Seoul Part 2

It's Day Two in Seoul! We spent the most part of Day One exploring Myeongdong so we are going to visit some new places today. However, we still started our day at Myeongdong at BONJUK (본죽), a porridge franchise restaurant. We were initially looking for MIGABON porridge (another popular porridge restaurant recommended by many) but we decided to give BONJUK a try, as we were thinking 'How different can a bowl of porridge be?'

BONJUK (본죽)
You can find this restaurant easily; come out from Exit 8, turn left and left again at the first intersection. Walk straight and look out for the restaurant on the second floor. We ordered the Chicken Abalone Porridge and also the Seaweed Scallop Mushroom Porridge. Each bowl of porridge costs about 12 SGD, which is extremely expensive!





Hmm. For me personally, the porridge wasn't really fantastic; the porridge was less watery than our Singapore-style porridge and it felt like...bland Risotto? Well, I'm not a porridge-lover to begin with so I could be a little biased here. But I guess no harm trying if you would like to opt for a healthier breakfast? :P





The sign and the store (:

After the porridge, we were feeling lazy and we walked aimlessly around Myeongdong, and made our obligatory visits to ZARA, Forever 21 etc. The streets were lined with cosmetic shops such as Nature Republic, Etude House, Faceshop, Skinfood etc and the products are much cheaper than in Singapore!



As promised, I took a picture of my cosmetic hauls! Gave away most of my masks already. As you can see, I didn't really buy a lot but I did get 5 lipsticks! Well, kind of regretted not buying more...! At that time, I felt that it would be more worthwhile to spend all my money on clothes! I know most of the girls will probably go crazy in these cosmetic stores and would have bought more in an hour than what I bought for 1 week!

P.S. Bought the Pearl Aura Brightening lotion from Etude House and can't wait to use it and share with you guys! Its highly raved in Korea right now.

And as usual, we can't walk for very long and we decided to take a short coffee break at Caffe Bene, also at Myeongdong.

Caffe Bene is a coffeehouse chain based in Seoul; you can see them almost everywhere!

The photos say everything about this cafe. It is a perfect place to chill out. Totally love the serene environment where you can have a quiet time to do some work too.

After resting at the cafe for about 1.5 hours, we decided to head to Ewha Women's University to explore the campus!

Directions: Ewha Women's University subway station, exit 2/3. Walk straight and you will see a lot of stores on both sides of the street. The university is at the end of the street!

The school is just so AMAZ-ING. Everything about this schools just spells pretty and I was saying that I wouldn't mind going to school everyday if my school were to be like this. NTU and Ewha - totally incomparable! How can Ewha be a school! Every corner in the school is so ootd-friendly :P

Time for some shopping in Ewha!

It is a huge shopping area surrounded by many boutiques selling clothes and a lot of shoes! So if you are shopping for shoes, this should be the place you are heading. Nothing much for clothes; I bought only a few basic cotton tops @ only $6-10 each? The basics here are definitely cheaper than the other areas since it is catered mainly for the students.

After spending close to 1.5 hours at the university, we decided to head nearby for an early dinner. We did a quick search online, asked the local students for directions and ended up at this fantastic Jjimdak (Braised Chicken with Korean vermicelli) restaurant 'Ewha Andong Jjimdak'.

It's a little difficult to locate this restaurant and I'll provide the directions at the end of this post. We ordered their famous Jjimdak (for two) and rice. We paid a little bit more for boneless chicken and it was delicious!

The chicken was tender and well-marinated; the vermicelli (dong-fen) was very chewy (很有口感) and goes perfectly well with the chicken.



This is the shop! I swear this is the BEST Jjimdak I have eaten so far in Seoul. The other Jjimdak that most people are raving- Yeolbong Jjimdak, cannot be compared to this.

Directions:
Line 2 at Edae station, exit #2. Go straight down and turn left on the fifth alley where you see 'Olive Young' store.Hope you all are able to find it!

Will be blogging on Part 3 soon :P

xoxo

Seoul Part 1

Annyeong Haseyo~ That's probably the only thing I know how to say in Korean. I should start writing on my Seoul trip while the memories are still fresh :P

The last I went to Korea for a holiday was when I was 12. So, I was very excited for this trip as I had no idea how is it like in Korea now; it would be a 'fresh' trip for me!

