What to eat in Seoul? Seoul Food Post (Oct 2013)

What to eat in Seoul? Here is a small guide on what I have ate during this year Seoul trip!

Sinchon Station

Palsaik Samgyupsal (팔색 삼겹살)

Sinchon Station (Line 2 Exit 6) Walk straight until you see the crossroad then cross the street walk further down for 10 minutes the shop is located on your right.

This restaurant is real famous! It offers 8 flavours of Samgyupsal and gosh this is the best Samgyupsal that I had ever taste in my life (real soft & tender). When you order it comes with a seafood soup (soup are fresh) set.

Palsaik Samgyupsal 8 Flavour Meat

Palsaik Samgyupsal Seafood soup

Must try when you are in Sinchon is real good! You wont regret!

Beside this you can try the Choon Chun Jip Dak Galbi too.

Gyeongbokgung station

We came across this stall at Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 2 ) selling Premium Walnut Pastry and it was 3000 won for 12 pieces and is delicious the filling is red bean paste with premium walnut.

Cocohodo Premium Walnut Pastry

Next we went to the famous Tosokchon that sells ginseng chicken! From Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 2 ) and walk further 5 minutes you will see Tosokchon on your right side. Was so lucky when we went there was no crowd and we do not even need to queue! That time was 11+am and when we were out of the restaurant the queue was incredibly long!

Tosokchon Gingseng Black Chicken

Samcheong-dong

The second best in Seoul (Seoureseo Duljjaero Jalhaneunjip) 

Angguk Station (Line 3 Exit 1) or Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 1). The shop is just located right opposite Beans Bin Cafe. (Just find Samcheong-dong Beans Bin Cafe and you will reach the shop)

The second best in Seoul in Samcheongdong

Is a small tea house and quite famous around the local. We order "patjuk" which means red bean porridge which cost 6000 won per bowl. Its best match with the mochi they gave the taste very traditional. What I observe is that all the locals order this as well.

The second best in Seoul: Red bean porridge

55 Beonji Ramyon ( 55 번지라면)

Just walking around and we came across this 55 Beonji Ramyon Restaurant banner located out side (small path of an alley) When I saw the tasty road banner I was like OMG we gotta try this shop out! (tasty road is a very nice Korean food channel)

So we order the very famous Jjamppong Ramen 79 000 won minmum order was two bowl.

Mussel was fresh and delicious! Nothing bad to say about the ramyon simply love it! The price is worth for the freshness. Plus is not spicy it just look spicy only!!!!

55 번지라면

Went we were there we witness live shooting as well seems like this shop is really famous!

Myeong-Dong

Myeong-Dong Gyoja is also the most famous gyoja in Myeongdong and this is my 3rd visit I blog it here! Located beside Myeongdong H&M (they have two shops).

 Just order it NO REGRETS!

Dong Seoul Station

We was loitering around the Dong Seoul Bus Station and we found this shop that sells fish cake & hotdog.

Dong Seoul Station (Food Stall)

Jumbo hotdog and is super nice! The lady gave lots of cabbage it cost 2000 won plus her fish cake are good tho only 500 won per stick

Chain Cafe

I'm grouping all the chain cafe together. Literally you can find it everywhere!

Beans Bin Cafe

Beans Bin Ice Cream Waffle

Expensive waffle it cost me rm30+ hahaha still acceptable since the ice cream is from Häagen dazs you get to choose 2 ice cream flavours of your choice.

Coffee Bene

Coffee Bene

I ordered belgium waffle with vanila gelato (2nd plate) and I like the waffle compare to beans bin! It taste very sweet and soft! IDK what the 1st thing called but is a bread with cream topping and chocolate syrup and is a autumn menu.

Kyochon Chicken

Kyochon Chicken

This branch is located in Hongdae and is quite hard to find when I ask the locals they seems to like NO IDEA on it and it was 11pm+ we were hungry and looking for dinne. It taste better than KFC hahahaha!

