*SouthKorea2K16* 161204: Gwangjang Market & Insadong!

One of the oldest traditional markets in South Korea! 

We decided to visit the famous Gwangjang market for our breakfast for our second day in Seoul. We alighted at Euljiro 4-ga Station (Seoul Subway Line 2 & 5), Exit 4 and we walked a little to reach our destination. Most of the food stalls here sell similar food items like Bindaetteok and jokbal.

Bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes)

Jokbal (Pig trotters cooked in soy sauce and spices)

Since there were a lot of stalls selling the same stuff, we decided to sit at a random stall and start ordering away! We ordered odeng, bindaetteok, spicy rice cakes, bibimbap and SANNAKJIIIIIIIIIIII. The odeng and rice cakes we ordered was a small portion and hence I did not take any pictures of it. 

Friendly ahjumma preparing the items we ordered! 

Bibimbap. Not nice.

SANNAKJI

RIP.. Thanks for the sacrifice. 

It took me a lot of hesitation and courage to try the sannakji because as you may have known, the tentacles were still moving when its on the plate. Nonetheless, I still tried it in the end and it was not much of a big deal afterwards. Oh yes. The ahjumma preparing the sannakji was so brutal, i was shocked HAHA

The crowd in the market began to concentrate as time passes by and it is getting harder to maneuver between the different stalls. Other dishes like kimbap, blood sausages, pumpkin soup and red bean soup were sold here too. We did not try the blood sausages because we were going to try it that night!

We made our way to Insadong after that for more food, hoping that we could find a certain stall famous for selling hotteok, a Korean sweet pancake with molten brown sugar in it. We took the subway and exited at Anguk Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 6. 

Hints of Autumn left as Winter slowly takes over.

We walked around Insadong and we chanced upon a shop selling dumplings (mandu) and we decided to have some. We wanted to order 3 pieces of mandu but ordered 3 sets instead fml. It was located in one of the alleys, but there was a promoter standing at the intersection between the alley and the main street, guiding people into the direction of the stall. The mandus were steamed at the shopfront instead of the kitchen at the back. There was a fan beside the chef which blew all the steam into the alley to attract customers to their shop. 

So we ordered normal mandus and kimchi mandus or which the size was unbelievable. It was good, but not amazing. 

The hotteok stall which we were finding was not around on that day and so we visited another stall for hotteok. It was an excellent street snack for the cold weather because of the hot melted sugar in it. 

However, this was not my favourite hotteok stall because we found another stall selling better hotteoks in Hyehwa. It had more sugar and more nuts in it. We dropped by Sulbing to have some Injeolmi Sulbing and also to rest for a while. 

Injeolmi Sulbing for the cold weather! 

Bare trees decorating the streets of Insadong. Something that we will not see in Singapore. 

We walked past Osulloc Tea house and we knew that we needed to give it a try even though we just had Sulbing. We entered the shop and ordered up two matcha soft serves. 

The soft serve was full of matcha flavour and you can taste the slight bitter aftertaste coming from the matcha itself, which I really liked. 

The first floor of the shop was their retail area where they sold products like matcha milk spread and tea sets. There was also a dining area on the second floor where customers can sit down comfortably and enjoy their food in the warmth. We chose to have our soft serve on the go because it melted faster in the shop itself. 

We went back to our Airbnb in Hapjeong for a rest and we made our journey to Hyehwa for dinner afterwards. We decided to have Soondaeguk (순대국), which is blood sausage soup. 

The soondae is red in colour because of the ingredients used in it, which includes pig organs and blood, stuffed in pork intestine. Although I had the impression that it would have a weird taste because of the pig's blood, there wasn't any and it's worth a try! 

We ended Day 2 by dropping by Pal-saek Samgyupsal (팔색삼겹살) to have pork belly. The restaurant is famous for their pork belly which comes in 8 flavours, which are mainly Ginseng, Wine, Pine Leaves, Garlic, Herb, Curry, Miso Paste and Hot. 

Ordered the small portion because there was soup provided too.

Personally, I preferred the Hot flavour because of its strong taste. This restaurant is a must-visit if you love your pork bellies! We went back to our Airbnb after that to have an early rest because we needed to wake up early for our flight to Jeju Island the following day!

