(Above) Seoul from the air as we approach to land at Incheon.
We plan to take a night flight from Singapore so that we can save on a day since we can sleep on the plane. Arriving at Seoul Incheon International Airport at about past 7am in the morning and after clearing customs, we will proceed to the Tourist Information Center.
(Above and below) Incheon International Airport Seoul and floors
It is located on the 2nd floor of arrival terminal beside Gate A and F , or #1-2 . The TIC is opened from 7am to 10pm. It is staffed by staff fluent in English and offers information on finding good accommodations, tourist attractions and other information tourists may want while they are travelling in Korea. The staff at the Information Desk also provide print-outs of data on specific places that visitors may wish to go to at their request. We will also visit the International Taxi booth at the airport to discuss with the information officers there and book a taxi for a day for our planned Korean drama location tour. The International Taxi information counter is located on the 1st floor of the passenger terminal at Incheon International Airport.
(Above) Interior of the Somerset Palace Serviced Apartment
By the time we have arrived, we would hopefully have a secured an online reservation for a serviced studio apartment at the Somerset Palace Serviced Residences at No. 85 Susong-Dong Seoul 110-885 South Korea. This location is in downtown Seoul, beside Gyeongbok Palace, in the heart of the city’s business and financial district. Nearby are the many restaurants, shopping and entertainment venues located along Insa-Dong and throughout the Jongno-Gu area. We plan to book for 5 nights stay there. Managed by Ascott International, a reputed company that runs a number of modern serviced apartments throughout the world, including 5 in Singapore, we felt that we would be at least assured of reliable and honest service because you can’t be too careful with online bookings and transactions. Somerset Seoul Palace is managed by the Ascott Group, which is owned by of Capitaland which has Temasek Holdings as one of it’s investors which technically means this place is so Singaporean which should translate to some form of Singaporean reliability So, in effect, we are somewhat supporting a Singaporean enterprise while overseas. As part of the Ascott Anniversary celebrations worldwide, they are offering up to 25% off the published rates.
(Above) Exterior of the Somerset Palace Serviced apartment.
Importantly, the apartment design and amenities in the Somerset Palace suits our needs and budget. They offer a promotion for Citibank card holders with a studio apartment daily rate at approximately 156750W inclusive of 10%VAT taxes will be roughly in the region of SGD$185 a night, a good rate for a 5 star like apartment with home amenities like broadband internet access, cooker hob and hood, kettle, crockery, utensils, cutlery, microwave oven, refrigerator, toaster, hairdryer, television with cable and satellite channels, air-conditioning and heater facilities, telephone with IDD, washing machine and dryer. Alternatively, you can check with Misa Travel :
http://www.hotels.com.sg/Korea/Seoul/Ascott/SomersetPalace/index.htm where the booking rate could be as low as SGD$150 depending on the season.
We can either check with the Incheon Airport Tourist Information Centre on an alternative way to get to Somerset Palace or we can take the suggested route offered by Somerset which tells us to proceed from the arrival floor(1st floor) of passenger terminal to bus booth 5B for bus number 6011. Each ticket costs 9000KW ( SGD$10.40) and the bus journey lasts approximately 1hr. Waiting interval for each service is approximately 20 minutes. We will alight at Anguk Station and take a 4 minute walk to our destination – Somerset Palace Seoul. This bus service starts at 5.35am and ends at 10.25pm daily. Travellers with heavy baggage, child or the elderly are not recommended for this bus service. For us, it will be fine since will be travelling with backpacks which is easier to store or stow on our laps.
On arrival, we will check in if it is within the stipulated check in time period which should usually be from 2pm onwards. If we arrive earlier, we will leave our luggage at the reception and set out to have early lunch. We have two options : One is that if we are not too tired, we can explore some eateries around around Susong Dong as we do not want to venture too far if we have to check in at a later time. If not, we have a German Korean restaurant on site within the serviced apartment complex. There is also a Starbucks coffee joint, a ice cream parlour. We may also buy some snacks from the 24hr convenience stall there too.
After getting the keys to our serviced apartment and checking that all the appliances work so that the damage compensation if any is not on us, we will probably take a short break and take a look at the map. At the Somerset Palace serviced apartment that we will be staying, we are informed that there is a Starbucks for caffine addicts, ice cream place for a sweet tooth, and 24 hr. convenience store with atm located in the hotel. Breakfast is also served daily until 10 am. The buffet is the same everyday. It has both Korean breakfast and also American. The American options include pancakes, eggs, french toast, toast with butter or jelly, muffins, watermellon, pineapple, bacon, sausage, cereal and juices.
( To be continued )
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