#SeoulsearChing 101 for first-timers

A very belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

I've just gotten back from my two-week escape from reality to South Korea :) I spent Christmas and New Year's there and had a wonderful trip! I think 2 weeks is a good time for a first time to South Korea. I would've preferred longer but we all have our responsibilities (credit card bills, anyone?)

I will blog about my South Korea trip here and share my itinerary and the lovely things we ate during our visit! We stayed in Seoul for 11 days, and 2 in between in the seaside Busan.
I will share the basics with you that we learned on my trip to South Korea for the 1st time.

Our airline

We took MAS airlines from BWN-KUL-ICN, and were very unfortunately caught with a flight delay from 11PM to 4AM the next day. We had no choice but to book ourselves a 6-hour "comfort" stay at Snooze KL, which is a small hostel-like stay which consists of a bunk bed, phone and laptop charging facilities, a room cooler, a desk and storage space for luggage.. You can find out more information about it here. It was alright and we managed to rest a little while waiting what felt like forever for our flight.

Incheon Airport

We arrived at Incheon airport in the afternoon. Incheon airport is their largest international airport. There is a smaller airport, Gimpo airport that flights to Jeju and other parts of Korea fly from.
Much like KLIA, we had to take an express train to get to the other side of the airport after we've passed immigration.

My boyfriend ordered a SIM card online from KT, and they give you instructions on where to pick up your SIM. It was quite easy. You can also rent a Wifi Egg and give it back before you fly home.

Here you can see the prices of the SIM card based on days. Roughly it is around $38.50 for 5 days, $54 for 10 days and $100 for 30. It has unlimited data only, so no calls or SMS are allowed.

After picking up the SIM, we bought tickets to take the AREX Express Train to Seoul Station (also very similar to KL Express going to Sentral). 

(Pretty sure) it was 15,000 Won for two of our tickets

The express train takes a little less than an hour to get to Seoul station, and does not have any stops in between. The train was very clean and had free wifi on board.

Our accommodation

We booked an apartment via airbnb, and were lucky enough to find one in a very strategic location, which was 2 minutes walk away from the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park subway station. The area had a lot of restaurants and malls that open late into the night, and were all walk-able to. I can recall at least 6 big malls nearby! The apartment also came with free use of the wifi egg, wifi in the apartment, as well as 3 pin plugs, USB plugs and cables. I was very thankful for the plugs because the international plug I brought did not include Korea -_- The wifi egg was also very convenient, and saved me at least B$50 from buying a local SIM. Although I did have some issues where the egg ran out of data on the 4th day because the data quota has been used up, undoubtedly by the previous apartment tenants. The host did however make the effort to see if he could do anything about it and when he couldn't, he was very obviously distraught and offered to buy us dinner, which we politely declined as it wasn't that bad as public wifi is almost readily available all over Seoul. The data quota did renew 4 days later on Jan 1st so all good.
Overall the stay was really great and I would seriously consider staying with the same host on my next Seoul trip.

The apartment was just right for two of us. You can't see in the photos but there is a makeup table on the other side. There is also a washroom, and we're not sure if it is a Korean thing but the shower did not have a door so all the water splashed out to the sink area. There are also pots, pans, plates, bowls, mugs and everything that we may need if we ever wanted to cook (haha, I heard myself). And most importantly, there was heating. On the floors and in the room, as well as in the shower.

Transportation in Seoul

Initially before we bought ourselves a T-Money card, we bought a one-way ticket from Seoul Station to Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park, which is where our apartment was.
A T-Money card works like the Oyster Card, Octopus Card, and the EZLink Card from other countries. You basically use the card like an e-wallet by reloading money into it, and you can then use it for subway and bus rides in Seoul (and also in Busan).

This is my T-Money card that I got from a GS25 store (think 7-11) right below our apartment. I think this cost a couple of thousand Won only. They vary depending on the design of the card you purchase. My BF itchy-handedly grabbed a Kakao one which cost more than my regular POP one. Lol.

The card is very convenient; you can reload it at any of the reload machines in the subway stations. You can also get a refund for it if you like at the refund machines.

