Korea: Tips for Transportation Around Seoul

Dearest friends,

Korea has become such a hype place for tourist destination nowadays. It attracts mostly girls, thanks to their infamous Myeongdong Cosmetic Heaven...lol

But it is such a shame if you guys are not interested in Korea. They have so many things to offer. One biggest reason to visit Korea is their rich culture and culinary. Seriously Korean food might be one of the best in the world. Korean has always been known as detail oriented community. You can see their precise detail on their culinary and architecture.

For a newcomer to Korea, especially Seoul. I would like to share our experience how to save money for transportation in Seoul based on what you guys need and how long you will be spending fun holiday in Seoul.

1. Seoul City Pass

 Can be used for Seoul City Tour Bus, Seoul Bus and Metro Subway.
Price:

Source: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=261307

2. T-Money

 This is my favorite one. Because it is flexible as to how many trips I want to go to and cheaper for my needs. I will explain more later on this page.

It can look different from this one. They sell different variation of T-Money. It could be card or key chain form. I love the key chain form. I could hang it on my phone.

No worries, you can just buy one of this and you don't have to put your information contact. It used to be like that. But nowadays, tourist can just used it once they bought it.

Recharge your T-Money here. Can be found on every subway stations.

3. Single Trip Subway Ticket

This is the most expensive one. Not only you have to pay for the deposit, but it is also a waste of time. You need to keep getting this ticket every time you want to use subway. So, my suggestion is to find nearest GS25 or 711 in airport and but T-Money or find tourist information and asked them where to get T-Money or Seoul City Pass in airport.

Comparison between Seoul City Pass and T-Money

According to our experience, it was cheaper using T-Money instead of Seoul City Pass. Since we stayed for a week and not using the Seoul City Tour Bus.

This is our itinerary;

The red blocked part was delayed caused by Japan Airlines. Sigh.
Assuming we did 8 trips a day by Subway (which we did almost every day and even more than 8 trips sometimes) including the long trip to airport, it only cost us 35.000 KRW with remaining 8.000 KRW left on my T-Money.
We did 8 trips a day because in the middle of the day we always go back to the apartment to nap. All the walking and sightseeing drained our energy...lol

We went there on summer. So 6pm were still bright and night started at 8pm. We usually stayed out till 11pm. Remember that subway stopped working from around 11pm. So, don't stay out too late.

I will post about subway information app that will be useful to use even when you don't have internet on the next post.

Have fun in Korea ^_^

Cabin in The Wood, Lake Guntersville

Cabin in The Wood

We were driving at night for 8 hours from Golf Shore to Guntersville. It was cold autumn night, the fog was hovering the road. We passed by Albertville first and went to wooden area surrounded by fog around 11pm. It was eerie and I felt jumpy. I was worried something might pop out on the middle of the road. The road was pretty empty. We only saw one or 2 cars passing us.

View of Lake Guntersville from the Camp

The Empty Camp Site

The cabin was located near Camp Ney A Ti surrounded by few smaller cabins and woods area. The House cabin in front of us was used by a sick old man and his sister. The other cabin several meters away from our cabin looks like a witch's house. So scary that I don't dare to take picture of it. 

The Forrest

View from The Hill

Wefie in front of The Cabin

The next day, we went to Huddle House to get some breakfast. I was craving for some pancake or waffle. The portion was realllllly huge. I can only ate a quarter of the portion. But it was really good pancake. Boyfriend said that the one from iHop should be even better. Next time, I would like to try this one. 

Selfie in Huddle House

Seriously delicious Blueberry-Choco Chip Pancake drizzled with Strawberry Sauce

We drove back to the cabin because his dad will come and stay with us in the cabin. He is going to take me sailing with his boat. Sailing is his passion. I found an old newspaper about a young boy building his own boat with the money he had been saving, turned out that young boy was dad. He took so much pride for his boat and his hobby.

Wefie with dad and the boat 'SeaPearl 21'

Helping Dad out with the excess water from the rain that morning

After sailing, we decided to go to The Lodge on top of the hill to see the sunset and the view of the lake. The Lodge is a hotel located on top of the hill in Guntersville State Park. I assume it must be state owned hotel. It has amazing view.

He came over to our car on our way to go to the Lodge.

The Lodge

Bob Cat

Majestic View of Lake Guntersville, we went sailing there. 

Still waiting for Sunset 

Almost time

Beautiful Sun Set 

Giant ate the Sun

We went to get grocery immediately since we decided to do BBQ. We had a late dinner because we were too busy sightseeing in The Lodge. Dad and Bf cooked BBQ burger for us. It was a very satisfying dinner accompanied with good wine that dad bought from Germany. 

