3rd Winter in South Korea 2023: Welcome to SK, Lot!

Over the last couple of months, we had Lot to thank for. She had willingly obliged to look after the 3 cats, as she was conveniently working in the same city with us. Instead of having to board the 3, it will be less stressful to them compared to being just at home where they are most familiar.

In exchange (of the possible boarding cost), Mon and I agreed that it may be best to have her join us for our trip back in South Korea, now for winter.

We initially asked if she wanted to go to Singapore. But as it was her first time going out of the country, it would be better that she travels together with her brother. And as a big K-Pop and KDrama fan, what better place to visit than SK? (And we had a cousin of their look after the cats.LOL)

Our flight to Incheon was not due until around past 6 pm. Still we arrived very early at NAIA Terminal 3, so as not to take chances with the possible long lines in the check-in counter (Cebu Pacific’s online check-in was not working at the time), and the hit-or-miss immigration check queue.

Good thing we decided to do so as it took an hour and 15 minutes just to cross the immigration. By that time, people are grumpy, confused, and hungry after standing for a long time. That unfortunately made passengers more susceptible to look dubious, though.

Anyway, Mon and I were not asked much questions (except for our return ticket and confirmed hotel booking). Lot, on the other hand, had to be asked several times, and repeatedly by the immigration officer (IO). Not that surprising given it was her first trip overseas, and a female traveler as well. It was a great call, I guess, from our end for her to join the trip, as the IO even had to ask for Mon’s information as some sort of assurance.

After the check, X-ray and off to the lounge we went.

Same as our trip to Singapore last month, we also used the free lounge access courtesy of  our credit card. Otherwise, we don’t mind eating anywhere inside the airport. But, hey, who we are to say no to free food? The PAGSS at Terminal 3 looks, in my opinion, better than the one in Terminal 1.

Because of the long lines in the immigration, we barely stayed for an hour and a half at the lounge before we walked to the boarding gate of Cebu Pacific. We’d rather stay by the boarding gate instead of running the whole length and become late. I’ve heard of traveler horror stories where they underestimate this simple leg of trip having to reach the boarding gate.

Our flight, however, was delayed and I was a bit anxious of the private transfer we booked upon arrival (a Filipino doing these airport transfers as a sideline). I even got an eSIM from Klook and registered it the night before the trip. I am hoping it would work correctly once I open the cellphone signal when we land.

After around 4 hours, Lot finally caught a glimpse of the lights below from South Korea. Her K-Pop and KDrama heart was happy.

As soon as the soft thud of the airplane wheels hit the runway at Incheon, I immediately turned on my cellphone signal to message the pick-up. We arrived close to midnight and the AREX was already closed. Besides, we forgot last October that the express trains have a schedule, wasting almost 1 hour just waiting for the next one.

It took a long time for our luggage to come out of the carousel. When the last piece of luggage appeared, we went straight out the customs and the exit. There, our transport was already waiting. It was – 4 degrees Celsius and the cold wind immediately made itself known. Welcome to winter!

I only had a wool coat and a shirt for the flight, while the other 2 were not dressed for the temperature. On the other hand, it only took 5 minutes to walk from the exit to the van, on top of loading our luggage. Inside the van, the temperature was just normal.

It was already past midnight and the travel to Stanford Hotel took almost an hour. We immediately checked in, left our bags in the room, and headed out. No one bother to take out any heat tech or earmuffs. We thought that the temperature was tolerable. We could not be more wrong.

The Lee Jae-hyo installation down the hotel’s building

Our first stop was at Woori Bank’s ATM to withdraw money (as all of our last KRW, we paid in cash to the transfer). It was closed. We were walking around Myeongdong to look for an open ATM and surprisingly found none. As we only needed to buy some water, a couple of cookies, and a toothbrush and T-money for Lot, we opted to use credit card instead.

We entered at least 2 CUs but their credit card reader was not working. We ended up in a 7/11 near our hotel which thankfully accepted my card.

At this point, we were already freezing. We wrongfully underestimated how ‘tolerable’ the temperature was, comparing a vehicle’s temperature to one where you are out in the open. Our ears were freezing, nose running, and hand shaking. How can Mon and I not have the sense to pull out a protective gear. I only had a wool scarf inside my bag that did not help at all.

Anyway, we called it a night, as we have to wake up early to start the, technically, Day 1.

The following morning, we were ready to start the day.

We got the hotel at a very good price from Booking.com, although it did not include breakfast compared to last time. We had to pay separately at the restaurant, on top of the discount as a hotel guest. (This would be the last time we ate breakfast as Lot suggested just buying food from the night before, as we were not to eat much anyway).

As soon as we got out of the hotel, we were greeted by the freezing temperature. Fortunately, we were already dressed properly. We immediately went back to Woori Bank and they were already open. So as to minimize the transaction fee, Mon and I just shared the amount of cash we thought we needed for the trip.

Before heading to Myeongdong Station, we have already bought a T Money at CU, now with cash. We also dropped by the building near the intersection of Shinsegae to claim the cable car and observatory tickets for Seoul Tower towards the evening, which we bought from Klook.

Now with her own T Money, Lot finally could go around without having to experience the same stupidity Mon and I did last time with a bunch of single use tickets (I still have at least 2 in my wallet that I forgot to return and get a KRW 500 for).

From Myeongdong, we traveled all the way to Anguk Station. There, we had to drop by the Dorothy Hanbok to claim the hanbok rental for Lot which we also availed, well, from Klook.

It has been a while since we visited this area (since 2010 to be exact when we visited Changdeokgung in our very first visit to SK). Even with Naver on hand, I still got a bit confused with the orientation almost crossing the road where we should have just walked straight ahead.

