Pastel Fantasies: February 2014

Assalamualaikum.

It's the final day for us to stroll around in Seoul before going back to Malaysia. Since we barely had any energy left due to excessive walking for few days straight, we decided to go to visit the famous universities nearby. I basically chose the hostel to be in Sinchon/Hongdae area as it's packed with youngsters, and I really want to observe their fashion sense and all.

Before going out, we made breakfast. It was the only day I had complete meal for breakfast. I cooked maggi while Ina made half-boiled eggs for us. We met the remaining 6 persons who supposed to join our trip but we sat at different tables and barely had interaction besides saying hi and asking short questions.

The first university we went to visit was the nearest one to our hostel, which is Ewha Women's University. To speak the truth, the structure and surrounding were outstanding! And there are lots of shops and eateries just after exiting the main gate. Lucky Korean universities' students for having such good place to study at!

We didn't actually visit the whole area, we just took pictures at the place near to the main gate and then set foot to the second university, which is Hongik University (Hongdae). I don't know we entered through which gate but we saw buildings of art faculty right after going up the hill. But the view wasn't really nice, or maybe we didn't get to see the nice parts of Hongik University.

There was this handsome oppa (I think he's an oppa, hahaha) leaning at this signboard opposite Hongik's gate and I've been curious and always want to see his face. He wore face mask so I basically saw his eyes, but he totally caught my attention. To that oppa, 연락해주세요! Hahahaha. We then stopped at Paris Baguette for brunch (lol yeah brunch.... it was me who feels hungry and wanted something to drink hahaha) and wow, I must say Paris Baguette has the best coffee among other cafes I tried in Korea.

We then head to Yonsei University, and it took a really long walk from the main gate to the main building. The buildings along the road were under construction, and I saw those controversial notices put on by students protesting about something which I don't really read about it properly. Imanina's foot was killing her and I really felt sorry for her, but what to do, we're in a trip and I don't really want to waste our day by only being in our room.

It felt like dreams come true to finally able to step in universities that I wanted to enrol in. The views were nice, the buildings are pretty, and everything just... I don't know. They caught my eyes, every single one of them. And then began the endless comparing of how Malaysian universities looked like haha. Or maybe it's only UiTM that looked typically ugly :/

We then went to Myeongdong, again, to meet Kak Shiema. It was really cold that night, so I bought gyeran ppang (egg bread) from nearest stall but it wasn't enough so I bought ddeokbokki (spicy rice cake). The sauce was really red, and it basically left red marks on my hands. Needed to wash hands for few times with soap to get rid of the red colour. We walked around Myeongdong with Kak Shiema and entered Nature Republic, where EXO is the face for the shop. And guess what?

I didn't get to take pictures with the real Tao, so yeah this is alright.

...yeah. The section was closed but we didn't know about that so we kept on taking pictures with them before the promoter basically asked us to leave the section haha we immediately exited the shop. All of us then head back and part ways with Kak Shiema. It's time to take our belongings from the hostel and head to airport. The long journey was tiring and I was completely out of energy. We decided to sleep at the airport since our flight was on 9:35AM and we need to check in and everything by 6.20AM. Worrying that we might not make it there if we're still at the hostel, we checked out earlier and stayed at the airport for 7 hours or so? I forgot haha.

And... that's all for our journey in Korea :) Not really told in details, and not really as interesting as what you thought it might be. Still, it's a memory to be cherished forever :)

No munchkin(s)

It's finally day 4 of our trip to Korea, and I don't know if it's because of we slept really late the night before (maybe because of too much caffeine intake once we arrived Korea) and being extremely tired of walking, we were up almost noon. Lol talk about girls should wake up early :P

The plan for day 4 was to visit the areas near Anguk station, Bukchon Hanok Village and Changdeokgung Palace. We set journey to Bukchon Hanok Village without having proper brunch and, like always, we got lost and just walk wherever our feet brought us to. And bam, we found it. Turned out we're at the lane number 9 or something like that, but for sure, we're not at the main entrance and didn't pay for the entrance fees. *Oops, that's our dirty little secret!*

Beautiful lane but urgh people

We were really hungry after going up the hill and looking at the houses there, so we thought of finding any place to dine in. Naturally, we cancelled our plan to Changdeokgung Palace because of hunger. We were lost after exiting Bukchon Hanok Village since we exited at the other side of it and not the first road we used to go there. We asked for directions to go to the subway station. We hesitated quite lots of times as it didn't seem like we're nearing it but yeay, we managed to find it with the help of ridiculously-not-helpful map of Seoul given by the information girl.