Overall, I think we spent quite a lot of money reloading our T-Money cards but I think that is largely due to the fact that we moved around a lot. I did not keep track of how much but I would think it was less than B$50 for the two weeks. And I am also pretty sure I double-beeped more than once...... *smacks forehead

The subway in Seoul can be quite complicated, and we had some subway apps ready, such as the Subway Korea app. I am also very lucky because whenever we travel, I will just say where I want to go and my BF will be the one navigating us there. :D

The weather and what we wore

We went on Dec 24th to Jan 5th, so it was during wintertime. It was particularly freezing the first few days where it went to as low as -10 degrees Celsius. I remember my fingers freezing until they were numb whenever I took my gloves off. I have decided that gloves are the worst because they make using your phone (photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) near impossible. Those touch-screen gloves are all marketing lies. We had to dress very warmly, and we managed to do that with the heat-tech thermals from Uniqlo. I got heat-tech inner wear, socks and leggings! I brought a thick (heavy) coat I bought from Asos that ran to my thighs which was great because it really helped keeping the wind out down til my butt. We bought wool gloves while strolling around in Myeongdong.

I bought these boots while subway-shopping in Myeongdong (more about that later... Subway shopping is a whole new level of shopping in Seoul!) Pretty sure I overpaid for it but the ahjumma in the store was so enthusiastic and I had no clue what she was saying because she could only speak Korean. The boots were very comfy for our relentless walking.

It gradually got warmer over the next week, and by warmer I mean it is no longer negative, but around 0 to 6 degrees, which I thought was really nice! There was the occasional wind that would enter your soul and touch your cold, cold heart but that's okay. We could go without gloves after that so photo-taking became much easier..

Also, we way over-packed for our trip. We brought too many jumpers when we really didn't need to, because frankly its winter and you don't sweat. And you basically keep your coat/ jacket on all day so you can't really showcase your cool knits inside. So don't over-pack, whatever it is, you can buy it in Seoul. I regretted bringing so many clothes over because it really robbed me off luggage space going back! More on that later.

Other kiasu stuff

Fun fact: Did you know your iPhone will malfunction under extreme cold? Yep. When it gets below -4, your phone stops working properly and will shut down by itself even when it is fully charged. I did not know that, but I was kiasu enough to have not 1, not 2 but 3 power banks with me on my trip! I just recently bought the XiaoMi one on Lazada and it was really good and worked very well, I could charge up to 4 times with it (10,400 MaH). My phone kept dying throughout my trip so it was really, really lucky that I had my power banks with me at all times.

Our language barrier

Its a fact that most Koreans cannot speak or understand English. What baffled me was that most of them could speak Mandarin. Perfect China Mandarin.Almost every restaurant and store we went to, we were greeted by Mandarin-speaking staff. I am ashamed to say that their Mandarin was so good that I had no idea what they were saying, especially those from the cosmetics/ skin-care store.. I am pretty sure they were telling me what a disaster my skin is but I will never know for sure.

Most signs in Seoul have English on them, so that was very helpful. At certain stations and in certain subway trains, the signs are only in hangul so that can be rather difficult. We got quite confused on one day when we wanted to go to Eonju but we hopped on the subway train that went pass that station so we had to get off at the next stop, and go back to the stop before and hop on a different train on the same rail. Yep. Exactly.

Ordering food was OK because most menus come with pictures. They usually also have tourist-friendly menus for tourists. 

Money for Food & Shopping 

We brought along Singapore dollars (with a bit of Won for airport transfers). We had a money changer right below our apartment which greatly had higher rates than the other ones nearby. 

I am not a good candidate to ask about food spending because I only paid for 2 meals through the whole trip....... :| I will refer you to my BF if you like. Haha. However, I think it is good to note that street food in Seoul is not cheap. They go up to 5,000 won which is around B$7.

Shopping wise, I spent a lot on skin care! I went with an entire catalog of what I wanted, some of which I was unable to find but I bought other stuff to make up for it. I think I have the entire 10-step program now after I settle down and sort my stuff out. I did however get a bad breakout on my chin because I did not drink enough water.. So make sure you drink a lot of water even when it is cold!

Because it was winter time, I could not really shop for any clothing. It was all winter wear; coats, jackets, sweaters, knit wear, boots..... I think I only managed to get 3 or 4 blouses from subway shopping and Good Morning City Mall. I think I spent most of my money on skin care, makeup, shoes and other random things like souvenirs. And street food (that I rarely finish....).

