Korea Travelogue: Day 10 - Myeongdong, Lotte Mart and Hyehwa
Day 10 Itinerary
Myeongdong/Residence EO
Lotte Mart
Hyehwa Station
Wokays I'm finally here on Day 10 of the trip lol! *pats self on back* We were gonna depart TP and head over to our next accommodation in Myeongdong (which I will talk about later on) that day. Spent the night packing and trying to squeeze all our loots into the luggages because as usual, all of us bought too many things haha! I think we've all been spoiled by the existence of EMS shipping that we never control and just buy so much shit thinking we can just ship it back. Aish, really a bad habit tsk tsk.
Came with 1 luggage but had to utilise my handcarry bag because it was bursting with items. The Fragrance Bak Kwa was a gift for our dance instructor whom we had yet to meet then so no choice but to lug it to Myeondong lol.
Managed to squeeze everything in and then after waiting for Jace to return from the post office (she was leaving Korea the next day so she had to go to the post office that day to mail out her items), we headed out to Hongdae for one last meal as we were not planning to return to this area for the rest of the trip. Someone decided that we should go to Sang Sang Ma Dang so that was where we went to. Passed by Yeolbong along the way and you can see the Yeolbong mascot with the Se7en lightstick very clearly now on top of the building.
Sang Sang Ma Dang sells a variety of cool crafts and accessories which I think make great gifts for friends/family. If you need more information on Sang Sang Ma Dang, you can look it up here.
The Toy Story Alien one was sold out :(
Walked out empty handed because all the characters I wanted were out of stock. Headed to a noodle store that Jace suggested within the Hongdae area for lunch.
Location
미정국수0410/Mi Jeong Guksu 0410
Address for the Hongdae outlet: 서울 마포구 서교동 486번지 서교푸르지오상가 141~2호
You order via the machine, pay by inserting notes or using your credit card and voila, take the printout and head to a table. Hand the printout to the stuff and wait for your noodles to appear at your table lol.
4 of us opted for the 간비국수 which is basically warm noodles in soya sauce (KRW4000 each) while someone ordered the anchovy noodles - sorry my memory is failing me lol but I know it definitely wasn't me nor Stella because our noodles looked the same and we were seated together. We were seated separately due to the lack of large tables in the restaurant.
Here's how the 간비국수 looks like before mixing. It comes with seaweed, pork bits and vegetables in soya sauce. VERY YUMMY AND CHEAP!
We headed back to TP to pick up our luggage, stopping by at the cafe along the way to pick up this cake for the awesome staff at TP! :D
I'm not too sure how the cake tasted but they were really happy to receive it. The 7 nights we spent there was definitely a very memorable for us - I mean coming up in the middle of the night to remove the centipede from our room and then providing us a cake as 'apology' really shows how much they value their guests so it felt right to thank them for their hard work and effort with something small like a cake. The team also helped out in a lot ways like arranging the DMZ tour, locating a store I was looking for and contacting the place because I couldn't converse properly in Korean etc. I know I will definitely go back to stay there if I have the chance in future. I was actually quite sad that we were leaving TP to stay in another guesthouse because I've been spoiled by the people and amenities at TP has and I know the other guesthouse didn't have the same. But oh well D:
TP was also very sweet to drop me an email and sending me the pictures they took of us and AJ when we returned to Singapore. How nice is that :D
Here's the 5 of us with AJ, the day manager at Travellers Planet.
They posted this on their FaceBook page the same day but we got mistaken as guests from Taiwanese (oops!). Close enough, like perhaps a 4.5 hour flight away from Taiwan la lol. #sibeioptimistic
So here's our next accommodation - Residence EO which is located in the happening area of Myeongdong. The picture here is actually from 2011 lol. I forgot to take a picture of the building this time round but it looks exactly the same!
