Review: Day Trip to Everland (Korea)

I love theme parks so I always try to make it a point to include a theme park in my itinerary where possible when I jalan out of Singapore. Yes, I know there are different types of theme parks but for simplicity's sake, let's stick to those that come with roller coaster rides etc. Hehe.

Japan is known for its awesome theme parks like Disneyland and Disney Sea in Tokyo as well as USJ in Osaka. Although Korea is better known for its TV dramas and drool worthy celebrities, you can consider visiting either Everland or Lotte World after you have cleared out the beauty shops along the streets of Myeongdong. LOL.

Now, if you only have time for one theme park, you'd be curious about the differences. In a nutshell, Everland is more suitable for adults and couples while Lotte World will appeal more to kids. With this in mind, I decided to visit Everland. There are various ways to get to Everland but since we were travelling in a group and we wanted to stay for the night fireworks, we decided to book a shuttle bus package via Funtastic Korea. Besides, I figured that we would be tired out after spending an entire day at the theme park so having a guaranteed transport back was a big comfort. 

The shuttle bus package is undoubtedly more expensive than if you were to take public transport, but I was kinda worried we would get lost after dark or have to struggle with the crowds going home so I thought it was kinda worth it.

The shuttle bus package has 3 convenient pick-up points:

• Hongik University, Hongdae Station Exit 4
• Myeongdong Station Exit 2
• Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station Exit 10

I picked the Myeongdong station since our hotel was nearest to it and it was a simple matter of waiting by the exit until you see someone walking around asking if you are waiting for the shuttle bus. Be sure to keep an active lookout or you might just miss the bus! Oh, and don't forget to bring a screenshot or printout of your booking so the guide knows where to direct you because there might be buses heading to different locations at the same pick-up point. Don't be late either! The bus won't wait for latecomers.

Our guide was a nice friendly guy who spoke eloquent English and gave clear instructions on where to wait after the fireworks. He even gave us his name card in case we got lost. Hehe.

All in all, the pick-up was smooth and before we knew it, we arrived at Everland for a full day of fun and excitement. One thing you need to remember is that Everland is no Disneyland so don't go in expecting the same level of entertainment. Everland has its own charm, which includes a Safari World Tour and T Express (a really scary roller coaster ride) plus we went during Autumn so it was beautiful at the same time.

Words won't do it justice so here are some pictures I took:

Review: Although I personally felt that Everland lacked the magic that Disney has, it still has its own charms. Go in without expectations and you may just enjoy yourself! It comes with the usual roller coasters and theme rides but don't forget to check out the Safari World tour for a unique animal kingdom surprise. If you have time, you may want to check out the Caribbean Bay as well although it involves a different ticket altogether. But no worries! You can get your tickets on Funtastic Korea. Have fun!

Review: Oriens Hotels & Residences (Korea)

I visited Korea last year in 2016 and stayed at this hotel called Oriens Hotels & Residences. This is located within walking distance (about 10 minutes' walk) from Myeongdong so it's quite convenient. One thing to take note though, you might want to remember which point to start walking from Myeongdong or you might get lost. Myeongdong is like a maze that could get confusing, especially at night when the crowds are in attendance.

I decided upon this hotel because my ex-colleague had glowing reviews of it when she visited Korea some time back. I booked both accommodation and airfare via Expedia so the price was quite reasonable. I can't remember the exact price but I do remember it being quite reasonable and of course, cheaper than a hotel room in Japan. Heh.

Anyway, its address:
50 Samil-daero 2-gil, Jung-gu Seoul, Korea



What I like about it:

• spacious room equipped with a small kitchenette, big fridge and dining table
• friendly and English-speaking front desk 
• walking distance to Myeongdong and various subway lines
• accessible to a few eating places and convenience store
• it's near the airport limousine stop from Incheon airport
• it has a lower level at the front door where you can leave your shoes before you step up to the room level.

What I don't quite like about it:

• The toilet's water flow is a bit weird. It flows outside the shower area to the toilet drain under the sink instead so it wets the entire toilet. 
• It's a little confusing to walk from the airport limousine bus-stop but you can actually access the hotel lobby via its indoor car park. 
• The lift is a tight squeeze for 4 people and their luggage, especially our big and bulky ones.
• The rooms are fairly close to each other, for example, we were able to look into our friends' room when the blinds were not drawn so you may want to take note of that. 