I also bought 3 pairs of Korean contact lenses because they were so cheap and were going at 1+1, which means buy 1 and get 1 free! So this means I had 6 pairs to last me for half a year. Yay. They went as cheap as 1+1 for 15,000 Won only!

I also bought a Lee Min Ho 2017 calendar for 6,000 Won because I love him. 6,000 Won was the cheapest I could find, some Korean con artist was selling the same one for 15,000 elsewhere!!

Oh also, I spent money on doing my hair and nails, which I will blog about in my later posts. 

Koreans

Koreans are basically quite friendly. Those that seem off- I think it was because they couldn't speak English. Koreans are also huge on the K-Pop and K-Drama scene (naturally) and they are everywhere- in the form of posters, banners and in screens because they're all ambassadors for all the big brands there. BigBang and Black Pink (and TT by Twice) are played in every other store we went. 

Also, I have to say this. 90% of the Koreans I saw have such bright and flawless skin!! Even the men... I don't know what it is they use or consume but I am really so envious!

Our itinerary!

Here is the summarized itinerary of our trip. I scheduled one landmark per day so we had plenty of time for shopping and other stuff after we are done for each day. We also went to Itaewon on one of the nights but I cannot recall which day...... hehe so I left that out. Itaewon did not particularly fascinate us..

*****

Day 1 in my next post! :)

Kopi Luwak and Tanah Lot

On our way to Tanah Lot temple, our driver took us to a Luwak Coffee Farm.

This is a civet (luwak).

You can read about how civet poop is made into coffee here. It involves coffee leaves being digested by the animal, and it's poop being made into coffee. Kopi luwak is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world, which is rather interesting,

the farm also produces tea and other coffee of sorts; from vanilla coffee to ginseng tea. If you liked them, you could purchase them in cups or sachets

My kopi luwak. What did it taste like? Black coffee, really. I like my coffee black, so it was good for me. Nothing so special.

Kopi luwak 101

We sat by a paddy farm(?) and had our coffee and tea! It was a very serene experience :)

On our way out, there is a store that sells all the tea and coffee we had for tasting, as well as Kopi Luwak. I didn't buy any kopi luwak, which I wish I did now!

After that, we continued our journey to Tanah Lot.

Bali Tanah Lot temple is a Hindu temple in Bali Indonesia that has a stunning natural beauty, it stands on solid sea rock and Tanah Lot Bali or (Pura Tanah Lot) is one the very famous temples in Bali and became one of the top places in Bali to watch the sunset.

Tanah Lot temple is one of the very sacred temples in Bali island, and according to the legend, Tanah Lot Temple Bali is protected by holy sea snakes which was formed from the scarves of its founder. Tanah Lot Bali is a romantic place to visit while enjoying the sun goes down when spending the holidays in Bali Indonesia.

Tanah Lot is derived from the word "Tanah" means land and "Lot (lod / laut)" which means the sea, because it is situated on a rock in the sea and resembles a small island floating on the sea, so the people call it TANAH LOT, Tanah Lot temple is located at Beraban village, Kediri district, Tabanan regency, on the south coast of Bali island, approximately 25 kilometers from Denpasar city. extracted from http://www.baliglory.com/2015/04/tanah-lot-temple.html

It was quite rainy when we were there and the tides were strong. It actually only stopped pouring when we were walking in to the temple. That is the view of the temple from the other side.

group picture!

It was rainy, that's why my friend was in a hoodie and looking incredibly out of place.

We also had a photographer with a dslr take our picture for only 20k each (B$2) in a frame that says Bali, which is a nice souvenir.

time-lapse of the high tide

After that we made our way to the temple.
The journey to the temple is around 45min- 1 hour from our villa in Seminyak.

Here's to us!

Our sweet driver followed us in and helped us take a gazillion photographs because we kept getting photo-bombed by Chinese tourists everywhere!

Here being photo-bombed by a crazy tide The wind was strong!

After that, Wendy and I went to that little "island" for blessings. We could make a small donation (any amount you wish), drink and wash your face from the holy water and receive blessings.

The tide was high and the ground was rocky, full of pebbles so it was important we took caution while making our way through.

