Seoul 2014: Day 7 (Lotte World)

27 MAY: Lotte World

                  Gangnam     

For Day 7, we decided to head down to Lotte World! They have both an indoor and outdoor theme park. The indoor rides caters more for young children while the outdoor one has more thrilling rides. 

To get there: Jamsil Line 2 - Exit 4

Lotte World (Indoor)

Lotte World Adventure

Operating Hours: 09.30 - 22.00

Admission Fee: 46000KRW for Adults

The indoor rides were mostly slow paced like the hot air balloon ride that allowed you to go one round around to get a helicopter view of the whole indoor arena. It was nice at first but you will probably get really bored halfway through the ride. 

They have staged performers for kids that were fun and entertaining, even for adults.

We were lucky to have managed to catch the indoor costume parade with many recognizable characters. The actors and actresses were all really lovely and ready to pose for your cameras. They also had short stops with simple dance moves to engage with the young children. 

Castle Passageway at Lotte World

Here's the passageway leading towards the outdoor Lotte World. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the outdoor arena. The outdoor rides are slightly more thrilling. Unfortunately, two of the more thrilling rides which were down for maintenance when I was there. 

I was disappointed with Lotte World as I expected more in terms of more fun and thrilling rides. There was also only one roller coaster which was indoor. Luckily, we managed to take it a few times before the queue became longer and longer. 

Do visit Lotte World early at around 10am as there is hardly any crowd in the morning. We managed to take most of the rides a few times because there wasn't a queue in the morning. As it becomes closer to noon, most of the rides had queues that was half an hour long.



Here's my two cents worth about Lotte World; I feel that Lotte World is more suitable if you're coming with young children as they have a lot of activities and rides suited for young children. If you're someone looking for thrilling theme park rides, I think there are other better theme park choices for you in Seoul. 

Seoul 2014: Day 6 Part II (N Seoul Tower)

26 MAY: Myeongdong

                  N Seoul Tower

After all the shopping at Myeongdong, we headed to N Seoul Tower!! The must-go tourist attraction spot. 

To get there: Myeongdong station Line 4 -Exit 3

You have to head to Seoul Tower to take a cable car to Namsam Tower. Exit from the station and use the road to the right of pacific hotel and walk 10 minutes up to the namsam cable car station. Then take the cable car to N seoul tower (3 minute cable car ride)

N Seoul  Tower (N서울타워)

Mon-Thur/Sun: 10AM-11PM

Fri/Sat: 10AM-12Midnight

You will reach the place in the image on the left to take the horizontal lift up to take the cable car. Reach before 10pm to catch the cable car.

Price for a Round Trip for the Cable Car: 8500 KRW

You'll need to queue to get on the cable car so I would recommend you to take visit N Seoul Tower on a weekday. Also if you can, leave N Seoul Tower earlier as the queue to return back here is really long after 10 to 11 pm. 

This was the queue we faced when trying to get on the cable car to return. It's longer than this as it gets later cause the queue got longer behind us. 

When you walk up the long stairs to actually reach N Seoul Tower after getting off the cable car, you will pass by this amazing tornado chips. They are seriously delicious but expensive. As you can see from the picture, it costs 5000KRW each. 

You have to try them cause they are really really nice. 

The view at Namsam Tower was breathtaking. I really loved it. You can actually get to see these amazing scenes without paying. It's at the area with the famous love locks and bent bench. 

Or, you can pay to get up to the Observatory. What you get at the Observatory is the souvenir shops and those binoculars that you have to drop 500KRW in to use. Also, as you take the lift up to the Observatory, they play pretty animation on the ceiling of the lift. 

Observatory Admission Fee: 9000KRW

Honestly speaking I wouldn't encourage you to go up to the observatory. Reason being that the brightly lit shops inside reflects light onto the glass windows looking out into the nightview. Hence, it's impossible to take pictures or even view the nightscene without seeing the reflection from the lights inside. The view is also possible to view from the love locks area as I have mentioned above. 