Review: We enjoy our stay at this hotel for a few reasons. It was quiet and reasonably near to Myeongdong. The rooms are quite spacious and come with a kitchenette, but could do with some improvement to their toilet design. You might be a little confused as you come up from the airport limousine bus-stop though so remember to access the hotel lobby via the indoor car park. The front door is quite prominent so no worries there. It just takes a bit of an uphill walk.

Review: Day Trip To Nami Island, Petite France & Gangchon Rail Bike (Korea)

It's fun to make your way to various tourist destinations at times but when it's so out of the way, a day trip on a tour bus makes a lot of sense. For one, you can rest on the bus (even nap!) between stops. Secondly, the tour bus usually takes you back to a location that's closer to your hotel so it's not so tiring to make your way back after an exhausting day.

When I went to Korea in 2016 with my friends, I decided to book a day trip to Nami Island, Petite France and Gangchon Rail Bike on Funko: Funtastic Korea. Well, mostly because it was more affordable. But don't just take my word for it, no matter where you book your day trips, it's important to do your research first. Read reviews and compare prices. I read a Klook review that someone was mad that they had paid a higher price but it's really important to do your homework first. I'm not defending any website that offers such day trips, just reminding my readers to do their homework first and live with the decision, if necessary. No point spoiling your holiday just because you missed something out or got a less than ideal deal, ya?

Anyway, on to my review of the day tour. It was basically a pickup and dropoff service where the tour bus takes a group of people to a location, drops them off, and reminds them what time to wait at the pickup point. It's not unlike a package tour, but we were given free-to-roam time that was far better than following behind a tour guide. Our tour guide was this very vain but friendly Korean guy who took every opportunity to preen before a photo shoot. Not that I blame him, of course, he is a pretty good looking guy but still... =x

This particular tour took us to 3 destinations: Nami Island, Petite France and Gangchon Rail Bike. They took us first to Petite France, where it's a small park that's designed like a French village. It's very instagrammable but smaller than I expected. Food is also comparatively more expensive, so I will encourage you to buy some bread and bottles of beverage before you set out for the day.

Petite France features many cute popular icons such as The Little Prince and their respective backstories. They even had a collection of puppets - some quite pretty and others kinda scary but it was a unique experience. The tour guide gave us a couple of hours to explore the place and it was more than enough. At the end of our walk, we even got to watch a puppet show. In my humble opinion, I thought it was the most interesting part of the entire place since we got to see how flawlessly puppets can move when their handlers have skill. Hehe.

After the puppet show ended, it was time to head to the next destination! This time we are going where the most romantic of people love to go (aka people who fell in love with Bae Yong Joon and Winter Sonata): Nami Island! 

If you thought Petite France was crowded, then Nami Island is just overpopulated. Since it made its name on the well-loved Korean drama series, Winter Sonata, throngs of people have visited this beautiful place. It's not a pleasant sight because everywhere you go is just mountains upon mountains of people. I really love the place for its beautiful trees and sense of tranquility, but the crowds just completely turned me off. Anyway, since we were already there, might as well make full use of our time there! 

The bus dropped us off at a jetty where you can either take a ferry or hightail it overhead via a zip wire (aka flying fox). It's a very fun and exciting activity, but as usual, you can expect to queue for some time before you finally get your turn. The price (which includes admission to Nami Island) is about 38 000 won. One of my travel mates wanted to try it out initially, but because the queue was too long, they eventually decided to join us for lunch at one of the nearby food joints instead.

Entrance to the Zip Wire...you can also spot our tour guide in the picture.

If you plan to eat before crossing the waters to Nami Island, there are plenty of eating places around. But like I mentioned earlier, it's a tourist destination so you might have to explore a bit before you find a place to settle down.

Yummy

After lunch, it was off to the jetty and Nami Island!

Crowded, right? But since we only had a couple of hours more to go, we decided to explore as much as we could of this beautiful island. I could only wonder how gorgeous it could get without all the people! >.<

Despite the fact that it's super crowded, Nami Island is one place you shouldn't miss out. It's super beautiful and the autumn leaves are simply gorgeous. Lots of instagrammable locations so you can't go wrong. Hehe. There's even a statue of the 2 Winter Sonata lovers honouring the couple for making the place so famous! LOL.

