Korea Day 14 Coex Mall, Times Square 30/8/2012

The day when typhoon tembin reached Korea.

Since it kept raining, I decided to explore the shopping malls instead. So first, I went to Coex Mall. It is this huge mall that I keep getting lost in. Plus it links to another shopping centre too! There is a very huge bookstore inside for book lovers.

There is supposedly an aquarium in the mall, but I can't seem to find it. An entry fee is needed, though.

The next place I went was Times Square at Youngdeungpo. Once out of the station, you can see Lotte Department Store. To get to Times Square, you need to walk through an underground shopping street. It is really full of shops, and there are a lot people. Like, people are really shopping there. I guess you can get some good buys, but I wasn't really planning on buying anything that day.

Times Square had shops of really expensive brands. I suppose it is one of the higher class shopping malls. There is a Kyobo bookstore there, and the mall is linked to shinsegae department store. Overall not much, it just gives me the feel of Ngee Ann City.

Korea Day 13 Samcheondong, Insadong 29/8/2012

Regina had her Korean placement test today, so in the meantime, I decided to go and explore the Anguk area. Well, that place is very artsy.

When I came out of Anguk station, I saw this:

The start of the artsy trail haha.

Anyway, I went to the Samcheondong （三清洞）area first. This area is famous for its Hanok style buildings. Bukchon （北村）is also in the area.

Buildings like this can be seen everywhere in the area! There are many cafes in Samcheondong too, and quite a few of them retain such an environment. If you are a cafe lover, I would say this place is a must go, because there are many nice cafes over here.

So as I was walking around, I saw wall murals. You seldom see wall murals in Singapore. Or rather, you don't see them when you walk down streets. These murals are so pretty..

So, after walking for quite a while, I dropped in on this cafe for a break. The cafe is called Cafe Yeon.

This is one of the cafes that retain the hanok style environment. While I was inside, I could really relax. The environment was actually very calming.

After that, I headed Insadong. Insadong was more lively, as it is more of a shopping street. But the shops are more of the craft shops. They sell paintings, handmade fans, etc. Good for getting souvenirs.

There is an area in Insadong called Ssamzigil, which has many many interesting craft shops, unlike the traditional craft shops.

People who are interested in artsy stuff and crafts should come here. I think you will spend the whole day in this place.

Korea Day 12 28/8/2012

Typhoon day. After shifting back to Lavender Story, we stocked up on food and stayed indoors, replenishing our sleep, watching videos, studying korean. Had ramyun for lunch, but decided to have something better for dinner, so we went to the mart to get those instant easy to cook stuff.

So this is our dinner! meatballs, cutlet, rice, seaweed soup and makgeolli!! :D

Korea Day 11 Lotte World 27/8/2012

It's a Monday! The weather was being nice to us by giving us a day before bringing typhoon bolaven. It was a very good day, so we went to Lotte World!

It is a must to go for amusement park lovers. Well, we didn't manage to ride alot of the rides, because most of the thrill rides had very long queues! :( But still we had fun. If you like to see the overall of Lotte World, especially the indoor part, you can take this ride called Aeronaut's Balloon Ride I think. Can't really remember the name. Regina and I queued really long for it. It takes you on a journey around the inside of a Lotte World in a mechanically operated hot air balloon.

One of the thrill rides we took was Gyroswing. Wow this was scary. It's like a massive swing that can hold 40 people. And it rotates, so there will definitely be one point where you are in the direction the swing is moving and when it swings down, WHOO. the adrenaline rush is superb.

Another thrill ride I really enjoyed was Atlantis. It is a roller coaster, but you never know when there is a dip. Okay. You will know one of it when it is in the open air, but the others are in the dark. So exciting. Haha.

Korea Day 10 26/8/2012

Met Heasoo today! And decided to go shopping in Ewha area. So as we were deciding a place to eat, Regina suddenly saw...

Hence, might as well, we had our lunch here. And we don't need to go and find it in Gangnam anymore haha. Well, the food was not bad. I love the pizza, but a bit pricey though.

after lunch, we went into Ewha Women's University to look around. It is really really pretty!!

So beautiful. How I wish I could study in a campus like this. The surroundings make people happy already. Anyway, after that, it is shopping time! Ewha shopping district has many shops that sell 10000 KRW bags (roughly around SGD11) and they are really nice! I bought quite a few. And of course I bought shoes too! Their shoes are made in korea and really good quality.

So after much shopping, it's time for a break. Heasoo brought us to this famous 밭빙수 (patbingsoo) shop. We even have to queue for a seat inside! Patbingsoo is also known as red bean shaved ice. A little like ice kacang? but different. Their shaved ice is really very fine..

