A long-awaited,
most-enjoyed,
ate-as-much-as-we-could-but-never-gained-weight
.. AND walked-like-crazy Trip to Korea during Covid
It has been simply too long since we set foot out of Singapore. That was exactly what a worldwide pandemic did to human beings - we were all confined within our own borders.
To Travel.. or NOT to Travel?
Several schools of thought emerged once we were about two years into Covid and as Singapore started to engage in Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with various other countries. More recently on the 8 November 2021, Singapore announced its VTL with South Korea. People were thinking:
“Heck it. I don’t care how much is the plane ticket and how many PCRs I need to do before during and after the trip. I am definitely going to fly."
“I am too worried about catching the Covid. No no no.. no way I am going to travel now.”
“Yeah.. ok I do want to travel. But.. I am not going to pay for all those PCRs ARTs and inflated plane ticket prices. No no no.”
So we had an interesting situation where the die-hards would be the first few to click “PAY” on the SIA’s website and AirBnB and Booking.com.. while the rest would take a seat on the side fences.
We were lucky because being one of the first few to click ‘Pay’ on the Singapore Airlines site we got our tickets at $931 each, still more expensive than usual, and the flight coming back to Singapore was a designated VTL flight.
That the time when the VTL agreement between the two countries were warmly-inked and still cosy, the agreement was:
one pre-departure PCR 3 days before departure to Korea (estimated $125 each)
On arrival PCR at a Incheon airport S$200 each
Day 6 / 7 ok Korea another PCR in a Korean government-approved hospital - for those staying in Korea 8 days or more estimated $200 each
48 hours before departing back to Singapore, to do a professionally-administered ART in an approved Korean Hospital estimated $80 each
Upon arrival at Changi Airport, one last PCR. S$126
The worst Pre-Departure experience, administratively.. haha
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| Good swab staff. But company-wise much remains to be desired. |
On the day of the swab, the staff could not find our records because they just changed the computer system. Finally they generated the manual barcode and did Serene and my very first PCR (quite comfortably, the swab staff she was good). But this was the beginning of the errors...
But on that night two hours before we were due to fly, the Changi check-in officer Shai noticed something amiss: “Sir you PDT swab here on the certificate stated you all did them on 19 Dec 9am and 10am. This is not according to the new regulation. If you fly you have to be quarantined for 10 days in Korea.”
“Huh? We did ours on the 20th Dec at 3:30pm. That certificate date/time was the original appointment date that we cancelled and rebooked subsequently!”
“Sir, I think you’d better call that swab clinic immediately,” advised the security staff. It was 11pm.
An urgent call to PDTSwab.sg’s emergency number and frantic urging to the lady on the other end got through the ammended new certificates emailed to me.. though I had to pay to have them printed in Changi Airport, and not to mention the stress it generated. Aiyah.. it was my fault.. I should have checked the certificate properly. I am sure there will be more chances of us travelling in the (near-to mid) future. But I also knew who I will not go to for a PDT swab.
Finally with much relief, Shai, the very kind check-in security staff handed each of us our Blue VTL lanyard for us to hang while we took the flight. This lanyard would come in useful when the staff over in Incheon needed to check these when we took our AREX train from the airport.
And we flew. We haven't seen the inside of a airport bridge for the longest time. We were so thrilled to be having the familiar dejavu feeling again. The flight was packed. Much more so than we expected. Apparently, there were so many people travelling to Korea.
Day 1
Arriving in Incheon
Hongdae Subway station
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| Da-bao Eumok at the Hongdae subway station because the next few hours have to be quarantined in the AirBnB until our negative PCR result came out. |
Knowing that we would have to wait in our AirBnB until whatever time our Negative PCR results came out, we da-bao-ed Eomuk sticks (the yong-tau-fu sticks) at the Ajussi stall at the basement of the station and cup noodles and seaweed from the convenience stall. Out from exit 9 of Hongdae station I was really lost. I couldn’t really orientate myself yet, and had to carry that two heavy luggage up the wrong exit (exit 9) then back down again and up the correct exit (exit 8), and THEN roll these two huge luggage along the zig-zagging paved roads until we got closed enough to our Ok-Tab-Bang (Rooftop apartment , 옥탑방 屋塔房) all the way up fifth floor somewhere in the middle of Hongdae.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!By the time our AirBnB host 민준원 씨 completed guiding us to the door of his apartment Serene and I were panting heavily outside the door.
“Wah lau… so Chuan!" what a way to start the trip. Hahaha…
The rooftop was private.. all for ourselves, which was good. I could peer far to the rooftops of almost all the low-rise buildings in the neighbourhood and also could see the shopping malls in the mid-ground. The weather was a mild and enjoyable negative 1.3 degree Celcius.
We had Spicy Cup Ramyeon with seaweed and the Eomuk for lunch and rested.
Daehan Minguk, after a hiatus of two years, felt somewhat unfamiliar… it was usually like that when we first arrived at a destination. We haven’t developed the feel, the ‘lingam’ yet. Under normal circumstances, travellers would immediate take to the streets to explore but travelling during the Covid era was just different. We were lucky to have 민준원 씨’s Korean handphone number for making our way through Customs and also for us to receive the Negative PCR results from Incheon Airport’s clinic. The results came at 3:05pm, four and a half hours after the swabs. Not bad at all.
I knew my plans. We took a 30 minutes bus to the nearest Polyclinic. (Hahaha!) Although the Korean
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| Mapo Public Health Centre |
Mafan… and according to the Telegram chat group, some Public Health Centres like the one in Dongdaemun were very helpful, and very efficient and fast in issuing the certificates - a mere 20 minutes - but it happened that the nearby one we went to, Mapo 보건소 was one of the less efficient one at that point.
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| First time we were inside a Korean polyclinic. |
This 마포구 Mapo-gu 보건소 was located somewhere in the middle of some local Elderly Care centre and near a neighbourhood building surrounded by some car mechanics. Serene and I loved these oldish, neighbourhood-ly areas that contrasted starkly to then usual tourist-trodden parts.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
We walked around the car repair shops and then saw a 회 식당 (Hoe 회 pronounced as Hoay.. is the Korean name for raw meat, raw fish.. like the Japanese Sashimi). This would be our first attempt at entering and eating at the restaurant ever since our arrival. We haven’t had our Local Korean vaccination certificates yet but I would have to somehow wing it and try to convince the ShaJangNim to accept my Singapore vaccination certificates and then we will both dial the AnShimCall (안심콜 安心 Call). Apparently the name was called Fire King Hoei shop 불킹회점.
