4D3N Mommies Day Out Korea Trip With @tripirit - Day 1: Enjoying Seoul Under The Rain


Ok, so this is my first post and my first trip to Korea, to be exact to South Korea. I was so happy when @tripirit agreed to organized our Mommies Day Out Trip to Korea. I posted the plan on my Instagram and because of the request from the participants, we decided to make it a "Mommies Day Out Trip plus plus" with husbands and children.

Our group was up to 24 person, and combined with other group from @tripirit, in total there were 34 participants and 3 tour leaders from @tripirit. Why only 3 nights? As usual, I have to balance my office life, so 2 days leave (on Thu and Fri) was enough:D Our Garuda Indonesia flight was on Wednesday at 11.35 pm, and safely arrived at Incheon Airport at around 7 pm, on Thursday.

@tripirit had arranged an indoor activity for us on the first day, as the accuweather predicted that it was going to rain the whole day. Too bad for us, however we could have our shopping time earlier, including to shop the K-pop souvenirs at SM Town.

All of the pictures were taken by my purple Samsung S9+, unless stated otherwise.

Heaven for K-Pop Lovers




Arrival at Terminal 2, Incheon Airport

Our flight Garuda Indonesia landed at Terminal 2 of Incheon Airport. We were informed that starting October 2018, Garuda Indonesia had moved to Terminal 2, a brand new terminal which only few airlines had moved from Terminal 1. This was an advantage for us, as the immigration clearance was really short. Yeay!

We spent some time to freshen up at the restroom before heading to the city. What can you do upon arrival at Terminal 2 of Incheon? Well, apart from taking pictures, there's GS25 convenience store and also Starbucks selling tumblers from various city in Seoul. If you are fans of Starbucks' tumbler, I recommend you to buy it upon arrival. 


Taking picture session with the  "Welcome to Korea" sign...
Including myself with Elly:D
Waiting for the bus, picture was taken by Lukman Hakim Sudjadi

These tumblers are KRW 17,000 and so cute




Then we were transferred from Incheon Airport to the city by private bus, which was very handy for the 37 of us, and because of the rain. It took us like forever from the airport to our first destination: Coex Mall. Yup, the traffic was really bad from airport to the city, especially maybe because it was raining.


Our private bus from the airport to Seoul city, 
picture was taken by Lukman Hakim Sudjadi

Queue for the luggage, picture was taken by Lukman Hakim Sudjadi



Lunch at Coex Mall and Visited The Starfield Library

Around 12.30 pm, we alight from the bus and walked to Coex Mall. Seoul city was still beautiful under the rain. We spotted red and yellow colored leaves in front of Coex Mall. Not too mention the big statue of Gang Nam hands. Of course you remember the Oppa Gang Nam song and dance. 


Beautiful pedestrian in Seoul, in front of Coex Shopping mall

From the dance "Oppa Gang Nam Style"



It was time to get our lunch at the mall, but it was so crowded! Maybe because of the rain, everyone from the office building around Coex headed to shopping mall to get their lunch.

There was a halal Turkish restaurant inside Coex, some of the group ate there, but the majority ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. Seriously after our 7 hour flight from Jakarta? Hahaha. My story was even worse, because of the post teeth surgery, I ate potato croquette I bought from Magurama Udon at Soekarno Hatta's airport:D

I took a picture of my friend's cheesy chicken by the way. And if you wonder how much this KFC meal cost, it was around KRW7,000 (KRW 1=IDR14 at the time we bought our Korean Won). The price is almost doubled compared to KFC in Jakarta. Well, welcome to Seoul:D


Cheesy chicken in Korean KFC


After our lunch, we walked to the famous Starfield library inside the mall. The library was easy to find. Just follow the sign heading to "Starfield Library". I didn't know about this library before, as a matter of fact, my knowledge about Seoul wasn't that much.

But when we visited the place, I must say that it was a really impressive library! There are so many books, most of them are Korean (of course!), there's also cafes and seating area where people could take a book and sit down to read. Well, frankly speaking most of the visitors were tourists like us, so there were lots of people busy taking pictures for their Instagram feed (and mine too!).

