South Korea, Seoul I cannot give an exact amount on how much I spend on food, cosmetic, clothes, transportation etc. But I can give an estimation. Rate as at July2014 SG$1= 800KRW SG$1 = RM$2.56 RM1 = 320KRW Air Ticket: SG$580.32 per pax Seoul, Airport Transportation: SG$68.75 per pax 75,000+90,000= 165,000w (3pax) Accommodation: SG$350 per pax Doo Guesthouse:180,000 X 2night= 360,000w(3pax)= SG$150 per pax Nine Tree hotel: SG$200 per pax Admission Fees: SG$33.75 per pax 9,000 GyeongBokGung 12,000 Tricky Eye 6,000 Cable car I spent about SG$1,500 on food and shopping. Total expenditure: around SG$2,530
Doo Guest House @ BukchonAs we want to experience living in a Korea tradition house so we arranged a 2 night stay in Doo Guest House. From the entrance to the bedroom there is a small space for us to sit and put our luggage. On the left side, where the windows are, is the bedroom. On the right side, behind the white wall is the washroom. To me, I think the room can only house a maximum number of 4pax. Price: 180,000w/ SG$225 per night About the Rooms Most of the rooms in the guest houses are small. So small that after spreading out the mattress, there will be no room for you to move around. Bathroom is being share among other guests. The room that we stayed in, is call the Special room which I think it is the biggest room with its own bathroom. So if you do not mind all the flaws (like: no bathroom amenities, no breakfast, presents of insects etc) you can try staying in this guesthouse. The Staffs Our flight was delayed, two of the staffs waited for us till late night, 12am. During our stay, we interacted with 3 of the staffs and they were fluent in English. There are some shops and cafe around the area which most of them only open after 10am. Hence it will be a bit difficult to grab an early breakfast if you intend to start your day early. We started our day at 8am. Most of the shop near our guest house were not opened yet. Luckily we managed to find a cafe and had a simple breakfast. Price: Hot cappuccino + Blueberry waffle= 6500w/ SG$8.10 Bukchon Hanok VillageLooking at the map displayed in the guest house , the hanok village seemed to be located near to our guest house. But when we started to find the place, it did not appeared to be near. Or it may be because we were not familiar with the place? I felt that our route to finding this place was like a treasure hunt. The starting point was at the guest house, where we studied the neighborhood map. The staff explained to us where and how we should go from the guest house. Following the instructions given by the staff, we went to the tourist center to grab a map before we head to the destination. There were quite many people when we reached Buckchon Hanok Village but I managed to capture some 'quiet' scene. Note: There are many steep slope at the area. It will be ideal if you can wear an appropriate foot wear. And get prepared to get some exercise! :D Gyeong Bok GungWe did not plan to see the Guard Exchange but we were lucky enough to witness it. I felt that some of the guard felt very awkward during the guard exchange. Smiling to themselves etc. I felt pity for them when they had to keep an emotionless face while tourists took pictures of them and shared on the social media which can be viewed by people around the world!! Without a tour guide, I learnt nothing about the past of the palace. I just walked around, viewing the interior of the houses/rooms. updateWe had our lunch at 土房 (Closed down) which was located along the street at InSaDong My friends and I ordered Kimchi and Miso soup. Both dishes were Heavenly Good!! I highly recommend this shop. Don't worry about language barrier, the shops has English menu with pictures on it. You can just make your order by pointing ;) The side dishes are chili crab, vegetable, potato, kimchi which are all free of charge. We had our meal on the floor/platform, just like the local. Price: 5500w/ SG$6.90 per bowl Direction You can reach the place by walking from the metro towards Ssamziegil. You will pass this shop before you see Ssamziegil. Ssamziegil @ InSaDongIt is an opened space shopping area. Items sold in the shops are unique as what is described in the tour books. It is famous for its creative drawing on the walls. However to me, it is more like vandalism. Outside Ssamziegil, there are rows of shops which you can explore. For me, I did not buy anything from there. Later, we had tea in a tea house near Ssamziegil. I like the ambiance of the Tea House. The tea tasted interesting too. One of the tea we tried has an interesting aftertaste. It tasted smooth when I first drank it After I swallowed the tea, I felt a sudden burst of an aftertaste. I have never thought tea can be as lively as wine too. Hence, if you are bored with all those tea sold in the supermarket, you can visit this place and purchase something different. Direction: It is located further down from Ssamziegil (away from the metro station direction) Ssamziegil is at the left hand side, the hidden street is at the right hand side. Note: The staffs are all Korean. They do not speak English or Mandarin. At night we met up with our Korean friends and we had BBQ for dinner. Again, the food were delicious!!! We ate pork belly, cold noodle, tried soju (which does not taste as nice as it seems in korean drama >.