King Sejong’s Story

My first travel alone!!!!! Actually not really, I wandered to Ilsan alone the other day but i think this is hte first time since i moved into Sogang that I’m traveling alone. My timetable is such that my Tuesdays and Thursdays are free, so actually i planned to travel on those days. But for some reason i haven’t gotten around to actually traveling out… i always ended up nua-ing or running some other kind of errand. Just like that, 4 weeks of free Tues/Thurs have passed without me covering any ground haha.

So today i decided that since i’m going out to fetch my Alien Registration Card, i should go somewhere. So I decided to visit Gwanghwamun mainly because i had been thinking of getting a Korean novel for some time now, to read and annotate and improve my Korean sentences. There’s a huge bookshop at Gwanghwamun so i wanted to try there. And also visit the King Sejong museum in Gwanghwamun since i don’t need travel companions or whatever for museums haha.

So after getting lost for a considerable amount of time trying to find the ARC place, and after an experience with a rude staff, I finally got my ARC (which means i can now travel in and out of Korea if I want to! Prior to this my single-entry visa meant that i can’t return to Korea if i left, because i didn’t have an ARC.) and headed to Gwanghwamun.

It’s not the first time at that bookshop but it’s the first time I was looking for a book. As I walked through each section there was so much Korean it was dizzying omg, i walked about 15 min through and i have no idea what books i should get. The comics were all Japanese comics translated to Korean so i didn’t want that. Then i scooted over to the bestseller’s section but they were mostly non-fiction books or english books translated into korean. I kept seeing ‘Me Before You’ korean version so i decided i shld try to read that in English HAHA.

Well anyways, i got confused so i left without buying anything -_- i decided i wasn’t ready to tackle a book yet HAHAHAHA. So I managed to find the King Sejong museum and paid a visit!

It was a nice quiet time for myself, around 45 min of walking and just reading about Korea’s history with King Sejong and Admiral Yi. ^^

 

Short post!! Byebye

Seoul Land Theme Park and War Memorial Museum

Finally we decided to go to a theme park! The weather was getting warmer so we decided to visit Seoul Land, one of the nearer and smaller theme parks, that weekend. There’s a discount for foreigners, about 20% off, so do check the website if you’re planning to visit!

We set out really early (zzzz) with the plan of going to the zoo first, but turns out the zoo was closed due to bird flu. I didn’t even know that was ongoing.

So we headed straight to Seoul Land!!!

This was the view near Seoul Land, so pretty!!

Well honestly I have nothing much to say since it’s a theme park, and like everything is fun and you have those typical rides… anyway, the roller coasters are a bit dizzying because they’re not smooth and well most of the rides looked like they’re out to make you puke LOLOL. So i wouldn’t say it’s the best theme park, for sure Everland and Lotte World’s gonna be better. But still it’s one of the quieter theme parks i think, for a weekend, and a theme park’s still a theme park, no less.

 

One of my favorite rides because it kept hanging us upside down and tbh the whole ride i was confused about where to hold and stuff since there are railings all around us HAHAHA. It was funny because I sat with Karin and we were so confused that this ride was throwing us everywhere and we were holding on to everywhere and like lajghlkag what’s going on.

U hope i don’t sound pedophiliac but we also saw a lot of handsome young boys and beautiful young girls that looked like they would grow up to become real heartthrobs. gahhh. And there was one young boy who had really long eyelashes -___- like omg give some to us pls. Korean kids are so beautiful!! We also saw portrait families like the parents are good looking and they dress their kids very sophisticatedly with sunglasses and all and i think that entire day at Seoul Land convinced me to have kids in the future.

Moving on…

 

Favorite ride!!! Hahaha. I always loved drop rides after the one i tried at Genting, this one was pretty mild in comparison but because it was hidden in view, the queue was short or non existent and we just kept re-queueing heh. Love it! still waiting for the video from Lineatte to be published… She was scared so she stayed behind haha.

We had Western food for the first time!!! aldkgjhalkdgha the pizza was amazing and so was the pasta. Missed western food so much. I can’t believe i’m saying this since i’m a total asian food freak haha, but it’s nice to have western food once in a while.

fake leaning tower

We all went off a little earlier in the evening because we were tired from waking up so early.

