My wife Yoke Fong and I visited South Korea for six days five nights (from Tuesday, 30 September to Sunday, 5 October, 2008 during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.) It was our first overseas adventure after we got married on Saturday, 31 August, 2002. After this, we visited many other countries in our adventures
together! (In this Blog, I will keep updating the countries we visited as we go
along.)
We hopped into a tour bus, headed to a small restaurant on east of Incheon Island and had some tasty steamy Korean pork noodles soup. After that we headed to the mainland across the sea to the northern part of Seoul at a place called Imjingak. There we could see North Korea from afar.
Below are the hotels we stayed and itineraries:
DAY ONE, FIRST NIGHT ~ Tuesday, Sept 30, 2008
Seorak Tourist Hotel Gapyeong
It was a long drive just to get out of the city parameter of Seoul. We visited a cultural site (northeast of Seoul) where there were several movie shots done in the past and then we headed east with our tourist bus for almost two hours through tunnels and rolling mountains (much like driving up to the Mount Kinabalu National Park) to get to this hotel. It was foggy and freezing when we got here at about 8pm. Hotel was nice, clean and quaint. I give three stars (out of five) to this place. Loved its friendly staff!
DAY ONE, FIRST NIGHT ~ Tuesday, Sept 30, 2008
Seorak Tourist Hotel Gapyeong
It was a long drive just to get out of the city parameter of Seoul. We visited a cultural site (northeast of Seoul) where there were several movie shots done in the past and then we headed east with our tourist bus for almost two hours through tunnels and rolling mountains (much like driving up to the Mount Kinabalu National Park) to get to this hotel. It was foggy and freezing when we got here at about 8pm. Hotel was nice, clean and quaint. I give three stars (out of five) to this place. Loved its friendly staff!
Daemyung Resort Seorak
We started early at about 7am; had Western breakfast at Seorak Tourist Gapyeong Hotel (dining place was at the basement) and then drove further east through more tunnels and ridges, valleys, river banks and paddy fields; we passed through several small rural towns and military posts,
and finally got to Mount Seorak National Park ~ a beautiful sight!
After a long day hiking and trekking around Mount Seorak, and saw several other locations including a tiny exotic east-coast fishing town, Sokcho,
we got to our next hotel ~ Daemyung Resort Seorak.
A perfect place to rest and relax after an extremely tiring day.
I would say that this resort is very similar to Sutera Harbour Resort or
Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort (but without the beach).
We saw many Indonesian tourists (with their very distinctive and familiar language) at the Daemyung Resort Seorak. Enjoyed the swimming in a pool and jacuzzi / spa. Rooms were of traditional Korean designs; sleeping mattresses were on the floor (Korean/Japanese style).
Yoke Fong enjoyed taking a lot of photos of red, orange and yellow autumn leaves around this resort.
As you walk out of this resort to the parking lot, you cannot miss the picturesque greyish/bluish granite peaks (similar to the jagged peaks on Mount Kinabalu).
DAY THREE, THIRD NIGHT ~ Thursday, Oct 2, 2008
DAY FOUR, FOURTH NIGHT ~ Friday, Oct 3, 2008
Capital Hotel Seoul
We drove all the way from the east coast through the center of the Korean peninsular and back to the city of Seoul ~ to a theme-park named "Everland" (at the southern suburb of Seoul called Yongin which happens to be the sister city of Kota Kinabalu). Spent most of our day at Everland and after that we headed to the center of Seoul, going through a maze of freeways, highways, streets, flyovers and bridges, briefly visiting a casino by a river, and finally got to our next hotel ~ Capital Hotel Seoul (which is actually within the Itaewon area). It is a large urban business hotel, similar to Hyatt Regency Kinabalu. Services were excellent and very professional. (We then realized we faced a problem recharging or using our electronic devices ~ we can't use our Malaysian three-point plugs and we didn't have any adapter for two-point sockets.) By the way, our room was decorated with Old English interior.
The next day, Friday, we had buffet "breakfast a-la China" (plain fried noodles with boiled eggs and yong tofu) outside the hotel and after that visited the Blue House (South Korean president's residence) and another theme-park named "Lotte World". We were back to Capital Hotel Seoul late at night, which means we barely get to immerse ourselves into this hotel.
Next day (Saturday), we had a quick breakfast at Itaewon area (the previous night we had dinner nearby that same area and I remembered noticing a church with an African pastor) and headed to Gimpo Airport to fly Jeju Island.
DAY FIVE, FIFTH NIGHT ~ Saturday, Oct 4, 2008
Palace Hotel Jeju
Jeju Island reminded me of... Hawaii! (though I've never been to Hawaii 😄) It's the beaches (minus the tropical palm trees), the volcano, the fertile volcanic soil, the big waves, etc. However, there's no Hawaiian "Lei" in Jeju ~ the garland of flowers, worn around the neck. Noticeably, the South Korean government has been spending a lot of money to make Jeju a prime destination for honeymooners; so much so that there's even a "Teddy Bear" museum which I noticed as our tourist bus was making a tour around the island. Jeju was also a host to the FIFA World Cup 2002 matches.
Capital Hotel Seoul
We drove all the way from the east coast through the center of the Korean peninsular and back to the city of Seoul ~ to a theme-park named "Everland" (at the southern suburb of Seoul called Yongin which happens to be the sister city of Kota Kinabalu). Spent most of our day at Everland and after that we headed to the center of Seoul, going through a maze of freeways, highways, streets, flyovers and bridges, briefly visiting a casino by a river, and finally got to our next hotel ~ Capital Hotel Seoul (which is actually within the Itaewon area). It is a large urban business hotel, similar to Hyatt Regency Kinabalu. Services were excellent and very professional. (We then realized we faced a problem recharging or using our electronic devices ~ we can't use our Malaysian three-point plugs and we didn't have any adapter for two-point sockets.) By the way, our room was decorated with Old English interior.
The next day, Friday, we had buffet "breakfast a-la China" (plain fried noodles with boiled eggs and yong tofu) outside the hotel and after that visited the Blue House (South Korean president's residence) and another theme-park named "Lotte World". We were back to Capital Hotel Seoul late at night, which means we barely get to immerse ourselves into this hotel.
Next day (Saturday), we had a quick breakfast at Itaewon area (the previous night we had dinner nearby that same area and I remembered noticing a church with an African pastor) and headed to Gimpo Airport to fly Jeju Island.
Palace Hotel Jeju
Jeju Island reminded me of... Hawaii! (though I've never been to Hawaii 😄) It's the beaches (minus the tropical palm trees), the volcano, the fertile volcanic soil, the big waves, etc. However, there's no Hawaiian "Lei" in Jeju ~ the garland of flowers, worn around the neck. Noticeably, the South Korean government has been spending a lot of money to make Jeju a prime destination for honeymooners; so much so that there's even a "Teddy Bear" museum which I noticed as our tourist bus was making a tour around the island. Jeju was also a host to the FIFA World Cup 2002 matches.
DAY SIX ~ Sunday morning, Oct 5, 2008
From Jeju we flew back to Gimpo Airport in Seoul and headed to Incheon to catch our connecting flight back to KK.
NOTE: THIS SIX DAYS, FIVE NIGHTS-TOUR COSTS RM4,000 PER PERSON.