We pushed the glass door but there wasn't anyone. The door was opened, but no ShaJangNim came. We left disappointed.. But something made us turn back. A second attempt and finally the ShaJangNim appeared.
“안녕하세요!” 您好！
“안녕하세요. 식당 문이 열리나요?” 您好。 食堂的门有开吗？
“네 네 그럼요. 문이 닫으면서 우리는 열렸어요.” 是的，当然。虽然们是关着的，但我们是开门营业的。
“QR코드찍어해주세요” instructed the ShaJangNim. 请扫描你们的QR。
Ok my 'ahem' has to come liao..
“시장님, 우리는 한국인 아니고, 싱가포르사람인데, 예방접종 확인서가 있어요.” 社长您，我们不是韩国人，是新加坡人，我们有预防疫苗注射证书。
Not bad this female ShaJangNim allowed us to eat in her premise.
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| "My favourite HOEI (Sashimi)!"...We were pleasantly surprised by the presentation! |
Wah.. both Serene and I had a most swell time enjoying one of the freshest Hoei we have ever eaten. Honest one. I was a little skeptical about eating sashimi while in Korea. But Serene die-die wanted to eat. And one of the most important things a man had to do was firstly to make his wife happy. A happy wife maketh a happy trip. And I proved myself wrong and Serene completely right - Hoei in Korea was delicious! Fresh and really juicy.. and the raw crab was really sweet!
And I remembered during one of our Korean lessons, our SonSengNim said: "Hoe in Korea is definitely cheaper than in Singapore because the ingredients are freshly-caught from the surrounding seas."
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| I simply could not let a chance slip without ordering my San-Nak-Ji (Live octupus) |
No doubt about it. The freshness was tip top. and the ShaJangNim, once she knew we were Singaporeans, was very hospitable. And when she knew we were Singaporeans who were learning the Korean language, wah lau eh.. she was so happy she kept talking to us in Korean. How can one not be totally immersed in such an environment and quickly had to level up...
Take bus back to Hongdae
What a day. Time to go back to our OkTabBang and do what?... attend our online Zoom Korean lesson. Haha..
~ . ~
Day 2 (brief account)
(Oops.. you want to read the Detail Account instead? Here click this..)
23 Dec 2021
The temperature stood at -1.4 degrees as we got up. In retrospect we would realise that this was a nice and warm temperature. On this morning it didn’t feel like that warm to us who took a bus 271 to Mapo-gu Public Health centre to receive our Korean-endorsed vaccination certificate.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
“How to tell them I want to collect my overseas vaccination confirmation certificate?” asked Serene as we walked.
“저는 해외 접종 확인서를 받고싶어요…” 我要来索取海外预防疫苗注射确认书 and man, this Serene impressed me by the way she kept repeating this as we made our way. She was determined to ask the man or woman there this question.
Asked she did, the female reception on the second floor and instantly she got gratification with our certificates. Actually it was later in the trip that we found that these certificates were important. Though it has been a month since this VTL-thingy was implemented, the local merchants and restaurateurs were not really updated so some of the Singapore travelers were denied admission into certain restaurants. But with this Korean certificate it lubricated things.
The flagship Uniqlo was no longer there. Human traffic on this Thursday late morning was quiet.
한상문 씨 was manning the spectacle store while 김만중 and 김학중 were busy preparing coffee for their customers in Momo Cafe next door. Were they surprised to see us!
“오랜만이에요!" (It’s been a long time) Serene candidly chirped to them all. She has been practicing this for the longest time. “보고 싶어요!" (I miss you all) 来了来了… 哈哈 Serene’s best Koreans were these few sentences.
김만중’s Uncle 함상만 씨 was as professional as ever and I was silently glad when he found that mine and Serene’s eyesights did not deteriorate. He explained that even if I were to increase the degrees of my glasses it would do no good to my sight because at this moment our glasses would still allow us good vision for years more. Unbelievable, that’s why I like this man.
“요즘은 관광객이 거이 없어요." (Nowadays there is almost no tourists) he said, when I asked. Understandable. No one could travel in and out easily. “여기 온 외국인은 한국에서 살고 있는 외국인이에요." (Those foreigners who walked into the shop are those already living in Korea)
It was true. Aside from ourselves there was only another old old Korean man who walked in and asked about something trivial of his pair of glasses.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Banpo Hangang Park
The afternoon was still young. And we just wanted to make our way to Hangang just to stroll along the Hangang parks. Although because of Covid, the famous Banpo Hangang Park fountain has been stopped, we still took a bus to Banpo Big Bridge 반포대교 and leisurely strolled to the park. It wasn’t late but in winter the sun was already setting and it was streaming golden light at acute angles through The branches of the now wintry-naked trees. The sculptures within the park were most amazing and we spent our time like little boy and girl running around on a photography trip all over again.
There was a banner hung across in the park that said “한강 공원에서 산책하면서 사회적 거리두기 지키고 마스크도 쓰세요”.. or something like that which literally meant “even strolling along the Hangang park please maintain social distancing and please wear your mask”.
And what do you know! All the cyclists we see were wearing masks even while cycling and ajummas were walking with masks on and young men and women running were masked too! Most impressive. I am not sure, but maybe in Singapore it is hot that’s why we have no choice but not to wear mask when we are running outdoors?
One thing hor about wearing masks in winter… those of us living in the hot tropics we never had to face this problem. Imagine, the temperature outside was already in the negative territory. And every exhalation brings out steam which condensed and fogged up our glasses. What more, those water droplets inside the masks get caught in between the fabrics and became icy cold. In no time we had pool of water inside the masks. Yucks! And no matter how I adjusted my glasses kept fogging up.
“Shit, man. If I have to still wear masks in the winters to come, I will think many times!”
