Busan Trip Day 1

A long awaited family trip definitely! It was supposed to be just a trip for the two of us, but since the tickets were cheap, my family decided to tag along!

I was so happy about that since it is much comforting to get lost as a group than as a pair! Haha!

Spot our plane??? :p

Compared to Japan, the metro line here is wayyyyy easier! For our entire 6 days, we basically bought the 1 day pass everyday! 4000 won, which is RM12 for a pass to go anywhere in 24 hours! That's cheap! :)

Upon our arrival, I immediately purchased 2 local simcards since I wanted to use the data service for my phone. Need to warn you iPhone 5 users, there are no nano simcards available (yet). There were only the normal simcards and micro simcards for iPhone 4. So I purchased 2 normal sized ones for my hubs and dad. Just so that we can contact each other if we ever get separated or something. Plus, you can tether the data connection to others, so I took advantage of that. ;)

The counter is right outside of the departure hall, don't worry! More details here if you are interested! :)

Plus, I need to express my awe in how helpful all the locals were upon our arrival! People kept offering us help with buying the tickets, pointing to which platform we should go to, etc, etc.

However, we were faced with the first challenge of our trip! :(

The hostel we were planning to stay at was not suitable at all for us. On the website it stated that it had private bathrooms, but when we got there (after 3 flights of stairs carrying 4 massive travel bags, I might add) the bathrooms were not so private at all! :( They were basically locked bathrooms OUTSIDE your rooms. As in, you have to cross the hallways in your towels to get to it.

Of course, my mum had problems with that. On the spot my dad told me to book another hotel. And yes, the hostel manager was not pleased AT ALL. We were basically kicked out. I hated that really. I did not want to give him a bad impression. But they really need to do the correction needed on their website. It is very misleading! :(

So I instantly booked the hotel I was most familiar with! Toyoko Inn! This was actually my backup hotel, if anything went wrong with our hostel booking! Thank God I did all the research before we left! The bad news was, we could only check in at 4pm because of the system breakdown in the afternoon. So basically, one whole day, spent running around switching hotels and waiting for check in. We were too exhausted to go out after that. So I basically slept at 7pm on our first day there. (=_=)

The good thing about Toyoko Inn is that it looks the same, EVERYWHERE. They have branches in both Japan and Korea, so I was familiar with it. You can go to any branch, and the rooms will look EXACTLY the same. I got this photo of Google, but it looks exactly like this:

Really small, but comfortable for two! The double bed is huge! And tall enough that you can fit your huge luggage under it. Individual aircond for every room! Plus the toilet has a bidet and all those fancy buttons for you to press that washes your private parts. And the shower is awesome! Love Toyoko Inn!:D

Plus, since I do NOT speak a word of Korean, I can converse in Japanese to the staff. All Toyoko Inn staff MUST know how to speak Japanese. Mandatory! Yes, basically I used more Japanese in Korea to talk with the locals. Haha. That was odd. :p

Here are some tips for selecting hotels:

1. Always, always, read traveller reviews of the hotel. And if possible, check out actual REAL photos by the hotel guests, rather than the professional photos on the hotel website.

2. Contact hotel admin if there are any questions.

3. Location, location, location. Hotels I stay in are ALWAYS walking distance to the subway. Since subways are much easier than the buses. I try to avoid taxis since they are super costly. :( Use Google maps to check the distance or check out the location on the hotel website.