Day 1 & Day 2 Jeju
Day 3 Seoul, Nami Island/ Petite France/ Mt Seorak
Day 4 Seoul, Gangwon-do/ Yongpyong
Day 5 & Day 6 Seoul, Everland, N Seoul Tower, Namdaemun, Gyeongbokgun Palace, Myeongdong Street
Day 7 Final Goodbyes~
++ X Snacks of Korea
++ X Cosmetics Haul of Korea
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All thanks to my dad, whom brought our whole family on this trip to celebrate my graduation from being a student for the last xx years of my life. :D It's the first time travelling with my family but it was a great trip :)
The weather was bad-ass cold I've gotta admit. But it was so, so, so, so amazing, seeing the falling snow, having fun with my amazing tour guide Min Chu (Jiejie), tour leader Perrine, our Asst guide Jacky and my whole tour group!
Some background info on the weather conditions:
JEJU-
No snow, but strong winds are a norm.
Temperature (14th to 15th Dec) ranged between 10 deg (highest) to -3 deg (lowest).
Attire: Thermal, Wool, Down jacket; Thermal, Outerwear bottom (Or just normal bottoms if you are as gung-ho as me lol)
SEOUL-
Weather pattern of 3 cold days followed by 4 warmer days. Temperature (16th to 20th Dec) ranged between 2 deg (highest) to -13 deg (lowest)
Attire: Thermal, Wool, EXTRA Wool, Down jacket; Thermal, Outerwear bottom; Gloves & Scarf
Extra note:
When heading up to Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, if you can fit 5 layers of top..... Just do it :P
Extra extra note:
This year's winter is really colder than last year's~
Will do a separate post on attire after I'm done with my 7 days itinerary :)
Day 1 (14 Dec)--
JEJU (14 Dec- 15 Dec 2014)
We took a flight via Korean Air which was departing at 0130, so we went to Changi Airport at 10ish on Saturday (13/12). Indeed, Changi Airport is so pretty even at night with the displays and seasonal decorations :D It was a 6 hours flight, so we touched down at Incheon Airport at ~0830. (Korea's timing is 1 hour ahead of SG's)
Agenda at airport:
1. Change into thermal and coldwear
2. Collect my EG SIM card that I had already pre-booked online
Met up with our Korean tour guide Min Chu, whom spoke really good Mandarin, as she also shared after that she was an exchange student in Taiwan, which also explains her Taiwanese-accent and lingo lol!
Collection of my EG SIM card was fuss-free and REALLY fast!! Had to run abit from Exit 1 to 7 to collect my SIM at K-Books, but all I had to do was to present my passport and my booking confirmation!
Booking procedure:
1. Visit http://egsimcard.co.kr/eng/ to create an account
2. Select "Buy EG SIM Card -> Online"
3. Choose your Regular (5,500won), Micro (5,500won) or Nano (9,000won) SIM
4. Select 1GB Data option- this is valid for 1 month's usage, which is more than sufficient for me :)
5. Select Collection point/ Delivery service
6. Make payment online and submit an image of your passport for verification purposes
7. Print a copy of your booking confirmation
My SIM cost me a total of 25,500won, which converts to approx. SGD$30. Works out to be way more worth it than roaming cos data roaming would cost me up to SGD$15/day (Total of more than SGD$100 for a week!)
THAT'S ALL!
Very straightforward and does not require you to do any other registration or setting. All I had to do, was to put the SIM into my phone, and restart it a few times for it to detect the new network. Voila~ I was connected in a matter of minutes.
The moment we stepped out of the airport, we were all hit by the strong chilly winds of Seoul. GOSH, we were literally freezing!! Detoured for a hot hot lunch of Ginseng Chicken! *Yummms*
Our flight was SO empty though!
The 45 min flight was fast enough, and from there we started our day tour of Jeju!!
Headed to Mysterious Road as our first stop, that queer stretch of road.
Our bus driver off-ed his engine and the bus moved forward indeed. On the bus, we could feel like we were heading downhill, but when we stepped out of the bus, we looked back and realised we were moving UPHILL!! Whaaaaat!?
From this picture, you can see it kind of looks like an upward-sloping hill, right!?
According to KTO...
"Objects and liquids appear to roll and flow up the hill instead of down, when, in fact, such image of gravity defiance is an optical illusion rendered by the seemingly high surroundings"
COOL~
Ends up we were more fascinated by food, and the food stall by the road was also where I had my first meal of piping hot Tteokbokki (Korean Rice Cakes)! :)
Thereafter, we headed over to Topdong Shopping Street, where really.... There was nothing much for me. Hhaha. Retired back to the hotel early as we were too tired by all the flying. Stayed in Ocean Grand Hotel (Jeju), where the hotel was actually quite okay, nothing much to complain about except that it looked a lil' rundown~
Nonetheless, with some luck, a good room would actually face the sea!
Back with Day 2 in abit!
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TIP: Do book the SIM online, as it is WAY more convenient than doing an over-the-counter purchase. My tour mates wanted to purchase it on the spot and were shooed off to another counter at Exit 6 of the airport. :/
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Post-trip thoughts (SIM Card): This 1GB lasted me well with enough to boot, for the whole week despite my extremely high usage of data with Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook and what-not last minute researches online. On day 5, only then did I receive a notification that I still had.... 400MB of data left! That's more than sufficient~ Hehe! Signal-wise, 3G signal was good even when I was on Mount Sorak or at Jeju Island ;)
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