~♫..yAnLinG..♫~: 2013

Hihi..

I'm back with a post to Korea (again) hahas!

Please don't say that I keep going to Korea, no, I don't...

It has been 8 months since my last trip to Korea already :(

This time round, not with friends, not myself alone, but with my elder sister!

Yes, no more finding idols nor going music shows, i'm the tour guild and translator for my sis this trip!

WE ARE PURELY TOURIST!!!

14 June 2013 (Friday)

Day 1~

Our flight was 8 in the morning.

Reached Changi Airport Terminal 3, checked in and we had our breakfast at Mcdonald.

Rush and rush and rushed for our flight as we are running out of time. (this is my airport curse, theres isn't a time that i don't need to rush)

Board the flight and off we go~

Was watching Ah Boys To Men 2 and also A Werewolf Boy - although i've already watched before but thats without subtitle.

Arrived at Incheon Airport and we set off by taking the AirportLimousine.

There is an bus ticket counter right outside the airport gate, so we need to purchase the bus ticket from the counter by telling the person the bus number or the place that you are going.

Last time there isn't this bus tickting counter, we just need to queue at the bus stop and pay ₩10,000 to the driver will do.

Here we arrived at Gyeongbokgung station. Yes, i'm still gonna stay at the cozy hanok style guesthouse after -Yim's Guest House, which has recently changed name to Duri Guest House^^ I love the location, i love the friendly staff, and i love the cheap cheap price! HAHAHA!!

It's already in the evening time, setting off to Gangnam Underpass Shopping District.

Leave the underground and go up to search for our dinner.

Walk and walk and walk, and we saw Noodle Box which are selling Thai foods. hahas. Saw quite a lot of people went to eat this, so we shall give it a try too :)

Went over to Baskin Robbins for after dinner dessert :)

15 June 2013 (Saturday)

Day 2~

Good morning~

Insadong, one station from our guesthouse.

It's a great place to buy souvenirs back for friends and colleagues.

Edae - Ehwa Women University.

I once came during the winter, the background scenery were so pretty back then.

Summer were here, and all the green grasses were alive!

Walked over to the shopping district and we had our lunch at Yeolbong Chicken!

It's Chatime! You wont know how excited my sis was when she saw there's chatime in korea. hahah!

Started our shopping right after that.

Not much photos taken as our hands are all busy. HAHA!

Done of Edae, and we are heading towards Hongdae.

We was still worrying that our stomach cant contain so much foods, there's lots of café that we are visiting this day.

Thanks Nature Café.

Our motive for this café is to take picture with those sheeps~ Yangmehmehhhh~

Luckily the yang's are outside the café! So we just took a few pictures and left the place. Oooops~

Hello Kitty Café.

Visited here everytime I came to korea. And so, i'm so sick of the foods here already.

Again, we just went up to level2. Sit down, took a few pictures and left. HAHA!

My "ex-husband" everywhere the streets.

Natuur POP!!

Woohoo~ My motive of today is to eat you!

It has been endorse by Infinite this few months recently.

And dalaa~~ I got Hoya mirror. Hehehe~

Myeongdong.

Had our dinner at one of my favorite restaurant.

I love their Udon!

Exercise after eating!

Climbing up to Namsan Cable Car is a challenge!

Instead of climbing the normal road, I went round round to show my sis the guesthouses that I've stayed before. hahas!

It's crazy mad many people!!!!!!!!!!

The queue is MAD! And I mean it.

Queue for ticketing, we even queued out of the building=.=

Got our ticket and continue to queue to get into the cable car.

Here we go, up we go~

Why do I always came up with female?! Arghhh>_<

16 June 2013 (Sunday)

Day 3~

Seoul Station Lotte Mart.

Supermart is a MUST to visit for every each country I've been to.

Hahas. Tax refund is a must everytime visit. LoL

Itaewon.

Told my sis to get prepare that there is NOTHING at Itaewon! HAHA!

I really don't like this place, why is it even call an tourist attraction??

So we only had our lunch here and set of to Myeongdong!

Myeongdong.