We did not go to the top because its meant for serious worshipers. Tourists usually just stop where we stopped for blessings. 

There was also a holy snake which we did not stop for.

Wendy and I. We were both given a flower each and rice bits on our forehead but mine all flew/fell before I could take a photo :(

There are a lot of people selling these flower clips/ head bands so I got a bunch for my colleagues and we got a bunch for ourselves too. Can't say you've been to Bali without wearing a flower on your hair (like San Francisco)

OH! And it is also this temple where legend has it that if young couples who are not married who go to this temple, they will break up. This is called the Bali Breakup Island Curse. It is a real thing that I am not making up. You can read about it here: 7 Ways to Avoid the Deadly Bali Breakup Island Curse

In brief:

The story has it that a Prince and a Princess from the Brahman caste, the highest one in the Hindu order, came to visit Bali from the neighbor island of Java. While visiting Bali and watching a romantic sunset at the famous Tanah Lot temple, the unmarried couple had sex (“became intimate” as the legend goes). Sadly, one the Prince had taken the Princess’s flower, he left her and refused to marry. Devastated and ashamed, the Princess became so enraged that she threw a curse on all unmarried couples visiting Tanah Lot: Should come here, then they would break up within 6 months. Thunder. Lightning. Fear.

I personally don't know if it is true but my friend said it did happen for two of her friends. A friend of mine went last year and is now married, so maybe it isn't that much of a truth, but I guess just better to be safe than sorry, I will go back here with my significant other only after we are married :-D

Bangkok eats

Sawadeeka! I just got back from Bangkok last night (technically this morning at 1am) after spending almost 5 days there over the Raya break. The trip was one of those overdoing it types, with us walking almost every second we were awake.

We covered almost everywhere I wanted to go, and we managed to eat a lot of really good food. We did not get to do any sightseeing this trip because we didn't have that much time.

 One place that I made a point to revisit was Petite Audrey, a lovely cafe inside Siam Center (I always get confused with Siam Center, Siam Paragon and Siam Discovery but I think I pretty much got the hang of it now).

I love this Thai Tea Crepe Cake from Petite Audrey!

I love Thai milk tea, its so refreshing and so authentically Thai. I do not have a single sweet tooth in my body which makes this cake perfect; it isn't sweet but tastes just right.

Me with my Thai Tea crepe cake!

There are several branches in Bangkok, so do make time to try this! Its their bestseller.

One of the nights, we went to have Korean BBQ for dinner. Bangkok is flooded with Japanese and Korean cuisine places because it is like the IN thing for the past few years. My bf;s brother took us to Doo Rae, a triple-storey Korean restaurant in Korea Town, near Terminal 21 in Sukhumvit. Korea Town, as you can guess, has a lot of different Korean shops, cafes and restaurants.

It is only logical to have Korean beer at Korea Town. 

We had a lot to eat, from beef, chicken, pork to kimchi and this mushroom soup. The service was excellent; the waitress constantly helped us grill the meat, as well as renew the metal stoves so that the taste from the previous grilled meat do not linger. It was all very quick so I didn't manage to snap any good pictures of the food!

The food was really good and the meat were all grilled to pretty much perfection. Nyum.

On this trip, I only managed to have Mango Sticky Rice twice. 

The first time was at this small night market near our hotel outside MBK

 Second being some random eatery in Chatuchak weekend market.

Speaking of Chatuchak weekend market, we found an absolute gem of a place where we had lunch. It was as authentic and raw as it could get. It wasn't a nice place but the food was so good! I love Thai food, the more authentic the better (but no pork blood PLS!).

We walked til we did not know where we were (always happens in Chatuchak for us, its like Timbuktu there. Now you see it, the next time you're back you just cannot find it again!) but we walked pass this restaurant where there were many locals eating. Picture cement ground, non-matching wooden tables and plastic chairs and an outdoor stove.

We were grateful that the menu had picture because the wordings were all in Thai. So we just pointed at what we wanted from the menu.

Pork! Apparently our Thai friend said this is the most simple dish in the Thai food world. Haha and we love it. This was really good, we really liked it. It was spicy and sweet in the right dose.

