Petite France & Garden of the Morning Calm

The trip to Petite France was a least 30mins, which was ok, at least that gave us sometime to recover our energy, Daryl was complaining with a headache gosh children duh, so when we arrived, we looked for a coffee shop first to get some refreshments! 

Coffee Born bay

Found this nice cafe house just beside Petite France with a nice barista!

Cold drink for me on a cold weather..

I noticed that you could easily find some coffee shop around Korea and restaurant 

in even not so touristy spots, nice! 

Petite France

As the name implies, Petite France is a French themed village in the rural area of Gapyeong. Entrance for KRW10,000 for your French connection to marvel upon the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry works- Le Petit Prince which the village was inspired for!

Personally it was nothing really extraordinary just the European street vibe, Marionate dolls, antiques,  but can't help but notice that even the garden surrounding the village was not well-kept. The thought that My love from the Stars shoot here, and La vie en Rose on the background kept me kilig though!

Channeling my Steffi Cheon, don't call me, I call you! 

Saree, ok? Saree. 

Garden of the Morning Calm

Next we hop on again Gapyeong tour bus to our next destination, the Garden of the Morning Calm. We arrived  a little after 5PM but it was dark so fast! The temp. dropped so low, and the walk to the garden was a struggle. After a much needed hot fishcake along the streets to the garden entrance, we thought we might as well check the garden itself. 

Since unfortunately it was quite dark by the time we went inside, we saw part of the garden only, by this time temp. was so unbearable for Daryl who's (still) complaining of headache. Anyway,we managed some few good shots and finally on our way back to the bus station. If we had known better, we could've skipped Petite France and went straight to LOTMC for the love of Autumn gardens. I guess that's part of the tour experience! No worries, we do it next time yea ? We headed back to Cheongpyeong terminal since Gapyeong terminal's last trip is only until 7PM to bring us to Seoul station. 

The trip back was also quite an experience since we were confused with the train lines and we ran out of battery, omg. Luckily we were seated to a lady who speaks quite English well and she told us to take the train the other side which is going back to Seoul station- 10 stops. Oh no!? Oh yes.  

 Aaaand, finally after the long travel and getting lost,  we found ourselves back at Hoehyeon just around the exit is this  B2B,  a small eatery along the road  for a much needed rice and ramen before we retire for the night! Today ended well, thank you for today ...

we are so grateful!!!

Love,

marzylorie (^.^)

Nami Island

So we dropped the bags and move to our first schedule- to do the Nami Island Tour. We decided to take the Gapyeong tour bus that'll take us to Petite France, Garden of the Morning Calm and back. We reserved the whole day for today's tour since we want to do everything free and easy!

To Gapyeong

First, we needed to reach Gapyeong, it was quite a long ride, and since we left hotel a little late, we arrived almost noontime.

• From KPOP Hotel, ride the Hoehyeon to Seoul Station  ; 21 mins
• From Seoul, transfer train to Hoegi Station
• From Hoegi take train  to Gapyeong Station, travel is about 1 hr and 7 mins (15 stops) 

After exiting the station, you'll find the tourist bus across it, simply use your T-money to pay for the ticket for KRW6,000 and you're good to go. Remember to keep the ticket as this is valid for 1 day. Driver would need to check the ticket every bus entry. 

Republic of Love | Nami Island 

Our first stop is Nami Island of course, but we were starving this time, so first some lunch before taking the ferry to Nami.  Funny but our fist official meal is a pizza @ Master Coffee. This will do, for now. 

So after lunch, we simply cross the road to the ferry terminal to get ticket to bring us to the next island, a mere 10 min trip to Nami. 

Round trip ferry ticket costs KRW 13,000 

And were onboard the ferry..

Of course I've read about Nami Island because it was the famous film location for Winter Sonata, and many other KDrama films. I'm looking forward to personally experience the Autumn weather,  Gingko trees and simply enjoy the Korean nature vibe the garden offers.