Seoul Station

Beside that I also manage to buy some meat from LOTTE MART it was on SALE during closure of their business hours; 3 box of Lotte Mart (Samgyupsal)  it only cost 15000 won mega cheap! So I bought some rice cake and mix it and thats for dinner!

Lotte Mart (Samgyupsal)

Stay tuned for my next haul post!

Note I will be blogging at http://joyssan.wordpress.com

Seoul Itinerary Blog Post 7D6N (October 2013)

Note post is a copy from my joyssan.wordpress.com blog as I planned to shift to wordpress since is more convenient. Will start blogging on two sides as I haven't finish understanding wordpress. Now back to the topic.

My travel period was on the 14-20 October 2013 (7 days 6 Nights) Itinerary to share with you guys. This only a summary itinerary, details will be cover in other post.

Day 1

Arrival at Incheon Airport at 3.20pm (have a light meal by purchasing chicken teriyaki sandwich from 7-11 on the arrival hall next to skin food & reload T-money) Hop on to AREX (Airport Rail Express) to Honggik University Station (Hongdae Station) to make a transfer to Chungjeongno Station.

Check in Brown Resident at Chungjeongno Station (Line 2/5 Exit 4)

Dinner at Palsaik Samgyupsal ( 8 flavours grilled samgyupsal) this is the best grilled samgyupsal I had in my entire life highly recommended! This restaurant is very famous and is located at Sinchon Station (Line 2 Exit 6)

Have some dessert at Twosome Cafe after that at Shichon branch and walk lottering around Sinchon and we called it a day!

Day 2 

It was rainy all the day and the lowest temperature was 9 degrees. Journey to Sokcho which is is located at the north-east of Korea so is nearer to the sea they have a lot of harbour around. Mt Seorak is the main reason to stop by at  Sokcho.

Headed to Dong Seoul bus terminal to purchase our bus ticket to Sokcho Intercity Bus Terminal. Dong Seoul bus terminal it is located at Gangbyeon Subway Station (Line 2 Exit 4). (Dong Seoul bus terminal is just opposite of the exit)

Tips: when purchasing the ticket to Sokcho, inform the counter to get a express bus ticket and it will take 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach Sokcho Intercity Bus Terminal while the normal ticket  will take up to 3 hours. Cost for single trip is 17,300 won.

Check in at Casa Seorak for a night stay. Highly recommend this B&B in Sokcho! The owner Mr Jun Hwa was very nice and friendly and the B&B was very relaxing indeed it feels like home.

Casa Seorak at Sokcho

Grab some light food at Tiamo Coffee Shop that sells New York hot dogs their fries was awesome. Is rainy heavily thus we shelter there for a while and then we headed to Daepo harbour by using bus number 7 or 7-1.

Daepo Harbour at Sokcho

Daepo Harbour offers wide variety of seafood compare to others harbour around Sokcho it is just beside the famous Sokcho Beach. Their seafood are really fresh! (will update on my food post)

Day 3

On the next morning we depart to Mt Seorak (Seoraksan) by using the same bus by using bus number 7 or 7-1 from our bus station located near to Casa Seorak. From the bus station to  the main gate of Mt Seorak National Park took 30 minutes. Then you need to purchase cable car ticket, please be early as the cable car ticket sold out kinda fast.

Mt Seorak check point

What a beautiful view.

Autumn Leaves at Mt. Seorak

Day 4

Theme Park Day! This time we went to Everland since last trip we went to Lotte World theme park. The fastest way to Everland is take subway to Jamsil Station (Line 2 Exit 8 ) and then take Bus number 5700 this is way faster than taking the bus from Gangnam Station since the subway travel route from Chungjeongno Station to Gangnam Station was 44 minutes and the interval bus to Everland at Gangnam Station was 1 hour once compare to Jamsil Station 20 minutes once.

You will reach Everland Bus station and ride the free shuttle bus once you reach there.

