Day 28: Why I love Myeongdong

A photo with my lunch buddies before we left the school (again) to head to the neighbourhood in search of a nice place for lunch! Absolutely love these girls and I'm so glad that my lunches are never boring with them around! (:

So I've been mentioning about Myeongdong so many times in my blog. I've been to Myeongdong 12 times (or was it 13) in my short 46 days there. It's like if I go to Myeongdong every 3-4 days. And considering that I spent 3 days in Jeju, 10 days on a road trip, I went to Myeongdong 12 times in 33 days. So there must be a reason why I love Myeongdong.

First, let me introduce Myeongdong. Once you exit from Exit 6/7 of Myeongdong station, you should see this sign after a few steps. (The chinese words translate to "Welcome to Myeongdong") I remember Myeongdong so well that I don't even need to google to check which exit in order to blog about it. And just an additional info, exit 7 has escalators but exit 6 does not. So if you are carrying luggages, head through the underground shopping mall and at the end, you will reach exit 7 which has the escalator. Once you exit, you will first see a very huge Nature Republic store, by then you should know that you are at the right place.

So why I love Myeongdong. I love Myeongdong because it's always lively and buzzling with people. I love Myeongdong because it has a great mix of tourists and locals, unlike certain tourist spots like Dongdaemun (which my Korean friends say they hated going). I like Myeongdong because occassionally, I hear Chinese and English while walking on the street. It's a place that makes me feel like home, and whenever I felt like I just couldn't fit into the Korean culture and miss home terribly, I love to head to Myeongdong. Best of all, you can get all your cosmetics and clothes and shoes here. I have to say again, Korean shoes are really the best, especially their heels. Myeongdong is also a place where you can get so many different kinds of food, and if you are looking for street snacks, do head there! They have almost everything there! I'm going to stop here because if I blabber on, this point is never-ending. I hope you do feel how awesome Myeongdong is and do head there. Anyway Myeongdong is #1 tourist spot in Seoul. :)

So that day, I was supposed to meet with a friend, R, who is also in Seoul for summer studies, but he is from another university. We were supposed to head to Apgujeong, then Dongdaemun. Even though I really hate Dongdaemun despite not stepping into it before, I decided to maybe give it a chance and besides, I really wanna meet R. Turned out R needed to change more Korean currency and Myeongdong offers by far, the best rate, as stated in most forums and blogs. We decided to head to Myeongdong in the end, as R wanted to get some shoes as well.

I chose the place for dinner. I am really bad at deciding the choice of food, because honestly I am not a picky eater in terms of how good it tastes. (I pick as in I hate fatty oily stuff though). We decided to settle for Myeongdong Gyoja which was very highly raved, and I was craving for something soupy, and R didn't want something very Korean. So apparently, a long queue will form by dinnertime and lunchtime, and the wait could be an hour long, so R and I met at 5.30pm for an early dinner to avoid the dinner crowd.

By the way, this bowl of noodle costs 8,000KRW and as I have read in certain blogs, they are refillable. The noodles, not the dumplings of course. The minced meat is however pork, and hence, definitely not halal. R and I ordered THE EXACT SAME THING. We knew it was refillable but we didn't see anyone refilling it, so we were worried to look like fools hahah. We also figured that if you had this refillable, and ordered another tray of dumplings (8,000KRW) it would have costed the same. So we decided to eat the same thing. To be honest, it didn't taste as exceptional, maybe because I had high expectations of it. Another selling point is their kimchi, which is known have an exceptionally strong garlic taste. It was alright, but not something that I would keep eating. Two Japanese grandmothers beside me passed me their kimchi because they thought I loved it. I had to force myself to eat it so as to not make them embarrassed hahah. 

My advice: Probably not worth the wait if you have to queue for more than 15 minutes.

So the street snacks after dinner! O'sulloc green tea icecream!!!! There was a sale, and it was at 3,000KRW. Still expensive I know, but R said that he had it at 6,000KRW at Jeju Island and it was good! We decided to give it a try. It was pretty good but not fantastic, I wouldn't get it at 6,000KRW. If I see it at 3,000KRW and I have a green tea craving, maybe I will. But then again, the 30cm long icecream only costs 2,000KRW if I am right. So... your choice :)

Next one: Hotteok/Hoddeok. Which I have been wanting to try since forever! This was at 1,500KRW and it is some sort of a pancake with melted brown sugar inside. It tastes heavenly~~! But 1 is enough, because it is too sweet and after a while, you will get sick of it.