When I visit Seoul again, I would love to visit Namsam Tower during the morning.

For dinner, we settled with Cup Noodles from the convenience store near Banana Backpackers as we were exhausted and it was really late too.

I don't know if it was because I was famished or that the noodles was super nice. 

That's it for the day.  

Seoul 2014: Day 6 Part I (Myeongdong)

26 MAY: Myeongdong

                    N Seoul Tower

Finally! Korea's famous shopping paradise, Myeongdong (명동 쇼핑가)! 

To get there: Myeongdong Station Line 4 - Exits 5, 6, 7 & 8.

When we first exited out from the station, we met the friendly people in red (that I mentioned in this post) Since we had to settle breakfast, we asked for some recommendation and got a free map* of Myeongdong from them as well. We decided on Myeongdong Gyoza (명동교자).

*We navigated around Myeongdong with a lot of help from the free map as well as asking other people in red. 

The prices at Myeongdong or rather the whole menu is displayed at the front of the store. You can zoom in to view them. 

All of the dishes are priced at 8000 KRW. It does seem expensive, but I feel that it was worth for the quality of the food you get. 

We ordered a tray of mandu (dumplings) and a bowl of kalguksu (noodle) to share for a light breakfast. It's not bad for breakfast and we were able to avoid the lunch crowd. 

After breakfast, it's shopping time! Since it was our 6th day, we were running low on KRW. There are money exchange shops around Myeongdong that you can easily find as you walk around. Their rates are not bad and actually, higher than what we got in Singapore. 

Myeongdong Underground Shopping Centre

If shopping above ground was not enough for you, head underground! And this is where you can buy all the Kpop albums!!! The underground shopping area is similar to what you will get at the one at Dongdaemun. However, I believe that it is generally cheaper over here. 

The main priority for most tourists at Myeongdong was cosmetics and skin care besides shopping for clothes. You can check out my other more detailed post on some of my shopping in Seoul. 

Warning: if you are going to Myeongdong to buy a lot of skincare or cosmetic products, buy them last. I bought them quite early and had to lug the HUGE and many bags all around. In the end, we decided to head back to the banana backpackers to drop our shopping loot before heading back to continue shopping again. I didn't take a picture of what we had to carry, especially me because of what I bought from Laneige, but trust me, it was insanely heavy and burdensome. 

The cosmetic/skin care shops in Seoul, especially in Myeongdong is famous for giving samples even if you're just entering the shop and not buying anything. This is true to some extent but don't expect all the shops to give you samples. Also, it's quite awkward to just get the samples and leave. They usually place the samples in those small baskets and pass them to you. So yeah, imagine retrieving the samples and giving them an empty basket back. Awkward. 

However, I was really happy to get two mask samples that had Super Junior on them cause I'm a HUGE fan of them and they weren't selling those masks anymore. 

International and korean brands like Spao (Spao is not an expensive brand but Super Junior are their models and I've always wanted to visit their store) were all around Myeongdong. At the same time, there were shops that were similar to those in Ehwa and Hongdae. It's really the shopping haven. 

We decided to take a break from lugging the shopping bags and visited O'sulloc Tea House. I actually bought green tea leaves from them earlier on at Insadong but we visited them this time round to try out their cafe. 

O'sulloc Tea House

I can't remember the prices but you HAVE to try the green tea drink with the ice cream on top. Something like a root beer float but with green tea drink and ice cream instead. I usually don't fancy green tea products besides the tea itself. But this was amazing. 

The green tea roll cake was soft, moist and absolutely gorgeous. I expected the tiramisu to taste better than the roll cake but the roll cake took me by surprise. The tiramisu was nice too but the roll cake was even better. If you don't want to try both, get the roll cake.  

Seoul 2014: Day 5 Part II (Noryangjin Fish Market, Hongdae)

25 MAY: Noryangjin Fish Market

Hongdae       

At Hongdae: First stop, the Trickeye Museum!

