Travelling Around in Seoul

Seoul is pretty well connected, having very comprehensive metro lines that may frighten anyone who sees it for the first time (though many will also jump in and say this is so much simpler than Tokyo). I agree, but this is complicated enough.

Taking a Taxi is relatively cheap too compared to Singapore, and is aplenty along the street.

HOWEVER, having said that, travelling around Seoul can be confusing and painful. I believe the locals are equally confused as well as we've seen locals asking around about the routes and even have locals coming to us asking for help.

Taking the Subway

Let's take 1 example. We stay at Hongdae (hongik university station). To go to Myengdong, we take the AREX line to Seoul Station (2 stops), change to Line 4 and Myengdong is 2 stops after. If you use the app, it says its 4 stations 20 mins. Sounds simple enough, and honestly, it's not hard. The difficult part is the long flight of stars and long walks to the other station, which is definitely not baby/elderly/super-tired-after-a-long-day-of shopping friendly. To transfer from Seoul Station, you'll need to go up and down a few stairs (I think there's escalator), walk quite a bit, exit Seoul station, walk somemore, to change to Line 4. Please estimate another around 10 mins walk from AREX seoul station to Line 4. and if you have a lot of shopping bags, good luck! :)

Otherwise, Seoul's metro station can really get us everywhere we want to. As long as you're prepared to walk and climb a few stairs, the metro is really awesome and comprehensive to bring you anywhere.

Taking a Taxi

"Since it's so troublesome to take the subway, let's take a cab!" I told the Husband 1 day after a long day of shopping. Friends have warned me about cabbing in Seoul, that it's not the easiest place around to get a cab. I don't believe. How bad can it get right? Well, try hiring for a cab for 30mins to no avail in the cold in -8 degrees. Brrr.....

Before the trip, I was quite wary about communication problem so I prepared little cards with places we want to go with names and addresses in Korean. I mean, if they don't understand I can just past them the card and they can surely read right?

The only place I attempted to take a cab to is back to our guesthouse at Hongdae. Armed with my little card, as well as the guesthouse's name card, we proceed to hire a cab and told them "Hongdae", They gave us a confused/puzzled look. (maybe our pronunciation is off) We passed them the card, they still look confused or just shake their head (we have no idea if they have no idea how to go, or they don't want to go). There was this cab driver who decided to take us, and keyed in the address into his GPS but sent us to the wrong place! He sent us to Edae instead. I recognized the place as we went there in the morning and told him "No, wrong place" but he insisted its correct and want us to alight. Thank god there's a subway nearby and it's still running and we managed to catch the last train back.

The other time was after we went to Silom jijimbang. It was past midnight and the trains have stopped running so we had to take a cab. It was freeezing that night and the above scenario repeat again. It was really paining, and I was really panicking. What if we couldn't get a cab back? I have no idea how to walk back from Seoul Station. and it was really freezing. 

Thank god one cab driver (probably take pity on me as I looked so cold?), and decided to take us although he doesn't seem to understand where we are going despite us showing them the address. I showed him my subway mobile app and showed him Hongik University station hoping he will understand since we can easily walk back to the guesthouse from there. He don't understand too. He keep saying Sinchon (which is near to Hongdae), so I told him further. Hongdae Hongdae. We still decided to take the cab even though he doesn't seem to know the place since there's really no other choices and I'm thinking perhaps we can guide him. Well, not knowing a single Korean was really painful cos he don't understand and we don't understand what he's telling us. We can see he's in the right direction and suddenly he stopped and ask us to alight. We told him to go straight further, and he started blabling on what we don't understand. No choice we have to alight and wander out in the cold again. Thank god there's English wordings on the road signs and we can see that we seem to be on the right way, and our place is like 15 streets down the road? So we started walking in the freezing cold (it was quite an experience actually), and imagine our delight when we finally see our guesthouse around 20mins later! even though the uncle dropped us at some random place, I'm still thankful to him that he dropped us somewhere that we can walk back. No matter what it's better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere in Seoul, out in the freezing cold with no idea how to get back to the guesthouse. =/

Tips:

- Download the Korea Subway App on your phone. This is a life saver and a MUST if you intend to travel via subway. You can select the station you're at, and the station you're travelling to and it will calculate and show you the recommended route, time required and cost. best thing is it works offline (with no network). this is the one I used. 

- get T-mobile. This is like Ezlink in Singapore, and you'll get a discount on rides, and do not have to get a ticket each and every ride. super convenient. :)

Seoul Free & Easy

Annyeonghaseyo! We started 2015 in beautiful Winter Korea. After washing so much Korean Dramas, Korea has always been one of my to-go places and I'm glad to finally paid it a visit.

We were initially torn between free and easy or group tour. Group tour seems like an easy option since we have never been to this city, and we're both too busy to do much research. However, after paying a visit to a couple of travel agencies and looking through their itineary, we decide that free and easy is a better option. Honestly, after comparing prices, we found that free and easy aint that cheap compared to group tour. but the main reason that make us choose to go the free and easy route is itineary. Group Tours itineary are full of destinations we ain't interested in: Amethyst Factory, Ginseng Showroom, Ski Resort, Everland etc etc. We decide that we will just be a bit more hardworking and plan our own itineary and spend time in places we're really interested in.

