Monday, November 11, 2013

Jocelyn & Lennart's Free & Easy Trip to Seoul, Korea 01/11/13 - 06/11/13 : Day 1, Part 2, arriving at Incheon International Airport, Seoul,Korea!

Yes! We finally reached Korea, so excited about the weather, the shopping, the food and the different touristic spots that we are gonna visit!

Weather's good at 18 degrees celsius, only had a long sleeved turtle neck heat tech from Uniqlo(2nd time wearing it from the previous trip last year), a tee shirt with fleece jacket and a pair of jeans.

 But I find it kinda warm on the bus but comfortable if you are outside on the streets.

Ok, we landed around 3.30pm Korea time, Korea is ahead of Singapore by 1 hour for those of you whose watches that need to sync.

For smart phones users, usually your phone once connected to their local networks it would sync automatically for you.

Oh yeah one more cool stuff that I did before going to Korea, 1 week before our flight, I subscribe to Singtel's data roam unlimited daily usage for 1st Nov till 6th Nov, this is for Singtel's mobile users only.

Ok I will elaborate more on how to do it in another post.

Anyway, we claimed our luggages and off we go out to the Arrival Hall!

Took our itinerary which we printed, you guys can leave a comment if you're interested in it, I'm still correcting some directions on it.

We headed out to search for the Airport Limousine Bus Counter thinking we need to purchase the tickets there.

Note that we are looking to take the Airport Limousine Bus Myeong-Dong(6015) to Sejong Hotel.

Below is a map of the route Bus 6015 takes and the stops which it stops at. Attached is also a timetable of the First and Last buses, for those planning to travel by bus do check the timings out. More information for other buses routes and timetables can be found at the official Incheon Airport website here. 



Station
For Airport
For Seoul
The First Bus
The Last Bus
The First Bus
The Last Bus
IBIS
4:35
20:20
5:35
22:50
ROYAL
4:37
20:22
BESTWESTERN GUKDO
4:40
20:26
PJ
4:43
20:30
SEJONG
4:50
20:35
LOTTEE CITY
5:02
20:47
SEOUL GARDEN
5:05
20:50




However after checking with the lady at the information counters, she directed us to the nearest exit to the left of the booth.

Over there is the bus stop for Bus 6015, just right outside the exit so convenient!




Oh yeah beforehand, we downloaded and printed out 2 copies of the discount coupon shared from another blog.

The ticket for the bus ride costs 10,000won, with the discount we saved 1,000won each, so thats only 18,000won


Found the bus stop as soon as we stepped out so convenient, there's English wordings on it as well, Korea is becoming very Tourist Friendly! 

Anyway we were lucky, the bus came as soon as we stepped out, the driver or their helper will help load your luggages into the luggage compartment of the bus and they will stick a sticker with a number to your luggage and issue you the tag for you to claim it later when you disembark. 

You can pay using cash or T-money as you board the bus, it's a top-up card similar to our Ez-link, I will elaborate further on where to get the T-money card and how to top it up. 

Change will be given if you pay by cash not to worry if you do not have small change, preferably if you have 10,000 won notes instead of 50,000 won notes because you will be changed back in coins.



Traffic was fairly fine on a Friday Evening, the journey took us about 80-90minutes to Sejong Hotel. Pressed the bell when the bus announces next stop Sejong Hotel.

Before every stop the bus will play an announcement in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin and English to notify the passengers of the next stop and if you want to alight, you just need to press the bell to alight.

The bus captain will get off the bus if you are alighting and help with unloading the luggages for you and not to forget you need the luggage tag of the matching sticker on your luggage given to you earlier in order to claim it.

Sejong Hotel is just a stone throw away from the bus stop, I was pretty amazed that it was right infront of it, pretty convenient.

Checked in with the receipt that I printed booking the room online with Agoda.com and up we go to the room!
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The room's pretty spacious with a Queen Sized bed, dressing table, wardrobe, coffee table and cabinet with refrigerator & safe.

The missus is pretty hungry, grumpy and tired already XD so off we go to get our lunch cum dinner after leaving our bags and luggages in the room.

Jocelyn and I has been to Korea last year on Chan Brother's Travel Group Package and we have fallen in love with the crispy baked chicken at Myeongdong, we were able to find it the previous time with the help of our Korean Tour guide but this time we are going to find it on our own especially when our Hotel is so near!

Using a map borrowed from a friend, we found our directions and navigated our way to Myeongdong main shopping streets which is just behind our hotel.

After navigating and walking through Myeongdong for 10minutes, we found the restaurant, as we have been there before we naturally recognised the signboard, its located at the third floor.

Below are the directions to the restaurant from Sejong Hotel for reference. The Shop name is called Oppadak. In Korean, 'dak' means chicken.

OPPADAK Baked Chicken Restaurant
1   1)  If you stay at Sejong Hotel, turn right after you exit the hotel and walk along the main  street till you come to a T-junction before Myeongdong Exit 8.
    2)  Turn right into the junction before Myeongdong Station exit 8.
    3)  Walk straight along until you passed by 3 cross junctions and you will see a corner      shop selling Kimbap(Korean Seaweed Rice rolls) look up and you will see a yellow signage  showing OppaDak on the left.
    4)  The shop is located at level 3.
    5)  After you enter, the staffs will usher you to the seats
    6)  This restaurant sells mainly Chickens as their main and all their chickens are baked not fried.
    7)  The Main Dish is Original Baked Chix, very crispy and juicy, don’t worry they will give  you English Menu so you can see and choose the dish and sauces for dips etc.
    8)  You can try their spicy sauce chix though I haven’t tried before but I see their locals  ordering but we still love their Baked Chix because it is very crispy and juicy in the  inside.

    9)  The sauce dips are refillable, they can get very busy on weekends, usually the wait for  the chix is about 15mins so be patient for the good stuffs, not advisable to take out  because the chix gets soggy if you carry too long on the outside

Attached a map below for easy reference.


Finally the Crispy Baked Chicken is here after a long wait! Look at Jocelyn's smile hehe.


Basically the whole chicken is chopped into parts and served fresh from the oven, very crispy, not oily at all and we both easily finished one whole chicken because you won't feel greasy and oily in your mouth after eating it and you will want more! Hahaha

We ordered the Original Baked Chicken but you can also order just chicken wings or drumsticks only and they have other flavours as well like spicy chicken etc.

We finished the chicken really quick because we are really hungry lol but not to worry you won't need to use your hands if you do not want to because they provide tongs and forks which you can easily feast on the chicken with and a waste bin where you can throw the bones into.

And most Korean restaurants provide tissues at the table so you won't need to start searching your pockets and bags for tissues after your meal or spilled juices.

We washed it down with their local drink, Chilsung cider which is an alternative and less sweet version of Sprite but the locals love to eat their chickens with beer or soju even the ladies down huge pints of beer, its really amazing of how much they can drink!

After a satisfied dinner, we slowly walked along Myeongdong shopping streets and back to our hotel, we're tired beat from the flight and needed to rest for our planned trip to Everland the next day!

Stay tuned for the trip to Everland as I will describe more about T-money and Singtel's Data Roam Saver Plan.

1 comment:

jade said...

you can always take a taxi if you do not mind the high taxi fare and mid night surcharge. Toronto Airport Limo