Everland T-express

Tips: Get the Q-pass which is FREE OF CHARGE at the ticket counter near the T-Express, if you want to ride the T-express and print out this Everland Discount ticket!

T- Express Q Pass at Everland

Day 5

Is leisure day and we went to Myeong-Dong to have our breakfast. Myong-Dong Gyoja is the best food to have in Myeong-Dong and then we register ourself to get our free hanbok experience at Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center  which is located at M Plazza Level 5(same building with Zara)

Free Hanbok Experience at Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center

We shop a while around myeong-dong. Personally I like the Olive & Young store (the biggest store in myeong-dong) that offers direct tax refund and the store is connected to Twosome Cafe as well.

After Hanbok experience we went to get some dessert at Cafe Bene. Then we went to Shilla Duty Free nearest subway was Dongguk University Station ( Line 3 Exit 6)

Note: Exit 5 is the nearest way to reach Shilla Duty Free but the exit was closed during that time.

After that we spilt up and I went to Lotte Mart to get some snacks while the rest went to Namsam Park (since I have been to there I did not went back again this time) Lotte Mart was located at Seoul Station (Line 1/4 Exit 1).

Day 6

Another leisure day and we spilt in to two groups as well I did not went to Nami Island (since I’m not a big fan of winter sonata) I went to explore around some area that I did not covered on my last trip.

Thus I make my way to Tongin Market to get some famous ttebokki but before I reach  Tongin Market I saw Tosokchon (the famous Gingseng Chicken Restaurant) was not pack and had my breakfast there. Lucky indeed as we went out, the line was really long and packed. (reach time 11.30am). Tongin Market and Tosokchon is located near to Gyeongbokgung Station ( Line 3 Exit 2)

Next we went to have our dessert so we went to Angguk Station  and walk our way to Samcheong-dong and personally I really like Samcheong-dong is really beautiful and fresh all the houses and buildings have their own style and Samcheong-dong is really near to Hanok Village. You can find beautiful cafe, restaurants and shops around Samcheong-dong.

Samcheong-dong

We walk our walk from Angguk Station to Samcheong-dong and then to National Folk Museum of Korea the whole area filled with local tourist and it is a very artistic place indeed and few Arts exhibition and museum are located in that area.

View behind Gyeongbokgung Palace

From National Folk Museum of Korea (just located behind Gyeongbokgung Palace)   we walk our way to Insadong which is very near and I went Ssamzigil a very famous places that offers Arts & Craft items.

Ssamzigil at Insadong

Day 7

Depart to Airport on 6 am. The Subway opens at 5.33am

Stay tuned on my details trip, food and haul post! It will be more details ^_^

Krabi Hot Stream & Emerald Pool (DAY3)

We manage to book on a half day trip for hot stream and emerald pool from our hotel.The main reason is we do not want to get a full day trip which goes to tiger cave and riding elephant that is such a waste of time. 

So the half day trip took of at 8.30 am to 2.30pm we reach our hotel by 3pm.

First stop was the Hot stream couldn't recall where was the exact location but we nearly had 45 minutes ride to reach our destination. Our tour lead said the hot stream is good for our face & body thus we only need to soak max 30 minutes.

Sexy back reach the hot stream 

This is the only photo I have capture; we walk about 10 minutes from the main gate to the hot stream and we soak ourselves in is quite small actually and the water is damn hot! (40 degrees) 

So after soaking we head on to the popular emerald pool which located at their National Park. There is a walkway which ready for us to walk and we have to walk out way up to the Emerald pool but the tour guide suggest we head straight to the blue pool first before stopping at the Emerald pool for a swim. Blue pool is located 500m away from the Emerald pool.

Walking along I came by a gigantic moth along the walkways WOW!

I think this is their crystal pool where we are prohibited to swim.

Feel like in China Movie scene as the river water is really clear. 

As you can see the walkway;water is crystal clear feel like having a sip from it!

Crystal clear water almost turning in to emerald color. 

Directory of the National Park!

