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

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. :)

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.