Tuesday, April 1, 2014
[A Week of Seoul Adventure - 2014.1.6 - 2014.1.12] LET'S GO TO NAMI ISLAND !
0 comments Posted by Aka Kobo at 11:31 PMYeah !! So let me begin the Seoul Adventure story by telling you about my trip to Nami Island. Since I stepped my feet in Korea for the first time, I really hoped that I could visit this famous island. Yeah, Nami Island is famous for its romantic situation because popular Korean drama, Winter Sonata, was filmed there. Nami Island is located outside Seoul, or exactly in Gangwon-do. So to go there, I had to take a train and also a ferry!
My friend, Astrid, and I tried to figure out how to go to Nami Island easily from Hongdae, the place where we stayed. So from Hongdae, we took a subway to Cheongryangri station (청량리 역 ) then from that station, we took an ITX to Gapyeong station ( 가평 역 ).
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| at the Cheongryangri Station |
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| Astrid and I before riding an ITX |
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| Astrid and I inside of the ITX |
ITX train is the as fast as KTX, but it's cheaper and the route is shorter than KTX. The subway fare is 1.600 won and the ITX fare is 4.000 won per trip.
When we arrived in Gapyeong, we went to the information tourist center nearby and asked how to go to Nami Island. The staff said that we can go by a taxi or a shuttle bus. The shuttle bus daily fare is 5000 won. So you can ride it freely in one day. But if you just plan to go to Nami Island without going to Petite France, you better take a taxi because it's much cheaper than taking a shuttle bus. Since first we also wanted to go to Petite France, so we chose to take a shuttle bus. But then we realized that we didn't have enough money to go to Petite France as well, since our money was sooooo limited :(
To go to Nami Island Ferry Station from Gapyeong Station only took 5 minutes. Then we bought a ticket. A ticket to Nami Island actually costs 10.000 won, but for foreigners, we just needed to pay 8.000 won. Round-trip ferry riding is also included.
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| Nami Island and Petite France brochures |
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| Nami Island ticket for foreigners |
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| On the way to Nami Island ... |
After 5 minutes, we finally arrived at Nami Island ! Without any orders, people just rushed to the exit door. The weather was a bit nice. It means no cold wind blowing but the temperature was still dropped. Moreover, Nami Island is located near the mountain. I could see snow in some places. Astrid and I passed the gate and took a spot near the big rock with ' 남이섬' ( Nami Island ) calligraphy on it. Definitely we took a lot of photos since in the very beginning ^^
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| A cute cafe in Nami Island |
Nami Island is famous with its scenery and also the 'Winter Sonata' drama filming site. So our aim to go here was to take good pictures as many as we can and also find the statues of Bae Young Joon and Choi Ji Woo, the actor and actress of Winter Sonata. But we found more than that. Nami Island is so amazing. I was amazed by looking around this island. So that's why every inch we step, we took our phone cameras and get ourselves ready to be captured hahahaha .. Lemme show you some pictures we had taken.
Since our main reason visiting Nami Island was because of the Winter Sonata's actor and actress' statues, so we treasured our maps but we couldn't find where the statues were. Luckily, we found a tourist information center and the staff helped us finding the statues. In fact, it wasn't that far from the First Kiss park. Aaannnndd, finally we did find it ! A lot of visitors queued to take pictures next to the statues. Believe it or not, there were a lot of Indonesian queuing. When they found out Astrid and I are also Indonesian, they started asking what we were doing in Korea blablablaaa ... 헐 ~~ I pushed Astrid's back and she was exactly standing next to the statues. I took pictures of her and so did she. She took pictures of me fast and run away from the Indonesian group who kept asking about our activities in Korea. It was not in a correct time to hold a press conference or something though hahahahaha
After adventuring around this beautiful island, we ended up going to GS 25- a minimarket in Korea - and stuffed our tummies with the simplest snack in the world, kob ramyeon ( 컵 라면 ) a.k.a cup noodles hahaha
Actually you can find a lot of 닭갈비 ( dalkgalbi - Korean spicy chicken dish served with sliced of rice cakes and vegetables ) restaurants, but yeah, because we had to tighten our belts, so we chose to have cup noodles instead of dalkgalbi. So sad ... T.T But for everybody who will visit Nami Island, please do visit one of the dalkgalbi restaurants there. Dalkgalbi is a really good dish to be enjoyed with the whole family.
At 5 PM, we waited for the shuttle bus to bring us back to Gapyeong station. The last shuttle bus is at 5 or 6 PM. So make sure not to miss the last bus, because you will end up wasting sum of money. We headed back to Seoul by the ITX train at 6 PM. We really had fun!!!