I had the noodles with the above two street snacks and R was amazed how I can stomach so many things. But then again, R just had a KFC meal an hour before meeting me because he was starving so badly, so no surprise that he cannot eat anymore after the ice cream. But more street snacks!!! I took these pictures on another day. I really head to Myeongdong every other day.

I'm not sure what this is called. But it consists of sausages and the other two are fried ddeok (rice cakes). Yes it's the ddeokbukki that you eat but they fry it! I really don't like ddeokbukki but I can accept this version. For 2,000KRW I think.

Sugar cane juice! If you have been to Singapore, or are a Singaporean, this is not the sugar cane juice we all loved. T.T This tastes like brown sugar juice, I feel so cheated. No doubt it's refreshing but I was (for a moment) proud that Singaporean food made its way into Korea, but no~~~

Some other snacks I bought before but didn't have a picture of were: tornado potato (the spiral potato), kimbab (5 small ones for 2,000KRW), egg bread. You can just eat street snacks the entire night and you could be full as well. Except that they are so addictive you probably will spend quite a bit of money buying them and eating them.

All in all, Myeongdong is definitely my #1 favourite place in Seoul. I've also booked my tickets back to Seoul again in May, so 8 more days in Seoul (so short T.T) and I'm staying in Myeongdong again. My guesthouse in Myeongdong was good, cheap, quiet, clean and just so awesome, except that it's situated on the slope up to Namsan cable car station. Which can be a dread but I'm willing to brave it because I want to stay 10 minutes away from Myeongdong. (:

Day 27: Cafe Culture in Korea

The days this week are getting exciting!!! :) Many cafe visits, and meetups with friends, and just chatting and talking. I wish I can return back to those days.

So we have started getting sick of food in SKKU. So... HyoEun decided to bring us outside school for lunch. We have 1.5 hours lunch break which was pretty sufficient for a good lunch. Since I ended the class and was chatting with Carlos, I decided to invite him along and he didn't mind that he would be the only guy... so yeah, everyone got to know new friends again! That's the perks of travelling. (:

So we got up to one of the highest point of SKKU, and this was the view that was right in front of us. Beautiful :) Well, at least so until we see Gamcheon Cultural Village in Busan. I will be talking about that towards the end of my trip. That's a really lovely place and I'm so going to re-visit it again! :D

So, we took this elevator down and tada~ we are out of SKKU campus. I'm amazed! Never knew that there was a hidden neighbourhood with rows and rows of restaurants and cafes right behind the school. So we decided to settle down in this Korean restaurant, and I had one of the best al-bab I have ever eaten. It is so amazing~~~~! And this for just 5,000KRW or less (cannot exactly remember)

So, after school, Jihye, Minkyeong, Okta and I met up. We have to~~!!! Our presentation was this Thursday and Day 27 was already Monday and we have nothing done yet. We were determined to finish it that day. So, I really wanted to experience the cafe culture in Seoul and especially the famous Samcheongdong cafe street. Jihye said that Samcheongdong was pretty near SKKU and we had a straight bus (No. 2 I remembered!!!) there. We got up to the highest point of SKKU after climbing numerous stairs and taking lifts and wandering around (the SKKU girls are not too sure too heheh) and we finally reached the bus terminal right on top of SKKU. Can you believe it?!?!?!? This school has a bus terminal just above it goshhh. So we hoped on the bus. I loved taking buses because it made me feel Korean. Most tourists won't know how to take a bus, neither do I if the girls weren't there. XP

Okay I took this picture off the VisitSeoul website. I have a bad habit of not taking enough pictures, because I didn't want to look like a tourist holding on to cameras. And especially so if I hang out with Koreans, because they are there often and don't snap as many pictures like I do. So upon alighting, I realised to my surprise this was the exact same place I was at when I had a solo trip to Gyeongbukgung on Day 18. I always end up at that place without knowing I am indeed there, and forever thinking that I did not manage to reach there. Amazing how I did it.

So, you can google around for Samcheongdong and you will see a thousand beautiful cafes and pictures there. We settled at this cafe called Cafe Breezin and shortly after, started to work on our project for real. We were pretty engrossed and I heard this foreigner beside us asking his Korean friend whether school is still on. It was July and I guess he was surprised why students are studying then. Not sure about Okta, but I was pretty happy to be seen as a Korean in the eyes of other foreigners.

