My family's annual trip brought us back to South Korea after the last one in 2011. You may want to read the introductory post first before reading this one. So, we are a family from Penang, Malaysia and we flew to Busan via Kuala Lumpur's KLIA2 airport ("KL"). We arrived in KL city the night before and we put up a night at our relatives' before the early morning flight the next day. It was an 8.30am flight.
KLIA2 Airport, very fancy indeed. If only they have as much facilities and high end shops as Changi Airport, Singapore. After this trip, I swear I wouldn't want to fly from KLIA2 ever again. Too much time wasted in getting from point A to point B by doing cardio exercise.
Breakfast at Johnny Rocket's - RM8.90!
So, our plane took off at 8.30am and we reached Busan airport at 3.30pm (local time). We also flew the same day to Jeju-do or Jeju island with Jeju Air so after getting our bags, we pulled our bags and walked ourselves to the domestic terminal. It was our first time experiencing Busan's wind and breathing the air. It is gloomy and cloudy with high chance of rain! Sobs. But not cold.
It is a big terminal for domestic flights and very clean.
Grab some food here before you fly again at Food O'Clock (domestic terminal). We had our early dinner as our flight to Jeju-do is not until 7.35pm. Before that, we have already dropped off our bags at Jeju Air counter. You may check in at the counter as you can only web check in for the domestic flight 24 hours before the flight time.
You'll get used to this buzzing device. It will buzz or vibrate when your food is ready to be collected from the kitchen. Widely used in South Korea.
Udon with odeng (fish cakes) - KRW4,500 (approximately)
Kimchi and Pork stew - KRW6,500
*at the time of our travel the currency exchange rate was RM3.20 for KRW1000*
And we fly! Our flight got delayed for about 10 minutes and we finally arrived in Jeju-do at 8.30pm. It was an hour flight from Busan. We then queue for a taxi to our hostel, Hostel HK Jeju 1 at old Jeju city.
No kidding. It was really a long queue. So, by the time we got our taxi, half an hour had past.
The icon of Jeju-do, dol hareubang (stone grandpas) and it is everywhere. In front of homes or temples and even attractions and these were at airport by the taxi stand.
Again, I wish to reiterate the importance of having both English (for your understanding) and the Korean names in Hangul (Korean characters) of your hotel/hostel/guesthouse names and addresses. Yes, the addresses too must be in dual languages for convenience. I had our hostel booking printed out and our taxi driver was able to take to our hostel swiftly. Remember to have your accommodation's information in Korean including the address and phone numbers. Our hostel is about 10 minutes drive away and the taxi fare was about KRW4,100 for 4 persons.
My sister booked our accommodation at Jeju-do via booking.com and the thing about booking.com is that you don't have to pay anything until the day of your arrival at the hostel. But, I am a bit sceptical about online bookings so I always make it a point to send the hostel/hotel/guesthouse an email just to make sure they got our booking through the website. By the way, we travelled in a group of 8 comprising of young adults and three elderly (aged between 20-60). So, we got three triple bed rooms. We included our brother last time when we booked the flight and accommodation, so hence the extra bed. He couldn't make it because he got accepted to further his studies in the UK. In case you guys are wondering why we booked 9 beds when there were only 8 of us. Accommodation is entirely up to your budget as well as your itinerary whether you want to stay at old/new Jeju city or Seogwipo areas. Each area has their own local attractions which may appeal to you. The distance between the two areas is approximately 40 minutes via highway.
As a matter of FIRST THING TO DO when arrived in South Korea is to head towards the nearest 7-elevel to get the local snacks. We bought some banana milk (dark green and blue caps) and melon milk (in green cap) KRW1,500 each. I read about tteokbokki (rice cake) snacks (KRW1000) and I got the 7-eleven's Select brand. Not forgetting Milkis (milk+soda) (KRW1700) and Calbee (potato snack in a cup) (KRW2000). There is a 7-eleven just opposite of our hostel and we were so delighted!
So, that's a day full of travelling from 8.30am to 9pm (local Korean time). South Korea is an hour ahead of Malaysian time by the way. You won't get jet lag at all. But you might need to get use to their early sunrise and early sunset during autumn and winter months.
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