After 4 incredible nights visiting South Korea we have arrived at our next destination on this trip, Singapore.
This is a place that I’ve been to before, back in 2007 on my way to Australia, but I only touched the surface back then and I look forward to spending the next 6 nights here seeing more of what this country has to offer.
Our final morning in Seoul
The day started this morning at our hotel in Seoul. Our initial plan had been to take the train to the airport, so that we could try both the train and the bus, but with how efficient the bus was on the way to the city we decided to just take the bus back to the airport. After all, the bus stop was only a couple of minutes from our hotel.
Our flight wasn’t until 2pm so we didn’t need to leave too early and we had a lazy morning – relaxing in our hotel before heading to the coffee shop near the hotel to have some breakfast and a coffee before heading to the airport.
From the coffee shop we had a good view of the airport buses going past us and they were only ever half full so this re-enforced our choice to take the bus instead of the train.
From Seoul to Incheon Airport
When you need to take a bus from the airport to the city you buy your tickets in advance – from a kiosk, or from the information desk – before boarding the bus but in the other direction it’s different and you need to pay cash to the driver. I believe you can also pre-book online but we had cash remaining so that was easier for us.
The journey to the airport was smooth and we arrived in plenty of time.
Leaving Korea on a jet plane
After checking our bags, and passing through security, we spent a couple of hours wandering the terminal, having something to eat, and stretching our legs before the long flight ahead.
Food options were a little limited as the food court was closed for refurbishment, and one whole wing of the terminal was closed for refurbishment – which left a strange smell in the terminal, so options were limited but the time passed quickly and it was soon time to board.
We flew with Korean Air today on a B777 on a route that took us south towards Jeju Island before turning and heading straight towards Singapore.
I was quite excited about this route because it was due to fly directly over Taiwan which is somewhere that I have wanted to visit for so long. It didn’t work out to be able to visit it on this trip, but I specifically picked a window seat on the right side of the plane as = looking at FlightRadar24 – this seemed to be the side of the plane that had the best chance of seeing the island.
Unfortunately, there was a big storm sat right over Taiwan at the time and so our plane diverted East to go around it, meaning we were too far away from the coast to see anything. We did return to the coast briefly – just skirting the southern tip of the island – unfortunately it was very cloudy so we couldn’t see the ground.
This was a shame because, even though we weren’t visiting on this occasion, it would have bee great to see the island.
A fast arrival in Singapore
Our flight arrived into Singapore at 8:30pm so by the time we got our luggage, made it through security, picked up a SIM card, and then got a taxi to the hotel it was almost 10pm and too late to really do anything.
Luckily, our hotel is in the Geylang area of Singapore which, while a bit more gritty than what you’ll see in guide books, has restaurants open 24/7 since it’s a local area where people need to eat at all hours of the day and night.
So after checking into our hotel and freshening up we headed out to the main street in Geylang and settled down for lunch at a Chinese restaurant a few minutes walk away.
Dinner in the Geylang district
The food was cheap, filling, and good quality and it was definitely what we needed after a long day of travel. I’m not sure if there was a language barrier, of if it’s just what was on offer, but no matter what we ordered to drink we got beer. This was fine for my Mum, but I’m not a beer drinker and so did without until after the meal when we grabbed some drinks and snacks from a 7/11 on the way back to the hotel.
It’s 11pm now so I’m definitely ready for bed. The hotel we’re staying at is an Ibis Budget which – as it says in the name – is a budget hotel which has small rooms, and not much in the way of facilities. However, the bed is comfortable, it has good air conditioning, and it’s easy to get into the centre from here which is all that we need.
We picked this hotel as it was affordable. The rest of the city is really expensive and, while we had a standard we needed to stay above, we would rather save the money on accommodation so that we have extra to spend seeing what Singapore has to offer.