Thoughts: Hostels/guesthouses for budget travellers

So I have received various emails and comments about guesthouses or dormitory while studying in SKKU. I would also think that it's useful to provide some information about guesthouses in other areas even if you are here for travelling and not studying. So here's some guesthouses you could consider.

There are many options for accommodations in Seoul. If you're a traveller, of course you could consider between a hotel or a guesthouse. And of course homestay is an option too, however most homestay requires a certain number of days too I believe. Hotels are definitely the most convenient but it is also on the high end. If you are in Seoul for travelling but you are on a budget, guesthouses are definitely a better option. Of course, with guesthouses, you can get to interact with many other like-minded travellers too!

Different people have different criteria when it comes to choosing a guesthouse. For me, I don't sleep on the upper deck, so double decker beds are out for me. I also take into consideration the location and make sure that transportation is convenient and the guesthouse is near to where I would like to go. Most importantly, I am especially particular about the bathroom of a guesthouse. So far, I've stayed in guesthouses that only have private bathrooms because I think it's pretty troublesome to share a bathroom with other users. But I think I can compromise on that if necessary, but one thing I can never compromise is tidiness and cleanliness of a bathroom.

For SKKU students, you can consider these guesthouses.

Open Guesthouse / B&J Guesthouse (http://www.openguesthouse.com)

This was the guesthouse I stayed in for 29 days. And the room I reserved had a private bathroom. If you are coming here for studies, one thing this room lacks is a proper table. It also has a mini kitchenette which isn't very helpful because you can't cook there. It also has a big fridge, a TV (though old but functional) and a dressing table. I like it because this room is well lit. Open Guesthouse is also good in the sense that the owners stay inside this house too. You really can try to experience the life of a Korean if you would like.

You can also use the washing machines and get a rack from them. This is what I do every few days. We hang them outside our room, which has a small balcony.

And the view from the balcony. This guesthouse is situated in the housing estate and also a reason why I like it. It can be slightly secluded but 5 minutes walk will bring you to the main street and it is only 10 minutes away from Hyehwa station and Hansung University station, which both have an area full of restaurants and shops.

This is the kitchen whereby you can make yourself breakfast every morning. Toast with jam and peanut butter. I think you can make your own coffee as well. Simple enough and at times, I will pop by Paris Baguette to get a bread and munch on my way to school. Free breakfast doesn't matter much to me, though it's a nice service to have. :)

Another choice for SKKU students. 

Bong House (http://www.bonghouse.net) 

Bong House was definitely within my considerations as well. I chose Open Guesthouse in the end because of the bigger room and also that their bathroom looks cleaner. These two are of the same price though, and Bong House looks pretty good too. Best of all, Bong House is only less than a minute's walk from school, probably 30 seconds? It is that near! There are also many eateries right beside Bong House and I believe many SKKU students stay in Bong House so you will get to know a whole lot of friends! :)

CU B.N.B is my friend's guesthouse and she loved it so much there. So I thought it might be a good choice or option for SKKU students too. CU B.N.B is just a few minutes walk from Hyehwa station, and therefore you are surrounded by a wide variety of food, cafes, stores. The only reason why I didn't choose it was because this guesthouse didn't offer a private bathroom. However, the guesthouse owners take effort in knowing their guests and my friend had the chance to cook with them, and eat dinner with them. Sometimes they head out together for shopping too! Pretty nice owners I must say!

http://www.cubnb.com/

So, what if you are not studying, but am here for travelling purposes instead? Well, maybe Hyehwa area is not that convenient. Whenever I travel, I choose to stay in Myeongdong, because I love Myeongdong as previously mentioned. I want to be able to get to Myeongdong as soon as possible. And this is also the same guesthouse which I will be staying in 20 more days from now! Yes I am heading back to Seoul in another 20 days!! Although I am only heading there for a week or so, but I really cannot wait!!

I-house Seoul is not available on any major booking websites like Agoda.com or Booking.com. It is listed on Airbnb.com instead. Is it safe then? Well, I took a leap of faith basically, because this place looked so good I feel that I just had to stay there. Well, I'm glad I made this choice!

