Sunday, October 2, 2011

Seoul Day 2 - Part 1 [28th July 2011] Incheon Airport, Collection of Summer sale card and Airport Bus

As soon as the plane was back to stable mode, i tried to settle myself down.
I was ok again. And therefore, the 2 flight stewards decided that i am alright to be left alone.
Actually i was alright, just that i am very emotional at times.

Both seats were mine as the flight was not full. =D I end up sitting in a very relaxed mode.
Passport and my favourite swarovski pen at the moment.

First drink on flight.
Apple juice instead of the usual orange due to unwell still. But after the first drink, I started drinking the usual again. HAHA.

After they distribute the tibits and drinks, it was sleeping time for the flight.
I looked around, everyone was asleep or starting to sleep!

At 12.30am, it was not my sleeping time yet. Yes, i sleep very late like 3am in Singapore.
So i decided to watch "A Big Big World" that i did not catch in the cinema earlier this year. It was a nice show but, throughout the movie, my connection went crazy, so i got to ask the air steward for help to restart. Then, entertainment was being cut off due to bad turbulences. Can you imagine how i watch the movie. On and off. HAHA!
It was a nice movie. I didn't know how Great World City was like in the past until the movie. After the movie it was around 3am. The movie was very short but it was longer than expected.

I still could not sleep at all. I really wonder how people sleep on that flight when the turbulences was 1 of the worst i had taken so far.
Thus, I decided to read up my textbook to do some revisions. At least the revision makes me recall everything back. Soon at 4am, i was very sleepy and i decided to sleep.
Just when i wanted to sleep, OMG, the bell rings. It was time for breakfast!
So i decided to stay awake for my breakfast coz i was very hungry too.

It was very obvious on what i will choose. 하하!
Blur due to unstable flight. I couldn't focus!

저는 서양 음식을 좋아해요! (I like western food.)
SQ food is forever so delicious! Yummy! 맛있어요!
Eating and enjoying the morning scenery at the sky is such a luxurious thing to do. I hope to enjoy this often. =X

Finally after all the delay. I landed in South Korea - Incheon Airport at 7.15am South Korea Time.
The Singaporean guy behind my seat offer to help me with my handcarry and laptop. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Actually during the journey, I wanted to turn over to scold him for constantly kicking onto my seat making me so unwell. Because he placed both of his leg onto my backseat when he's sleeping. Lucky I did not. If not, I don't think he will be that nice to help me with my things.

Since i was sitting near the back, I was one of the last few to get out of the plane.
SQ landed at Gate No. 103.

(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

Yes, it's at the concourse.
Follow the sign from the board to immigration. (Immigration/Transfer) is the sign that you should follow.

Before that on the plane, you should have already fill up 2 forms.
1 for the arrival.
(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

1 for the declaration.
(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

So, when I went all the way down the escalator, I was thinking, "Am I on the right track?" Cause on the way, I went to the washroom. And when I came out, the area was so quiet. You can rarely see anyone. It feels like my flight was the only flight that landed at that time.

My family members who had been to Korea did not inform me about having to take a Shuttle Train. Being curious, I decided to walk towards the security guy to enquire, in case I am in the route for Transfer.
The security guy was very nice to me. He spoke in English, though it's not perfect, I would say it's already very good. He told me that I am at the right track. I would need to take the shuttle train and it will leads me to Immigration. After thanking him, I turned around and saw the group of SQ flight stewards who's working on the same flight as me. Yes, they came up to me and we chatted while waiting for our Shuttle Train.

The shuttle train runs every 5 minutes. So if you miss it, you just have to wait for 5 minutes.
The shuttle train works like the one in Changi Airport. Exactly the same. Transporting passenger from Concourse to Terminal.

After the shuttle train ride, you just have to follow the word (Immigration) again to have your Immigration check.

Passing through Immigration, I look for Belt no.9 for my luggage.

Since I was one of the last few to get out of the plane and also the last few to take the shuttle train, my bag was already on the belt turning around.

Try so hard to pull the trolley out but it doesn't work at all. So I approached a Korean guy standing next to it. I concluded it wasn't my own problem coz he really used so much force to pull it out for me. Thanks!

With that, after collecting my bags, I pushed all the way to the exit gate.
While pushing them near to the gate, there will be a security guy standing somewhere, all you have to do is to pass him your completed declaration card when you pass by him and that's the end of the whole Incheon Airport route when you arrived.

As I exited nearer to the counters selling the Airport Bus Ticket, I decided to purchase my Bus ticket first before doing anything else.

There are 3 ways to get to Seoul.

1)By Airport Bus.
2)By AREX
3)By Taxi.

Taxi solution was out for me since it is about 50 000won to reach my destination. And since I arrived in the morning, it's not advisable at all because the jam will costs your taxi ride to be 70 000won onwards.

AREX just opened all their routes to Seoul Station. I wanted to try them but looking at my things, I don't think I can handle them by AREX and later switched to Subway Line 1.
AREX is also 1 of the cheaper way to get to Seoul. From Incheon Airport to Seoul Station, it only costs you 3900won.