BBQ

Yummy Beef Burger

Germany Wine 

Dad likes to drink his wine with Sarden.

It was only a short visit to Guntersville. But I enjoyed the sailing, sunset gazing, sightseeing, and BBQ-ing with Dad and Bf. Cabin in the wood is kinda scary, but it was warm inside and I felt safe somehow.

Road Trip from Madison to Gulf Shore (Alabama)

Day 6th in America, boyfriend took me on my first American Road Trip experience. He took me to Gulf Shore (8 hours away) before going to New Orleans (15 hours away or 4 hours away from Gulf Shore).

Get our coffee for the trip.

The owner/Barista found out that I am from Indonesia and Indonesia has a big variety of Coffee. Then out of no where, he gave us this huge bulk of Sumatran Coffee. He seemed happy that boyfriend introduced us and that I ordered cold drip.

He said he wanted to introduce me to his childhood friends. They have been friends since they were toddler up till now fully grown adults, yet they still talk passionately about games (nerds huh!?lol)

Posing in Rest Area

Their Rest Area provided us with tour booklets

8 hours was a long drive. I thought we were going to pass by an area that resembles the setting for any creepy movie like Chainsaw Massacre, Wrong Turn, and/or Psycho, Motel or something. Well, i really had no idea on what kind of roads we would have to pass through. But apparently we stayed mostly on the highway.  

We stopped by in Montgomery,AL for dinner in Japanese restaurant. Arrrrrgh it was horrible experience. I asked the waitress if they have Ramen and the waitress flipping out, rudely put the menu on my table and said "This is Japanese restaurant!Only Japanese food, not Korean!". Ramen is Japanese food! Then I found out she was actually Korean American. She thought I was asking for Ramyeon. But hey, there is no need to get upset with me! At the end of our dinner, they gave us fortune cookie. Yeah right Fortune cookie is Japanese food? And you don't know if Ramen is Japanese food? Meh!!! 

There will be a lot of changes in your life.

I was so upset that I barely eat. We decided to move to lively Mexican restaurant. We ordered Guacamole dips and chips. The waitress and the cashier was a lot nicer in this one. The Guacamole was reallly reallllllly good. 

Boyfriend's parents has several condos for rent near Gulf Shore beach. The condo was neat and pretty clean. I love the view to the beach. It has it's own swimming pool. The sands is really really white, even whiter than the so-called Pasir Putih. It was a nice spot. We were able to spot Sunset from our balcony.

First Selfie in Gulf Shore

Sunset Light

White Sands

Boyfriend's friends come over and stayed with us. They took me to Irish Pub/Restaurant for dinner, the name of the restaurant is McGuire's Irish Pub located in Pensacola, Florida.
Website
I love their decoration. Do you know the old tale about pile of money on the end of a rainbow? I think the Irish invented that saying. The color was dominated with green and they hang dollar notes on the ceiling in almost every rooms. It is like Leprechaun's luck or something.

Moneeeeeeey!!! Dollllllaarrrrr!! Gimme!!!

What to eat????

My money that we were planning to hang on the ceiling.

Good Luck Charm

The light was pretty dim there. So, I was not able to take picture of foods nicely. But the food was really good. I ordered a bean soup for only $0.18 or around Rp.2.500 yes that cheap. They said they never change the price ever since they open the restaurant. Whaatttt!!!
The Calamari that I ordered comes in a huge portion that we had to box the rest (almost or more than half of the portion) and took it home.

The Ultimate Irish Wake that will send you down memory lane but not on so-smooth ride.

Complementary Bread which was moist and fluffy on the inside but crunchy and buttered with sweets on the outside.

$0.18 bean soup with granny crackers, a comfort food for any bad day.

The next day, we had to go back to Alabama, Guntersville to stay in the cabin house there for several days. They took me to a very authentic Mexican restaurant. It was a cute and small restaurant, kinda like Bakso/Mie Ayam small restaurant with only 5 tables available. We tried the salsa dips and chips this time and I absolutely love it. The food that I miss the most now that I am back in Indonesia is the dips and chips from all those Mexican Restaurants.

Spicy Shrimp with Bean and Buttered Rice

On the way home, we stopped by in Montgomery to eat Indian food (finally a decent Indian food, compare to the one I tried in Huntsville and Madison) and to watch Shahrukh's new movie Happy New Year. There is no way I would miss his new movie. It was 3 hours drive from Madison or 4 hours from Guntersville maybe. So, we decided to watch it on our way home.

The huge Samosas for appetizer, yup not even main course yet.

It was a memorable road trip. We ate good foods, met good friends, went to great places, bought good stuffs. We had so many fun times. I would do it again with no hesitation.