Seoul + Jeju (3 July - 11 July)

The 1st shop of Coffee Prince

it took a long while for us to hunt down the original cafe along hongdae street (university street near hongik university)...

after much hand signing and exchange of whatever little korean i know...

we managed to find the shop!

my review: over-prized coffee shop who exploits the fact that it was part of a film set of a highly rated korean drama. coffee, iced lemon tea that costs $7++. cheese cakes that were only average tasting.

 haha. kk, you'll realise that the pictures are in no particular chronicological order. this was us on our cathay flight to Korea. it was a long, long flight that stopped over at Hong Kong, Taipei before finally arriving at Seoul. but at a cheap promotional rate of 560 bucks. it was worth it :)

the above food stall is located near our hostel "Backpackers Inside"  situated at Hye Hwa.

and everywhere we went using cabs, we would go "ahjeushi, ooo ri sungkyungkwan de hak geo ga him ni da" which translated to english means "uncle,we want to go sungkyungkwan university"

the university is located just beside our hostel.

 

our first meal in Seoul. we didn't understand a thing on the menu so we simply ordered the set menu w/o having a clue what was going to be served.

Set Menu

1. Barbecue Pork

2. Pancake with an assortment of ingredients, e.g. squid

3. Steamed egg

4. Mussel soup

next up...

Changgyeongong Palace + Changdeokgong Palace

we went to grab lunch before walking down from our hostel to the palaces...what's on the menu today (4July 2010)? Beef barbecue, kimchijigae, cold noodles (a bad choice cause it tastes nothing like cold noodles in Singapore, the authentic Korean cold noodles comes with crazy amounts of vinegar...so unless you're a fan of vinegar, stay clear of the cold noodles)...

back view pics of us walking along the streets of Seoul...

my fave place in Korea...Dongdaemun!

welcome to the city that never sleeps...

and shopping till wee hours in the morning of 5am...

celebrating Stephy's birthday at Doota! Expensive but a excellent department store for oogling at all the lovely local designer clothings...

night out at the pub to celebrate our 2 birthday boy & girl...

Stephy & Ben!!

sabo-ing the July babies...

with...

first up...

7 layers drink.

extremely potent with 7 different alcohols...

and that's not it...

they flamed it up...

*evil laughter*

and then the drink fest continued with beer, hard liquer (mixture of rum, tequilla, whisky, etc etc.)

and our birthday babies proved they were truly hard core alcoholics

by remaining almost SOBER by the end of the night

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honestly in Seoul, i don't remember much except for the crazy deal of shopping...

and here's who we saw along the streets...

Kim Hyung Jong (okay, i know i probably spelt his name incorrectly but i'm not that good with korean stars names...)

@Cold Stone Creamery

the famous BonJuk outlet - from the famous "Boys Over Flowers"

nicest tasting porridge ever.

if you ever visit Seoul, don't miss out on this porridge, there are several outlets, you can find branches in Myeong-dong, Insa-dong & others.

best porridge on the house - Special Abalone Porridge

at the subway :)

Namsangol Hanok Village - traditional Korean houses near Namsan Tower

and then we climbed up to the top of Namsan Tower...

couples come up here with padlocks and it is said that when a couple locks a padlock up at the Namsan Tower and throws away the key, their relationship is sealed and will remain strong & lasting.

our hostel in Seoul - the hostel owner was a nice, rather good-looking korean fella called in Minyoung.

Everland! Theme Park!

more snapshots of Hongdae...i think...

haha, too many places, can't recall where all the photos were taken.