As of now, Singapore already has it's own Trickeye Museum so I feel that you should just go for the one in Singapore. I heard that it's almost similar. But if i'm not wrong, there isn't the Ice Museum which comes together with the Trickeye Museum ticket. 

To get there: Hong-ik University Station (홍대입구역) Line 2 - Exit 9. Make your second left after exit, and then make second right after Starbucks, and walk for about two blocks. 

This is about half of the area. There's a small slide at the
back that you can play with. 

Trick Eye Museum + Ice Museum (트릭아이미술관)

Honestly, there isn't much in the Ice Museum. I went there when it was near summer so I dressed light. But it's extremely cold in the Ice Museum and they don't provide jackets for you or anything. Furthermore, you can't exit to get warm and enter again because the ticket is one-entry. It's quite small and there's just various ice sculptures things for you to take pictures with while you are freezing inside.

Next, we just roamed around the Hongdae area. Unfortunately, it started raining so we headed to the Hello Kitty Cafe* to get shelter and food. Google Maps came to help yet again. 

Interior of the Hello Kitty Cafe at Hongdae

Prices:

Fresh Cream Waffle: 2500KRW

Drinks: ~3000KRW

Tiramisu: ~6000KRW

I loved the fresh cream waffle. Normally, I don't like to eat fresh cream but theirs tasted great with the waffle. 

*The Hongdae outlet has closed based on Tripadvisor.com

Another stopover for us was StyleNanda! We found the place with help from the people in red. Not sure if I mentioned this before but there are people who wear red vests with a big 'i' who are there to help lost tourists like us. They are mostly around tourist attraction areas like Bukchon Hanok Village, Hongdae, Myeongdong, etc.

My friend and I wanted to go there for the free photobooth and not really for the clothes or makeup. Hahaha. Their clothes are relatively expensive but their makeup is really popular. Everyone who was in the shop mainly crowd around the makeup corner. 

I bought their nail polish at 4000KRW because I love painting my nails. Their nail polish is really not bad. The brush is flat and it's really easy to apply the nail polish on your nails. They have a wide range of colours available there. I recommend you to get some to try it out. 

Shopping at Hongdae means slightly higher prices compared to Ehwa but there are a lot of shops that sells things that are less common. Less common in the sense that the shops in Ehwa pretty much sells the same things but Hongdae has more variety which explains the higher prices. 

Now time for dinner!

Being a huge fan of Running Man,I wanted to try the BBQ shop that Haha opened. It used to be called Paljamakchang and Gary has another outlet at Gangnam area as well. But after renovation, it's called 401 now. 

There's no more grilled intestines like in Paljamakchang which I wanted to try so that's quite sad. But there's of course Samgyeopsal!

The menu with the prices.

There's nothing special for the samgyeopsal and all but it was a decent dinner to end the day!

Seoul 2014: Day 5 Part I (Noryangjin Fish Market, Hongdae)

25 MAY: Noryangjin Fish Market

Hongdae       

Day 5, the halfway mark for my 9-day trip!

For breakfast, we headed to Noryangjin Fish Market (노량진수산시장) ! For an absolute seafood lover like me, it was one of my most anticipated destinations. Even though seafood for breakfast in the early morning sounds insane but it was quite out of the way based on the train lines. I was quite worried about heading there because from online reviews etc, it seems like the stall holders may charge you a higher price because you're a tourist. But, it's seafood. Seafood is always worth the risk. 

How to get there: Noryangjin Station (노량진역) Line 1 - Exit 1

When you exit the station, look for this bridge. You will see a small sort of open space carpark area. The stairwell leading to the fish market will be on your left.

Walking down the stairwell, the fishy smell will be the prove that you're in the right direction.








Now for a look at the Noryangjin Fish Market that Google probably has tons of.

