What happened for the last 6 years?

I know it has been 6 years since I last wrote a post on my blog. I was too busy with everything that went on with my life that I had no time to write. But this time, I have.

So what happened?

Oh well, after a series of trips in Asia, my life became more serious. I was on my age where most of my friends and sister got married. I attended weddings every now and then until I, too, became engaged with my first boyfriend. After a year of preparation, we got married. After few months, I got pregnant. Yes, that was fast but we were in a relationship for 9 years prior to our wedding. And as most of you know, having a child demands lots of time. I gave birth to a healthy baby girl through c-section due to preeclampsia.

I was still working and a helper was taking care of our daughter while we were at work. After 2 years, we decided to leave Singapore and migrated to Australia.

Currently, I am not yet working. This explains why I can write again. Haha. I even created a new blog site because I thought I can't login to my account in this blog anymore. But I was able to retrieve it. Hello everyone. If you have time, you can visit and follow me on my new blog: kusinelda.com

😊

4D 5N Trip to South Korea

After two months, finally I got time to share our very own itineraries for 4 days, 5nights trip to South Korea last March 7-11 2012.

Day 1:
-Flight from Singapore/Philippines to Seoul at 2pm.
-Meet our friend from PH in Incheon International Airport and the van that will bring us to Lazybird guesthouse. Lazy Bird Guesthouse is very nice in terms of service, nearness to the airport and also the rooms. We arrived around 11pm.

Day 2:
-Checkout at LazyBird Guesthouse at 5am and rented a taxi going to Gimpo Airport.
-Check-in at Eastarjet at 6am. Our flight to Jeju Island is at 7am.
-9am Checkin at Yeha Guesthouse and day tour around Jeju started after we settled our checkin.
-We availed the yeha van taxi tour and Mr Koh was our tour guide. I highly recommend him; very nice service, kind and sweet. See it for yourself.
- Mr Koh brought us to the Bibimbap and Korean BBQ for lunch and dinner.
-Places we visited until 6pm:
- Ham Deok Seoubong Beach
- Park Southernland
- Manjanggul Lava Tube
- Maze Park
- Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak
- Rapeseed Flower Farm
- Seopjikoji
- Trick Art Museum


Day 3:
-Checkout at Yeha Guesthouse at 8:30am
-Started our Day2 tour again with Mr Koh and visited the following places.
-Seogwipo Submarine Tour
-Cheonjiyeon Falls
-Teddy Bear Museum
-Chocolate Museum
-Jusangjeolli Cliff
-Tangerine by the road
-Miniature Park
-Glass Garden
-Mystery Road
-Loveland


-Since we're running out of money, Mr Koh allow us to try the very cheap food Kimbap and ahh I forgot sorry.
-After the last attraction, we bid goodbye to Mr Koh at Jeju International Airport.
-Around 8pm we reached Gimpo and took some Korean Ramen before we head to the subway station.
-Around 9pm we reached Anguk station to look for Yoo's home. We got lost but Yoo's home is kind enough to meet us on the streets.

Day 4:
-Breakfast at 6am and at 8am, we left to go to Nami Island.
-At 2pm we left Nami Island and went to visit the foot of the Namsan Tower.
-At night we roamed around Myeongdong and had dinner.

Day 5:
-At 8am we went to Gamnam to take the bus going to Korean Folk Village.
-Due to the harsh winter weather that day, we cancelled our trip to Insadong after we visited the Gyeongbukgong Palace.
-At 6pm, we ended our trip and head back to Incheon International Airport.

I really enjoyed the trip and satisfied that we saw so many places in just a short period of time. Of course it is tiring but it's worth it.

Seoul Searching

During our South Korea Trip, the 3rd day was already in Seoul. Like what we have experienced in Jeju Island, we got lost. We can't find Yoo's home. I can't say it's their fault or our fault or maybe both.

Anyway, Yoo's home is one of the Hanok, traditional korean house, guesthouse in Seoul. It is located near the Bokchun Village and just 5-8min walk from Anguk subway station. On the first night, we stayed at Room of Hope and Room of Wealth. On the second day,  2 move to Room of Love. What I like in the traditional korean house is the heater on the wooden floor. What I don't like is the toilet which is outside the room. It's freaking cold especially on winter and is smaller than the usual T&B of other guesthouses. Sorry we forgot to take photos of the room.

Next attraction is Myeongdong to buy cosmetics for friends and a few for ourselves. Compared to Anguk, Myeongdong is a very very busy place. Being the main place for cosmetics, you can see here shops of the famous cosmetic brands such as Etude House, The Face Shop, Nature Republic, Skinfood...and many more. What makes it crowded, i think, are the sale and discounts as well as freebies they will give once you purchase their products. There are also shops for clothes, accessories,  korean restaurants and street foods.



That day, we met my former R&S colleague who was in Korea for business trip. I was glad to see him again since I wasn't in the office during his last day. He became our interpreter in one of the cosmetic shops. The Korean saleslady cannot understand my English and I can't understand her. Good thing she knows how to speak Mandarin so Tzeh Yeu became our interpreter. After this we have our dinner and 1 bottle of soju; his treat.

