[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 3

Today is a sunny day! Thank god the weather is getting warmer now, so i can walk around without wearing a cardigan. I went to the famous ootd photoshoot location called Common Ground nearby Konkuk University. It is a really special place wear blue containers were stacked on top of each other and cafes are built inside of the containers. It looked so cool!

Because of the unique concept, a lot of tourist visit the place and it is a nice spot to take photos. The weather was sunny today and the sun is shining bright! My photos looked pretty!

After taking photos and exploring around, I went to a nearby restaurant for some bibimbap! The restaurant's signature dishes are bibimbap and shabu but unfortunately the shabu needs to be ordered minimum 2 pax. Hence, I've ordered one 돌솟비빔밥 and 전주비빔밥, the first one comes in a hot stone pot while the latter is served in a silver bowl. Both tasted almost the same just that the latter is slightly getting colder after a few minutes. The meal costed 13,500won.

The good thing about the shop is that the lady taking order speaks Mandarin! So anybody who can't communicate in Korean at all shouldn't have any problem ordering food.

After eating, I proceed to Shinsa, a location at Gangnam. There are a lot of plastic surgery hospitals and branded shops in the area. It is normal to see people wearing mask and a hat walking around because they just had their surgery done. Nope, not scary at all.

I went to Remicone, an ice cream shop where the Song triplets went to with Song Ilkook in one of their episode of Superman Returns. The shop was so cute and it looked like a pop up store at the corner. The concept of the shop is adorable! Not to mention how delicious the ice creams were! I tried their hot selling ice cream called Thunder Bomb and a chocolate ice cream called Chocokcok 초콕콕. The chocolate ice cream tasted better than the Thunder Bomb in my opinion but the Thunder Bomb looked way prettier! It was decorate with a fluff of grey cotton candy and a small thunder shaped candy. How cute is that?

On the other hand, the Chocokcok was really chocolate-ty! There were some crushed cornflakes and chocolate rice I guess. It is really worth a try! Both coated around 6,100-6,800won. A bit pricey but it tasted really good in my opinion. Maybe that's why Daehan Minguk Manse enjoyed their ice cream so much! And even asked for a big spoonful of ice cream.

On instagram I've always seen people visiting this cafe and took really nice photos of the LED light.I wondered where the location would be inside of the cafe called Mr Holmes Bakehouse. To my surprise, it wasn't located in the cafe but outside of the cafe at the ground floor while the cafe located on the first floor. It is so nice of them to provide such beautiful backdrop for visitors to take photos. That's why it become a hit photo zone!

Oh and LINE FRIENDS cafe was there too! Finally took pictures with Browny and Sally! The branch at Myeongdong was full with people lining up to take picture but this one in Gangnam is not that crowded. And there is Sally!

There are so many cute accessories and stuffs of LINE characters selling here. Although they seemed expensive, the quality is rather good! And they all looked so cute I wanna have them all. Somebody grant my wish, please?

There are 2 ways of entering the shop. One, you walk in from the left side, straight into the shop. Two, you line up on the right side, take a photo with Browny with ten pairs of eyes staring at you, then proceed into the shop.

After exploring and walking around Shinsa, I decided to go to 'Parking in plate' at Myeongdong but sadly it was closed down. It is one of the restaurant where the Song triplets went too. No 'parking in plate' led me to 'Mom's touch'. A burger and chicken restaurant chain store I guess. The burgers tasted quite nice and the fries were good too! The set menu costed around 5000-5900won per set, comes with burger, fries and an iced beverage.

The burgers are so big I couldn't finish the whole burger. The fries on the other hand was really well seasoned! you don't have to add salt or ketchup, it is already nice like that!

Oh! Before eating the burger, I went around eating some street food too! One of them was the 4 favoured hot dog which costed 4000won. It is really really good! The store is located right at the entrance of Myeongdong where the big innisfree is located. Anybody who visits Myeongdong, please try it!

Other than the hot dog, I've also tried the red bean 뿡어빵! It was a bit oily tho. It costed 3000won per piece. There are 3 flavors, cheese, red bean and sweet potato.

Dinner was so full today. But visiting common ground made my day! Getting to taste great ice cream recommended by Daehan Minguk Manse was nice too. Walking around Myeongdong is the real torture as my feet hurts a lot from all the walking and the clothes were tempting but pricey. Going back to Ewha tomorrow and getting more clothes! Hongdae and Ewha are the best place for shopping no kidding.

Back to the Guesthouse earlier today around 9pm, wanted to get more rest for my sore feet. Couldn't clean myself until 11am because there are people who used the bathroom for more than an hour.

