Vandilicious

Monday, April 6, 2015

Korea + Busan trip March 2015!

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March

Seoul Day 1

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March - Day 5

Day 5:
Pororo Park
Seoul Tower
Hondae - Hello Kitty Cafe
Lotte Mall

Today all the plan was burst! 11 of us but 5 are down, including me! The worst one got food poisoning and I'm consider the lucky one just having vomiting skype Emoticon puke

So we took a cab to Pororo Park at D-cube city which is much closer to our hotel. And this is the only mall where their foodcourt has baby chair. The most enjoyable is the Pororo show and the train rides I would said.

Opening Hours

10:30 – 20:30

Admission Fee

Adults (ages 13 and up) Individual: 6,000 won

Children (ages 12 months – 13 year) – Individual: 16,000 won

Directions

Sindorim Station – Line 1 or Line 2 – direct access from Exit 1

Resources from kidsfuninseoul

Than we head off to meet my friends to Seoul Tower (feeling weaker) and it was really the worst day of our holiday. It was raining! Cold, wet and carrying a toddler is no joke! To get to the cable car station you got to 'hike a mountain'!

We alight at Myeongdong station line 4, exit 3 and walked up a long slope for close to 20mins! Or probably majority of us are not that well so we are feeling lethargic. After the slope you got to walked another 10mins to reach the cable car station. And do take note that each cabin they will squeeze up to 30pax. From Seoul Tower you only can get a bus back to the city. And we waited under the tiny shelter bus stop for 25mins and the journey took like 10mins lol....

After Seoul Tower, we called it a day and head back to rest. My hub found a noodle place right in front of the hotel that sells really nice and comfort food. The chef was actually the boss who made the noodles himself.

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March- Day 4

Day 4:
Busan Aquarium
Seomyeon Underground Shopping Center
Head back to Seoul

We took a train to Haeundae-gu (almost an hour) and exit 3 or 5, walk towards Sea Cloud Hotel. At the cross junction, you should see beach in front of you and Busan Aquarium is on your right. Takes about 10mins walk to the aquarium. Thankfully I found this blog who share the direction to get there.

Info:
https://www.busanaquarium.com/en/

Division	Regular Price	Discount Price for Disable
Adult [13 and Up]	24,000 Won	18,000 Won
Children [4 ~ 12]	18,000 Won	13,000 Won

We spent a good one hour plus there. A pity we didn't get to ride the glass bottom boat as I am carry my toddler which they don't allow. You have to do reservation even thou is a weekday.

We had our lunch at their fast food chain because they have high chair for my boy.

Their fried chicken is so juicy, well marinated and delicious!

Guess what is this? Hahaha... is actually paper spoon for the corn salad

Next we move on to Seomyeon Underground Shopping Center (exit 1 of Seomyeon Station, Metro line 1) to meet our friends there. It is a long stretch of little shops but I find that majority of the shop the stuff they sells are pretty similar, I didn't get anything

Back to Tower Hill and collected our luggage for our 5.30pm train. We arrived Seoul at around 8.15pm and I was thinking to buy dinner back to hotel but my friends wanted to tried Yoogane in Myeongdong. There is 2 outlets, the one we went was further down (2 junction away from the station) but the waiter at the restaurant turned us away when seeing a huge group of us with our luggage. So rude!!!

So in the end, we split. They continue their hunt but we just hopped into a restaurant located at level 4 when seeing they served porridge. Thought my boy could have he chicken porridge($10SGD) but is was a little spicy so he didn't take much. Thou the food here is slightly more expensive but I'm happy that they have baby chair here.

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March

Monday, March 30, 2015

Seoul + Busan 14th March - 21st March Busan- Day 3

Day 3:
Seoul Station - Busan
Tower Hill hotel
Jagalchi Market
Yonggungsa Temple
BIFF Square

Thankfully, the plan on 3rd days still worked out well and we are ahead of our schedule. Also glad that we are staying near Seoul station so we met at the lobby, drop our excess luggage with them and set off!

Reached Seoul Station at around 8.15am and got our train ticket at 8.30am! Shocked

Imagined all of us running with our luggage to the track LOL

Seoul Station is not connected to their MRT station which I thought so (how noob am I!). You can easily buy your ticket at the station without pre-book online. The good thing about travelling with a huge group comes when you are buying tickets. We got some discount off for our train tickets to Busan. Train leaves punctually, is clean and took about 2hr 40mins to reach our destination . There is snack, drinks and food selling on the train. But their toilet stink like mad!

Seoul Station

View while heading to Busan

Busan Station

The moment we arrived, we took a taxi to Tower Hill, our one night stay in Busan. FYI, there is a Tokyo Inn hotel right next to the station. I love our hotel, is so spacious than Hotel Manu, clean and the best part is, it comes with two queen sized bed! Suit a families of 4! After checking in we moved on to Jagalchi Market and there's where I guess we got our food poisoning Confused

Tower Hill hotel is easily accessible to the location we want to go and that the reason why I choose to stay here.

Turned right from the hotel and walked about 10mins, you will see Lotte Mall and there is a underpass to the MRT. From there you can exit to Jagalchi Market or BIFF Square.

Tower Hill Hotel

Generous bath foam set

Jagalchi Market

Jagalchi Market - Seafood place

The creepy live sotong!

After you choose the seafood you want, they will bring you upstairs where they will cooked the dishes for you. But if you are going to buy from different stalls and ask the same chef to cooked your seafood, there will be additional surcharge. The food wasn't that fantasic at all and pretty expensive! Each of us spend about $25SGD for raw oyster, squid, clams, scallop and prawns and is was not filling, so upset with the lunch we had! And we believe the raw oyster wasn't very fresh as most of us got food poisoning after we return to Seoul. The kids and my hub who never took the oyster was fine. Those with weak stomach please be careful.

The creepy live squid my friend had!

After the sad lunch we head to Yonggungsa Temple. We took the train to Haeundae subway station and took a cab which cost about $10SGD.