Finally getting down to blogging about my Korea trip!
It's not going to be easy because it's super image heavy (this post has around 140 images and it's only the first 2 days of my trip!).
I took 2 long hours just to finish selecting and editing the photos.
And I really want to make it as detailed as possible so that it's helpful to those who are visiting Korea and want to visit the places I did.
I have to say though,
that I don't really have specific directions to some of the places that I went to.
We happened to chance upon some of those places while we were exploring around.
If you're going to Korea soon,
remember to bring lots of warm clothes for layering!
When I was there the weather was around 12-15 degrees Celsius in the day and around 6-8 degrees Celsius at night.
When the sun is out it gets extremely warm and when the wind blows it was really chilling.
So it's best if you bring layers to adjust accordingly to the changing temperature throughout the day.
It's going to be even colder from now till Dec/Jan.
For my 4 day trip,
I brought $1200SGD for my shopping/transport/food to spend.
But we extended our trip by 2 days in the end and I had to draw another $300SGD.
Spent them all on skincare and cosmetics.
Hopefully this will give you a rough gauge on how much money to bring since this is one of the most common questions I get on my travel posts.
The most essential item to bring would be an overseas adaptor which can be used for Korea electric outlets.
We didn't think that our multi overseas adaptor would not be suitable,
so we weren't able to charge our cameras/phones for our first 2 days.
Until our friend Aloy happened to buy an adaptor for us from a roadside stall on the 3rd day and we were like 'OMG YAY'.
It was surprisingly difficult to find overseas adaptors (even in their giant Lotte mart) in Korea.
I don't know why either!
So the best would be to go prepared.
Or be prepared to survive your trip without charging your appliances.
(I don't know how to explain which kind to buy either, please google hahaha.)
Airport outfit
After a horrible 5 hour transit in KL airport, we finally arrived at the Incheon airport
The best companion through our trip, the wifi device we rented from the airport
If you're not THAT particular about being connected on the go,
you actually can just rely on free wifi from cafes etc.
There are quite a lot of places you can tap on wifi in Seoul,
so it's not a must to get the wifi device.
If you're travelling in a group,
I think it's quite worth it to rent this white little device called the Olleh Egg.
Everyone can tether their phones/ipads/laptops to this device and it's really fast!
You have to put a $200SGD deposit for this device,
and it costs around $8SGD per day if I'm not wrong.
They will deduct the cost from your deposit and refund the rest of the deposit to you when you return it.
Incheon airport is outside of Seoul so we took the Airport Express.
It's a few dollars per person and it takes you 45 minutes to get to Seoul station.
If you choose to take a cab,
it would cost you easily at least $70SGD.
Our first 2 nights were spent at a simple apartment.
The furnishings and location weren't too good so I will not be sharing it on my blog.
We stayed at Hotel Irene for the rest of our time in Seoul.
It's near Myeongdong (awesome shopping district) and a 5 minutes walk away from Cityhall station.
Pretty convenient and the hotel was really decent.
Around $170SGD per night for the deluxe room!
Definitely recommend it!
The first Korean meal we had!
Aloy brought us to this little shop which serves really good kimchi (best I've tasted on my trip!) and tender pork tucked away in a corner of Sinchon.
The bean paste soup was warm and comforting in the chilly weather too.
Absolutely missing it right now.
:(
The thing about Korean food is,
they taste really good but most of them are terribly unphotogenic.
Sad thing.
How to get to awesome kimchi and pork place:
Sinchon station exit 1
Walk straight after you exit, then turn right before you see the road.
Walk again till you see a shop called the 'Foot Shop'.
Turn right again and you're there!
Seoul's subway system is a lot easier to get around as compared to Tokyo's.
So I didn't have a hard time even when changing from line to line.
A good app to install would be 'Subway Korea'!
This app teaches you how to get from station to station and is really helpful.
Bought the Seoul Citypass so that it's more convenient for us to get around!
Per trip on the subway is 1050 won,
which makes it a really affordable mode of transport.
Went shopping at Ewha while waiting for Aloy to be done with his paper.
One of my favourite places to shop other than Myeongdong!
The entire street is filled with shops selling cosmetics, skincare and clothes.
You can find most of the common beauty brands there such as The Face Shop, Etude House, Tony Moly etc.