Meet my friend Felicia there and shop together!

Hahas she's so lonely after watching Beast concert yesterday and need to wait until 19th night for our another friend to come.

We gonna separate our shopping spree in Myeongdong, if not history gonna repeat and we will be damn tired carrying all those cosmetics.

Cross the street over to Myeongdong Lotte Department Store!

Finally bought my MCM wallet!! ^_^

But too bad the backpacks don't have the color I wanted:(

Going down to basement, searching for Natuur POP!

Yesterday had icecream, today had ICE~~ ㅋㅋㅋ

Back to our guesthouse put down stuff and rest for awhile.

Our guesthouse lady was so shock to see Felica was here too. But too bad she's not staying at Duri Guesthouse this time round.

Suddenly the lady knock on our door, appeared with an Paris Baguette Ice!

Omggg its grateful and so kind of her to get us some dessert in the hot summer. But however, we just had TWO big cups ice at Natuur pop! @_@

Took some polaroid before we set off again.

Next destination - Dongdaemun!

New shopping mall - Lotte Fitin!

I just opened like 1 week before we went. hahas.

And the dongdaemun stadium finally is building up! Can see the shape now unlike 2~3years back.

Enjoy our street foods! (This the only day only time I had street food for this whole trip=.=)

It's late, we want to rush for our last train instead of taking cab, though cabs there are cheap.

So Feli walk back to her guesthouse - she's saying somewhere around the area.

17 June 2013 (Monday)

Day 4~

Gwanghwamun!

Just opposite our guesthouse!

That's the only morning activities that we can do before we set off to Jeju!

Took the express train down to Gimpo Airport. This was my 2nd time coming here.

Was quite late for our check in and yet a bunch of middle school students just cutting queues and banging onto us, making lots of noise.

Ok chill, let the kids be. *rolling eyes on them*

Finally we got our boarding pass and rushed over to the boarding gate.

And..... flight delayed for 20mins=.=

Off we go to the another small island~ Jeju is 3x bigger than Singapore??

Took the local bus to their one and only one bus terminal in Jeju - Jeju Intercity Bus Terminal.

Our guesthouse - Sum Guesthouse is just right opposite the bus terminal, that's so convenient!

Put down our barang barangs and set off to the maze park which is located near manjanggul cave.

After alighting from the bus, we totally got no idea on where to start from.

Saw the signboard stating few 2km or 2.5km away. So we decided to walk in since it's just like a 2.4km run we had in school, it shouldn't be VERY far.

Walk and walk and walked, getting tired. and there is only trees and grass, trees and grasses=.=

Why the hell is this 2km so FAR?!!!!

Finally we saw a sign of the Maze Park!

When we reached at around 5pm+~6pm, it's already closed. Waiting for the last few guest to finish their maze walk.

We were like wth?! closed?! so early?! And asking is there any bus to bring us out? We WALKED all the way in...

The staff was so shock to heard that we actually WALKED in. LoL!

Almost going crazy when she told us that the last bus had already departure. But however, she open the gate and let us go into the maze park, telling us that she will let us in, and give us a ride out after 7pm..

Woah cool~ Such a nice staff.

Here we go~~ A chop chop fast fast one.

And we finish it even faster than those group in front of us. Pro~

When we were about to leave, the staff asked where do we stay? So we said Jeju City. And we went onto another staff car. Woah this staff can speak Chinese! hahas and she drove us all the way back to Jeju city as we thought that she will just let us alight at the main road outside.

Yay~ There we go the free ride back. She dropped us somewhere near our guesthouse, and we start to walk around hunting for dinner~

18 June 2013 (Tuesday)

Day 5~

Ohnoooo~ it's telling us the weather is NO GOOD today:(((

We took the "SUM TOUR" this day. And yea, if we choose the taxi driver who can't speak English would be cheaper. LoL. If not got to add 30,000won which is around SGD$35. Why do we need to pay another 30000won just for the English speaker? Hello~ I can understand Korean. Hahahahs.

1st destination, Manjanggul Lava Tube Cave!