So fast forward to the next day! It was a lazy day the next day where we met in the afternoon and ate my favorite soondubu jjigae at my favorite soondubu jjigae place at Sinchon. For only 6000won ($8, typical soondubu price) we were served really awesome soup, unlimited supply of eggs (the charm is in cracking the eggs personally into the soup) and unlimited side dishes and rice + dried seaweed!! Love it so much ugh.

After that while we lazed around we lazily decided to visit the War Memorial Museum. Not an amazing feat but well none of us had been there so.

Us being tourists, of course w have to do those crazy stupid imitations ahahaha.

 

Oh damn this picture turned out a little blurry oh well.

 

I honestly can’t recall much from the museum because we mostly selfie-ed our way through the museum ad didn’t cover much ground HAHAHA. anyways, it’s pretty cool still. Still worth visiting although i would recommend you try to cover more ground cuz it’s not a small museum…

-end-

 

 

Namsan and N Seoul Tower (Locks of Love)

This decision to go ‘hiking’ was kinda decided as we were having chicken and beer so i can’t promise the rationality of it all.

Regardless, on our buddies’ recommendations, we headed to ‘scale’ Namsan. I’m not going to say Namsan Mountain because Namsan means literally Nam Mountain and saying Namsan Mountain is like Nam Mountain Mountain, it’s the ATM Machine theory. Although Korean Tourism Board officially called it Namsan Mountain. Still. You know.

I admit i expected a grassier/rockier setting, i mean after all that’s the visual i get when i hear the word hiking. But well of course Namsan is a tourist spot with the N Tower gloriously standing on top of it, and one of the most visited spots for couples. So the paths were laid out superbly and i think you can just ride a bus all the way to the top but where’s the fun in that right?

The rest were a bit lazy/unwell so it was only me, Sheryl and the couple!

I’ve definitely gotten a lot more unfit since i ceased all fencing activities from last year, so the climb up was really tiring for me and i had to take lots of breaks in between. Luckily for us the weather wasn’t harsh and the climbing made it really warm and nice.

Nice sunny day for a hike!!

A lot of middle aged people, i think to them N Tower is like a warm up stroll or smth i plan to be like them when i grow old watch me i’ll be a fit ahjumma

 

Because the view was hazy so let’s focus on the branches

It took us about an hour plus, with all the stopping and selfies in between, to finally reach the top!

Attempting a selfie with the tower in the background…

The fortress could be seen from here too!

 

Not the most flattering picture of the tower but I got lazy afterwards to take out the camera again, when we rejoined the main road where buses and tourists were all flocking towards the tower mian

Upon reaching the top, outside the tower, we found the famous place where couples write messages on locks and secure the lock at the top and throw/keep the keys.

Apologize for brightness level x10 too high

I have a feeling I’ll be coming back to this place pretty soon, perhaps with my parents and most probably with the BF.

I noticed they provided a bin for people to throw their keys and as much as we all want to be romantic let’s face it Korea is still a pretty environmentally conscious country HAHAHA. I guess this kinda spoils our dreams but it’s ok i don’t have to throw my key dramatically into the sea or the mountain, throwing into a recyclable bin works too. I actually think it’s banned now to throw those keys. I read online it’s really expensive to clean up those keys.

After the couple did their cheesy stuff locking their love forever, we headed out to the front of the tower and found a booth to try hanbok for free!!

A lot of tourists were taking pictures of us as well, i hope they did so because we were a royal family kind of portrait and not a royal couple and their maids pls

palace maids Gongjus

They gave us about 10-15 min to prance around before they request that we return the clothes. Must-try for those visiting the tower for the first time~ the person in charge was a foreigner living in Korea I think, and she’s very tourist friendly 🙂

After prancing around in hanbok and drawing a lot of unnecessary tourist attention, we stripped the clothes and headed over to catch a glimpse of the performance that was going on. They ran a couple of performances over a span of around an hour!

      

We lingered around for half an hour more before heading off back down to meet the rest at Myeongdong. Stopped by a convenience store and had ice cream for the first time in this cold cold Seoul!

