodles and in fried rice where a bowl of it was given separately. The tangsuyu was really delicious, crispy on the outside and the right size that it didn’t tasted boring after a while. All this was for 48k.

The street in Chinatown offered other street food that we didn’t try, and there was one food stuff that looked like the traditional Hulu but instead made with a string of strawberries, a healthier version of the original I supposed.

We retrieved the car from the carpark and paid 5.5k for the fees at the exit with a credit card. Then it was a 40mins drive to the airport. Before leaving I read the instructions with pictures on how to get back to the carpark to drop of the car in order to familiarize myself.

The route sent us up the majestically long Incheon Bridge that was a sight to look at even in the hazy weather. The drive however costed us 5.5k in tolls too. From the bridge, it was not too difficult before I pulled into the 2nd basement carpark at Incheon Airport and called the staff with the phone number also on the instruction list.

The staff came as I was emptying the car of our belongings and after settling for the fuel that I didn’t top up (as I didn’t see a single gas station along the way, only one in the opposite direction near the airport) for 50k for half tank of fuel. It might be slightly more expensive but heck. The payment was settled at the car itself with the staff’s mobile and I took a photo of the approved payment before we proceeded to Arrivals Hall to meet the rest of our extended family members that were joining us, flying in from Hong Kong and Singapore.

My parents and Aunt from Hong Kong had a delay in flight schedule and coincided with the time we arrived in the airport while my sister’s family had also arrived. In one big group, we then went to take the Arex straight to Seoul Station, after getting over the inertia of moving people.

Paid 56k for 7 adults for the train tickets and proceeded to the platform for the 4:08 train. Seat numbers were given to us and after the initial mess of getting so many big luggage into the luggage storage with so many other passengers, we settled down for the 50mins trip to Seoul. K was sitting with his granddad and yakking all the way with his cousin but at least I was physically resting and took a nap. For the first time, I felt the struggle that a tour guide would face given that he had to manage a group twice or thrice this size!

After disembarking, my sis realized that she dropped her hp and things became disorganized as people started to do things independently. After managing to get a staff via telecom on a top up machine (my dad thought that was easy whereas we could have exited the station and looked for a staff F2F), I brought the group up first to the ground level through 2 elevators. The elevators were very popular and even with a group of us carrying so many luggage, there were still many people who would still crowd around us to get into the lifts too.

After we finally got up the 7 floors to ground level and crossed the road, my sister had found her hp and rejoined the group. The sky then started to drizzle as we tried to find our Airbnb with the cryptic address and the navigation brought us to somewhere that didn’t looked like it had 15floors.

I went alone to find the building, got up to one of the room and tested with the password and it worked! The rest of the group managed to find the building as I tried to bring 6 umbrellas from the unit to meet them, only to find that they have all arrived at the basement. Brought my sister’s family to the 2nd unit in the same building and settled them in before returning to ours.

The place where we stayed had a nice view of the surrounding but space was quite scarce since we had so many big luggage. Couldn’t open the luggage in full as we would like but we had to make do. There were enough bedding for everybody but only one toilet to share. We had to move to a smaller unit in another 2 days time but I leave that worry later as I sorted out the administrative stuff for my parents like getting the WiFi.

We met up at 645 to visit the Lotte Mart just across the street to get some dinner. There was a food court there and we managed to settle our dinner there. Met up a cousin for a short period who was visiting Korea too before we got into the huge Lotte Mart to shop for daily necessities and food souvenirs to bring back to Singapore.

Lotte Mart was huge but it was crowded as hell with so many people shopping and people were buying by the trolleys!

After 1 hr there, we paid for the goodies and returned back to the apartment on our own as the rest had all returned.

The night was spent preparing for bed, taking a much longer time as we shared the single toilet to bath. Then we got up to the loft where our beds were, taking care not to bump onto the low ceiling on the second floor. I got into bed last but was soon fast asleep.

Incheon 2019 Day 7 – Explore Jeonju and drive to Wolmido

Posted on April 5, 2019July 6, 2019 by ziyi

It was a difficult night as I wasn’t used to sleeping on the thin mattress on the floor without a pillow. I remembered K calling out to me a few times at night as he slept on the 2nd level with mommy, guessed he was either not used to sleeping without me or dreaming. No matter, that didn’t help with me getting enough sleep too.

