Annyeonghaseyo Korea π 7 days 6 nights halal trip~
So recently I went for my dream holiday to Korea, and I wanted to share with you guys my experience there, any tips I have and my itinerary! π
I didn't want to follow on a tour, thus I planned the week's travel, but I have to say that as compared to the itinerary I planned out the whole week, we followed probably half of it? Like some places were further/we spent more time than expected.
So I'll be writing my planned itinerary at the end of every post, so that you guys can have a reference and plan your own!
We went for a 7 days 6 nights trip, leaving on a 1am flight towards Korea. We took Korean Airlines, and I bought the tickets about 2 months before? At that time it was around $700+ for a two way flight. *Book seats if you're going with your family, so you'll avoid being separated, and thereafter check in at least 1.5 hours before to confirm ur seat!*
During the flight, there was a lot of turbulence, and my sleep was disturbed a few times, so I only probably had a 2-3 hour sleep. The in-flight meal was served towards the end of the flight, around 5am, as breakfast, so make sure to eat dinner if you're taking a flight at that time. I booked a Muslim meal during the ticket purchasing, (you can also do this if you have other diet restrictions), and was served Nasi goreng with egg and chicken. Honestly I didn't felt like it was a delicious meal and had only a few bites. Instead, I ate the bread with butter, fruits and a few spoons of yogurt, which were served together.
So we reached Incheon airport at 8-ish and proceeded to get on the AREX (all-stop train). It's in a building in front of the airport, and you can use the T-money card, which is like Singapore's ez-link. To buy the card, head to the AREX entrance. There's a vending machine there to buy them. When I was there, two designs were available; a normal one and a Line Friends one (see below). They work the same way though, and are both 4000 won each. Right beside the vending machine, there will be machines for you to top up your card, and a person will be there to guide you to use it (although there are different language options available).
So move forward and there will be gantries for you to enter, just like Singapore, you tap it on your right side. An all stop train literally means that the train stops at all stations, going all the way to Seoul Station. It takes about 1 hour, if you take the other one it's about 10 minutes less. And here, I'd like to introduce a life saver; the subway app. It's no surprise the Subway line is Korea is much more complicated than Singapore, so having this app helps you see the transfers you'd have to make, and the amount of time it takes from one station to another. Although here also, I'd like to warn that their trains actually take a long time to come, so plan your times correctly! I just searched on the app store for Korea's subway apps, but i felt that 'Subway Korea' was the most user-friendly. Click on one station, choose whether you're departing or arriving at the station, then do the same for another station. You'll get the shortest journey and also a journey with the least transfers, so you can choose accordingly. Also because there's so many subway stations, you can actually click on the subway icon and search icon to search for your station without searching for it one by one on the map (which might take you forever)
So first on our schedule we went to Namdaemun Market because I thought my mum wanted to buy a pan, but we ended up buying a lot of souvenirs instead....... π Namdaemun Market has almost everything, from clothes to food, to spectacle shops. The only one thing they didn't have was.... escalators. Actually they do but I wasn't sure why our stupid selves weren't able to find them (maybe cos first few hours then still trying to adjust to live in Korea) but we almost died taking our suitcases up and down the staircases. Fortunately for us, a few nice Koreans helped us carry them a few times up and down the stairs. Talking about nice Koreans, first few hours in Korea and we met this really nice lady boss from the souvenir shop, who gave us discounts (very very important) and willingly guided us to different shops for us to get our ingredients for cooking. She even allowed us to place our heavy luggage outside her shop while she brought us along. Although some Koreans do speak (broken) English, I would say having an understanding of what they say and being able to converse (as basic as it is) will make your life much easier in Korea. What with the getting lost everywhere, you'd get directions better and of course they'd be a bit more friendlier to you! ****more discountssss
We then proceeded to the apartment, where we again dragged our luggage up the stairs. BUT please note that Itaewon Mrt does have a lift, from B5 to B1, and from B1 to the street level, Exit 2. (The four exits are really close to each other, don't worry about travelling more). What I realised is that everybody here loves the stairs, both the young and old. There are even instances where an escalator is right beside but they still climb the stairs...... Oh how my mum would have wished for anything except the stairs! π« Anyway most of their lifts are at the ends of the subway stations, not in the middle like Singapore, so keep your eyes open~
After settling down in our apartment, (which again, had hills and stairs) we headed for our very late lunch (3pm), and settled for Murree Restaurant. Coming out from Exit 3 of Itaewon station, walk towards Mr Kebab, turn right, and go up the hill. Turn left at the junction at the end of the hill. Proceed uphill for 3 minutes to reach Murree, which will be on your right. (Yes, you'd have to pass Siti Sarah and many other halal restaurants on the way, your choices are pretty much endless!)
