[Part 2] 049. A day in Nami Island with 3 guys

There are a few different ways of going to Nami Island 남이섬 in Chuncheon 춘천 but I only know these 2 methods well:
#1. Purchasing a package fare 23,000KRW from Nami Island Seoul Centre: Tel phone no. 02-753-1247 (DO NOTE: You need to make a reservation in advance, and by advance, I don't mean 1 day but maybe at least a week ahead! I tried making a reservation the day before my intended trip but there were no tickets available till at least a week later.) This package fare includes a round trip shuttle bus fare 15,000KRW (from Insadong to the ferry wharf and back), as well as the ferry ticket & admission fee 8,000KRW. The thing is that the bus from Insadong departs at 9.30am and departs from the ferry wharf at 4.00pm so if you want to have 닭갈비 chicken galbi in one of the eateries near the ferry wharf, which Chuncheon is famous for, then you would have to eat at 2.30pm or so?
#2. Taking a Mugunghwa 무궁화호 train from Cheongnyangni Station 청량리역 to Gapyeong Station 가평역 for 4,000KRW for a 1hr20mins train ride. I didn't have the foresight to make online reservations for the tickets before hand. But it doesn't quite matter unless you are particular about sitting beside a person you know and you want to be at the island by a certain time. We reached Cheongnyangni Station at about 9.30am, which was the time the 9am+ train departed so we bought the tickets for the 10.20am train, giving ourselves nearly an hour to kill. We spent the time exploring the shopping mall before going for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.

Come out from Exit no. 4

Automated ticketing machines

We boarded the train at about 10.10am only to find that our allocated seats were not side by side but a few rows apart. Hence, if you want to sit beside your friend, you should purchase/reserve your tickets early. Actually, Sungkyoo oppa was free and wanted to join us but I never received his sms asking if he could still join us :( It would have been good going with a Korean, but then again, today was the wrong day to go to Nami Island on. He advised me to book our return trip train tickets as soon as we arrived at Gapyeong Station, which was both a good and bad thing to do. Good: it's Thanksgiving week and many people are returning to their hometowns. When Sungkyoo oppa called me in the morning, he said that some early return trip tickets have already been sold out so it's better to purchase our return tickets as soon as possible. Bad: We didn't know how long we would spend at the island. I decided on the 8.03pm ticket to give us time to tour the island and to have a nice chicken galbi dinner.

Couples everywhere

My "neighbour"

From Gapyeong Station, we took a taxi to the ferry wharf which was just 5-10 minutes away, depending on traffic conditions (4,000KRW). Immediately after we had purchased our ferry & admission tickets, it started to drizzle and by the time we reached Nami Island 5 minutes later, the drizzle had turned to rain. What luck! Definitely not a good day to visit Nami Island. To think that I thought autumn has arrived...it's still like summer, just that mornings and nights are slightly chilly. We decided to seek shelter in the Song Museum where we went to the exhibition halls and dined in a cafe called "Sun and Moon 해와 달" to wait for the rain to stop but it never did. The cafe is really pretty and the next time I go there, I will sit outside! I ordered a toast and yuza tea but service was BAD. We had to stand at the counter and wait for a looooong time before the owner turned to us and took our orders. He could have taken our orders first instead of ignoring us and preparing other diners' orders; but no, he left us standing there.

Taxi point outside the station

Bungee jumping

Where we alighted at

The ferry wharf

View from the toilet

The sun

and the Moon

A cute Korean boy I fell in love with

It was still raining heavily when we got out of the Song Museum so the guys had no choice to buy umbrellas and a raincoat as none of them had brought umbrellas along. I got a raincoat to protect my bag and camera for 1,500KRW.

The chipmunk Alex tried to lure out

I almost died on this bridge because I was wearing heels -.- Please either flats or sandals or wedges when you go to the island! It was scary because the "railing" was just a rope and if you fall over the bridge, you'll end up in the water. Thanks Simon for helping me!

The rain never stopped and after awhile, we got tired of walking from one shelter to another so we decided to leave the island even though it was not even 4pm and our train back to Seoul was at 8.03pm. See...that's the problem of buying your return train ticket early. You never know what will happen and it's best not to fixed the time so early. I agree with Simon's theory: only couples can still enjoy and appreciate the island even in the rain. For the 4 of us, we were grumpy (ok, I was) because of the rain and dirty shoes and the lack of nice photo opportunities. I can't wait to go back again with Jeannie. We're going to take a lot of photos!
Anyway, we missed the ferry but luckily the next one arrived within 5 minutes and it was a new one!

Thank goodness we were able to change our tickets for an earlier train at 5.33pm. Since we went back so early, it was too early for a dinner of chicken galbi so we went to a Kyochon Chicken eatery near the station.  While this time round, our order was taken promptly, we waited for more than half an hour for our food! -.- and right before it was served to us, we heard one of the staff sneeze twice...possibly into our chicken.

BWe arrived in Seoul at nearly 7pm and spent some time shopping in Lotte Mart before returning to our  dormitories. It has been a horrible rainy day :(