7 days Seoul & Busan Trip (Itinerary & Budget) - Pre trip and Day 1

Hello there assalamualaikum.

Okay so I've been meaning to post this Korea trip itinerary and budget thingy since April tapi apahal tah delayed till now. I guess I'm too occupied with so many things I dunno what (or might as well say I'm lazy?). So the trip was on mid March haritu. It's like the end of winter and beginning of spring but if you expect to see lots of cherry blossom, this is not the right timing to go. It was super cold still but no snow thank God (else I'd be dying zzz). The best thing is it's less crowded so it's more peaceful ahah.

So here you go. 

BUDGET FOR 7 DAYS - APPROXIMATELY RM2500

Exchange rate during the trip - RM3.65 for KRW1000
Included - return flight ticket, transportation, accommodations and entrance fees
Excluded - personal shopping & meals
Note: Estimated spending on meal - RM440 for 7 days. So kalau include meal and personal shopping, korang standby lah lagi 1-2k depends on selera tekak korang. Halal food is double the price of non-halal food so if you're expecting RM10 per meal, I believe Malaysia pun susah dah nak dapat sekarang ni kan. Kalau yang perut Melayu tu sila la bawak instant food banyak2 from Malaysia k gaiss.

Itinerary

DAY 1 
Departed from KLIA2 - Incheon - Seoul
Myeongdong Shopping Street

DAY 2
Everland

DAY 3 
Gyeongbokgung Palace
Bukchon Hanok Village
SMTOWN coex
Running Man Thematic Center

DAY 4
Nami Island
Gangnam
Hangang Park
Namsan Seoul Tower
Hello Kitty Island

DAY 5
Gamcheon Village
Jagalchi Market
BIFF Square
Gwangalli Beach

DAY 6
Oryukdo Skywalk
Busan Air Cruise
Songdo Sky Park
Songdo Beach

DAY 7
Cheonggyecheon Stream 
Gwangjang Market
Ewha Women Uni
Incheon

DAY 8 
BALIK!

Pre-Trip Booking

Flight ticket
We took AirAsia X (sebab way cheaperrr of course). We booked on January for trip in March. I suggest you guys book earlier kalau nak tiket murah. Tapi due to commitment yang unpredictable I don't dare to book too early so mahal sikit lah.
Total: RM1025.65 (incl. baggage 25kg to Korea 30kg from Korea)
Oh over here ada hack sikit on the baggage sebab kitorang beli tiket asing, lepastu macam seram kalau tetiba baggage salah sorang tak cukup, so we shared the baggage under one name. So price tu actually aku dah divide baggage accordingly okay. And for 2 people, lebih dari cukup for us banyak tu je baggage. Sebab aku mas idayu je, bukan che ta. Eh?

Accommodations (Room price here is per person for 2 pax)
Maru Guesthouse Seoul (4 nights) - RM217 per pax
Business Hotel Busan Station (2 nights) - RM117.32 per pax
Hotel Parkwood Incheon (1 night) - RM97.50 per pax
We stayed in Incheon on last night to avoid kabut-ness nak gerak from Seoul before our early morning flight back to KL. And thank God we did that!
Total: RM431.82

Klook! Please pre-book dekat sini for cheaper deals

• Discover Seoul Pass - Click to see what's the deal with this pass but in short, what I got last time was:
• Free AREX train ride one way from/to Seoul-Incheon
• Free entrances for 24hrs (you can choose up to 72hrs tapi lagi mahal la) (and I recommend you take 48hrs at least sebab 24hrs tak dan cover much places)
• The card will be used as your T-Money for bus and subways in Seoul and Busan (kena top up tau, starting balance would be 0 won)
• Price: RM 130
• Okay sedang aku menaip tiba-tiba ada handsome guy duduk depan wehhhhhhh kbai ini hanyalah iklan haha sorry sorry 
• Namsan Seoul Tower Observatory + Hello Kitty World - RM 40
• Kalau beli kat sana, admission for Observatory sahaja dah 10000 won (RM36.50~)
• Btw kalau korang setakat nak lepak tengok view, takyah beli this ticket sebab ni macam kalau nak pergi observatory macam menara KL tu, kalau nak pergi love lock je, yang tu masuk free and lawa terukkkkk at night, nak datang hari2 pun takdehal
• Pocket Wifi - (RM12 per day * 8 days / 2 pax)
• Yang ni korang pilih je mana2 yang paling murah and boleh pickup dekat KLIA2 sebab kalau pickup dekat Seoul kena ada credit card which aku takde muahaha
• Total: RM 48
• Everland - RM107.35
• Total: RM 325.35