 There were three of us, so we decided to share three different flavours - milk, green tea and fruit.

The shaved ice and the red bean is given separately. How you eat it is to scoop a spoonful of red bean, put it on the shaved ice, then scoop the shaved ice together with the red bean and eat it. Don't worry if you finish your red bean before the shaved ice. They will refill the red bean for you free of charge. No stirring is needed as the shaved ice melts really quickly since it is so fine. All are really nice!!! and refreshing!! :D

After eating, we decided to go to a hair salon to do our hair. Regina and I have heard that hair salons in Korea, their service and products are of good quality, so doing our hair is a must! :D So thankful for Heasoo, as she had to be our translator. haha.

So we were at the salon until night time, after which, we headed back home..

Korea Day 8 N Seoul Tower 24/8/2012

After coming back from overnight shopping, we slept till around 2 in the afternoon since we were so drained out. Our plan today was to go to N Seoul Tower.

And so, here we are in the evening!

We took the N in the N Seoul tower stands for Namsan, since it is located in the area. We took the shuttle bus to the carpark, and we still had to walk. The worst thing is, it is an uphill path and the slope was very steep! I can't even stop halfway or I will get pulled downwards by the gravity. So after a very tiring walk uphill, we finally arrived. We bought tickets and went up to the observatory straight.

This was shown on the screen on the ceiling of the lift up to the observatory. When the lift goes up, it plays a video that simulates the going up of the lift. Quite interesting.

When we reached the observatory, as usual there is a lot of tourists. But the night view of Korea was so beautiful.

Snapped some pictures of the beautiful night scenery and went down after that. It was already starting to drizzle. We went to the lookout platform where the railings are full of..

Yes locks. Left by couples. Supposedly a couple buy a pair of locks and the write their love pledges on these locks and lock them together on the railing, Then they throw away the key as a symbol of everlasting love. However, they are not allowed to throw the key off the platform anymore. Haha. It's a pretty cool sight.

So after sightseeing, we had dinner at the burger place here.

I don't know if it is the best burger in Seoul, but it is definitely one of the nicest burgers I had tasted. And the fries are awesome. I really loved the fries. Haha

It was raining heavily after we finish our dinner, so we had to head home in the rain. It was so cold! with the wind blowing. >.<

Korea Day 7 Overnight Shopping 23/8/2012

Woke up in the morning to visit another guesthouse that we were supposed to move to for the period of 25th to 27th August. It is quite near from the one we are living in now! Anyway, after visiting, the guesthouse owner of the current guesthouse Lavender Story drove us back. On the way, he stopped by a bubble tea shop and treated us a cup each!

From what I see, the bubble tea trend just kind of started in Korea. I have seen quite a few bubble tea shops, but they are really small. It's hard to find bubble tea here in Korea. Haha, but there is GongCha in Myeongdong! And the queue was so long I decided not to buy. Yup. So this was my first cup of bubble tea in Korea. Surprisingly it tastes quite nice! Not too sweet and not too bland. :D

After that we went back to rest for awhile before heading out again at around 5 or 6pm to Itaewon. Itaewon is like a place that Westerners frequent. Probably because of its history. Itaewon is located in the middle of Yongsan-gu. In the aftermath of the Korean War, American soldiers began to stay in Yongsan Garrison, and probably the influence spreaded till now. Here, you can see alot of imported brands, and restaurants of cuisines from different countries. This place is very multicultural.

Regina and I walked around just to see how the environment is like. There are really alot of westerners. Unlike in Myeongdong, where most of the foreigners are from China or Japan.

When settling our dinner, we decided to get....

KFC!!! Haha. well it is always nice to try fastfood in different countries. I was actually quite surprised they had crispy chicken too! and the crispiness is much more crunchier than the KFC crispy chicken in Singapore. It is less spicy as well. The cheese they use for their cheese fries is that used for nachos if I'm not wrong. The meal is not bad!

So after dinner, it was around 8pm so we decided to start on our overnight shopping trip! And so we headed to Dongdaemun!

Dongdaemun is full of buildings that has apparel shops that does mainly wholesale. Most of the shops do sell their clothes individually as well. This area is usually opened overnight, and closes at about 5am in the morning. Many people recommended this place since it is a place where people buy their clothes in bulk and so it is supposedly cheaper. However, I beg to differ. In most of the buildings I went to, the bags and shoes are rather expensive, the clothes are priced normally. Tried to haggle, but mostly it's not possible. The sellers does not really care about people who come here to buy clothes individually, hence they don't really entertain your bargaining. Even if you bargain, the most you can cut is around 3000KRW?

