Hello Korea #01

한국 잘 다녀왔습니다.

I contemplated for a bit if I should blog about the trip (lazy) but I thought I should make the effort to do so, as a memory keepsake. Once in a while, I’ll go back to read about my past travels and it feels different from simply looking at the photos. Each post encapsulates my feelings at that point, and it’s interesting to revisit the memories years later.

(I brought my camera to Korea and took a grand total of ZERO photos HAHA. I’m also too lazy to edit photos. Natural is the best)

This time, we flew via Air Premia. It’s a relatively new airline and if I remember correctly, there’s only one airplane plying the Singapore-Incheon route so at first, I was slightly apprehensive. But it turned out to be such a good decision. It hits the sweet spot between budget (in terms of price) and regular carrier (in terms of service).

We didn’t manage to find many reviews online, so I thought I’ll write a little more about it, in case it helps anyone who’s still considering. It was a smooth and enjoyable flight. The airplane is new, the toilets very well-maintained, and there’s ample leg space. They served complimentary water and a hot meal (!) during flight, with other beverages/snacks available for sale on the flight. Breakfast was a choice between porridge and scrambled eggs. The food was nothing to shout about, but still relatively decent.

There’s in-flight entertainment (mainly Korean shows and not many, but still alright selection), and more importantly, there’s a USB charging port. Unlike SQ flights, they don’t provide a pillow, but the blanket is so much more comfortable, so honestly I’m pretty pleased. In fact, I’ll probably fly Air Premia again for future flights to Incheon. 🙂

We bought the tickets during the promotion period, so we got to enjoy an hour’s lounge at Changi Airport. It helped a lot since the flight was at 3am, so at least I got a small (and free) bite before the flight. I actually didn’t mind that the SG-ICN flight’s at 3am. Thankful it wasn’t a 8am flight. I like taking red-eye flights for the SG-INC route, so that I can arrive at Incheon in the morning and have a full day’s activity. I didn’t mind that their ICN-SG flight is at 820pm too, you get more time in Korea hahaha.

The first thing to buy at the airport was my favourite SamDaSoo mineral water. hahaha I picked it randomly on my first trip to Korea years ago, and from then on, I would only drink that in Korea LOL.

Lunch was a random pick: 등촌 샤부 칼국수, which offers a “4-course” meal of vegetables in broth, followed by beef shabu shabu, knife-cut noodles, followed by fried rice. This is my kind of multi-course meal!

Everything was so good, but I particularly enjoyed the fried rice. It wasn’t wet, and there was a crusty bite to it that made it so shiok (enjoyable) to keep spooning in mouthfuls lol. I’m a glutton (in Korea).

We decided to spend the evening at Gwanghwamun. It felt so real to see King Sejong (statue) again. Friends would know that that’s my favourite spot in Seoul and there’s just sooo many memories associated with the area. So many good friends, many happy chats that happened here. 🙂

It’s amazing how I managed to visit Korea so many times and never visited Gyeongbokgung 경복궁. LOL. I didn’t go in this time too. There was a snaking queue because it was one of the rare times they were opened in the evenings and there were so many people wearing rented hanboks taking photos. Not my kind of thing.

This is totally me.

One of my must-eats is 설렁탕 and so we decided to try out this place which apparently has a long tradition. SO GOOD. No regrets at all.

Look at that milky broth. I always find it amazing how there are both noodles and rice in the soup, but hahaha just eat.