After Nami Island, it was time for our final stop! This time, we are going to take the Gangchon Rail Bike! By now, it was nearly evening time so our tourist guide hurried us up the bus after meeting us at the jetty. Riding in the dark ain't going to be fun if we can't see where we are going. Hehe. Once we reached the place where we were supposed to take the rail bike, we were divided into groups of 4 or 2. You could either ride the rail bike in twos or fours, but remember to practise teamwork! After all, you can't really expect the people in front to do all the work while you relax and only take photos behind, right? Anyway, you have to be careful as well since you might crash into the group in front.

It was quite a distance from starting to end point, but along the way, you can even check out the beautiful scenery. There are even a few tunnels halfway where they put up a light show, bubbles and loud Korean music to spice things up. I personally felt that the music was too loud, but it was a unique addition to the journey. Here's a video I took...apologies for the poor quality. Heh.

The journey lasted about 30 minutes if I'm not wrong and at the end of it, we waited for a choo-choo train to take us back to where we can hop onto the tour bus for home. Sorry, I didn't manage to get a picture of the train exterior, but here is the interior! Rather crowded, right?

As we waited in the cold, the train platform had a refreshment kiosk where you could buy drinks or snacks to stave off the hunger pangs. We didn't buy anything but took the opportunity to take some pictures! Ahem, forgive the poor quality of one of the photos. =x

And there you have it, a rather fruitful day in my opinion. 3 places in a single day! Now, that's what I call a relaxing tour. While you may prefer to make your way there yourself due to budget, but if you can, try to book at least one day package. It's SO MUCH MORE relaxing and trust me, being stressed and lost is the LAST thing you want to be on your vacation!

Review: My travel mates and I really enjoyed this day trip to not one, not two, but THREE tourist destinations. I seriously love how little trouble it was to book on the website and the meeting place was easy to find as well. The day trip also saved us lots of time travelling and I appreciate the fact that we got to rest in between stops as well. Imagine if we were to make our way to these places on our own. We might have gotten lost, or worse, not being able to cover so many places in a day. Hehe. I definitely recommend that you take up a day trip package but don't forget to do your homework first before booking, ok?

Review: Oneday Hanbok (Korea 2016)

Okay, here goes another review. This time, it's hanbok rental from the Oneday Hanbok. This is a small rental studio where you can rent Hanboks for OTDs at nearby palaces, which you can easily reach via one of their very affordable cabs. Just show them the Korean name of the place you want to go and most, if not all, of them will be able to understand your destination. :)

We had a little difficulty finding the studio but thanks to the friendliness of my fellow travel mates, we managed to find the building that the studio was located in. It looked like an office building, which probably accounted for my confusion coz I was expecting it to be in a short shophouse-like building. Heh. From my research online, it also seems they have moved. Anyway, here are a couple of addresses for you to choose from. Just make sure you google the locations properly before heading out of your hotel.

Address 1:
2nd Floor, 4 Bukchonro5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul (approximately 300m from Exit 2 of Anguk Station and across the road from Jae-dong Elementary School2nd Floor, 12 Jae-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul


Address 2:
2nd Floor, 12 Jae-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul)





The good thing about renting a hanbok is that you get free entrances into selected places like royal palaces and the Korean Folk Village in Gyeonggido. Cool right? On top of that, you get to experience what it was like to wear their traditional costumes. Their rental fees are as follows:

• 4 Hours - 15,000 Korean Won 1 Day (24 Hours) - 28,000 Korean Won (Minimum rental duration is 4 hours) 
• Additional hourly fee - 4,500 Korean won 
• Basic accessories - Free (Hair accessories, bags) 
• Special accessories - 2,000 Korean won (Kings hat, Gisaeng hat, Gat, dress underskirt etc.)

A rental deposit is required:

• Copy of ID card + Hanbok Rental Deposit of 50,000 Korean Won per Hanbok. 
• OR deposit ID card + Hanbok Rental Deposit of 10,000 Korean Won per Hanbok* As a substitute an ID card, a valid Passport or Korean Alien Registration Card will be accepted * In case of group booking (max. 6 people), only 1 ID card is required.

