Busan-Seoul Day 5: KTX Train to Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

We had simple bread and cup noodles for breakfast in our hotel room before we checked out at 9.15am. The jumbo taxi we had booked via the hotel picked us up at 9.30am to take us to Busan Station. We paid ₩60,000, which was pricey but worth it for the service, comfort and convenience.

Busan Station

Huge signboards with English, Chinese and Japanese words

On arrival at Busan Station, we looked at the Information Board for information on our KTX high speed train to Seoul. The staff informed us that details on the track number will only be available 15 minutes before our departure time.

Since we had time, we explored the station in search of food to bring onboard the train for our lunch.

There's a food court at the 2nd floor

We bought food and milk tea from Eggbox

It was soon time to head to the platform and we headed to our train. We had booked our first class tickets directly on the Korail website (28 days prior) and paid ₩83,700 per adult and ₩53,800 per child. The difference between regular and first class was ₩23,900 per ticket, which we thought was reasonable since first class had wider seats, more leg room and a complimentary snack box each.

Boarded our train and headed to our preassigned seats

We departed Busan at 11am sharp

Getting our FREE bottled water for 1st class passengers from a vending machine

Free KTX snack box for 1st class passengers

Getting ready to watch my K Drama

Eating my toast from Eggbox while enjoying the beautiful view

It was interesting that no one came to check our tickets. Probably an honour-based system. After travelling for 2 hours 45 minutes, we arrived at Seoul Station at 1.47pm.

Seoul Station

We joined the very long queue for taxis (at least 20 people) and eventually got into two regular taxis. At ₩10,000 per taxi, the price was very reasonable for the journey to our hotel.

After previously staying at PJ Hotel in 2013, Solaria Nishitetsu Myeongdong and Lotte Hotel World in 2023, we decided to stay at Stanford Hotel Myeongdong this time. The hotel lobby was located at the 9th floor of the building so do look out for the lifts behind the Apple Store. 

Stanford Hotel lobby

We had booked 2 Family Twin Room at S$311 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast for 2 adults per room, more details in the next post). It was much more expensive than our stay at Lotte Hotel Busan but at least each room can accommodate up to 4 adults, which was very comfortable for our family of 6. Our rooms were also much bigger than the Myeongdong hotel we had stayed in our previous trip.

Two double beds

Sofa area

View of Lotte Department Store and surrounding streets from our room.
We could see the Christmas lights at night.

Complimentary snack pack from Stanford Hotel

Very small cupboard and wardrobe

Good size bathroom with bathtub

Breakfast info in the lift (left) and water dispenser just outside our room (right)

The hotel also had a laundry room and a gym. The first thing we did after unpacking was to do our laundry! There were laundry facilities within the hotel for the convenience of guests. We loved the convenience so much that we did our laundry every morning during breakfast.

Each load of washing cost ₩3,000 and you pay by inserting cash into the machine

Good size gym for a 3-star hotel

Our only complaint about the hotel, other than the price, was the inability to adjust the temperature in our room, making us feel very hot during the afternoon due to the afternoon sun. Thankfully it was much cooler and comfortable at night.

Exterior of Stanford Hotel (left) and the hotel's main entrance (right)

After a long day of travelling, we had dinner at a restaurant just next to our hotel.

153 Gupo Noodles

Self ordering and payment kiosks at each table; very convenient! 😅

Various noodles and pork with rice; food was decent but not the best we've eaten.

After dinner, we walked and shopped at the nearby Myeongdong area as we had done previously.

Streets of Myeongdong behind our hotel

So many people in Myeongdong!

Huge HBAF Almond Store in Myeongdong!

The Boy wanted to try the grilled lobster with cheese! He loved it! 😃

We loved Artbox!
There were many outlets in Myeongdong area alone because they were so popular!

Artbox photobooth

Choosing our iron-on patches for our keychains
(These photos were obviously by the Boy 🤪)

This time I made a keychain for myself too! 😁

Super cute Wiggle Wiggle store!

Wiggle Wiggle photobooth

We were feeling hungry after covering almost the whole of the Myeongdong area and had fried chicken from Kkanbu since the Hubby really liked it since our last trip.

Looking forward to our meal!

Beer from the tap, Korean fried chicken and cheese sticks

We returned back to our hotel after a fulfilling supper.

Beautiful Christmas light up at Lotte Town Myeongdong!

