Seoul Chronicles: Changdeokgung Palace

Wearing fancy boots and tinted eye wear makes me feel elated and lifts my spirit of belongingness to where I really am at the moment. So let me take you back to Seoul where an endless stories of mine and my sisters still live to this day.

The elegance of this structure caught my attention. Gladly, I was wearing what I believed was perfect for this obligatory photo shoot. It was sunny in May but the temperature was fairly cold. People were just as busy left and right, doing their own version of capturing the picturesque behind. No enough words could describe fully how wonderful it felt to be flying some miles away from home and behold this kind of old-world palace. It’s so worth the resources burned; I could hardly stop from staring at each of the gazillion pictures we took. It was when talking about going back home felt like a big heartbreak!

It was amazing. So perfect. And it gave me the best reason to go back again, maybe next time during winter. 

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Seoul Chronicles: My Kind of Joyride

Amidst the aviation crisis which started at the first quarter of this year, I gracefully managed to face my fears, crossed miles after miles and fulfilled our dream trip to Seoul. Just to give you a glimpse, the below demonstrates the aerial itinerary – my kind of  joyride some 35,000 feet high.

Singapore to Manila makes 1,400 miles while Manila to Seoul makes 1,600 miles.
Do note, by the way, the north and south coast distance!  

Long before the trip itself, I have had tons of apprehensions about the frequency of my travel considering that that trip alone would require me to fly several times: 

• SG-PH-SG, April – Get our VISA fixed in Manila and back overseas until our travel date
• SG-PH-KR, May – Picked up the girls and voila! The adventures of four sisters began.
• KR-PH, May – Return home after a week in Seoul
• PH-SG, June – I flew right after going to church and head straight to the office that day

See the maze? I may not have suffered from a jet lag but I just can’t give the one best word for the intensity of tiredness this has caused me; not to mention the financial element that we had to burn to turn this plan into reality. No, I mean no regret. Everything was worth the cost!

More details to follow. 

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Seoul Chronicles: The Place for Budget Travellers

The way leading to the hostel.

Choosing late night flight was like grabbing a two-faced coin – the one side offered us the feel of shortened travel time because we would have to spend most of the hours sleeping in the plane, and the other gave us unfathomable exhaustion ever possible due to the waiting interval in the airport. 

That’s how we started our trip to South Korea back in May. Yes, it took a while before I figured out how to put every experience we have had there in writing – I just thought it’s one huge story to tell and words won’t actually be enough to describe our escape fully. So let me do things in piecemeal and start touring you to the place that we called home while we were there – our choice of humble and homey hostel, the Seoul Backpackers.

Waiting for the airport limousine that will bring us to the city.

All of my sisters travelled with me. Yes, first time. So the moment we had our tickets booked, we distributed tasks among ourselves and of course the one assigned to me (as being the eldest and the most frequent traveller) was to find the best accommodation. Believe me, it wasn’t easy! There were a lot you could choose from in the internet but perhaps it was God leading us to one of the best and affordable hostels in Myeongdong.

We arrived at Incheon at about seven in the morning. From then we started our maze from the airport to the city. It was quite a pain looking for the hotel spot where the map said it was. I remember us girls loudly arguing in the streets, lost and cold. The cab drivers and everyone we attempted to ask directions about were all hopeless in English. Our eyes sparked when my youngest sister tried scribbling the address in Hangul (the Korean alphabet) and approached one bystander. Oh he understood, of course! But he gave us that blank face unaware where on earth was that place. Another hour of gaiting through the busy roads, crossing lanes after lanes, praying that we land right in front of the address we’ve long been trying to find. We’re tired, hungry and already at the peak of losing our patience. Gladly, after a long while, Geah was able to find where the hostel was!

From the outside, Seoul Backpackers didn’t look as promising as compared to other places we saw online. But let me tell you what made finding it the hard way so worth it – it never really promised us a five-star like accommodation; rather, it made our tarrying there so comfortable, good enough for budget travellers like us. 

Our two rooms both have private toilets which is not something very common for hostels in Korea. We were served with simple but fulfilling breakfast everyday – we could grab as many loaves of bread as we want; the coffee was unlimited too. The toiletries were overflowing. The place was clean and pretty safe. Also we were just some steps away from the train station which was quite helpful. Since Myeongdong is the center of everything in Seoul, it was very convenient to roam around the city the whole day, go back to the hotel to take some hours of rest and back to go to other nearby places again in the evening. 

The gray area of course were the hotel keepers who couldn’t speak and understand much English. Well it’s nevertheless expected and was something manageable for us. Despite the language barrier, they were accommodating and kind.

If I ever get another trip back, I probably will still choose to stay there. Getting there won’t be any difficult the second time around, I’m sure.

Should you have plans of going to Korea, here are the details of the hostel:

SEOUL BACKPACKERS

205-125 Namchang-Dong, Junggu

Seoul, South Korea

Tel. No. +82 2 3672 1972

Email: webmaster@seoulbackpackers.com

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6th Passport Stamp

To live some miles away from home could mean greener pasture. It could mean making some things happen by simply enjoying the perks of being an overseas contract worker – and one those is getting our Korean VISA with no much required details and time of waiting. For just a week, both for me and my sisters, our precious gem to enter the country was granted.

Everyone knows how more pro-Chinese I am than any other race in the world. Maybe because their culture and language always give me the amazement that I can’t find just yet elsewhere. And what really inspired me to get this trip done was my sisters’ plea to explore Korea this time. Well, they’re certified KPOPs (we do call the fanatics of Korean that way). They might not dress like celebrities but all of them know a few phrases, find joy in eating their local foods and with high interest on their culture and current events.

It wasn’t that easy for me geographically – because I had to fly all the way from Singapore to pick them up in Manila and head to Incheon for our trip, then go back to the Philippines just to catch another flight off to Singapore after a week. So tiring to picture, isn’t it? Well, that was the perfect scenario. We all made getting our first VISA ever so worth the effort, money and waiting.

By the way, this trip made my sixth passport stamp. I could marry anytime from now! (more posts featuring our Korea escapade soon)     

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