Going down to the cave, the cold breeze starts to blew on us.

It's so so so cooling inside, but the floor were so uneven and are all wet, because of the water dripping from the top of the cave.

Walked for..... I forgot how many kilometer. It's tiring, really, because of the uneven floor (the harden lava which is like rock now.)

And we reached the destination! Took some photos and need to walk the same route back to our starting point! Arghhhhh.....

While on the way heading to our 2nd destination, the drive drove us to the beach side, he said that's his secret place, from here we can see nice scenery of the sea.

Happen to saw their police station with 2 horses outside. We was so curious, and the driver asked us do we want to go down take a picture with it? We YESSSSSSSSS-ed so he make a U-turn back to the police station, telling them that we are tourist, can we take a picture with the horses?

LoL the Jeju police guy were so friendly and cute~ The event posed too~ Hahas!

There we arrived at Seongsan Ilchulbong (성산일출봉)

The weather is no no no good! Cant even see the end of the peak as the haze is so strong!

But still, we still tried to climb as far up as we can. It was so WINDY and COOL!!! Yea the higher we were the cooler it was.

Its freezing and tiring because of the nonstop staircase. We gave up while we was almost there. Guess we walked too much just now at Manjanggul, not much energy left :(

Taking pictures while on the way down. Yes its super windy as you can see our hairs are flying all around!

House of the women's divers! yea jeju is popular in those women's divers!

Lunch time~

That's the popular restaurant in Jeju where everyone tourist and also including Koreans itself will go there for the abalone porridge!

Pass by Jeju Folk Village Museum and the driver let us alight and take a few picture with it.

Trick Art Museum.

Hi my friend~ LOL

Jeju Wind Farm!!

We special requested to bring us to this place. So pretty~ But so windy tooo~~~~

We are ending our tour too early!!

So the driver took us to the EcoLand. Taking their tututrain where we can alight at any station for sightseeing but I was toooooooo tired that I just don't want to move and even fall asleep. HAHA!

5-16 Road over Mt. Hallasan!

Nice place where trees are all over the road up to the mountain.

Mysterious Road 신비의 도로!

Yes, the place where you stopped your car engine yet the car still can auto move up by itself. Also when you pour water on the road, the water will just auto flow up by itself too!!

That's come to the end of your tiring tour day...

We asked the driver to let us alight at the roadside so that we can search for some food for our dinner.

But my very super picky sister just don't eat anything!

Finally we entered the Korean restaurant, I finally had a proper Korean food after so many days!!!

19 June 2013 (Wednesday)

Day 6~

Had dunkin donut as our breakfast!

Everyday look at Beast, I feel bad if I don't eat. *im not a fan of dunkin*

Almost ran out of time to the airport, and the bus isn't coming at all. Damn! So we quickly took the cab and rush over!

Piew~ Reached the airport at 11.04am where our boarding time is 11.05am =.= Luckily there isn't long queue at the check in counter.

BACK IN SEOUL!!!!!

Went in to Lotte Mart at Gimpo airport to get somemore gummy! yes, we cleared the whole shelve AGAIN!!

Lunch at 鼎泰豐.

Back to our guesthouse to put down our bags before setting off again.

But however i'm stuck with the TV!!!

Saw leejongsuk the moment I on the TV. HAHAHAHAH!

Went to Insadong again to buy all the souvenir we wanted. And happen to saw this doggie with the look-alike owner!

We was looking at it, then suddenly the owner took jiejie hand over to touch the doggie. Omg so cute~~~~

Next destination to City Hall!

Trying to search for that stupid Cheonggyecheon Stream!

Ever since my 1st time visiting to korea, I wanted to go to this place to take a look, but everytime fails.

I don't have the confident in the direction to this place, so jiejie did some research before hand.

However, the moment we come out from the exit, we are lost~ LOL!!!

Where should we turn to? Walking back and forth back and forth until we saw an foreigner so we decided to follow him. HAHA.

We did the wrong choice, he was just walking around taking pictures~

But there's s policeman on duty, so we approached him on the directions.