We got out of bed the usual time and mommy went to pick up breakfast from the pantry while I stayed with K. It consisted of sesame paste and toast with some fruit jam and instant coffee. After breakfast, we started packing for the next destination. K woke to his favorite tunes on YouTube and was happily following instructions to brush his teeth, eat toast and cheese macaroon (from the theme park) and even helped us with our luggage.

We met the staff whom provided us a space at their handok rental store to stow our luggage while we go see more of historical village of Jeonju. Walking westward, we went to the circled locations on the map marked omokdae which was a pavilion on top of a hill. From there, I went down a few flight of stairs which brought me to a viewpoint of the village. Later I joined mommy and K who had crossed the bridge to the other side and found a smaller pavilion in the Jaman mural village. We didn’t spend time there since we had already seen one of such villages in Busan.

Returning back to the Main Street of the village, we entered a mandu store at the corner of a junction across the Gyeonggijeon Shrine called Daurang, and ordered 3 dumplings each for 1.5k. Used the microwave provided and ate inside the store, nice and warm. The mandu was really delicious and worth the visit!

After that, we crossed the road to visit the shrine of the village, Gyeonggijeon Shrine, a huge area that was blocked out by a wall. Tickets were 3k per person, and for K it was free. It was like a different dimension after entering the shrine as the walls blocked out the hustle and bustle of the crowd outside and within the compound was more peaceful without so many people dressed in royalty moving around in groups taking photos. It was a big compound and we went to the main temple to take photos. There were a groups of weirdly dressed people there taking photos and I thought they might be the priests as people were invited to take photos with them.

Bamboo forest within the shrine compound

After that we explored the other areas including climbing up building that had a mini exhibition on the second level showing historical books that were kept there. There was a small bamboo garden which offered a good picture opportunity. Mommy went in another direction to see the other side of the compound while K and I went to visit the restroom before meeting up with her again.

Time was running out so we went back to retrieve the luggage, bought the carpark ticket for 6k after discount from the accommodation instead of paying 12k and pushed the luggage all the way to the car.

It was a 3hr journey to Incheon, our next destination and mostly on highways. The drive was mostly pretty easy and K fell asleep along the way. We found a Haengdamdo service area which was not too far from Incheon for a break and for lunch.

Drove into a huge parking space with lots of people stopping there too and found that it was a huge place with 2 indoor food courts and many food stalls outside. There was one stall that sold pastries in the shape of the poop called Dong Bang. We didn’t get any though.

Store selling pastry in the shape of poop

At the food court, we ordered pork cutlet rice and omelette rice for 18k and mommy went to buy food snacks for 7k consisting of rice and chicken on a skewer and a huge fish cake with mustard. It was very filling.

Before leaving, we visited the convenience store I got myself a can of warm coffee (interesting that their fridge can warm up canned drinks too) and K got himself a Pikachu car. Mommy got herself a sweet potato latte from Twosome place to try but ended up I was the one finishing it.

There was a photopoint at this service stop featuring a small windmill and a shopping mall that seemed closed. We departed for Incheon after the toilet visit.

The short distance between the service area didn’t translate into a short drive. The time taken was 1.5hrs as the roads became gridlocked with traffic with many vehicles traveling towards Seoul. Stretches of road were even at standstill for couple of times.

Slowly but surely we arrived into the town side of Wolmido island, driving past colourful lighted up funfairs which K wanted to visit once he checked in. Parked at the hotel Benikea the Bliss parking lot and checked into a big room that had a nice view of the bay. Just before sunset, we left the room to go explore.

The street just below the hotel was a street lined with restaurants and game stores. After a photo session with the Incheon words, we walked towards the ferries wheel to find ourselves at the Wolmi theme park. For the most part of the park, they were closed during our visit (maybe due to off-season). We managed to try the ferries wheel for 6k per adult and 5k for child. The slow pace Ferris wheel brought us one round which offered a nice view of the surrounding before going back to ground level. We then left this park to go to another funfair at the other end of the street.

The other funfair had more rides opened although a large section of the children rides were closed also. Here we tried bumper cars as K wanted so much to do so for 5k per adult and 4K per child and together with another kid, there were just the 3 of us in the arena. But it was fun enough. Ended off with another kiddy ride of 4K that just went round and round. The elderly staff just turned on the ride and let it go and we thought it would never stop! I gave the man a look as a signal that it should be enough already then he stopped the ride. Guessed K gained the value of that 4K through and through.

