Korea 2014 Part 2: Seoul

May 5 ~ May 6

Woke up rather early to catch our train to Seoul. We bought the tickets the previous night at Busan Station and managed to get seats.

Breakfast bento + melon milk! I love eating on trains :-)

Didn't drink banana milk because I got sick of it lol.

Our hostel was at Sinchon, which in between Hongdae and Edae I LOVE THE LOCATION. Our first stop for the day - Edae!

Street food which I didn't have enough of the previous time I was here. I tried kimmari and ddeokbokki for the first time. Love it~~~

Squinty group photo of us in Ewha.

Decided to do my hair so I went to change money...and the rates were dismal... 802 won to S$1. Ah well. Shopped and ate more street food while strolling around before rolling to Cafe Noriter!!! It was so crowded compared to the last time we were here. We played darts over drinks (sweet potato latte, green tea latte and tea) and as usual leeched the wifi.

I don't understand the kidnapped bunny...but the rest of the cafe is nice and cute and cosy~~~

喜欢这盏灯

Pretty mug~

Sweet potato latte

Street food round 2 at the same stall for kimmari before going to do my hair with Livia while Yanhong and Weilin went to shop~

Really love dyeing my hair *_* The colour is completely gone by now but hey, no black roots and uneven colour anymore! Cost 60000 won ~ S$74.35 each ^_^ We then went to Hongdae and stumbled around looking for 3CE and managed to find it!

Damage: 62400 won ~ S$77.33 

Had the always reliable and delicious Yoogane for dinner. :Q____

Loooads of people watching buskers right outside Yoogane.

We happened to walk past Club Cocoon while shopping...and made one of our famous spontaneous decision to club that night.

My favourite subway advertisement.

I lost count of the amount of alcohol we consumed. But I wrote down how much I spent LOL good job.

Cover was 20000 won ~ S$24.78. It was a public holiday that day (Children's Day) and the next day (Buddha's birthday) wtf. Drinks were 17050 won ~S$21.12. We had 2 bottles (I think???) of soju, a can of beer and two drinks in the club? I probably had kimbap. We didn't count cab fare because we partied till the sun came up and we took the train home LOL. But not before eating some delicious fried food.

May 6

Woke up for Noksapyeong and Itaewon that day~~~

We would be in the queue later, lol.

Wound up at Porchetta for a really late lunch and I had a grilled cheese and pesto sandwich.

Their ciabatta is so soft I love it T_T Where to find such pillowy breaddddd

And then we queued for both Standing Coffee and Street Churros!!!!!! I took like 20 over photos wtf.

Standing Guys making coffee

Got this pretty lemonade for 5000 won ~ S$6.20

It was so sourrrr and refreshing and it's what lemonade should taste like!!!

Blue Curaçao liqueur gave it the pretty blue green colour :P

With the 50cm churro!

Ft. Weilin's hands. Hahaha.

Livia introduced Soohyang to me and W O W the candles smell damn amazing!!!!!! I bought two medium sized ones for 30000 won ~ S$37.17. :-D And I want moreeee cuz those two aren't for meeeeee. 

Had a shock at a money changer in Nampo-dong cuz she said the rates were 860?!?!?!?!? Turns out she got it wrong it's actually 810 nabeh cheat our feelings. Nehmind.

Isn't Itaewon lovelyyyyyy~~~

We had dinner at Radio Garden (right).

Initially wanted to have dinner at this building because the interior was so unique but the waiting time was like 2 hours. :(

The side entrance is connected to a bridge of sorts overlooking diners at the basement. It was so rustic and cosy omgah Livia please go back during your exchange.

Back to our unimpressive dinner.

They have good drinks though. Alcohol hardly disappoints.

Total cost of dinner for me was 31000 won ~ S$38.41. Totes Singapore price lolol.

Went to Myeongdong briefly for some light shopping and supper. Yummy.

No we didn't club. We went back to sleep.

May 7

Had lunch at the jjimdak restaurant next to our hostel. It was yummeh.

Tried samgyetang for the first time.

Had this as a snack and it was delicious as usual.

Travelled to Sinsa-dong! First stop is Coco Bruni cafe.

Pretty cakesssss.

For some strange and infuriating reason they were blasting clubbing songs... Chill vibes totally gone.

Patbingsu~!