Flying to Korea ain't cheap. Air tickets during the xmas/ny period is expensive, and regardless you're looking at Singapore Airlines/Korean Air/Asiana airlines, the tickets easily cost $1200+ to $1500++/pax. I totally feel it's not worth spending that amount of money to fly to Korea since that amount can be spent on better destinations. I was telling the husband I won't go unless we can get tickets at $500, though both of us think I'm being ridiculous since it seems impossible to get such cheap tickets, somemore during peak season.

Well, the stars aligned, and just as we were troubling about the air tickets, Scoot ran a promo, and we managed to get our tickets at $500/pax (both ways, including insurance and additional 20kg baggage!). Well, law of attraction! :) I've never been much of a hotel person, and depending on the city I'm in, if possible, I'll always opt to go for Airbnb, guesthouse or minsu for the more personal and local touch. So this time round, we stayed in a guesthouse near Hongdae. It's a pretty nice location, just 5 mins walk to the subway, though it seems to be a difficult place to locate for the cab drivers. almost none of the cab drivers we encounter manage to bring us to our guesthouse even though we passed them the address in korean. =| more about this in another post.

Decembers and January in Korea is freezing cold. It was -8 degrees when we reached, so that's quite a change from our 30degrees Singapore. Good thing that Sinagpore has been in a relatively cooling weather so it's not that drastic a change, but brrrrr...IT IS COLD.

A few key things I learnt about staying warm from this trip:

• Long Johns is important. A good long john can keep you warm. I got ours from Qoo10 (at < S$20 including shipping per set (top and bottom)), and it saved us in this freezing weather. We do not have to wear 10 layers, bundling up like a burger. All we are wearing is our long john, a knit top (the husband is wearing a turtle neck Heatech top), jeans, and an outer jacket.
• when it gets impossibly cold, ear muffs are a god saver. I used to think it is for cuteness, but no, it does wonders to keep us cold. and it doesn't mess up/flatten the hair like a hat does.
• gloves does wonders too!
• if you need, wear a face mask. our nose feels horrible in the cold, so a face mask can helps to form some kind of protection.
• some soju helps! :)

Stay tune for our itinerary and more updated and tips on our Korea trip. :)

Taichung 台中, Taiwan

The bus ticketing booth at Alishan is inside 7-11, and they also show the timing of the buses. My advice is, unless you have absolutely no idea what time you are leaving Alisha, it's best to get your tickets early, as we did see people who are unable to get the tickets of the timing they want. Since you're probably going to catch a train after that to the next destination, missing a bus will probably delay the rest of your itinerary. 

The bus stop right outside of 7-11. There's buses that brings us back to Chiayi station, or to Sun Moon Lake 日月潭. Again, there'll be lots of people touting you to take their private bus etc. I'm not sure about the costs these people charged as I've been advised to ignore them, so you may want to ask first if you're interested.

We took the bus to Chiayi station, before catching a train to Taichung. I'll strongly recommend you google for the timing of the train you want to catch to your next destination, and gauge the timing of the bus you want to take from Alishan from there so as to prevent situation of having to wait for a few hours for a train, and wasting time.

We're staying at CityInn Taichung again. This hotel is perfect if you're planning to catch a bus/train early next morning to somewhere else (eg. 鹿港, taipei etc) since it's right beside the train station. It is however, pretty far away from any of the night markets so you'll need to cab there. Cab ride from CityInn to Yi Zhong night market is around 20 mins if I remembered correctly.

If you exit Taichung station from the main entrance/exit, to get to CityInn Taichung, you'll need to take the underpass and walk 5 mins. This route is not recommended if you're carrying heavy and big luggage as there are alot of steps. In most train stations in Taiwan (except Taipei probably), there's no lifts or escalators, so be prepared to climb lots and lots of stairs. After you get out of the underground passage, you'll see the signboard of another hotel "Mi Casa". Turn left, then you turn right and walk straight. You'll see City Inn. 

Another way to get to City Inn, which is the route we take during our stay there, is to go by the back entrance. Also alot of stars, but it's nearer to the hotel. Just walk out from the station, turn left, and you'll reach City Inn.

The room is clean and nice. Pretty comfortable and nice place. The hotel recepts are all very pretty and friendly, which always makes us feel very welcomed. The only thing that turns me off about this hotel is the lift. I dunno how they calculate the capacity of the lift, but it seems like it can only carry 3 person at a time, else the overweight beeping sound will keep ringing. As if we are so fat lor. This is very irritating especially in the morning, since everyone is going down for breakfast or checking out -and the lift can only hold THAT MANY people. -_-"'. The husband got tired of waiting so we choose to take the stairs. 

We're super hungry after our train ride so after we've checked-in, we walked around and found this place that says 80年老店 and decides to pop in. The food is super good!

