don't leave home without...

i just bought my korea lonely planet guide and as i was reading the first few pages, i ran across this box text which i thought was informative yet kind of funny at the same time!

don't leave home without...

• checking whether you need to apply for a visa.
• learning to read the 24 hangeul characters so you can figure out business signs, menus and bus destinations (very important! most places don't have english).
• studying the food and drink chapter so you know the difference between samyetang (ginseng chicken soup) and samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) (both of them are yummy yummy anyway).
• checking your socks have no holes in them as you must remove your shoes to enter Buddhist shrines, traditional restaurants and private homes. (don't wear complicated shoes either).
• packing your hiking boots, as korea is stuffed with scenic mountains and well-marked trails.
• improving your skill at charades and gestures as not many koreans understand english.
• practising being naked in front of strangers so you can enjoy korea's many excellent reasonable priced hot-spring spas (a little difficult but i will do it mentally. hee!).
• packing a pair of sheets if you're planning to stay in budget accomodations, which often only provide quilts. (i guess this must refer to super budget accomodations).
• bringing personal hygiene and brand-name medical items that may be difficult to obtain (definitely, especially if you are the type who likes their own stuff)

text by lonely planet. italicised comments are mine.

our accomodations (2)

BUSAN: THE PLANET GUESTHOUSE

The Planet has got to be the prettiest, girliest guesthouse in Korea. it's a ladies-only guesthouse, with a big dorm room filled with 14 beds in pretty pink frilly covers. each bed has an electric blanket and a couple of powerpoints next to the bed for you to charge your phone etc. jiyoung, the owner, is also the sweetest person ever. she makes breakfast for everyone staying there and her simple egg sandwiches are delicious!

The Planet is located 2 minutes away from the most famous beach in Korea, Haeundae beach. It's located in a nondescript building that will have you scratching your head wondering if you have got the right place but once you see the cherry yellow door, it's a girlie paradise! It's about a 5 minutes walk to the Haeundae subway and ktx station, with the walk lined with all sorts of eateries.

Truthfully speaking though, the guesthouse is very centrally located for touring in Busan. If you are looking for a summer place near the beach, it's excellent. It's also near Centum City, the biggest shopping mall in the world, and Gwangalli Beach. However if you are going to Jalgalchi Fish Market and Beomeosa Temple, it takes about an hour to travel there. Although, this could really be because Busan developed along the coast so you are always travelling laterally. Another black mark for the guesthouse is that the bathroom facilites are located outside the guesthouse. It's quite odd because the shower facilities are within the guesthouse while if you want to take a dump, you have got to go outside to another bathroom. Don't worry, both the ones inside and outside are clean.

All things said, The Planet is still the most adorable guesthouse in the world!

Address
Busan-si Haeundae-gu 
Jung-dong 1394-286
Email: earthling-house@daum.net
Tel: +82-10-7153-1496

image credits: the planet guesthouse, korea tourism organisation

our accomodations

the universal conundrum for young travellers: how do you afford your trip on a not-quite-student-yet-not-quite-adult budget? to travel in some sort of style yet be able to buy whatever you want and not come home to an empty bank account?

the first solution: scrimp and save before the trip. the second solution: be very very thorough in your thorough to look for discounts whenever possible. the third solution: compromise.

compromise definitely when it comes to accomodations and domestic travel. in a country like korea where domestic travel is encouraged and youth culture so dominant, there are several options for travelling between cities and no lack of cheap, hip and friendly hostels/guesthouses in every place you visit. 

i have already visited two of the three hostels that we will be staying in. they are so wonderful that i convinced the other two we just had to stay there again this year!

SEOUL: BACKPACKERS INSIDE.

Backpackers Inside is a cozy little hostel, located off daehangno, a college shopping & food street.it is housed in a rather shabby little building off the side-street but i promise you it is not shabby on the inside at all. the nearest subway station, hyehwa is only a 10 minutes stroll away. hyehwa station is one stop from dongdaemun, four stops from myeongdong, four stops from insadong, five stops from gyeongbokgung and six stops from seoul station. an all-round excellent location. another location perk, the airport transfer bus station is only 5 minutes away.

the hostel is owned by Min, a really funny, friendly, patient, warm and helpful guy. last year, he switched us to a better room. we agreed to shift our luggages when we got back at night but when we got back, we found out that he had helped us shift everything! another example, one morning, while we were lazing around the computer terminals, a group of older ladies from Hong Kong came to check-in. he asked for their passports to make a copy for security purposes (which i thought is a fairly standard procedure everywhere) but the ladies wouldn't allow him to do it. he must have reasoned with them for at least 20 minutes and the ladies weren't saying very nice things in English or in Cantonese. but when it was all over, he could still turn and laugh, not a single trace of exasperation on his face. well, we were definitely exasperated on his behalf!

i love the coziness of Backpackers Inside. it meant that after a long day of pounding the streets, we can sink happily into the sofas in the living room area, unwind by watching tv, chatting to fellow guests, surfing the internet, reading books or playing board games. there's a full service kitchen and self-service drinks meaning you take the drink you want and put the money in a money cup instead of buying from the staff and laundry equipment.

and it is so so affordable. a single room costs 28,000krw, a double room costs 44,000krw and a dorm bed costs 20,000krw. now, would you stay in a hotel if you could have all this?