<) After dinner we took a stroll by the river nearby (I am not sure whether this is the CheongYeCheon River) At the place, I saw many couples, some people were chilling with friends, some were soaking their foot in the river etc. Korea Dessert CafeWe had some dessert at Korea Dessert Cafe. Although from picture the desserts do not seem appetising, don't be trick by its appearance! Both are delicious!! From the picture, the one on the left, gave me a deep impression. It was a bowl of shaved ice with topping of cornflakes and soya powder. When I ate the ice with the soya powder, I could feel the mixture melt slowly in my mouth. So nice! *-* ( However some people may not like it because they may feel that the dessert stick on their throat.) Note: The food reviews are my personal opinion. All of us have different preferences, What I reviewed may be differ from others. Hence, my food reviews are only for reference Some pictures credited to my travel companion
As we started out day early, most of the shops were still closed. My friends and I stumbled into this a cafe which was opened at that time and it had a menu which we all agreed on. The cafe has two storey. Level 1 is the cashier. Level 2 is the dining area. Hongdae + HongikI visited Hongdae and Hongik Em...to me the streets look similar and are a bit messy. Messy in a way that there are so many different routes that you can easily get lost. I captured some pictures of the streets but I cannot remember which street each picture was taken. Trick Eye Museum+ Ice Museum @ HongdaeAdmission: 15,000w With a 20% coupon discount from Korea tourism board, we paid 12,000w each. My friends and I lost our mood when we entered the museum because the room was so pack! Everyone was busy taking pictures. How can you make weird posture when so many people are looking at you, waiting for their turn to take pictures? But fortunately, we managed to get back our mood and started snapping away. Our ticket also included the Ice Museum (in another room) Em...the ice museum is smaller but it is veryyy cold! So cold that I can't wait to leave the place! At the entrance of the trick eye museum, there is a hanbok studio by Goguan. It is a place where you can try out different type of hanbok according to the character you want to portray. The studio offers a variety of colourful hanbok, different types of korean tradition hair do and makeup services, each charging at a certain price. The studio also offers different setting, for customers to take pictures. Late Dinner at Bungalow @ ItaewonWe had our dinner at Bungalow, located at Itaewon The ambiance was good. The foods were so so but very filling. We ordered: Shrimp& Scallops 18,000w Grill Platter 35,000w Bungalow Mojiteo (cocktail) 13,000w Maribu Beach(cocktail) 14,000w Total we spent 93000w/ SG$116.25 (for 3pax) Bar: Glam Lounge @ ItaewonWe had our second round at Glam Lounge. See the picture with the arrow, it is in the building, second level. (Bungalow is further down the street) I like the lounge. It looks very glam and classy. It is big and spacious. It has a huge bar table which everyone surrounds it. Surprisingly, it was crowded on a weekday, but not so crowded till walking was difficult. Most of the crowd seemed to be working adults. Everyone was dressed smartly and appropriately (at least I did not see anyone dressed sloppily ) The korean guys who we interacted knew how to speak a little bit of English. Besides korean, there were foreigners too. So if you do speak English, communication may not be a problem. By the way, the bartenders were cute too :D I would recommend this bar to those who want to have a drink, have some interaction with people or just flirt around-_< Note: Nov2017: I heard that Itawon will be under renovation soon. Hence the location of the bars may be changed. Some pictures are credited to my travel companion
Nine Tree Hotel @ MyeondongIn the morning, we checked out off Doo guesthouse and we moved to a very nice hotel, Nine Tree Hotel. Triple room cost about SG$204 per night N Seoul TowerFirst stop, N Seoul Tower Will you choose to walk or take the cable car up the hill? Direction: We took the metro to Chungmuro (1 stop from Meyongdong station) After we exited from the station, we board the shuttle bus No. 2 (I cannot remember which Exit I took. But if I am not wrong there is signage which will direct you to the exit. The bus-stop is just a few steps away from the Metro Exit) For the shuttle bus, you will have to pay the fare either by cash or Tmoney. It will bring you near to the N Seoul Tower and you will have to climb up the hill to reach the Tower. Yes! Instead of walking, you have to climb! The slope was so steep that I was panting and perspiring when I reached the Tower!! To take the cable car, you will need to go via a different route. Up, inside the Tower, there was actually nothing much to see, just the zoom-out view of the City. Maybe the scenery will be prettier at night. With the foggy sky, I did not manage to capture a nice view. There are a few shops outside and inside of the Tower where you can purchase some souvenirs. Lunch at Cibocina After the activity we were staving hence my friends and I decided to have our lunch at the attraction. The name of the restaurant we went was Cibocina which served Italian cuisine. It is located near the cable car station The lunch cost 60,000w, about SG$25 per pax Taking The Cable CarAfter the experience of climbing up the slope, my friend and I decided that we will just take