layout

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Day 1 in Korea : Jeju Island (Part 1)

Finally, i've set my feet in KOREA!! Wuhuuuuuuuu~~~Thanks to our tour planner, Nadiah, we managed to have a wonderful trip to Korea. Thanks also to our fun Maylin whom make this entire journey much more awesome! I'm so excited to share my experience and i know my blog feels thankful since i have not posted anything for the past few months! Let me lead you to my journey to Korea day by day..


We departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 2330hrs Malaysian Time. Our journey to Seoul took about 6 hours and 30 minutes and since the trip was in the middle of the night, we dozed off all along the way...ZzZzZzzzzzzzzzz


We arrived at Incheon International Airport around 0700hrs Korean time. The temperature for that morning is around 3oC; which means it was chilling cold, man! As per our planned itinerary (kudos again to Nad!) we took a subway to Gimpo International Airport for our flight to Jeju Island down south of Korea. 


 Take a look at the map of their subway route. Impressively complicated!

They even have wifi in Subway! And it was fast!

Our journey from Incheon to Gimpo Airport by train took roughly 30 minutes. The train ticket was 3500 Won (~RM10) per trip. We also have other options which are to take cab or shuttle bus from Incheon Airport but somehow, subway is more convenient plus you will not get lost since most of the signboards were written in English too.

We arrived at Gimpo Airport quite early so, we have to wait until the counter opened for check-in. With some breads we brought from Malaysia, we had our light breakfast to kill some time.Once checked-in, we wandered around the airport and we found this:

Cute isn't it? This is actually the only picture i had in Gimpo Airport. After this shot, we went to board our plane and took off at 1100hrs. Our journey to Jeju Island took just 1 hour but i still manage to have had my beauty sleep throughout.

Once we landed in Jeju, we quickly moved to the luggage carousel, picked up our back, and rushed to AVIS rental car counter. Million thanks to Nad once again (she even applied international license just for this trip!), the process of renting a car was so smooth. With a shuttle provided by AVIS, we went to their office to pick up our car. 

This is our car!! They even have this kind of car for rental!

Oops, this is actually our car. Do you really think we had money to rent a Volks? Dream~

After getting cozy in our car, we drove to our 1st accomodation, Jeju Hiking Inn. This place is located at Seogwipo-si (further down of Jeju) which took about 1 hour drive from the airport. The inn was so hard to find that once we found it, we realized that we had actually passed it for sooo many times!!

We paid 40,500 Won (~RM113) upon check-in for 1 night stay. Our room was located at 5th floor and there was no lift at all! (Serve us well for being cheapskate :p) Hence, we dragged our not-so-heavy luggages upstairs. 

Jeju Hiking Inn rating (out of 5): 
1) Bed - 3/5 (it has heater in the mattress which was great but the comforter is kinda dirty)
2) Toilet - 1/5 (Did not really work well. We had to wait for a few minutes until the hot water comes out of the tap. The toilet was kinda dirty)
3) Service - 3/5 (The check-in process was fast and the guy manning the counter can speak English. I think he need to improve a bit on his friendliness)
4) Overall rating - 2.33/5

Next, we went out to get our lunch. The guy at the counter told us to go to a place where  we can ask for meal without meat (since he did not know what halal is). We then went to the restaurant which was at walking distance down the street.

Our lunch of the day: Bibimbap (6000 Won)

Now our stomachs were full, we drove to Seogwipo harbour.It was almost dusk,the wind blew vigorously and of course, freaking COLD! Despite the chill that surrounded us, we still managed to stay for quite a while there for some camwhoring (photoshooting).

View from at the harbour's seaside

Seogwipo bridge

  View from Seogwipo bridge

On our way back, we found a field of rape seed flower thus we quickly pulled over at the roadside. We took out our cameras and start making the field as if it is ours.

A pose to end our 1st day...

Tips for day 1:
1) Prepare a draft for itinerary for your whole visit (especially those who did not follow any tours). At least if you know where to prioritize in case of any discrepancies e.g. weather change.
2)If you can book you flight, car rental & hotel at your own country, do it! This will save your time and ease your mind while travelling. (You do not have to bring lots of cash either since koreans prefer cash for trading)
3) Before you try to find your accommodation yourself, go to the tourist information counter, ask the nice guy / lady to mark your place on your map and ask for the signature building around it. 



Lots of luv, 
eLLe

5 comments:

  1. elin...jeles gler aku....nak pegi gakzzzz...

    ReplyDelete
  2. may i know how much do you pay for the car rental?

    ReplyDelete
  3. it depends on the car u want to rent. i cant recall mine but we chose Avis for renting..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hye may I know which season when you were there? And when u transfer from Incheon to Gimpo by subway, is it easier for you to carrier your luggage? Do you have to climb up a stairs or there is an escalator to get to the Gimpo Airport check in counter?

    ReplyDelete
  5. did u bought the ticket to jeju on the spot or u bought early??how much u spend for the whole holiday???

    ReplyDelete