Seoul with Tommy & Stacey - Part 2 (with pictures)

<read part 1 first>

We were both still tired and a bit cranky the next morning but a quick stop at the convenience store, we greeted Tommy and Stacey with better spirits.

Today we wanted to head to the Hanok Village before the crowds so we got a cab there around 10am. Since we haven't ate yet, we stopped by a restaurant that was advertising Ginseng Chicken soup. Normally I am NOT a fan of ginseng at all. The strong medicinal taste really turns me off. But when the soup came out, the smell was minimal and the chicken was so tender. I would defintely have it again. My mom would be so proud of me for having ginseng without her coercion! 

We walked around the hilly area and there are some old-style houses mixed in with more modern ones. I think I prefer the Jeonju one more. It's more compact and there's an actual map to know what I'm looking at. Next, we took a cab to Norangjin Fish Market to get some fresh seafood. It was a very interesting place but after a while, all the seafood stands looked like they sold the same things. After almost walking the entire place, we chose a stand and got some jumbo shrimps ($14), jumbo scallops ($10) and little live octopus ($15). Then just after we paid and they packed up our food, a woman from one of the restaurants grabbed our food and said for us to follow her. She led us through a series of tables and chairs and finally told us to go into an enclose place with other tables and chairs filled with people. We found a seat for four at the back and sat down. Later, a woman asked us how we wanted them cooked. For the octopus we said "sashimi", the scallops "bbq" and same for the shrimps. When the food came we proceeded to eat and take pictures and videos. It was very yummy! Surprisingly between the four of us, we still couldn't finish it all. At the end, it costs us another $10 for each dish so that meal came to $69. Not bad but would've been expensive if it was just Neil and I.

We still had some time to kill before our Eland cruise on the Hangang River so we hopped into a cab and went to Coex Mall to kill some time. We walked around until we were tired and went to a coffee shop to have some drinks and rest. Then we caught the subway to head to cruise. Unfortunately Tommy twisted his ankle at one of the stations but we weren't that far so we kept going. And then we got off one station too early, so we grabbed a cab but after the cab dropped us off, we were still a good 10 minute walk away from the docks. We had to go to the terminal window to pick up tickets and sign some kind of waiver form. Thinking back now, it's almost like those airplane passenger list because we had to fill in our names, sex and date of birth. I guess it's in case the boat capsizes. Anyhow, this area by the river is very nice and lively. It reminded me a bit like Vancouver's English Bay. Lots of people around, flying kites, lying on the grass, biking, etc. Next time, I definitely have to go back.

After we boarded the cruise ship, we just sat down and they announced that there's going to a live music performance shortly after 8pm. At the beginning many people were sitting and once the boat started moving, everyone got up and just went to stand out by the rails for a better look and pictures. This was an ideal time to be on the cruise, we were able to watch the sunset then we passed the Banpo Rainbow bridge. It began to light up and we took many pictures. The weather was very pleasant, with a slight chill. It was a very nice way to cruise along the river (spoiler alert! We also saw one of the buildings that was used in the filming of Avengers 2). Next time, we'll have to do the cruise + buffet. 

After a long day of adventures, we headed back to Itaewon and grabbed some Thai food at Wang Thai. We ordered two curry and pad thai and some appies to share. The pad thai was amazing! I am still thinking about it now. I wished I had bought some home with me. Mmmm....another place we have to go back to! 

On the last day, I was hoping to say something to management before we checked out but. Again no one was around so we just left. We dropped off our bags at T&S's and went to get some western breakfast at the Wolfhound (a place Neil and I have been to before). We bid our adieus and went our separate ways. T&S went to do a little shopping before they have to leave the next day and N & I went do grab some books at What The Book and grocercies at High Street Market. 

And that was the end of our long weekend in Seoul with Tommy and Stacey. A short but very sweet trip!

Seoul with Tommy & Stacey - Part 1

During Tommy and Stacey's Asia trip, they made a one week stop in Seoul. We met them for the weekend and it was perfect that it was a long weekend for us! (3-days off!)

We're not good with leaving the house early. We slept in and and hurried to the bus terminal. Unfortunately the next bus wasn't leaving for an hour so we just went to a coffee shop to wait out the time. I'm generally not a fan of public washrooms and I happened to witness an old lady sitting inside a handicap stall with the doors wide open. I'm not sure what business she was conducting but I wanted to get out of there asap!

We finally got to our hostel (Pop@Itaewon) to check in and just took off to meet up with Tommy and Stacey. In hindsight we should've checked to make sure everything worked before leaving because the a/c did not work the ENTIRE time we were there. It was the worst two nights of my hostel experience, even worse than the other hostel (G Guesthouse) in Itaewon. From now on, we will NEVER stay at a hostel in Itaewon, no matter how convenient it is. My sleep, my comfort and my sanity is WAY more important. Because their office was only opened from 1p-10p - we would never back at the hostel to talk to their management to get it fixed. Another big problem was that there's a club/lounge right outside the only window in our room and being a weekend (long weekend) music, people's voices and singing came from it the whole two nights we were there. The first night, we managed to put ear plugs in and sleep for 5 or so hours. The next night, the sound went on till 4am and I just couldn't fall asleep for more than two hours. I was completely exhausted. When I got home, I passed out and sleep for a good 8-10 hours. I've never sleep so soundly like that in a long time. 