I bought mainly shorts in this area. Somehow their shorts are considered cheap. I got mine at 10000KRW each. And the design and material is really nice! I bought jeggings as well. But that's about all I got. The other apparels are priced abit too high than I expected. Nevertheless, it is not a bad experience. I guess if you look more closely, you should be able to get some good buys. :)

We were tired by the time it was around 2am, so we decided to cab back to hongdae..

Korea Day 6 GyeongBokGung 22/8/2012

Woke up just in time for lunch due to late night noraebang. After which, we went to Gyeongbokgung. 景福宫. 경복궁

Went inside but didn't manage to walk the whole palace. Too big. so we only walked all the buildings in the centre. Haha.

Okay the things that I'm gonna write later mostly get from the guidebook one. Lol. But so interesting. 

Geunjeongjeon 勤政殿. This is the main throne hall of the palace. The meaning of the name is 'all affairs will be properly managed if Your Majesty demonstrate diligence'. This is where the king will deal with state affairs, including meetings and receptions with foreign envoys.

The stone markers bearing the ranks of the officials. The officials will stand in rows beside the markers that indicates the ranks. During a court meeting that happens four times a month, the officials will sit on cushions made of skins of different animals, depending on the individual's rank.

The ceiling is so high that from outside, the hall looks like it has two storeys but actually it only has one. You can see the carvings of dragons on the ceiling.

Sajeongjeon 思政殿. this is where the king holds daily morning meetings with his officials. Beside this are two buildings cheonchujeong and manchujeon with heated floors for the king's comfort in winter. 

There are several of these rooms in front of sajeongjeon and they are used to store the private property of the royal household. this particular storeroom is named 玄字库.

Gangnyeongjeon 康宁殿. the living quarters of the king. Behind it is Gyotaejeon 交泰殿, the living quarters of the queen which unfortunately I don't have an overall picture of that for. 

The garden behind Gyotaejeon is called Amisan. The chimneys (the orange coloured structure) are being termed as one of the national treasures.

One interesting thing about Gyotaejeon is that the doors have six flaps instead of the two big flaps in other buildings. This is because having six flaps it easier to open for women.

This pond is named Hyangwonji 香远池. It is squared shape. In the centre there is a pavilion name Hyangwonjeong 香远亭. I feel that this is the prettiest location in the palace.

Behind this is a building called Geoncheonggung 乾清宫. It is built by King Gojong in 1873. It includes a separate living quarters for the king and the queen, as well as a study.

It is the only place in the palace grounds that is of such brown colour. In 1895, Queen Myeongseong was assassinated by the Japanese here. 

The next place we went was the residence of the crown prince and princess. The residence was built to the east of the king's palace as the crown prince was regarded as the rising sun.

There are two buildings in the residence. Bihyeonggak 丕显阁 and Jaseondang 资善堂. Bihyeonggak is the study room of the crown prince and Jaseondang is the living quarters.

After visiting this place, it's about time that gyeongbokgung closes. So we headed out to Gwanghwamun, the entrance to the palace.

The square in front of Gwanghwamun is really big. There of course, holds the statue of the great King Sejong. Below the statue is an underground pass that has an exhibition of the story of King Sejong.

The exhibition is in Korean though. :/

Some interesting things I saw. The top photo shows the word Hangul and the second photo shows the word Aigoo which means something like Aiya! haha.

After that we went to Kyobo bookstore to look around. It's abit like Kinokuniya in Singapore, just that it is the Korea version. And then we head back to our accomodation.

Korea Day 5 노래방 21/8/2012

It was raining so heavily the previous night, when we woke up in the morning, we discovered that the ceiling was leaking. Told Younghyeon Unnie, and she then offered to find another guesthouse for us. This time, she found us a guesthouse in Hongdae called Lavender Story. Apparently this guesthouse just opened on 16 August. So it's very new. However a bit more expensive than Sky guesthouse, the one we were living in. 50000KRW for a night. Nevertheless, we decided to move there since the room was bigger and it is more accessible.

And with this, we packed and moved to Lavender Story in the evening, in unnie's car. The owner of this guesthouse is a very nice guy. He helped us with directions and moving into the guesthouse. Apparently, we had to move out during 25th to 27th August as reservations have already been made for this period. So this owner kindly helped us to find another guesthouse nearby to stay for the time being.

