Seoul Day 1

 

 Arriving at Incheon

Booked my trip way before my exams as 'light at the end of the tunnel' during the study times. Boy, was I excited when it was time to go!

Flew with Korean Airways from Sydney as Brisbane did not have a daily flight, but it was ok - gave me a chance on check on our house in Sydney. Have heard some good reviews on Korean Airways, the most exciting part of my flight was when I was served bibimbap! 

 

 Mix your own! Quite tasty - although a little more sauce would have been better

Made this trip with the ladies of my family, so it was going to be quite a bit of shopping involved - so initially I had wanted to stay in Myeong Dong at Nine Tree Hotel, however it was fully booked by the time I decided I wanted to stay there. So, we decided to stay at PJ Hotel instead near Chung-moro station, which was only 1 station away from Myeong Dong.

Getting to PJ Hotel from Incheon Airport was quite easy. The bus tickets can be bought at various desk near the doors at the airport (has a orange sign). Our bus was bus 6015, which ran every 15 minutes from the airport. One thing to clarify - it DOES NOT stop in front of the hotel - it's about another 300m from the hotel, walking thru a rather 'seedy' looking alley. I won't have felt safe walking alone at night.

 The ticket to Myeong Dong is about ₩10,000 per person. Taking the taxi from 

the airport costs about ₩100,000 - 120,000.

Our not-so-little room in PJ Hotel

I decided to stay in PJ Hotel as it had a ladies room (although we didn't get it as we had a triple room and they don't have a triple room on that floor), had bus services to Myeong Dong, Dongdaemun and Namdaemun market, and good service reviews. 

Free facial mask as said!

The service from the hotel was pretty good I have to admit, once we were there. However, it was pretty poor before we got there - I had sent 3 emails for an enquiry (the same email) and none had a reply. In the end, I decided to give them a call instead. Almost decided to cancel off my booking due to that.. as I was worried about the service by then. Thankfully, they were pretty good once we were there.

Rooms are pretty clean, well stocked, comfortable beds and despite the seedy alley way.. the other station was pretty ok and you could always catch the hotel bus to the station too. Furthermore, just 2 mins from the hotel in the 'seedy-looking' alley, there is a 24 hour little restaurant that serves some pretty awesome Kimchi Jiggae! Went back twice for some very late night supper (think 1-2am!) - the best thing you can have after some cold shopping in the middle of winter at night!

Sorry, I digress...

Once we placed our luggages in the hotel, we quickly made our way for some dinner before it's too late. Read a few reviews online about some dinner places in Myeong Dong and although it was spring, it was still freezing when we were there, so we headed over to Yeang Yeang Centre for some good old samgyetang and crispy roasted chicken!

 Some nice warm soup to warm up for the cold!

 Crispy roasted chicken

*a little dry but definitely crispy +++*

Once we filled our tum tum, we went on to the shopping street of Myeong Dong and bought lots of facial items - the most popular items to get from South Korea!