10 In Seoul | Namhae 2015

#1 Adventure to Namhae

Landed in Incheon Airport at 8am.

15 hours later, we finally reached our accommodations in Namhae (almost midnight).

How’s that for adventure? 😛

Our drama-filled trip started in the airport where the long queues for the immigration area resulted in us collecting our baggages late and we were flabbergasted when we couldn’t find the luggage belt for our flight lol.

Was pretty sure that we were not the only ones facing the situation but we were so glad that we could speak Korean and found our bags without too much fuss. Actually, our language abilities helped tremendously during the whole trip – especially since we were travelling out of Seoul this time.

Took the airport line + subway to Nambu Bus Terminal for our planned 5-hours straight bus journey to Namhae and… guessed what?

All the tickets for the day for buses to Namhae were sold out! o.O (28 seats per bus, around 8 buses)

The first thought on our minds? – SHIIIIIIIT

Having the +1 with me helped. If I was alone I would have gone into panic mode and gave up going to Namhae. But we were (relatively) chill and the lady at the counter helped us get one of the last few tickets on the soonest bus (3pm) to Jinju and we decided that we could figure out something from there.

With time on our hands, we went to Sinsadong for lunch. With all our barang barang and bags lolol.

Where we got snubbed HAHA.

It was super funny cos we were super dressed down, with no makeup and looking like we 離家出走 – basically the worst dressed people in the upscale neighbourhood.

So when we happened to be staring at a huge map, a car passed by us and the guy inside 쳇!  (tsk!) at us!!!!

어의없다 moment ><;;

Sad case. ):

Consoled ourselves with a not-bad lunch at an Italian restaurant. Love the airy feel!

On a side note, I love my camera and the photo quality! No need to adjust lighting or edit the photos (or maybe I’m just not too picky hahaha)

DSCF4282

DSCF4289

 

Ordered a set which came with a salad, two pastas and two drinks!

DSCF4277

DSCF4278

Pasta was quite yummy. The vongole was spicier than expected ><;

DSCF4295

Carbonara

 

DSCF4297

Vongole

DSCF4301

Yummy clams

 

Wanted to introduce the +1 to Sulbing but she probably didn’t like it much. According to her, the Toms n Toms bingsoos in SG are tastier HAHA. Actually, I’m not a fan of Sulbing too but once is good 😛

DSCF4309

Fads don’t last long in Korea. Last year, Sulbing was the IN thing and we had to queue just to get a seat. But now, the outlet was half empty ><;

DSCF4311

Back at the Nambu Terminal and seriously, I don’t know how to navigate the system there >< It was my first time taking a long distance 시외버스 and we were very confused on how to queue up. It was a public holiday that day and the terminal was filled with people wanting to either have a getaway or to go back to their hometown. There was a queue for the bus to Jinju and we joined the queue without quite knowing what we were queuing for as we had tickets with our seat numbers printed on it.

Turned out those with tickets for that specific bus timing would be able to get up first (without queuing) and then if there are still seats in the bus, those in the queue (with tickets for buses on that day) can board. Okay, not sure if I’m correct but it seemed that way. There were people behind us with tickets for later buses who wanted to see if they could board earlier.

Wouldn’t bore you with details of the bus journey. In fact I don’t remember much, having slept for half the journey.

Had my first rest-stop experience which was quite nerve-wrecking as we were super 빨리빨리 to make sure we return well within 10 minutes. Imagine the bus leaving without us…. with our luggage too lol. ><;;

Met the first kind stranger on the bus, an ajusshi who was going to climb 지리산 with his wife the next day. He talked to us as he found us interesting (speaking in English + Korean + Chinese) and piled us with compliments for our Korean <3 hehehe.

It was lucky that he talked to us as another ajusshi next to him heard the conversation and joined in. Turned out that his hometown was in Namhae and he was heading towards the area too. He actually came towards us all the way at the back of the bus later and told us the directions for the next leg of the journey. He was going the same way and said we could follow him.

Seriously, he totally saved us. ><

At Jinju, we hurriedly bought tickets for a bus to 진교 and during the journey, he shared with me a lot on where to go in Namhae etc. Apparently there would be buses to Namhae Terminal from 진교 but….

