South Korea (Seoul) again – with a 10 month old baby and a 3.5 year old toddler

It’s my third time to Seoul, South Korea. This time, the trip was a pretty long one, (two weeks). We travelled from Seoul 서울 to Jeonju 전주 to Busan 부산 then back to Seoul from 31 May to 15 June. The trip was very child-friendly, filled with fun places for young kids. Though nothing much for my little brother, he was enjoying himself too. 

We started the trip with a red eye flight by Singapore Airline (SQ8). My first business class experience on a Boeing 777-300ER was amazing. Before boarding, we had the time to rest in the Business Class Lounge. 

Our seats were located on the first row but we didn’t board first. We took our time and strolled to the gate. The seats were wide and we could lie flat to sleep. I got a goodie bag from SQ too! I loved the available entertainment choices and watched The LEGO Movie.

Mummy chose “book a cook” as our inflight meal. Yummy! 

We arrived in the morning. I didn’t really sleep much. I might have enjoyed more if it was a day flight. But mummy said day flights were all A320 and business class was not as good. Lol. My 이모 came fetch us to our temporary home in Seoul and I had omelette rice as my first meal in Seoul. 

WA Road Trip (1) – Changi Airport

My second trip commenced on 2nd May 2014. The challenge went from 2.5 hours to about 5 hours flight. Well, this time Grandma was around too. She could help mommy and enjoy the trip together with us as a family.

Though my parents do not have the habit to arrive at the airport early, because of me, we arrived two hours earlier. It’s good to be there early. In case there is something needed to be done. We took Scoot Airline, a Singapore-based low-cost long-haul airline under Singapore Airline. All infant equipment (pram/stroller, car seat, portable cot) is carried free of charge on Scoot flights.

We checked in our huge Bugaboo Cameleon in a travel bag larger than our suitcases (more than 15kg). It’s really the ‘hanna’ of strollers. Since it’s an expensive stroller, we don’t want it to get scratches and be thrown around, we paid big bucks for the travel bag. We were going on an road trip and according to the Australia’s traffic law (similar to Singapore’s), infant must be sit in a car seat while on the wheel. We checked in our own car seat too (free of charge, not counted to our purchased baggage allowance). We saved some money on the car seat rental. There are baby care rooms that are vey convenient for changing diapers and breastfeeding. 😉 Once you are inside the departure hall, there are free baby strollers and wheelchairs for use. World-class airport with world-class service~

We cleared customs. Mommy had to carry me through the counter and I was too young to use the automated lane. We still had sometime to walk around this world-class international airport. Just before the boarding gate opened, we were told that the flight was delayed.. for almost 8 hours! No one knew the reason while everyone was still queuing and trying to subdue the fury. Quite a while later, a representative from Scoot came to address the passengers with some unclear reasons (at least, mommy didn’t get exactly what he was trying to say). The outcome was it’s a fact that the flight was rescheduled to 8pm (originally at 12.30pm), everyone would receive two $10 vouchers for lunch and dinner separately and a $50 flight voucher (that can be used for the next flight booking.. if you are still going to travel with scoot.. within a certain time period), and for locals, you can actually go home and come back later.. We don’t stay that near the airport and it takes time and money to go back and forth, so we decided to stay and explore our lovely airport instead. Changi airport is famous for its wide range of facilities and services to keep passengers occupied while waiting for their connecting flights, while waiting for our delayed flight in this case.

There is an Interactive Art corner where you can try your hand at woodblock rubbing, a popular Singapore artform in the 50s and 60s or learn more about South East Asian and Peranakan cultures through Asian symbols. I will come back for that when I am older. I heard that there is one slide at Terminal 3 which is the tallest indoor slide in Singapore (12 metres). We were in Terminal 2 and I could play on the slide, so we gave it a miss. There are many gardens with orchids, tulips and many other interesting plants.

 

Big TV screen and comfortable seats to keep you entertained. You have no problem sleeping here I guess.

 

Mommy loves sunflowers and so do I. These bright and tall plants grow so well under the sun. I only had a glimpse of them as it was too hot there. lol..

 

The Entertainment Deck, located on Departure Transit Lounge, Level 3 of Terminal 2 (next to the Sunflower Garden), is a one-stop integrated, multi-media entertainment centre with something to thrill everyone. You will see a Xbox Kinect Room, Music Area, MTV Booth, Movie Theatre, Xbox360/Playstation 3 and a cafeteria there.

 

We had McDonald’s for lunch and Bak Kut Teh (Singapore Pork Rib Soup) for dinner. If you are tired, there are free massage chairs if you are lucky to find an empty one. 🙂 Mommy was still worried how to keep me occupied during the 5 hours flight, and now it was solved. I fell asleep before 8pm, before the flight took off. Again, I slept through the entire flight.

Moral of the story: If you are bringing an infant for a long flight, it’s best to get a red-eye flight when he/she can sleep through. Easy for everyone. ^.^

Finally, we reached Perth around 1am! Chilled weather~