South Korea: Seoul - N Seoul Tower

If you read my previous post, i suggest to make N Seoul Tower after your MyeongDong shopping schedule, because this is not far away from MyeongDong, in fact you have to stop in MyeongDong station to get to here. 

And visit the tower in night time you got free laser show. The laser show start up after sunset, every hour after 8pm to 11pm in the summer, 7pm to 10pm in winter, the show last for 10 minute. This is absolutely free and its worth to stop 10 minutes for the show. 

                                     

Plus the night view from the highest peak in Seoul City is so beautiful. 

Taken from the platform, not the top floor of the tower. 

So why not make this place to be the end of the day?

Alright the information coming up. 

Although i have to be honest, i didn't hold too much information about the tower. 

I mean i did, but now i no. I lost the ticket and i couldn't remember the direction very well. 

Alright to go to N Seoul Tower from MyeongDong station, you got 2 ways:
1. Walk to the cable car escalator station, and take cable car to the peak.
2. Walk from the MyeongDong street to cable car station, and take cable car to the peak. 

Alternatively, you can actually take bus from some station to the peak, but i didn't have the detail infor because i aim for cable car hahahhaha.

However, I actually wanted to do way no. 1, but i lost my direction and eventually we did way no. 2, which way for almost half hour to reach the cable car station.

A lot of stair, a lot!

Well, luckily that is in cold night time, if its in hot noon time i will be killed. 

Also, if you walk all the way up to cable car, you don't need to Q for an hour the escalator, like the other tourist do. hehe. 

You need to get ticket for the cable car, if not mistake return ticket for adult is 6300kw (equal to bout RM20). 

Our cable car ticket!

View from cable car. 

Very steep actually. 

KEEP YOUR TICKET FOR RETURN OR YOU HAVE TO WALK DOWN WHILE YOUR FRIENDS ARE TAKING CABLE CARRRRRRRRRRR!

Reach the other end of the cable car station, you need to walk a little stair up to the peak, but the tower is not far away by that time. 

walk 5 minutes from the cable car end station.

And the laser show just begin

We reached on the right time, when the laser show started, as you can see on the video on the beginning of this post.

If you're not the fans of these, now you can take your move to see around, like the countless and colorful lock around the platform.

Love lock

From the world wide couple

CBF lots of lock

Nice view. 

There is a tradition in Korea, couple who lock a lock in some place (i believe original is on the cliff of Jeju), and throw the key away, their love can last forever.

But i never knew N-Seoul Tower offer the place for locks from the world wide until i did the research.

For couple who wish to leave your love lock here: 

BRING YOUR OWN LOCK SO YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY A OVERCHARGE LOCKS FROM THE SHOP HERE!!!

of course, with your name written on it la, don't think any shop will lend you a marker pen for free in any corner of Seoul.

And please remember...

What is free in the tower:
1. Cable car escalator
2. Laser show at night
3. Love lock locked on the fence that provided. 

What is not free in the tower:
1. Cable car
2. Teddy bear museum (yes, another teddy bear museum in the tower)
3. Restaurant and cafe (of course la)
4. Go in to the tower. 

Yes, you have to pay if you wanna go in to the tower, except the lower ground floor aka souvenir shops and the restaurant inside (but you have to pay for the food what). 

If not mistaken, you need to pay 9000kw = RM27 to go to the top floor of the tower to get nicer view of Seoul city.

But for me, the platform's view is good enough (as you can see from the photo above) and i don't think this 7000kw is worth the money, so do my travel mate think so.

We rather save the money for beer and supper later hahahahhahahahah.

So no photo and detail story of the tower, the only related thing that i know is the ticket counter always crowded.

we 5 :D

And Lynn found her long lost family

Very creative light + tree shade show on the floor. 

So here come to the end of this post. Next post will be seafood! And excited live octopus eating show cast by me, John and Kuan weeeeeeeeee!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20120920, 0950pm
Rach in 2 assignments for tomorrow mood.

South Korea: Seoul - What is in MyeongDong?

This post is dedicated for SHOPPER:

4 main districts for shopping in Seoul Korea, you can spend as long as one whole day in those 4 districts.
1. MyeongDong
2. DongDaeMun
3. Sinchon, Ewha Womans Uni and Hongik Uni
4. InsaDong

All 4 districts is reachable by subway, just get a subway map and find out the station that named with those districts.

Let me go a little detail on the above districts.

1. MyeongDong
What's there?
The heaven of women, the street that full with cosmetic and clothes. And those shop usually given out free cosmetic sample, so even you don't so keen on buying, you can get something (or i would say a lot) of thing to go back with you.
What else there?
Coffee shop and restaurant of course. If you're guys and not a shopper, theater of korean musical show is there (RM150 per ticket, detail in other post), a beautiful church or if your female travel mate decided to sink herself in the place for whole day and not goin anywhere, you can go to N-Seoul Tower.

