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

South Korea: Seoul - How to plan Seoul trip + Comparison of TMoney card and TMoney MPass card.

For all of my trips planning experience, Seoul is one of the toughest one, because you couldn't imagine how big is the city and you've to understand the subway-lines, figure the transport cost, the route map, and the biggest challenges is language.

So you have to study and research a lot a lot.

I suggest to those who are planning a trip to city like Seoul (or English-is-useless's city), you gonna understand what you want to do in the city (eg, shopping or sightseeing or food), then scale down accordingly to plan your accommodation and transport.

If you wanna do some of each, with no choice you have to read a lot of information and figure out the best route.

We were travelling in 5 and each of us with different purpose in visit Seoul, I gathered all of their interest and draw a rough plan after read countless of information from forums and blogs (both in Chinese and English. I found Chinese forums have far more info than English, there i feel so lucky that i understand both languages), just to fulfill everyone's desire.

But i gotta tell you, Seoul is the city for shopping and plastic surgery. I don't mean there have no any others thing, but mainly (i'd say 85%) is for shopper and patient.

After research on Seoul, i concluded a few other things for non-shopper or patient:

What you can do except shopping or plastic surgery in Korea? 
1. Food 
Make your nom-nom route plan, try the unique food culture in Korea that you couldn't find in any other place like Korea.
2. City Planning / Attraction trip
If you love to see the city more than clothes, Seoul actually do have a lot of attraction that worth to pay a visit, eg: N'Seoul Tower, MyeongDong Cathedral, park and the palace.
3. Relax
Korea Spa （汗蒸幕）is different with other Spa, you have to be naked and you can stay as long as 12 hours, interest ain't?
If you feel shy, go for Korea's world-famous theater and enjoy coffee in the busy street.
4.  Entertainment 
Ski, hiking or theme park you can get it done in one day trip.

My plan of Seoul for 5d5d included all above and shopping except entertainment and plastic surgery (haha, we don't need to anyway), we don't feel like doing day trip because we're busy enough to do the other 4 aims.

After figure out what you wanna do, now scale down to where can do the thing that you wanted to do.

Find all those places and how to go, then you may download a subway map, plan the schedule out.

But for my experience, don't worry too much about the route or transport AS LONG AS YOU GOT A TRANSPORT CARD, or aka day or few day transport pass in Seoul.

Subway in Seoul is sooooooooooooooooo convenience, just like HK and Taiwan, but the cost is not cheap at all if you purchase one-off ticket, get yourself a travel card so you can control your budget well (I will blog it out soon).

First thing to do when you arrive in airport is get a free map

And try to understand the complicated subway map. 

Understand the lines too. 

Below is my rough plan of the trip. I actually have a detail one like what i planned for Jeju, but to not confuse readers, i choose to post a rough one.

Seoul Day 1

Incheon Airport – Gimpo Airport – Check in Hostel Korea - Myeongdong

Seoul Day 2

Noryangjin Fish Market – Korea Spa (汗蒸幕) / Apgujeong – N Seoul Tower – Dongdaemun

Seoul Day 3

Ewha Womans University - Sinchon

Seoul Day 4

Gyeongbokgung (The Palace) – Insadong – Theater

Seoul Day 5

Back to KL in midnight 

Every district above is integrate with shop and nice food, including The palace, you can always find other thing to do if you're accidentally go to a shopping district (well, as i say 85% of the area is shopping), don't worry, you always can find a very well design cafe to sit down and play the game of "guess which nose is real" like my friends did while Elaine and I went for crazy shopping.

Or you can always find good smell restaurant or vendor on the street, then you can go for your own nom-nom mini trip.

Ah bo, almost every tourist area has Korea Spa, just like Thai is full of massage center. Pay RM20-RM30 and get yourself soak in the hot water and watch naked people passing by, at the same time do survey on the size of Korea and Malaysia, hahahahahaha.

===============================================================

I never use break-down line in my english version blog, this is the first time.

Break down line mean i'm writing some other things, but the thing is not complete unrelated with the above.

Ok, the 2nd challenge when planning a trip is accommodation and transport.

