Live and Let Live!: Korea Trip 16- 22 Nov 2023

We're at the Changi Airport Terminal 3, ready to fly to Seoul!

DAY 1

We flew by Singapore Airlines as this is the girls' slightly-longer flight. The air ticket prices for SQ were also not much higher than Korea Air or Asiana (maybe $100-200 higher).

Kids meal of sweet and sour fish, rice, bun, fruits, cake, potato chips, kitkat and raisins.

Adult meal of kimchi fried rice, potato salad, bun, soh ta pia..... that's it! Order kids meal better.

The flight was 8am (SG time) to 3.30pm (Kr time). Roselle did sleep a bit but Adelle just enjoyed the in-flight entertainment for the entire flight of 6+ hours.

Then we took a taxi to our Seoul hotel in Myeongdong. Our hotel was The Stay Classic Hotel Myeongdong (1,171,800 krw / S$ 1,200 for 6 nights) , nearest MRT station was Hoehyeon Station. It was already 7pm when we check in.

We met a friend for dinner. We had the korean pig trotters. Adelle was already in a grumpy mood and refused to take photos. At that time we thought it was because she was tired from the flight.

After dinner, I sent the girls back to the hotel with papa. Then went out with our friend to the Myeongdong streets. It was nearly 11pm but the streets were still bustling.

Myeongdong street food.

There were lots of yummy street food but we were too full from dinner.

This was very nice egg corn bread, but not cheap. 2000krw for a small one.

We bought one custard taiyaki.

Korean fishcakes

Mini gimbaps. I think pretty expensive.

Japchae

Pretty pastries. We didn't try, just take photos.

DAY 2

We booked an MPV with driver for two days (Day 2 and 3).

The driver was a very good guide and driver. Two days of traveling without using any orientation skills or brain power.

2023年 11月 17日- 3成人，2小孩。暂选: Nami Island, Alpaca World

2023年11月 18日 - 2成人，2小孩。暂选: Gangchon Rail Park, Petite France, Italian Village, Garden of Morning Calm

价钱: 250,000krw + 220,000 krw = 470,000krw

It was a 2-3 hours ride to our first destination, Alpaca World. My 3 girls fell asleep.

Rare moments of happiness for Adelle. She was grumpy most of the time due to the cold.

Fed rabbits too.

A nice place to rest, the kids can get some paper and coloring materials.

Adelle colored her picture black. She said the sky was black because it was nighttime, but I was not sure whether this was a true reflection of her grumpiness at that exact point in time.

She asked if we would come back again to see her picture. To lessen her grumpiness, I told a white lie.

She cheered up for a while and was willing to smile some photos.

We don't know what the words mean but took a photo.

We went to eat korean stir fried spicy chicken.

Ordered a plate of non-spicy chicken too. The girls loved the seaweed rice balls.

After lunch, there was light snowfall. The girls went outside to play with the little snowflakes.

After a full lunch, we made our way to Nami Island. We went to the jetty to take a 5 min boat ride.

Nami Island!

Admired the autumn trees.

Nami Island didn't seem like a big place but there were quite a number of people on Nami Island. When it's time to go, we had to join a long queue to take the boat back to mainland.

We reached our hotel at about 7pm and the kids were too tired to go out for dinner. Our friend also need a shower before heading to the Airport. So Papa went back to dabao a dinner of roast chicken and noodles and we ate in the hotel room.

After the kids went to bed, I had a short walk to Namdaemun to see if there is anything interesting. Most of the shops were closed. I managed to find some supper.

Mandus, red bean donuts and gimbap.

DAY 3

We started the day early at 7.30am as there was going to be quite a long ride to the outskirts of Seoul.

Adelle was in awe with the amount of fallen leaves in the streets.

The hotel didn't provide breakfast. The girls had korean bakery buns which our friend bought yesterday. Papa and I got a coffee each from Ediya Coffee which was beside our hotel. The cup is a cute

Sanrio design, felt wasted to throw it away.

Our first stop was the Italian Village and Petite France.

Adelle was back in her grumpy mood.

The place was really pretty cold, even the indoors were cold.

Only food can cheer her up. Even microwaved corndogs tasted nice because of the cold weather.

The Little Prince was once my favourite book.

After this, we went for a korean BBQ lunch.

This was recommended by the driver. The name of the restaurant was Green Dakgalbi.

Then we headed to the Gangchon Rail Park. It was hyped as a discontinued train line converted to the largest rail bike course in Korea. Luckily we ate a full lunch, it was not easy to cycle this 6km.

We stopped at the Nanggu Village stop, had a toilet break, then boarded the "Romance train" to the end station.

