Day 24: A mobile shop on campus, and the best ramen in Hyehwa.

One advantage I had while staying in a guesthouse rather than a school dormitory is that there is always breakfast provided. Well, it depends on how you see it actually. Because although breakfast is provided, it is the same breakfast - bread and jam/peanut butter. If you are not a picky eater, this will suffice.

But Lydia and I was bored of bread and jam one day, and we have been eyeing this breakfast from a store opposite Sungkyunkwan's school gate - Isaac Toast. Funny as it seems, we didn't want to eat bread at the guesthouse, and we are paying about 1,500KRW for bread outside. Hahah but believe me, Isaac Toast is so so good. I didn't know it's a pretty popular franchise store in Korea, but yes I realise you can find it in most places. Okay maybe not as common as Paris Baguette, or GS25, but I know there is definitely one outlet in Hyehwa, Myeongdong and Hongdae, which are pretty popular tourist attractions. So do check it out~~!

So for lunch, Okta, Jihye, Minkyeong and I met to eat (instead of the usual gang that we eat with) since we had to discuss our presentation/report that was due the following Thursday/Friday. As with all other meetups, we drift away from the topic, ate and chit chat about everything under the sun, and before we know it, time's up for the next lesson. However, I thoroughly enjoyed our chat. It felt good to be close or at least feel close to Koreans. And I'm super grateful to them for their good command of English. I am the one who is going there to study and travel, but they are the ones who are accommodating me due to my lack of ability in Korean. So anyway, we decided to meet next Monday again for the project.

After lessons, Okta wanted to get a new phone. And yes, amazingly, SKKU has a mobile shop right on campus. Fascinating isn't it? Or at least for a Singaporean. Their bookshops are amazing. They sell the prettiest jackets and T-shirts - why doesn't Singapore universities have that?!?!??!?!? But anyway, HyoEun went along as a translator and I tagged along for fun.

We had some major communication issues because Okta and I don’t speak Korean (well enough) and he doesn’t speak English well enough so thankfully we have HyoEun. Honestly glad to have met her, because she is ever so helpful and goes the way out to help Okta with her mobile phone stuff etc. And of course some issues of mine. And I think it's not just her, most Koreans are amazingly helpful, even though there are some communication barriers between us, but that didn't stop them from trying to help us. While waiting, I was browsing at some of the phone accessories, and saw this really cute Galaxy S2 home button sticker. The sales guy at the shop was so generous and he told me to take it if I like it. I totally went 진짜요??!?!??! (which translates to REALLY?!?!) So I only took this really cute one (pictures below), after which he took its matching boy sticker to paste onto his phone. Uh-oh, now we have couple stickers hahahhahahahah.

After settling all those phone issues, it was about 6pm. Okta and I decided to meet for dinner since we didn't have any dinner plans. But since it was still early, we decided to meet again at 7pm and go back to our guesthouse for a short rest. Bad choice!!! It was pouring so heavily I almost wanted to not leave my house. But then again, I succumb to hunger.

I wasn't familiar with the restaurants around Hyehwa, so Okta suggested this ramen shop that she heard was good. And imagine a rainy cold night... ramen would be the perfect comfort food to have~~~! We headed to this small restaurant tucked in a hidden corner. The place itself was small, I don't think it can accommodate more than 20 people. But this ramen was the best I have ever had in my life. Really~~~~ the soup base is so thick and good, words just cannot describe how good it is. Please do have a try if you are in Hyehwa area. The shop's name is Saga Ramen, and from their website, I see that they have an outlet in Garousil-gil and Hongdae as well, the two more popular areas. If you can understand Korean, here you go: http://sagaramen.co.kr/ 

I had this ramen twice in 4 days. That's how good it was! I'm thinking of heading back there if I can find time to do so during my next trip there.

Day 23: Dinner at Hyehwa

Before I start, I just want to say that I'm absolutely grateful for the support to this blog. It hasn't been much but this blog finally hit its 1,000 views a few days ago. I'm sure they are tons of travel blogs around and I know myself I don't provide the best pictures, or the best directions, but I am glad I am of as much help as possible to anyone who needs it. Once again, you can always leave me a comment or email me at atthatmoment23@hotmail.com if I did not cover anything that you might be interested to know.

So, at this point in time, I realised that I have never taken a proper photo of Hyehwa, the place I spent 29 days in. Hyehwa is a nice place, although I would say if you are a tourist, this place may not be as good as Myeongdong. But if you are a tourist who wishes to experience a local life, Hyehwa is the perfect place to go. This place has lots of cafes, lots of youths (because of the university students), lots of hidden restaurants that are so so good. And in general, just a nice place to chill. You can do your shopping, spend hours talking with a friend in a pretty (though rarely quaint) cafe, or catch a movie, or sing at a noraebang!

So, I took this photo while waiting for Cheryl and Winnie to join us for dinner. It's been a while since we have full attendance. And it's been a while since the rain is not pouring hahah. So while waiting for Cheryl and Winnie at the subway exit, I decided to snap a lovely view of Hyehwa, that brought me back fond memories looking at it now.

So dinner for that day was suggested by Lydia. She has eaten here before and the food is good and cheap, as proclaimed by her. I'm not too sure what dish this is called, but it's basically pork boiled in a broth or something. It was nice in the beginning, but we got sick of that pork taste after a while.

And this is my favourite time. Whether in Yoogane for dakgalbi, or this, I just love to mix the rice together with the seaweed, whatever remaining broth, some egg, and turn this into a super delicious fried rice. I can eat this always!!!

This is the name of the restaurant. To be honest, I only know it is very near the gate of Sungkyunkwan University, tucked in one small corner. But other than that, urm, sorry I can't help much. I can give you the name in English if it helps. It is pronounced as myeong-lyun-gol.