Accommodation in Seoul is not an issue, backpacker is everywhere or you're richer you can go rent a hotel rooms. Most importantly is figure out your plan, then find place to stay in the convenience point to travel around.

So i push accommodation in the next post, together with the backpacker review.

The breakdown line is for transport.

I believe a lot of people come through a bout TMoney right? Something like Touch'n Go in Malaysia, pay money for the card and reload credit into it, scan it whenever you take public transport and it will deduce credit from the card with a discount.

If i'm not mistaken, TMoney discount 100won each time you spent.

But i tell you what, i choose  the less well-know TMoney M-pass instead of TMoney, because of lazy to count on the fees of subway.

FYI, the fees of subway is counting with km, if not mistaken, within 10km is 1000kw one way, which mean return ticket is 2000kw, if with your TMoney, that is 1800kw return (100kw discount per way).

If you're out from the 10km area, 100meter charge you extra 100kw (i hope i remember right).

I give up TMoney because i don't want to count the distance and difficult myself to budget the transport fees.

Although TMoney MPass do not have discount, but they offer 10 return ways per day in all the subway without caring the distance, this is a lot easy for me to budget the fees.

Ok, what is TMoney MPass card, from the name you can guess that is the combination of TMoney and a travel pass.

Cost of the TMoney MPass card. Go to information counter in Incheon airport and let the lady explain to you.

We got the 3 days pass, so after the 3 days pass and you actually stay 4 days in the city, what should you do?

Top up your MPass card, just like how you top up your TMoney card.

That's why it call TMoney MPass card.

But TMoney MPass card is not avaible everywhere, just few places, i don't remember all but i remember one of the place is Incheon Airport information counter.

Same as TMoney card, you've to pay for the card, as you can see from the photo, 5000kw, but if you return the card, you got 4500kw refund (if not mistaken), but TMoney card you got nothing back.

If you're lazy to read, READ HERE, i've summarize TMoney and TMoney MPass cards:

	TMoney	TMoney MPass (2in1 card)
Price of the card	2500kw for the card ONLY	3 days pass is 25500kw + 5000kw (deposit of the card) = 30500kw
Charge	Fees + 100kw discount whenever you scan it	20 times per days (equal to 10 times return ticket)
Where to get it	Convenience store eg GS25 and station's machine / counter	Few places ONLY (I got it from Incheon airport information counter)
Where to top up	Convenience store eg GS25 and station's machine / counter	Convenience store eg GS25 and station's machine / counter (After finish the 3 days pass and use it as TMoney card)
Where to refund	Convenience store eg GS25 and station's machine / counter	Few places ONLY (I got it from Incheon airport information counter)
How much could refund	ONLY the balance inside of the card can be refunded, no for the card itself (worth 2500kw)	Balance inside of the card + 4500kw deposit. (which mean only charge you 500kw for “rent” the card)
Expired date	As long as you continue to use it, it won’t be expired.	MPass (for 3 days pass) = 3 days from you scan from the first time (Eg: Start in Wed and finish in Fri, even you’re not using in Thurs). TMoney =  As long as you continue to use it, it won’t be expired.

TMoney MPass is better choice when you're:
1. Do not have a clear plan on where to go (So you can travel without worry the credit)
2. Have a very busy schedule to travel and to further place
3. You're not familiar with complicated subway station as you might get into wrong line / direction and wasted your credit if you're carry TMoney card. (Like us do, luckily we're with 10 times return, when we know we're in wrong platform, just scan out without heartache, hahaha)
4. You're lazy to budget the transport fees yet you don't have much budget. (30500kw = about RM100. For me, RM 100 for 3 days transport is very reasonable, and cut down my worried of transport fees).

TMoney is better choice when you're:
1. Very familiar with Seoul subway and confidence that won't get into wrong platform.
2. Know clearly where you wanted to go and ready to spend whole day on that area. (So you won't need to take subway few times a day).
3. Only travel within the city and has no plan to go sub-urban area.

I didn't say which card is better but leave it to you to judge, i meet someone that a repeat visitor of Seoul who travel with TMoney card, they only spend about RM50 in 3 days, which is half of my budget, but they're only travel within the city and know where they wanted to go la.