This spring onion pancake 香葱饼 at Yizhong night market is super super good;. It's ran by a father and son, and the father is super friendly (I think most Taiwanese are). You can add basil leaves, pickles and egg (no extra charge) for NT35 (around S$1.50). There's alot of people selling 香葱饼 (pronunced as Xiang Cong Bing) in Taiwan, but their's is one of my favorite. It's so good, I ordered another one after shopping around abit. 

I always go crazy at Taiwan's watsons. They have Watsons everywhere, and are usually 2 - 3 levels high. I can spend so much time in there, that when I come back to Singapore, I find our Watsons very boring (though I must admit Singapore's Watsons have increased its variety lately).

Look, there's every ettusais at Watsons!

Taiwan Day 2: Alishan 阿里山

Next morning, we took a train from Kaoshiung (高雄) to Chiayi (嘉义）before transferring for a bus to Alishan （阿里山）. The train ride is NT$245 (around S$10). Note: this is not the high speed rail. 

There's scheduled timing for the rides, so you may want to go to their website http://twtraffic.tra.gov.tw/twrail/English/e_index.aspx  the night before to look for the train timing and cost, and manage and plan your schedule around there. If you missed a train, the next train may be a few hours after so it's better to make sure you catch the train you want. There're usually different trains that bring you from point X to point Y, but each train have different routes and timing so look at the name of the train, as well as duration of the trip carefully. You'll be surprised that some trains only take 1 hour to get to point Y while other trains takes 8 hours. :)

After reaching Chiayi, walk out of the train station and you'll see a mini bus interchange on the right. In fact, once you walk out of the train station, you'll probably see people coming to you, asking if you want to go to Alishan, if you want to see the sunrise next morning etc. My Alishan minsu boss has warned me before hand on this, and warned me to ignore these people. Taiwanese are generally nice and friendly people, but these touters I met at Chiayi and Alishan really irritates me. They keep asking and asking, and when you tell them "No", they keep on asking "then where are you going", "you sure you not going Alishan?", "you dunwan to watch sun rise?". Maybe I'm really lucky to meet a super hardcore touter. =_="'

Here's the timing/schedule of the bus to and from Chiayi and Alisha. You can also see on the sign below that says "No Touting". I think it says alot about how bad the situation is there. The journey from Chiayi to Alishan is around 2.5 hours though they will let you alight mid way to take a short toilet break.

Below is the route for the Alishan shuttle bus

Bus tickets from Chiayi to Alishan. Cost is NT250/pax

Warning: If you suffer from motion sickness, you may want to pop in some motion sickness pills before taking the bus. It's not the most easy trip of all, and the journey is pretty long.

Half way, the driver will stop and let you take a 10 minute toilet break. It's a nice break, as the fresh air is really refreshing and the sky looks stunning! You can easily feel the difference of the air quality between city and mountain.

Here's the place where we stopped for toilet break.

Before we enter Alishan, we need to pay another NT150 (adound S$6) for entrance fee. I dunno. Alishan feels too touristy for me. 

Anyway, after we arrived and alight, we started to look for our minsu. I read that it's beside 7-11, and thought it will be somewhere nearby but I did not know that it's literally really beside it. Like right beside! 

The minsu (homestay) we are staying is Shin Shin Minsu （欣欣民宿), located right beside 7-11. Once you alight from the bus, look out for the sign below and walk towards it.

Look to your right and you'll see this. If you don't look carefully, you may miss it, as it really doesn't look like a minsu at all.

Here's our room. I'll be honest. The room looks better on picture. It's a really simple and basic room, and is probably one of the most simple minsu I've stayed in, but still it's nice and cover my needs. My expectations for a room is very simple: Cleanliness & Security, both which are fulfilled so that's enough. and given how cheap it is (around S$50/night), really cannot be too fussy about it. We hardly stay in the room anyway!

The boss is really nice and friendly. After we've settled down in our room, and go downstairs, he will show us a map and tell us how to navigate around Alishan, where's the best spot to watch sunrise, and warn us about touters (again). The touters here will even approach you in 7-11, which is very very irritating.

Shin Shin minsu is located at a very convenient location. Not only is it right beside 7-11, it's also at the area where all the shops are (although the shops there are limited and very touristy), and most importantly, it's beside the train station. This is very useful if you plan to catch the sun rise, since you do not have to spend time travelling to the train station to catch the sunrise. 

Warning: There's a long flight of stairs to climb to the station (left side of the pic). Definitely not baby or elder friendly.

Below is the timing of the train in Alishan

They will also tell you what's the timing for the first train, and timing for sun rise the next day.

The train tickets

Recommended Route Map

We took the train and alight at Chao Ping station (沼平車站) to walk around the park/recreation area.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants near our minsu. We ordered Sesame Oil Chicken (麻油鸡) and fried cabbage. It must be the WORST food I've every tasted in Taiwan and super expensive. =/

You may also be interested in:

• Day 1: Kaoshiung
• Hotel Review: Kaohsiung 高雄: 宮賞藝術會舘 Kung Shang Design Inn