Back in Hongdae we had a wonderfully delicious bulgogi meal at the 인기가 많은 새 마을 식당. We were totally impressed by how popular this Saemaeul Siktang Hongdae branch was with the young students. We ordered soju, beer, three orders of different pork.. it came up to 48,000₩ (S$54). I would say for Singapore standard, it was on par with our country in terms of pricing for Korean barbecue. It was well known that dining in Hongdae was slightly cheaper than in other parts of Seoul like Myeongdong or Gangnam, because here they catered more to youngsters and university students.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
“Dar!” cried Serene.
“Simi?”
“I want to go sing karaoke! I want to eat the chicken across the road!”
“Wah lau you want so many things one shot. No. Tonight we just go to the Coin Noraebang to sing.”
The 코인노래방 are such interesting little setups that anyone can just go in and for a small amount of money belt out to one’s heart’s content singing in a small cubicle. The ShaJangNim here was an ajusshi who was very courteous, and we were impressed that he actually checked our foreigner vaccination certificate, and for 5,000₩ (S$4.80) we had such a great time singing several of the many Korean songs that we wanted to sing back home but could find no karaoke on them.
“Tomorrow night I want to come again!” declared the young lady.
“Ok onz! Tomorrow we will come again.”
We arrived back into our 옥탑방 to read with sadness, the news that the Singapore government will suspend the selling of VTL plane tickets entering Singapore with effect from 23rd December 2021 until 20th January 2022. That was terrible news. Because just as the travelling sector was starting to pick up and people started to travel out of Singapore and foreigners started travelling into Singapore, the government literally pulled a hand-brake on this. So those who, say, wanted to travel to Korea for holiday but procrastinated in buying tickets, would have less than a day’s time to grab their plane tickets, which by the time had been jacked up to upwards of $1500-1700 per ticket, or totally forget about the idea of travelling to Korea until things settle.
“You know, Dar,” I told Serene. “For all we know, we may be the last batch of travellers to Korea for a long while more until the government reinstate the VTL ticket sales.”
Yeah.. it is so unpredictable, this business of travelling.
~.~
Day 3 (brief account)
(Not the summary?. you wanted the Detail Account instead? oh click this..)
24 Dec 2021
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| Gyeongui Line Forest Walk |
“Today I am going to bring you walk walk gai gai in this nice nice cool weather,” I told Serene, waking up on a nice cool (not cold) Christmas Eve morning.
Gyeongui Line Forest Park
Before we left for Korea I was already checking out where to walk in a more natural environment and this Geongui LineForest Trail 경의선 숲 길 came recommended. Just a short 10 minutes walk from our OkTabBang, we came to the beginning of the track and as the weather was cool, we were warmly clothed and strolled leisurely down. On our way we saw tall, young Korean men running, slim young Korean girls jogging, old men and women taking their slow morning walks, old grandfathers pushing their toddler grandchildren in strollers. The oldish buildings on each side were a nice contrast to the decommissioned daily track that has become the centerpiece of this 2km walk.
And the end of it we turned left and plonked directly into the tiny lanes of the residential area.
“Oh this is nice,” I told Serene. “I don't mind just walking zig-zag in this residential area.”
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| The house we always saw in K drama. |
“I just need some nice warm soupy food for breakfast,” said Serene, hungrily searching for one of those ubiquitous SikTangs run by ajummas or ajussis.. and we found a nice cosy little one on the right side- 감나무집 곰탕… the very popular GomTang beef bone soup.
This Ajumma was very up till date. One look at our Foreigner Vaccination confirmation certificate 해외 접종 확인서 （海外接种确定书)and asking us to make the AnShimCall 안심콜 (安心 Call) we were quickly seated and before long our 10,000₩ (S$12) per bowl of really delicious GomTang with the usual assortment of Banchan were served. Really tasty these were. We are our hearts out. So did a few of the middle-age men on the other tables. It was later then we found out that this place , the SikTang next to it called 감나무 기사 식당 （KamNamMoo drivers’ restaurant) caters to taxi drivers who would pop in for a quick and cheap meal. A meal like this could be had for S$12 a person, including plain water free flow, free flow banchan 반잔 side dishes which typically included kimchi, radish and occasionally bean sprouts.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
The weather was lovely. Crisp cool air, not cold. Soaked in the peaceful residential area, we walked about less than an hour before arriving back at the Hongdae Entrance Subway station.
Off to Gangnam!
We laughed at ourselves secretly because despite visiting Korea so many times we have not made our way to Gangnam to view its splendour.
“Today we will just go gai gai at Gangnam!”
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The Coex Subway station was easily reached. On this Friday Christmas Eve late morning, Coex was crowded.
Needing additional caffeine infusion, both of us headed up to ground level and grabbed a Cappucino (6,500₩) and Caramel Mochiato (also around 6500₩) and practised Korean with the friendly waitress at this Starbucks look-alike cafe called Tom N Toms Coffee, so interesting, almost everything was Starbucks-ish, right down to the logo design. Coffee was nice. And our energylevel was taken one notch up.
Bongeunsa 봉은사 奉恩寺
The famous BongeunSa 奉恩寺 was a 100m away from the cafe. In front of us walked two ladies who, from their conversation, sounded like Taiwanese to me.
“Wow this Bongeunsa looks exactly like the temple we visited the last time in Busan with Papa and Mama,” exclaimed Serene.
Indeed the architectural design of 봉은사 奉恩寺 was almost similar to Beomeosa 범어사 梵鱼寺 in Busan. On this cool day, a slow stream of Ajummas and a couple of young ladies made their way to the altar, stopping to bow and pay respects to each Buddha on the side of the garden path.
A sense of peace permeated. I saw many colourful well wishes written on colour papers with tiny lanterns, and I wanted to do a set but sadly they could only accept cash. Too bad. Kwenchana.