We had a late dinner at Saga Ramen again! The SKKU girls highly recommend this place and Okta and I told them we have been there before. Nonetheless we are happy to be back because it is possibly the best ramen in Seoul hahah. We took a cab back to SKKU as we were all starving (almost 9pm) but take note that you should never board the black cab, because it is more expensive.

Day 28 - I will meet with my Singaporean friend! So excited to post about it :)

Day 26: KBS, Express Bus Terminal Shopping

It was a bright Sunday morning. Okay correction, I saw that the floor seems a little wet, and I remembered it was raining. So it was a gloomy Sunday morning instead. The girls and I decided we have to head to KBS today, and hopefully SBS too.

I love Running Man, I love korean dramas if I do have the time to watch them (my latest was The Heirs, I know I'm super outdated) But of course I do know KBS, SBS, and MBC. Except that I probably don't know which drama is produced by which company, except that Running Man produces SBS. So anyway, we decided to go down to KBS. 

There were quite a few spots in KBS that was open to public. This is cool! The news broadcasting area. If you sit on the news broadcaster's chairs, you can see this screen opposite which is where they look at as they are reading the news. Some other places include the animation dubbing section, whereby you can try recording your voice for a small section. Hahah Cheryl and I had fun dubbing our voices onto the cartoon characters! And yes one of the radio space has glass windows, so you can watch and hear your favourite Korean DJs in action, if you know any of them.

There wasn't that much choices near KBS area, so we decided to settle for Jjimdak, since most of us haven't tried it before, and in addition, it was pouring and the idea of Jjimdak sounds good. Jjimdak - jjim meaning steamed, and dak means chicken. So basically it is a steamed chicken dish, with soy sauce all over. Do note that Jjimdak is usually spicy, though you can specify the level of spiciness you want. We said we wanted the lowest, but it was still spicy after a few mouthfuls. Oh, but it was delicious though!!! 

We rushed to SBS upon hearing that Inkigayo half year special is going to be held that single day we were intending to go there! Although it is highly unlikely we could get a seat. I haven't been to any of the music shows - Inkigayo, M countdown, Music Core, Show Champion before, but if you are interested in heading there, google it and I'm sure there are other blogs about it.

Anyway we reached to find that SBS was like a ghost town. There was practically no one there. No surprise that there weren't many fans because it was already 2pm or so, but the fact that no one even bothered to stop by and take a look kind of shocked us. I was really upset though, because I heard that SHINee and CNBlue will be back for the Inkigayo half year special. SHINee was in Japan for their Japan concert tours the entire period I was there. CNBlue was also doing their promotion in Japan in June, and it was rare that both of them are gathered together but this merciless gate separated me from them. T.T We left after half an hour because there wasn't even any security for us to enquire with.

In an attempt to lift up our moods, we decided to go shoppinggggg~!!! Retail therapy is also the best right? So, we headed to this place called Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping Mall, also known as Goto Mall. This is the place I highly highly recommend if you want to get your cheap buys (at least 70% of the shops here are relatively cheap) The rows of shops are never ending!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you exit from Express Bus Terminal subway station, you will find yourself in the middle of two such long rows. Either direction (left or right) you cannot see the end of the shopping mall!!!! We attempted to do a quick scan-through of the shops (and not stopping at 80% of the shops) but that alone took us 2 hours. So this is definitely a place where you can easily spend half a day at, if you want to comb the entire area for cheap bargains. And may I add, the clothes here are slightly less repetitive than Edae area, which is also cheap but every other shop is selling the same thing.

I highly recommend Express Bus Terminal Underground shopping. Well, not to say you should neglect Myeongdong or Edae or Dongdaemun if you like. To me, Myeongdong always feels so lively (at night at least) because it is an open-air area. So does Edae, and maybe Dongdaemun. They all have different kinds of atmospheres, but if you have limited time, I would suggest Myeongdong/Edae with Express Bus Terminal. This place is totally a shopping heaven~~!!!!!!!! :) Can't wait to get back there!

Day 25: Nami Island

I have almost been to every other tourist attraction in Seoul, and quite a few popular ones in Jeju, Busan and Gyeonggi-do. I also went to Gyeongju, Yeosu and Gangwon-do. Despite so many places I have gone to, I felt that I could never see enough of Korea. But to me, Nami Island disappoints. It was highly raved, but I honestly do not like it there, at least definitely not in summer time. Allow me to slowly explain before you judge (esp for those who love that place).

