Thursday, April 28, 2016

Trip to South Korea (23/04/2016-02/05/2016)

Count the Blessings

  • Met up with a good friend of mine in Seoul who is a Professor in University (met him in Oxford 5 years ago!)
  • The landlord of our accommodation in Seoul is getting married on 30/04
  • Witnessed Christians praying earnestly and loudly in Yoido Full Gospel Church
  • Experienced the praying in the individual prayer room at prayer mountain 
  • Good accommodation location with many food and grocery shops within walking distance in Seoul 
  • No raining during the whole duration of the trip until the day after we went back 
  • Visited Gyeongbokgung Palace for free due to it was on Wednesday (surprise to us!)


Additional Points

  • Starting January 2014, the last Wednesday of every month has been designated a special “Culture Day” in Korea. Free admission / Discounted rates at some places/attractions.
  • If you were to allow the accommodation PIC to cancel booking.com, you would get discount 
  • Subway: 5 min walking and 10 min waiting for train 
  • "Subway" apps was really helpful
  • Reservation in advance for the palace (慶會樓) a day before and the blue house >30 days before (president's office).

After 5 years, met up with my Oxford friend in Seoul!

Met 3 groups of people in Busan on 30/04:

1) Motel owner was kind to advice us some nice places to visit and to eat. Moreover, he was quick in reporting to our illiterate of the coffee making machine in Korean by preparing the English and Chinese translation in 5 minutes time [friendly and efficient people]

2) After dinner, complimented to the receptionist that janchi-guksu (soup noodle) is good and she smiled and called the person who was doing the cooking so that he turned to us and we also complimented him by showing thumb's up [humble people and remember/give credit to teammate]

3) A Korean couple who speaks good English talking to us while we were having patbingsu (blended ice with red beans) and offered us a rid after that [kind and nice people]

Overall Budget (10 Days) [Exchange Rate was 3.53 to buy KRW)
RM1,000 Flight)
RM500 Accommodation
RM700 Food (RM70 x 10)
RM350 Transportation (RM15x10 Subway + RM200 KTX/Highspeed Rail Train)
RM270 Souvenirs
RM100 Attractions (RM10 x 10)
RM80 Show/Theater Performance
RM3,000 TOTAL

Itinerary


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