The Grinch(es) take Seoul for Christmas

[bPeteb]

With the death of my mum in mid-December 2023, and both of us on enforced summer shutdowns, Christmas/New Year in somewhere new every year is to become our norm.

When Jetstar announced in Feb it's new direct flights to Seoul, our summer break destination was set.

Between Feb 20 and 25 the trip was booked -
Jetstar Y Brisbane to Seoul Incheon on Christmas eve
Three nights at Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul
Korean Air Seoul Gimpo to Jeju
Three nights at Hotel Alice and Trunk Jeju City
Korean Air Jeju to Busan
Three nights at Mipo Oceanside Haeundae Busan
Transport tba Busan to Gyeongju
One night Y Collection by Unboundi
KTX (booked mid-December) Gyeongju to Seoul
Two nights Ibis Ambassador Seoul Insadong (second night just to have room for whole day until we head to airport for late flight)
Jetstar Y (exit row) Seoul Incheon to Brisbane

In November we booked two days on Jeju with an English speaking taxi driver. These Global Taxis are through an initiative with the local government. All managed through WhatsApp. Our assigned driver Hamee was in touch straight away.

As some of you know we were trying to sell our house in the second half of last year. Contract was finally signed in November, subject to sale of our purchasers' house, with a provisional settlement date of Jan 10, five days after we got home. Then we signed a contract on what is our now new home, with settlement on Jan 6, the day after we got back. We booked movers for Jan 8. I was back at work on Jan 7. bAlt had the rest of the week off. Nothing like some stress to start a holiday.

We had to be mostly packed up before we flew out on Christmas eve. Miraculously we got rid of nearly everything in the house we decided we didn't want to take (truly ruly nearly everything). When we walked out the door the house was a jumble of packing boxes, a couple of tvs, two beds and some chests of drawers.

Away we went.

 

[Flyerwin]

K-drama - subscribed.

(PS sincerest condolences on your mum, hope all is well)

 

[bPeteb]

K-drama - subscribed.

(PS sincerest condolences on your mum, hope all is well)

It's a year now Flyerwin. I kept thinking while we were away I should give her a call. I guess that might happen until we stop travelling. Mum loved to hear what we were up to.

 

[bPeteb]

It was timely that Wilson published his report on Jetstar economy SYD-ICH as I was finishing editing photos. We have no issue with flying Jetstar, or economy. Sure a splurge in business is nice but we have better things to spend our not unlimited cash on.

We booked and paid for the pack that gives sc, bag, and meal before it was devalued, so it was 80sc return. For our return trip I also booked exit row seats so we could give getting some sleep a red hot crack. I chose our meals and got us both entertainment.

We're light travellers so even with our extra jumpers and jackets our bags were both under 15kg.
The queue for security was hugely long but not long enough to stop us getting a couple of drinks in at the lounge.



our chariot awaits. Am I the only person who thinks that a 787-8 is an awkward, stumpy looking plane?


group boarding was well policed and we were moved up the line when they checked our boarding passes, as we were right down the back, sadly not in one of the twos though.

The young guy who was sat in the window seat got up I think twice in the 10 hours of the flight. bAlt's entertainment unit had troubles from the get go but that can happen in a J seat on a full service airline. The crew were super attentive and kept resetting every time it froze. I could see them checking everytime they walked past.

Meals were teriyaki noodles for both of us and it was pretty ok. I bought a couple of beers along the way. I forgot to take a pic of our second meal. Maybe the sausage role and pie? Who knows



The seat is reasonably roomy and comfortable and we just had no issues apart from bAlt's entertainment. Crew were super nice and wandered around that cabin constantly, unlike some J crews who disappear into the galley after service never to be seen again.

Our bags came out towards the end and immigration took forever. Incheon is a busy airport. Why only have six or seven agents when you could have 16 or 17.