You can also find a Laneige outlet along Ewha too!
Shopping for clothes at Ewha is affordable too,
even though I wasn't really interested to shop for apparels this entire trip.
The only piece of clothing I bought was from Ewha,
a furry black cardigan for around $19SGD only!
:)
They don't have much summer clothings though,
mostly thick coats and knitwear for winter.
Outfit of the day:
Thick knit cardigan from The Editor's Market,
boyfriend jeans from Topshop,
sneakers from Everlast,
grey hat from FEP
The thing I love most about being overseas...
Everywhere makes a perfectly worthy backdrop for an OOTD.
Korea's famous all women university,
Ewha's Women University.
We didn't walk upclose to take a shot of it though,
we were more into shopping than anything since it was our first day!
Chanced upon this cafe called Chocolateria San Churro while taking a break from our mini shopping spree.
Regretted only ordering one person's share of churros because they were OH SO HEAVENLY GOOD.
:(((
Want this so badly right now!
The churros were the best I've tasted!
Unfortunately, I only know how to get to this place by memory.
There are quite a lot of cafes to explore along the streets of Ewha so even if you don't happen to find your way to this one,
you might go into another cafe which is just as awesome.
How to get to Ewha shopping street:
Ewha station exit 2 or 3 (these 2 exits face each other)
Walk down a very steep slope,
when you see Dunkin Donuts,
turn left and you're right there in clothes and cosmetics heaven.
We went to Hongdae in the evening of our first day because I wanted to check out Style Nanda's flagship store.
They have another store in Myeongdong's Lotte Young Plaza but products are way more limited.
I went to check it out too when I stayed at Hotel Irene but so many things were OOS!
Hongdae's outlet is more inconvenient to get to but I love that they stock in so many items there,
especially for their 3CE products.
The shops in Hongdae (and many other parts of Seoul) are all so nicely furnished and pretty that I couldn't help snapping away.
There are actually quite a few famous cafe streets in Seoul and Hongdae is one of them.
So happy that my travel companions love cafe hopping just like I do,
so I got to visit quite a few awesome ones on my trip.
Cafe Organic and Chocolate Cake,
which we got to visit eventually.
I kept wishing for myself to feel hungry constantly during the trip so that I could stuff as much good food into my tummy as possible.
Too many cafes,
too little stomach space.
:(
After a bit of walking,
we reached Style Nanda!!!
*throws confetti*
It is honestly not that easy to find.
But thankfully,
I remembered to note down the directions for you girls!
;)
They even had a cute photobooth inside their store to print out photos for their shoppers!
And best of all,
it's absolutely FREE.
Of course we had to have to go at it!
This also brings me to the saddest part of my entire trip...
I misplaced my Style Nanda purchases and had to make another trip on my third day to make my purchases again!
:(((
How to get to Style Nanda (Hongdae):
Hongik University Exit 8
Turn right after you come out from the exit and walk straight.
You'll see 6.9% plaza on your left,
turn right and cross the small street.
Walk straight and when you see a 7/11,
turn left and walk straight.
At the 4th junction, turn left and you'll see Style Nanda!
If all else fails and you cannot find your way there,
find the nearest tourist information booth and ask them!
Korean BBQ for dinner on our first night!
Sissy and I aren't really meat lovers,
so we only had this once our entire trip!
I also tried Soju for the first time in my life.
And I would never drink it again if I can.
Aloy brought us to a relatively famous place called Tosokchon which serves Ginseng Chicken Soup (aka Samgyetang).
We later read it on the flight magazine and they also recommended this same place for Ginseng Chicken Soup.
Not bad ah, Aloy!
Hahaha.
I'm not super duper fond of it but I guess that it shouldn't be a dish to miss since some of my friends have told me to give it a try when they heard that I was going to Korea.
If you're not a fan of ginseng you can still give this a try,
the ginseng flavour isn't really overwhelming.
And there are many people there so I guess I would recommend it as one of the meals you cannot miss out on when you visit Seoul for the first time!
How to get to Tosokchon:
Gyeongbokgong exit 2
Go straight and you'll walk past Baskin Robbins and Etude House.
When you see GS25 (a convenience store similar to 7/11),
turn left and tadah!