It wasn't our fault as tourists, the library even has two escalators where we could take pictures from afar. I took the escalator up just to take pictures. Everybody did the same:p

I fell in love with this place, and I wonder when those huge shopping malls in Jakarta could have this kind of library.


People were busy taking pictures

I took this picture from the escalator provided



Time For K-Pop Lovers at SMTOWN

Apart from the Starfield Library, Coex is also famous for its SMTOWN. As I am not a K-Pop lovers, I googled what this SMTOWN was all about. Here's what I got from Wikipedia: SMTOWN is the umbrella name for the recording artists under South Korean Entertainment Company; SM Entertainment. The label is a prominent K-Pop artists such as: Exo, NCT, Super Junior, etc. I stop it here, because I don't recall other group names stated in the Wikipedia. Hahaha, pardon myself.

So all the K-Pop groups under SM Town are promoted at the building, which consist of shop, museum, gallery, and you name it. I only went to the official souvenir shop by the way, and the industry really impressed me. I mean, how many Korean Won they can get from all the K-Pop lovers around the world? It is a huge kind of industry. 

Other than SM Town, there are also other label, like YG Entertainment. Black Pink is one of the groups under YG Entertainment. And you know what, everywhere in Seoul I heard Black Pink song: "Aye... aye.. " (If you don't know the song, than go ask your kids hahaha). Near the station, from the stores, from every corner of the street. Amazing!


The Coex Shopping Mall, entrance from SMTOWN

The gloomy Seoul and the gates to SMTOWN

Some of our groups in front of SMTOWN

The authorized merchandise are sold here (and yes, they are expensive)



PS: walking from Coex to SMTOWN, you will find a Starbucks Reserve. This information is for you who are not interested in SMTOWN but had to take your loved ones there. So maybe you can wait at Starbucks Reserve:p


Starbucks Reserve near SMTOWN


Namsan Seoul Tower

Around 3pm, we were picked up by the bus and went to Namsan Seoul Tower. It was really foggy when we arrived and it was also raining. Namsan Seoul Tower located in Namsan Mountain, as part of ecosystem protection, general car has been restricted going up to the parking area.

Our bus could go up, but we still have to walk to the tower under the rain and it was really cold.

If you are using public transport, there are three shuttle bus option from various station. Read further in this link.


We could barely see the tower

Good news: bicycle is allowed





We went inside through a LED tunnel, and found various cafes, restaurant and shops. Some of the group went to Starbucks to get hot beverages, some of them checking out the cute stores.

We didn't go up to the tower, because of the bad weather. Actually, Seoul city would look beautiful from the top.


Inside the LED tunnel, picture was taken by Lukman Hakim Sudjadi


Starbucks at the ground floor



However we went to the rooftop and took pictures with the heart locks. The rooftop area would be really nice with the sunshine don't you think?


The heart lock

So many of them!


It was around 5pm, time to walk down from the rooftop area to our bus. Even under the rain, this place feels so magical with all the beautiful trees. I hope I could go back someday, in another autumn, with a clear blue sky.


The path from the rooftop to the bus parking place



Check In at K-Guesthouse Dongdaemun Premium

It was a wrap up, we were transferred from Namsan Seoul Tower and headed to our hotel in Dongdaemun area.

It took sometime to check in 37 people, we waited at the lobby area, still with our happy face. 


The check in process

Tired but happy :)



~ To be continued ~



Our trip was organized by @tripirit, check their Instagram to customize your trip or to join their open trip. All of the participants were covered by travel insurance sponsored by Howden Indonesia.




written on November 19, 2018
Follow our Instagram @tesyasblog as we share our travel pictures and stories, through our gallery.



Next Post:
Day 2: A Daytrip To Nami Island 



Related Post:
Mommies Day Out Trip With @tripirit Japan





2 comments:

  1. wah baru sempat mampir sini lengkap bgt..kapan ya bs ikutan jalan2 sama mba tesya dan @tripirit..

    ReplyDelete