South Korea Trip Part III

Day 4 (Dec 25, 2010)
10am, checked out & moved to Seorak Park Casino 4 stars Hotel located on the walking distance from Seorak Park. Finished unpack and wore more clothes, we walked to the restaurant in front of hotel for early lunch & planned to go to Seorak Park later. Anyhow, due to extremely cold weather & unfriendly wind, they asked to stay inside hotel. Beforehand, we shopped in a mini market. To kill the cold, I decided to buy a very small bottle of Korean sozu and share it with my aunt. Each of us drank one glass in one shot. Half hour later we walked back to hotel with dizzy feeling, started to get drunk. Reached hotel room, taken off the coat, we fell in to a deep sleep directly. OMG. I slept for 6 hours. I woke up with quilty feeling knew that without me the rest of my relatives surely wouldn't go anywhere but wandering around in the hotel & casino. I apologized for being such an awful guide and made up with bringing them out for a nice dine of local food "Sundubu" (Gangwondo tofu soup).

These gigantic fruits found in the restaurant
Hotel room of Seorak Park with beds for four people

On The background of this picture is Seorak Park Casino & Hotel
to be continued....

South Korea Trip Part II

Day 2 (Dec 23rd, 2010)
7 am, we had a luxurious breakfast in Fraser Place with tons of delicious foods & fruits before headed to Donghwa Duty Shop (1 block away from Fraser Place) by 1 jumbo taxi only (^_^) to catch 8.30am free shuttle bus to Yongpyong Resort(shooting location of famous Korean Drama Winter Sonata few years ago). I registered our names 1 month prior depart to Korea in below website http://english.visitkoreayear.com/english/benefit/benefit_07_01_01.asp 10 days prior departure date they sent me a confirmation email plus free returned tickets. Ticket & Passport must be showed to bus driver in order to boarding into the bus. This picture was taken in bus waiting area in Donghwa DFS.

The bus dropped us right infront of Yongpyong Sky Resort at 11.30am, we walked 10 minutes to Greenpia Condo inside Yongpyong Resort Area & stayed there for 1 night. The condo was very spacious with 2 styles bed rooms(western style & ondo/traditional Korean style), wood floor with heater, 1 living room, 1 dining room complete with dishes, microwave, refrigerator, gas to cook, washing machine and a veranda to enjoy the mountain view. The condo could accomodate 12 persons. I took a picture of the condo & incidentally deleted it few weeks ago. Below picture of condo taken by my aunt, only captured a tiny part of condo.

We spent our day in Yongpyong Sky Resort walking & playing around ended with rode a gondola to dragon peak(a worth and a must place to visit). It was snowy & windy up there, the weather was absolutely cold & freezing us out while we taken photos outside the peak. But we all enjoyed and had fun.

Day 3 (Dec 24th'2010)
9 am, checked out from Yongpyong resort. Found 2 cabs to Gangneung Station as we were rushing catch the train. I'd been interested & planned this route ever since. Yeah, to board Seaside Train operated by Korail passing thru station "Jeongdongjin" which has listed in The Guinness Book World Record with seaside proximity.


The train provided 2rows seats facing to the window with large glass to enjoy the beautiful scenary of the East Sea. With such limited seats, to get first row passangers must come earlier to buy tickets.
Before reaching Samcheok the train stopped at Jeongdongjin station next to the sea and gave us chances to take pictures.

Reached the last station Samcheok, we took cabs to Samcheok railbike station for another experience. the length of rail is about 5km.
It took about 3 hours to reach the final as we were stopping to eat Korean Ramen in the middle of the route. At last from samcheok bus station we headed back to Gangneung bus station, had dinner and boarded into a bus heading to Sokcho, arrived there midnight, took a cabs directly to hotel Kyoyuk Munhwa Seorak Hwekwan. The room was spacious n cozy with ondol style. This picture taken outside the hotel.

South Korea Trip Part I

It's been like a century I dont post anything here. Well, as usually I was busy with my work life. This time I'm gonna post about my trip to Korea on last winter (Dec 22'10 - Jan 03'11) with my mom & relatives. Actually at first I was a bit stressed out since I imagined that I'll bring a bunch of children & oldies travel round in South Korea and arrange everything from flights to hotels, bus, KTX schedule & itinerary of our trip from end to end, etc by my self. However, Our trip was fun and everybody enjoyed it a lot.

Here our trip was began.....

On Dec 22nd, 2010 we took 8am flight fm Medan to KL then transit for a few hours prior departed to Inchoen at 1.45pm malaysia time. We arrived at Inchoen on time at 9.45pm local time. It was quite late since the last airport bus to town usually heading at 10.30pm. Thus, we were rushing to change money and buy some mineral waters inside the airport. First time came out from the airport it felt like go into a freezer but we still could stand it 'coz few of us only wear 1 layer of cloth (a sweater with unbuttoned jacket).

Directions to take airport bus to town :
Just walk outside the arrival gate and you will easily find airport bus stops in front of the gate. But first you have to know which area you are reaching for. There were several busses with numbers regarding to the destinations. All destinations written on the signage boards. Read it in order to find the correct bus you are looking for. Then just wait 'til the bus coming, pay the ticket right before you hop in to the bus, the cost is KRW 10.000/person for adult and KRW 9.000/person for children.

The Airport bus #6005 stopped right infront of our hotel, Fraser Place Service Residents****, a condo style with 2 bed rooms, living room, dining table, complete kitchen set with refrigerator, microwave and gas to cook that function very well. Actually the service residents was supposed for 3 persons althought it's very spacious and fit for 9 persons like us in 1 condo. Luckily the recepsionist was kindhearted and let us checked in without additional charges since it was midnite already and I told her that we gonna checked out in early morning to catch the bus to Yongpyong Sky Resort. But she reminded us that next time they will charging us KRW 30000/person (@_@).

Anyway, when we finished checked in it was 12.00am, we all were starving, decided to find foods around, but at that time, all resto were closed already. So we were heading to a convinience 24 hours store across the street of Fraser Place back door and we ended up having midnite supper there (instant noodle and all kind of "microwave" ready to serve foods) 'coz uniquely they placed a set of dining table and chairs in the store.