Busan D2: Gamcheon Cultural Village, Jagalchi Market, Nampodong

Gamcheon Cultural Village 

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Started Day 2 of Busan with Gamcheon Cultural Village~~ It was a rainy morning bleh. We took a cab from Haeundae because it was  much cheaper that way than to take a bus.

 

The beauty of this cultural village is the amount of cafes and eateries available there that have amazing views of the whole village. After walking for a bit we decided we should go into one and relax a little bit.

The cafe we chose had a terrace roof with a gorgeous view of the village!

 

View from the cafe~

Note to self: fix those black hair roots

our little photoshoot lmao

I left my umbrella in the cab earlier on (UGH) and it started raining pretty badly so we decided to evacuate the village early and head on to our next destination for lunch – Jagalchi Market!

Jagalchi Market

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I’ve been to Noryangjin so Jagalchi wasn’t anything new to me, but Zenn was reallllly craving seafood and it was the first time for Henry and Marion.

Jagalchi on a rainy day!

They look closed but they’re not~

D:

Eventually we were dragged in by an ahjumma into her shop ahha. We wanted to order the seafood platter but she didn’t really recommend it. I couldn’t catch why because ahjumma’s Korean + busan accent + fast speaking = ?? but i got that it wasn’t recommended so we just ordered grilled fish platter. in the picture there were prawns as well but obviously didn’t turn out to be the case…

They had grilled fish platter, fish assortment, abalone and seafood platter etc. I think actually the octopus looked really reallyr eally good from other tables, regret not ordering that :X

Yummy fish!

There were many types of fish but we didn’t really know the difference, though we can taste the difference. These cost 40,000 won for a large size and it was wayyyy more than enough for all of us. It’s difficult to eat fish without getting a bit sick of it, so honestly the 30,000 won one would be enough for the four of us haha.

We also wanted to order some abalones so we asked for the price. It’s kinda difficult to gauge by menu because they just state the prize and ‘size’, when we asked the ahjumma she explained how much it was depending on the size of the abalone, and off her head she just quoted us 30,000 won for four large pieces. The small ones were cheap but really tiny.

We asked for half grilled and half sashimi raw.

These were the grilled parts of the abalone. She sliced up a part from each abalone and served them raw.

Random perfectly de-boned fish’s bones

After a good hearty meal, we headed off again in the drizzle to drop by Nampodong because it was literally next to Jagalchi, walkable. Via subway it’s also just one stop away.

It was raining really annoyingly and Henry & Marion needed to head back to the terminal to catch their buses. We sent them to the subway and I was contemplating if I should visit the Yongdusan Park. But because i had no umbrella then and didn’t want to buy the overpriced ugly ones there, i ended up going back to the hostel with Zenn…

And she slept while I skyped the BF. Lol.

Then again, Busan had a more vacation feel rather than the road trip feel i felt for the ones i went with Sheryl. So i guess that’s okay. Just chill.

We grabbed dinner (more gukbab) and had patbingsoo as would anyone in Korea during summer. Haha. Idek how many times i’ve eaten patbingsoo from winter to summer. It’s my favorite dessert in the world now.

More gukbab! This time beef one.

Patbingsoo at Wicked Snow

I have to say this though. The patbingsoo at Wicked Snow was outrageous, in a bad way. It was horrible. The shaved ice weren’t smooth like the others i’ve tried. I’ve tried Seolbing, Homilbat, 팥미옥, Pod Pod Pod… Wicked Snow was by far the worst. The red bean was sweet but obviously from the can… or not fresh. The ice was horrid and tasteless (usually they add milk). The mochis as you see above, were pathetic. Compared to the one at Seolbing (and i didn’t even like Seolbing THAT much), this was horrendous.

I guess I would give it the benefit of doubt, though, because it has chains everywhere. So maybe this store is just the bad one. I really don’t know. But it explains why it was quiet when every other place was bustling with people.

Meh.

Anyway, that is all for D2! 🙂 If you’re looking to go Busan book bus tickets early because they sell out fast (you can’t reserve online on kobus unless you have a Korean credit card. Directly buy tickets from the bus terminal).

Busan D1: Read here!
Busan Accommodation: Read here!

Crashing at Amber’s place (4-days mass update~)

Personal mass update! Long story short, the goshiwon ditched me so i was forced to find accommodation elsewhere. 😦 That’s the thing bout Goshiwons, never be totally certain even when you’ve paid your deposit. Unless you book it really early and can claim priority over everyone else. For me, because i was supposed to take over a tenant, that tenant had priority. She extended her stay nad i was kicked out. UGH. Because I was kinda bitter that i have to spend more now on a guesthouse (the goshiwon was as cheap as about 11,000 won per night, less than $15), i ended up asking Amber if i could crash at her place for four days until i go busan, and then check into my new accommodation at MORI Guesthouse. She said okay thankfully! So for the next couple of days I crashed at Amber’s house. It was great fun although we weren’t together most of the time. It’s nice to stay in a proper Korean apartment for a while, be in a residential area and stay with a great friend who always has stories to tell about her life xD SHe lived in Bongcheon which is in between Gangnam and Sinchon, along the green line. Because Amber was out with her new 썸 ‘SOME’ (a korean term for a guy you’re seeing but not dating officially.. at least not yet), I met Sheryl for one last dinner before she goes back to Singapore. It was good to be back in Korea after being in Japan not understanding a single word 😦 Figured if i was going to crash at Amber’s place, i should get my own groceries right??