Didn't have freezer in my room so I had to eat up an ice cream and a pint of frozen yogurt in the middle of the night before it melts. I am freezing...

I am now ending this blog post at 1:42am.

*feel free to share the photos but please CREDIT, thank you :)*

[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 2

Today is the second day of my Korea trip! Went out a bit late today because I was too tired yesterday plus the jet lag. After dressing up, I headed to Ewha for some shopping! I didn't bring much clothes from home because I wanted to buy them here.

Ewha is famous for its beautiful clothes and cheap stuffs compared to tourist spots like Myeongdong and Gangnam because there is a women university located nearby called Ewha Women's University. Shopping girls' clothes and make up is cheaper here!

I had brunch here, at the street of Ewha. I had my favourite ddeokbokki, fish cake and egg bread! They tasted really really delicious! The egg bread costed 2000won per portion. It smelled really nice and the taste was good too. I had the ddeokbokki from the vendor just beside the egg bread vendor. I had ddeokbokki and fish cakes.

The ddeokbokki costed 3000won and the fish cake was 1000won per portion. It was drizzling when I get there so I was kinda chilly~ drinking the fish cake broth from the paper cup was so soothing! Not to mention, the ddeokbokki was marvellous, I couldn't get over how delicious the ddeokbokki here taste like. What am I gonna do when I go back to Malaysia... The ddeokbokki sauce was so good I had to dip my egg bread inside.

After having brunch, I went shopping around! I've managed to buy a long black pant that I have been eyeing on, and 2 pairs of shoes from 7centi, from a really chatty 오빠 who just made me spend a fortune on him. I've bought a pair of nude coloured high heels, and a pair of slip on shoe.

Then, I went to a cafe called 1Q84 Churro for some churros! My feet were sore from all the walking so I wanted to rest! And eat! The churro tasted okay, not really blowing my mind away, just okay. I ordered the chocolate churro. It was served on a big silver plate. The cafe was decorated creatively with a book shelves full of books. The atmosphere was really nice and comfortable.

After shopping at Ewha, I went to Myeongdong for some part 2 shopping! But before that, I went to to underground shopping centre. It wasn't that big, not much to see compared to Ewha and the clothes were slightly pricey.

At Myeongdong, I wanted to eat at Miss Lee cafe but sadly it was gone. Not sure it was renovating or moved, but it was covered up and there were skme construction going on. So, no Miss Lee cafe made me ending up again at Myeongdong Gyoza, which I have went to during my previous trip. It was delicious.

I ordered the kalguksu and gyoja. Each costed 10,000won and 8,000won. It was pricey but delicious. The crowd is always full in the restaurant that the servers would want you to pay on your table immediately after they take your order to avoid any confusion afterwards as it is hard to track customers coming in and out from the restaurant.

After that, I went to SPAO, thinking the stuffs would be cheaper than Malaysia but dear I was wrong. End up leaving SPAO empty handed. Since the LINE FRIENDS Cafe Myeongdong branch was just beside SPAO, I went it and take a look around. There were a lot of cute LINE character stuffs inside, including dessert! There is also a big big Browny in front of the shop by the main entrance. You have to line up before you can take a picture with it!

And yes! Innisfree my cushion! I went in to Innisfree and bough this really cute cushion case together with the cushion. It costed 22,000won in total. I also bought a few other products to make it 30,000 in order to get tax refund by showing my passport.

After shopping at Myeongdong, I went back to Ewha for more shopping as there were more choices and cheaper! But I guess it was a bit late because the shops were starting to close. But luckily I managed to buy some clothes.

I went home after spending 30minutes at Ewha. Before heading back to the guesthouse, I went to GS25 and CU for some snacks, instant noodles, kimbab and milk!

I am here now laying on my bed after cleaning up myself, ending this blog post at 1:00am

*feel free to share the photos but please CREDIT, thank you :)*

[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 1

Korea here i come!

Going to Korea on Kiss day is awkward but well, nothing is going to stop me from going! ACCA exam is done, now all i have to do is pack my luggage and off I fly! My flight no. to Incheon airport from KLIA 2 is my birth date (D 506). Such coincidence!

Boarding time was 12am 13th June 2016 (Mon) and the flight took off on 1:30am 14th June 2016 (Tue). The entire journey was so smooth although there were some turbulence, but the plane was steady. I ate Kimchi Duruchigi set on the plane. It was not bad I would say, it has Chicken chunks, kimchi and korean rice with black sesame. The taste was quite okay and the portion was good.

The flight took 6 hours and 20 minutes, landing at Incheon airport at around 7:45am. I had some Korean friends telling me it is very hot in Korea now especially in Seoul but no, it was kinda windy! The temperature was around 19°c in the morning and 25°c in the noon. It was a bright shiny day!