I'm not sure if any other travel pass offered in Seoul, but i believe TMoney and TMoney Mpass are the most popular one, and i think both is conveniece enough when you're travel with public transport in Seoul.

Well i guess here is the info i know about both cards, if you've any other question that you couldn't find you answer here, leave your message and see if i could help.

OKAYYYYYYYY, next blog is another backpacker review~ Stay tuned weeeeeeee






Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20120813, 0437pm
Rach in goin to run with Pudding later mood.

South Korea: Jeju - Jeju-Si Fried Pork with Vege and Spicy Chicken Wing Restaurant

We got back to Jeju-Si about 6pm from the day trip, take a shower and rest we decided to hunt for food. 

Andy (Greenday's Host, detail click here) was in the living room when we're waiting for the other to get ready for dinner, so John asked for suggestion and Andy and his friends decided to bring us to very local restaurant. 

And until today, i don't know what is the dishes called, we just called it as fried pork and vege :P

The restaurant is not far from Greenday, just 2 blocks away but hide in an alley, i couldn't remember the direction but if you really want to try it, just let Andy see this post, he will know where to bring you guys. 

Oh and not to forget, the fried pork with vege is so darn cheap and yum! Not too spicy as you could ask them to make you not spicy one. 

About the price, i don't remmeber, but for sure that is no other choice (maybe there is, but we cant read the menu, Andy order for us), and order in portion, we got 5 pax portion and darn full!

             

Come with Kimchi of course, the brown color thingy is Toufu Skin, very very super yummy!

                  

Serve with rice, red / black bean rice, taste sweet.

           

fried pork first..

then add vege. 

John and i love this dishes very much, we finish our portion and help the other 3 to finish them, because they hate the bean and vege =.=.. 

I mean, if you don't have any idea to dine at, this can be a very good choice. (the point is, very cheap!)              

Food always the highlight of trip for me and John, but when you're traveling with a gang of friends, you have to take care of their appetite especially someone that couldn't take spicy of raw food. 

So John and I sneaked out in the midnight to find some really really spicy food. 

We have no idea at all where to go, first we thought to go the family mart (convenience stall) nearby to get some supper, but we didn't find any thing that catch our eye.

We decided to walk back in the cold cold night and found a very tiny shop just few shops away from family mart. 

Same roll with family mart, map please see below photo.

                             

We couldn't read korea (of course!), but we know this is the shop for food.

We stop a while in front of the shop and trying to figure out what it is inside. 

So we "read" the shop carefully, and.... 

We saw the chick with fire, and guess at least there are chicken selling inside. 

We decided to go in to the shop and get some supper. 

Luckily we go in i tell you! this is the hottest chick that i ever taste!!!!!!!! :D

Before go to detail, below is the map of the shop. 5 minute walking distance from Greenday, operated till midnight. 

Just cross the road and you will pass through a school with big field, when you see family mart you will see the restaurant. 

From Greenday to the restaurant

The restaurant is so small, there are less than 10 tables in it and we pick a seat nearby the heater. 

As we expected, no one speak English in the shop, but the owner is sooooooooo friendly and try sooooooooo hard to let us what they serve.

He ever took out the noodle package to let us know there are noodle, and wave his arm to mean there are chicken wings.

After 10 minutes body language communication, we ordered a pot of noodle soup and spicy chicken wings. 

Food makes him a happy boy.

So tiny little shop

The owner pointed the 1st item and we nood our head, i guess that is either noodle or chicken wing :D

This is the hottest chicken wings that i ever never had, so spicy till your lips got swollen, we use an hour to finish it.
But i tell you what, this is super yummy, you just cant stop eating it. 

Cold radish, best thing to ease your lip's pain.  

Big portion of noodle soup. Very yummy too. 

I promise to myself, MUST open an entry and write this shop out, if you think you can take spicy chicken wing, challenge this restaurant, you won't be disappointed.

Damn writing this post make me wanna eat this again!!! Delivery anyone?! 

 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20120806, 1110am
Rach in asthma again mood.