Train to Busan! 

Yang ni kitorang beli one way je dulu sebab takut cam anything happen ke ape nanti burn pulak ticket kalau beli return ticket. Tapi kalau korang yakin and nak jimat, beli return ticket sebab beli online lagi murah.

Btw sebab nak jimat and tak kejar masa, we took Mugunghwa train instead of ITX/KTX which are more expensive. It took 6hrs with Mugunghwa to reach Busan. 3hrs by KTX and 5hrs by ITX. Boleh refer Seoul to Busan guides! Beli tiket online kat sini --> KORAIL

Beza dia macam korang naik KTM biasa pergi Ipoh vs naik ETS. Haa gituh.
Total: RM 106

Okay marilah proceed with Day 1

Day 1 - Departure

We took morning flight so 4:00am Grab dah pickup from Cyberjaya to Putrjaya Sentral. Naik KLIA Transit from there to KLIA2 and reached around 5:00am

Total Spending:

Grab RM21/2pax - RM10.50

KLIA Transit - RM9.60

Cliche window view cause why not but rilek eh ni still Malaysia

Sampai KLIA2 terus pickup Pocket WIFI dekat departure hall pastu drop baggage, check in then fly for 6 tido-bangun-tido-bangun hours tiba tiba sampai Incheon. ANNYEONG!

Before she realized the weather out there gonna kill her

Waktu dekat Korea is 1hr ahead Malaysia. We reached around 2:50pm Seoul time. Weh baru sampai airport kan, aku dah amazed gila like impress sangat dengan airport dia yang superb. Immigration officers dia tak bercakap tau, ada device yang detect our passport and will speak our nation language. Give them a round of applause people *clap clap*.

Spot a bald ahjussi

Sampai sana terus redeem our Discover Seoul Pass. Kalau boleh korang download the apps siap siap before gerak sebab in order to redeem korang punya AREX ticket, kena activate card tu dulu thru the apps. No worries, ada instruction given, dekat Klook itself pun ada. So once dah redeem the card we went to redeem our free one way AREX ticket to Seoul. Train dia macam kau naik ETS, ada coach and tempat menunggu tu memang dah designated for every coach. And no worries kalau tak beli wifi, sebab airport ada free wifi. Weh dalam train pun free wifi. And free wifi dia tidaklah tenat macam line Umobile korang ye kawan2. Kbai aku nak pindah Korea.

Malas nak edit gambar ni tapi the right side tu belakang pasu putih tu kaunter AREX. Sebelum sampai sini kitorang sesat tak jumpa kaunter sebab jumpa KFC terus cam ah forget Seoul, I need fries right now!

And the train departed then we acah acah salam perantauan video call our family and all dalam train menceritakan how amazed we were already (belum sampai Seoul dah camni gaiss) bahahaha.

Okay, before korang datang kan, most importantly WAJIB install Naver Map apps! With this, and sufficient phone battery, and wifi yang tidak tenat, you gonna survive everywhere in South Korea.

So from Incheon Airport we took AREX to the nearest train station to our guesthouse. Seoul station ni ya Allah besar ye, macam kau rasa KL Sentral tu dah mampu menyesatkan kau, yang ni lima kali lah kau sesat. So make sure korang exit tu dekat exit/entrance yang paling dekat dengan mana korang nak pergi. No worries, Naver Map tu akan bagitau korang nak exit mana.