Noryangjin Fish Market

A closer look

Everyone sells pretty much the same kinds of seafood so it's really difficult to decide which stall to patronize. I was trying to see which ajumma seems like she isn't out to cheat my money. In the end, we patronized one stall which I unfortunately did not take a picture of. However, it was on our left and on the right of the second stairwell. The first stairwell would be the one you came down from.

They had one worker who was able to speak Chinese and he seemed really friendly (probably cause he was trying to earn our money but anyway) And he told us that everyone around here sells at around the same price which was probably true.

After his suggestions and us asking questions about the pricing of the seafood, we decided on one 'wild' 比目鱼 (Bi Mu Fish), scallops and prawns. I have no idea what specific kind of scallops and prawns we had though. Why I would mention 'wild' for the fish is because they had wild ones and farmed raised ones. Apparently or rather the obviously the wild ones would be nicer but ~15000KRW more expensive if i didn't remember wrongly.

Based on my memory,
Fish - 30000KRW - 40000KRW
Prawns - 10000 - 20000KRW
Scallops - 10000-15000KRW

I think we paid ~75000KRW in total and this is just for the seafood without the 'cooking fee'. The chinese speaking guy then brought us to this restaurant, Ttosune Restaurant (just up the staircase on their left) to get them to cook the seafood for us.

For the fish, there was three choices: Raw fish slices, Steamed or Stew. We decided on Raw fish slices for one half and steamed for the other.

For the prawns and scallop, BBQ!

If you can read Hangul, they have the prices for cooking pasted around the shop.

The shop was empty when we entered probably cause it was early in the morning. But the area was clean and spacious.

Feast your eyes on these AMAZING seafood!!

The raw fish was the definite clear champion out of the four. Even my friend who didn't like sashimi LOVED it! Eating it after dipping it in gochujang is just pure goodness! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you to try it. And don't steam the fish. The steamed fish was really disappointing. I think the stew option would be better but the raw fish is even better. We really regretted not having the raw fish slices option for the whole fish. It's super addictive. 

After eating, time to pay the bill. For the cooking fee alone, it was ~35000KRW. 

Noryangjin Fish Market definitely TOPPED my list for my next trip to Korea. You MUST come here especially if you're a seafood lover. 

Seoul 2014: Day 4 (Garden of Morning Calm, Petite France, Namiseom Island, Apgujeong)

24 MAY: Garden of Morning Calm

Petite France 

Nami Island   
Apgujeong      

For the fourth day, we headed down to the three places which I was really looking forward to.

How to get there: Cheongpyeong Station (청평역) - Exit 1

You will have to take the shuttle bus at Cheongpyeong Station to get to the three places. There are other ways of transport around but the shuttle bus is by far the cheapest. 

The shuttle bus's waiting area is here at the bottom right

You simply pay a one-time fee of 5000KRW to get to all three places. The payment is by cash to the bus uncle who will then give you a bus ticket which you have to keep and show him each time you get on to the bus. 

The shuttle bus schedule. Save the picture and zoom in as the english words are smaller.

 Depending on the timing which you board the bus, you will arrive at the different locations in different orders. For me, it was Garden of Morning Calm > Petite France > Nami Island

One thing to note is that the amount of time you get to roam around each location is exactly one hour. If you miss the bus, I think you'll have to wait another hour for the next bus.

The Garden of Morning Calm

Garden of Morning Calm is breathtakingly beautiful. I didn't manage to go there during Autumn and I went around late Spring/Early Summer and it was already amazing. I can only imagine how beautiful the place will be in Autumn with lovely red, orange Autumn leaves. I think Super Junior M Guesthouse went there during episode 3. Can't be sure but the place looked similar. 

You can see the bus on the left. That is where they will drop you off and you will have to walk a very short uphill to get to Garden of the Morning Calm

To get in to Garden of Morning Calm, you will have to purchase the tickets are priced at 8000KRW (adult)

The ticket counter will be on your right.

Now for some photos of Garden of Morning Calm!