If you follow my past travelogue entries, you'd know that I was a strong advocator of actually choosing Myeongdong for your accomodation's location because of its proximity to everything. I've stayed in Residence EO back in 2011/2012 and then at Namsan Guesthouse 3 in 2013. But that was before I stayed at Travellers Planet. Like I mentioned, the amenities and the ambience at TP is definitely different from the guesthouses in Myeongdong. Plus Hongdae is actually located pretty conveniently and has a station for the Arex to Incheon and Gimpo Airports.
Residence EO is adequate to be honest for meeting any traveler's needs but the place can be a little rundown and cramped. It is definitely cheaper in terms of cost when compared to TP so that is a plus. Oh and no deposit is necessary unlike TP so you just need to turn up with your accommodation fees on the day of check-in. Myeongdong also wins in terms of location (near to Seoul station so it's easier to board the KTX, there's a post office which operates for half a day on Saturdays so you can still EMS items back, you can easily buy all the makeup and K-pop albums in one area) so it's really up to you on which location to choose. Both are pretty fine to me.
Anyway, the Residence EO building is not equipped with a lift but this slide seems to be a new addition, it wasn't there when I stayed in 2011. Didn't use it though lol because we were staying on level 1.
Here's Stella and my double room. Wanjun and Sinhui had another room for themselves which Jace bunked in for 1 night.
The only good thing about living in separate rooms was the availability of 2 toilets really hahaha! It was hell having to fight with 4 other people for the toilet at TP.
Residence EO's rooms have a washing machine, mini fridge and microwave inside.
After settling in, we set off for Seoul station to go to - Lotte Mart!
Directions
Take the metro to Seoul station and go to Exit 1. Come up to the 2nd level, turn right and walk straight ahead. The mart is pretty easy to spot!
We went crazy inside Lotte Mart as usual, buying things ranging from food to utensils to alcohol lol. I always tell myself to not buy so much because alot of the items here are actually available in Singapore but my resistance is very weak and I usually end up buying a ton of food products pfffffft. Doesn't help that I can easily EMS those stuff back to ease the weight of my check-in luggage.
I have a few sets of these chopsticks at home which my mum likes, all bought from Lotte Mart.
You will never ever pay SGD12 for a bottle of soju in Singapore once you see how cheap it is here in Korea.
The girls had this everyday for breakfast at TP lol. I didn't try it though because I'm not a cereal person.
Infinite Pepsi packaging anyone? LOL
This was yielded from 1 hour in Lotte Mart *pats self on back* Good job Paula for resisting! A tip for Lotte Mart - they do not provide plastic bags so bring along your own recycling bag or an empty backpack to stuff everything in. There are empty carton boxes available beyond the cashier area where you can pack and place all your stuff inside to lug back to your guesthouse/hotel but it can be very bulky to carry these (we ended up taking 2 cabs back to Myeongdong cos the boxes were too heavy wtf).
And that wasn't the end of our day because we headed out again to Hyehwa Station!
Come out of Exit 4 for what is typically known as Daehangno or University Street. Our main objective of visiting Hyehwa was to eat the highly-recommended macaron ice cream but....... the store was closed that day. Boo.
So the bff and a few of them decided to just walk into Baskin Robbins to eat their macaron ice cream lol #nofishshrimpalsook
Went back to Myeongdong to settle our dinner and somehow or another ended up stumbling across this SM Town store in Lotte Young Plaza. FYI Style Nanda and 3CE is also available here on Level 2.
Take all my money la $Me T_________T
Went into a CD store to search for a DVD set.
Was finding this for my aunt's friend who insisted on getting the DVD for this drama series but alas it was too expensive so we left without purchasing anything. Tabaoed Two Two Chicken and headed back to the guesthouse.
It was a very relax day for us because we had to move to another location and we basically did nothing the entire day! But oh well, the joy of having a free and easy trip is the flexibility of changing your itinerary HAHA #selfconsolation
Ending off this post with what the evil bff took of me when I was opening my Infinite-F album to check for the photocard back in the room. She said my 'hiam' face was damn good entertainment for her wtf.
Had to catch the KTX to Busan early next morning so that's what my next few entries will be about - 2 days and 1 night in Korea's second largest city Busan! Till then, bye~