So it started pouring halfway into our meal, what is this nonsense monsoon rain seriously!! We decided to sit down at Baskin Robbins and have icecream still, because it's been halfway into our trip, and we haven't even eaten Baskin Robbins here.

July is a bad period to be travelling in Korea. Seriously, you get the monsoon rains pouring on you, umbrellas overturning/flying out of your hands. It's frustrating enough for me (who was just leading a normal local's life) but imagine how bad it is for tourists. Most of Seoul's attractions are open-air, like the streets of Insadong, Myeongdong, Bukchon Hanok Village, Namdaemun Market, and it doesn't help to have rain. It's irritating seriously. Furthermore, towards the end of July, monsoon season disappears. (Honestly, there was a few days of good weather.) But out come the heat! The heat there is unbearable. It is X1000 more scorching than Singapore's sun, maybe because they have clear blue skies that doesn't seem to have that much clouds to help block out the sunrays. No amount of sunscreen is enough for me. I get dark still. Pffffffffffff

So my most honest opinion: Avoid July and August (the heat comes to an all-time high, glad that I didn't need to experience that) if you want to travel in Korea.

Day 22: Bibimbap, Namsan Tower, BBQ meat buffet

The day started off with the teaching assistant (or class monitor whatever) telling us that lunch is provided today. Today is a Korean Festival Day (self-proclaimed), and bibimbap (비빔밥) is served to all students. Bibimbap, as you can see, consists of rice and vegetables (many kinds) and eggs. It also contains meat (usually chicken, beef or pork) but I believe for the sake of vegetarians and Muslim students, it was omitted. Bibimbap also comes with gochujang sauce (고추장) which is a red sauce that tastes sweet, which wasn't seen in this picture. So... this bibimbap doesn't taste very good. Furthermore, even for a near-herbivore person like me, THIS IS TOO MUCH VEGETABLES!!!

During lunch, some of us discussed and talked about our plans for the evening. Jenny Winnie and Cheryl wanted to head to an underground shopping mall. Oktavia and HyoEun wanted to head to Namsangol Hanok Village + Namsan Tower. I was stuck because 1) I just wasn't into the mood for shopping that day. Actually it's not true because when that underground shopping mall is the best everrrrr. 2) I've been to Namsan Tower before and I just went to Namsangol Hanok Village last weekend!!!! In the end, I decided to join them for dinner and Namsan Tower because Namsan Tower really has one of the most amazing views and the atmosphere is just so cozy.

A picture of me and HyoEun - we found a pretty spot for photo taking!!!

So, dinner was pushed back because we were near the bus stop which fetches us up to Namsan Tower. So we decided to push dinner from 6.30pm to 8pm (after Namsan Tower visit). Well, turned out it was pushed till nearly 9pm by the time we reached.

HyoEun brought us to this meat buffet in Hyehwa, which costs about 9,000KRW (less than 10USD) per person and it is free-flow meat! Okay nothing awesome for me because like I said, I am a near-herbivore person. I was munching on sausages and kimchi the whole time hahaha but if you love meat, this is somewhere you totally should go! I know there are 8,000KRW meat buffet in sinchon too, which I haven't been before, but check it out!!!

Opps, the raw meat looks real gross though. But anyway, till then~!

Day 21: A random day

Sorry it's been some time since I last updated. I was busy celebrating Lunar New Year. For those who don't already know, Lunar New Year is celebrated not only by Chinese, but by many other nationalities and races as well. For instance, Thailand and Vietnam and South Korea also celebrates the Lunar New Year. Since I am talking about Korea in this blog, I shall mention a bit about it.

In Korea, our Lunar New Year is known as 설날 (seol-lal). To be honest, I am not too sure how it is celebrated in Korea since I wasn't in Korea before during that period. But I also understand that Koreans give out money as well to the kids. In Singapore, as long as you are not married, you will continue receiving hongbao (red coloured packets) money from our elders or cousins. If you are interested, feel free to read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_New_Year

So Day 21 was just another day at school, except that I had my presentation. Presentation went pretty well because Singapore students are really well trained in presentations seriously. And especially business students. I do at least 5 presentations every semester in university, so it was an easy task for us. But my group considered of people from other nationalities as well, but we get ahead pretty okay and they were all fine with their presentation skills, from what I remember.

After school, the girls wanted to go to Gwangjang Market, which is a traditional wet market. Because of the failed trip to Namdaemun two days ago, I really had no intention to go to another wet market. Rejected their offer which I totally should not!! I am totally regretting my decision because I really really wanted to sit at the stall and start munching on my Korean food - pajeon (pancake) and kimbab (seaweed rice roll). Below is a picture of Gwangjang Market from the tourism board and if I have a chance to go back to Korea, I would totally plan this into my itinerary.

So, since I wasn't heading to Gwangjang Market, I had to settle my own dinner. After settling my dinner at the guesthouse, it was only 7pm or so. I decided I should take a walk around my neighbourhood.

I live in Hyehwa, and Hyehwa is an university area, and also a rather cultural area. What I love about Hyehwa especially was that it was more laidback, more local (you don't hear or see too many tourists around), and definitely so with the abundance of cafes and restaurants there. One nice cafe which I really wanted to visit, but subsequently it was closed down for renovation already the next time I walked past it.

I think Hyehwa is a pretty good place for you to spend half a day at. You can go cafe hopping, and in between that, go take a look at the old campus of Sungkyunkwan University (MY SCHOOL!!!). Also, one place of interest is Naksan Park. They say, it's a place whereby you can get the entire view of Seoul. (Since Hyehwa is pretty in the centre of Seoul). And besides that, there are nice murals on the way up. So throw it into your itinerary too!! :)