Until now, we have already met so many nice, friendly and helpful people. :D

After moving, we rested for awhile in our room until it was time for dinner. We walked around hongdae and realised many of the shops are quite expensive. In the end we settled down in one of the shops and ordered BuDaeChiGae (부대찌게)

This dish is like a hotpot, with tofu, sausage, minced meat, vegetables, luncheon meat and egg inside. The staple food would be rice and ramyeon. It is very filling and the soup is nice! The side dishes are good too. We also decided to order a bottle of rice wine to go with it, since everybody recommended the rice wine in korea and I wanted to try haha.

So this is the rice wine! also known as Makgeolli (막걸리). It has a mild milky taste and is a bit carbonated. Not bad! I like it.

After dinner, we decided to go KTV! also known as Noraebang (노래방) here. There is a highly recommended noraebang in hongdae, so we decided to go try it out. It's called Luxury noraebang, the actual name is Su (秀) Noraebang. It is quite expensive, but the room is actually very nice!

The rooms are double-storeyed and you can actually see the streets outside from the windows. And of course the people on the streets can see you as well. Haha. If you love Kpop, they have the latest songs there. Their catalogue is just a big booklet with all the names of the songs, the latest songs are not updated though, but you can browse through the songs they have by searching for the artists. It is best if you already know what song you want to sing or which artists' songs do you want to sing. It is easier to find the songs this way. However, you need to know how to read the korean words. For each song, there is a number code, so if I'm not wrong, for people who frequent the noraebang, they remember these codes so that the next time they come in, they just punch in the numbers and they are ready to sing! We sang for four hours, to songs that we could never find in the ktvs in singapore. had so much fun. haha

By the time we sing finish, it was already 2am :/ so we decided to head back to rest.

Korea Day 4 MyeongDong 20/8/2012

First day in Seoul, and we decided to do some shopping. Hence, we went to Myeongdong to shop. Myeongdong is a cosmetics haven. In that area, one street only can have 5 or 6 different cosmetic shops. And for each cosmetic shops, there are branches all around myeongdong.

Some of these brands are Etude House, Holika Holika, Nature Republic, Face Shop, etc. Then there is Club Clio, endorsed by Lee Hyori, a relatively new brand Apieu, endorsed by Beast and this very interesting brand Too Cool for School.

Anyway, when we reached myeongdong, the first thing we did was to make glasses. The glasses there had nicer designs, and were cheaper as compared to Singapore. What's good also is that you can collect it in one hour. So while we were making our glasses, I contacted a friend in Korea that I knew through Interpals, called Heasoo. We had been in contact via Kakaotalk even before I came to Korea, and she gladly offered to accompany us around. So Regina and I waited for her in the shop. After which, we walked around to shop.

I was so happy when I saw the Skin79 shop. I love their BBcream. There are also many good reviews online. Have been using it for awhile and my current bottle is finishing so I wanted to get another bottle when I am in Korea. This brand sells in Singapore but at a much more expensive price. :( At the same time, I bought their BBcream O2 cleanser because I heard it was good too. Got it at a good price as well! This is my most satisfying buy of the day. Haha.

I told Heasoo that I wanted to try their Ginseng Chicken Soup Samgyetang and I heard there is one in myeongdong. She wasn't sure of the exact location, so she helped us by asking around, and brought us there to eat. Even Samgyetang alone, there are many times, there's the one for health, there's the one for beauty, and others. The three of us ordered the one good for beauty. Heasoo told me that Koreans eat Samgyetang in the hottest time of summer, something which I kind of find it strange, because it is not a cold dish.

This dish consists of one whole chicken (the small kind) stuffed with glutinous rice and cooked in herbal soup. It is very filling, so for small eaters, sharing is recommended.

After lunch, Heasoo brought us to buy our Seoul City Pass Plus card. It adds on as T-money, which is like an ez-link card. T-money is used for public transport and sometimes can use to pay for items bought in certain convenience stores. Buying this card also gives discount coupons to certain attractions!

 The cards look like this. The design I got was the first one.

After that, she walked us back to myeongdong before leaving for home. We continued to shop then. I would say almost every cosmetic shop we walked into, we bought something. We also went to make another pair of glasses. And bought our Boa Only One Limited Edition Album! I also bought a bag which only costs 10000 KRW.

So for the whole day, we walked Myeongdong in the rain (of course we had our umbrellas) and we were so tired... But we bought so much ^^

For people who love cosmetics, Myeongdong is a must.

Korea Day 3 Back to Seoul 19/8/2012

Woke up to pack and head back to Jeju airport to fly back to Seoul. One bad thing though, because of the previous day's hot sun, Regina and I were sunburnt. Sigh. There goes our fair skin. Haha. But anyway, Jeju was a good trip, although we didn't get to go to the Seongsan Sunrise Peak to watch the sunrise because it's so out of the way! Maybe next time I will go back and go there.