You get 2 fittings so you need to choose your size and preferred designs very carefully. Although Oneday Hanbok states that they have sizes ranging from S to XXL [male (S~XL) and female (XS~XXL)], I didn't find many Hanboks in my size. Not that I am terribly overweight or super fat, but I guess that the Hanboks usually come in a smaller size because Korean ladies are slimmer. Anyway, after searching around, I managed to find a suitable Hanbok in my size. It also helped that the assistants were around to find the right sizes so that was useful. Basic accessories are free too.

As you can probably tell from the picture above, the Hanboks themselves are of good quality, but when we were out and about, I noticed others wearing a much better type of hanbok. Not that the rentals from Oneday Hanbok are not good enough, it's just that other rental studios appear to have skirts that have a bouncier effect. I think it's due to the additional crinoline under the skirt, which gives off a more flouncy effect that I thought was more flattering for my figure. Hehe.

The other rental studios also appeared to have more options for the guys. For example, I noticed a lot of guys walking around in an outfit of a royal official so that was interesting.

Verdict: The whole experience was rather hassle-free. All you need to do is email them ahead of time with booking details like your name, date & time and number of people. The range of hanboks are of high quality but I would prefer them to include more bigger sizes and give us the option of the crinoline to make it more flattering for bigger figures. The assistants were super helpful even though I was slightly on the larger side and probably posed more of a challenge for them. 

Anyway, that was my experience with them. Have fun!

Website: www.onedayhanbok.com
Email: onedayhb@naver.com

Book your experience with KKDay here!

Review: Goguan Studio (Korea 2016)

Back in my younger days (not that I'm very old now), I used to love cosplay and even dabbled in a few random characters from time to time. I particularly loved the cultural costumes from Japan and Korea so when I visited Korea in 2016, I jumped at the chance to do a photography package wearing a Hanbok with my husband.

Since I'd be in Seoul for the majority of my trip, I thought that visiting a photo studio in the vicinity of Myeong-dong (which was near to my hotel) would be just the thing. So I did a little research and found this neat little studio in the heart of Myeong-dong...ok, technically the address is Chungmuro but it's actually very near to Myeong-dong. See the map below:



Goguan Studio 
Address: Seoul, Chungmuro 1-ga, 22-15, 2F 110-290 Seoul, Korea
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goguanstudio
Website: http://goguan08.cafe24.com/?page_id=352


To make a reservation, you can simply drop them a message at their website. The price list can also be found here, just need to scroll down the page. So I basically made a booking and when I got there on the day of my appointment, it was literally pouring. Like raining dogs and cats. LOL. Anywho, that didn't affect our session since it was all indoors.

Entrance of Goguan Studio, which is next to a TonyMoly Store

I booked a couple's package so it means that both my husband and I got to try out the traditional clothing of the Koreans. I choose the princess makeover coz I thought it would make me look younger while my husband went for the scholar look. Hehe.

We waited for a while at the reception but we were soon ushered into different sections of the studio to choose our costumes and apply makeup. I decided to go for a red hanbok with a black floral skirt while my husband chose a maroon outfit to match me. The whole process took about 45 minutes or so with me obviously taking longer because of all the extra makeup and hair accessories.

After the whole makeover, my husband and I took separate shots before we posed together as a couple. The results? Tada...

I didn't get the CD or more pictures coz obviously that would cost more, but you do get some time to yourself in their various backdrops to take selfies so we had some fun playing around:

Yes, yes, we do look silly but it was fun and I think there's a time limit of about 15 minutes. Also, I think because of the rain, there weren't many people in the studio so we could freely play around with the backdrops. In any case, it was fun and it was a great experience. A little expensive in my opinion, but it was still worth the time and money.

Verdict: We really enjoyed the whole experience. The makeup artists and photographers were polite and always ready to help us. The costumes would be a tight fit for people on the larger side though, so do take note. The hanbok was a little small for me, but the makeup artist was not fazed by it and simply pinned it closed. The photo studio is also located in a very location near Myeong-dong so that's a huge plus point. The costumes are well made too. 

Well, that's my personal opinion so hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did! <3 You can also book the experience on Kkday.com although at the time of writing this, the slots are all sold out. If that's the case for you, then maybe you can try emailing the studio directly or check out Funtastic Korea's offer here. Have fun!