For dinner, we moved into an makeshift enclosure that had a nice heater next to a food stall and ordered chicken with fries and unagi with rice for 18k. As the chicken didn’t come with rice, I asked if I could buy rice to top up but was given 2 balls of rice for free. Food was tasty, as often so with street food.

On the return back to the hotel, we visited one of the games stall to try popping balloons with darts for prices. Paid 10k to get 4 cups of 5 darts, and the stall owner gave me 2 extra darts as bonus. In the end, I got 18 balloons that earned me the prize of a pac man monster soft toy that K chose. It looked pretty decent in quality. Exiting the stall, we saw people firing fireworks, the stall owner informed that we could try to as she was selling the too. We didn’t.

The night was the usual bath time in the tub followed by TV that had some English speaking show but mostly still in Korean. I had drifted off to sleep as I was dead tired and eventually mommy turned off the lights with the TV remote control when K was snuggled up in bed with me on one queen bed and mommy in another queen bed.

Busan 2019 Day 1 – Flying and Gamcheon Village

Posted on March 30, 2019May 10, 2019 by ziyi

Our first mega family outing begin with a 20mins delay in schedule (informed via sms and email) for our Cathay flight to Hong Kong. Immediately I knew this meant trouble as my connecting flight towards Seoul is only 50mins. We left for the airport slightly around 430pm on the SLE and dropped mommy off at T3 for her SQ flight to Hong Kong. We were on different flights cos hers was company sponsored and ours not.

We went over to T1 as I thought my flight was there but found out later that it was in T4 instead. Wasn’t a big deal though since my dad was with us and we had dinner at their T1 staff canteen before driving over to T4.

T1 staff canteen different from the last time I visited

It was my first time at T4 for a flight and I was thoroughly impressed by the artistically futuristic design of the entire area, peppered with chill spots to sit and wait for the flight. I checked in at the self service counters and dropped my bag at the automated system and asked one of the staff about the delay and was informed that the plane would wait for me. After spending some time at the departures, I had a difficult time trying to pull K away from the few arcade machines and fusball machines before joining the line for the flight to Hong Kong, a full flight.

We found out the reason for the delay, bad weather at Hong Kong and that meant turbulence was to be expected. I was desperately finding a USB port to charge my dying phone but there wasn’t one available on the plane. The 4hrs of the 1st flight wasn’t too difficult to pass, with a meal that K liked, and some TV and games, we were already landing at 1230am.

Day 1

Once arrived, we approached a staff that gave us a sticker to indicate that we had a transfer and were told to join a group. Had to move quickly but we didn’t manage to catch up and lost the group. Ended up far behind and queuing at the transfer where we had to undergo another X-ray scan.

While rushing towards the gate, a few of ground crew keep telling us that we were the last and ask us to run or risk missing the flight. I carried K and started running but K had already asked to go to the toilet when we were waiting to disembark. I made my way to the nearest toilet but was dissuaded by another two staff telling me to go to the plane instead. At this point I was getting pissed and just told them that I am going to miss the flight if so as my boy really has to go to the toilet. Felt victimized by their delay like it was my fault to begin with.

After the quick visit, we continued on, this time the staff having felt my frustration, informed that we didn’t have to run. I ignored and trudged on to the gate. Soon we were walking along the lane to our seats, slightly panting from the exercise and within minutes, the plane was taxiing and took off to our next destination Incheon.

This time around K was feeling tired and I could see his heavy eyelids about to close. After they served the light snacks which K didn’t have any, I went to get the hot water for his milk and before finishing he was already off to dreamland. I finished up my snack, went to the loo and then I was asleep too.

Flight felt short as time flew past and soon we were already landing into Seoul. K was still sound asleep and I let him sleep until we were almost the last to get off, I carried him with all my barang barang. He was awoken by this but remained very sedated throughout as I made my way to the immigrations.

There was a hell of a long queue and I remembered joining the line at 610am but it was moving so slowly. One of the staff saw that I was carrying K and asked me to step out and brought me to another counter to shortcut the entire waiting process and I reciprocated with my broken Korean Thank you. I noticed that there were many kids also lining up and thankfully Lady Luck was on my side (and mommy wasn’t).

We picked up our luggage from the belt and we headed outside the arrivals to sit and wait for mommy. There were sitting areas with charging points and I choose to sit near one of them. K then fell asleep while we waited. The charging point that I chose was not working and thus I limited my use. Mommy had already landed and was in the line for 1.5hrs before she found us there.