Okay firstly, we have to know how to get to Nami Island right. Okay to be honest, I did a lot of research myself and a few trial and errors on the way. So I am going to tell you that you need to get off at Gapyeong subway station. This is on the Jungang line which is an extended line on the subway system, so do get an updated subway map of Seoul. 

Wangsimni station --> Mangu station --> (Kyungchun line NOT Jungang line) Gapyeong station. 

Wangsimni has quite a few lines connecting it, so do your own research on how to get to Wangsimni! And the reason why you have to change at Mangu subway station is that Jungang line was intended to arrive at Jungang as its last stop (Pretty obvious right) but they extended another line and Gapyeong subway station is on the extended line so you have to change if not you will end up at Jungang subway station. So upon reaching Gapyeong subway station, you can take a taxi to Nami Island ferry pot, the fare should be 3,000KRW (3USD) or so. The entire journey takes around 2 hours. I started from Hyehwa subway station, so if you are further (e.g. Sinchon area), it might be another 15-20mins more.

We had to go for lunch first 'cause we were starving!!! Oh if you do not already know, you can eat and drink on Korean subways (You definitely can't in Singapore) so you can always grab some pastry along the way. But do be conscious and respectful too, don't even attempt to eat things like ddeokbukki because the smell is so strong - unless you want to get death stares from other commuters. I realise most people carry drinks, but rarely do people eat food. But I guess bread and biscuits are fine.

So, if I may suggest, head straight to Nami Island for lunch. The restaurants at Nami Island ferry port all sell one thing - dakgalbi (stir fried chicken). I am not sure why this is the case, but anyway we just headed into one 'cause we are not too sure if there are any restaurants in Nami Island but now that I know there are, please head inside for more varieties! And of course because the dakgalbi I ate there isn't nice. T.T

Look at how happy I was waiting for my food to be cooked. To realise afterwards that Yoogane really serves the best dakgalbi I have ever tried. Not only that, it is much cheaper and the staff really attends to you, unlike the staff in this restaurant. But anyway, yes you can get these aprons if you are afraid of food stains or smell lingering (though I think it doesn't help to reduce the smell).

So basically there are two ways to get to Nami Island. The ferry ride of course (8,000KRW for foreigners, inclusive of ferry ride + entrance tickets). For the more adventurous ones, you can do the zipline down to Nami Island. :) I really wanted to, except that it costs a freaking 38,000KRW. Too expensive for me!!!

So, after a 15 minutes ferry ride, we reached Nami Island. You know you are here if you see this stone that says "Na Mi Som" in Korean. Okay you know you are there when the ferry stops and everyone gets off too.

 

So I took pictures with some tall trees, thinking why these trees aren't so straight as I expected. Turns out I was at the wrong area. This isn't the trees Nami Island is famous for.

 Now, these are the trees! Does it even make any difference?

Now, let me say why I don't find Nami Island fascinating. To be honest, the pictures don't look as good. And even the best picture I could find in summer looks like this. A big patch of trees.

But I was expecting something like this... Guess I came at the wrong season.

Or best, something like this. Look at the fluffy white snow and trees!

So... I am from Singapore. And Singapore has so many trees. We are surrounded by trees everywhere I go. If not for the nicer yellow or white trees, tell me why else should I come here?!?!?! To travel 2 hours, pay $10 to view trees that were everywhere in my country, is really quite ridiculous to me. And of course, I was no Winter Sonata fan, so it didn't matter to me to find that stone statue of the female and male lead. I still cannot believe it, I came here to see trees!!!

And if I may add, July is the worst time to come from. The constant monsoon rain made exploring this place harder, since there was soil and mud and puddles of water all over the place. Trust me, it doesn't look half as glam as the pictures. And the worst thing ever is to wear slippers in times like this. I didn't want to get my shoes dirty so I thought slippers are a good choice, but turned out that slippers will keep flicking the mud and soil onto the back of your knees. It is really irritating, I feel so dirty I just wanna go home and bathe.

I found some comfort though, to see a piece of Singapore in Nami Island. :) Although I didn't remember the Merlion to look like this hahah. It could have looked better.

But anyway, I would never choose to come back to Nami Island during summer times where the trees are oh-so-green. But if you happen to head there, you might want to head down to Chuncheon subway station to have some dakgalbi (Chuncheon is famous for that) or the rail bike that Running Man went to (cannot remember the subway station though but Google is always your best friend!)

Cannot wait to update about the future entries. The next week in Korea is going to be a lot much exciting (I feel). One of the best week I had in Korea. :)