The whole trip took us about 5 hours, and it was a very enjoyable 5 hours~ just simple walking (lots of them tho), talking and a very affordable travel itinerary (unless you’re a couple and you purchase $12 locks) If you’re looking for some fresh air and an affordable travel, this is definitely one of the places you should head to 🙂 I recommend this along with Han River. They are in convenient locations and I think given the right travel partners, such places would bond people much better than city attractions would!

Oh yes!! This was supposed to be in the previous post but I’ll just include it here! After the whole cycling at Han River we went back to Sinchon and grabbed more chicken and beer at a nearby place! I’m giving this a special mention because I really really REALLY loved this chicken. You have no idea. I love it so much, especially the dried fried chicken @.@ and it wasn’t expensive, i paid altogether about $8 i think, drink included.

Lineatte’s iphone at the side tho *knife* *lazy to crop*

Noryangjin Fish Market and Han River

On a nice warm Saturday afternoon we decided to hop by Noryangjin Fish Market for live octopus!! Super anticipating that trip. It’s not really my first time actually, i do briefly recall having those live stuff at a Korean restaurant for a business dinner but hm I can’t remember much.

So anyway, we headed down on a nice warm afternoon together with Yonsei and Ewha kids! It was like a mass Singapore outing haha.

View from the top!

I got super freaked out looking at that huge octopus i cannot

 

These oysters were super delicious!!

After purchasing some sea cucumbers, squid, octopus and fish we headed to a restaurant. Oh yeah I haven’t explained how it works here… you first pick the fresh seafood you want from the market and purchase them, then you head over to any of the restaurants where they will prepare the food for you. You have to pay extra if you want them to cook the food for you too. We were charged about 50,000 won ($60) for service fee, I think they charge per person though, there were 11 of us. For the huge squid we got, they charged about that much too to cook the squid but oh wells we can’t really eat that raw. Everything else we ate raw though!

It was kind of the first time most of us have eaten live octopus that we’ve seen on TV so there was quite a ruckus when it was first served, tentacles squirming and head pulsing and all LOL. The tentacles were ok but the body/head that I ate was super gross, i couldn’t even swallow it LOL. It didn’t taste bad but it was really tough to chew.

I guess although it’s a little pricey it sort of evens out with all the cheap stuff we got at the market. I spent about $15+ altogether, and i think most of them came from service and cooking fees. The seafood was actually really cheap.

After that, we headed over to a nice small cosy cafe where we spent the rest of the evening playing cards. The forfeit was that day was to make really stupid faces and upload them on Facebook, so on that day Zenn Frederick and Melissa had really retarded faces as their profile pic and were competing to see who get the most likes. Haha. It was a really nice cafe, but they spoke only Korean so I guess that pushed my limits a little but that’s good ^^

By that time the temperature was about 18 degrees, so warm and comfy! We debated a little bit then decided to just head over to Han River because it was nearby, and cycle because the weather was so beautiful!

Now it’s a must to cycle at Han River! It’s just so beautiful and the air’s so fresh. Lots of couples go there to ride the tandem bike.

Really love the view that greeted us as soon as we left the train station!

  

Found the place to rent bikes! the bikes here are all so cute with pastel colors and white baskets, so much prettier than the bikes we rent at East Coast Park lol. It was only 3000 won ($5) to rent a bike for an hour!

Cycled under the bridge and had to stop to take a picture because of the beautiful colors washed on the pillars and the couples quietly enjoying their time there. This is also a scene i’ve seen often on dramas~

Han River also looks like a beautiful place to camp 🙂 Maybe in spring/summer? Spring is kinda here but chilly winter winds are stilll blowing ;(

Ihwa Mural Village

I think this is Day… 26 in Korea? Haha yep should be it.

It was a Friday and after a long tiring day at class, Sheryl invited me to join her and the Ewha girls to go Ihwa Mural Village! I’ve actually never heard of it before but I had some time to spare before I meet the Inha girls and Ting Yu for dinner so let’s go!!!!

Took us a while to find the exact location because it wasn’t that near the train station.