We alighted at Jongno 3-ga station, and thought of going to this spicy baby octopus restaurant but because of the confusing map, we ended up searching for any restaurant nearby in hopes there are menus that we can eat. We walked in this small alley and there were few restaurants there. I thought of dining in this one restaurant but I think it was Imanina who pointed there's this restaurant selling soondubu jjigae and all. The menu displayed outside seemed like it's a seafood restaurant so we stepped in happily with no doubt.

But then... getting the real menu, I began to quiver. Porks. Porks. Porks. I then looked at the soondubu jjigae- alhamdulillah, seafood soondubu jjigae. The ahjumma came to take order and I've been repeating like I don't know how many times to not put any kinds of meat in it and she assured that the jjigae is prepared with vegetable stock. One thing I like about Korean restaurants is, they prepared a jug/bottle of cold water on the table so we can drink as soon as we arrived. (Malaysia, bila nak buat mcm ni? Jimat sikit tak payah bazir duit utk order air)

One thing I must say is, THAT HAEMUL SOONDUBU JJIGAE TASTES SO GOOD LUCKY US WE ORDERED 2 SERVINGS OF IT LIKE SERIOUSLY IT TASTES REAL GOOD WE WERE DRINKING THE SOUP TILL WHAT'S LEFT IS THE BOWL ITSELF. ((due to excessive hunger, we didn't take any pictures of the meal hahahaha))

Since there's time left, we decided to go Han River on Yeouido side. KBS and MBC are nearby but we got lost while trying to find MBC and since it's getting dark, we cancelled the plan to visit the buildings.

Panorama view of Han River

It was really cold; my fingers turned blue and gloves aren't much a help

After getting lost while trying to find MBC, we went back to the subway station and decided to go to Hongdae, just to get the youth feel. It's natural to feel hungry even though you just ate few hours ago because of the cold weather. We stopped at Etude House as I need to buy some stuffs for my friends before we searched for any decent cafe to dine in. Since Imanina wanted to go to Zoo Coffee, and there's one nearby, we made way to it. The interior is actually beautiful and elegant, but it was packed with customers and some people had to go out to find other cafe to dine.

My really tawar vanilla latte with very masam cheese cake

To be honest, the coffee isn't nice, the food is quite nice, depending on what kind of food you ordered. The cheesecake is a meh but Fatihah's berry waffle is delicious! I wanted honey berry bread after seeing the couple next to us ordered it and it was really huge, not like the ordinary slice of bread you eat for breakfast. Too bad, many of their delicious range of foods were sold out so we got to order the not mainstream ones haha. We sat at the bar facing the window so we can see the outside clearly and all we saw was couples everywhere.

Basically, if you're single, you might feel uneasy and want to have a boyfriend/girlfriend as soon as possible because of the couples. Some showed PDA a bit too much, some were like innocent-kind of couples, and other kinds of couples you can imagine were there. After our modest dinner, we went back to our hostel. Since it's still early, Imanina and I decided to stroll around since we noticed there's many stalls selling good stuffs there.

No munchkin(s)

Assalamualaikum,

It was raining most of the time; the most unsuitable day to go to Namsan Tower but we proceeded, hoping that the rain will stop when we arrived there. Guess we were wrong, but we still braved ourselves and went through the freezing winter cold to Myeongdong station. Upon exiting, we noticed the free shuttle bus to N Seoul Tower's cable car and we thought, "Why not?" Majority were Korean in the bus anyway, so it doesn't really give us the 'we-are-on-a-trip' feel.

N Seoul Tower. It was raining. We have no umbrellas. We are brave... and healthy.

I didn't take pictures of us in the cable car because the glass at my side were foggy, no use of taking pictures as we couldn't really see the beautiful scenery outside. We didn't get to enter the observatory because of the weather, teddy bear museum was closed, and all left was the pad locks thingy. We entered a cafe since I wanted to try churros (yummy I want more!) while Imanina went to find her padlocks. The rain poured heavier while we were in the cafe and it stopped for a few while before it rained again.

