The Everland Adventure

Anneoyeonghaseyo Korea! After a warm UCC cuppa and some bread we head straight to our pick up point at Myeongdong subway line 4 Exit 2. We waited at a nearby park right at the exit, but please note that the tourguide (might) call from the mall across so just pay attention, in  our case outside the NorthFace Boutique Don't be shy and approach to ask, sometimes there are other tour meets ups here too. At around 9:00AM we saw our tourguide and we showed our online confirmation. Today's no stress trip is brought to you again by Klook  1 day pass to Everland!  

I think I'm blending well here

If ever you plan to go to Everland, this is the most economical way and I certainly suggest you take advantage of sale pass and bus service para no sweat! The trip itself is about 45mins so we just relaxed on the bus admiring the busy streets of Seoul!

Daming time  so it's kilay time. 

First things first

1. Be sure to get your tour guide's contact number so that you could coordinate what time you plan to go back. Usually they will arrange your bus service, advise you  where the bus is located, and so-so because the bus you came in may not be the same bus that will bring you back to Seoul. 
2. Remember to get your Ever land ticket and keep it safe.If you lost it you need to pay the same amount. 
3. Be considerate, if you advised to go back at around 6:00 PM, arrive on time so not to trouble others who arrived on time!
4. You could pick up free map at the entrance to guide you along the way where to go and restrooms (duh) or you could download the smart guide app available on Google Play. 
5. Remember to  have fun! You went as far as here, just enjoy the moment! 

Everland is a huge themepark, and there are just so many attractions to enjoy and gardens  to explore. First stop is Panda World! So excited to see Kung Fu Panda in real life,  and yin-yang turned into an animal, if ever yin yangs an animal. Here goes..

The Panda World

My Panda in real life. Ahem. 

Don't you think she's adorable? Please meet Ai- Bao, a giant female panda. 

I think I'm  certain now that my spirit animal is a Panda because I wanna do this all day! 

This is how a panda would look like if he would ever attempt 

modeling some popcorn. Ok moving on.. 

The Zootopia

So next we walked to Zootopia, here comes more animals! Feeling just like a kid!

Meeting the Golden monkey, 

ME: Do you eat golden bananas? 

GM: Walks away

ME: ...

Scary beautiful I think.

Oh, I see you're a fan

Aha penguins! 

Fantastic Wings Show 

Just in the nick of time for birds doing tricks

And I didn't take any photo because I was too engrossed with birds flying doing tricks. 

Man, I mean how do you get to teach them? I'm just awed!  

The Safari World

This part actually not sure if I enjoyed much because it took us almost 2 hours to queue. It was so frustrating and boring to be waiting in line. At some point I want to go out of the line but the walk back seemed pointless so we went along nalang. At least maybe provide a decent seating along because the queue was just so long! 

Finally, made it to the Safari bus to bring us to the natural habitat of animals. 

Ugh, next bus pala.

Unfortunately, the tour guide speaks only Korean. Ugh. So much for the queue! 

I'm pissed off and hungry at this point. 

But this giraffe was so sweet! 

and the Panda was happy, so I'll give it out an ok. 

If you think you have time,  go on and check this place,  2 hrs seemed precious for me for what seemed like a 20-min bus ride, but was quite ok though. I'm just too happy to have my lunch now! 

Cafe Jungle Camp

Found this Cafe Jungle Camp and we're so famished this time I finished this 

plate in no time!

More Photos...

Time for some photoshoot! Everland got  really nice spots to have your 

kunwari random pic hehe. 

Watching some Halloween parade that time..this girl sure looks like having fun!

Lakas mka Goblin di ba..

What could be more cheesy than this?

Ah, what a lovely day indeed!

And especially I got to spend holidays with this super sweet and 

beautiful sister from another motha! 

So by around 5PM and too tired to walk, we found ourselves inside this cafe to get a cuppa.

 Place is not too crowded, and quite affordable so we settled in until our 

pick up back to Seoul.

Enjoying the cold weather and some "cold drinks" again for me. Yes, I like to go extreme.

Finally, headed back to our bus for our pick up, the travel back to Seoul was quite long due to some traffic congestion. We dropped off at Myeongdong to get dinner and hopefully score some good stuff. Let's see! Hehe. Thank you Klook, we enjoyed every part of our Everland adventure! 


Happiness & love,

itsmelory (^.^)

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  (^.^)