South Korea Day 1

Nov. 26, 2018

Arrival Day

Airline: Korean Air (BOS-NY-ICN). 

Airport: Seoul-Incheon Int’l Airport (ICN) T2

Hotel: Ibis Styles Ambassador Hotel Seoul-Myeongdong

Hotel Address: 302 Samil-Daero, Chungmuro 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

You know you have arrived Korea when you are welcomed by K celebrity ads upon deplaning. Also, you immediately notice that you are indeed in the world’s best airport: fancy bathrooms with bidets, clean and state of the art facilities, automatic (almost) everything and immediate wi-fi service on your phone, among others. FYI: Korea has the fastest internet in the world (or so I heard). 

At around 5PM, my sister, who arrived from the Philippines 6 hours earlier in Terminal 1, met me in the new Terminal 2, where Korean Air now flies in and out of. I got my US dollars exchanged for won and picked up our portable “egg” wi-fi, which we had reserved and paid for earlier through travel app, Klook. It only cost about $2 per day of use with the coupon. Klook is a travel coupons app that is a must-download for anyone traveling to Asia, especially South Korea. You can get a lot of great deals and adventure ideas from that site. 

Rob, our cousin, who teaches at an international school in Seoul, came to pick us up and took us to a fun Korean BBQ place in Incheon where I also tried my first Soju (Korean vodka, typically distilled from rice or sweet potatoes). Some local customers noticed us struggling a little bit with communication and so kindly helped us with ordering. 👍🏼 Yummy beef! And you can never go wrong with free side dish refills! 😉 After dinner, Rob drove us by the Songdo Business District of Incheon. What a mesmerizing skyline! It was quite an amazing welcome and I knew right then it was going to be a memorable week. I was exhausted from almost a full day of traveling but was filled with so much anticipation and excitement. We arrived at our hotel in Myeongdong about 45 minutes after dinner. Our room was small but clean. Of course, it had again that special toilet bidet and dryer, which my sister became very fond of using. From our room, we could see the prominent Namsan Tower if we stood just in front of our window and looked left. Not a bad view of the city and we were only a few minutes by foot from the Myeongdong Subway Station.👌🏼 I was so glad to see a bed knowing that I could sleep long and well the night before we officially begin our amazing adventure in South Korea... 🇰🇷 No “jetlagging” allowed. 😉