Christmas tree of padlocks.

Too bad couldn't take pictures while sitting at the chair since it was wet.

Look how foggy it was. Not to mention we were freezing cold.

More padlocks.

We spent some time to take pictures and put our padlocks there before we went back to the cable car station. We stopped at the odeng and twisted fried potato stall where EXO visited in EXO Showtime. I bought odeng while Imanina bought the twisted fried potato. Ohh the heat from odeng's soup managed to warm up my frozen fingers. It was delicious too.

We took the same bus to go back to the subway station and it's time to search for proper meal! We hardly eat rice on day 2, so it's time to consume carbs again. We made way to go to Heuksando (흑산도), a seafood restaurant. Turned out it is located right next to the noraebang we went on first day! Haha such coincidence. We ordered mackerel stew (고등어 조림) and wow, the soup does taste like asam pedas! We ordered seafood pajeon too.

Side dishes/banchan at Imanina's side. No pictures of main menu haha

We then went to Dongdaemun and Namdaemun. Guess what? Yep, shopping time. We were like curious explorers, we didn't really follow the exact directions given. We explore by ourselves, which explains why I hardly give direction to go to certain places. While at Dongdaemun, we found Cheonggyecheon Stream by accident so, photo time.

I love this stepping stones hehe

We're not at the beginning of the stream so it explains the ugly and plain impression. I managed to buy a pair of boots that I've been talking about for days and finally bought one, hehe. Original price was 29,000 won, so I asked for 20,000 won. I won the bargain, but was cheated as the ahjumma gave me the pair of shoes 1 size smaller than mine. How dare you! Luckily it fits, just not comfortable enough for me to wear it in a long period.

I don't know how to take pictures of shoes so excuse me

Namdaemun really is a place to shop. Just need to find good places with cheap prices. I bought t-shirts for my brothers at this shop and they were more expensive than other shops that sell t-shirt but I tell you why: the material is super comfortable. I bought a t-shirt from regular stall that sells common designs and three t-shirt from the expensive shop. My brother loved the expensive one as it's comfier compared to the other one. For me, it's okay to spend a little more for quality as long as it's not a burden to you.

We bought mostly souvenirs for our friends and family there and yep, our hands were full of plastic bags. Since we were so tired because of the non-stop walking on day 2, we went back to our hostel quite early and spent our times by watching tv and chit-chatting.

*entry for day 4 and 5 will be updated soon!

No munchkin(s)

Assalamualaikum,

We planned to go to Lotte World and was supposed to go out around 8AM or 9AM but since we were all tired and worn off, we went out a bit late and took the subway to Lotte World. The ride from Ewha Women's University station to Jamsil took about 35 minutes and so all of us almost dozed off in that sort of long ride.

We bought the ticket using the ticketing machine and a friendly ahjussi helped us navigating the machine even though we chose the English option. It was confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it in time. We purchased the day ticket, worth 44,000 won.

The ticket. So cute.

The Adventure side, which is located indoor

Another view. It was spacious and I was lazy to take pictures

Magic Island, a.k.a the outdoor attractions located here.

Sadly, we only managed to ride few attractions as Lotte World was packed with people, couples, family... Did we come to Korea at the wrong time? :( We went to Korean Folk Museum as we thought it'd be a waste to line up for the rides, which, well, it'd be better we actually lined up for them. Oh well.

Notice the typo they had on the sign? Yeah. "Fork" Museum hahahaha

Before we decided to leave, we stopped at Lotteria and had our late lunch there. I ordered squid burger (오징어버거) while Fatihah and Imanina both ordered prawn burger (새우버거). The cashier warned me that my burger is spicy and I said it's okay, since I really love spicy foods haha. It was really delicious compared to the plain prawn burger. Well, at least mine got this hot sensation going on hehe.