汉城江南的奉恩寺，与釜山的梵鱼寺，是历史悠久的韩国佛寺。史上朝鲜的帝王与历代文人都远来供奉。今日有缘到此，虽仅仅一会儿，但亦已满足了。我本身认为，有时候人生嘛，就是如此。旅行归旅行。但是偶尔在旅行路途之中，不知觉中步入一个景点，或身处一个环境，在不知不觉中产生一种顿悟，也是一种人生的体验。或许，这次韩国之行，不就是与这一刹那心中的领会有缘吧。
COEX Mall and Starfield Library
Slowly walking out from Bongeunsa and walking back down to Coex Subway station, we found ourselves benign drowned yet once again in the crowds of people thronging the underground station, and back into the reality of modern Hanguk. Upon the ground laid a blue path that indicated the way to the famous Starfield library, known as 별 마당. We have always seen Instagram posts of this but have never been here. With tingling anticipation it was, we made our way slowly along the blue path squeezing in between crowds.
There were people, young and old, standing around this landmark gigantic ground to ceiling bookshelf, just staring in awe at it, and shooting wefies and exclaiming excitedly. For me, I would have loved to buy some Korean books back home. But this is too busy a place to be able to leisurely look through and choose a suitable one.
“Wah.. hou-gok, hou-gok ah!" (Very stuffy in Cantonese) kao-beh-ed Serene. It’s always like this. Outside in the open we were comfortable wearing all these layers in the cold, but after a while in the indoor, we start to feel the warmth over-bearing.
“Ok let’s take the escalator up to ground floor and once we see an exit we will escape.”
Found we did, and once again immersed ourselves in the comfort of the outdoor cold. Actually my Serene she is quite cute. She had the initiative to bring a flask of hot tea wherever we went. And sitting down in the outdoor yard, we sipped tea and watched quietly the people going about their own businesses.
“Actually hor, this Starfield Library really nothing much one hor?” I remarked. To which Serene agreed. “Let’s take a bus to Gangnam subway station because I read that around the Gangnam station there are a lot of exciting shops, eateries, cafe and huge shopping malls and outdoor shopping lanes.”
By bus. we arrived at the station, made famous by the singer Psy. Crazily Serene was half joking as she walked and danced that Psy Gangnam style dance. I laughed heartily because it was just so her.
By this time on Christmas Eve, the streets were filled with people doing their last minute shopping. I guess Gangnam area would be very representative. Apart from a little half-underground Daiso where we happily bought a couple of silver Korean bowls and Korean cups, we didn’t feel the urge to go into any other shops. It was only about 4pm and the sky was darkening and the mercury started to drift downwards.
Enough of Gangam. And enough of stuffy subways on a cold winter evening. Happily we grabbed a 1 hour 7 minutes bus ride from Gangnam right back to Hongdae. Gradually we were enjoying ourselves commuting in buses. It was simple and really convenient and it was very cheap.
The main roads of Gangnam were 5-lane wide thoroughfares. And cars honked and sped along, a reflection of the Korean mentality of haste and impatience in their quest for perfection. Driving in Korea has always been described as hazardous. An attempt in imagining myself driving in the heart of Seoul brought about a deep feeling of unwillingness hahaha..
~.~
Day 4 - Christmas Day! (brief account)
(sala?. Oh you mean the Detail Account, instead? click here..please)
25 Dec 2021
The mercury plunged to negative 13 this morning.. We lazed in bed until almost 10am. Now I finally understood what the rooftop is for. It was for me to try various combinations of layers of middle-layer, battery-operated warm middle layer, vest and outer down jackets…
And after a few tries, I realise that wah today morning’s -13 degrees was no joke, and I had to go on full layers in order to feel comfortable.
“I want to go massage,” said Serene.
"Huh, Gong simi ah?" an amused me.
"I said I want to go massage! 내가 마사지를 하고 싶다고 했어 !" Wah even Indirect speech in Korean also came out liao. Better obey the Queen. See beh jiaklat!
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| The Foot Shop, Donggyo-dong branch |
Wah lau eh.. this girl ah. People go Bangkok to massage I can understand, but she comes to Seoul where to go massage? I have never massaged in Korea. But I found one. Let's go!
The Foot Shop 더풋샵
Arriving at 더풋샵, climbed to second floor and a cosy, warm set up welcomed us. Once the staff heard that we are from Singapore she started speaking Mandarin to us. And with our overseas vaccination certificate checked, we were ready. 60 minutes 후면전신 케어 （后面全身 Care) at 50,000₩ we were ushered to changed and had our feet soaked.
The 사장님 herself was friendly and I guess nowadays having hardly any tourists her business was mostly local customers.
‘한국어 정말 잘 하시네요!” She said.
“아니요, 아니요… 우리는 싱가포를에서 한국어 학교에 한국어를 배우고 있는 것이에요.”
我想也是吧。不是每天都有一对尝试讲着韩语的新加坡夫妇走进这按摩店里边吧…
The ShaJangNim smilingly said that they opened daily. Before Covid, they would open from 11am to 2am daily. But with the restrictions nowadays they operated from 10am till 10pm. Interestingly this SajangNim she knew that the cost of living is high in Singapore and she was planning to go to Malaysia and buy a home in Malaysia to live there. Of course she was inquisitive to more information about doing that and we chatted. Our male and female masseuse were Mandarin speaking sifu and wow did they do a good job! They kneaded our painful necks and backs so well we hadn’t had such great massages for a long time.
“我跟您按到手都没力气了,” joked the male masseuse at the end of the 1 hour session.
“진짜 시원해요!” Serene said to the 사장님, using the newly-learned word for ‘Shiok!’.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Yoongane Dakgalbi 윤가네닭갈비
We decided to have lunch first before heading to the Hongdae Nanta Theatre. There was a Yoongane Hongdae Dakgalbi restaurant where one of the chat group members got rejected dining because she was a foreigner.
So this was our second time having Dakgalbi in our lifetime, the first time being a few years ago in Bangkok.
“주꾸미 닭갈비 look nice,” (Octopus and Chicken Galbi) I suggested. “And this 불국사 (cold buckwheat soup) looks nice too. I really want to eat the Nengmyeon.”
The Hongdae Nanta Theatre was merely a short walk from the Yoongane Dakgalbi shop. We did arrive at the building and the signboard did say Nanta Theatre. But neither taking the lift nor walking down the stairs (partially) to B2 were successful in finding Nanta. Only then we realised… oh there was no Nanta any more. It actually has closed down here in Hongdae. Sad.