We are public transport people and the express train into Seoul was our choice, but the next was nearly an hour away when I went to buy tickets. The 'all stops' express only takes an hour to get into Seoul Station, left in 10 minutes, and was a whole lot cheaper, so all stops it was.

bAlt was in charge of planning the subways and decided we needed to get onto the blue line and go to the City hall stop. There were lots of steps and long corridors to get off and on platforms and out of the subway and in hindsight we could have just walked 15 minutes straight up from the station to Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul | Luxury Serviced Apartments

It was Christmas Eve and we had our Christmas jumpers on and the receptionist loved them. We were bloody exhausted. No first night in Seoul for us.

Our standard queen room


and lovely personalised card and welcome gift

 

[bPeteb]

We usually plan like crazy but neither of us had the time or mental bandwidth to do it for this trip. We booked Global Taxi on Jeju only when we realised we had no other option except for hellishly expensive private tours. For Seoul we wanted food tours and I booked two on Dec 23 - two different providers, one for Christmas Day and one for Boxing Day.

We decided to get breakfast in the hotel, and again dressed in our Christmas jumpers, down we went. bAlt's jumper got some great reactions. KRW36,000 each and it was quite a spread.

A chilly Seoul awaits


LOTS of choices



um, no

 

[VPS]

I do like BigAl's jumper - always enjoy your TR

 

[bPeteb]

Our tour wasn't until 11 so we had a wander around the immediate area as our tour meeting point was Namdaemun Market, pretty much behind our hotel.

Nandaemun is a great location. A huge eating area behind, subway stations, Seould Station a 15 minute flat walk away and right in the centre the Sungnyemun Gate that suffered a terrible arson attack a few years ago.

Off we went out into the cold - thermals, beanies, gloves and our maybe not thick enough Uniqlo puffers

 

[bPeteb]

We'd booked Withlocals and it did not live up to our expectations. You can choose from a number of guides and I chose wrong.

Jason was a lovely young guy but his tour was not for us.

We started in a coffee shop where we had an ordinary coffee and he quizzed us about our lives in Australia. He then went into great and long detail about his entrepreneurial endeavours.

Once we got out of the coffee shop the market tour was good but still not what we expected. Most of you know we like a drink, and the blurb for Jason'the tour indicated that they would be offered, but we got nothing. Jason's heart was more in shopping than eating and we both think he was thrown that we had no interest in shopping of any kind. He even took as to a pharmac_ on the pretence of buying something really cheap (panadol) but it was really only so he could buy skin whiteneing cream! Bizarre

To the food. Offered a good selection, and there was plenty of it


but the sit down lunch was rushed and we had no explanation provided as to how we eat what was dished up


the little pancake things were a definite highlight, especially the sweet one with nuts (hazel nuts?)

 

[zig]

Sounds like you both need a really relaxing break. I hope this trip allowed you time to do that. I'm following with interest.

 

[bPeteb]

Neither of us had read the itinerary of the trip after the first look so we were a bit surprised when we Jason took us out to a cab and told us we were off to the palace.

We got off outside Gwanghwamun Square and walked through the christmas festival village. Simon gave us a running history lesson as he pointed out the statues, including the giant statue of King Sejong the Great who created the Korean language.


Then it was across the road through the Gwanghwamun Gate


and into the Gyeongbokgong Palace 경복궁 궁능유적본부. Free entry! Pretty crowded as it was a public holiday and lots of people dressed in the outfits. Simon thought it was funny that people paid so much money to hire costumes so that they could get in free when admission was so cheap in any case.


The palace grounds and the many buildings were beautiful. In places where no sun ever got to there was snow and ice still lingering from the big dump in November.


The lake around Gyeongheuro Pavilion was frozen.


the tour finished with the changing of the gurad. It was quite an amazing ceremony that really needs the drumming to do it justice


We wandered out and with the crowds and then with that the tour was over. It had been ok, but to us definitely not the food tour we'd expected. Simon was not happy with my review when I eventually posted it.

Across the road was the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History 대한민국 역사박물관 so we went in there. Not one of our favourites, but a good museum nevertheless.