RANDOM NOTE: I AM UPSET BECAUSE MY CAMERA SETTINGS WERE ACCIDENTALLY SET TO THE LOWEST QUALITY POSSIBLE LIKE BY ACCIDENT LAKJDGHLAJG i always set it to L quality but it somehow switched to S3, i think because it’s touch screen so accidents like these happen, and i didn’t see it so i took the entire mural village and namsan tower in very low quality yep so i’m really sad rn sigh

Anyway! After a long walk we finally found the area and cue touristy photos

 

It was a whole bunch of stairs we had to keep climbing ogawd

Sometimes I wonder, with all the climbing i’ve been doing all around Sogang and around the city why have i not lost weight or become fitter yet sigh

oh yeah note to self: take pictures of Sogang campus. I realize I only have an overview from my room but i’d like some pictures to remember the campus in detail. Will miss it so much.

Attempting an artistic shot do not judge

*O*

This is super beautiful!!

There was this wall that an artist painted stating what do you want before you die? And if you look closely he/she wrote out the template 죽기전에나는 ________ 싶다 First phrase means “Before I die, I…” and after the blank, 싶다 means ‘want’ in Korean and well Korean being Korean all verbs are put at the end. Omg pls stop me from going on another Korean grammar lecture or rent ._.

Anyway the wall fascinated me because I was reading through some of the answers. Some answers were sad and some were funny. Someone wrote “I want to love”. And another wrote “I want another chance to live.” I really wanted to write something on that wall too, but I had no marker.

Touristy shots

We covered the place in about an hour or so? After all that climbing and stuff we finally headed back to Sinchon where we met Ting Yu and the Inha girls for dinner at this super tasty chicken stew restaurant!

That was Friday night and we headed home early to rest for the long weekend we planned ahead!

Bau House Dog Cafe

Gershwin and I were always in the talks about visiting animal cafes and the other day I had no plans until night so I asked him and the rest if they wanna go to a dog cafe (because the rest hated cats). So we decided to drop by the famous one at Hapjeong! It’s called Bau House

The place was really spacey and there were at least 20 dogs? Your entrance fee is your beverage and I had a green tea iced latte which cost about 7500 won (almost $9) which is totally okay considering the cat cafe in Singapore was $12 per hour >< A lot of people bought food to keep all the dogs around them which was sad because i had no money so i just watched the dogs lingering around those with food HAHAHA tsk

LOOK AT THIS CUTIE HI CAN I KEEP YOU

Me forcing myself on the dog so we can get a cute selfie tgt

❤ you have no idea how happy i was that i decided to bring out the 50mm lens instead~

The bad side was that the staff didn’t toilet train the dogs so they were peeing everywhere on the floors and sometimes along the ledges. The staff were prompt in cleaning up but still i guess it’s not a pleasant sight to be seeing pools of pee everywhere :<

Nevertheless it was a great trip although half the girls were kinda scared of the bigger dogs haha. Short post, sorry bout that! Honestly we really spent the day nua-ing and just watching and playing with the dogs so I guess I can’t really say anything that eventful haha.

I’d recommend it (if you don’t mind the peeing)! Visit if you’re in Korea, it’s right around Hapjeong station which is very convenient 🙂

The dog cafe trip ended early for me as i had to rush back for Korean lessons!

First trip out of Seoul: Jeonju!

The plan to visit Jeonju had been playing in my head for a while and in Singapore I had agreed with Vanessa that we can head down together. We actually agreed with Michelle too (the other mich from hanyang uni) we would go together and her friend Jennie would be joining too. But her cat fell sick on that day so the both of them remained to take the cat to the vet :<

So anyway, I met Vanessa and her mom and we took the free shutle bus to Jeonju!! It’s super convenient just google jeonju shuttle bus haha. It’s technically lottery but we all got the tickets haha. Also you had to show your passport as this bus is only for foreigners. That’s compulsory. In my situation because i gave my passport for ARC application, they made an exception yayy!!! The lady was so nice on that day 🙂

For those curious about the service: http://shuttle.dongbotravel.com/en/

You have to book in advance ASAP and they will inform you by mail if you get the ticket! It saves a lot of money and travel frustrations because they send you right to the doorstep of Jeonju tourist information centre. The bus pick-up is at Gwanghwamun, as expected, it’s like the ultimate location for all pick-ups. Our ski shuttle bus there was there too~

The bus will be near the duty free shop, do not miss it! Follow the directions given on the website and focus on your right because it’s a bit hidden from view if you don’t actively look out for it.