K woke up dazed after we carried him. We had to get to Gimpo airport via the Korean railway. A short walk away following the signs, we bought tickets (K did not require a ticket as he was under 6) to the Gimpo station and later got ourselves some T money cards too.

The train was an all stop train to Gimpo and was about 30mins ride where all of us took a short nap. Arriving at Gimpo, I found the airport quite modern too, quite different from what I expected, thought that it would be older than what it should be. We had to line up at the counter as we tried and failed at the auto check in machines. With some 30mins time left to boarding our 10am flight to Busan, we went through the X-ray checks and sat at the Villa de Charlotte cafe there for a much needed caffeine injection cuppa and my handphone as there was an USB outlet available.

We boarded the small plane and soon we were flying through and above a thick carpet of clouds that shrouded Seoul that was giving it a hazy look. We landed soon after we had our drinks served from the moving counter where the tomato juice especially tasty. Since it was a domestic flight, there wasn’t any lines to the luggage belt and soon we were outside the arrivals hall and checking in with Lotte car rental to get our car.

Given wet tissues, thrash bag and info guide

Paid after settling the documents and the process was quick since I did my reservations online. The costs of car rental was quite hefty and I spent more than 1million won for the 7 days car rental but I guessed it’s worth it for the convenience and hassle free with zero excess CDW.

Picked up the car from the staff at the carpark who tried with his English to give me any other details and soon I was trying out the navigation system on the Sonata to get to our first cherry blossom encounter along the road. We exited the carpark for free and as I was getting accustomed to the car, we were soon stopping to park at the roadside to visit a jogging path lined with cherry blossom trees!

Nice view with not-that-big a crowd and soon after a few photos, we were back on the road. Slowly driving and following the speed limits, I went through 2 tolls and paid 1.9k won using cash at the counter since the car was not fitted with pass card. Driving into busy Busan, I managed to find the way around till we reached the parking of Hound Premier Nampo.

Panoramic of the Cherry Blossom running track

Got all our luggage out including a sleeping K before the vehicle attendant take over my car to park at their automated parking. The room was ready for check in thankfully, and we brought all the barang barang up. While K continue to sleep on the bed, we ended up taking a much needed nap till 3pm.

After waking up, we got out of the room to walk to Gukje Market, in the hope of getting lunch. It was a short 10mins walk there, going pass streets of restaurants and shops and we arrived finally to a huge area that was selling all sorts of stuff, from clothing to daily necessities to lightings. We were looking for food but couldn’t really find one place to eat. Continued to walk along one of the major street until we decided to enter a certain Aori Ramen restaurant and have our lunch there. Spent 21k there, where we experienced eating ramen in privacy since each sitting area had individual curtains. Ramen was tasty but unfortunately our first meal in Korea was a Japanese meal.

Then we returned back to hotel to get our car for the drive to Gamcheon cultural village. It was just a 20mins drive and I didn’t realized that we had to drive up a hill to reach there. There was a parking building but by the time we arrived there weren’t any space left (attendant waved me to move along). So I went downhill made a U turn and drove up again. Luckily one car exited and I was allowed to enter the parking building. Inside the one floor carpark, there was one lot for us left.

Exited the carpark through side stairway and crossed the road to visit the village. We first went to the photospot to the left of the bus stop and there we took some photos of the colourful village along the side of the mountain. Bought a map for 2k and was told that the starting point was at the back where we saw the overhead signage of the village’s name.

Walked back up and started at the starting point where it was much more crowded. There were many wall murals together with shops selling crafts and food. We took our time to explore and bought chicken on skewers that was flame(thrower) grilled. Unfortunately that was slightly spicy and K couldn’t take a bite, leading to him fussing over being hungry. We went into a shop selling traditional Korean crafts but didn’t manage to get anything. We also tried to get a fortune paper from one of the Tikum machine there for 1k each but the paper was mostly in Korean so we couldn’t decipher if it was good or no good.

There were quite a few photo opportunity spots and one which gathered a long line was a statue of the Little Prince sitting on a wall looking out to sea. So many people was trying to get a photo with him but we just moved along.

We arrived at a spot that had a good view of the hillside houses and the sea and took a picture before making a Uturn. Went up a short flight of stairs to walk through one of the tiny walkways and it wasn’t all too interesting. Before returning, we stopped at a cafe with a view and some windmills to eat waffle with ice cream together with a nice hot Americano. The wind was pretty strong and a little chilly but K seemed satisfied with the food in place for the chicken that he missed earlier.

