Introducing the Fauzi and Natasha Honeymoon Series

After much procrastination, I finally get to collect my mojo and write an entry about our honeymoon. Our exhaustingly long journey began at 12 o'clock at night. We boarded our Ipoh-Kuala Lumpur South Bound train at quarter pass 12 at night and it took us about 4 hours to reach Kuala Lumpur Sentral.

We then arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at half past 6 in the morning. Our flight was at 8 o'clock, so we had quite an ample time to pray and grab some breakfast before boarding. Initially, we did not want to get breakfast because we had already booked two sets of pre-meal on-board, but we were starving from previous night's long journey, so, we gulped a whole plate of chicken rice in less than ten minutes. Haha.

Fauzi and I have gone travelling before, but that feeling when I was looking at the aircraft and back at him, it just felt...very...surreal. Like there was a huge group of butterflies fluttering in my stomach and I just could not resist grinning. I felt extremely happy. It was like us against the whole world. Haha.

My mum insisted on getting us the business class tickets, but Fauzi refused as he felt guilty if we took up her offer. So, we settled for first class seats, which was very spacious with romantically deemed ambiance. There were only about ten adults in that coach, so it was very, very peaceful, which allowed us to have a good five-hour undisturbed sleep. Haha. The Korean stewards and stewardess were kind enough to wake us up in between for our meals.

😂

The view from my seat was magnificent. Though, it could not quite keep me awake... Haha. I remember travelling to Australia back and forth, which was a six hour flight too, but I do not remember being that exhausted. Perhaps, with the non-stop wedding preparations and my recent visit to Singapore had drained whatever energy that was left in me. And this trip just took a massive toll on my already exhausted body.

Sleepy heads finally touched down at Incheon International Airport! There is only one word suitable to describe this airport: massive. I kid you not! This airport is actually on an artificially created piece of land between two islands, Yeongjong and Yongyu, which were separated by shallow sea. Now, both islands are interconnected all thanks to the construction of this airport. Hence why it is such a massive airport.

From the arrival hall, we had to walk for about 15 minutes to get to the aero-train. Then, another ten minutes of walking to reach the immigration department. The queues were endless and the immigration officers were not exactly friendly. I guess, it is part of their job-scope under "put on your intimidating face and scare the foreigners away".

LOL. Kidding.

The train leaves every 5 minutes. Although, it is fast, it still took us about five minutes to reach the main terminal. And then, we had to walk for another 10 minutes to finally reach the rest of civilisation which is called the main terminal.

Ladies and gentlemen, I was not bluffing when I said Incheon International Airport was massive.

Pardon the shaky photo, but this is the three quarter interior of the main terminal. The first thing we did was, we bought two T-Money cards at the 7-Eleven and a Korean iPhone sim card from one of the bookstores.

We, initially, wanted to book portable wifi, but the amount of deposit we had to place, was too pricy. We could have used that 100,000 KRW for some other things, like entrance fee, food or transportation. Since, it was only the two of us travelling, therefore, we opted for the alternative, which was temporary sim card. It was way cheaper and did not have to take up extra space in my already full handbag. Haha.

The T-Money card, itself, cost us 2,500 KRW each. And we decided to refill 10,000 KRW each card for conveniency. But, no worries, you can always refill or refund your card at any convenient stores or machines at any subway stations. Easy beezy, no?

There were many selections of sim cards as there were of portable wifi at the airport. But, the one that caught my eyes was sim card from LTE Olleh. It cost us 34,000 KRW for 1GB of internet for 5 days and unlimited local and international calls. Whereas, the portable wifi would have cost us 100,000 KRW (deposit) + 40,000 KRW for 5GB/5day.

😲

At first, I thought 1GB would not be enough for 5 days. But, I was surprised to learn that I still had about 420MB data left on our last day! Had I used my Malaysian data exactly like how I used my Korean data, that 1GB would have only lasted a day or two.

I mean, I loaded my Instagram a few times in a day, I went on Facebook on daily basis, I was on WhatsApp most of the time, I uploaded photos on WhatsApp for our family to see, I had Seoul subway application on throughout our whole journey and I Googled some articles and blogs too! How come the data did not drain??

😕

After getting everything we needed, we walked out of the airport to take in the winter fresh air. Boy, it was cold, but, bearable. One of the little things I noticed at the airport was, Korean people walk really, really, really fast. And the ladies were always in really, really, high stilettos.

And there I was, in my flat Ugg boots, walking at a pregnant snail's pace. 😅

How to get to Seoul from Incheon International Airport?

We took AREX (Airport Express) All-Stop Train. Cause we are cheapskate liddat. Haha.

