Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March

Hello! I'm back from 'Kimchi Land'! Sad to say that I never enjoy this trip as much as my previous Gold Coast holiday. When I'm back to work, some of my colleagues asked how is it and so on... and my reply to all is only 1 word! Is 'S**K'!! Probably because is a city place where you will wish to cover as much as possible unlike in Australia but end up too many hiccups. Bad planning, too much time wasted on travelling around and totally not baby friendly!

Seoul is not a place for babies! I travel with my 15 months old and regret lugging my stroller which I only used twice. And is not easy to find baby chair (high chair). I only found it in their food court at Pororo Park and at their fast food chain in Busan. Unlike Singapore, almost everywhere you can find at least 1 high chair! In regardless how dirty it is but at least you can simply find one. And I realize they hardly bring baby out and they hardly used stroller too. Their MRT station is not stroller friendly too. Thou they have a gate beside for you to push your stroller or wheelchairs but I don't see any baby pram inside their train! I even witness people jumping over or climb underneath the gantry of their station gate   I wish I could tell them to tell to try this 'stunt' in SG! Lol.... There was a day when we are having our dinner at their food court at 'Doota' located in Dongdaemun, I saw this mum feeding her tods in her carrier! I felt sorry for her and realize probably this could be one of the reason why they hardly bring their babies out to have a meal.

Seoul is a bad experience for me, I will probably be back again only when my boy is much much older. Having to carry a '10kg' daily and a '5kg' baby backpack is no joke! Their station is similar to Hong Kong! Flight of stairs and is like never ending stairs! But but but they have vending machine inside the station and to my surprise, their train are still very clean! If this is happening in our train, I can't imagine riding in a rubbish truck Lol!!

Note:

Plan your itinerary well

Give extra time allowance 

Best to calculate the travelling time (which I miss out)

Find the exit of each places you need to go (Seoul has 9 Lines and about 8 exit for their station)

Prepare your place of interest in both English and Korean (Out of 10 we only manage to get 1 or 2 who will help us. Try to get student, they usually can communicate better)

Print out their station map (It really comes handy)

Get data sims card

Flying with baby:

Try to fly at the time he/she naps

Try to avoid red eye flight in case your little can't sleep the whole flight will be disturb

Prepare extra feed if you giving formula

Prepare blankets or their comfort toys for them when they nap in the bassinet

Extra diapers in the bag

2 sets of clothes in case they dirty or poo on their pants

Wet tissue is a must!

Snacks, biscuits

Water bottles

Something to suck on to ease their painful ears ( I'm thankful that this never happen on my boy)

Extra water for milk

Hot flask

Toys to entertain them, Ipad or load new videos on your phone

New toys! (this can help entertain them a little longer)

This time round we flew with SQ, here my review comparing with Qantas

	SQ	Qantas
Bassinet	Lower, Easier & comes with blanket	Above our head (when sitting down), difficult to place baby in, can be dangerous
Food - Adults	Chicken or Fish	At least they have beef :)
Food - Baby	Infant meal - Bottle food (puree) Child Infant meal - almost the same to kids set but how can a 15mos old eat Seafood Spaghetti?	Infant meal - Packet food (puree, quite a huge pack and they also offer to help warm it up)
Freebies	Baby gets toys and kids get drawing kit etc…	Not for baby but for my older child
Stroller handling	They use a plastic bag to wrap up your stroller	Nothing for my past experience
Service	1. My boy needs to be in his carrier when the flight takes off and land so that he won't struggle and wriggle like a worm but SQ refuse to let me use it no matter how I reason with them 2. They could be too busy to compliment or maybe not their culture to do so 3. On the return flight, there was a irresponsible parents who prefer to glue to the tv & their tods was so noisy and disturb my boy nap. Thankfully the stewardess find a quiet area for me so I can peacefully rock my boy to sleep 4. SQ saw me carrying my boy to nap but told me they only can keep my food for an hour max	1. More flexible in the carrier issue 2. They compliment my boy for been a good baby on flight 3. Qantas offer to warm up my food when noticing I am carrying my boy to nap

Sorry for the long naggy post, please stay tune for the next post for my days in Seoul and Busan!

Kids set!

Child Infant meal!