So from my half a day in Korea you must have already heard the amount of staircases and hills they had? Yes, it is a lot. *Not a recommended destination for those on a wheelchair/those with bad knees :-( prepare ankle Guards and many salonpas!
So after lunch we went to N Seoul Tower. To get there we took a shuttle bus no. 03 from Itaewon and it brought us all the way up the hill. I was planning to hike down the hill but on our way up I decided it wasn't such a good idea with my parents. Would definitely do it alone though, the view is amazing!! Anyway there are a few busses there, check what's better for you, or you can take the cable car too! (Check this website: http://www.nseoultower.co.kr/eng/visit/traffic.asp)
For most of our attractions, I booked the tickets beforehand, it is cheaper by a few dollars that way. Honestly the feeling upstairs was similar to Ion sky, didn't really excite me as much, but the padlock place was definitely better! Cliche tourist attraction but why not? There's a shop nearby where u can buy the locks, they provide free markers you can bring home, and you can wish for everlasting love~π (If anyone is wondering where the keys go, they collect it in a bin nearby, you're not supposed to throw it down actually.)
After N Seoul Tower we headed to Cheonggyecheon Stream, which was located at many different subway stations, but we went to the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park station one, because I planned for a shopping trip afterwards, so it saves more time. As you walk out of the station, the stream is actually across a traffic light. You have to go down a few steps of stairs to reach the stream, as it isn't street level. My plan was to dip our feet in but I didn't know it would be as freezing, so we didn't. Instead, we crossed the river by stepping on a few rocks (perfect photography spot guys!!). It didn't look as scary until I started to step on one, because you could hear the current beside you, but don't worry, the rocks are REALLY stable. Is there a saying about crossing the rocks? I'm not sure, but it's a great experience!
So next we climbed back up to the street level to cross another traffic light and went down an exit to an underground shopping place. It kind of felt like an indoor Bugis? (I didn't get the name of the place though..) And here, as it's not an actual shopping centre, you work your bargaining skills. The place actually connects to an actual shopping centre with Brands such as Vans, Adidas and more. Kind of like a Metro/Tangs....? They even have Olive Young, which is Singapore's SASA, upstairs, so you can check them out, although technically Olive Young is a street shop so you can find them almost everywhere. (really, there's two store 10 minutes away from each other in Itaewon)
And back for dinner we went! We had Mr Kebab, whose directions I've already told you above, but it's out of exit 3, walk straight for a few mins. The kebabs weren't packed/rolled as tight as I expected, but my Friend says their fries were good. They have seats inside that can probably take about 20~ people, so if you don't have seats, you can have them takeaway!
And that's the end of day 1! From day 1 only, what I realised was that a lot of Koreans assumed we were Malaysians, I think cos of our headscarves? Like I feel that the image of Singapore wasn't a person wearing a headscarf, as told by a Grandmother on my second last day in Korea. But someone also said that there were a lot of Malaysian students who come to Korea to study, so yeah.
Also, if you've noticed, at every destination I linked it to Visit Korea's website, which I found was amazing, because you can see a brief background of the place, the transportation you can take to the place, and even restaurants around (non-halal, of course).