*SouthKorea2K16* 161203: Singapore ↠ South Korea

Pikachu at Changi Airport Terminal 1 Departure Hall

I met up with Vance at Changi Airport to board our flight together to Incheon. We took Airasia which transited at KLIA2, where we met up with Shu. Do take note that if you're taking AirAsia, extra payment is needed for baggage check-in and food on board. Therefore, do consider the extra costs and compare it with the normal airlines (SIA, Korean Air etc) to find out which airline suits you the most!

Wifi Router from Changi Recommendations! 

Also, we have rented the wifi router (or wifi egg as some of you might call it) for unlimited wifi and it only costs SGD$5 per day. I personally think everyone should get it because of the unlimited wifi and it supplies fast wifi almost all the time, you only need to charge the power every night because of its good battery life. You need to pay an extra $10 for the insurance of the wifi router in case of any mishaps happens.

Super fluffy clouds!

Flying to Korea this time has been a dread for me because I realised that I have no access to my Spotify music while in the air. And because we took a budget airline, there was absolutely no entertainment for me to pass through the 6-7 hours journey to Korea. So I basically survived the long flight by sleeping all the time and looking out the window for nice clouds and sunlight. And yes, I got a window seat!

TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have finally touched down in INCHEON AIRPORT!!! Encountered some problems while collecting my luggage. Nonetheless, we made it through and WELCOME TO SOUTH KOREA! So here's a tip, get a luggage which is not black in colour, or a luggage cover(?) so that you can identify your luggage easily and get out of the airport ASAP to start your holiday!

Our first stop of the day was Hongik University (Hongdae) because we could only check into our Airbnb at Hapjeong after 3pm. Hongdae is literally one of our favourite spots in Seoul because of the abundance of local foods and how convenient it is to travel to other places in Seoul as it is an intersection of different subway lines. Both Shu and Vance found a spot to deposit their luggages at the subway station except me. I had to drag my luggage around until my Airbnb check in time.

Emoboy93 (._. )

We went to our must-go restaurant every time we visit Korea, Saemaeul Siktang. They sell the greatest, in my opinion, marbled beef and their signature dish. "7 minute Kimchi stew".

Vance when he looked normal. He had an allergy reaction after the meal when he ate a perilla leaf. 

Marbled beef with 7 minute kimchi stew!

BEST MARBLED BEEF EVERRRRRR

The kimchi stew is a MUST ORDER whenever you visit this restaurant! The kimchi stew is prepared in 7 minutes, as the name suggests, and there is a special way to devour this beast. Refer to video below!

If i was on a death row, this would be my last meal.

We went to Gelati Gelati to have some gelato for dessert afterwards because what's better than eating something cold on a cold winter morning right? :D

Chocolate with Royal Tea gelato!

Photobomb because im da bomb. 

We walked around Hongdae to look for a pharmacy for Vance's allergy pills. We headed to the subway station to collect their luggages and to Hapjeong for our Airbnb check in! Hapjeong was just one station away from Hongdae, so it was not much of a hassle.

Met up with the owner of our Airbnb apartment and he brought us to our apartment. We did not choose to stay in a hotel because we allocated more budget for food and entertainment. Besides, it is only a place for resting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Our apartment was on the 34th floor which gave us a wonderful view of the area outside of our window and also the Han river!

We rested for a while in our apartment and left for Myeongdong to have some Sinseon Ox Bone Stew for dinner.

Swollen faced Vance with me enjoying the oh-so-good barley tea

Milky garlic Ox Bone Stew! 

BIG Mandus!

We walked around Myeongdong for a while before making our way to Namsan Tower (Seoul Tower). The Christmas lights in Myeongdong were so pretty!

Few moments later, we have reached the cable car station which leads us to Namsan Tower!

We paid about S$10 for a two-way cable car trip. The queue for the cable car was rather long, but it moved kind of fast and there was a shop selling snacks and souvenirs too. We waited for around half an hour and we boarded the cable car! It was rather squeezy tho. 

The cable car trip took about 5-10mins and the view of the city was amazing! 

The Namsan Tower is not only a famous tourist spot, but also a popular dating spot where couples come to put their "Padlocks of Love" alongside the railings of the tower base to signify the importance of their love. We went up to the observatory after that which gave us a 360 degree panoramic view of Seoul. Night view never fails but phone camera does. None of my pictures were nice, but the experience was good! Here's a picture of the night view from our apartment to end this post of our Day 1 in South Korea!