the entire trips was very impromptu honestly // like less than a month before it we booked air tickets and lodging and it all still felt very much surreal
there were much troubles regarding global package though ;;; like it was all immediately sold out when I had entered the website and was constantly checking for available slots and all
was also pretty jittery about the fact that I would be attending the concert alone and all especially when it is my first time experiencing it overseas and all and it has been really long since I have gone to a concert alone huhuhu
can you believe it after 6 years I am gonna be in korea again and much much more familiar with the language and culture and into a totally different group !!!
the trip in 2009 was very much amateur where me and my mom had gone on a tour group schedule as at that point in time my mom wanted to go korea for a holiday but for the past few years i have rejected it with a ' i dont want to eat kimchi everyday ' mindset but once i was hooked onto kpop in early 2009 i had almost immediately begged to go korea ;
well I had also visited Korea in the year of 2000 but I can;t even remember anything considering I was only 2
this trip i was sure to make it worth to the fullest
so this trip was planned for the 6th of March 2015 to the 13th of March ! Would have very much wanted to stay longer but min needed to get back to sg for a wedding so we could not have extended the trip : - (
oh boy was i excited as hell for this trip to happened ; because i practically didn't have anything to do before this trip, I was planning the whole itinerary and all but honestly it is extremely difficult to follow the plans I have made
selcas before we leave singapore !!! we caught a 8am flight and was down at the airport at 6am huhuhu
our flight was via hong kong , since we took cathay pacific !! as their promo was going for less than $600 ;; had wanted to go with china eastern because I wanted to be able to transit at qingdao (tao's hometown which also coincidentally is called TAO airport for its acronym) but having sat china eastern the previous time I went korea, which was a super bad experience I decided to go with cathay instead since there is entertainment and all for an extra $100
I usually always pick the international food option for plane food but cathay's egg thingy was plain as hell and pretty much horrible since they didn't provide any salt :> the only thing which was good was the bacon -__-
but thanks to cherie who offered me some of her porridge , I didn't go starving
hkia aesthetics are no joke seriously ;;; it is so white and pretty !!! of course we visited the disney store hehe and min bought a few stuff there to give as souvenirs because the disney store would most probably be closed when we are going back to singapore.
we then headed to some dim sum place for semi lunch but we were running really short on time and were gobbling down every piece of food that arrived and ran to our gate
and the food was really really expensive mind you
and yes , we were the bitches that went to press the button to call for the air stewardess to get us blankets cause it was cold as hell ; the food was pretty okay this time just that the tastes of olives were really strong
and finally 드디어 we have arrived at incheon international airport ! at that point i still could not believe it, I am finally in Korea !!!
and of course, being the lazy ass I sat down to wait for our luggages
the queue for airport limousine was real long so I actually headed out to check on the temperature and well, it was cold that is for sure
I then decided i would go get a SIM card with data since I would be going alone for the concert and would need to contact cherie and min after and all
Got a olleh sim card which costed me 30,000 won and had 1gb of data but I later found out from other singaporeans during global package that they found a 35,000 won sim card with unlimited data ;; and guess who used all of the 1gb of data before the trip ended orz
the registration process was so long that we kinda missed the bus and had to wait for the next timing so cherie and min decided to get the SIM cards as well, and of course I had to buy myself a banana milk while waiting ;;
I had actually told myself I would buy a bottle of banana milk everyday but I just never got the chance to and this was like the only one time I bought it honestly
And because we still had some time left before the next bus, I decided to head to the every sing store at the airport
It is on level four and really easy to find
There wasn't exactly much to get here since the stuff are all pretty old and not really updated ;;
Was kinda late to actually draw my tickets at the SM counter so I didn't manage to get my tickets
Global package basically includes the hotel for 2 nights , concert ticket , transport and lunch on concert day so our first two nights of lodging was booked with them and it was the IBIS ambassador hotel in gangnam . They were having renovations when we were there so I wouldn't exactly say much about the lobby but the room was sure hell ass small and they had given us a room on the smoking level and it very much reeked of cigarettes ;_;
But the bed was big enough to fit all three of us
We then all changed into thermal wear and headed out to Gangnam for our dinner although it was already 9+
Because it was pretty late, most of the shops at Gangnam station's underground mall were closing ; only managed to grab a aloe vera jar from nature republic because I knew how dry my skin was going to turn out ! But sadly didn't manage to get any cleansing foams and stuff because I didn't bring any of those as I wanted to just spend on all those in korea and bring back new ones
Wanted to actually purchase a 3M cloth mask from this pharmacy at gangnam station but it was also closing so I didn't manage to :-( honestly I had wanted to get one before heading to korea because it always seems so nice on idols but when I was in korea, I desperately wanted one because when the wind blows into your face, the mask helps to block it and warms your face when you breathe out.
As most shops were closing we just went into yoogane for dinner
It was pretty good but we basically didn't know what was nice and all so we just randomly ordered
photos while we were freezing as hell because it was still our first day and we were still trying to adjust to the weather here , technically that day was around a -3 degrees so it is pretty cold and I'm not even mentioning when the wind blows alright
luhan adverts were basically almost everywhere orz for seoul arts college
on another note, ibis was pretty far from the train station which is pretty devastating T_T
the closer and more convenient one would be seoulleung station but it was fairly far alright, like maybe it needed a 15 mins walk or something, it was pretty inconvenient
shall end the day one post here because I still have some day two photos to slowly edit because it is sm global package day !
south korea day two | smtown global package : exolu'xion , smtown@coexartium , children's grand park
south korea day three | kona beans ,k star road,old sm building, exo'luxion day two, dongdaemun design plaza (DDP), lotte fitin
south korea day four | miss lee's cafe, ssamziegil, gyeongbokgong, gwanghwamun, ehwa women's university, hongdae stylenanda flagship store, noryangjin fish market
south korea day five | teacher kim dumplings , lotte world, lotte mart
south korea day six | siloam sauna, namdaemun, myeongdong : spao, jholic, nature republic, kang hodong's baekjeong bbq, music korea
south korea day 7 | kamong, viva polo, smtown@coexartium, myeongdong
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Natale