South Korea 2013 Day 3 & 4
DAY 3: 15 JUNE 2013
Shopping time!
The best bargains for clothes are usually located in the vicinity of universities.
Ewha Women's University was our first stop of the day.
From exit 2 or 3 of Ewha Womans University station (line 2), we took a five minutes
walk to the main shopping streets.
Like always, you can get a map from the tourist information volunteers which indicates the
type of merchandises sold along a particular street.
I am so in love with this place!
You can get clothes from 5,000 won and there are rows and rows of shops
for you to patronise in the casual clothes street.
I didn't spend more than 10,000 won on a piece of clothing here, which
definitely is a good buy!
Other than clothes, there are also stalls selling shoes and accessories too.
Socks were selling at 1,000 won per pair which is reasonably priced.
As this is located near the women's university, most of the shops cater to females.
There are a number of shops selling clothes and accessories for guys however, you can't
get prices as low as 5,000 won.
After spending close to two hours shopping, which is not enough for me,
I managed to bag eight pieces of clothing and two pairs of socks!
As it was lunchtime, we randomly entered a restaurant and had our meal there.
I ordered naengmyeon which is a common Korean cold noodles dish, and it was really
yummy and a good choice for the hot weather.
We were really lucky throughout the trip as the restaurants we patronise usually serve
really good Korean food at affordable prices.
After lunch, we moved on to Hongdae which houses another university, Hongik University.
I won't say much about Hongdae as we didn't see anything special there.
Probably because we went to a different area, which was away from the crowd.
There were many clothing stores, but the pieces were more expensive than those
we have seen at Ewha.
We then made our way to Sungnyemun gate, which is also known as Namdaemun gate.
From City Hall station exit 8, we continued walking straight and the gate was at sight.
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| Side view of Sungnyemun gate |
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| Sungnyemun gate |
We didn't get a chance to explore the gate even though we saw tourists at the upper levels.
Nevertheless, we just took as much photos as we wanted and left for
Namdaemun market, located just next to the gate.
Namdaemun market was so huge! The market was made up of many different sections,
from food stalls to household goods and to ahjumma fashion wear.
Sadly, we couldn't find the section that most suits us and thus, the visit to the market
bored us out really fast.
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| Korean snack stall |
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| Fruits on stick |
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| Traditional Korean food alley |
As we were all feeling tired, we decided to return to the guesthouse to get some rest,
and avoid the heat before getting dinner!
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DAY 4: 16 JUNE 2013
Today was shopping day number two!
But before that, we made a brief visit to Dongdaemun gate.
We made a visit to Dongdaemun, specifically the area which houses
Good morning city, Hello aPM, Migliore and Doota.
Each building has several floors, with ladies' wear taking up about two to three floors.
We patronised all four shopping buildings, with around forty minutes spent at each building.
I only managed to get two items:
Grey cold shoulder top for 5,000 won from Migliore
White cotton slouchy shirt for 15,000 won from Hello aPM.
But I am very satisfied with my buys since I would have spent S$25 if I were to get them
from the local blogshops.
Out of the four shopping buildings, the merchandises sold in Doota are the most expensive.
It was just window shopping for me when I went to Doota!
We entered a random restaurant for lunch, since the lady could speak Mandarin.
My brother and I shared an army stew, which costs 15,000 won.
It was quite spicy for me, since my spicy food tolerance is really low.
Nevertheless, it was a unique lunch after all!
We spent about four hours at Dongdaemun, and proceeded to visit the Namsan Tower
after a rest back at the guesthouse.
Our guesthouse is strategically located between Myeongdong shopping streets and Namsan Park.
We had the option to take the cable car, which costs 8,000 won for a return ride,
as the cable car station was eight minutes walk away from our guesthouse.
However, it was a Sunday and the line for the ride will definitely be long.
We decided to settle for a bus ride that will take us to the Namsan tower as an alternative
to a cable car ride.