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
[ A Week of Seoul Adventure - 2014.1.6 - 2014.1.12 ] IRRATIONAL DORM LEAVING STORY
0 comments Posted by Aka Kobo at 12:23 AM
Well, I lived in South Korea for a year, but every time I went to Seoul, it would be just one or two nights trip. Nothing special. Since I left Korea in last January, so my friend, Astrid, and I planned to go around Seoul and visited some interesting places there. We left our lovely Geumgang University dorm (hiks! :'( ) on Monday, January 6th, 2014. On the night before, our friends held the last chicken party for us. It added more pains to my heart >,<
So anyway, after working on some dorm-leaving documents, we met our teacher to say good bye. And finally we left at 12:10 by the city bus.
I carried 1 big big big luggage and 2 medium-sized luggage and also a big plastic bag. Also I put 2 coats on my body which made me difficult to breath. I couldn't put one of the coats inside of my luggage since there was no more space inside. Crazy, what did I stuff my luggage with ???!!! But Astrid was more crazy than me. She carried 5 luggage hahaha and one of the luggage weight is around 35 kg !! We stopped at the bus stop and then headed off the bus terminal. If we don't bring anything, we can reach the bus terminal in 2 minutes. But while carrying those hell heavy luggage, we reached the bus terminal in ..... only 50 minutes -____- heooollll ~~~~ In every inch of our steps, we always stopped since our tiny (?) bodies couldn't afford those heavy luggage :( hahahaha
After taking 3 hours bus, we finally arrived at Gangnam bus terminal. Thank God, there were many people who helped us. And we still needed to struggle to reach the taxi stop. We finally gave up thinking about taking subway to Hongdae. It - would - be - fabulously - irrational. Around 8 PM, we checked in at the hostel and we landed on a very fluffy bed and pillow in our hostel room. We stayed in Kimchee Sinchon Guesthouse. I was the one who found this hostel when my friends and I planned a trip to Seoul to attend an auditions. It was sooooo cheap, 10.000 won. The same price as staying at the 찜질방 (jjimjilbang - sauna). So every time we stayed over in Seoul, we always reserved this hostel. No matter what. Bye bye, 찜질방 ~~ 슈 ~~~ Since we booked the hostel via Booking.com, we got a really good price to stay for 6 nights. It was only 56.000 won for 6 nights !!
After resting for a while, Astrid and I had a dinner in our favorite restaurant, Han's Deli, in Hongdae. Han's Deli is a restaurant which serves Western and Asian foods in affordable price. I ordered Chicken Katsu Omurice for 5000 won. It's fried rich covered with an omelet and served with big slices of chicken katsu. After having dinner, we just went around Hongdae and headed back to the hostel to take a rest. Our body were aching because of those heavy luggage. So our first Seoul trip will be started by visiting Nami Island ( 남이 섬 ). Check out the next post later ! See ya ! ^^
So anyway, after working on some dorm-leaving documents, we met our teacher to say good bye. And finally we left at 12:10 by the city bus.
I carried 1 big big big luggage and 2 medium-sized luggage and also a big plastic bag. Also I put 2 coats on my body which made me difficult to breath. I couldn't put one of the coats inside of my luggage since there was no more space inside. Crazy, what did I stuff my luggage with ???!!! But Astrid was more crazy than me. She carried 5 luggage hahaha and one of the luggage weight is around 35 kg !! We stopped at the bus stop and then headed off the bus terminal. If we don't bring anything, we can reach the bus terminal in 2 minutes. But while carrying those hell heavy luggage, we reached the bus terminal in ..... only 50 minutes -____- heooollll ~~~~ In every inch of our steps, we always stopped since our tiny (?) bodies couldn't afford those heavy luggage :( hahahaha
After taking 3 hours bus, we finally arrived at Gangnam bus terminal. Thank God, there were many people who helped us. And we still needed to struggle to reach the taxi stop. We finally gave up thinking about taking subway to Hongdae. It - would - be - fabulously - irrational. Around 8 PM, we checked in at the hostel and we landed on a very fluffy bed and pillow in our hostel room. We stayed in Kimchee Sinchon Guesthouse. I was the one who found this hostel when my friends and I planned a trip to Seoul to attend an auditions. It was sooooo cheap, 10.000 won. The same price as staying at the 찜질방 (jjimjilbang - sauna). So every time we stayed over in Seoul, we always reserved this hostel. No matter what. Bye bye, 찜질방 ~~ 슈 ~~~ Since we booked the hostel via Booking.com, we got a really good price to stay for 6 nights. It was only 56.000 won for 6 nights !!
After resting for a while, Astrid and I had a dinner in our favorite restaurant, Han's Deli, in Hongdae. Han's Deli is a restaurant which serves Western and Asian foods in affordable price. I ordered Chicken Katsu Omurice for 5000 won. It's fried rich covered with an omelet and served with big slices of chicken katsu. After having dinner, we just went around Hongdae and headed back to the hostel to take a rest. Our body were aching because of those heavy luggage. So our first Seoul trip will be started by visiting Nami Island ( 남이 섬 ). Check out the next post later ! See ya ! ^^