the cable car down the hill. You can buy the ticket from the ticketing machine, it cost 6,000w for one way. After that, we took an interesting lift down to the ground. Have you ever seen a lift that move in a 45 degree angle. Myeongdong kyojaFor dinner, my friends and I were brought to the restaurant by a Korean friend. This shop is located in Meyongdong shopping district. The restaurant looks so common that I think that many people will just walk passed it without noticing. From the outside, the restaurant looks common, nothing unusual. But when you walked in, you will realised how big and crowded the restaurant was! Fortunately, we managed to find a vacant table. The menu is in Korean with some images but luckily we have our Korean friend. We ordered two bowls of handmade noodle and a plate of steam dumpling. The steam dumpling were tasty. It looked like Xiao Long bao but it has no soup inside. Simple dishes yet very filling :) Note: The food reviews are my personal opinion. All of us have different preferences, What I reviewed may be differ from others. Hence, my food reviews are only for reference. Some pictures are credited to my travel companion
Nandaemun (No pictures)In the morning my friends and I went to Nandaemun to purchase some items for our family members. We did not stay long, just walked a few streets. If you did do enough research, you may have known that Nandaemun is not for youngster. But if you are looking for clothes for your parents or grandparents or souvenir for the elderly, you can consider visiting there. Who knows, maybe you may find some gems. If you do visit here, I would recommend you to buy handmade bag. The bag is made from small pieces of bright coloured cloth sewed together. Each bag is unique and I am sure it is almost zero chance that you will find the same one outside Korea. Dongdaemun (No Picture)After that we proceeded to Dongdaemun. We did not shop the whole area as we were already broke after shopping at Migliore and Hello Apm. Both buildings are like old shopping mall. Each levels are divided into category, like women, men, souvenir etc. Passion 5While I was doing my research, I came across this Cafe&Restaurant. This place is more than just a cafeteria as you can have a romantic western meal at the upper level. I also read many positive reviews about this outlet. Hence I decided that I must add this place into my itinerary! It really did not disappoint me, my friends were impressed too. By looking at the pictures, I am sure you may have already guessed the culture of the restaurant. It is about quality and exquisiteness; Luxury, ambiance and price. Till the extend that I think it is wasteful. A bottle of take away pudding and a piece of Swiss roll cake, are wrapped individually with a small frozen gel pack given to each package! Here are some of the prices of the items (pictures above) The 4 pastries total cost : 16,600w/ SG$20.75 Cappuccino: 7500w/ SG$9.40 Strawberry Cream cake: 4500w/ SG$5.60 Pudding, Orginal: 3700w/ SG$4.60 Garosugil As it is still early, after our tea cum dinner, my friends and I decided that we will go to Garosugil. We just explored the street for a while before it started to rain. Then we stopped at a bar, Cafe Des Arts to grab some drinks. Some pictures are credited to my travel companion.
On our last day, we stayed in our hotel room till check-out time as we needed time to pack our luggage.
Then we went to Gangnam and explored the place a little. Look at the picture, the place was crowded on a Friday afternoon! After that my friends spent the rest of the time in the hotel lounge while I continue to explore Myeondong before we departed to the airport. Food: Our lunch we had pork stew and cold noodle. The pork stew tasted bland. The cold noodle tasted weird (this is my first time trying it) It has an interesting taste which I cannot really describe. The obvious is the noodle is cold and tasted sour. The lunch cost about 19,000w (3pax)/ SG$7.90 per pax During my stay, I went to a bar and two clubs (on weekday) The two clubs I went were located along the road side. I did not intend to go to any club. It was a last minute decision. The club I went was Inssum and Mama at Hongdae Club: MamaI do not recommend Mama. The club is really bad. It is small. I am not sure whether the bartenders are there to work or to play. I left the place immediately when the bartender did not inform me that my order had sold out and simply gave me another drink. Club: InssumInssum is better. The music is good. The bartenders are doing their job. Entrance free: 10,000w with 1 free drink. Storage: free Did we encounter Pervert? My friends and I were on our way to the main street, heading to Iteawon.
I was walking behind my friends when I saw two guys following behind my friends. They were looking at my friends' direction and talking to themselves. I immediately called for my friends' attention. Are they stalking us? I am not sure. At the Glam Lounge, one of the guys directly asked my friend whether he can kiss her or have sex with her! O.O One of my friends and I were tipsy when we left the club, heading to the street to flag a cab. The next day, my other friend told us that that night some guys were looking at us when we walked out of the club and they seem wondering to approach us. Note: I understand such incidents do happen everywhere. My purpose for writing this post, is to remind you all to be careful. |