See water turning greener 

We are getting closer 

Tadah the Emerlad Pool

So we went up to explore the Blue Pool and it was really blue like the swimming pool LOL

Is a really small viewing place for us as we cant go near to the pool tour guide said is dangerous. But you can clap your hands together to watch the bubbles effect from the pool when there is a sound from the clapping hands. So we are clapping our hands all the time hahaha

After take we went back to Emerald Pool for a swim and then head back to the hotel for a rest. That was our half day trip journey!

Krabi- Koh Phi Phi (DAY 2 ITINERARY )

Woke up early as 7.30am  (8.30 am Malaysia time) to have breakie so that we don't starve ourself during the day cause we will have 2 snorkelling activity. Koh Phi Phi is a very large island which consist of Koh Phi Phi Don & Koh Phi Phi Ley. 

We had our ride on this antique bus (lol) it even have holes on the back seat floor but is alright cause the distant to our hotel to the pick up point was not far just 10 minutes. So we took few picture in the bus. As you can see the bus is so retro in side they even have a speaker box and fan hahaha

Me & the gals

The guys (they are still in ubah mood) Post election effect.

Close up with our speed boat of the day we are riding this for the trip to explore Koh Phi Phi. Damn love the shorts bought it from roxy and is water proof ideal for beach!

Breathtaking view of bamboo island this is our first stop we are given 45 minutes to swim and take picture. Not sure why does it call bamboo island- there are non bamboo existent at all.   



A close up on the bamboo island. We walk along the beach till the very end and the view were all the same LOL.

Okay pose pose 

With the bf

After that we had our first snookering and I did not take picture of it and idk and forget where is the place is in the middle of the sea hahahaha. 

Non edit purely taken from ip5 just to proof that the water is super green LOL along the way all the sea looks exactly like that! This is when we pass by Viking cave and our boat did not went near in the cave.

Later on arriving Maya Island there was so many boats and tourist on the island unlike bamboo island.Maya Island is a part of Koh Phi Phi Ley

Having fun as we are given another 45 minutes to explore around but actually nothing much to do at Maya Island only the view was awesome. Wanna see how awesome?

Okay is the previous blog picture hahaha! You know going to the beach and we scare our camera get soak so yay! We took picture with only ip5. But still damn nice right? The view although is crowded and we cant even swim compare to bamboo island. 

So next stop middle of no where near maya island hahaha idk the name of the next stop hahahaha....

Can you see those fishes- crystal clear water this is the stop after Maya island and this is the place we stop for the second snorkelling.I got to see nemo and many more fish I was so happy back then compare to the first stop of snorkelling this was far more awesome and I get to feed the fishes ^_^ 

Manage to get some picture with the fish! And I just notice that my skin was damn white too (see my whity leg! LOL) But I got sun burn as the sun kissed me too and I felt the sun burn skin tone was kinda attractive hahahaha 

After that we went to Koh Phi Phi Don and had our lunch buffet and they serve less attractive meal T_T everyone was hungry back then and each time the kitchen delivers fried chicken all the eyes are on them and I got to eat only one piece not hungry at the time but my friends seems so sad. Moral of the story bring some bread in case you are hungry.

The only picture I took from Koh Phi Phi Don hahaha so sad cause the island is not that nice and I feel in love with Maya Island back then. hahahaha it has many hotels and shops around we just had a few walks around after our lunch. Back then Koh Phi Phi Don was hit by tsunami and that's why the view are changing from time to time. So after lunch we received a complimentary bottle coke - "Refreshing". Then we went to monkey Island where the island was all monkey no pictures not fancy monkey LOL.

After that we headed back and we pass by the chicken island. It was around 3.30pm when we heading back and its SUPER sunny day! 

Back to hotel bath and hunt for dinner! We went to Family BBQ it was located up hill and is just the name BBQ nothing related to BBQ at all LOL the tomyum was great! Then we shop again at 7-11 hahaha.

That's the end of Day 2! Ending with a SUMMER SWAG picture! 

BYE!