Address

2F 112 Myeongryun 2ga, Jongrogu

Seoul, Korea, 110-532

Email: b.inside@hotmail.com

Tel: +82 2 3672 1120

image credits: backpackers inside

(in the next post: the planet guesthouse in busan)

(a belated) photobooth friday

michelle and serene here! reporting in for (a very very belated) photobooth friday. shizhen was there too but refused to participate in the photobooth friday so you are only getting the two of us who were happy to make ridiculous faces in front of a macbook in public.

we met up yesterday to confirm our train timings. korail releases the train timetable and allows for reservations only one month in advance. after spending the afternoon calculating our options over club sandwiches and coffee, we decided to get a 5-day KR Pass that allows for unlimited travel on the Korail. the KR Pass is only available for foreigners and can be bought online at the Korail website or certain travel agencies. our plan is to train down from seoul to busan, from busan to gyeongju and back up to seoul again. the train may be a little slower than domestic airlines but we felt that it was much more cost effective and don't you think taking a train is much more romantic? i always think of audrey tautou's chanel no5 commercial when i think of train travel.


useful links
korail website
kr pass (korail)
kr pass (korea travel organisation)

yes and yes

i recently came across this amazing site yes and yes. by recent, i mean ten minutes ago and was so excited/inspired i had to jump on here and write a post about it. yes and yes is written by sarah von bergen, an amazing lady who has made her way through 20 countries. someday, i want to grow up to be like her!

the reason that sarah's blog had me at hello was that she recently published her second e-book titled smart, sassy and solo: adventures in lady travel. she discusses an extensive list of topics in this ebook such as the only three pairs of shoes you need, what to wear so you'll be comfortable, fashionable and un-groped, handling your period, travel friendship burnout, looking good in travel photos and creative ways to chronicle your trip.

it was like she read my mind because these are the exact questions currently occupying most of my brain. despite the fact that i have travelled a number of times, these questions always come back to haunt me as situations and countries change. i am looking forward to ordering this e-book to read and share with the rest!

honestly, i couldn't have planned a better topic for the first post diverging from our adventure planning!

p/s: 23 days more!

our air tickets

two weekends ago, the national association of travel agents singapore (NATAS) held it's bi-annual travel fair at the singapore expo. not one to miss a good deal even though we had semi-decided on the singapore airlines promotional fare to seoul priced at $740, we decided to go anyway!

well, thank goodness, we went! we found out that cathay pacific airlines were offering tickets to seoul at $615, a discounted price offered only to the fair-goers. SCORE!

NATAS was definitely an experience, row after row of travel agencies vying for your attention with their latest travel packages and promotions. huge balloons of airplanes, cruise ships and company logos floating in the air, little bands of promoters marching down the aisles and cultural performances from foreign countries' tourism boards. unfortunately, none of us had a camera (shocker!) to document the experience and the only shots i managed to snap were of us buying our tickets with my iphone before the batteries died.

pre-departure tip: if any singaporean students/young adults are planning their graduation trips or vacations in future, we suggest you go down to NATAS. even with the superior googling skills that us, the internet generation, has, it is still possible to miss out on good deals. for example, we had checked all possible venues before going down to NATAS but we still managed to miss the cathay pacific deal. if we hadn't gone, we would have spent $125 more! the second NATAS fair will be held August-ish, so look out! :)

resources

flowerbed digipage: maybe*mej

our first planning session

so we had our first official planning session a couple of saturdays ago. we met at little part 1 cafe in the thomson area of singapore. as usual we were all late! but no matter because the cafe was empty and we had the whole place to ourselves most of the time. the cafe was charming and quiet, and the perfect place to while away a Sunday afternoon. i can see us coming back fairly often.

amidst stuffing our faces with beer, buffalo wings, curried fries and brownies, we managed to hammer out a rough itinerary of our 15 days in korea. i also brought out my fuji instax mini to begin documenting our trip! yes, we are going to start doing it from the beginning, not just the first day of the trip!

resources

planisphere texture: zeldona at mellowmint at livejournal
speech bubble frame: maybemej
tape strips: solid and patterns, both from puglypixel