I actually miss this burger :(

We then decided to walk around in Apgujeong and Cheongdamdong and so, it's time to search for the Kpop companies' buildings! The first building we searched for was SM Entertainment. Sadly, the directions given on blogs we found were not even close to the building we're trying to find. And we actually walked for I don't know how many kilometres but we sure walked a lot to find the building. We also met new friends from Indonesia who were trying to find the buildings as well. We succeeded to find the SM Global Artist Training Centre (noticeable with huge poster of SM artists that promoted at the time being) which is located next to Galleria Department Store. We found that but not the actual SM Entertainment building, and so, we continued to walk towards Galleria. And guess what happened?

I saw EXO's Tao, right in front of my eyes! At first I was like "Gosh, that is Tao, right?" and Imanina was like "Yeah that is him!" I was freaked out and we were nearing him, I took this opportunity to ask "타오씨 맞죠?" (You're Tao, right?) and he answered with a simple "Yes" and walked away. Then I felt like it's such a waste to not take pictures with him so I ran back (we were heading to opposite directions) and asked, "우린 같이 사진 찍으면 될까요?" (Can we take pictures together?) He was alone with no managers at the time, and I was hoping that he would agree to take pictures but maybe he's following his company's rule, he said "사진 찍는거 안돼요" (You can't take pictures) so I nodded and he continued walking. I thought of taking his pictures secretly but thinking it'd spread quickly and maybe people will follow him, I decided to let it slip. Pity idols who wanted to rest, let them have their time :)

The road where I bumped into Tao by accident.

We almost gave up since we saw nothing like the entertainment companies' buildings in our sight so one of our Indonesian friend turned around and took the road Tao took before. She said this is the right road to go to SM Entertainment so we followed the road all the way till its end. It was a hill, but luckily we're going down the hill most of the times. You will see a park at the end of the road, and all we need to do is to turn right. There were misdirection occurred and we met FNC Entertainment's building first. We noticed it since there were many people gathered at a place.

FNC Entertainment building. I like its architecture the best

After multiple times of trying to connect to Wifi (sadly, there's no such thing as free wifi available throughout the country hahaha I bought KT Prepaid Card for OllehWifi, costs 9,900 won for 4 days) we managed to find a way to go to SM Entertainment from FNC. We were lost again, but then, after multiple times going back and forth at the same street, we found it. We found the gem. The company that made us walked from 5.25pm till 6.05pm. The SM Building located right after Yonsei Villa apartment's building. We saw 2 girls went out and entered the "idol van" and the way they covered themselves seemed like they already debuted. Can't say from which group but guessing from body size, I think they'd be from SNSD. We also saw EXO's Baekhyun, Lay, and Chen in the transparent elevator going up and down the building.

Few members of SM Rookies just walked out that door by the time I took this picture

Direction to SM Entertainment building: Take the subway to Apgujeong Rodeo Street Station (Bundang Line) and go to exit 2. It is wayyyyy closer than stopping at Apgujeong Station. Trust me, I've experienced the pain of walking in Korea. Walk straight till you see the SM Global Artist Training Centre (easy to notice because of extra huge banner of SM artists) and turn left. You'll see a hill and you need to hike up a bit before you go down the hill. On your left side should be a school, your right side too. Just go down the road and you will find a park opposite the street. Turn right and follow the road. Walk straight till you notice 연세빌라 written on a building on your right. If you see it, just continue walking straight and you will find SM Entertainment building on your right

Your feet will hurt, trust me, but this is the easiest way that we found

We then proceed to JYP Entertainment but we found Cube Entertainment first, so time to stop at Cube Cafe and Studio for a break.

We saw this from afar and new we're at the right path. That is CUBE logo btw

The coffee tastes nice and it feels weird to see Rain in Cube Entertainment...

The building up close. I have no idea how to take pictures of this building so yeah

We decided to not waste time by only taking pictures of the buildings and went back to hostel. We wasted lots of time at SM Entertainment, particularly because there were idols going in and out of the building. We continued walking to JYP Entertainment since it is located diagonally opposite to Cube Entertainment. Easy to notice too because of the sign and all.

Only here to take pictures and we off to search for subway entrance haha

And this is where we wasted our time walking to search for nearest subway entrance. We walked so much and I was really tired of walking but since it was cold, better for us to be in any subway station rather than being outside for a long time. We found it, luckily and so, off to Hapjeong we go. Time to visit the last entertainment building, which is, YG Entertainment.

