#79 | Seoul: 15th - 20 December 2018
My wish of flying back to South Korea came true last year
And this time round, I was smarter.
I explored Seoul by myself instead of joining a tour group.
Reading my previous S.K trip post still makes me mad fml.
I cannot forget what that cheater our guide did to everyone.
If you didn't know what happened, click on the link to read:
This time round, I went for a free and easy trip.
I planned out the itinerary and included the places
I have been dying to explore.
And I'll talk about the places I explored, in this post.
BEST SIX DAYS OF MY LIFE EVER.
Before I start talking about the Seoul trip last year, I feel like I should summarise what happened when I joined a tour in 2015 for the Seoul trip
Basically, the tour guide did things that benefitted him and kinda cheated the tourists of their money. I didn't put his photo up in the previous post bcos I don't want any trouble. I saw him last year at a travel fair and omg I wanted to walk up to their company's booth and exposed him of what he did. I sincerely hope a rock drops on him :))) and that no one ever books their tour with Hong Thai. That fucker has a special place in hell.
Starting this post off with my 6 days Seoul itinerary 
I didn't include any food places in it because I went back to the same few restaurants for meals during my 6 days there. I'll share about these restaurants near the end of the post. For now, I'll be sharing about my itinerary.
DAY ONE:
I took a morning flight to Seoul and landed around 8pm KST. It was pretty late by the time I reached the airport. It was below 0 degrees when I stepped out of the airport and I was shivering on my way to the car that I booked, to the hotel.
So by the time I reached the hotel, most of the shops were closed but thank god for the convenience store at the hotel lobby. After settling down my belongings, I put on my thermal wear and headed downstairs to explore the area around the hotel and familiarise myself with it. On the way back, I stopped by the convenience store and got myself a bottle of banana milk and some snacks.
Pretty much sums up day 1.
DAY TWO:
Woke up at 9am KST and it was already snowing!!! So I got ready quickly and went up to the hotel's rooftop. It started snowing heavily as soon as I reached the rooftop. I stood there for a while and snapped a few videos before deciding to head out for the day.
The most important thing was to get breakfast or brunch since it was almost 11am by the time I headed out of the hotel. I made my way over to Onedang Gamjatang which was just a few minutes walk away from my hotel.
The restaurants have 2 outlets around Myeongdong and the one I went to, has no chairs for the diners to sit. Instead, diners are seated on the floor to eat. If you prefer sitting on chairs to eat, then I suggest you go over to their other outlet which is located within the Myeongdong shopping area (If I didn't remember wrongly)
*I'll share the details of this restaurant at the end of this post!
Having this in the morning was just so good. It warmed my body up since the soup was hot. One thing to take note of is that the soup is spicy and the staff is unable to make it non-spicy as they have already prepared 1 huge pot of soup beforehand. If you're unable to take spicy, I suggest you order the tofu stew & get them to make a non-spicy version of it.
After filling my stomach, I took the subway to Hongik University (Hongdae). This place is filled with students, food and of course, Korea skincare and makeup brands. Highly recommend everyone to visit Hongdae as it is not as crowded as Myeongdong.
The moment I exited the subway station, I was greeted by Etude House and their ambassadors - Red Velvet. So naturally, I walked over and entered the store, coming out with a huge paper bag filled with skincare and lip products since it was on sale.
Walked around more but I didn't buy much since I had to go to Lotte Mart afterward and I didn't want to carry an extra load. I ended up just entering and exiting shops without buying much. But, I did have some street snacks. (Photos of it are on my Instagram). On the way to Lotte Mart, I walked this LED banner meant for Kang Daniel's birthday, made by fans and being a KDN & Wanna One fan, I obviously took out my phone and snapped a few pics before walking over to the train bound for Seoul Station.
Lotte Mart was crowded af and filled with tourists from China. I got a headache after walking around for a while that I decided to stop walking, pay for my snacks and call it a day.
DAY THREE:
SMTOWN AND KAKAO FRIENDS DAY! I won't be talking much about these 2 places in this post because it'll make the post really long. There will be a separate blog entry where I share more in-depth about these 2 places.
In summary, SMTOWN Coex Atrium has changed quite a bit ever since my last visit in 2015. It definitely got an upgrade, a good one tbh. There is an SM Museum inside the SMTOWN Coex Atrium but, SM being SM, you'll need to purchase tickets to enter the museum. Entry into SMTOWN Coex Atrium is absolutely free.
As for Kakao friends, there were too many tourists inside, which made shopping there horrible. Everyone was just bumping into each other... Also, I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy the food served in the cafe. The drinks are alright but just not the buns since it looks like they have been sitting on the counter for quite some time already. P.s. the cafe serves 'Ryan' themed food so if you're looking for the 'Apeach' themed ones, you should probably go to the Apeach cafe in Busan or Apeach cafe in Tokyo...
So for Day 3, I mainly went to these 2 places and of course, Myeongdong. I walked around Myeongdong, looking for the items on my wishlist and managed to find most of them. You really have to explore every corner of Myeongdong to search for the items you want, especially if they are not well-known brands and don't have their own shops.
DAY FOUR:
We are nearing the end of my Seoul trip. This day was rather relaxing because, no more taking of the subway. I was mainly shopping around the Myeongdong area and then followed by a trip to Namsan Tower. (A place Hong Thai didn't bring us to in 2015). After breakfast at Onedang Gamjatang, I made my way to Lotte Young Plaza which was located at the other exit of the Myeongdong subway station.
