DAY 2 PART 1 - DAERIM STATION

Day 2...woke up early in the morning feeling cold, temperature arnd 21 degrees, but i slept pretty well..thanks to the heat bed. Today's plan was Namsan Park, Cable car, Teddy Bear Museum and Myeongdong.

Snap a few pics from the corridor of our hotel room before we took the lift down. (our room is on the 2nd level). A small park opposite our hotel. First thing we set out, find our way to the nearest train station..Daerim Station that is.

So this is our route from the hotel to Daerim Station. Back in sg walking this kind of distance would make you sweat easily. Over there the weather was cooling..no sweat at all..im loving spring already.

So after following the map on my Google Map apps..found it..저기다(jeo-gi-ta)!!!

A green bus and a bus stop. I read somewhere that they have busses with different colours, each catering to different areas and regions..hmm not sure where though.

The staircase leading up to Daerim Station

It says : Dae-Rim (Gu-ro-gu-cheong)

Daerim Station bridge

We found the ticketing machine. The BLUE machine in the middle is the T-Money card dispenser machine. The menu is available in english, it cost 3,000Won for one card, which is the deposit for the card non-refundable if im not wrong. Then you have to go to the SILVER machine where the woman is standing at. Thats the card reloading machine. English available too..so juz reload your card to any amount you see on the screen. Mabe load  20,000Won (reasonable amount) while i load 50,000Won which is too much but no choice as the machine won't eat my 10,000Won. Damn you machine!! you need ''Cal''!!.

So this is what the T-Money card looks like..nice right. 

The back of the card..ohh ya when you buy this card from the machine it actually comes in a box. Inside the box are discount coupons for attractions. Made specially for tourist.

So thats the gate..same like sg, juz tap your card and push the spinning bar to go in.

If you look on the right there's this man with white glove and something blue across his suits..i think he's some kind of guide for the station, help those people who don't know which way to go. So while me and Mabe was trying to figure out how to use the machine..i saw that he was talking to 2 old couple which looks like they needed help, then he was giving us this scary ''i kill you'' stare haha...only then i realize he wanted to show the old couple how to buy a card..so i told Mabe ''eh we give them buy first ah..the uncle giving us stupid face ah''. Very unfriendly ajeossi (uncle), help koreans but never help tourist.

Found the right platform to go to..

With the help of my Jihachul apps..so this is our route.

What the platform looks like..they also have glass panel for commuters safety..you can even bring your bicycle into the train..no not the foldable ones..full size bicycle!! I swear i saw cyclist carrying their mountain bikes up the platform.

A nice view of the city from the station window..i love the background view of the different height of buildings..예쁘다!!

 

Mabe shot this one..a driver dusting his bus.

Me and my back pack filled with supplies, drinks, xtra jackets, portable chargers (a must to bring) and camera...and some space left for shopping goodies later on in the day.

Mabe was like Pororo! Pororo!...Haroro! Haroro..she thinks of Haha when she saw this.

So the train came a few minutes later..they have announcement in english, also the LED sign on top of the glass door displays in english, japanese and chinese.

So here we go our first time in a Korean subway train.Our stop..Myeongdong, 10 station away.

TO BE CONTINUED....

DAY 1 PART 4 - EVCHAIN RESIDENCE

TO THE HOTEL WE GO..

Mabe snap a shot of the driver seat. First thing we came in the cab she was like "uuhh the driver is on the left side??'' Sg driver seat is on the right side so seeing this is kinda weird for her...ohh you can see the T-Money reader there too in between the front seats. Same like sg huh where u can pay taxi with ez-link too. Hmm..i wonder which country started this multi transportation card thing first..sg or korea?

So off we go to our hotel..we gave the address of our hotel to the driver but he still ask for the hotel contact number so that he can know the exact location..hmm i thought korean taxi have GPS navigation, or maybe Korea is big so its a must to be certain of the address. And he doesn't even have to on the aircon..as you can see the window is rolled down. The outside wind IS the aircon. Shiok i tell you..super cooling and refreshing. As the taxi speed thru the roads cold wind juz breeze furiously into the cab..natural wind..even better than aircon.

If you look closely, you can actually see a speedboat being towed by a vehicle. And its moving very fast in the highway. First time i see that.

As soon as he verify the addres with our hotel receptionist..he keyed it into the navigation system..cool.

A windmill generating power..

  

 

  

The whole journey to the hotel was super long. We were caught in traffic jam everywhere. The driver told us that its peak hrs, people knocking off from work so the road would be very jam. So he tried other alternative way to avoid the jam. Along the way me and Mabe fell aslp but i woke up just in time to know that we were almost reaching. And in total it took almost an hr and a half to reach the hotel. Cab fare was a flat fixed rate costing 55,000won and 10,000won pick up service. Considering time, tiredness and the heavy luggage..it was worth it.

EVCHAIN RESIDENCE

Finally reached our hotel. An old man open the door for us and we went to the reception counter and were greeted by a young bespectacled korean girl. She spoke english not fluent but understandable..we gave her our passport and the printed email of our hotel booking for verification. Then she gave us a card to access the entrance door of the building which we had to pay a deposit of 10,000won for it.

After that she brought us up to our room to show us how to unlock our room door with a security passcode. Then i decided for the first time to use my korean..so as she done showing us i said to her ''kamsahamnida..'' and she replied with a very long winded ''Neeeeeeeh''.

 

Here's how unlocking the door looks like..kinda cool, don't have this in sg, somemore the brand is Samsung a Korean company btw. In korea almost all the housing door there use this kind of electronic number lock.

As soon as we enter the room it was freezing...i open my luggage and quickly put one more layer of jacket. It was so cold we were trying to find some kind  of heat source..so there i am looking under the sink trying to figure out how to activate the underground heating system..its actualy pipes that runs under the floor so all you have to do is make sure hot water runs thru the pipes and it will heat up the floor in awhile.

Another alternative to heat myself up..hot running water from the sink..

Thats how cold i am haha..ohh the matress is kinda hard but it has its own heating system too which i found out..so i plug it in and turn the heating power to maximum,jumped on the bed cover myself with the blanket. A minute later i can feel the heat from within the matress ahhh shiokness i tell you..cool technology. I didn't even know got such thing exist. So after settling down we wash up and change, we decided to take a walk arnd the street.

We went arnd the streets..it was cold..i tink temperature was arnd 17 degrees. I had 3 layers of clothing on with 2 layers of socks. We went to 7-11 to get some snack and drinks then continued walking again.

Mabe saw this in a nearby convenience shop..she says korean strawberries are the best so she bought it..well it tasted kinda sour but okay.

Our plan was to go out and start visiting places but after feeling tired from the journey we decide to start afresh the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED....