It is my life-long dream to visit Japan, and now that I am based in Shanghai for my internship, travelling to Japan is nearer and cheaper.
Unfortunately, Japan was hit by the Tohoku earthquake in March and many people advised me not to visit Japan at the moment. Despite my strong desire to go ahead, I could not find any travel partners and hence decided to visit South Korea instead.
Our apartment in Shanghai is next to the Longyang metro station, which means we can access the airport easily via the Maglev, which takes about 7 minutes to the airport.
However, I made a huge costly mistake by trying to save the Maglev ticket (approx SGD 8) and took the normal metro (approx SGD 1.5 to 2) to the airport instead. I underestimated the time needed to travel on the metro, which was about 1 hour 5 minutes for the metro ride only. We still need to walk a distance from the metro station to the airport check-in counter 😦
When we reached the airport, it was about 45 minutes ahead of the departure time but the check-in counter refused to let us in despite not having any checked in baggages. We had to pay about SGD100+ per person to change the flight to the next day, as China Southern airlines only fly to Seoul from Shanghai once a day.
We also had to pay the hostel fees for the night we missed as it was too late to cancel 😦
It was my first time missing a flight. Lesson learnt indeed.
Day 1
We spent our first day walking around Myeongdong which W really got bored because the shops sell mainly women stuff. From women fashion to women skincare and cosmetics.
 |
| The busy Myeongdong shopping street where you can find lots of Korean skincare shop at every corner. |
Day 2
In the day, we walked around Itaewon which has a lot of cool cafes but I find that the shopping is not to my liking.
They have a lot of tourism ambassadors which can speak in multiple languages to help tourists navigate around Itaewon 🙂
At night, we went to the shopping malls at Dongdaemun which sells cheaper clothes than Myeongdong! My favourite mall is this mall 2 am (hope I remember the name correctly) as it sells chic clothes at cheap prices.
The malls at Dongdaemun close pretty late, passed midnight. Some closes earlier some closes as late as 5 am.
There are also some wholesale shopping mall but they only sell in bulk.
I only bought one chiffon blouse as most of the items can be found in Shanghai at more than half the price. If I were to come from Singapore, I might go crazy in Seoul but coming from Shanghai where I have Taobao and Qipulu, there really isn’t anything that interest me much in Seoul’s shopping.
Day 3
We visited this Global StarCraft II League (GSL) as W is really interested in gaming and stuff! It was a live broadcast and quite an eye opening experience.
 |
| Interview with the gamers after they ended the game. |
It was evening after the game ended and as we strolled back to the metro station, we chanced upon this Korean BBQ buffet that was going for only 10 000 won per person! The quality of the meat was pretty good and because the food was so good, we forgot to take photos 🙂
Day 4
The next day, we went to the Everland! We had a hard time deciding between Lotte World or Everland but according to friends who visited both, they said that Everland is slightly better.
We took bus 5002 from Yangjae station and the bus ride was about 45 minutes. There were quite a number of teenagers taking the same bus to Everland.
 |
| So happy at the Everland! It is much much better than Dinoland in China Changzhou. |
 |
| We like how it is not crowded and there are essentially no queue to the rides! |
 |
| Didn’t know they have sea animals performances. |
Day 5
We were told to try this Ginseng Chicken from Tosokchon near the Imperial Palace. I’m gad we went before our flight as it is the BEST Ginseng Chicken ever!!!
 |
| We ordered the Tosokchon Samyetang (Ginseng Chicken) each. The portion is pretty huge for me as there are a lot of glutinous rice underneath the chicken. The soup was heavenly! |
 |
| Patrons have to remove shoes as it is indoor seating on the floor. |
 |
| We did not have to queue as we went pretty early, around 11 am. When we left the restaurant after 12pm, we saw a long queue! |
Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken
Address: 5 Jahamun-ro 5-gil, Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Exit 2 at Gyeongbokgong station and just walk straight for about 150 m. Turn left at the first alley.
Phone: +82 2-737-7444
Hours: 10am to 10pm
Website: http://tosokchon.com/index.php?lug=en
This South Korea trip turns out to be fun and I didn’t know that it is such a technologically advanced country! While Singapore is having the 3G hype, S. Korea is having 4G network already! I also noticed how their houses are password/ thumbprint locked, not requiring to carry any keys with them 🙂
mamakeng.com 