We went back inside the airport and followed the signage 'Airport Railroad'. There is an escalator next to HANA bank, which leads us to the Airport Railroad level as seen in the picture above. We walked pass arrays of ticketing machines and came across AREX information counter. This is the place where mother of maps and vouchers could be found. Like the true Asians we are, we took all the maps and vouchers there were. Haha.

But, on a serious note, you can always download Seoul map in PDF format into your phone, but bear in mind, that map is not as detailed as the one provided at the airport. So, you better grab one. Or two, in case, you misplace the first one.

With the physical map, it was a whole lot easier for us to determine which train to take, what lane to be on, which stop and exit were closest to the tourist attraction to go to, and every other little details that are not written or displayed in the PDF map.

There we were in front of AREX information counter. Whilst I was busy on Seoul Subway application trying to figure out which lane to take in order to get us to our hotel in Myeongdong, my husband was busy taking non-stop selfies...

😒

Haha.

In case any of you wonder what app did I use that got us to places without any hassle at all and gave us the fastest and cheapest route. Woot! Woot! Well, this is the application, Seoul Metro Subway Map & Plan Router.

We decided to take an all-stop train instead of express train because it was cheaper and there were less stops. With AREX All-Stop train, it cost us roughly around 3,950 KRW/each from our T-Money card to get us to Euljiro 3 (sam)-ga. Had we taken AREX Express train, we would have been charged 8,000 KRW/each.

Two of the things I noticed riding subway in Seoul were, 1) everyone was on their phone, doing something or anything, and 2) they can stand in the middle of the train with their eyes glued on their phones and still kept their balance when the train stopped abruptly. And most of them were ladies in super high heels. I would have scrambled down, face planted, on the floor if I did not hold onto the strain! Haha.

Doesn't it look complex?

Fret not! Truthfully, Seoul subway transportation is surprisingly easy. Do not be intimidated by the various colours and numbered circles, or the unfamiliar Korean writings on the map. It is actually very clear and direct if one knows how to read it.

Click on the picture below to expand it and read the index to get a better understanding of the map.

There you go. Easy, isn't?

Take our journey from the airport to our hotel as an example.

This is the location of our hotel (the big dot with 8.1 very good remark at the bottom), Staz Myeongdong I. As you can see, the closest subway station is Euljiro 3 (sam)-ga and the nearest exit is number 3 (in yellow circle).

So, all you have to do is, type in the name of your destination into the application and this will appear:

In less than an hour, this application got us straight to the doorstep of our hotel. How awesome is that!

We boarded AREX All-Stop train on AREX line towards Hongik University. There at Hongik University, we looked for Line 2 (Green Lane) and transferred to Euljiro 3 (sam)-ga. Look at the signage in picture below.

Line 2 in green circle, that way. Going north. Those number in yellow squares indicate the exit. Choose your exit and follow the path. Easy!

You may have to check the map at the station again, in order to determine which train you should board. Is it the one on your left (heading south/north from your intended destination) or right (heading north/south to your intended destination) that has the stop to your destination.

We got off at Euljiro 3 (sam)-ga, touched our T-Money card upon leaving, and looked for Exit 3. And....we were greeted by this:

STEPS! Thank God, I did not bring my suitcase with me. Or else, who was going to drag it up the stairs. Certainly not me!

I, purposely, chose the hotel which is very, very close to the subway. Just imagine, having to walk for ten minutes in winter cold at night after a long walk around the town just to get back to your hotel. Oh, what a torture!

I know I do not have that kind of energy, hence this hotel. It was a little pricy, but what do you expect from a 3.5 star hotel with such strategic location?

The owner of the hotel owns the 7-Eleven that is located at the lobby of the hotel too. So, it was very convenient for us, or rather me, when I suddenly felt like I wanted to eat bread or have banana milk at godly hours. Haha. We got free stuff too sometimes. The owner was too generous to us.

The hotel was very satisfactory. I loved everything about it. It was very comfortable and spacious. It is known that hotels and motels in Korea are usually tiny. So, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our room was spacious. We had more room for our legs and bags and to walk around. We could even wrestle if we wanted. Haha.

Our room was very clean and technology equipped. Wifi provided was fast, there were many TV channels, there was even a bathtub in our bathroom. Oh and that fancy tech toilet bowl. Haha. We had a kettle and a thermos flask at our disposal, so it made cooking easy for me. A high-tech safety box was equipped in our room, so we did not have to worry about leaving our valuable items in the room while we were out.

The location of our hotel was very strategic. And the hotel management was kind to provide us with some maps and pamphlets too. If we were to come to Seoul again, I'll definitely come back to this hotel.

👍

I guess this is all for now. I will write more when I have the time. See you soon!