We eventually reached the place, showed the voucher, and proceeded to select a hanbok for Lot. At that point, I also had to remove one layer of clothing. It was one of those things I was not too fond of during winter, where it gets too hot whenever you enter an establishment.

Anyway, Lot managed to choose this design she liked, along with some faux fur cape to help her cope with the cold. Before we stepped out of the store, we had been shown in the calculator KRW 15,000, to which we misunderstood as deposit (more on that in a bit).

From that street, we walked all the way to Gyeongbokgung, entering by Gwanghwamun. It was a dream of her to wear a hanbok and visit Gyeongbokgung, and she could not believe it was finally happen. Mon and I, on the other hand, did not bother wearing one, especially a paid one. We had worn one for free in 2011 from this stall in Gwanghwamun Square.LOL

We also were preparing to pay for the entrance fee before entering, but we got lucky that it was the ‘free admission’ day. Yay! Lot would not pay anyway as those wearing hanbok can enter for free even on regular days.

One thing I was really not fond of was taking photos when it was noon with the sun (quite) up above. The lighting was too harsh, and people tend to squint in photos. We did what we can do with the light that we have.

We stayed in Gyeongbokgung for more than hour. Despite us being allowed to rent the hanbok until 3pm, we still decided to go back early. We could not possibly be using the hanbok until who knows where, only to return to Anguk.

Before we returned to Dorothy Hanbok, we quickly dropped by the end of that same block. This structure was used as the set of Prince Comics in True Beauty, which Mon and I just finished before our trip to South Korea. In real life, it is currently a clothing boutique we did not dare enter. We were just there for the photo.

When we returned the hanbok, we were under the impression that it was a deposit. We were wrong. What happened was the rental was basically ‘upgraded’ to that design.LOL That was not very explicit earlier. Lot also had no recollection that it was a payment on top of the voucher.

Anyway, no use crying over a worn hanbok and we just had to let it go. Not for Mon, though, who kept on joking about the KRW 15,000, not only for the rest of the day but for the rest of the trip.

Lot, on the other hand, milked the beauty of her hair and had not removed the styling at all. We then searched around for any Korean restaurants we could have lunch in. Thank goodness for Naver, which I already got adept with this time. We found this very quaint restaurant, Jeonda, in Bukchon Hanok Village.

It is worth repeating that we made a rule to eat everything we can whenever we travels, carbs and sugar be damned. Thus at Jeonda, we got this lunch set.

I forgot how much it was, but I remember finishing everything until the last grain.

From Jeonda, we walked again to Gwanghwamun, stopping only at a convenience store for Mon to buy a bottle of water, for me to squeeze a call at home, and for Lot to have a shot with this waiting shed.LOL

After crossing to Gwanghwamun Square, we sat down for a bit to regroup how the rest of the day should look like.

As soon as it was clear how the rest of the afternoon would look like, we had a coffee at Starbucks for the caffeine fix before my head started to ache from the lack of coffee.

We got a seat next to the window, with Admiral  Yi Sun-Sin visible for me to take loads of photos for Lot.

After coffee, we went next to Cheonggyecheon for Lot to see how the place looks like. There were not too many changes from last October, of course, so I went back to being their photographer.

We had a silly idea of crossing the stone path a couple of meters away. We were also afraid that it might slippery with the cold, but good thing it wasn’t. We were not gonna be viral for that mishap.

From Gyeongbokgung, we walked towards City Hall Station to visit the Deoksugung Stone Walkway. I took loads of photos of the siblings here.

We also reach the far end, with me stopping to contemplate how the months have passed. I recall the rows of golden leaves, only to see the trees looking “barren”. Spring won’t be due in another month, and we’ll see leaves again.

Oh life.

We were also supposed to drop by the Goblin-Grim Reaper house corner in Deoksugung. But somehow, there was an on-going repair with stone walkway printed tarpaulins covering that stretch. So we just left.

From Deoksugung, we took the subway to Seoul Station, which was only one stop away from City Hall Station.

We dropped by here only for Lot to see how it looks like, as well as familiarize her in case she travels alone in the future, and would wish to visit other areas in South Korea accessible from there.

We won’t be taking the AREX home anyway, so no other chance for her to be in Seoul Station.

From Seoul Station, we then traveled next to Myeongdong Station for the last leg of the day: Seoul Tower.

We walked all the way up again to the Cable Car, which was not so easy given the temperature was already quickly going down.

We also got early in the line before the huge group purchasing tickets.

Lot was asking how many people were allowed to board the cable car, to which we replied ‘as many as they can’.

She was under the impression that a passenger can ride it on his/her own, to which I pointed out that that True Beauty seen was incorrect.LOL

In the last few times Mon and I were in Seoul Tower, we have not gone up the Observatory. We even had no recollection of how it looks like inside as it was already from 11 years ago.

There was some sort of light show leading up to the elevator queue, and a pseudo going up effect on the ceiling of the elevator itself. I totally forgot about that one.

We stayed around 45 minutes in the Observatory, before deciding to come down again.

Lot took the time to attach a lock, while Mon and I also attached a new lock. We can’t even remember where we put the last lock.

At 7:30 pm, we decided to go down to Myeongdong again. Good thing we were walking fast and got ahead yet another huge group. We were the second group to board the cable car.

As soon as we got out, we immediately went to Yoogane for dinner. This time, we had melted cheese on the brim, which we finished off.

We were so hungry from all the walking. Lot also appeared pleased with galbi, but not touching the haemul pajeon she was allergic to (we forgot!).

We just walked around a bit in Myeongdong after dinner, deciding that we’d do most of the souvenir shopping on the last trip instead.

We also had to buy food from 7/11 for breakfast, as we’d have to leave early for Gapyeong to visit Nami Island.

Steps count: 5,362 + 27, 078