Direction to YG Entertainment: Take subway to Hapjeong Station (line 2), exit 8. You will see SK Petrol Pump upon exiting, continue walking till the end of the street where you see a junction. On your right supposedly situated another SK Petrol Pump and Namkyung Hotel (they were under construction when we were there) and you should see an island of shops in front of you (called it an island because it's isolated lol). Turn right and continue walking. Take note on small alley on your left side and find "Prouod" sign. You shall see YG Building if you noticed the sign. Cross the road and walk towards the sign.

It was dark, really. And so little people waiting outside the building.

We walked back to the subway station and head back to our hostel. Rest time. The highlight of the second day of my trip is, meeting/seeing idols hehe. Got to talk to Tao is so precious, I was a bit disappointed with myself since I promised to record my whole journey each day but didn't do so.

*see you on next update!

No munchkin(s)

Assalamualaikum,

Last week, I went to Korea with 2 of my friends; Imanina and Fatihah. There were supposedly another 6 persons joining us but then, we rarely see each other. Basically, I was there in Korea only with my girls since the others won't bother to join us. Oh well, here's our journey.

Wednesday, 22 Jan 2014: We decided to meet each other at LCCT since our flight was on 1AM. Greeted the parents, heard same advices from the parents, and then we're left to check-in and wait to depart.

3 girls anxiously waiting to board the plane as it's our first trip to overseas with friends

Thursday, 23 Jan 2014: As soon as we arrived, we went to Sinchon Hostel, wondering if we could check-in early but since our room was still not ready, we left our luggages and went to Hongdae, curiously exploring the area. The first thing we searched for was Hello Kitty Cafe, as we haven't had our breakfast yet and our tummy's growling to be fed. Following the direction we got online wasn't that helpful, and so, we walked and searched diligently till we magically found the cafe. It is placed quite secluded from the busy Hongdae area.

Fatihah-Imanina-Author at Incheon Airport Railroad Station.

Direction to Hello Kitty Cafe: Stop at Hongdae (Hongik University) station, walk to exit 9. Walk straight till you find a big junction of main roads and turn left. Walk straight and look for Ho Bar on your right side. If you noticed the signboard, cross the road and turn right, to walk pass by the Ho Bar. Turn left into the first junction you meet after passing by the bar. Continue walking up hill and pay attention to your left side. You will see Hello Kitty Cafe as it's really pink in colour.

Front view of the cafe.

The uniqueness of Korean cafe is that buzzer thing

I ordered vanilla latte and waffle with fresh cream. Yums. Quite expensive by the way.

We then continue to visit Trick Eye Museum, which is located nearby. I don't really remember the exact direction to go there but to make sure we're nearby the museum, we searched for Holika Holika and Tony Moly and entered the road. We went into the Trick Eye Museum and Ice Museum, and the ticket costs 15,000 won. We sure spent lots of time taking pictures there.

"나 천사" basically means I'm an angel.

As I have a dear sister (not blood-related) studying in Korea, we decided to meet and eat dinner together. Kak Shiema wanted to bring us to Yoogane in Myeongdong, so from Hongdae, we went to Myeongdong. We arrived earlier than Kak Shiema so it's strolling time at Lotte Young Plaza. Spent our time by going to SM Pop Up Store, and, em, see beautiful yet expensive official SM merchandises. Meanwhile, I took this opportunity to...

...take pictures with (virtual) EXO! Haha. We continued to stroll around before we met Kak Shiema and walked to Yoogane. The restaurant is spacious and was packed with customers at that time. The waiter showed us our table and we ordered Seafood Fried Rice (해물볶음밥) as it's the only option we can eat there.

Waiting for our main dish to be cooked, and hello delicious radish kimchi!

Added ramyun too and ended up being too full to stuff everything

Hello Kak Shiema :3

We continued to stroll around for few minutes before depart ways to go back to our rooms. Kak Shiema to her own house while us to our hostel. My tummy wasn't feeling well at the time, so I was basically in pain since morning till night. We spent our night with watching some TV shows (luckily I understood Korean) while enjoying the infamous banana milk (바나나 우유) that we bought from nearest 7 Eleven.

*will update part 2 real soon :)

No munchkin(s)

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