Our bus stop was just outside exit 3 for Myeongdong station, and we had to take bus number 5.
Each bus ride costs 850 won with the T-money card, and the journey to the tower
is roughly thirty minutes since it is a loop service.
Upon alighting, we still had to climb a slope, which was rather steep, in order to get to the tower.
I absolutely love the last photo!
We spent close to an hour hanging around and taking photos before leaving.
I will definitely re-visit this place again with my boyfriend, to put the couple locks!
For those who have more stamina, you can consider hiking up to the tower, which may
take at least an hour.
The view on the way up is really stunning and I am really tempted to do a
hike the next time I return!
Hopefully I will be as strong as I am now!
We went to Myeongdong for dinner after visiting Namsan tower.
This time, we settled for some Korean porridge at Migabon!
I ordered the oyster & mushroom porridge, which costs 7,000 won.
They were really generous with the oysters as I had more than eight oysters in my
bowl of porridge, and they all tasted really fresh!
My mum and brother had the abalone porridge (10,000 won) and they
said that it was really good too!
I am definitely going to patronise this restaurant again when I return to Seoul.
That concludes the end of day 4 in Seoul (:
But before that, we made a brief visit to Dongdaemun gate.
 |
| Dongdaemun gate |
 |
| Cheonggyecheon stream |
We made a visit to Dongdaemun, specifically the area which houses
Good morning city, Hello aPM, Migliore and Doota.
Each building has several floors, with ladies' wear taking up about two to three floors.
We patronised all four shopping buildings, with around forty minutes spent at each building.
I only managed to get two items:
Grey cold shoulder top for 5,000 won from Migliore
White cotton slouchy shirt for 15,000 won from Hello aPM.
But I am very satisfied with my buys since I would have spent S$25 if I were to get them
from the local blogshops.
Out of the four shopping buildings, the merchandises sold in Doota are the most expensive.
It was just window shopping for me when I went to Doota!
My brother and I shared an army stew, which costs 15,000 won.
It was quite spicy for me, since my spicy food tolerance is really low.
Nevertheless, it was a unique lunch after all!
We spent about four hours at Dongdaemun, and proceeded to visit the Namsan Tower
after a rest back at the guesthouse.
Our guesthouse is strategically located between Myeongdong shopping streets and Namsan Park.
We had the option to take the cable car, which costs 8,000 won for a return ride,
as the cable car station was eight minutes walk away from our guesthouse.
However, it was a Sunday and the line for the ride will definitely be long.
We decided to settle for a bus ride that will take us to the Namsan tower as an alternative
to a cable car ride.
Our bus stop was just outside exit 3 for Myeongdong station, and we had to take bus number 5.
Each bus ride costs 850 won with the T-money card, and the journey to the tower
is roughly thirty minutes since it is a loop service.
 |
| View of Seoul from the bus terminal |
Finally we arrived at our destination!
This place is filled with couples as it is famous for the love locks site at the tower.
There is also a teddy bear museum at the tower.
As I have been to the teddy bear museum in Jeju, I had no intention to visit this one
even though I love soft toys!
 |
| Couple love locks |
We spent close to an hour hanging around and taking photos before leaving.
I will definitely re-visit this place again with my boyfriend, to put the couple locks!
For those who have more stamina, you can consider hiking up to the tower, which may
take at least an hour.
The view on the way up is really stunning and I am really tempted to do a
hike the next time I return!
Hopefully I will be as strong as I am now!
We went to Myeongdong for dinner after visiting Namsan tower.
This time, we settled for some Korean porridge at Migabon!
I ordered the oyster & mushroom porridge, which costs 7,000 won.
They were really generous with the oysters as I had more than eight oysters in my
bowl of porridge, and they all tasted really fresh!
My mum and brother had the abalone porridge (10,000 won) and they
said that it was really good too!
I am definitely going to patronise this restaurant again when I return to Seoul.
That concludes the end of day 4 in Seoul (:
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