South Korea Birthday Getaway

I've been crazy about K-Pop music especially those of SM Entertainment. The music are catchy and dance friendly. SM Entertainment artistes were endorsed to promote Visit Seoul by a bunch of music video, theme "Infinitely Yours, Seoul". My top favorite Super Junior paired with Girls Generation in an MV "Seoul" which features many great sights of Seoul.

Inspired by the MV, I've made plans about visiting Seoul for the longest time and finally managed for my 2012 Birthday Trip. Since I'm in South Korea, I've added itineraries to venture the other parts of Korea such as Busan and Jeju Island and probably

Planning 5 months ahead had it's benefits. I got cheap fares by Singapore Airlines at almost 50% of regular price. As my flight arrives at 1530hrs, I wasn't able to connect my flight to either Busan or Jeju on time. So the best option is by KTX.

Getting around South Korea is easy by train or by domestic flights. Majority are below SGD 80 except for my first class train ride to Busan which was almost SGD 100. The speed train KTX took 3 hours to reach its destination, Busan. Since I arrived in the evening and my train is at 1800hrs,  I was not able to view the magnificent Seoul countryside.

Flights from Busan to Jeju and Busan to Gimpo were by Air Busan which is easy to book online and is relatively cheaper with some discount.

Toyoko Inn Busan Station 1

As for accommodations, I was able to search those within SGD 50 since I would be out most of the time. In Busan, I stayed in Toyoko Inn which is right beside Busan KTX station. There are 3 Toyoko Inn in Busan in all. Toyoko Inn is a Japanese hotel chain and you can expect some Japanese appliances for you convenience. Staff here are able to converse in English with a slight difficulties but most of my queries were met.

Daekuk Isleinn Hotel

Moving to Jeju, I managed to booked Daekuk Isleinn through Agoda.com. It's situated in Seogwipo, the southern most city of Jeju which is also where most attractions are at. I was prepared with maps to get around but upon alighting the limousine bus, I lost my bearing due to the darkness of night. Asking help was difficult but thank god for my poor Hangul, I managed to get the direction to the hotel, which is on a freaking hill. A luggage in tow is no easy task to conquer the hill (I wasn't able to store my luggage in the airport because the storage store will be closed on my departure day due to renovations). The staffs in Daekuk Isleinn speak little to no English, so it was quite troublesome to ask for help.

Seoul Backpackers Namdaemun Branch

Lastly in Seoul, I stayed in Seoul Backpacker which is at a super convenient location. It's near most attractions and shopping heaven Myeongdong (dropped by almost everyday). Since it's a hostel, the staffs were fluent in English and a great help with all the queries and recommendation.

After a total of 8 nights in South Korea (2 in Busan, 2 in Jeju and 4 in Seoul), I was thrilled that I completed majority of planned itinerary especially the Seoul MV location hunt. There were some that I didn't managed to visit due to weather/transportation constrain in Jeju and time constrain in Seoul. Yet I'm satisfied.

The culture there is not worth visiting unlike Japan's unique culture. The culture in Korea is respecting the elders and somehow they are taking it to the fullest advantage. They are rude and love to push you aside. While in Busan and especially Jeju, I've experienced the worst attitude from them. At least Seoul was friendlier.

To add, majority of the younger people in Korea are great to look at. They sure know how to groom themselves. Even if they underwent plastic surgery, they are still great to look at (that's the point of plastic surgery right). I soon realized why most of the men's hair are unkempt because the wind there is crazy. It blow all direction and messed up your hair. Their hairdresser did a great job to maintain an unkempt hairstyle.

Food here is not easy for me as there's tons of pork. Street food are either deep fried or spicy which I don't dare due to my stomach condition. So most of the time, I had my meals in cafes, restaurant or fast food with with occasional Korean cuisine.

Given a chance to revisit Korea to either complete my itinerary or for another holiday, I wouldn't want to because there wasn't a great impact during my stay. Even though shopping was great, traveling to Korea is expensive. However, I sure did enjoy my time there. For more of my itinerary, keep a look out for my future post.

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