 

[bPeteb]

Korean's seem to love their winter and Seoul has a winter festival with variuos things around the city including an ice skating where madness unfolded. Slow skaters, maybe first time skaters, 5yo speed skaters, skaters on a date. It was hilarious


We walked past a night time light festival that of course didn't have the same impact in daylighht, and that we meant to walk back to but forgot. Maybe it was because it was beer oclock


in the Namdaemun streets immediately behind Fraser Place were literally hundreds of restaurants, bars and cafes. Puffer fish anyone?


did you know that egg and chips are a sausages friends


this is where the babes queue


this place was always very busy


as was this

booked a queen but maybe they only actually have kings. Niether of us is a fan but it was a very comfy bed. Loved that we could open the window even if it was less than zero outside. The aircon was left on and heated floor on

 

[bPeteb]

Fraser Place had a beautiful rooftop bar/restaurant Panorama with a spectacular view across the city towards Seoul Station and down onto Sungnyemun Gate (Namdaemun) 숭례문


We had a couple of nice but expensive and small coughtails


then it was back down into the streets behind the hotel


where we found a cool chicken and beer place maybe called Daily Beer but maybe that was the brand of the beer. We have no idea



where we had delicious chicken and beer served in pyrex jugs

we finished the night with a customary icecream but more importantly got ourselves a couple of Tmoney cards from a GS25 convenience store near the hotel. We loaded them up with some of the cash that I'd converted at the money changers in the market. I'd been dragging those euros around with us for years. Those cards got a lot of use on the subways of Seoul and Busan.

The icecream was delicious!

 

[bPeteb]

We did a lot of subway travel on our full day in the city. First to the Sungnyemun Gate





maybe no

via Seoul Station.

The museum isan amazing piece of architecture with a vast display of artifacts and it was full of lots of loud and fast moving kids. Also a terrifyingly slippery walk up granite paths and steps covered in ice! Thankfully we both stayed upright

did I say it was cold? A man even asked Al if we were warm enough as our puffers did not look sufficient!

 

[bPeteb]

Then it was across the river to Gangnam to find a Citibank. For whatever reason we'd found it hard to find a global ATM that I could cash out of. I'd brough my normal Suncorp Visa debit to draw on but had no luck with the convenience store or bank ATMs I'd tried. Gangnam had a Citibank branch so that's where we went.

The money in that area is literally in your face the moment you come out of the subway. Cars went from Kia and Hyundai to huge Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Maybach, Bentley, Rolls Royce. We were getting hangry with each other and this very cool burger place saved our day


pretty much around the corner from this place is a street of the most ostentatious display of wealth I've seen outside of Monaco. The size of the individual and standalone stores/boutiques for fashion and jewellery brands was mindblowing. Didn't even bother with any pictures! We found the Citibank and got the cash we needed for our Jeju taxi driver, then wandered through the backstreets


down to the river where the initial view over the freeway was less than great


We found the pedestrian subway under the freeway and it was much better


guess what premiered while we were here

 

[bPeteb]

It was a long hike back to the subway and by the time we got back to the hotel we'd clocked up 25,000 steps but we hadn't finished. It was time for food tour two - a night market tour booked through TripAdvisor with Goodmate Travel Gwangjang Night Market Food Tour — Goodmate Travel and this tour was bloody fantastic.

It was three stops along the subway from City Hall stop to Jongno 5-ga station and out exit 7 where we met our fabulous guide HJ (Hae Ji). We were a group of seven. It was literally 100 metres and we were in the amazing Gwangjang Market 광장시장 Food amazing, smalles amazing, HJ's love of all things Korean food was 110% infectious. Food, beer, soju, drinking games. Fantastic!

 

[bPeteb]

market tour continues including wriggling octopus tentacles and the drinking games

Netflix Korean celeb who was super lovely




the market is mainly food at night with clothing and the rest during the day


back to food


the drinking games begin at restaurant two, or was it three? Three different kinds of soju. You pour each other drinks



Korean blood sausage no thanks



the wriggling tentacles. The suckers latch onto the inside of you mouth. Funny as!


donuts!!


we finished the night in a 'craft beer' bar next to the hotel. Craft beer = foreign beer most of the time but we did hunt down Korean craft beers when we could. Google translate was our friend.