This is hands down the cheapest latte I've ever had that tastes damn gooood. Robust without being too bitter and none of that acidic aftertaste nonsense.

2700 won ~ S$3.35

And it's not even a cafe?! It's just a kiosk in a big ass apparel shop. We sat outside for quite some time as there were benches and swings~ I just realised we must have looked like hobos lol. Continued strolling around until we were slightly hungry.

That pork has gorgeous marbling.

Sizzle sizzle!!!

We decided to have frozen beer afterwards!

I didn't like it....I have come to the conclusion that frozen things should be sweet.

Anyway it was like 8000 won  ~ S$9.91 I think.

They didn't have fries...so calamari and mandoo it is.

It started drizzling, narbs!!! Hid at coffeesmith for a while and Weilin realised she left her bag behind at the bar :-O She got it back though no worries there and on the way back to us a man with Ken Watanabe-ish vibes shared his umbrella with her :-O :-O :-O ;-)

No we didn't club even though it's Yanhong's last night with us. O:-)

May 8 ~ May 9

Yanhong left early in the morning as she had a flight to Australia on the 9th. And we downgraded to a triple-room~ made another one of those less famous good decisions to have lunch at Seoga & Cook.

BEST CARBONARA PASTA & TOMATO RISOTTO EVERRRRRRRRRRR

The servings are gigantic by the way.

Photo from Livia: I ate everything. EVERYTHING.

Weilin went to hunt (no seriously) for her mother's ginseng stuff while Livia and I went to Insa-dong/Samcheong-dong area (Anguk Station) to experience the ~traditional~ Korea.

Ssamziegil mall!

We also made use of their photobooth.

Tourist who is not really a tourist pretending to be a tourist because the real tourist (me) made her take a touristy photo.

LOVE THEIR FLORISTS *_*

All so rustic and colourful.

Some cafe we passed by. This is how strong Korea's cafe game is.

Also walked around Bukchon Hanok Village.

While en route to our next destination, I happily squandered my money away in Daiso on memory foam shoe insoles (should have bought more), a ceramic lunchbox (it was pale yellow and so very cheap at 5000 won ~ S$6.20), legal pads (THEY WERE YELLOW AND A5 SIZE I HAD TO), labels, a single serving of spam, instant meatballs and gochujang. Total cost: 15000 won ~ S$18.58. Not too bad I think.

We rendezvoused with Weilin at a secret cafe. It had the loveliest scones, good coffee and impeccable furnishing.

Look at how tall the scone is. Look at itttt. And then look at Livia so cute hor. Check out her gigantic grapefruit juice!!!

Also, I took the empty mini jam jar (and Weilin's one too) home. :D

I don't know what I miss most; is it the scone, the coffee or the wooden table?

That day Livia brought us down a dark and shady alley for dinner...

The only tourists inside were us :-)

LOOK AT THIS DELICIOUS PLATE OF BOSSAM (steamed pork).

It is served with gamja tang, raw osyters, a lot of kimchi, some stir-fry octopus dish and other banchan. Of course we had soju to go along with this.

10350 won ~ S$12.82 each

And then we went to Cocoon where we had the best and funniest clubbing experience ever.

Pictured: CL Bomb, crazy people clubbing on Thursday, kimbap to help wash the soju down, my favourite DJ + DJ's shouting friend.

Not pictured: The madness that ensued.

Brief summary of our night.

She really shouted at them.

Quotable quote from Livia's twitter:

Weilin actually said this during dinner (after soju) but it's funny so I put it here la please have a compilation of our hilarious tweets.

Re: some of the tweets -

Random beer: Some joker tried to give Livia his beer and Livia just took it smlj luckily I saw and I think I returned the bottle to him. RULE #1 DO NOT DRINK A STRANGER'S BEER IN A CLUB.

Lemon tea: Someone from behind the DJ counter passed us cans of lemon tea. It was still sealed so my brain went "YEAH IT'S TOTES SAFE TO DRINK!!!!" I think I shouted thanks and passed it to my friends. We were really thirsty man. I use 'I think' a lot because I don't remember la okay.