We went to explore another famous cafe street in Seoul called Samcheongdong.
Took too many pictures again because we couldn't stop marveling at the pretty buildings and shop fronts.
They had a few quaint little shops along the way as well,
which we had fun peeking into.
Anyone hiring male models?
HAHAHA.
Settled at this cafe called Jiyugaoka 8 丁目 after some walking around taking in all the sights and sounds.
Outfit of the day:
Dress from Topshop,
leather jacket from Miss Selfridge,
brown boots from Hong Kong
How to get to Samcheongdong:
Anguk station exit 1
Turn right after you come out of the station.
At Starbucks, turn right again into a small alley.
Walk for about 50m and you're on one of Seoul's nicest cafe and fashion streets!
Wanted to immerse ourselves in more cultural activities such as visiting the Gyeongbokgong.
We arrived and started queuing for entry at around 5pm.
Eventually, we found out from a Korean visitor that they will only allow us to enter at 7pm.
And so yupp,
we went back to doing some good ol' shopping.
#actyigetouristfail
#atleastwetookpictures
Myeongdong is a really good place for night shopping!
The entire street seems to bustle with life and everyone is just busy shopping.
LOL.
Had dinner at a fusion restaurant called School Food.
Awesome meal as usual!
My favourite is the Omu rice.
The carbonara toppoki is a nice change from the usual too!
Tried their street food which smells too good to resist!
And more shopping afterwards.
Bought a pair of black boots to replace my brown furry bootie wedges because they got really tough to walk in after an entire day.
From F21 for only $40SGD!
Randomly dropped in at one of the cafes on our way back to our apartment.
The tiramisu was surprisingly really yummy!
Would have tried out their hot food but they were about to close when we went so...
Next time I guess!
Such a long post and I'm not even halfway through my trip!
Will try to post part II up next week with more tips on travelling in Seoul and more interesting places I've been to!
:)
I bought quite a lot of beauty products which I've tried and really like so I will do a Monthly Beauty Favourites from this month onwards to share about those blog worthy ones!
I will also blog about beauty products I use on a regular basis,
not just those I bought in Korea!
Yay quite excited about this mini blog project!
:D
It's not going to be easy because it's super image heavy (this post has around 140 images and it's only the first 2 days of my trip!).
I took 2 long hours just to finish selecting and editing the photos.
And I really want to make it as detailed as possible so that it's helpful to those who are visiting Korea and want to visit the places I did.
I have to say though,
that I don't really have specific directions to some of the places that I went to.
We happened to chance upon some of those places while we were exploring around.
If you're going to Korea soon,
remember to bring lots of warm clothes for layering!
When I was there the weather was around 12-15 degrees Celsius in the day and around 6-8 degrees Celsius at night.
When the sun is out it gets extremely warm and when the wind blows it was really chilling.
So it's best if you bring layers to adjust accordingly to the changing temperature throughout the day.
It's going to be even colder from now till Dec/Jan.
For my 4 day trip,
I brought $1200SGD for my shopping/transport/food to spend.
But we extended our trip by 2 days in the end and I had to draw another $300SGD.
Spent them all on skincare and cosmetics.
Hopefully this will give you a rough gauge on how much money to bring since this is one of the most common questions I get on my travel posts.
The most essential item to bring would be an overseas adaptor which can be used for Korea electric outlets.
We didn't think that our multi overseas adaptor would not be suitable,
so we weren't able to charge our cameras/phones for our first 2 days.
Until our friend Aloy happened to buy an adaptor for us from a roadside stall on the 3rd day and we were like 'OMG YAY'.
It was surprisingly difficult to find overseas adaptors (even in their giant Lotte mart) in Korea.
I don't know why either!
So the best would be to go prepared.
Or be prepared to survive your trip without charging your appliances.
(I don't know how to explain which kind to buy either, please google hahaha.)
Airport outfit
After a horrible 5 hour transit in KL airport, we finally arrived at the Incheon airport
The best companion through our trip, the wifi device we rented from the airport
If you're not THAT particular about being connected on the go,
you actually can just rely on free wifi from cafes etc.
There are quite a lot of places you can tap on wifi in Seoul,
so it's not a must to get the wifi device.
If you're travelling in a group,
I think it's quite worth it to rent this white little device called the Olleh Egg.