Honestly speaking, I think that you should spend a good 2 hours there to just enjoy the scenery. One hour was really too short and we had to rush a little at the end. I don't think I managed to walk through the whole area. I would love to visit here again if given the chance.

Petite France

Running Man and You Who Came from the Stars filmed here so it is quite a popular tourist attraction. To get in, you will have to purchase the tickets priced at 8000KRW as well.

There is a shop selling churros there so you can buy some for a small bite.

It's a very surreal and cute place to walk around and there are many random posters, figurines, statues, swings to pose with. But going there once is enough for me :)

Namiseom Island

After getting off the shuttle bus, walk down the opposite direction from the restaurants there. To get to Nami Island, there are 2 choices.  By the zipline or by boat. I'm not too sure how much the zipline costs but it's definitely a lot more costly than the boat choice. The boat ticket includes the entrance fee which is 8000KRW in total for tourists. 

I don't really know if I actually walked throughout the whole of Nami Island because by then, my friends and I were all really tired. 

Overall, I definitely preferred Garden of Morning Calm the most but I would like to go back to Nami Island during Winter time. 

Dinner Time

By the time we reached back to Cheongpyeong Station, it was around 4 to 5pm. So we headed down to Apgujeong for dinner. 

How to get there: Sinsa Station (신사역) – Line 3, exit 8 (10 minute walk)

I used Google Maps yet again for both places so I don't have the exact directions there.

We had School Food for dinner as my sister recommended them to me.

We ordered other dishes such as Ramen and some japchae dish but they weren't to my liking. Their Mari on the other hand, was really good. I only tried this mari that had a layer of egg around it and it was amazing. I would go back again just for their Mari. 

School Food has other outlets around Seoul too!

Now for some desserts!

From left to right: Tiramisu, Grape, Strawberry

Deux Cremes Tart Seoul

533-11 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

The price is around 6500-8000KRW

Do note that you will have to order one item be it drinks or food for each pax. 

I strongly recommend the grape one!! Strongly Recommend. I thought that I would prefer the other two and only ordered the grape one as the waitress recommended it after we asked her which ones are popular.

With our stomachs happily filled with desserts, we decided to call it a day. 

Seoul 2014: Day 3 Part II (Samcheongdong, Insadong)

23 MAY: Gyeongbokgung

                            Bukchon Hanok Village
                Samcheongdong

     Insadong 
                      +Imun Seolnongtang

From Bukchon Hanok Village, we headed down to Samcheongdong!

Bukchon Hanok Village and Samcheongdong are quite close. I don't have the exact directions cause I used the trusty Google maps yet again. But it was simply a straight uphill walk from Bukchon Hanok Village.

Unfortunately, I've always had this impression that Samcheongdong was full of cool wall graffiti so I think I entered Samcheongdong without realising that I was in it.

The photos below are the ones I took because I simply thought that I was passing by a really pretty place. I only realised that they are pictures of Samcheongsong after watching an episode of Running Man.

Even though there is a majority of shops with more pricey items, I managed to chance upon some shops selling snapbacks, clothes etc at reasonable prices!

And this is the graffiti that the Monday Couple posed with!!! Can't believe that I went there before *0*

Anyway, one of the main reasons why I wanted to go to Samcheongdong was for the Patbingsu!

You will notice this sign on your left as you walk along Samcheongdong

Huidong's Mom (희동아 엄마다)

Seoul, Jongno-gu Sogyeok-dong 104

The price is around 13000KRW

I felt that it was a little pricey as compared to Homilbat but their red bean is really rich and lovely.

The cafe has a 'warm home' kind of environment with lots of pink around. A very cute doll-house like cafe. 

Next up, Insadong!

To get there: Anguk Station (안국역) Line 3 - Exit 6

Walk straight from the exit and you will see the entrance to the Insadong area on your left. It's really obvious so you can't miss it. There will be a tourist information booth infront of you as well. 