So we walked back to our OkTabBang to take an afternoon nap instead. Hahaha..
Oh it was cold at 5pm. Around -10 degrees and we walked out to just wander around Hongdae.
Just ‘…walked walked and see see and look look…’ in Serene’s favourite words. Wow on this Christmas Saturday Hongdae was bustling with young people and young couples. We turned round and round and just soaked in the atmosphere.
The whole Hongdae was abuzz with beautifully made-up mascara-ed eye lashes and sparkling eye shadow colours dressed in tiny mini-skirts and long knee-high boots… everywhere we turned. Made me wonder what steel legs these young girls were made of, that allowed them to tolerate the deep negative 10 degrees cold wearing only stocking..
“They would rather be super pretty in the mini-skirt and die from cold.” remarked Serene.
“Dar I really want to dabao that fried chicken where we walked past last night,” insisted the young lady.
I thought this would be a great chance to force her out of her comfort zone…
“Ok of course you can dabao.. but 我考考你.. you your ownself order from the waiter in Korean and try,” I challenged her and she took up the challenge. She must be hungry hahaha!!
“포장해도돼요?” (Can I take away) she asked the young waiter.
”네, 네… 뭘 드릴까요?”(Yes, what can I get you?) came through fast and furious reply from the waiter.
“마늘 닭 한 마리 포장해주세요.” (Garlic chicken please give me 一只) Ok.. haltingly she said it. But hey not bad leh, REALLY not bad at all, this Serene!
And she successfully ordered her own one whole chicken meal at 17,800₩, which we later on, happily devour back in the Rooftop! Happy supper with fresh green grapes.
“Actually hor.. if I were a poor young Korean student this chicken meal with one can of coke, a big whole grilled garlic chicken with lots of glutinous rice and some vegetables, would be enough for me to have for lunch and dinner.. maybe even longer.. maybe two days?” said Serene, of this S$20.40 dabao. “Actually to save money if I were a young student here in Hongdae I would eat cup noodles every day even.. and do some simple cooking.”
I still feel that in terms of eating, Singapore is cheaper than Seoul, though Hongdae is definitely one of the more affordable areas. Here in Seoul, a full meal with Banchan and drinks would set us off by at least 10,000₩ (S$12). But back home in an equivalent set up, say in a kopi tiam, you can get a bowl of wonton mee, or bak Chor mee for $5.50 and drink for $2. It will still total S$7.50. Still cheaper than here in Hongdae.
The recent restriction by the Korean government in allowing only up to 4 persons to dine in restaurants and cafe, and to have the dining establishment close at 9pm actually dealt a major blow to businesses.
~.~
Day 5 (brief account)
(Oh? you wanted that fun & detail account? ok click here..)
26 Dec 2021
Day 5 we did our own ART and Guai Guai kept the photos in our handphones.
Apparently, despite our taking to public buses in Seoul, it was not recommended to bring our huge luggage into public buses, from what I searched, and from 민준원’s (our AirBnB host) advice. But hey.. Kakao Taxi App wasn’t bad at all in booking a taxi, even though not having a local Korean phone number meant I was not able to input a credit card as a form of payment into my Kakao App. Still, 18 minutes taxi drive and at 8,700₩ (S$10) was really not too bad.
Sophia Hanok - Bukchon
It took us a while to drag our luggages to the correct spot. Much of the gratitude went to a very patient female boutique store 사장님, who took all of 5 minutes to show me exactly on the map how to walk.. I walked out of the boutique to a shivering Serene.
Walking along Bukchon drew out a feeling of dejavu because a few years back we stayed in one of the traditional Hanoks here.
Sophia Guesthouse was right at the end of an alley, an oldish little house with a central yard like 中国人的四合院. The owner Mr Lee welcomed us and told us: “There, small room. Here big room for you. Service. (Service in Korean means free of charge)”
“Today very cold,” he said, and showed us the room.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
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| Walked across to Insadong |
Across the main road 율곡로 was cultural Insadong. The tourist information lady patiently searched for us but found all the money changers to be closed on this Sunday. Who could blame them? No tourists, no tourist money, and the locals were also no longer travelling. Thus we had to live another day without cash.
Insadong on a Sunday afternoon was a really sad affair. My memory of Insadong few years back was a bustling, noisy walking street with plenty of locals and tourists and the arts and traditional calligraphy shops doing brisk business. Fast forward to this day, a few shop owners selling 龙须糖 called out to us: “Singapore? Here this delicious!”
We were impressed they could tell that we were Singaporeans.
Quite a dead town, was Insadong. On a cold afternoon, a nice warm meal of GomTang, Mandu 국 soup and makgeoli, pancake was a heart and body-warming affair.
“Wow! This is the most delicious kimchi I have ever tasted,” said Serene. “And this Mandu 만둣국 is superb. And your GomTang 곰탕 is also very delicious. The seafood pancake 해물 파전 matches with the magkeoli (rice wine) is perfect.” Wah 우리 집사람 must have been really hungry. Hahahaha…
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| along the peripheral road of Bukchon |
As much as Bukchon was dejavu, strolling along Insadong was as nostalgic. It brought back memories of our very first trip to Korea with the children and, at that tine Ah Sing was looking to visit art galleries in Korea. It’s strange how memories are such powerful links to the past and how they conjure emotional responses deep within.
The warm Ondol floor in the Hanok warmed us as we rested, and we were insulated from the harsh cold outside, until 5pm.
“I really want to slowly walk Bukchon, like the way that Seoul Walker took his two hour videos of heavy snow walking along the alleys of Bukchon like that,” I told Serene.
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| waiting for our Ajumma Hotteok |
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| Munching unto the steaming Hotteok |
“Let’s support the local industry leh,” urged Serene, and we bought some buns and we even popped into a 黄生家칼국수 restaurant where Serene had a 사골칼국수 (牛骨汤面) and I ordered a 만두국 (馒头汤). I personally found the kimchi here spectacular. And we had such a wonderful meal this evening, that we didn’t mind bearing the cold walking back to the Hanok.
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| Kalguksu at 黄生家 at the edge of Bukchon |
During this meal the ladies took our orders but failed to deliver. So we Chogiyo them.. Chogiyo!
