As I'm writing this post, it's been probably more than 1 month past our trip. There were five of us including myself for this trip to South Korea. We bought the return tickets KUL-ICN and ICN-KUL one year earlier than the flying dates, so we got much cheaper rates. It costed us around 700MYR including 20kg baggage for return flights. It was a good deal tho. Before I get into the details, please be warned that my friends and I are Kpop maniac. This post can be very helpful for kpop lovers especially. For those who don't you might think we were crazy in this trip. Yes, we were but I hope you can find this article as guidance and give you some insight before going to South Korea. But please understand that it might take several posts in order to summarize our 11 days Korea trip.

What you need to do/bring before you travel to South Korea? Here are vital things you might consider:

1. A valid passport, if you are required for visa please make sure you have apply for it

2. International license, if you are considering a road trip you might need to prepare for it and this article may help you (for Malaysian) on how to get the Int. license

3. Sufficient cash, for Malaysian, you can withdraw money in Korea but it might be chaos to find a right bank. As I notice, Woori Bank is the only bank where you find no issue to withdraw however, you have only KRW300,000 (approximately MYR1000) limit in a day.

4. Vouchers and T-money, as of us, we plan to go to Everland, so we buy the voucher online at Klook because it is much cheaper than you buy it there. T-money is transportation card and acts the same as TnG in Malaysia. If you are Malaysian, you can claim for free T-money at Korea Plaza, Menara Hapseng. They will provide you some articles, catalog and even few maps.

5. Download Korea subway apps in advance to get familiar with it. I found the most helpful and user friendly apps is "Korea subway". It is available for iphone and android user.

Day 1 : KUL-ICN-BUSAN

Our flight to Incheon was at 7.20 early in the morning. So we gathered at KLIA2 to sort out things at 3.30am. Thanks to god, we landed on time at Incheon airport at 2pm KST as scheduled. Once settle down, we bought bus ticket direct to Busan for KRW41,800 (MYR156). If you are wondering, you can search for gate 10C or gate 11 located at first floor and find small kiosk outside and buy the ticket. The journey to Busan took approximately 5-6 hours.  Our destination was Dongbu Bus Terminal, Busan. What I can tell you, long distance bus services in Malaysia is way cheaper than Korea, but you can expect well-heated seat with wifi connection (not bad) and most importantly, punctual driver. So the deal was not bad at all. Once you arrived, you need to follow the sign to go to the subway station. It was about 200m walking distance and this terminal is connected to the Busan subway line. The subway station is called "Nopo". Our hotel is located near Dongbaek station. So we have to transfer twice in order to reach the subway station. You will find subway in Korea is not that hard to understand the routes. Our bus arrived at the terminal approximately at 10pm KST, then it took us for another 2 hours riding the subway to Dongbaek station.

On the bus to Busan

I was hesitate at the first to write about our experience on the first day in Korea. I can say it was scary but why not? On our way, we need to transfer to Donghae subway line. While struggling with our hand carry bags and few huge luggage, there was a lady, maybe mid 30 or early 40, approached us and offered us her help to the hotel. She was with a man, I think her husband, perhaps. As a tourist, you might feel tremendous welcomed on your first day to have local's help plus we still unfamiliar with the place. So we acceptep her help with warm heart, in addition she was getting to the same direction with us. She barely speaks English which one of the barrier to communicate with us. So along the way, she tried to call our hotel and searched any possible info that might help us to get into the right destination. And of course, we were prepared for that, so we talked to her nicely that we actually did some research and knew the direction and thanked her for her huge effort. We did not want to trouble anyone. But she insisted in a wrong manner. So we were at Bexco station and waited for our next train to Dongbaek. I think because she was using not-a-smartphone, she grabbed a girl sat on the train and asked for her smartphone to search for the details on our hotel. If I were the girl, I would probably freaked out with random stranger asking for my phone! I managed to send her eye signal, stating we were okay and please reject the lady's request. Strangely, the husband was standing still until the end, not a word from him. I guess the girl is on her secondary school. So all of us got down at Dongbaek station and the girl's father was waiting for her. The lady was getting scold from the father and mentioned he will help us so she can gets her way. But she insisted to stay until the end. It was the most awkward moment we had during the trip. We were clueless until the father started talking to us. He was good English speaker, thank god! So we explained to him what was happened. I'm not sure what was said to the lady until she agreed to back off. We greeted and thanked them politely. End of our number one trouble. 

Stairs are steep at most of the subway, sometimes there is no elevator and they have no escalator.