So attached below is our original itinerary, have fun planning :-) *half of our itinerary wasn't followed but here's the original one!
I didn't want to follow on a tour, thus I planned the week's travel, but I have to say that as compared to the itinerary I planned out the whole week, we followed probably half of it? Like some places were further/we spent more time than expected.
So I'll be writing my planned itinerary at the end of every post, so that you guys can have a reference and plan your own!
We went for a 7 days 6 nights trip, leaving on a 1am flight towards Korea. We took Korean Airlines, and I bought the tickets about 2 months before? At that time it was around $700+ for a two way flight. *Book seats if you're going with your family, so you'll avoid being separated, and thereafter check in at least 1.5 hours before to confirm ur seat!*
During the flight, there was a lot of turbulence, and my sleep was disturbed a few times, so I only probably had a 2-3 hour sleep. The in-flight meal was served towards the end of the flight, around 5am, as breakfast, so make sure to eat dinner if you're taking a flight at that time. I booked a Muslim meal during the ticket purchasing, (you can also do this if you have other diet restrictions), and was served Nasi goreng with egg and chicken. Honestly I didn't felt like it was a delicious meal and had only a few bites. Instead, I ate the bread with butter, fruits and a few spoons of yogurt, which were served together.
So we reached Incheon airport at 8-ish and proceeded to get on the AREX (all-stop train). It's in a building in front of the airport, and you can use the T-money card, which is like Singapore's ez-link. To buy the card, head to the AREX entrance. There's a vending machine there to buy them. When I was there, two designs were available; a normal one and a Line Friends one (see below). They work the same way though, and are both 4000 won each. Right beside the vending machine, there will be machines for you to top up your card, and a person will be there to guide you to use it (although there are different language options available).
So move forward and there will be gantries for you to enter, just like Singapore, you tap it on your right side. An all stop train literally means that the train stops at all stations, going all the way to Seoul Station. It takes about 1 hour, if you take the other one it's about 10 minutes less. And here, I'd like to introduce a life saver; the subway app. It's no surprise the Subway line is Korea is much more complicated than Singapore, so having this app helps you see the transfers you'd have to make, and the amount of time it takes from one station to another. Although here also, I'd like to warn that their trains actually take a long time to come, so plan your times correctly! I just searched on the app store for Korea's subway apps, but i felt that 'Subway Korea' was the most user-friendly. Click on one station, choose whether you're departing or arriving at the station, then do the same for another station. You'll get the shortest journey and also a journey with the least transfers, so you can choose accordingly. Also because there's so many subway stations, you can actually click on the subway icon and search icon to search for your station without searching for it one by one on the map (which might take you forever)
So as for our apartment, we booked an AirBnB apartment as compared to a hotel, cos I thought a hotel would be more expensive, considering that I won't be eating their "free" breakfast, and that I can't wash 7 days worth of clothes. The apartment I booked was located in Itaewon, which was perfect because it is THE place for all Muslim travellers to find their halal food, which I will talk about again later. The apartment costed us $100+ a day, and had all facilities we needed, (washing machine, two rooms, iron, kitchen) which can all be chosen as you like on AirBnB! *Do check reviews on the place beforehand, e.g what floor it's on, how far away it is from the subway etc. You can chat with the owner before booking the apartment.*
So first on our schedule we went to Namdaemun Market because I thought my mum wanted to buy a pan, but we ended up buying a lot of souvenirs instead....... π Namdaemun Market has almost everything, from clothes to food, to spectacle shops. The only one thing they didn't have was.... escalators. Actually they do but I wasn't sure why our stupid selves weren't able to find them (maybe cos first few hours then still trying to adjust to live in Korea) but we almost died taking our suitcases up and down the staircases. Fortunately for us, a few nice Koreans helped us carry them a few times up and down the stairs. Talking about nice Koreans, first few hours in Korea and we met this really nice lady boss from the souvenir shop, who gave us discounts (very very important) and willingly guided us to different shops for us to get our ingredients for cooking. She even allowed us to place our heavy luggage outside her shop while she brought us along. Although some Koreans do speak (broken) English, I would say having an understanding of what they say and being able to converse (as basic as it is) will make your life much easier in Korea. What with the getting lost everywhere, you'd get directions better and of course they'd be a bit more friendlier to you! ****more discountssss