2. DongDaeMun
What's there?
Clothes, and clothes, and clothes.

What else there?Clothes, and clothes, and clothes. 

P/s: Well my advice on DOngDaeMun might not neutral, because i was there for only few hours and i decided to go back. Nothing fresh that attract my eyes. Plus i dislike the environment, the malls' are doing wholesales and retail at the same time, so you can imagine la.

3. Sinchon, Ewha Womans Uni and Hongik Uni

What's there?

Cheap clothes (because of uni area), cheap and big portion food (buffet BBQ, post later).
What else there?
Ewha Womans Uni, called the most beautiful university in Korea,

P/s: Sinchon, Ewha and Hongik are different district but not far from each other, people usually plan to visit this 3 places in one day. Suggest to visit Hongik or Sinchon in night time, full of cheap beer store and night market, i think mostly because of full of uni student there. 

4. InsaDongWhat's there?

Artistic street, less clothes (less a lot!) but more nice souvenir, with street performance too.
What else there?

The street is nearby the palace, if you believe you can done visiting the palace in half day, you might could spend another half day here, which like me do.

For the post, i go for MyeongDong first.

Elaine and i like MyeongDong the best although the fashion choice wasn't the best and price wasn't the cheapest, but we both like the atmosphere of the street.

If you know cantonese 行街买野, which Malaysia define it in action as "shop in the mall", in MyeongDong define different.

People mountain people sea. 

Don't worry about language, most of the shop keeper do speak fluently English and Chinese. 

Night time still sibeh crowded. 

More bar and restaurant open in night time too. 

In Myeong Dong, you're really 行街 (walk on the street, not mall) and shop from the beginning of the street till the end, unlike DongDaeMun, you might get lost in the huge and complicated malls.

If you're goin to shop in MyeongDong with none shopper, you can let them...

1. Enjoy coffee
in very comfortable cafe, and play the game of "guess which nose is fake" game.

Very Korean style Starbucks

These 3 men (one behind the cam) decided to let Lynn and I go crazy shopping and chill in cafe.

See ppl pass by and talk about girls, sigh 

2. Sweep the street 
The language of John, means eat every single stall on the street. Give them the map of MyeongDong and ask them to eat stall by stall.

Sweep the street-ing, John loves it.  

Dunno what but good to have it during cold weather. 

Rice cake,

Handroll and snack.

3. Visit the church

If your partner is not a eater or coffee addicted, let them go walk around to the church, from MyeongDong station across the shopping street to this church is just 10 minutes (If you manage to hold yourself to not go into any shop), just get the map in the station for this very beautiful place's location.  

Beautiful church.

Feel like in western country. 

Lynn, Ah Sui and I

Praying

Love the atmosphere 

4. Eat 

Few famous restaurants are located in MyeongDong, including the restaurant that created bibimbap and for non spicy eater, MyeongDong has Chinese cuisine restaurant named MyeongDong Dumpling. 

Famous restaurant in MyeongDong

And taste good as you have it in China

100% not spicy for those cannot take spicy food.

Bibimbap founder

See this uncle and you know you're not too far away from the shop. 

Lynn thinking when to come back for shop again yet the guys thinking how to not let us back and shop again. haha

I'd say impressive but taste good. 

5. The Rest...

N Seoul Tower is not too far away from MyeongDong, if you plan to make Myeong Dong one day trip then you can slot in this attraction during night for the laser show (Detail in next post)

Namsan Park too nearby MyeongDong
Theater with famous Korean musical show eg Jump and Nanta.

For us, we go back and sleep after shop and eat and everything, we make N-Seoul Tower in the next day. 

Advice for reader, if you didn't get any travel pass and dont wanna return to MyeongDong area for transport fees saving, you may arrange the plan so..

10am: Reach Myeong Dong and explore

12nn: Lunch
1pm: Shop for shopper, Church / Theather / Eat / Cafe Namsan Park for non shopper.
6pm: Dinner
8pm: N Seoul Tower
10pm: Supper and back.

So you just need to drop in MyeongDong station and get all these attractions / shopping done.

But for us, we got 20 rides / day travel pass, we actually return to MyeongDong in the other day for dinner and N Seoul Tower.

Wanna know what's the travel pass about?? Click me, scroll down for the travel pass comparison~.  

we 5. 

Okies next will be N Seoul Tower's detail like entrances fees and how to go. If i'm not lazy i might update in this weekend.

Oh, the rest of the district i might blog or might not blog later, see if i got enough infor or not la~

Okay bai bai!



Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20120918, 1226pm

Rach in goin to work soon mood

South Korea: Seoul - Hostel Korea Review

Accommodation is not my most concern when planning a trip, however i do have few requests when choosing a hostel / hotel: 

1. Location - Not in the tourist center yet must be convenience to go anywhere.

2. Price - Affordable with basic facilities.

3. Room - Bright room, prefer more natural light room. Definitely no yellow bulb / warm light room.  

For my Seoul trip, i was looking for hostel (trust me, hostel is good enough) with the below requirements:  

1. Somewhere near the subway (subway is so convenience to go anyway in Seoul)
2. Not more then RM100 per night per person, prefer not big dorm room.

3. Not in the tourist center, yet not too far from it. 

Finally i locked to stay somewhere near DongDaeMun （东大门）because there have APM Mall (am and pm mall, which mean 24 hours mall) with lots of food stalls, if we go to walk in the midnight and miss the last train, we can still walk back to the hostel. 

Yet DongDaeMun is full of tourist all day long and i really don't wanna stay in the district (another reason was no cheap hostel la hahahahaha only expensive hotel with stars)

Then i followed the rail stations map to looks for hostel that located in few stations away from DongDaeMun, and i found Hostel Korea and few others hostel.

Get the list of the hostel that i interested, and read as much review as possible to help you make the final decision, finally, i choose Hostel Korea that located in Sinseol-Dong, 2 stations away from DongDaeMun, about half hour really really slow walk from the place.  

I booked one single room (for John), one double bedroom (for Lynn and I) and one medium Hanok （韩屋）,the traditional korea house (for Kuan and Sui) with the price as below:

Seoul 3 nights: 
Lynn & Rach (double bedroom shared bathroom) = RM 180 per person
John (single room shared bathroom) = RM 261 
Kuan & Leong (large hanok private bathroom) = RM 225 per person 

Just divide the prices to 3 (as we stay 3 nights) then you got the price per night in RM, alternatively, see the price range below that i printed screen from the website. 

  

Cant see it clear? or you wanna have more photos on the room? See it in the website.

Hostel Korea Website: http://www.hostelkorea.com/index_e.html

Hostel Korea is 10 minutes slow walk from SinSeoul-Dong Station, as the the map show below: 

The hostel is located behind the main street, which mean less noise, yet there are restaurant, convenience store, bakery, traditional market (10 minute walk) surrounding, i consider here is very handy. 

The neighbor of  the hostel is the original resident, so no worry if you're a lady and travel alone.  

Yet i must say, the place is not very easy to find, we went to the place by taxi (as we have 5 people to share, so its alright), the driver was sesat a little. 

Just followed the map that shown in the website, and keep your eye looking at the main entrance that is colorful like this...

or with a luxury car that own by the boss, haha. 

No worry if you cant speak good English or Korea, the receptionist here can speak pretty good Mandarin, and later i only know this is one of the top choice for Taiwanese. 

If you're expecting photo of the room from my side, i'm sorry that i didn't get much photos here, but what you see in the website is what you can expect when you're check it, i would say that is 99% real. 

the 1% is you could never imagine the double bedroom is so small, till you put your luggage on the floor and you can turn around. 

But if you have done research on the accommondation in Korea, you will know the price and the location of Hostel Korea is worth for you money. 

If you're travel alone and you don't wanna share a room, with around RM80 you can get a single room with share bathroom like john did, pretty good deal. 

But i'm actually regret a little that not rent the whole hanok down, which Kuan and Sui stayed.

Honok is located behind the hostel, it is traditional Korea house that i had mentioned. The house with 3 rooms, large, medium and small room, a common area, own kitchen, bathroom and toilet.

If you cant imagine, scroll down for the photos that taken by Kuan.

I'm really recommend for those who dislike modern hostel and wanna experience the honok to stay here, but my advice is not to be group of 2 or alone, according to Kuan and Sui, the night time is really haunted like ghost house because the whole big hanok only have 2 of them.

A gang of friends like 8 is recommend to get all 3 rooms down, check the price in the website or email to ask them, the price is about the same with hostel rooms.

ok~ Conclusion:

I like this hostel because of: 
1. Location, quiet and handy
2. Price and worth what i pay for
3. The unique hanok! 

I dislike this hostel because of: 
1. The receptionist - The people is helpful (booked tix and arrange plan) yet he is not really friendly to us, he lost his patient and talk to us with slightly bad tone when we ask to book us some ticket and taxi.
2. The room - very very small room with only 2 A4 paper size's window.
If i'd back?
Not my first choice. Seoul has MANY hostel, next time i'd choose to stay in Namsan or somewhere near MyeongDong, perhaps.  

Alright, next post still be Seoul, but not every place that we're visit. Perhaps another 2 or 3 posts to get Korea trip ended, and start my Combodia trip.

Will try to update another one in this week as i'm off to Chiangmai and Pai in Thailand next week.

Oh yea, you can expect post about Thailand AGAIN after Combodia *wink*

Bai bai!!



Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20120904, 1045am
Rach in goin to work soon mood