Everyone can tether their phones/ipads/laptops to this device and it's really fast!
You have to put a $200SGD deposit for this device,
and it costs around $8SGD per day if I'm not wrong.
They will deduct the cost from your deposit and refund the rest of the deposit to you when you return it.
Incheon airport is outside of Seoul so we took the Airport Express.
It's a few dollars per person and it takes you 45 minutes to get to Seoul station.
If you choose to take a cab,
it would cost you easily at least $70SGD.
Our first 2 nights were spent at a simple apartment.
The furnishings and location weren't too good so I will not be sharing it on my blog.
We stayed at Hotel Irene for the rest of our time in Seoul.
It's near Myeongdong (awesome shopping district) and a 5 minutes walk away from Cityhall station.
Pretty convenient and the hotel was really decent.
Around $170SGD per night for the deluxe room!
Definitely recommend it!
The first Korean meal we had!
Aloy brought us to this little shop which serves really good kimchi (best I've tasted on my trip!) and tender pork tucked away in a corner of Sinchon.
The bean paste soup was warm and comforting in the chilly weather too.
Absolutely missing it right now.
:(
The thing about Korean food is,
they taste really good but most of them are terribly unphotogenic.
Sad thing.
How to get to awesome kimchi and pork place:
Sinchon station exit 1
Walk straight after you exit, then turn right before you see the road.
Walk again till you see a shop called the 'Foot Shop'.
Turn right again and you're there!
Seoul's subway system is a lot easier to get around as compared to Tokyo's.
So I didn't have a hard time even when changing from line to line.
A good app to install would be 'Subway Korea'!
This app teaches you how to get from station to station and is really helpful.
Bought the Seoul Citypass so that it's more convenient for us to get around!
Per trip on the subway is 1050 won,
which makes it a really affordable mode of transport.
Went shopping at Ewha while waiting for Aloy to be done with his paper.
One of my favourite places to shop other than Myeongdong!
The entire street is filled with shops selling cosmetics, skincare and clothes.
You can find most of the common beauty brands there such as The Face Shop, Etude House, Tony Moly etc.
You can also find a Laneige outlet along Ewha too!
Shopping for clothes at Ewha is affordable too,
even though I wasn't really interested to shop for apparels this entire trip.
The only piece of clothing I bought was from Ewha,
a furry black cardigan for around $19SGD only!
:)
They don't have much summer clothings though,
mostly thick coats and knitwear for winter.
Outfit of the day:
Thick knit cardigan from The Editor's Market,
boyfriend jeans from Topshop,
sneakers from Everlast,
grey hat from FEP
The thing I love most about being overseas...
Everywhere makes a perfectly worthy backdrop for an OOTD.
Korea's famous all women university,
Ewha's Women University.
We didn't walk upclose to take a shot of it though,
we were more into shopping than anything since it was our first day!
Chanced upon this cafe called Chocolateria San Churro while taking a break from our mini shopping spree.
Regretted only ordering one person's share of churros because they were OH SO HEAVENLY GOOD.
:(((
Want this so badly right now!
The churros were the best I've tasted!
Unfortunately, I only know how to get to this place by memory.
There are quite a lot of cafes to explore along the streets of Ewha so even if you don't happen to find your way to this one,
you might go into another cafe which is just as awesome.
How to get to Ewha shopping street:
Ewha station exit 2 or 3 (these 2 exits face each other)
Walk down a very steep slope,
when you see Dunkin Donuts,
turn left and you're right there in clothes and cosmetics heaven.
We went to Hongdae in the evening of our first day because I wanted to check out Style Nanda's flagship store.
They have another store in Myeongdong's Lotte Young Plaza but products are way more limited.
I went to check it out too when I stayed at Hotel Irene but so many things were OOS!
Hongdae's outlet is more inconvenient to get to but I love that they stock in so many items there,
especially for their 3CE products.
The shops in Hongdae (and many other parts of Seoul) are all so nicely furnished and pretty that I couldn't help snapping away.
There are actually quite a few famous cafe streets in Seoul and Hongdae is one of them.
So happy that my travel companions love cafe hopping just like I do,
so I got to visit quite a few awesome ones on my trip.