Even though we had walked a lot, a check on my Huawei smart watch showed that I had not hit my exercise target of 45 minutes! Since we had feasted a lot, I decided to exercise in my room to hit my target! 😅 Yes I've become that person; however it was the reason why I did not gain any weight after our trip 🤭

Looking forward to exploring more of Seoul! 😁

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 6: Namsan, N Seoul Tower & Myeongdong
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 4: Jagalchi Market & Gamcheon Culture Village

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 

Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Busan-Seoul Day 4: Jagalchi Market & Gamcheon Culture Village

It's the Hubby's birthday today so we're heading back to Jagalchi Market for the Hubby's favourite live seafood! 😋

Beautiful colours of the sunrise from our room window that morning

As we had done on the first day of our trip, we took Line 1 (orange) from Seomyeon Station to Nampo Station (Exit 2). We arrived at around 10.30am, which was good timing since the market and most restaurants opened at 9am and 10am respectively.

Jagalchi Market

We headed straight into the wholesale market since it was closed on 3 days ago when we visited

The Hubby randomly picked stall 218 as the sellers were super friendly and could speak English

Clockwise from left: Various seafood;
Four live sea urchins for ₩20,000;
Four fresh abalone for ₩15,000.

The Littlest's favourite prawns were ₩70,000 for 6
(not exactly the cheapest but she really loves prawns!)

Super huge 3.5kg king crab for ₩270,000!

The Mum-in-law and I got the Hubby the king crab for his birthday present, just as I had done 2 years ago at Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul! 😆

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Once we were done with choosing our seafood, the seller Mr Kim directed us to their partner restaurant located upstairs.

We sat at a table by the window

Clockwise from left: The Littlest loved the prawns!;
Super huge prawns! No wonder so expensive!;
Sea urchins were fresh but a bit small.

Look at the massive king crab! So yummy! 😋

Fresh abalone for the abalone-loving Mum-in-law

We loved the fish so much that we went back to Mr Kim to get another!

Various scallops, oysters and cockles that Mr Kim threw in for FREE

The total cost for our seafood meal was ₩407,000, inclusive of cooking fees. It was our most expensive meal of this trip! 🤭💸

After a very satisfying lunch, we consulted the Naver app (Google Maps does not work well in Korea) for the best route to Gamcheon Culture Village. The app directed us to take the train to Toseong Station and walk from Exit 6 to a bus stop where we can take a few buses to the village.

Walking to the bus stop and taking Bus 2

We alighted at this bus stop, according to the directions of the bus announcement

It was a great weather for taking beautiful photos! It was a bit sunny but the sky was blue!

Great photo spot for taking photos with the famous Gamcheon Culture Village

Love this family photo!

More photo ops!

Interesting decor

We discovered the Gamcheon Culture Village Souvenir Shop where we bought a lot of really cool souvenirs to support the village

The village was very interesting, with many interesting things to buy!

Some examples of the art that can be found in every corner of the village

Gamcheon Cultural Village was known for being artistic so the Hubby wanted to get an artist to draw a cartoon caricature of both of us. We found a shop where the artist, who goes by @Kimjakaworks on Instagram, drew a caricature of the Hubby and I in just 15 minutes.

Samples of her works

With the finished product at the front of her shop

The finished art piece! 😁

We also climbed the hill just to see the famous The Little Prince. I have no idea what this story is or means but we took pictures because it was rather cute.

Cute photo of my family

Another view of Gamcheon Culture Village

When we were done with exploring the village, we hailed two taxis back to Lotte Department Store Gwangbok (cost ₩7100 per taxi). We returned to Lotte Mart as we loved it so much on the first day!

We bought buns and pastries from OPS (hits and misses)

When we were done with shopping, we returned to our hotel to drop off our shopping before heading for dinner.

Outside the beautifully lighted Lotte Department Store Busan

For our final dinner in Busan for this trip, we headed back to Dudong Chuksan as we had loved it since the first night we tried it! 

Enjoying our yummy Korean BBQ

We really ordered a lot of meat and the final cost of our meal was ₩95,500, significantly cheaper than Singapore! 😄

We ended the night with Sauna at our hotel before we packed up our luggage in preparation for departure the next day!

Can't believe 4 days went by in such a flash! We definitely should have planned for more days in Busan! We will be back! 🫰🏻

You can consider these alternative attractions in Busan:

• Lotte World Busan
• Skyline Luge Busan
• National Maritime Museum
• Oryukdo Skywalk  
• Gukje Market

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 5: KTX Train to Stanford Hotel Myeongdong
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 3: Kidzania Busan

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 

Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!