Saturday, October 11, 2014

Seoul day 4 & 5


The next couple of days in Seoul was mainly a R&R session with shopping and trying out some different restaurants. One of the restaurants that we went back for seconds was the 24hour restaurant just outside our restaurant. There's just something about an boiling kimchi jiggae hotpot at 2am in winter.. oh yummsss!


First stop of the day - Palsaek Samgyeopsal. Came as a recommendation from A's friend and man, was it good! Not the easiest place to find due to our lack of navigation and it was an underground restaurant. But nevertheless, definitely worth the effort!

The 8 different flavours of marinade


 
 All that food!


And after that, it was time to walk off all the meat! We took the train back to the main part of the city and was planning to do some major shopping, but as we walked around more.. something was suspiciously wrong... none of the shops were open... ON A MONDAY! WHY?!?!
And we went round and round... and finally someone said that there's the ONE day that shopping centres are closed for 1 day of the year.. and that day is TODAY. OH MAN!!!!

Went back to MyeongDong defeated but at least some shops were still opened that time... did some shopping there till it was time to watch ....
 

Funniest show ever!!!! Couldn't stop laughing our guts out! They were so so so entertaining and that hour went by so quickly! *Tip : if you book online, sometimes there may be a special discount*
For us, it was summer colours, so all you need to do was wear something green/yellow/pink and you can get that 10% off :)


The show didn't finish too late so if I remembered correctly, we went and stocked up more on facial mask and hand creams before heading back to the hotel. But the night was far from over - we took our hotel's bus service to Doota to do some late night shopping. Picked up a few clothing and actually quite liked shopping there.. things are more "quaint' and not the usual you see at the major departmental stores. And of course - you may bargain at some places. They may not drop the price, but you can get extra stuffs like headbands, belts, gloves etc. 

Tip : In general, you are not able to try the clothes there before buying esp if they are quite cheap. But I realized that whenever I asked if I could try, they come really close up and check if I have loads of make up on - and because I don't, I usually get to try them on :). So, definitely worth a try!

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We probably only got back to the hotel at about 3am after Doota, so we all slept in and had a lazy morning. 

First up, breakfast - recommended by a friend. Myeongdong Gyoja

There wasn't much of a queue but we did go at about 11, which was neither breakfast or lunch time. But boy, it was still packed!

Dumplings & noodles


The famous noodles


I really liked the soup noodles. There was probably a little too much garlic or so, but it was so tasty and yummmmm... for me anyway. Not sure about mom and A.. LOL

Next stop - Trick Eye Museum! Had the most fun here!! All of us!
 


 
 A : Quick quick! Save me!! She's gonna cook me!
 Me : I'm coming A!


 And then it was time for A to save me from being eaten

 
 Angels of Earth 


 
 *Clap Clap Clap*
Olympian in the making!


 
 Finally A has mastered the art!


 
Oh my dancing skills has improved so much!


 
 Come on! Let's go dude!

We had so much fun at the museum that I recommend it to anyone who wants to have some fun. Yes, it's no historical site, it's not informative of the city/country, it's not cultural. But it's loads of fun! Especially if you go with the people who won't mind taking pictures and acting silly! :) Best tourist spot ever!

Not far from the Trick Eye Museum is one of the Hello Kitty's Cafe which we just had to go! I haven't been to one before (A has been to one in Taipei), so I was quite intrigued as to what goes on in one of these cafes.

No lack of Hello Kitty that's for sure!!
 Hard to miss the shop!

I really liked the shiny cake on the top - but it was too pretty to be eaten!


Even the toilet!!


Our tea time snack :)

We did more shopping back at Myeongdong.. honestly, we should just stay at Myeongdong next time!

And then, it was time to say goodbye. A and mom were flying out several hours before I was, but I went with them to the airport anyway since we were catching a cab. 



We didn't bother queuing up at the tax returns this time as the queue was superbly long and we didn't really buy that many things that we needed to do it so we just checked in and cleared customs reasonably quickly that we managed to do some more shopping at the airport and had lunch together!





Mum's bibimbap
*for that many days in Seoul - this was only our second!*


And just in case you didn't have time to go to the city's Hello Kitty,
there's one at the airport!
*There's also a Charlie Brown Cafe directly opposite it*

The most amazing (and I thank my lucky stars) was that I left my new ipad when I was going through security and I didn't realize that till >2 hours later. But the security and immigration guys were so so helpful and I got my ipad back without any troubles in less than 2 minutes! How amazing!
Go Korean hospitality!!! :)


 
 Bye bye Seoul