After collecting my luggage bag, I went to the convenient store in the airport, wanting to buy the T-money card. Not sure if I remembered correctly but the last time I bought it at 2,500won but now they are selling at 4,000won without credit inside. Since I was planning to buy the cute limited edition Kakaotalk T-money, I decided to go for the Mpass T-money card.

I took the airport railway from Incheon airport to the nearest subway station of my guesthouse. I am going to stay at Kimchee Guesthouse for 6 nights and 7 days. It is really really near Chungjeongno station, exit 3. Literally within 20 seconds distance.

After leaving my luggage bag at around 11am, by the time I arrive and pay for the room, I could only check-in at 3pm. So I went for lunch at 청진옥 (a restaurant where the hit Korean drama My Lovely Samsoon was filmed, but apparently the interior was different from the drama, guess it was restructured or it was a different branch). It was a bit hard finding the location as the directions given online wasn't really clear. 

I had to stop by some cute coffee shops along the way to ask for directions. The people were friendly and helpful. They even used their cashier computer to go online and find the exact location for us! Although he wasn't able to speak English, he used really simple English and body language to direct us! And yeah, we made it in one go~

It was lunch time and you can see a lot of working people coming out of the buildings, heading to restaurants for lunch

The main dish they serve at 청정옥 is the famous ox blood and vegetable soup where Koreans said is good for hangover. It is called 해장국. One portion was kinda big, costed 10,000won per portion. There are other side dishes such as Korean pancakes (전) too. We ordered 4 해장국 and one mixed pancakes (costed 20,000 won) where different flavour pancakes were served.

The ox blood and vegetable soup was better than I imagined. It doesn't taste like any other soup I had before. It was quite unique. The 아줌마 gave us big bowls of chopped spring onions to be added into the ox blood soup and kimchi radishes as side dish.

On the other hand, the pancakes came in a variety of vegetable, fish, ham and crab meat, spring onions, tofu and green pepper. It was kinda oily and expensive I would say.

After a full lunch meal, I went around walking and went in to GS25 and bought some snacks and drinks that I have always wanted to try! I bought the Korean version Coca Cola where this cute Kakaotalk character was printed on it with some cute encouraging words, 25% mango bingsu, Hershey's ice cream, Snoopy 3 set chocolate milk, 예감 chips, Banana milk and Ghana chocolate milk. There are a few stuffs still in my list ready to be cleared in days to come!

After leaving GS25, I came across a cute coffee shop right around the corner where I bought a hot coffee latte from Habana coffee, which is a cute coffee shop along the way back to the subway station.

Since we were all a bit jet-lagged, we went back to the hostel to get some rest before heading out for dinner. Around 7pm, we went to 먹쉬돈나 for some incredibly delicious rabokki! The restaurant was easy to find following directions found online, however, it was a bit far walking on feet. Nonetheless, the taste of the food really made the trip worthwhile! 

The minimum order or base for the rabokki is 2, so we ordered the seafood and budae. There are also options like cheese and bulgogi too.

Then, choose any topping and addition ingredients that you would want to add in! I chose some meat dumplings, fish cakes, hard boiled-eggs and ramyeon. We also ordered a portion of fried rice. It will be served after the rabokki is done~

The rabokki is served cooked, meaning the ingredients are cooked when it is served. They will heat it up on your table and make heat up to a boil. Then you can start digging in, while it is pipping hot! It comes with refillable side dish of yellow pickled radish 단무지.

After that, I went to Jonggak station and went to Jongro for some sweet dessert! It was a highly recommended dessert online, it is called 설빙 and it is a quite famous shaved ice 빙수 chain in Korea. I ordered the Blueberry cheese bingsu.

It was heavenly delicious! It costed 10,000 won per bingsu. The portion could be shared among 3 person. The chain was full and pack with people. They come in and out constantly and the tables are always full. The blueberry cheese bingsu is one of the hot items of theirs, along with mango cheese bingsu. There are a lot of chains around Seoul so it is easy to just drop by any of them and try the dessert out.

On the way to 설빙, there was a small accessories store in the subway. I stopped by and bought a eco canvas bag and a pink cap! I never look good in caps but this cap looked good on me! The cap costed around 6000won while the bag costed 3900won. The shop is called Lucistar at Jonggak station.

Around 10:30pm, I went back to my guesthouse, took a shower and updating all my social media sites and updating my friends and family about my first day in Korea! Now I am here, ending this blog post at 2am.

*feel free to share the photos but please CREDIT, thank you :)*