Seoul welcomed us with heavy rain. It was hujung winter when we were there, and it was super cold, everyday temperature paling high pun 12 degree celcius kot. Now hujan pulak. SILA BAWAK PAYUNG SEBAB PAYUNG MAHAL. And sebab walking distance je Maru Guesthouse dari Seoul Station and macam kedekut nak naik cab, we dragged our luggage in rain bermemori daun pisang berdua jalan kaki saat turun hujan. I was wearing my thickest jacket with some warm inner BUT IT WAS STILL COLD TO DEATH.

After all the drama, we finally reached Maru Guesthouse. Betul2 sebelah 7 Eleven hoyeah. For those yang nak bawak luggage besar2 tu takpayah la duduk Maru ni, sebab nak bukak luggage je pun bontot kau dah langgar katil. Too small but okay la kalau setakat nak tidur and muat la nak solat one person. And since ini bukan trip extravaganza mewah mewah, at least the bed is comfy, it's more than enough. Ada pantry and washing machine ape semua, kalau nak masak pun boleh takdehal (but at your own risk), memang nice la guesthouse ni and staff dia baik gila. We even left our luggage for 2 days in Busan.

So this is how our room looks like. Kecik gila but yeah sape suruh cheapskate. Image from Agoda cause too tired to take photo upon arrival.

Entrance dia camni la, sebelah tu nampak kan 7 Eleven haaa dia cam sunyi sikit kat sini tapi takde pervert alhamdulillah ramai ahjussi ahjumma je. Image from Trip.com

Done check in, we followed our itinerary to go Namsan Seoul Tower. Nak naik cable car to Namsan but too bad cable car was under maintenance till out very last day in Seoul. I repeat, TILL LAST DAY. Sedih gila okay, merajuk sampai tak jadi pergi Namsan Tower sebab malas nak find where to take bus up. And our itinerary pun kacau bilau since then muahaha. Sebab dah gelap, so we headed to Myeongdong Street which was just walking distance from the cable car place.

Rajukku tidak lama setelah ketemuk kamu Adli yang Manjaaaa <3 Sedap weh

Underground Shopping Center Myeongdong

Kalau nak cari socks murah and souvenir to your so called kpop fan friends, please buy here sebab sini paling murah for souvenirs. Socks as cheap as 10000 won for 11 pairs. Kbai nak pindah Korea.

Jumpa tak oppa korang?

Myeongdong Shopping Street

Yang ni kalau korang jenis skin care lover, cosmetic lover, silakan ke sini sebab memang semua ada kat sini. And also ada food stall yang ada halal food (eat at your own risk cause not many in Korea yang memang dapat halal certified). We ate quite a lot actually sampai cam taknak balik bilik. Tapi tak lupa diri esok nak pergi Everland so kena balik awal sebab esok nak use up energy.

Ini bukan acah. Memang hujan k.

When I was there, banyak kedai tengah promo Buy 1 Free 1 termasuklah Innisfree. 20 sheet masks for 11000 won (RM40~).

Ayam goreng Myeongdong 5000 won semangkuk tapi sedap dia sampai esok

First day setel shoppingkan barang orang kirim supaya esok2 boleh enjoy tanpa was was

Thanks to this girl, I survived when ahjumma ahjussi tried talking to us cause she can speak Korean (thanks to her effort watching RM, Kdrama, dengar Korean music and of course, learning the language)

Oh yeah, kalau nak beli sneakers ke sport shoes ke, sini murah okay. FILA yang 400+ kat sini sana tak sampai 300. Tapi aku tak beli. Jangan tanya kenapa. Aku penat dah menyesal.

Total Spending in Seoul:
Topup T-Money - 30000 won ~ RM 109.50

Total so far (excl food & shopping) : RM 2018.42

And with that, we survived Day 1! To be continued for the rest of days in Korea. Stay tuned.