Clams! Normally I don't eat seafood much, especially shelled ones but this was really nice. I normally dislike food like this because of the "ocean" taste but this one had none at all.

Papaya salad, also good.

Basically, we really enjoyed our lunch there and I do feel that even though sometimes food is cheap and the atmosphere isn't great, the food can just be amazing like this one was. I do live for experiences like these.

See you next time x

Singapore : Haw Par Villa

We are going to take a break from my London/ Europe posts and come back to one of my favorite (but least affordable) places in Asia... Singapore!

My bf and I visited Singapore back in November 2015 for a very fulfilling purpose, which I will tell you about in my NEXT post ;)

I've always wanted to visit Haw Par Villa, a "theme park" which contains over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese mythology, folklore, legends, and Confucianism aspects.

view right after the exit from the HPV MRT stop

Park map

Yours truly at the main entrance

A brief history (from Wiki):
The park, originally called Tiger Balm Gardens, was built in 1937 by the Burmese-Chinese brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of Tiger Balm, as a venue for teaching traditional Chinese values. They moved their business from Burma to Singapore in 1926 and purchased the site in 1935.

A sad fact of the park is that it isn't very well maintained, and many statues and such have faded but you can still see what it originally was, as well as imagine it back when it was in its full glory. Entrance is free.

My BF has been there many, many years ago when he was still a child and his parents took him there to scare him to being a better person (last resort huh?). Why do I say "scare"?

Perhaps the most (in)famous and most well known point of the park,"Ten Courts of Hell".
The Ox-Headed (right) and Horse-Faced (left) Hell Guards stand guard at the entrance. It features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and Buddhism.

Once you enter the "cave", it is really dark and you will be greeted by the most horrifyingly graphic sculptures and statues. In Chinese folklore, they have a very specific kind of hell for specific kinds of sins. And man, are they PAINFUL. Just to even LOOK at. or imagine.

There is a full-length detailed depiction online here: http://wheresidewalksend.com/court-of-hell/

I took a couple of videos from inside:

I saw a family carrying their little son inside, and the little boy was just crying his heart out because it was really creepy inside and his parents' reassurances "See what happens if you cheat in your exams or lie!" sealed it good. Ha!!

 Pavilion and Pagoda Zone:

Bridge above the large pond

The Pagoda

This zone has many prominent statues of the Buddha and the Goddess of Mercy (wide contrast from the Ten Courts of Hell!)

My BF's #squad

With the 三星!

From Wiki:

The Sanxing (三星 "Three Stars"), who are Fu, Lu, and Shou (simplified Chinese: 福禄寿; traditional Chinese: 福祿壽; pinyin: Fú Lù Shòu), or Cai, Zi and Shou (財子壽), are the personified ideas of Prosperity (Fu), Status (Lu), and Longevity (Shou) in the Chinese traditional religion.

Naturally I went for Fu (Prosperity) Lol

Found myself a wishing well. My BF and I never let a wishing well go. Or a wishing pond. Or anything really that we can make wishes at.

Journey to the West:

Next you will see the statues of Xuan zang and his journey to the West. Journey to the West is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The author is Wu Cheng en. The novel is a fiction and depicts the legendary pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. The monk travelled from China to the West in search of the Buddhist scriptures. The monk was assisted by his three disciples during the journey and these three disciples were Sun Wukong, Zhu Ba jie and Sha Wu jing. Xuanzang rode on a white horse and along the journey he was attacked by demons but his disciples came to his aid. Journey to the West is reminiscent of Chinese mythology and folklore. -Tripadvisor

Spotted!!

They had the many different sculptures and statues of the different stages of the many key characters from the book, paired nicely with captions in Chinese, English and Malay (yay multicultural Sg FTW!). It was a really interesting read. For those who are really into this mythology will really like this section of the park.

Only one photo from the Hilltop:

with the Goddess of Mercy

I was really glad to have been able to visit this park, even though it is no longer the MAIN point of attraction in Singapore anymore. I really hope the authorities get around to giving it the much needed touch-up it should get as it really is interesting, educational and unique. Give the Park a visit yourself. you will learn so much more!

This is also a very well-documented page to learn more about Haw Par Villa: http://dejiki.com/2013/07/haw-par-villa-photowalk-the-hilltop/

Til next time!