Our last stop was the Garden of Morning Calm.

It was quite cold and the garden is barren because it was autumn going into winter. It looked kind of sad.

We sat down for hot chocolate.

Highlight of Adelle's day, probably.

The girls had fun taking photos with the little houses around the garden.

This was a real chapel with praying space inside, but was really small.

We crossed a small suspended bridge.

It was a relatively quiet place. Not much to see, but a good getaway from the tourist crowds.

We were back in Seoul for dinner. We just found a random shop in Myeongdong to have korean ginseng
chicken soup.
Adelle was back in her grumpy mood and ate very little.

Adelle was in a viscious cycle. The more grumpy she was, the less she ate, the more cold she felt, the more grumpy she got.

DAY 4

No more driver engaged, we were on our own in Seoul for the next few days. We went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace in the morning. We bought a few buns and dumpings at Namdaemun.

Bought an egg tart for Adelle. Why eat egg tart in Korea??? because not much food she fancied in Korea.

When we reached the Palace, the changing guard ceremony just ended. Only saw the butts of the guards.

Grumpy Adelle just squatted in front of the Palace gates.

So the rest just squatted with her.

We decided not to buy the tickets to go into the Palace. We wanted to take a walk to Bukchon Hanok Village.

We stopped by a cafe for snacks and mama needs coffee.

Adelle's lips were peeling due to the cold and dryness. Adds on to her grumpiness.

Weird statues/sculptures on the streets.

Cute shops along the way.

Bought ear muffs for them at an everything-5000krw-shop.

We stopped at a traditional korean restaurant for lunch.

It was a full table of banchans. Roselle was probably sulking because we wanted to take photos first.

While Adelle was struggling with korean cuisine, Roselle was having a gastronomic time.

From mandus, gimbaps, jjajangmyeon, BBQ meat....

to street snacks like donuts, pancakes, corndogs.

We saw many people rented hanboks to take photos since morning at the Palace. We passed by a hanbok rental shop and asked the girls whether they wanted to try.

Roselle was still 扭扭捏捏 but Adelle said "YES" without second thoughts.

Ready to go out for phototaking.

There were old traditional houses in the area to take photos. Adelle was still not in a very good mood to smile for the camera.

We could rent the hanboks for 3-4 hours but we returned in less than an hour.

Adelle couldn't take it anymore. Papa had to carry her all the way back.

I cut her some slack and bought Macdonalds cheeseburger for her dinner. Otherwise she would go back Singapore malnourished.

While Roselle was enjoying her gimbaps.

We had an early night because tomorrow is another long day.

DAY 5

We started the day off with coffee and breakfast in a convenience store.

We took a shuttle bus to Everland.

Entrance of Everland.

We rode this.

Theme park snacks.

Ice cream.

Carousel - standard theme park ride.

Kids pirate ship

Dunno what ride.

Flying dumbos.

Racing cars.

Candyfloss.

Getting tired. About time to cry.

Papa buy churros to cheer her up.

After a short break, we went to queue up for the animal ride. It was a long queue, nearly an hour. The girls at the snacks I dabao-ed while queuing.

A comfortable ride in the bus to go around and look at the animals.

It was getting dark. The shuttle bus will leave for Seoul at 6.30pm. We made a last stop at the souvenir shop and let them choose one item as sourvenir. They took a really long time.

Roselle got a hairband while Adelle got a pair of penguins.

We caught the shuttle bus without problem and headed back to Seoul.

We reached Seoul at about 7.30pm. We went to a restaurant to have Gamjatang, a pork bone and potato stew. Super nice.

The girls had jjajangmyeon.

After dinner, Papa brought Adelle back to hotel while Roselle and I continued to go shopping in Myeongdong. Papa and Adelle had a fall right in front of the Shinsegae christmas lights, sigh.

Roselle shopping on Myeongdong streets.

DAY 6

In the morning, we went to the Gwangjang Market.

After that, we went to the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park

After that we went to a shopping mall nearby, Hyundai Department Store.

Went in to have a coffee, pretzels, waffles and ice-cream.

Then to Lotte Department Store.

A lot of christmas decorations.

The food court and bakeries in Lotte has a lot of pretty food.

Going back to Singapore tomorrow.

These are the korean snacks we bought.

At night, we also prepared a passport for penguins to go back Singapore with us.

Day 7

Our flight back to Singapore was at 12.30pm, so we checked out and tried to catch a 8.30am airport transfer bus to the airport. It was very convenient as it stopped just outside our hotel and it was a comfortable ride to the airport.