So Airport Bus was the most preferred method of all since I was all alone.
This should be the website that you should be looking at if you want to take the airport bus.

http://www.airport.kr/airport/traffic/bus/busList.iia?flag=E


The station I was heading to was Cheongnyangni Station.
Therefore, I had to purchase Bus no.6002 ticket.
For those who do not speak Korean, it's best that you check out the routes that the different bus heads to.
Then just tell the counter in charge the Bus No. that you want will do. They might also ask you for your destination name to ensure that you purchase the correct tickets.

The ticket looks like this. Very simple.


The ticket costs 10 000won. Yes, they have since increased the price. It was used to be 8000won and 9000won respectively when my seniors went over.
Mine was a Standard Limousine Airport Bus ticket. There's also Deluxe Limousine Airport Bus for other area.
Standard Bus has more stations than Deluxe Bus. Standard bus seats are the normal school bus seat. Deluxe ones are like the one when people take to travel to Genting Highland. Those seats that are 2-1 sitting.

I can head to either 5B or 12A stops to take the bus.
(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

But hey, I'm not done with my things at Incheon Airport yet.

Since I arrived was a summer sale period, there's a counter for me to collect my goodies bag as I had printed the "free goodies bag for foreigners" online on Tuesday.

Counter 48 was the place for Visit Korea : Summer Sale Card collection and collection of goodies bag.
I wanted to take out my printed coupon but the lady just pass me 1 with Chinese wording assuming I was from China and I needed Chinese version. Know why I say assume, here's our very fun conversations.

Lady: 来来。 你是来拿卡的吗? 你是来自中国对吧!(Turn to her partner who's inside the counter helping her with the disturbution and say 종국.)
Me: (Still in a very tired mode) huh?
Lady: 你是中国人吧。 中国哪里?
Me: (HUH.....) Oh, I'm from Singapore. 新加坡。
Lady: huh?
Me: (Huh?) oh... 싱가포르에서 왔어요.
Lady: Oh... Nice place nice place. Have a nice trip.
Me: Thanks. (Smile and walk off with my sale card and goodies. Still in a very blur mode.)

So after the conversation, i concluded that, is either she don't know Singapore or she is embarrassed to make the wrong comments when she saw me walking over. But it's ok anyway. She's trying to be nice.

Here's the goodies bag!
Yes. This year is SUPER JUNIOR.

The goodies bag includes things like facial mask, pins, wet tissue, maps, discount card, Super Junior and 2PM Post card.


Saw MINISTOP and I rushed all the way to buy a bottle of Mineral Water. I'm thirsty after every flight every time even though I requested many glasses of water. The cheapest Mineral Water costs 700won.

I wonder what happened but it seems like everyone was very weird with me.
Conversation between me and the cashier.

Cashier: 칠백원. (700won)
Me: Okay. (digging my money out coz the smallest I have was 10 000won after purchasing the bus ticket and the rest was 50 000won notes.) Ah... Here. (Passing her my 10 000won notes.)
Cashier: 칠백원 칠백원.
Me: 알아요. But, that's the smallest note I have now. =(
Cashier: (Take my money...) 칠백원...

Funny conversation right? I just landed. So I don't have small notes with me. =(

So now, it's time to head to 12A!

When you reached 12A, just stand behind this board will do.
This board also shows you the time that the bus will arrived.
시 is the hour.
분 is the minute.

So for me. I took 8.34am bus coz when I arrived, the 8.18am bus went off.

When the bus arrived, pass your luggage to the uncle at the area. He will help you to load your bag to the bus. He will also tag a number to your bag and pass you the ticket number for your bag like this too.
Tickets.

You have to keep this ticket with you safely till you alight because they are the tickets that you have to exchange for your luggage when you alight at your station. Every Airport bus stations, there's an uncle helping you to unload it. No, they will not listen and tell you which bags are yours. They will only look at your tickets. Simple and good right?

12A is the first station at the Airport. After everyone hop up on 12A, the bus driver will move to 5B for a pick up.

And once everyone settle down, the bus driver will ask everyone to fasten your seat belt as the moment he drives off from airport, it will be the express way. It is a must to fasten up your seat belt.


From Incheon Airport to Seoul, it was very fast. I hit the very first airport bus station which is Hapjeong Station after a 45mins bus ride. At that moment, it was also my very first time experiencing traffic jam in Seoul! The jam was so bad that from Hapjeong Station to Hotel Seokyo Station, it took more than 30mins.

No. The bus driver did not witch on the audio for English station name which they should do. Instead, he shout out in Korean informing us which station we are now at. I'm glad I could understand what he's shouting at that moment.

After the bus stops for passenger to alight at Hotel Seokyo, I got the whole bus to myself. So i decided to pass my time by making small chats with the bus driver. The bus driver was so nice to introduce places to me. Like pointing to the area, telling me where are we right now and such.

The journey goes all the way to Cheongnyangni Station....

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