The service was also awesome, I didn’t actually expect anything outstanding because it was free but there was a lady who talked to us a bit about Jeonju and informed us how long the trip would take, where you can go and was willing to help anytime. Overall super happy with the service!

Shuttle bus departed at 8am and reached Jeonju abt 11am! We walked around the hanok village and took some pictures before heading over to a famous bibimbap shop to eat! After all Jeonju is famous for its Jeonju bibimbap.

The shop we chose amongst all the other bibimbap eateries

Looks soooo yummy! But too healthy lol i was whatsapping my mom and telling her this food is for her not me

We walked around the hanok village after lunch!

Jeonju streets~

I like this photo because of how the cars contrast with the architecture~

They were all sorts of places in Jeonju like guesthouses (where the SMU kids want to go over the weekend!), traditional eateries, traditional shops, cafes with very long queues which i couldn’t figure out, tea houses and so much more!

I thought for a long time about whether i want to put this picture on my blog and decided to do it.. it’s really gross looking at it UGH i think it’s some insect like idek?? pls enlighten me if you know what it is ._.

After some amount of walking we decided to head over to a shopping mall nearby where Eyebis is located at. As a lot of fans would know, Eyebis is the location of Taeyeon’s father’s spectacle shop, and more or less a must-go place for fans if they are in Korea haha.

The entire shop was just screaming Taeyeon haha, the actual store is clean and spacey but when you look closer you’d see posters everywhere and Taeyeon’s face endorsing all the products. Taeyeon’s parents also set up a ‘shrine’ at the corner of the shop for fans to visit and also for them to chat with the fans if they have time. As usual, anything KPOP-ish I’ll leave the details out since I already have a KPOP blog~

We headed back to the meeting point early so as not to miss the bus! I was really grateful for the free shuttle bus service, otherwise it would be so bothersome to go Jeonju!

Day 9 and 10: Insadong and Grocery shopping (kinda)

Yumi woke me up at 10am and we headed down to Insadong! The thing about Koreans I noticed is that the girls really love to link arms, it’s like their way of feeling less awkward or something, about 5 min after walking Yumi started to do that with me and she hardly ever let go unless she needed to in the entire trip hahahaha.

We took a bus down to Insadong and chatted a little bit about ourselves. I found out she’s an illustrator and has already started publishing her works and selling them! I told her it’s difficult to be an illustrator in Singapore haha, and we’re mostly focused on the economy side. She’s here in Seoul for a holiday, her school would start again in March. She showed me pictures of Busan beaches and told me to call her if I go Busan in summer yay! ❤

A random palace-y stuff LOLLL she was so nice she kept asking me for permission to take my pictures everywhere~

Insadong! 🙂 I heard this place is famous for all the koreanish stuff and artsy fartsy goods.

We came by this really cool ice cream thingy that looks like a J and Yumi insisted on treating me to ice cream haha! I think she treated me so much like a little sister, perhaps because she has a younger sister herself. She was like an older sister i never had otl

J ice cream!! The shop owner was cheekily blocking us from taking photos of the machine, and afterwards decided to jump in shamelessly to my photo hahaha.

Yumi unnie! 🙂

 

In the middle of Insadong streets was this place called the Ssijibang! It’s like an area of artsy home made stuff, pretty cool but i only bought like postcards cuz everything else was extremely expensive.

Halfway walking we saw THIS REALLY CUTE RABBIT NAA;LDGLAKJG the owner let us snap some pics.

AWW LOOK AT YOU  YOU LOOK CONFUSED

LOOK AT THIS BUNNY CREY

I feel bad for having eaten rabbits in Aussie

Saw this really cool place where they used recycled bottles to make clocks!

We explored every floor and eventually reached the rooftop.

we found this thingy at the rooftop, it looks like a bridge thing for couples to write their messages and tie it. Something like the lock key thing at namsan tower. Hahhaa.