This time, we had ample time to check-in and board the plane. After arriving at Gimpo airport, we took the subway to Singil to meet the guesthouse owner, Younghyeon Unnie. She's so nice! :) She brought us around the guesthouse area, telling us where there is food to eat and how to walk to the subway station.

So for that Sunday, we settled into our room, and went to eat lunch nearby. After that, we just stayed in the room because we were abit tired due to the Jeju trip. It started raining at night when we wanted to go for dinner. Younghyeon Unnie then offered to drive us to the supermarket to get some groceries. Got milk and some tidbits. ^^ Thought the supermarket was 24 hours, but actually it closes at 12 midnight, oh wells, didn't get to have a chance to walk the whole supermarket, but at least we got something.

The supermarkets in Korea, they don't supply plastic bags. Instead, they have a corner where they will put flattened paper boxes. So after shopping for groceries, you can just head there to get a paper box, tape it up and put all your items inside. Recycling at its maximum haha. How good is this. :)

Yup, and that's all about day 3.

Korea Day 2 18/8/2012

Day 2 of Korea and Jeju, We took the whole day going many many places.

The first place we went was the Soingook Miniature Theme Park (소인국테마파크). It makes much more sense in its Chinese name - 小人国. For this day, instead of taxi, we decided to take the public transport - the bus!!!! Thank goodness for helpful people we managed to find our way around everywhere.

Seoingook miniature theme park

Before entering, we went to a small canteen like place beside the park for lunch. It is buffet style, charging at 8000KRW. Abit pricey though because the variety of dishes were not very wide, but it is an experience. :)

There is another similar attraction somewhere else in Jeju called MiniMiniLand but we decided to come here instead since we were going to be in this area. So, as the name suggests, inside the theme park are miniature models of global landmarks.

After Soingook, we headed to Jungmun area. First up, we went to the CheonJeYeon Falls. It is beautiful beyond words.... Cheonjeyeon means The Pond of the Emperor of Heaven.

This is the first part of the waterfalls, the pond. You can see how clear the water is. So clear you can see the bottom. Of course the part in the foreground isn't that deep but still it is crystal clear. Regina went down into the water, and she said the water is refreshingly cold. I decided not to go down since I was wearing shoes.

Second part of the waterfalls. Another pretty sight. This is one of the two waterfalls at Cheonjeyeon. Standing at the wooden platform, I can feel the water droplets actually. Although walking to this place is extremely scorching hot, once you reach here it is relatively cooler. 

We did not go to the third part of the waterfalls because it would be along walk, so we went up to the Seonimgyo Bridge. 

This bridge has seven nymphs carved on both sides of the bridge. The nymphs symbolize the legend descent of seven nymphs from heaven at night. This bridge links Cheonjeyeon to Jungmun tourist complex which we will head to next.

After crossing the bridge, there is a fountain~

There are 5 different animal heads, each representing 5 different blessings - longevity (turtle), wealth (boar), honor (dragon), love (mandarin duck), sons(carp). Supposedly, if you stand in front of the animal symbol and manage to throw coins into the money bag in the centre, you will receive that certain blessing. Of course I did give it a try, since the coins collected would be donated to charity ^^

After Cheonjeyeon, we finally arrived at Jungmun Tourist Complex. Our next destination would be.....

This is a famous place because the KDrama Goong filmed here before. So, inside the museum displayed Teddy bears of all kinds, from those manufactured in 1901 till now, to exhibits that commemorate significant events and people, to the most expensive teddy bears ever and of course, those that appeared in the drama Goong.

LV Bear

The Goong Bears!

After the Teddy Bear Museum, we started on our journey to Jungmun beach. The weather was so hot, and we were perspiring like mad. However, the beach made it worthwhile when we saw...

Aren't the waves beautiful! It just wow-ed me totally and I started snapping photos. 

And that marks the end of our day. Went to grab a quick dinner before heading to take the airport limousine back to our accomodation. 

And I had my first taste of coffee from a Korean cafe! Korea has many many cafes, unlike Singapore, where the cafes you can find are mainly Starbucks and Coffee Bean. But in Korea, different cafes are everywhere. There is one near our accomodation in Jeju, so I decided to buy a drink to try. The coffee is so nice. The balance between the coffee taste and the sweetness is just nice. After getting our drinks, Regina and I then headed back up to our room to catch our first ever broadcast of Shinhwa Broadcast :D Previously we had been watching subbed versions. This is the first time we get to catch it on TV!