I love everything about I-house. It is relatively big (though slightly smaller than Open Guesthouse) and the available facilities are modern (nice TV!!) and a nice bathroom (one of the cleanest bathroom among the guesthouses I have stayed in) though slightly small but that is typical of Korean guesthouses. It is also cheap and the room is always bright. A sad thing is that most people just shut themselves in the room so we didn't get to interact much too but one day I was in the kitchen getting water and another Singaporean family was there. The mum was cooking supper for her kids and invited us to have some too. :)

The only con to this guesthouse is a steep slope right before the house. Be prepared for the last 1 minute of steep slope, but anyway Korea is full of slopes too but that really is the steepest slope I have climbed in Korea. I am determined to conquer the slope again this time round!

Before I found Open Guesthouse, Stay in Gam was an option I was considering to stay in. The only thing that deterred me was the distance from SKKU. It looks near but it is separated by Gyeongbukgung and I don't think you can cut across it everyday. Even if you do, Gyeongbukgung is huge, you probably need 30 minutes!!! I have emailed the owners before and they told me SKKU is 10-15minutes' bus ride away, so after factoring in the time taken to wait for the bus etc, I felt that this place was way too far.

However, if you were to go travelling, Stay in Gam might be at the perfect location. It is minutes away from the Jongno station, which is surrounded by lots of amazing tourist attractions, like Gyeongbukgung Palace, like Insadong. Plus the room looks so amazingly beautiful - must be those colourful bedsheets! I have a soft spot for pretty rooms like this, and it's relatively cheap considering its strategic location. They have family rooms and an amazing suite room too, though it gets a bit on the higher end already. Their rooms are mostly based on a shared-bathroom basis, except the suite room and family room.

I would however want to give this place a try the next time I head back to Korea. I can compromise sharing the bathroom with other users if it means I can sleep in such lovely bedsheets. I have to comment that the owners are absolutely nice people. Despite me bombarding them with many questions over a few days, and yet not reserving any rooms from them, they were still polite and told me that they hope they will get to serve me next time. 

Stay in Gam (http://stayingam.com)

I have to say I absolutely do not gain anything from advertising these guesthouses. It's just some amazing finds that I've come across while searching for guesthouses. For the other three guesthouses which I have not had a chance to experience, please, anyone who have had any experiences with them, let me know! :)

Day 29: Sanmotoonge Cafe

I have been wanting to visit Sanmotoonge Cafe after hearing about how it is situated on a hilltop, and how unique it's been. If you have not yet known, it is also used in the filming of Coffee Prince. It isn't the cafe that the male and female leads work at, but one part of the cafe was used to film the study room of one guy lead. It's been ages since I watched Coffee Prince and it wasn't the most memorable K-drama that I've watched, so I remember very little about it.

Okay, so the nearest busstop to Sanmotoonge Cafe is at Buam-dong. Don't ask me where is Buam-dong, I honestly cannot remember how I got there. I took a bus, dropped off, and switched to another bus to get to the Buam-dong busstop. And even so, I was following the lead of HyoEun, my Korean friend and even she was googling the route. However, I am sure many other blogs provide the route there. Google it! :)

Well, at least I know the picture below is your starting point!

And here are some photos that you can see midway, to know that you are still "on track". There are road signs every now and then to lead you to the place. So just keep walking straight until you see a road sign. At every possible turn, they have a sign there, so I don't see how you will get lost.

It's a long route up!! It was a gentle slope but I think we took about 20 minutes up from the busstop (at least). We were walking at pretty normal speed, so it isn't that we are slow.

An example of the road sign. Would definitely help if you can read Hangeul. If you can't, I am not too sure how I can help you. Memorise these words "산모퉁이"!!!

Some of the beautiful views of the mountain on the way up!

And finally, you should see this beautiful building when you reached! :)

And this is the view I have come for! A pity there wasn't enough space to accommodate us outside + we were too warm from the hike up to sit in alfresco area too. But this view is amazing.

We ordered a couple of cakes, green tea latte, caramel mocha, yuzu tea etc. The blueberry cheesecake was good in my opinion! But not something out of the world. Similarly for the yuzu tea. Yuzu tea is just... yuzu tea. Most of the drinks were too sweet though. Drinks cost about 7,000won here, which is pretty much on the high side for a cafe. You can easily get coffees at 4,000 or 5,000won, and similarly the cakes were 8,000won and up if I remember correctly.

The cakes and drinks were good, but every other cafe could easily serve these up. I don't think the drinks can justify the reason why we should get up here. I would say, come here for the ambience and the view.

Last picture, this is the highest level of the cafe, and apparently this is the filming site I was mentioning. I have totally no idea when this place appeared in the drama though. :P