And then we’re done! We walked back down and explored more things around the area before we sat down and talked a little more. She said she was meeting her primary school friends and one of them is a guy she used to like LOL and she was nervous. She waited with me for a while as I was supposed to meet Jasmine and her friends who arrived that day, and finally we parted! Will miss her so much 😦 The first korean friend and unnie i’ve made! Thank you unnie ❤ Will see ya at Busan and when you come to Singapore 😉 I told her when she come to SIngapore next year, i’ll be fluent in Korean and she will be fluent in English haha. She has only been learning english for 8 months but she’s making so much more progress than me! time to buck up!

Met Jasmine and her friends for a while and I followed them back to their dorm. Then I went home and decided to take a very long rest hahaha. The hostel had free ramyun so I ate that for dinner given I woke up kinda late from my very long rest LOL.

I told Sasha we didn’t manage to go shopping for blankets and all and she suggested we try tomorrow at Home Plus, a huge mega store at Hapjeong station. I recalled Ophi telling me about it, so I agreed and we set a time to go.

Day 10~ WOKE UP LATE LOL Sasha went partyig the night before. We had breakfast really late and took our time, and finally left the house late afternoon xD I invited Belen, another girl from Spain (?) i ferrget sorry.. Yep so we walked to Hapjeong station and found the Home Plus store easily. I LOVE Home Plus!! It’s like Tesco, Giant, etc. Finally a supermarket! We scouted the blanket areas and I managed to get a blanket for 19,900 won ($23 ish)! It was sooooo comfy and fluffy hahahha ❤ I also got a pillow for 7200 won ($8+) but it’s not the best pillow ever since it’s fluffy but it doesn’t sink in… like idk how to say this LOL but yeah it’s not the best but still it’s at a great price!

HOSTEL UPDATES

Patri who left a few days ago came back to visit at the hostel with a new Korean girl LOL. She is super nice but also a little tipsy, very amusing to watch. She thought I was Korean at first and started talking to me in Korean, then got so apologetic when she found out I wasn’t Korean. I think probably the alcohol was at work, but she was so friendly and we even exchanged numbers and she said she’ll call us out some day. OTL I think she might have woken up the next day looking at her contacts and thinking ‘who’s michelle srsly’

Met this italian guy! Also a Sogang kid, except he’s doing masters. Chatted with him for a while after Patri and his GF left, and Nisa and Sasha went out to eat together.

That’s all for today, long overdue post!

Day 5: Music Bank @ KBS Building, Apgujeong and Gangnam

Ugh wordpress deleted this post so i’m annoyed :<

Anyway… The day of Music Bank! Zenn woke up perfectly on time today LOL

We had a quick breakfast and headed over to KBS Building for the roll call! It was confusing because they said red pillar but the whole building was full of red pillars! 😦 We took about 15 min finding the elusive pillar and finally found the fan staff gathering the fans. There are different groups of fan staff for the different kpop groups, ours was for SM The Ballad.

Our numbers for Mubank!

They told us to go back in and come back in an hour’s time, so we went in to get some coffee while Shaun took a nap LOL he lived pretty far away from here so he had to wake up early 😦

What I was wearing that day :< usuallly sufficient on a normal winter day but that day was super chilly and windy.

Waiting for the delayed broadcast! :<

Finally after some wait, they gave us lightsticks and let us in!! Yay! Hearing them live was really awesome despite Taeyeon being sick and sounding a little hoarse. They professionally finished the recording in one try after just one practice and that’s kinda sucky to us tho cuz we waited that long to hear them sing twice 😦 We behaved very well and didn’t make too much noise haha. It’s kinda a rule to follow the Koreans’ culture.. sometimes international fans behave badly and that annoys the crap out of them. During the briefing the staff were also saying please stay seated, no photos, no shouting etc esp to international fans lol.

Get well soon Taeyeon!

After the music show we went to a ramen shop opposite and IT TASTED SO GOOD FOR A PACKET INSTANT RAMEN COOKED WITH NICE STUFF

❤ Ramen! This shop is apparently popular because it opens 24/7 and A LOT of artists go here to eat after recording at KBS. Autographs everywhere!

The shop opposite KBS!

After the music show we decided to go Apgujeong and Gangnam! I was excited because i was always curious of Gangnam. I was a little bit disappointed though because it as very… normal lol. Oh yes heads up, SM Entertainment building is in Apgujeong so we decided to be tourists and take touristy photos at the building.