So we followed the direction that given by him. But....................... WRONG!

Is my Korean understanding knowledge got problem or what?

But the policeman did took out his phone and show us telling us to turn here and there, jiejie saw the map too. But just don't know why we got the wrong direction.

Anyway........ I look out my own phone using iphone map and found the place! We actually overshot it =.=

Went to the start point and start walking down the stream.

Trying to walk until dongdaemun but failed!!!

There's tooooooooooooo many flies! I don't know what's the name of the flies, it's those that fly together one whole bunch on the same spot tiny and not really noticeable.

But it's so hugh its so much from not noticeable until super noticeable!!!!

I can't stand it anymore! Felling damn itchy although they don't bite.

So we gave up half way, going up and find a nearest subway station.

Next destination was at Sungshin Women University. Rilakkumah Café!!

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's was closed down!!!!!!!!!!

I can 100% totally remember the location although I took 45mins to search for the place when I 1st went there last time.

Jiejie don't want to give up, continue walking around to search for it. But it's really gone, 100% gone!

Wasted our trip down to this kuku place. So we went in to the Diaso have a shop around~

Back in Myeongdong!

Didn't buy it that day when we came down to Myeongdong knowing that it would be super heavy for us to carry and we total spent $300~$400 over on Laneige. Haha!

Burger King for dinner!

Jiejie don't eat cheese, so told the person not to add cheese on her burger. And we realize there is an deduction of 300won because of the CHEESEEEEEEEEE~!!! So cool~ Only if Singapore have this kind of service as well..

Krispy Kreme to buy the original flavor but it was too late already, everything sold out. So I just bought the mickey and mini mouse donuts.

20 June 2013 (Thursday)

Day 7~

Early..... In the...... Morning........

We are heading off to Gapyeong! A long long journey 1hr 40mins excluding walking and waiting time for the trains~

There's so many lines in seoul subway, I just hate taking this train to that destination cause it's really COMPLICATED!!!

Finally we are at Mangu station to change the train over to gapyeong, but we took the wrong train =.= This was an express ITX (Intercity Train Express) we are suppose to wait for the next normal train but we board the train without listening to the announcement.

This train was so classy with comfortable chairs. We sense something wrong, it seems like there is a need for train ticket. So we just walk and walk to the back of the train where a lady was standing there alone without a seat too.

Until the ticket inspector came. A Korean lady bought the ticket from him and went to the seat. Next is us, we totally trying to act one tourist who cannot understand Korean at all...

He was like asking where are we from? We said Singapore. By looking at his face, I can see questions marks going around.

Asking us for the ticket, my sis damn joke. She.... "ti..ticket? (took out her t-money card) ticket!" LOL!!! After drawing foot and hand, the person went off.

Because it was an express train, we skipped through all stops and came to Pyeongnae Hopyeong! We don't know which and what stops it's going to stop next, it doesn't stated in the train. So by trying our luck, we don't alight, continue to take the train.

The ticket inspector came again while otw to next destination Cheongpyeong. He asked one more time, where are we from?

"S.I.N.G.A.P.O.R.E!" we replied.

He stopped and took out his phone, I saw him naver searching something. After awhile, he said "Ahhh Singapore, okok" and he walked off. HAHAHA!!!!

At cheongpyeong we were hesitating should we alight or not? Cheongpyeong and Gapyeong is just 2 stops away. What if the train don't stop at Gapyeong how????

Once the train door closed, the next destination sign comes out. GAPYEONG!!! Hurray we go and we quickly jump down of the train once we reached Gapyeong! YAY free train ride!!! LMAO!!

My friend Felicia reached just one train infront of us. Hahahha~

She's joining us for the day!

Bought the busticket at 5000won and we can take as many time as we can during this day.

See how creative me and my sis keep the bus ticket.

Nami Island here we go~~~

The weather is tooo goooood that I spammed lots of sunblock!!! It's SUMMER~!

Jiejie say we walk until where vandalize everywhere. But hello~ Koreans love "arts" they drew it everywhere themselves too!

The out of shape merlion!