The most daebak thing was that we arrived at 진교 and the whole terminal was CLOSED and there was just a lone street light lolol.

Seriously, I would have freaked out if I was alone…

We stood there and waited for the seemingly non-existent bus for an hour. It was well past dinnertime by then but the plus one and I weren’t hungry because we were probably too tensed lol.

The ajusshi was really nice and it turned out that he taught Korean language in a high school and he shared with us on Korean history, politics etc. It was really fascinating to hear it from a native and I was very glad that I could follow and continue the conversation from the readings I did on my own. The plus one and I agreed that he would make a superb teacher.

Some more (minor) drama happened but would not go into details. The bus journey was quite scary (super fast when the streets were so dimly lit) and we finally realised that Namhae was a HUGE island. hahahaha. Seriously, the plus and I didn’t even research on where to go or where exactly or how big Namhae was. To us, Namhae was all about 환상의 커플 and all we were interested in were 철수네 집, 짜장면 and seafood (those who watched the drama would know).

It was a very mountainous area and the roads were all narrow and steep and all turns. We finally reached the terminal and the ajusshi kindly flagged a taxi for us. We had to share a taxi with another ajusshi (haha yes we met many ajusshis lol) and we were actually a little apprehensive as said ajusshi just had a shouting match with someone a few seconds ago HAHA.

But he turned out to be really friendly to us and he was very amazed at how two Singaporean girls who could speak Korean were in Namhae for a trip. hahaha cheap thrill but we received so many compliments on our Korean skills throughout the trip!

Did I mention how taxis in Namhae were really expensive? Every single trip was at least a 20,000won and we finally realised how huge the place was when the taxi ride took at least 20 minutes lol.

Finally got to the pension in one piece and the ajumma owner was so nice!! Upon knowing that we hadn’t eaten dinner, she made us food! 😀

DSCF4316

Wolfed it down together with our rations of 2 kimbap rolls HAHA. Probably exceeded our carbs and sodium intake for the day but we were famished.

DSCF4321

Nothing beats lying on the heated floor and watching TV.

DSCF4320

Stayed at the Namhae Healing View Pension!

A video posted by S (@seul.key) on

Loved it! 😀 Clean, comfortable and the owner was really really nice! (:

It is situated in this village of pension houses, very near a convenience store, a fantastic seafood restaurant and with a decent view too!

More in the next post! 😀

You Might Also Like

10 Comments

  • Reply
    james
    11 May, 2015 at 8:26 PM

    Looking forward to the next post 🙂
    Yes, when travelling , never give up, you can usually get something or at least get closer to where you want to go. Haven’t been to Namhae for years… must go again.
    Cheers

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      12 May, 2015 at 9:27 AM

      Thanks! 😀

  • Reply
    leonger
    11 May, 2015 at 9:26 PM

    kekekkeke your adventure is so awesome. I should try namhae one day too… On a non 명절 day.

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      12 May, 2015 at 9:27 AM

      yeahhh I totally forgot about being a 명절 ㅠㅠㅠ

  • Reply
    zhiwen
    11 May, 2015 at 9:44 PM

    Wah sounds scary to travel to 시외 alone. Before this, I was still contemplating to travel there alone. Eventually, how did u get to 남해 when 진교 terminal was closed? (Sorry if I missed this part in the post)

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      12 May, 2015 at 9:28 AM

      haha! Depends on where you go I guess. And don’t travel on a public holiday like I did ><;; We waited for almost an hour for a bus to come but the driver refused to let us up even though the bus was going to Namhae and we had to wait for a second bus hahaha. We almost gave up waiting ><;;

  • Reply
    meltedd
    13 May, 2015 at 12:57 AM

    Wow that is a lot of dedication haha. I’ve never been to Namhae, hope it was worth it! I heard the Labour Day weekend traffic was madness.

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      17 May, 2015 at 9:02 AM

      yaaa it was quite mad. I’m glad I slept through part of the journey D: 15 hours was crazzzzy

  • Reply
    Dusky
    15 May, 2015 at 1:18 AM

    Ah, you went through so much to get to Namhae and from your beautiful pictures it looks like it was worth it. 😀

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      17 May, 2015 at 9:01 AM

      Yes it was well worth it! (:

    Leave a Reply to Hangukdrama Cancel Reply