Come to think of it i haven’t taken many photos of myself. Time for more shameless selfies!

Kaypo-ing the backyard of SM Entertainment LOL. Judging the cars and wondering which belongs to who etc

As we headed out to Gangnam area, we saw FNC Entertainment by accident lol. i think they are in charge of CN Blue?? Idk.

This is how Gangnam looks like. like i said, i was a little disappointed. It’s just pretty much a city area similar to Tokyo haha. But prolly where my parents would LOVE to stay in haha.

We went home early on Day 5 to get a good rest as Zenn needs to be up early!

HOSTEL UPDATES!

When we went home we met this girl called Lindsey from Wisconsin! She is a damn cool person haha. She was damn excited that night because she was gonna go out to party for the first time. Invited us along but we declined as Zenn needed an early night’s rest! The bunch of them together with the hostel host were going to hit some bar. She is a really cool person, like idk what other vocab to use but ‘cool’ cuz she really is. She came here knowing no Korean and decided she’d just wing it. Lol. But she picks up Korean really fast! 😀 She’s eternally cheerful, energetic and so eager that you can’t help but smile when you talk to her.

Her last name is ‘Lepak’ so i was telling her what it means in Malay and she said ‘that describes me perfectly’. (Y)

Day 4: Ilsan and KBS

Day 4 began with our first separation where Zenn went to Miasageori and I went to Ilsan. The reason we did this is because two fansigns are happening in these two places, and in order to qualify for the lottery you have to buy albums from these places, and so we both decided to purchase on each other’s behalf so we will have a chance at both the lotteries!

It was my first time traveling Korea alone and I had acutally planned to travel Ilsan while at it, but okay a lot of things happened beyond my control LOL how do I even begin…

First off, while mapping my route to Ilsan, I followed the google maps on my laptop and walked to Hapjeong station. It was about the same distance from my hostel to Hapjeong and my hostel to Hongik Univ station, so it was cool. Except the route to Hapjeong station is very quiet and filled with older people while the route to Hongik Univ is filled with young people, shops and clubs. Haha. So after a walk I found myself in the ‘main city’. Feels like the main city anyways. I got so confused at first because of where the map was leading me, and you know in Korea the buses at one side of the road would be from the opposite direction? Um ok idk how to say this… damn should have taken a photo but i was busy being cold sorreh

Okay here’s a random road i got off google. In many places, the buses will stop on their right, the roadside, like the one shown above. But in some places the bus stops are located in the middle of the road. The bus heading in our direction as seen above, would have a bus stop situated at the other side of the road – it’s a special lane only buses will enter.

It’s confusing to explain LOL i’ll try to take a picture of it soon.

SO yes, because of this, I got so confused at what google was telling me and the buses leading to places and stuff and i was like FUUUUUUUUUU. I walked around Hapjeong for a good 20 min, crossing roads here and there to try to find the right bus stop. I finally found it and it was a bus stop at the side of the road. SEe that’s the thing, in Singapore you’ll have one bus stop at the side of the road and it would likely be the only bus stop on that side of that road in the immediate vicinity. BUT in Korea, you have bus stops in the middle of the road AND the side of the road AND it could be two each. Two in the middle, two in the side, all not far off from each other, and all hosting different buses. GDI I CREYED TODAY

Anyway as I was waiting for the bus, I thought it’s weird how the google maps from my laptop that i screenshot is so different from the current google maps on my phone. So I decided to sit down and find out the address properly, and I finally located it thanks to my friend Casilda who offered to help me search via foursquare, and now my route just changed drastically. GDI google maps!!!!

So with a huge sigh i headed down the subway and took the  train to Digital Media City station. Because the map didn’t state which exit to take, I took the most obvious exit that said ‘Digital Media City’ and it was a long walk out complete with travelators and stuff, and finally i headed out into open air, only to find an ulu area. I was confused and i checked the map and they showed me a straight route so I thought okay I’ll walk there then. But the more i walk the more I realized this ‘straight route’ is impossible because i’d have to cross a huge dam and no bridge was inside. There must be something google maps has against me UGH. So I walked all the way back to the station and sat down and figured out the exit. It was in the opposite side.