There was a Kakao Friends store located within Lotte Young Plaza but I still couldn't get the items I wanted since it was out of production. There was nothing much to shop at Lotte Young Plaza. I chanced upon Gongcha inside the mall and decided to just sit down there since I did not plan my day beforehand.
The staff working at Gongcha was friendly and they could understand a bit of English. There was also a card for you to point to your preferred sugar & ice level. So that was good. However, 1 cup of Gongcha there costs about SGD4/5+ T_T
After the expensive cup of Gongcha, I exited the mall and walked around Myeongdong to continue my search for the items on my wishlist, for the next 2 hours. Once I bought most of the items, I headed back to the hotel to unload my shopping, shower and rested before Namsan Tower.
It is pretty easy to get to Namsan Tower, especially if you are staying in Myeongdong area. There is actually a shuttle bus to the Namsan Tower cable car. Whether you are staying in Myeongdong area or staying somewhere else, just take the subway to Myeongdong station and exit via Exit 1. There will be a shuttle bus there to bring visitors to the cable car. The bus departs every 30 minutes and brings visitors to and back from the cable car. For more information, you may visit: Namsan Tower Shuttle Bus
I took the shuttle bus in the evening and there weren't many people. I guess it's because their tour guides brought them to the tower. Unlike the cheater tour guide of mine. The journey up to the cable car took about 10-15 minutes, once you alight the bus, just walk to the counter to purchase your cable car tickets before entering. The waiting time for the cable car was about 20-30 minutes. The journey up was relatively fast as well.
Take note that if you want to go in and up to the Tower/ Observatory deck itself, you'll need to buy tickets. Otherwise, you can just walk around the locks area and eat some snacks while enjoying the night view. I recommend getting your tickets from Klook as it's much cheaper and you don't have to queue for the tickets either. Just scan the QR code on your booking slip and you'll get your tickets.
But if you decide to give the observatory deck a miss, it's fine. I personally feel that it was way too crowded and everyone simply stood at the glass panels, not moving away at all. If you do want to go up to the observatory deck, go when the sun is still up. You'll see things better. And then when the sun has set, head back down and put on the locks on the fences.
DAY FIVE:
The last day in Seoul before I depart to Taiwan. My energy was mostly gone and I was kinda sad since it was the last day. I walked around Myeongdong to do a final shopping before heading back to pack everything into my 28-inch luggage. (Yes, I filled up my 28-inch luggage with skincare and makeup products, within 5 days of shopping). Surprisingly, I did not purchase anything from Innisfree. The stores I went into weren't having any promotions or good deals and most of the products there could be found in Singapore.
Throughout this trip, I bought items from mostly Etude House, Dr Jart, Olive Young, ALAND, Banila Co. I wanted to get products from The Saem but nothing interested me.
DAY SIX:
Flight bound for Taiwan. I was disappointed with Incheon airport because there was nothing to shop and every the shops there accepts USD only. Also, do remember to get your tax refund 'approved' before entering the immigration. If you don't do that/forgot to, then you can also forget about claiming back the taxes you paid for your items. The person who helped me with 'approving' tax refund was friendly and understood simple English and it made things way easier.
RESTAURANTS I VISITED DURING MY TRIP:
Onedang Gamjatang Myeongdong 1
Address: 13, Myeongdong 9-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04534, South Korea
Average price per pax: SGD10
Opening Hours: 24 hours.
Hong Kong Banjeom 0410+ (Myeongdong Branch)
Address: 14, Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04536, South Korea
Average price per pax: SGD8-10
Must order: Jajangmyeong!
Kong Bul
Address: 15, Myeongdong 6-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04536.
Average price per pax: SGD 10+
Han's Deli
Address: 1 Myeongdong 10-gil, 4F., Seoul, South Korea
Average price per pax: SGD10
Migabon Porridge (Myeongdong)
Address: 56 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04537, South Korea
Average price per pex: SGD8-10
Opening Hours: 8am to 10pm
Do I recommend the restaurants?
I highly recommend all the restaurants listed above. Everything I ate during my trip was delicious. So if you are around Myeongdong area, do give these restaurants a try! Some of the restaurants do have branches around Seoul so you might want to google around and see if it's near the hotel you're staying at. Do take note that for almost all my meals, I paid around SGD10 each on average. Hope it helps you with planning how much money to change for your trip.
Where to buy a certain brand of skincare?
- Dr Jart, 3CE, Pony Effect, Aprilskin, and Labiotte can be found at Lotte Young Plaza
- Etude House is all over Myeongdong & Hongdae
- Klairs & COSRX can be found at ALAND, Myeongdong
- COSRX, Isntree, Mediheal, Medicube can be found at Olive Young
- Banila Co can be found at Hongdae
Tips:
- Get a data sim card instead of wifi egg because it is so much cheaper & the internet speed + connection is good as well.
- Walk around different stores of the same brand. When I was there, each Etude House I went to, had different promotions.
- Learn to speak and read basic korean, it helps.
- Olive Young carries a variety of brands so if you cannot find the brand you are looking for, go to Olive Young.
- Bring your passport out for immediate tax reduction/refund at certain shops.
- Make sure you have a list of items you want to purchase with a photo of it. It'll make searching easier for you
- Google maps does not work in South Korea. Download Naver map beforehand.
There you have it, my 6 days in Seoul. I had fun and made unforgettable memories. Sadly, I'm not going back this year. But I'm sure the country I'm visiting in December this year would be as good as Seoul, if not even better!
- e n d -
the bunny pal 🐰