We then proceeded to the apartment, where we again dragged our luggage up the stairs. BUT please note that Itaewon Mrt does have a lift, from B5 to B1, and from B1 to the street level, Exit 2. (The four exits are really close to each other, don't worry about travelling more). What I realised is that everybody here loves the stairs, both the young and old. There are even instances where an escalator is right beside but they still climb the stairs...... Oh how my mum would have wished for anything except the stairs! π« Anyway most of their lifts are at the ends of the subway stations, not in the middle like Singapore, so keep your eyes open~
After settling down in our apartment, (which again, had hills and stairs) we headed for our very late lunch (3pm), and settled for Murree Restaurant. Coming out from Exit 3 of Itaewon station, walk towards Mr Kebab, turn right, and go up the hill. Turn left at the junction at the end of the hill. Proceed uphill for 3 minutes to reach Murree, which will be on your right. (Yes, you'd have to pass Siti Sarah and many other halal restaurants on the way, your choices are pretty much endless!)
So from my half a day in Korea you must have already heard the amount of staircases and hills they had? Yes, it is a lot. *Not a recommended destination for those on a wheelchair/those with bad knees :-( prepare ankle Guards and many salonpas!
So after lunch we went to N Seoul Tower. To get there we took a shuttle bus no. 03 from Itaewon and it brought us all the way up the hill. I was planning to hike down the hill but on our way up I decided it wasn't such a good idea with my parents. Would definitely do it alone though, the view is amazing!! Anyway there are a few busses there, check what's better for you, or you can take the cable car too! (Check this website: http://www.nseoultower.co.kr/eng/visit/traffic.asp)
For most of our attractions, I booked the tickets beforehand, it is cheaper by a few dollars that way. Honestly the feeling upstairs was similar to Ion sky, didn't really excite me as much, but the padlock place was definitely better! Cliche tourist attraction but why not? There's a shop nearby where u can buy the locks, they provide free markers you can bring home, and you can wish for everlasting love~π (If anyone is wondering where the keys go, they collect it in a bin nearby, you're not supposed to throw it down actually.)
After N Seoul Tower we headed to Cheonggyecheon Stream, which was located at many different subway stations, but we went to the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park station one, because I planned for a shopping trip afterwards, so it saves more time. As you walk out of the station, the stream is actually across a traffic light. You have to go down a few steps of stairs to reach the stream, as it isn't street level. My plan was to dip our feet in but I didn't know it would be as freezing, so we didn't. Instead, we crossed the river by stepping on a few rocks (perfect photography spot guys!!). It didn't look as scary until I started to step on one, because you could hear the current beside you, but don't worry, the rocks are REALLY stable. Is there a saying about crossing the rocks? I'm not sure, but it's a great experience!
So next we climbed back up to the street level to cross another traffic light and went down an exit to an underground shopping place. It kind of felt like an indoor Bugis? (I didn't get the name of the place though..) And here, as it's not an actual shopping centre, you work your bargaining skills. The place actually connects to an actual shopping centre with Brands such as Vans, Adidas and more. Kind of like a Metro/Tangs....? They even have Olive Young, which is Singapore's SASA, upstairs, so you can check them out, although technically Olive Young is a street shop so you can find them almost everywhere. (really, there's two store 10 minutes away from each other in Itaewon)
And back for dinner we went! We had Mr Kebab, whose directions I've already told you above, but it's out of exit 3, walk straight for a few mins. The kebabs weren't packed/rolled as tight as I expected, but my Friend says their fries were good. They have seats inside that can probably take about 20~ people, so if you don't have seats, you can have them takeaway!