We returned to the carpark to retrieve the car and the carpark fee upon exit was a small 2k amount! This was cheap!

Drove back downhill and a couple more turns we were back at the hotel. I had to park myself into the automated lift as the attendant wasn’t around and another staff was not able to drive but it wasn’t difficult. We returned to the room for a bath at the bathtub, one of the favorite activity of every holiday and soon it was time to get out for dinner.

The street was illuminated with bright lights at where we stayed, it seemed to feel like a red light district with advertisements of scantily dressed woman on the walls. We tried to explore other places to eat. There were many tiny makeshift stores selling seafood along BIFF but that didn’t feel like a good place to have dinner for K. We got our breakfast from none other than Paris Baguette before finding a Korean Chinese restaurant (Hong Kong Banjum 0410 Plus) to eat in.

Ordered a Jjajangmyeon, fried jjampong and tangsuyuk. The portions were pretty big but the food came fast. The food also turned cold pretty quickly. The ok tasting dinner was about 22k.

The night temperature had dropped and the winds were quite strong making it really cold. We visited an Artbox and K had to use a toilet. Thankfully there was one at level 3, where the cinema was. Didn’t get anything from there and we left to walk back to the hotel.

Night ended really quickly as we were all tired from the lack of sleep. The big comfy bed eased us into dreamland moments later.

Escape Plan to South Korea & Hong Kong March 2019

Posted on March 29, 2019June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to South Korea and Hong Kong:

Total duration 18D17N
Singapore is 1hr behind of Korea and same timezone as Hong Kong.
Flight time is 4hrs 5mins on Cathay Airlines from Singapore to Hong Kong, a 50mins transit followed by a 4hrs 50mins time on Cathay Airlines from Hong Kong to Incheon Airport Seoul.

Return flight is 3hrs 55mins on Cathay Airlines from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Friday night flight on 29th Mar at 810pm and arrival in Hong Kong in the morning of the 30th Mar at 1215am followed by a flight at 105am and arrival in Korea in the same morning at 555am.

Return flight from Hong Kong on the 15th Apr at 230pm and same day arrival in Singapore at 625pm.

Day 0-1 Flying and Gamcheon Village in Busan
Day 2 Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival and arrival into Geoje
Day 3 Cruise to Oedo Island, Tong Yeong Hallyeosudo cable car and Junggang market
Day 4 Hakdong beach, Windy hill and drive to Yeosu, Odongdo island
Day 5 Yeosu Rail bike, Aqua Planet and Teddy bear museum
Day 6 Drive to Jeonju, cheese theme park and Jeonju old town
Day 7 Explore Jeonju and drive to Wolmido
Day 8 Fairytale land, Chinatown and back to Seoul
Day 9 Yeouido park, Noryanjin Market and Myeongdong
Day 10 Lotte World Adventure theme park
Day 11 Nami Island, Gangchon rail park and Garden of Morning Calm
Day 12 Dongdaemun and Lotte Outlet
Day 13 Strawberry farm, Pocheon Art Valley and Herb Island light festival
Day 14 Seoul to Hong Kong
Day 15 Sino Center and Hysan Place
Day 16 Hong Kong Space museum and shopping at CHKC
Day 17 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was the first time in donkey years that we travel with my extended family. It was not an easy itinerary to begin with, having to plan different flights for my wife, my parents, my aunt in HK and for me and my boy, as we were flying different times, for reasons such as for business, for best price and for breaking the trip. There was also trying to plan a bit of something for my parents and for the kids. Glad that everything turned out well.

Budget nature: Rather Expensive

Costs of living in Korea was quite high especially in the cities, car rentals was expensive too. This was offset by the optimisation of squeezing into Airbnb units in Seoul and getting the better deal through Klook and utilising discount coupons from tourism book brought over from Singapore.

Complexity: High

Due to different flight times (5 different tickets) for everyone, we had to get all the dates and times right before purchasing the tickets. Travel by car outside the city was still fine but met with heavy traffic when in Busan. Thankfully for the Hyundai Sonata in-car GPS, it was a little easier to navigate as Google maps do not work, and Naver app wasn’t driver friendly. Travelling via public transport in Seoul was easy but not so in a taxi as we were easily lost in translation, and getting taxis for a big group was a challenge itself, as the taxis can only take up to a certain number of people.