“뭘 드길까요?” courteously asked the Ajumma.
“저는 이미 주문했는데 근대 음식 아직 안 왔어요.”
And they apologetically delivered our ordered food to our dining table.
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| The famous Korean independence fighter Yu Gwan-sun |
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| Dead town Bukchon.. only the cafe is still opened |
~.~
Day 6 (brief account)
(Oh? OK I know, the fun-filled description here..)
27 Dec 2021
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| PCR in a Korean Hospital, anyone? |
Wah lau eh.. this morning was still cold at a negative 12.6 degree. But the Hanok was deliciously warm with the heated floor. It wasn’t that big a room, but it was sufficient for (again) a feel of the Hanguk traditional living.
Once again we braved the cold, walked down 한옥길 (Hanok street), took bus 704 four stations and arrived at 서대문역 for our Day 6/7 PCR at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. Speaking about the in-Kore PCR, this Day 6/7 PCR is only required if one were to stay for 8 days or more. In the Singapore-Incheon VTL Telegram chat group, there were several hospitals highlighted: H-Plus Yangji hospital at Sillim, Seegene Medical, and one of them is this Kangbuk Samsung Hospital.
The medical staff were efficient. We got our queue number, fill up simple forms, and then registered ourselves. The registration nurse spoke understandable English and again was super efficient because once she knew we were there for the Day 6/7 swab, she got everything organized. We waited only for a short while, seated in the waiting area, watching local Koreans coming for their PCR and even a couple of Ang Mohs here for theirs.
109,080₩ (S$125) and one poke in the throat and one more deep one in one nostril, and we walked out, exactly 39 minutes in total. Talk about fast service. Here it was even better and more efficient than PDTSwab back home in Singapore.
“Ok let’s just stroll leisurely from here down to Gwanghwamun and let’s visit Gyeongbokkung (once again) and just relax relax walk.”
Wah lau don’t say hor… it was really cold walking like that..
“Wah luckily we have the heated vest inside and the USB heater egg in our pocket,” noted Serene. “But hor.. even with these USB heater egg at maximum level 3 hor, when it is so cold outside, the egg doesn’t feel hot at all.. but hor.. once we go indoors wah the egg becomes super hot.
Yes, we could imagine how cold it actually is outside.
“My ears are so cold that they are painful,” complained Serene. “Last time when we were in the mountains of Nepal, even when it was so cold it also wasn’t like that.”
“Aiyah you old already lah.”
Gwanghwamun Square was all fenced up and heaps of sand and construction materials were inside. They were excavating this historical site for its archeological findings and they were planning to re-open this some time in 2022.
Gwanghwamun welcomed us with masked guards, and we made in right on time for the changing of guards. Gyeongbokkung was quite with few visitors. Aside from us, there was another young Ang Moh couple, and the rest were locals. Things hadn’t changed. Somehow I found ourselves more attuned to the buildings and more able to slowly explore, to find that the names of the various chambers and palaces named interestingly.
“This 殿 is named because it is used the Emperor is sick of listening to the governors and wanted to sit alone quietly to think and study. Here this 宫 is when the Emperor is sick of studying and wanted to look for his empress. Of course, if you see the name of this other 殿, it’s when he had enough of the emperor and wanted to look for concubine number 2. Oh and oh.. this one 财成门 is when the Emperor desired to tiok TOTO…” I joked.
“And this one leh? Here this one was used when the Emperor wanted to have his Empress give birth to a dragon (a son),” I added.
“Hahaha then these two? These two 宫 with the 双喜 words? Don’t tell me he used them when he had all his weddings with all his new wives?” Serene quipped.
“맞아요!” I replied.
We managed to survive until today day 6 with literally only about 20,000₩ (S$24) cash. The rates at the Singapore Money changers were not that good (S$1:850₩) and I could get better rates in Korea, I knew. Thankfully the money changer in Insadong that was closed yesterday Sunday was opened today.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
For our this overseas trip, we used two Master Debit cards- one was Wise (previously known as TransferWise) for myself, and the other one was YouTrip for Serene.
Each of these debit Mastercards just needed to have me top up its value inside. Wise MasterCard’s advantage was when I PayNow into my card back home in Singapore, I already locked in the rates and the S$ got converted immediately into Korean ₩ and stored inside the card. Wise had another advantage as I could use it to transfer money directly from my card to anyone in the world’s personal bank. This I used for Kim Man Jung’s glasses payment because by doing so he will incur no credit card merchant admin charges. But there was a tiny admin fee on my side, but not significant compared to the merchant admin charges. Of course Wise could also be used as a normal Debit card to swipe at any shop.
So I gave Serene the YouTrip MasterCard to hold and every meal, every purchase and every transaction I made her pay. Actually it was an excuse… it was so that she would be forced to converse in Korean to the cashiers, the waiters and such. In this aspect the YouTrip card accomplished its mission perfectly.
After a good nap in the Hanok (Good life, eh? Haha that was what travelling free and easy was supposed to be) we got up and went off agian.
“What?!?! So early! It’s only 4:50pm, not even 5pm you wake me up already?! For dinner? I am still very full leh!” kao-beh the Empress.
공평동 꼼장어 GongPyeongDong Eel
This 呱呱叫店 was what we were looking for, merely an 800m walk from our Hanok. On this day, the long long queue outside its premise in biting cold, standing next to charcoal warmer to keep its customer warm while queuing, was no more. Although there was no queue outside, once inside the unmistakable cacophony of melodious Korean floated from every table at an uninhibited level of decibels, both men and women, just like the way a local Korean SikTang should be. Hardly any foreigners come here one.
Once I told the waiter that we were Singaporeans and we had the foreign vaccination confirmation certificate, his face lit up and directed us to make the AnShimCall and quickly got us seated. This time round with our ability to read the menu on the wall we placed our order very quickly - 석쇠불고기 (steel grilled beef), 꼼장어 (eel), and 불막장 (the distal end of the small intestine, grilled and seasoned). The one bottle of soju and one bottle of beer only brought out the aroma of the food even more. So we joined in the spirit of the restaurant in speaking loudly and jovially.