Bungee jump!!! Omg I want to tryyyyyy so funnnnnn~

LUNCH!

Petite France!

2nd time here! The 1st time we came was in winter and now its summer! Same place yet different feel~

Flowers everywhere VS dried grasses everywhere.

To that little house, they painted away our "vandalism" and so we gonna re-draw again! Actually they just coated a thin layer of white paint over, we still can see the mark stain on what we've drawn before.

Slowly taking train back to the lively Seoul.

On the journey the train was so packed with the old people the grandpa grandma etc.. So we have to stand all our way back. But was quite entertaining while there is a seat available, so Quek went to sit down next to the old grandpa.

Then he starts to questioning her....... Asking where are we from? How do we understand Koreans? Are we studying here this and that until it's our station to alight. Hahas. Entertaining us man.

Hongdae!

KYOCHON CHICKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

It's my all time favorite and it's the BEST chicken I've ever had!!!! I swear! For people who never tried before you won't understand this feeling, u might think that it's just friend chicken~

Yea it's just a fried chicken but fried chicken are EBERYWHERE in korea. But Kyochon is really the BEST out of the BEST!!!

21 June 2013 (Friday)

Day 8~

Another tiring dayyyyyyyyy~

It seems like we are torching us everyday with lack of sleeps and doing so much activities in a day.

LOTTE WORLD~!!!

Didn't want to bring sis to Everland as she's belong to those that don't really dare to play those rides. So don't waste time waste money to travel there. LoL.

We started from the indoor section. Ok im too lazy to blog the details out here. Just some photos for sharing~

Just 3 stations away from Jamsil to Samseong station. We are heading towards COEX! But sadly to said, the whole COEX Mall is close for renovation! Aww how sad:(

Since we are here, shall just find some restaurant to settle our dinner here.

Craving for Jjajangmyun and here we go~ LOL.

22 June 2013 (Saturday)

Day 9~

It's our so called last day!

Meet up with Felicia and Brenda for early lunch. LoL like a finally to meet up with dada after since she arrived in Seoul.

Tosokchon 토속촌; the very super famous Korean Ginseng Chicken restaurant in Seoul!

Koreans and tourist love this place and the queue was extremely scaryyyyyyyyy!

Luckily the restaurant is just a walkable distant from my guesthouse, so we reached there quite early at around 11am. There is no queue yet but inside was almost full house!

Stomach 100% filled up.

The moment we stepped out of the restaurant, the numbers of people queuing was not joking!

I don't know does my instavideo works or not. Shall upload both picture and video.

Last minute shopping~

We are back to Edae! It's always my favorite place to shop and now it's my sis favorite place to shop too! Hahahas~

Apgujeong Rodeo Street! I knew it there's nothing to shop here but since it's one of the tourist attraction, shall just come walk one round.

Hi to my both favorite shop - Chrome Heart & MCM!

Too bad the shirt that im buying in CH totally went out of stocks:( fate for me not to buy:(

The once to be a normal OLD building SM Entertainment is getting bigger and more obvious it's SME. LOL!!!

I remember when I 1st came to Korea, totally didn't know that that was actually SME until our friend told us.

Normally if I see this petro station, just walk all the way up and it would be JaeJoong Coffee Cojjee Café!! And also redcarpet salon where artist always come here to get their hair and makeup done.

And the next moment will walk down to Cube Entertainment!

But lol anyway im here with my sis, NO idols! No No No~!!

Express Bus Terminal!

Yes, we are heading off to Banpo Bridge for the rainbow fountain (반포대교 달빛무지개분수)

Again, this was the place where I wanted to come ever since the 1st trip but I didn't make it due to timing and heard from friends that this place was damn difficult to find.

BUT, it was so so so easy that we didn't even lost our way to there.

We reached there quite early as the sky somehow is still bright so the rainbow effect isn't that obvious :(

The only LAST chance to shop for clothing!

So walked around the underground of express bus terminal. As the underground is quite huge, I never get to walk until here in the past, or is this a new extended section? LoL

Not bad to shop, can fight with gangnam underground. hahha!