Then we went to Namsan Cable Car. Due to the cold weather and crowded cable car station, we decided to just take a photo of the Namsan Tower on the background.

On our last day in Seoul, we visited the Gyeongbukgong Palace. I think this is the famous palace in Seoul. It's really big but we did not go inside since the weather was so harsh that time. We only wanted to go home and warm ourselves.

These are the only places we visited in Seoul. Okay we can also include the subway stations like Yongsan, Gangnam, Cheongnyangni, and a lot more.

Korean Folk Village

On our post-winter trip to Korea, we decided to go here on the last day of our trip and the last attraction which is outside of Seoul.

Getting there:

1. Take the subway to Gangnam Station and exit 10.

2. Walk straight and go for the bus stop in the middle of the road. Traffic light i think is in front of Worri bank.

3. Take Bus 5001-1. Tap T-card for boarding and alighting the bus.

4. It take 40-50 min to reach the place. When you see signs which says Korean Folk Village, look to the left and if you see a huge parking lot, alight on the next stop.

5. Walk towards the end of the parking lot going through 7-11 and other shops.

6. Purchase the ticket and that's it.

I find this place interesting when I browse the websites for attractions in South Korea. A taste and glimpse of the traditional culture of Korea. This is what I always look forward on all of my trips; to experience the country's unique culture.

Korean Folk Village is a big place and favorite filming location of traditional/old dramas. Since it was very cold(-7 degrees celcius), we can't afford to waste time and effort so we decided to use and try our best to follow the map.

We arrived at 12pm and this is time for the highlight among the shows inside: the traditional wedding ceremony. Unfortunately it's almost done when we reached the place.

We also visited some museums, old houses, few shows but unfortunately, it seems our brain is frozen and we cannot think of anything except how to warm ourselves. So we decided to eat our lunch inside the tent with a heater.

After eating, we decided to try the Hanbok(for free) and to roam around, take photos and more. Then we left the place, and head back again to 7-11 to drink hot choco while waiting for the bus. No need to cross the road and alight on the bus stop where you boarded in going to korean folk village.

This place has more to offer than what I have mentioned but too bad, the cold wind stops us to enjoy the korean folk village.

Namiseom-Nami Island

Namiseom or Nami Island is located in ChunCheon, South Korea. Previously it will take 2-3 hours to reach this place when you are coming from Seoul. Thus, our itinerary allotted 3 hours travel time from Seoul to Nami. BUT...

Upon reaching Yoo's home, our guesthouse in Seoul. The nice owner give us the direction which you cannot find anywhere on the internet nor on the subway map. Thus, we have debated whether to follow it or not but in the end we decided to follow her suggestion. However, things didn't go smoothly because the route is very new and only few koreans know about this. The owner did not give us the complete details so we asked around for help and we received different instructions, until finally one of the people we asked found the officer of ITX.

This is the newest(as of Mar2012) and fastest way in going to Nami from Seoul. Take the ITX express Korail which runs from Yongsan to Chuncheon.

1. First take subway which will take you to Yongsan or Cheongnyangni station.

2. Purchase the ticket from the ITX ticketing machine. Select Gapyeong station. Do note that T-card cannot be used in ITX as ticket(at least at this time). Upon receiving the ticket, check your cabin and seat number.

3. Go to the track which is going to Chuncheon and wait for the train which has Korail ITX design.

4. Keep your ticket for inspection. If the machine when you buy the tickets stated no available seats, you can only seat/stand outside the cabins where there are extra 6 seats and near to the exit door.

5. Station name is flashed on the screen. Alight at Gapyeong station. Take the taxi going to the port(KRW3000) and purchased the ferry and entrance ticket(KRW8000) to Nami Island.

Total travel time now is approximately 60minutes. However, ITX is more expensive than subway or other trains.

Now that we reached Nami, i will start to describe the place and our Nami experience. It was cold and windy that day(4 to -3 degrees celcius) but ferry going to Nami is always jampacked. Only few minutes from the port, you will be greeted by ice carvings on the left and flowers and some statues on front. Since it was cold, there are some fireplaces where you can warm yourself. I think Nami is famous for trees which are lined up that creates a beautiful view.

Since we are not good in using the map, we forget to get one so we don't know where to go until we heard that a tram is coming. We took it for KRW2000 and alight at the food stalls. Then we rented 1 couple bike and 1 family bike for 30min. Unexpectedly, we got separated with our 2 friends and unfortunately we went on opposite direction so even if we look for them and they look for us, we cannot find each other until our time elapsed.

After that we walked around and do lots of photoshoots, feed the squirrel we saw on one of the trees. Below are the photos we took in Nami and since we still have to visit some attractions in Seoul so we left the place at 2pm.

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On the boat going back to Gapyeong, we thought that we experienced 4 seasons in this place. Some parts have still remnants of winter snow, some leaves are still orange, some are green, there are flowers and beautiful lake. No regrets that we chose this place over the famous attractions in Seoul.