Dude we got agressive with: Foreigner Dude was dancing near us for a while. I thought he took Livia's phone (he didn't), dropped my pouch when he snatched his phone back so I thought he took my i/c, we chased after him, told the very confused bouncer he took my i/c so he got searched but the bouncer found nothing. AND WE KEPT CURSING AT HIM, SWEARING, AND SHOVING HIM AROUND (fuck his life chose the wrong place and time to club) until he blurted out he dropped a pouch so I ran back and found my pouch on the floor.....................................................

If anyone happens to know this guy please let him know I'm really sorry. T_T

VIP area: Bunch of DJs actually witnessed the above situation happened so they must have thought we were some crazy-ass women (yes, yes we were). My memory of the situation is foggy but after I found my pouch we went out again and decided to ask (more like shout in their faces) about this cute DJ we saw spinning on the first night we went to Cocoon, but to no avail.

The conversation was damn chaotic because I was speaking nonsense Korean mixed with English, Weilin speaking English and Livia speaking Korean. We may or may not have been shouting a lot. Either way we made an impression cuz afterwards we got pulled into the VIP area on the way back in. Yay.

Random French people: For some reason there were a loooot of ang mohs roaming around and a group decided to talk to us??? We were walking quite briskly somemore wtf don't remember where we were going though. I remember shoving my I/C into someone's face cuz they didn't believe we aren't Korean. Anyway their French accent sounded waaay off (more like...Puerto Riccan/Spanish) and we just walked away~~~

There was also this angmoh girl who wanted to invite us to this other club on Sun but we would be back in SG by then. I think. A lot of random one-liners (see: chibal/cheebye) were exchanged. I hope we didn't sully Singapore's good name LOL.

Yeah the night was really long HAHAHA and I guess angmohs talked to us because we were talking at the top of our lungs (probably) in English and we might have been walking around being deliriously happy.

Back to regular photos which may or may not be in chronological order because I can't remember when each was taken.

At the VIP area ~~~

Livia sent us snaps which I opened in the morning - "Wr r ok"

Yeah man we sure were.

I don't know why I was laughing.

May 9 ~ May 10

Woke up pretty late and went to Daehak-ro (pronounced Daehang-no).

Seolleongtang for the hungover souls.

Some fried thing stuffed with japchae (I like) and green tea hotteok (not so nice).

Gong Cha cakes wtf. Will try next time!

Delicious looking sausagessss

And we had beef chilli cheese fries cuz craving.

This tweet says it all.

Fuck la drank so much soju I'm so sick of the soju taste now but soju is the best!!! Because it's so cheap and no puke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went looking for some chicken. Am still intrigued by this egg bread thingy. WILL TRY THIS NEXT TIME.

He looks really young.

Koreans dance weird... 

The one thing I really hate about clubs in Korea is how smoking is allowed zzzzzzz. SIBEH GROSS.

Buskers busking away at like 3 in the morning good job well done.

CUTIE PATOOTIE

He passed us cans of coke this time ^_^

Livia typed in Korean telling him it was our last night and we were flying off the next day (in a few hours actually) so could we take a photo? 

"내일 싱가포르 로가는. 시진????????"

And he looked so confused because Livia made a minor typo HAHA but anyway he got the message and asked us to come up instead because he is busy spinning LOL.

NO REGRETS

(Got semi-chased away after this LOL but we were already on the way down please)

He pouted as we waved goodbye hahaha if anyone is heading to Club Cocoon soon please say hi to him!!!!!!!!!

The Korean Clubbing Experience would not be complete without eating street food at 5am.

Cabbed back to wash up and pack and left for the airport with Weilin. :-( Sigh. Good times never last.

(Livia is still in Korea though.)

Breakfast with Weilin at Paris Baguette~

Also discovered Denise and I were taking the same flight back to KL LOL so we sort of met in Seoul. Briefly. Drama mama delays and slow service and shit at the airport (hopefully klia2 becomes better) and when we arrived in Singapore Weilin and I discovered that our luggages (along with a whole other group of people's) didn't make it back with us..................................... It was weird going back empty handed but also convenient!

AirAsia delivered the luggages back to us the next day so yay! Thank you~

I can't believe I'm done with our Korea trip. Weh. Sorry if the post wasn't informative but there's Google if you want information. This trip with da best girls ever has really been super fun. No words can express how grateful I am to have you guys with me on holiday. :') The only thing I would ask for is MORE TIME PLEASEEEEEEEEEE.

Sigh~ can I be on vacation forever???