So I walked all the way back through the station (wasted my money tapping in too T_T) all the way through the elevators and further up to the open space subway where i finally caught a glimpse of the pretty Digital Media City but was too frustrated and cold at that moment to take a picture. I finally breathed fresh air a few minutes later and took a picture of the nearest building to commemmorate the moment!!

Note: This is an absolutely random open space with no particular scenery focus and just purely to commemorate my fresh air moment.

The route to the bus stop was fairly easy and I finally got on the bus. FINALLY! I like the buses here in Seoul. They have those that are like Singapore’s, and those that are like couches. The couches ones are SOOOO comfy! They charge different prices though, the first bus I sat to Ilsan (2000) cost 950 won (barely a dollar) and COMFY COACH RIDE. with free wifi. The bus I sat back from Ilsan to National Assembly Station was more ex, about 1300 won (I think because of the distance and places that the bus goes to idk).

Bad picture but i was trying to be discreet.

So this bus led directly to Ilsan which is a huge relief given I spent 2 hours being lost. I walked about 15 min to the location and FINALLY located the ulu Synnara Record store. Bought one album for myself and one for Zenn and so that won us one chance each for the lottery for the fansign. Zenn bought more albums on her side for both of us, so we have plenty of chances for that lottery hopefully we get picked *crosses fingers* if you’re wondering what we’ll do with so many excess albums, we’re selling them all to our friends back in Singapore~

After that tiring experience i exited the store and tried to use my camera to take pictures of that area of Ilsan but got stopped by security and till now i’m still not sure whats the reason because i positively understood only 20% of what he said. I just know he’s talking about photography and stuff. And he chose to stay and chat with me a few more minutes which is ????? i’m sorry you’re a great person but i can’t really understand you but i have to pretend to understand but anyway yes gotta go thanks for everything!!!!! *panics*

Taken with my phone~ it was surprisingy a fiesta kind of style. Would be nice to explore here a little more, but the distance is crazy.

Remember I said I wanted to explore Ilsan, particularly the lake and park area.. unfortunately by then it was rather late, losing daylight, and i was freezing because i wore leggings and sports shoes and had my ankles exposed (do not judge my dress code, i thought it would be comfy but apparently boots are more practical in winter). So I agreed with Zenn to meet up at National Assembly Station to try to get into Music Bank (recall that M Countdown was cancelled and we really wanted to watch them live before they stop promoting this week) so basically this was our final chance to ever see them perform live 😦

We headed down and Shaun met us there too! We admired the KBS building for a while and got confused cuz we couldn’t find the notice to take a selca with and stuff. So we headed to a coffee place to relax and stay warm and chat. It was a great chat and before long it was pretty late so it’s time to head out and find out if the notice’s up, if not we go back.

We saw some people running around with cameras and stools and Zenn said it’s because Ryeowook from Super Junior is having radio today and it’s viewable to public. She wanted to drop by and help her friend snap some pictures so we headed to the radio side of KBS and found this sight LOL:

OTL i jumped up the bench to snap a few pictures for the sake of it, couldn’t see Ryeowook anyway.

After that we went back to the music side of KBS to check one last time, saw nothing and decided to leave. JUST as we were about to leave, Zenn spotted the notice!! daebak. It was pasted on a tree across the road. The elusive notice.

Took selcas, sent to the number and got confirmation for queue numbers: 23, 24, 25. They asked us to come back at 11am tomorrow (THANK GOODNESS IF IT’S ANY EARLIER I’D CREY) We’ll see if we’re able to go in tomorrow!

HOSTEL UPDATES!

So, separate section for this because our hostel is just so interesting sometimes. Haha.

Today we chatted more with Alexandra. Sweet girl. She’s actually here for Sogang grad school exchange, so she’s probably much older than us. She’s always up till about the same time as us (4am) and always wakes up late like us HAHAHAHA i think we could travel with her.

As we were outside attempting to finish the food from the night before, this guy came in with his bags and stuff, just checking in casually at about 2am LOL. We chatted with him and found out he’s from Norway and just came back from North Korea. He shared his story of his travels there for a while, super interesting to hear! The hostel hosts were gone so he was kinda stuck on the couch without a room. Luckily the host walked in at about 3am and told him his room is on another floor haha.

That’s all for today~ thanks for reading!