The one thing about this road side small restaurant hor.. its tables are placed, not only very near to each other, they were also very near the entrance so much that half way through eating we started feeling the cold seeping onto our body and the guy next table had to put on his outer jacket, and another young couple moved to a table further in. For us, not only our legs were cold , our hands were numbed. Thankfully we had the soju and beer to warm us up, and our USB egg and powerbank-heated middle best kept us going.
Walking back the cold seemed to have taken a back seat.. definitely because of the warm food and the body-warming soju and beer, but as we walked there were still frozen pools of ice on the ground which we had to be careful not to slip on.
I took a lovely lovely HOT shower, especially so when the weather was so freezing on such a night, and we had the luxury of a warm ondol floor, and a warmed room so that my teeth did not chatter after the shower, like what always happened when I was in Nepal.
We slept early this night.
~.~
Day 7 (brief account)
28 Dec 2021
Early this morning at 8:30am.
“Breakfast is ready!” called out the Hanok ShajangNim Mr Lee.
“哇佬，每天早上一起来就是吃!” remarked Serene. “Every day hor.. we just eat, and eat and eat and sleep and sleep and shit and shit…
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| "Warm water, my Emperor!" |
It was cold. Still cold. Though a tad off the lows of -14 a couple of days ago. This morning the mercury stood at -8.1 degree and the weather forecast said he may snow tonight and be a little icy tomorrow.
“What’s your plan today?” asked Serene during breakfast.
“I don’t know leh” my answer.
“Good! Then I am going back to sleep!” this girl very naughty ah.
Hmmm.. really didn’t know what to do today. Sometimes when one is on a free and easy holiday, if tine allows, it is never ever a bad thing to have one day when the mind doesn’t know what to do and where to go, and one would simply let nature take its course and let one’s feet do the walking. Today was just one of these days.
Our feet took us up the slope from the Hanok and up and up some more slopes as we strolled northwards towards the more mountainous part of Bukchon. Bukchon, interesting, was a village that was on the hill between Geongbokkung and Changdeokgung, a fact that was apparent to our gluteus muscles when we started climbing and Serene started Kao-beh-ing.
“One of the reviews said that one of the best way to explore Bukchon is to get lost in it,” I shared with Serene. “Now with Kakao Map, it’s so easy.. we can walk and just walk along whichever alley or street and totally get lost.. Nothing that one glance at our Kakao Map App cannot re-locate our position.”
We found all the Hanoks with their central courtyard and the ondol (warmed stone heated flooring) and maru (raised floor) very attractive. This ondol technique of having study rooms and bedrooms elevated by stone base that was heated up by piping steam from fires in the kitchen from cooking, was known to start during the Goryeo Dynasty in the 10th century.
“How? This one nice right? Want to rent this one and stay here?”
“Don’t want! This one is right up so high up in the hill, I walk also want to die already. The alley is so small car also cannot come in, and if I carry a heavy bag of groceries you want me to walk all the way up here. And each time I want to go market I got to 下山? 안돼!” hahaha this Serene gave no chance.
Before long we found ourselves eating lunch again after a very heavy breakfast of bibimbap. At this hole in the wall SikTang we ordered 칼국수 knife cut noodle, 만돗국 Mandu soup, and 모든 만두 a mixture set of different Mandu. And we ate until our stomach felt so bloated we wanted to throw up when we stumbled back to our Hanok to take a much needed to rest.
“I feel like vomiting,” I said, lying on the ondol.
“Hey me too leh,” admitted Serene..
Jiaklat. This cannot continue. We needed to keep walking to burn off all these. So I told Serene ok, my plan for the evening was to walk from Bukchon, through Insadong, to Myeongdong.
It was a pleasant walk, about 30 minutes, yes, but a lot of things to see many signboards to point out to each other and to read out loud to each other. Travelling in Korea was like this.. it was maximizing our exposure to the language visually, auditorily and having the perfect opportunity to mouth and vocalize the words we see. In short, every moment is a learning moment, every walk is a practice in reading, every turn is a chance in deciphering the meanings of the signboards, and every second is a Korean Language lesson for both of us. That was what young students experience when they get sent for exchange in another country - total immersion.
Serene was pleasantly surprised how near Myeongdong was from our Hanok at Bukchon. And she happily announced to 한상문 씨, 김만중 and 김학중 separately her newly-learned phrase:
“우리는 북촌에서 명동까지 걸어왔어요!” (We walked and came to Myeongdong from Bukchon !)
As we talked, our conversation came to property prices and 김만중 said that the property prices in Seoul have doubled since Covid started, and that the prices of apartments in Mapo (and expensive area) is double that of a similar unit in Incheon.
Talking about cost of living…
在北村漫步的这一天，所见的景色，使我们回想起北海道冬天里小尊市或函馆市或甚至好比澳洲 Busselton 的那一种悠然寂静的风味。这北村的店铺都不外是美术点，画廊，韩服店，服装店等等与艺术有关联的。我们走着走着，心想，客人这么少，如何可以维持生意？上山下山，古色古香的韩屋景色尽入眼帘，很是吸引人。我们本身比较喜欢东方的冬天。红毛国家嘛就别说了。日本北海道和韩国北村，各有各的味道。但试想想，每天上山下山，爬上坡走下坡，客观来说虽然是一种健康的生活方式，但是对我们新加坡人来说，累坏了…哈哈哈。
我问阿华：”要是我们在这里长期生活，每天的费用会多少？如何减少开支？”
阿华说：”早餐就自己煮，午餐可以在外面吃，晚餐呢也就回来家里煮来吃。这样的话，在外面吃的那一餐午餐就大概新加坡钱$30-40。”
”这样的话，我们两个人在这里的开支每天大概还是要$100吧。还没包括祖屋子呢… 加上住宿的话，每天$200？哇佬… 不便宜 leh…”
That evening consolidated one thing. It’s not impossible to live for an extended period of time in Korea, but we got to try to live and travel and eat as the locals do. And that is not considering medical expenses too. Because if we are not foreigners working here in Korea, holding the Alien Registration Card, then we don’t get to enjoy the medical treatment like the locals, who pay medical insurance. Food for thought…
~.~
Day 8 (brief account)
29 Dec 2021
Last night I set my alarm and woke up at 3am just so that I could try to see the weather-forecasted snow. Disappointedly I went back to sleep, but in the morning the ground was glistening with newly-fell snow.