Cafe Organic and Chocolate Cake,
which we got to visit eventually.
I kept wishing for myself to feel hungry constantly during the trip so that I could stuff as much good food into my tummy as possible.
Too many cafes,
too little stomach space.
:(
After a bit of walking,
we reached Style Nanda!!!
*throws confetti*
It is honestly not that easy to find.
But thankfully,
I remembered to note down the directions for you girls!
;)
They even had a cute photobooth inside their store to print out photos for their shoppers!
And best of all,
it's absolutely FREE.
Of course we had to have to go at it!
This also brings me to the saddest part of my entire trip...
I misplaced my Style Nanda purchases and had to make another trip on my third day to make my purchases again!
:(((
How to get to Style Nanda (Hongdae):
Hongik University Exit 8
Turn right after you come out from the exit and walk straight.
You'll see 6.9% plaza on your left,
turn right and cross the small street.
Walk straight and when you see a 7/11,
turn left and walk straight.
At the 4th junction, turn left and you'll see Style Nanda!
If all else fails and you cannot find your way there,
find the nearest tourist information booth and ask them!
Korean BBQ for dinner on our first night!
Sissy and I aren't really meat lovers,
so we only had this once our entire trip!
I also tried Soju for the first time in my life.
And I would never drink it again if I can.
Aloy brought us to a relatively famous place called Tosokchon which serves Ginseng Chicken Soup (aka Samgyetang).
We later read it on the flight magazine and they also recommended this same place for Ginseng Chicken Soup.
Not bad ah, Aloy!
Hahaha.
I'm not super duper fond of it but I guess that it shouldn't be a dish to miss since some of my friends have told me to give it a try when they heard that I was going to Korea.
If you're not a fan of ginseng you can still give this a try,
the ginseng flavour isn't really overwhelming.
And there are many people there so I guess I would recommend it as one of the meals you cannot miss out on when you visit Seoul for the first time!
How to get to Tosokchon:
Gyeongbokgong exit 2
Go straight and you'll walk past Baskin Robbins and Etude House.
When you see GS25 (a convenience store similar to 7/11),
turn left and tadah!
We went to explore another famous cafe street in Seoul called Samcheongdong.
Took too many pictures again because we couldn't stop marveling at the pretty buildings and shop fronts.
They had a few quaint little shops along the way as well,
which we had fun peeking into.
Anyone hiring male models?
HAHAHA.
Settled at this cafe called Jiyugaoka 8 丁目 after some walking around taking in all the sights and sounds.
Outfit of the day:
Dress from Topshop,
leather jacket from Miss Selfridge,
brown boots from Hong Kong
How to get to Samcheongdong:
Anguk station exit 1
Turn right after you come out of the station.
At Starbucks, turn right again into a small alley.
Walk for about 50m and you're on one of Seoul's nicest cafe and fashion streets!
Wanted to immerse ourselves in more cultural activities such as visiting the Gyeongbokgong.
We arrived and started queuing for entry at around 5pm.
Eventually, we found out from a Korean visitor that they will only allow us to enter at 7pm.
And so yupp,
we went back to doing some good ol' shopping.
#actyigetouristfail
#atleastwetookpictures
Myeongdong is a really good place for night shopping!
The entire street seems to bustle with life and everyone is just busy shopping.
LOL.
Had dinner at a fusion restaurant called School Food.
Awesome meal as usual!
My favourite is the Omu rice.
The carbonara toppoki is a nice change from the usual too!
Tried their street food which smells too good to resist!
And more shopping afterwards.
Bought a pair of black boots to replace my brown furry bootie wedges because they got really tough to walk in after an entire day.
From F21 for only $40SGD!
Randomly dropped in at one of the cafes on our way back to our apartment.
The tiramisu was surprisingly really yummy!
Would have tried out their hot food but they were about to close when we went so...
Next time I guess!
Such a long post and I'm not even halfway through my trip!
Will try to post part II up next week with more tips on travelling in Seoul and more interesting places I've been to!
:)
I bought quite a lot of beauty products which I've tried and really like so I will do a Monthly Beauty Favourites from this month onwards to share about those blog worthy ones!
I will also blog about beauty products I use on a regular basis,
not just those I bought in Korea!
Yay quite excited about this mini blog project!
:D