And that's the end of day 1! From day 1 only, what I realised was that a lot of Koreans assumed we were Malaysians, I think cos of our headscarves? Like I feel that the image of Singapore wasn't a person wearing a headscarf, as told by a Grandmother on my second last day in Korea. But someone also said that there were a lot of Malaysian students who come to Korea to study, so yeah.
Also, if you've noticed, at every destination I linked it to Visit Korea's website, which I found was amazing, because you can see a brief background of the place, the transportation you can take to the place, and even restaurants around (non-halal, of course).
So attached below is our original itinerary, have fun planning :-) *half of our itinerary wasn't followed but here's the original one!
Day 1: Friday, 21 April 2017
Time
|
Activity
|
Address
|
Cost
|
Remarks
|
1.10am-8.25am
|
Flight, Singapore to Korea
|
$700+/ adult
| ||
9am
|
Arrival in Korea
| |||
9am-10am
|
Walk around airport, buy transport card, head to seoul
|
Buy T-card
| ||
10am-11am
|
AREX (all stop commuter service) Train journey to Seoul
|
http://www.theseoulguide.com/arrival/airport-railroad/all-stop-train/
|
3,950 won
|
56 mins, can use T-card
|
11am-12.30pm
|
Lunch @ Makan halal Korean restaurant
|
52, Usadan-ro 10 gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea 140-911
Mrt station: Itaewon, Subway line 6, exit 3
|
~8,000-12,000 won
|
The restaurant is located just in front of the Seoul Central Masjid and a short walk away from EID restaurant.
Exit from Itaewon Station (Seoul Subway Line 6), Exit 3.Go straight 100m and turn right onto Usadan-ro Road. You will find an outlet of Mr. Kebab and Dunkin Donuts just at the corner of the turn. As you go ahead about 150m, the road comes to a crossing. Go to the left, further uphill (Usadan-ro 10-gil Road). Continue 200m to arrive at Seoul Central Masjid on the left.
|
12.30pm-1.30pm
|
Namdaemun market (for kitchen ware), free and easy, shopping/sightseeing
|
21, Namdaemunsijang 4-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
μμΈνΉλ³μ μ€κ΅¬ λ¨λλ¬Έμμ₯4κΈΈ 21 (λ¨μ°½λ)
|
Hoehyeon Station (Seoul Subway Line 4), Exit 5
| |
Foreign mart
|
#137-8, Itaewon-dong, Jungeun Building, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
|
From Itaewon Station, walk straight to the the stop lights and turn right. Foreign Food Mart is on the left about 50 metres up the hill
| ||
1.30pm-2pm
|
Travel to accommodation
| |||
2pm-3pm
|
Check house, relax, wash up
| |||
3pm-5.30pm
|
N Seoul Tower
|
Cable car boarding: Myeong-dong station exit 3, walk for about 10-15 minutes following the street of the right side of the pacific hotel
|
10,000 Won general admission
6,000 Won one-way cable car
|
Namsan Sunhwan shuttle bus no. 05:
Myeondong station, exit 3/ chungmuro station exit 2, in front of Daehan cinema. Every 15 minutes, 730-2330
1200 won cash, or 1100 transport card
|
6pm-6.30pm
|
Cheongyecheon stream (24/7)
|
- City Hall (Seoul Subway Line 1)
| ||
7pm-8pm
|
dinner @ mr kebab/ Taj palace
|
Mrt station: Itaewon, subway line 6, exit 3
| ||
8pm-9.30pm
|
Shopping @ Dongdaemun market (24/7)
|
Line 1 or 4 Dongdaemun Station
|
STREET FOOD:
http://www.havehalalwilltravel.com/blog/shop-and-eat-till-you-drop-in-dongdaemun-korea-muslim-friendly-travel-guide-by-hhwt/
| |
9.30pm-10pm
|
travel back to house, goodnight!
|
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