And boy, Nami Island did not disappoint! Such a huge garden with pretty pretty Autumn colors of red and yellow.

and here they are..the love that is Winter Sonata 

We strolled around the garden, and we found more interesting spots to take photos. After we thought we had enough of photos, and by afternoon when it was a bit difficult to take photos because of the crowd, we hopped on to the next available ferry back and to our next stop to Petite France.

Cheers,

marzylorie (^.^) 

KPOP Seoul Hotel Tower

The trip to KPOP Seoul Hotel was quite a story to tell, because we were not able to find it first, luckily, thanks to Klook's portable wifi, we managed to download Naver Line map, a very useful map and I would personally advise you to download the same then everything was easy peasy! After exiting Hoehyeon #4, quick left and walk about 200m straight ahead and you'll find the hotel on the right. 

KPOP Hotel turns out to be a small inn but with complete with kitchen amenities, a decent bed for sharing and just across Namdaemun Market. I like the area since there are nearby food stalls for your K-fix cravings. We first leave our stuff since it's still early for check in.    

The pantry located B1. Quite nice. We used the bathroom to quickly refresh and coffee!  

Excited to be exploring Korea,
marzylorie (^.^)

The Land of the Morning Calm

According to stories, Korea was once named by a Ming Dynasty emperor as "chaohsien" which means morning freshness suitable for Korea because of its spellbinding beauty, mountains, and clear waters, from then on, Korea earned its name as  Land of the morning calm. 

Now a days, Korea is a highly developed country, a global leader in technology and innovation, according to Wikipedia, South Korean enjoys the world's fastest internet connection, and renowned for it's famous pop culture influence world wide..but of course Korean wave! I was really looking forward to this trip, since I've been planning about it in the last omg, 2 years, finally I will get to see my motherlandia! 

Welcome to Incheon 

We landed early morning at Incheon International airport- the largest and the main gateway of South Korea located west city of Seoul. 

After the immigration which turned a breeze we went to our first itinerary: Pick up our portable wifi booked via Klook. Since we're doing this trip DIY, wifi is just necessary for checking the train connections and schedule. Go ahead and visit the site to check on affordable wifi rates! 

Queuing to pick up our wifi. Located 1/F Gate 6-7, KT Roaming Center, open 24hrs daily. 

A R E X

AREX (Airport Railroad Express)  is a rail line connecting Incheon International Airport to the main Seoul station. Perhaps the most efficient way to reach Seoul is by taking this train of course bus and private car is also readily available within the airport. 

First, time to reload our T-money cards. Korea is so easy to travel, with using T-Money card you could access most train line and buses. We simply load it first with KRW20,000, should be enough for the next trips.  

Yes, train's last stop is at Seoul station

Be courteous as much as possible! 

Finally arrived at Seoul Station! 

Look out for signage's and just follow until the Seoul exit to your next stop over.  Do not be afraid to ask if you needed help, Korean's are in fact very helpful. Next, to our hotel for check in!

Cheers,

marzylorie (^.^)

Heart and Seoul

Finally, starting off my post about our wonderful trip to Motherland- joke..to South Korea!

Catch up with you soon,

marzylorie  (^.^)

Fundacion Pacita

Our last day in Batanes (and I wish to never leave), we finished a quick souvenir shopping at Tawsen, and decided to walk in one of best hotel in Batanes to Fundacion Pacita. A hotel boutique sitting on top of a hill with sea, sky and mountain view named after the international artist Pacita Abad. 

To the main entrance..

Cafe du Tukon

The hotel's in house restaurant is exclusive for checked in guests, but they also allow walk in guests as long as it's still early, we're lucky we were allowed! Cafe du Tukon offers European dishes with a local touch in fact most ingredients are just plucked out of hotel garden! 

And we were just in luck because the Papal Nuncio is here in Batanes, we're blessed to 

have come acrossed him  in this very place. 

Dios mamajes!

Still not wanting to end this trip, we went to Octagon to enjoy more of Batanes air, and talk how amazing this trip turned out to be. Later on, we stopover to grab some home made Ivatan ice cream to cap the night, oh what could be better than that? 

Time to say goodbye, thank you Batanes for this beautiful experience, 

we will surely come back soon! 

Happiness & love,

itsmelory (^.^)