So we continued our journey searching for the hostel. We walked around 10 minutes and managed to find it with no issue. But the thing is we arrived late at midnight. So we already informed the hostel and they left us the key under the table in front of the hostel. It was a mini Explore Race to find the key. We stayed at Canvas Hostel. I highly recommend this hostel for budget accommodation in Busan. Many locals especially from Seoul were staying here for weekend getaway. I like it here because the capsule and kitchen was super comfy. You can cook with ease. You can refer below.

There are two buildings, white and black. We stayed at the main building which is the black one. 

 The Black building

The White building

How our capsule looks like

The kitchen where you are allowed to cook your own food

The reception area where they project your favorite kpop music videos while having breakfast. The receptionist were super duper friendly. One guy can speaks fluent English and even a bit of Malay. We were stunned by their warm gestures.

Day 2 : BUSAN - ULSAN

Unfortunately, we stayed at the hostel for only 1 day. After having our breakfast, we left our luggage at the hostel for free and proceed to Busan station to claim the voucher. We bought Busan Tour bus voucher earlier on trip advisor which costed us MYR48.4. From Busan station, the bus departed at 11am. The rule is like this, you can get down at any destination you want if you are interested and the bus will pick you up following the schedule. You must wisely choose your destination and spend your time there in order to get into the bus for the right time. We utilized the bus and pick the most interesting locations. You will be given a sticker to show you are a part of the bus tour, so keep it safe and never lose it. Here is the loop map:

We chose Oryokdu Island and walked around Gwangali beach before catch the bus to Busan Harbor bridge. The bus is double decked bus, so we sat on the second level and enjoy sight seeing. Below are the pictures I took while sitting on the bus.

Unfortunately, I don't have the picture or videos when we were on the bus. It was fun and we were so hungry! So we decided to have our very late lunch at Jagalchi market. Jagalchi Market is the largest seafood market. This market represents Busan and is famous through out the country. This market open every year for visitors. We took the subway to Nampo Station Line 1 and take Exit 2. We walked straight following the path until we saw the entrance. Along the way, we saw a lot of small stall selling variety of seafood. You can choose what creature you want and they will cook for you. But we preferred to have it inside. At the first floor, you will find similar stalls that sell the sea creatures. So we proceed to second level where the restaurant took place. We selected a restaurant that gave us more side dishes because the meals cost pretty similar compared to other restaurant. We had huge meals for five and they gave us countless side dishes and we were allowed to refill it. Pretty cool. We spent KRW25,000 (approximately MYR90) per person. It is not cheap but not bad for scrumptious meals.





This was how it looks outside the market. Every stall was selling sea creature and you can choose any and the price depends on your bargain skills.


 First floor inside the Jagalchi Market



Few restaurant available and you can choose based on your preferences. They offer quite similar menu.

We continued our journey to Gamcheon Culture Village. From Nampo Station we took subway to Toseong station and came out at Exit 6. We were literally clueless on how to get to the village. Luckily, few locals approached us and informed to take mini bus number 2 and it will bring us up to the village. The village was located up on a hill. This village was pretty unique and one-of-a-kind. The houses were colorful and made them looks so beautiful. We arrived at the top nearly 7pm, so the pictures we took don't look as stunning as in the google. Still, we were grateful to be there and witness their uniqueness. 











After that, we got into the same bus and found our way to the Exit 6. From Toseong station all the way back to Dongbaek to the hostel and picked up our luggage. We went back to Busan station and took the KTX train to Ulsan. It costed us KRW8,000 (approximately MYR30) and took 20 minutes to reach Ulsan. From Ulsan KTX station, we took a cab to our hotel. The cab charged us for KRW30,000 (approximately MYR110) for a taxi. We need to take separate two taxis because we were five. So each of us paid for KRW12,000 (approximately MYR40). You can actually take buses for cheaper cost but we decided for cab because it was late at night and we were so exhausted. It was not bad deal for 40km journey. We managed to find our hotel almost at midnight. We stayed at Tirol Motel. 

Once arrived, there was a couple at the reception. They were a creepy nanny and an old man. Their faces looked like they were having alcohol. We were dumbfounded when we noticed they could not understand English at all! So we tried to communicate with our poor Korean abilities and some google translate. But nothing worked. So I decided to call my friend who study at Seoul and ask her to speak with the grandma. Everything sorted out, like finally! We need to add additional KRW40,000 and we been given extra room. It was not bad at all.  There was no breakfast provided but she gave us five packets of ramyun but they were non-halal. We left it in the room. There was bath tub and complete facilities in every room. We were satisfied despite initial communication struggles.