---- end of rant ----

So we went to Tommy and Stacey's hotel and met them in the lobby. We headed to a nearby Korean BBQ place to have some food because we were all quite hungry. Next we dropped off some stuff at their hotel and took a bus Myeongdong area for some street food and sulbing. I wish I couldn't eaten more! I got a mochi ball with red bean and strawberry inside. It had a really cute packaging - there's a bow on top to make it look like a bunny. I also had honey butter flavored sweet corn on the cob. It was AMAZING! I've missed sweet corn on the cob! The corn they have here is not the same. It's not sweet, it has a subtle flavor and tastes more plastic-ky. Tommy go a hurricane potato wrapped around a hot dog. It was interesting but was only okay he says. Before I had my corn on the cob, we went to Korean Dessert to get some sulbing. Neil and I shared the Mango Premium and Tommy and Stacey had the Mango cheesecake one. Oh man, they were absolutely delicious! I much prefer the fruity one over the almond one I had last year. 

This area was very much tourist-driven. So prices were a bit more than other places. The lemonade in a bag, I can get at downtown for $1, but here it was $3. So next I wanted to take Tommy and Stacey to Hongdae to check out the buskin and college crowd scene. We are a bit older but this place is quite cheap. After walking around the area and seeing several buskers, we decided to nip into a beer and chicken place. We headed to a place we've been to before but this time we didn't get to go downstairs because it wasn't as busy. After more food, we called it a night and cabbed back to our hostel/hotel. This was the night we discovered the loud sounds of someone saying "Encore! Encore!" and the broken A/C. 

Five day holiday in Busan!

During the first week of May we had a five-day holiday! We started looking at prices to go abroad but because it's a little last minute, the prices were through the roof! We seriously considered somewhere in China or Japan. But we decided we will do Osaka in July and the China visa would take too long for us to get and we simply couldn't be bothered. The last few months with the new schedule and classes, has been exhausting and we really just want to relax. In the end, we chose Busan and stay in hotel instead of a hostel.

On Friday we took the 3.5-4 hour bus ride to Busan. This time I chose a different bus stop then the one originally and it's so much more modern! It's actually located in a mall so it was very busy. We had to walk to through a department store to reach the subway. Our hotel was located near Haeundae Beach called Hotel ForU.  It had said on the website that this used to be a love motel and was recently renovated into a hotel. We were a bit wary but it turned out very nice! It's very modern and looked great. They had housekeeping so every time we come back the bed was made and we had new towels. Too bad there's no room service hehe.

Rather than a long written detailed post, I'm going to summarize what we did in Busan. 

Day 1

- arrived in Busan

- dinner at Boi Brazil - amazing Brazilian restaurant! For $35/person, it was all you can eat meat!  There was five different types of skewered meats that they would deliver and shave onto your plate. My favourite was the bbq whole pineapple with cinnamon and brown sugar mmmm... worth every penny and even the meat sweats!

- walk along the beach

- first of many bubble baths

Day 2

- morning bubble bath

- breakfast at Sharky's 

- Holly's for a coffee and some blogging

- Shinsegae Centum City department store (known as one of the biggest) - I only bought a book there

- Megabox to watch Avengers 2 for the second time and got the Avengers popcorn tin and plastic cups that Neil now uses at work

Day 3 (rainy)

- morning bubble bath

- I watched Grey's Anatomy while Neil watched the fight on TV

- Indian restaurant - I think Gwangju's better

- Piewang for some homemade British style pies

- English breakfast for dinner

- baskin robins ice cream

- bubble bath (I took advantage of all the bubble baths I can have!) 

Day 4 

- morning bubble bath

- second attempt to go to a Korean restaurant An Ga - but still closed :( 

- walk along the beach

- also attempted to go to Sushi Berry but it was closed for two hours and we didn't want to wait

- ended up going to Ilpum Hanwoo - high-end Korean bbq restaurant attached to a hotel. It was good but very pricey. Also, there's a woman who helped us cook our food the ENTIRE time we were there. Maybe some people like it this way, but it was awkward. Neil and I were very aware of her the whole time and it made it weird for us to have a conversation so we ate in mostly silence with a few words here and there. Imagine you're going on a first date with a chaperon sitting right next to you. Good food, expensive but too strange of an experience. 

- nitrogen made ice cream along the Haeudae strip

- Japanese bbq skewere place for a night time snack (reminded me of Zakkushi)

 

Day 5 

- packed up, had breakfast and headed home.