To start off, I took Korean Air and I must say that I was very impressed by the overall experience! The air stewardesses were friendly and offered great service and the in-flight meals were quite tasty. Most importantly, as I had a fear of flying (or more specifically, fear of take-offs!), both flights on Korean Air were extremely smooth; did not have the 'falling' feeling which freaks me out. If you're off to Korea, I will definitely recommend Korean Air. While the airfare is more expensive than the Scoot (to Seoul via Taipei), the comfort that it offers, for a 6 hour flight, makes it worthwhile.

After a smooth and sleepy flight, we arrived at Incheon Int' Airport on early Sunday morning. I was still feeling quite tired and after 'sleepwalking' through immigration, we chanced upon a huge Samsung TV which was broadcasting the ENGLAND vs. ITALY World Cup match live! So we decided to buy ourselves a latte, sit down and watch the match. England was disappointing but overall, the match was quite exciting. After, we rented a portable wifi device (egg) from the SK Telecom counter a the airport. In retrospect, I would not have rented it from the airport, as I am going to find out that my Guesthouse rents it out at a much cheaper price ($6 SGD!). So you might want to check if your guesthouses or hotels rent out these wifi devices. So, I rented the device for $10SGD/day. Next, I took a bus (number 6015) to Namsam Guesthouse, in Myeongdong.

For you guys staying around Myeongdong, there is a bus 6015 (located outside the arrival hall) which stops at Exit 10, Myeongdong Subway Station (just in front of Sejong Hotel). The bus frequency is around every 20 minutes and it costs 10'000 KRW (around $ 12 SGD). The last bus leaves at around 10.45pm so if you're arriving at night, you can check out the AREX (Airport Express Subway) which stops at Seoul Station.

We reached Namsan Guesthouse at 10am but we could not check in yet (was itching for a shower). We decided to do go over to the shopping streets of Myeongdong to have an early lunch.


And we ended up at YOOGANE :D, for out first meal in Seoul.



Prices are so much cheaper than SG!!



Free flow of side dishes :)





We ordered the Marinated Chicken Galbi fried rice. So after ordering, you just have to put on an apron and watch the waiter cook the food for you :P Also take note that YOOGANE (and many restaurants in fact) do not allow sharing. For 2 persons, we had to order 2 portions.



Empty Yoogane, don't even have to queue :P

There are 2 outlets in Myeongdong and it is very easy to spot them. The more convenient one to locate (Branch 2) is located near exit 8. After walking out of Exit 8, turn left and walk straight for about 500m. It is 'un-missable'.

BUT, I would recommend you to visit the Yoogane outlet at Gangnam because they have a special add-on menu which includes this seafood pancake that you have to eat!!



OMNOMNOM. Not every outlet serves this seafood pancake but the Gangnam outlet I went to has it. I visited YOOGANE in Gangnam for a second time (a few days later), because it was so delicious. The pancake was quite big, enough for 4 persons to share and it costs about $10 SG. It's actually one of the cheaper pancakes we have eaten in Seoul; I was surprised to find that pancakes can cost more than $20 in restaurants.





Psssttt, top is an upcoming item on The Wallflower Shop ;)

Shopping along the streets in Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a heaven for cosmetic lovers!! Although my cosmetic can last me like super long ( 1.5 years to finish a tube of BB cream, blusher etc... ), I still go crazy there!! Everything (skinfood, innisfree, etude house, face shop) is so cheap!! Prices can be like 3 times cheaper than in SG!

Everyone seems to be buying face masks when they head to korea but I bought like only 10 pieces? I was more into their lip gloss and I regretted not buying more D:

Shall post a picture of my hauls in the next part of my blog since I have not really unpacked my luggage yet :P

There's a gyoza store at Myeongdong which is a MUST TRY! I went back twice for their yummy gyoza!!





Their Gyoza noodle which is so so yummy!!



Tried this cold soybean noodle during my second time there because on my first trip, I saw the table beside me ordering this and it looks so tempting. I could say this is quite a special dish!

Directions to this Gyoza restaurant:

•Take Exit 8, turn to left and keep walking for 3-5 minutes. Shop is on the right.

Note: All the shops in Seoul are mostly in korean and it's very difficult to spot so you must really pay attention or take a look at their menu :)

Will try to write on part 2 soon :D
P.S. You can find my ig posts on seoul by searching for #katexseoul

xx