Insadong sells souvenirs with the local traditional flavour at reasonable prices. Most of the shops sell the same few items so you might want to visit a few shops before buying anything. There's probably only going to be 1000-2000won differences but you should save as much as you can while travelling!

The main attraction of Insadong is Ssamziegil. 

To get there:
With your back facing the information booth, walk straight down the lane. Ssamziegil will be on your right. 

The things at Ssamziegil are mostly handmade or designed by the local designers so you can expect them to be rather pricey. The design of the building makes it such that as you walk along the aisles, you automatically go up to the next level and finally to the rooftop. You don't notice that as there isn't any obvious slope as you walk.

There are some random pop-up 'photo booths' along the way up so make sure to look out for them!

Ssamziegil

After walking around Insadong, it was time for dinner and we headed to Imun Seolnongtang (

이문설농탕)!

Although it was sort of out of the way but I really wanted to try it so we still went to look for it :)

To get there: Jonggak Station Line 1 - Exit 3

I used the google maps to get there and it was unfortunately yet another complicated route. It's isolated on its own at the bottom of some old building. You'll have to spot it's sign in korean words to find it when you are near it. 

Imun Seolnongtang

Imun Seolnongtang (이문설농탕)

38-20, Ujeongguk-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul (Gyeonji-dong)

The price is 7000KRW for the most basic Seolnongtang

It was really one of the nicest food I had in Seoul. It looks plain but the soup is really super nice. The beef is even better! You have to add in the salt on your own to bring out the flavour of the soup. Maybe because it is an old restaurant, the kimchi tastes a lot better than the rest I tried too.

Seolleongtang

With that, its the end of day 2.                              

Seoul 2014: Day 3 Part I (Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon Hanok Village)

23 MAY: Gyeongbokgung

                            Bukchon Hanok Village
                Samcheongdong

     Insadong

Before heading to Gyeongbokgung, we headed to the famous Tosokchon Samgyetang (토속촌 삼계탕)

Toksokchon Samgyetang

To get there: Gyeongbokgung MRT station Exit 2.

Walk straight until you reach a cross junction with a convenience store GS25 on your left. Turn into the lane and you should see Tosokchon.

Toksokchon was honestly speaking not as amazing as i thought. Maybe it was because I had super high expectations. My friends enjoyed it but it was just okay for me. Tender chicken meet with sticky glutinous rice hidden inside. They have a small cup of ginseng for you to add in so you can adjust the amount you want to your own liking. 

From Toksokchon, we headed to Gyeongbokgung! 

To get there*: 
From Toksokchon, exit from the small lane. Facing the main road, turn left. Walk all the way straight until you see a traffic light on your right and cross over. Continue walking straight and you will see the traditional palace walls. Turn right and walk along the walls. You will see some entrance on your left. Enter and walk all the way in to reach the main entrance area of Gyeongbokgung. 

Areas you will pass by

*Sorry for the long directions

Gyeongbokgung was really pretty and a definite MUST go when you come to Seoul. Especially if you love all those ancient drama series. It was amazing to be at the same place where they filmed dramas like "The Moon that Embraces the Sun".

Some shots of the beautiful Gyeongbokgung

Next Up, Bukchon Hanok Village!

We asked the ice-cream ahjusshi on how to get there and it was rather complicated. Can't really remember it well but I'm sure the ice-cream ahjusshi will be there to help! I can only remember that you turn left when u exit from Gyeongbokgung's main entrance, then turn left again and walk all the way straight. 

Two prominent sculptures you will pas by on your way to Bukchon Hanok Village

Upon reaching Bukchon Hanok Village...

They have sort of a route for you to follow to finish the touring the whole area but we ended up walking to only one part and u-turned back unintentionally. 

Bukchon Hanok Village

Although it's a tourist attraction, there are people living there in those traditional houses so it's important to keep the noise level low. It's a beautiful place though you have to be prepared to climb a lot of uphills. 

I give Gyeongbokgung and Bukchon Hanok Village my two thumbs up!