Friday, December 7, 2018

Korea 2018 | Back from Our Winter Holiday in Seoul! ❄️

We are back from our mummy-daughter trip to Seoul, Korea!!! Our first entire overseas trip alone with just us two... and I'm sure more to come! ❤

I expected it to be below 10°C and we could feel the cold as soon as we touched down! 

Thankfully, I had some outer wear with me in my haversack {brought my big Adidas "issey miyake" backpack} and there was a direct airport shuttle coach from Incheon Airport to our hotel in Dongdaemun. 

Which is good because the boy wasn't around to help with the luggages, and I only had my little darling with me to help with our 2 big luggages, 2 haversacks, 1 cabin trolley bag and another bag of our bulky jackets on the way home hehe. 

No... try as I might, I'm not really a light packer hahaha (*ﾉ∀`*)

We were really blessed to see the first snow for the year in Seoul {Korea??} 2 days after we arrived on Saturday, 24 November!!

I woke up to excited messages from friends telling me that it was snowing.. and was super stoked to catch it falling as it stopped snowing about 1 hour later. By the time we left the hotel later that morning, most of the snow on the city streets had melted or was cleared away by the efficient Koreans.

Lil Pumpkin was thrilled too, of course!! It has been a very long time since she played with snow!!

I planned for us to just take things easy and have a nice relaxing mother-daughter trip together.

So we ambled along to various places, and I even had time to spend 4+ hours at Lotte Mart, Seoul Station!! (*-∀-)ゞ Thank you Lil Pumpkin for being such a sweet darling waiting for Mummy!!! hehe...

No no, she wasn't sulking or bored in a little corner. Lil Pumpkin shopped around too. For those unaware, Lotte Mart at Seoul station is humongous!! I dare say even bigger than Big C at Bangkok, which I love too by the way! It doesn't just stock food and groceries, but it also has a mini food court, and sells cosmetics, household items, toys, electronics, pet stuff etc.

It is one of my must-visit places when I'm in Seoul and I definitely will have a blog post up on it, so come back and check!!

The cold winter weather + festive decorations everywhere, especially at the Lotte World and Everland  {will write on this too!} theme parks we went to, certainly put us all in a good holiday mood and made us so so excited for Christmas!

Really wish the boy was there with us... he would have loved the atmosphere too!

I remembered loving Korean food more during our previous trips, but maybe it's because my diet has changed.. I find that I didn't enjoy the food as much as before.

Too much carbs, and not enough protein haha. I couldnt even order more meat side dishes as most of the restaurants I went with Lil Pumpkin didn't have just extra meat.

Was really happy that my friend, Jaye, brought us to eat yakiniku at Myeongdong. Goodness, that black Jeju pork is amazing!!! (*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪ It was lovely catching up with him and Yoojin too. The last time we met in 2012/ 2013 they were still dating... but now, they have 2 super adorable and cheeky boys!!!

Shopping in Korea is pretty good as they have really cute and quirky stuff that isn't too expensive. Lil Pumpkin bought mainly stationery, key chains and hair accessories...

While I had my share of snacks, socks and hoodies o(^▽^)o



Visited Everland theme park for the first time this trip! 💖 We’ve been to Seoul 3x prior when @lovelilpumpkin was younger but always gave Everland a miss, even though it’s supposedly more fun & bigger than Lotte World, as I always thought it’s too far and too much of a hassle to go... 🙊 — — However, this time since @lovelilpumpkin is older {ie easier to travel alone with} and I wanted to bring her to new places, I searched and found a shuttle coach tt went directly to Everland w/ a pick-up & return point near our hotel. So convenient!! 👍🏻 Took us arnd 1hr to reach there, and 40mins to get back since traffic was good!! Really happy that we went as the Xmas decor were amazing & we had tons of fun there! Even though it was much colder than Seoul city, and the entire theme park is outdoors, it was such a treat to go on so many exhilarating rides with relatively short queues {ave 10-20mins}, except for the famous T-Express roller coaster ride, which had 90mins waiting time!! 🎢🎠🎡 — — @lovelilpumpkin is now over 140cm so could sit pretty much all the rides!! She loved the Double Rock Spin {went 4x - twice on her own coz it gave me a headache!}, Bumper Cars, Rolling-X Train {went twice on her own too!} etc. She basically liked Everland more compared to Lotte World coz it has more thrilling rides haha.. 😘😘😘 — — Posted more highlights from our mummy-daughter trip to the Land of Kimchi on my IG Highlights Reel {Korea #1 & #2 folders} and some tips/ recommendations on places to visit in Seoul here: http://www.sakuraharuka.com/2018/11/bub-me-mummy-daughter-holiday-to-seoul.html {link in bio} 👩🏻💖👧🏻💕🇰🇷🌸 #sakuraharuka #ASHxKorea #travelwithkids #motherhood #seoul #korea #winterholiday #everland #witheverland #themepark #thrillseeker #sgkids #sgfamily #christmas #winterishere
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As always, it is pretty hard getting back into the groove of things after a long break, but I will try to update and blog more about the things that we did for the 1.5 weeks trip. Meanwhile, you can pop by {and follow hehe!} my Instagram and FB page for more of our trip updates and pictures. 

Documented it on-the-go on my IG Story Highlights - look for Korea #1 and Korea #2 folders.    

If you've anything to ask about the trip, feel free to leave me a comment too! 

Other posts on Korea:
More posts on our Korean travels here.

P.S. Check out the rest of our Bub & Me activities or list of kid-friendly places in Singapore too. If you haven't yet, and are staying in Singapore for the hols, you really should go see The Great Moscow Circus before it closes this Sunday {9 Dec 2018}!



サクラ kisses by
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2 comments:

Theresa Mahoney said...

It seems like you had a great time. Jason is wanting to go to Seoul so bad. We may do a Japan and Seoul trip in the next year or two, depending on how much time Mariah has to spend at college during summer vacation.

December 15, 2018 at 2:45 AM
An Apel a Day said...

So much fun! It is too bad your husband couldn't join you both. I bet the food was fantastic. The photos of you and Lil Pumpkin with the animals on your heads are so much fun!

December 15, 2018 at 2:58 AM

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