Milk and a bunch of bread for the next 4 days breakfast! Ultimate budget~~

At least i didn’t live on bread and water. Had a good loooooooong rest that night and woke up in the afternoon of Wednesday. Haha. Amber was busy with her work and i had nothing on till night time where i was due to meet Jinho oppa and Sooyoung unnie, two koreans i met while on language exchange. Crashed at Coffeenie nearby for a couple of hours before meeting the oppa/unnir. It was kinda in an ulu location near their uni haha. They brought Zenn and I to eat galguksu (soup noodles) with kimchi, pork and tofu. Haha. Together with makegeolli (rice wine)!! 😀 Sooo delicious!   Chatted for a bit in Korean and then we moved to another pub for more drinks. Well I can’t dirnk lots so we ended up ordering fruit soju! First time for me as well! 😀 Seriously i’m leaving Korea with no regrets about what i iddn’t try and stuff xD

Strawberry soju! Delicious`

Fruit Soju with… erm not sure what that was that they ordered, it was a chicken dish with rice balls. Super duper yummy!

I become really oblivious when I go out with Koreans haha. Because usually with Singaporeans I feel obliged to be the one ordering, the one talking to the staff etc, the one who should know more. Maybe because i’m more familiar with the language, so i always feel that obligation/responsibility even when nobody actually held me responsible haha. But with Koreans i’m like yay locals i can sit back and not have to worry about communicating effectively. Haha. Thus it also makes me kinda oblivious to the stuff that they order which is bad because i hate not remembering what i ate or drank 😦 Thank you unnie and oppa for the great food and company and helping us with our Korean all the time! 🙂 Thank you for not speaking any slower or treating us as any less competent than another local Korean. We don’t always get what you say 100% of the time, but we catch most of it and we’re grateful that even though we may not be able to reply as fluently, we feel like we’re truly locals when we’re with you guys!! ❤ And thanks for always taking care of us and treating us like real dongsaengs hahaha. Thursday was another late-waking up day. What’s new haha! Had dinner plans with the rest for a final farewell to Sheryl, but had nothing to do. Ended up contacting Sheryl and Zenn beforehand to see if they wanna go Hyehwa with me! Went with Zenn in the end and settled down at Waffle Lui. We met the rest for dinner at a BBQ place that sheryl recommended, called 구이미소 which I THINK literally translates to ‘grill smile’ hahahaha. I admire Sheryl honestly because of the entire group, she has the least knowledge of Korean, not being able to read or understand anything except the basic ‘thank you’ and her favorite foods. But she’s always the most adventurous and the one who ends up discovering the most places and eating the best things, because she’s always ready to get out there against her comfort zone 🙂

Tsk these kids

Love how they provide this space to put our bags!

Sheryl doesn’t like pork so for our table we ordered beef!

Yumz 😀

The bean paste stew was only 1000 won and was VERY DELICIOUS D: i don’t know why i don’t have a picture of it tbh. After that of course because it’s summer, it’s Patbingsoo time!!!! Usually our favorite hangout place is at Homilbat, but because Sheryl prefers the nut based patbingsoo (err i forgot what it’s called rn but if i recall i’ll update), we went to 팥미옥 (Pat Mi Ok) 100% Red Bean Handmade. Hahahahaha. Homilbat sells only fruit bingsoo, milk, coffee and green tea.

haha these kids so cute

Mango based and nut based!

Chatted for a very long time and selfied a lot too. Awesome last time spent for Sheryl 🙂 On Friday i had nothing much to do again so went to Express bus terminal to buy our tickets to Busan, and then went back to that same cafe! Did some work for my dad and nua-ed around fo a bit and then went back to pack and rest because it was busan the next day! Random but i wanna post a picture of the ramyun i ate at Express Bus Terminal. The ramyuns they sell at restaurants over here are freaking amazing. Can’t compare to the packet Korean ramyuns we eat. I need to know the brand D: And then on to Busan 😀 Can’t wait to blog about Busan!!

[Food] Korean Dessert Cafe @ Edae

Nope. Not recommending this.

I heard this was a popular place amongst Koreans for patbingsoo, but just… #no for me. I guess it’s more of a personal preference? So I’m still going to write about it haha.

We ordered their patbingsoo (the first one on the menu) and well kinda regretted it. It did come out nicely and the first few bites were super delicious. However at the end it was just shaved ice, and the ice didn’t have any milk or were shaved as nicely as the ones in Homilbat. I think it was our mistake though, the ice cream one looked delicious. I wouldn’t recommend the original patbingsoo.

The mochis hidden in there though, were super super delicious! It was a nice bowl of patbingsoo but it got tasteless at the end because the topping was insufficient and the ice had no or little milk.

 

It was however a good place to relax and just talk. It’s also pretty huge, two storeys, compared to Homilbat.

How to get to Korean Dessert Cafe: Head straight from Ewha Womans University station exit 3. After passing the first right street lane, you’ll see the store on the second floor. The banner isn’t obvious so you gotta watch out.

 

 

[Food] Homilbat @ Sinchon

Not really food, but more dessert haha but i’ll lump them in the same category.

So this is actually my second visit to the famous Homilbat patbingsoo. I went for this one with Hyunkyu, a Korean guy i met at a tutoring session, and his girlfriend.

The patbingsoo we ate that day!

They sell a couple of types of Patbingsoo, from milk and fruits to green tea. The most popular ones I’ve seen seem to be the strawberry and green tea ones ^^

Though it doesn’t seem that way here, the place is always crowded and occasionally you may have to wait for a seat.

This picture was actually taken when I went there with my parents! They really liked the place and constantly thought about bringing it to Indonesia and whether or not it will sell well there.

This was with my parents. I still like the strawberry and the fruits patbingsoo the most~~

Getting to Homilbat: From Sinchon exit 3, walk on until you see the main junction. On your left would be Uplex (It’s linked to the subway so you can exit from here too). Turn right on that main junction and walk all the way straight until you reach a T-junction. Turn right and continue walking, you will see a Mega Box building on the other side of the road. Keep a look out, Homilbat will be on your right.