Day 1 - Seoul (30th Aug, 2012, Thurs)

I have spent about 1 month time for planning this Seoul trip. Start from study their metro map, and follow by drafting the itinerary according to the metro line, so that my route can be more convenient, and no need to take and transfer many subways.

First time seeing this metro map, I am really surprise and headache, as the line looks more complicated than Paris metro. After study the attraction places, it was not hard to reach to the destinations.

I arrived at Seoul Incheon International Airport on morning 9.00a.m. We bought the T-money card at the 7-11, this is like a touch and go card, that you can reload the money for scan as subway tickets.

The T-money card cost 2,500 won, and the minimum amount in the card is 50 won. You can use this card as debit card to buy things in some convenient shops like 7-11 and so on. 

There are express metro from Airport to Seoul Station, which cost 8,000 won, but we only take the normal metro which cost about 2,550 won to reach to the Digital Media Centre and change line 9 to go to Itaewon 630. The duration took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to reach to Itaewon.

This time, we are stayed in a very unique place, The Spa Land (which is JilJinbang in Korean) in Itaewon. This is a place usually appear in Korean drama.

If you are using the spa facilities only, it is only cost 10,000 won per person; As we are having the private room, it's cost 30,000 won for 2 of us, and we can also enjoyed the Spa facilities inside. (How to go here: Exit No. 3 at Itaewon station, go straight about 300 meters and you will see a stair case on your right, climb up the stair case and in front of you is the Itaewon Spa Land building.)

After putting the luggage, we are searching for lunch venue. This is the pork and prawn "man tu" we try, Pork man tu 3,000 won and prawn man tu 5,000 won, it was very delicious. Different taste with the Chinese type of "Jiao Zi".

After this, we are going to Seoul Grand Park (Take Metro Line 4 stop at Seoul Grand Park 437), exit No, 2. Go straight about 400m then you will see the signboard.

The cable car is without the cover, it must be very beautiful to sit this cable car to go up the hill during winter time.

 This is rose garden together with a mini zoo inside, entrance fees is 2,000 won per person. Opposite rose garden is the Zoo, entrance fees is 3,000 won per person, but it has closed early due to the continuous rain.

 After the Rose Garden, we heading to Dongdaemum market (Take metro line 4, stop at Dongdaemum station 421, exit no. 3.) After exit, go straight about 500m, then you will see the most of the shopping center on your left. The famous snack foods here are hot dog, and the Tuk Bolgi, but we are heading to the dinner below.

 This set of dinner cost 23,000 won, but this piece of beef very delicious.

After dinner, we walk around at Dongdaemum area and i wanted to go to a place in front of the Dongdaemum, but it was closed because of the rain. 

We having coffee while on the way back to hostel. Seoul do have a lot of nice decoration coffee shop, my coffee latte cost 4,700 won. It's even expensive than Coffee Bean and Starbucks price in Malaysia.