Aiyah.. Kwenchana ya.. the weather forecast said that on the 2nd January there will be heavier snow in the morning. If it was meant to be it will be.
The Hanok Mr Lee told us we need to check out at 10am and sorry no choice because the part-timers need to come and clean the room. Ok lor.. chin chai lah. Actually we also didn’t mind because nothing else much more to do in Bukchon. Our original plan to walk from Bukchon to Myeongdong did not materialize because our two huge luggages were not so easy to roll on the very uneven tile-paved path. So finally right at the entrance of 한옥길 we flagged a Kakao Taxi.
We chit-chatted with the old taxi driver and had a really good time, despite the journey being a short 10 minutes one.
“Dar…” started Serene.
So many Myeongdong shops gone.
“什么？”
“Dar, I want you to start talking to me in Korean from now,” she said.
“Huh? Wae?” She suddenly kena tiok-gon-tao or something?
“I hear the way you talked to the taxi driver just now.. I also want to be able to speak Korean like you.” wah this girl this time round hor, she was for real liao one eh…
So many shops closed.
“Ok onz!”
So cute ah.. my Serene. Sometimes hor her brain 'kong kong' but suddenly hor... maciam kena knocked on the head like that and suddenly wake up her ideas one leh! Best lah, my Dar!
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| Even Serene's favourite Ajumma tteokbokki closed down. |
It's ok that we could only check-in at 2pm. We might as well just walk from Myeongdong through the usual Myeongdong streets, to City Hall 시청, and started from the beginning of Cheonggyecheon 청계천 (清溪川) all the way to Gwangjang market 广长市场.
It was a Wednesday morning and understandably Myeongdong’s streets were very empty. The weather was a warmish zero degrees. I was so happy being able to properly walk Cheonggyecheon that nice little revamped canal through euljiro that used to be a dirty canal. Young people and older men and women were exercising (surprise! At NOON leh!) along the stream. And a small handful of Ang Moh men were taking photos.
“Wah if the weather were so lovely every day we could simply exercise any time of the day, right?” I said.
She agreed.
Gwangjang market was still her own self from 4 years 10 months ago. For Gwangjang market, I believed nothing much had changed, as she had always been catering to the locals. The small little food stalls were still bustling with customers, the textile shops were still opened, almost nothing has changed. We even found that Seoul Mae-un-tang stall that we had so much fun eating in almost five years back. Although disappointingly that lady with whom we took the photo was no longer there, the food was just as great and from what I could remember, the prices had not changed.
But actually, it wasn't Gwangjang market lah. The whole of Seoul had a rise in strawberry prices, we realised after that 15 days.
Still, as I explained to the Kim brothers and also the taxi driver, I strongly believed that the cost of living in Seoul was still slightly higher here in Seoul than in Singapore… if one compares the prices of properties, food, essentials etc.. however the public transport prices were comparable.
We really walked a lot hor.. this trip.
Sometime this afternoon on the 29 December 2021, the Korean government finally announced its tit-for-tat response to the Singapore government’s suspension of VTL Plane ticket sales on the 22 December 2021, by announcing that the Korean government will ALSO suspend sales of VTL plane tickets until the 21 January 2022.
Man, honestly if this went on, we would be among the very last batches of Singapore tourists setting foot on Korean soil for a long time more to come!
Our walk back from Gwangjang market meandered through the small lanes of what I have always called jokingly the ‘Balestier’ of Seoul- Eujiro, where there were many electrical appliances and lighting shops very much like our Balestier at home; and this round we also walked through some oldish market places very similar to Hong Kong, and before arriving at Myeongdong, a part of Chungmuro where the small street was lined with camera shops. I loved walking around with this young girl. She has always been a very daring one. And she would just zhao-cheong one, which was great when it came to travelling because if one had never daringly explored one would never discover.
In the evening we visited 한상문 씨 who carefully tuned and adjusted our new glasses and meticulously arranged everyone’s glasses in their respective package.. wah nice! Another two bags of glasses to bring home.
I told him that we thought around 40% of the shops in Myeongdong were closed, to which he replied that more than 50% of the shops have closed in Myeongong, and that Myeongdong is the most badly affected place in Korea.
Slowly walking through the Myeongdong streets on this evening we reminisce those good old days when a typical night like this Wednesday evening would have tourists from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand rubbing shoulders on these very streets, elbowing for space to enjoy their street food in from of the stalls run by busy and loud ajummas, and those days standing in the midst of the crowd we would hear conversations in various languages from countries around. It was a melting pot of tourists in those days. And in those heydays, Innisfree and Etude House and Nature Republic salesladies calling out in Mandarin to us to come in and buy. But now? No one gives as much as a glance at us.. Myeongdong has lost a great chunk of her soul and her spirit. She is suffering, down with the malaise of melancholy that sees no cure in the near future…
~.~
Day 9 (brief account)
30 Dec 2021
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“Dar Thursday morning hor, we got to wake up early ah, and take the subway early,” I instructed. “We will be travelling to 김유정역 (金裕贞 Gimyujung station) that is two hours by subway and Korail train, and then we will have fun doing the Railway Bike ride along the old railway track of Gangchon (강존 江村 레릴바이크).”
Kakao Metro was great for taking the Subway and the Korail trains. And I was able to find the exact timing for the Korail train to Gangchon (because it only had 2-4 trains an hour).
I recalled all these times when we were visiting Korea, especially the first few times, we were so lost, even in the middle of Jongro (my goodness!) and we didn’t even dare to step foot into Insadong because then we were frightened of getting lost. True, I remember the overwhelming emotion when everywhere around us were in Korean, and we just heard an unintelligible flow of lovely pitches and tones from passers-by.
This time around, Serene was totally different already lor… everywhere she went she would point out information for me, she would forewarn me of things that I missed or I should know, and she was the one ordering food and drinks and making payments and buying things.. sincerely I have always known that once we equipped ourselves with a new language (no matter what level, as long as we made an effort to slowly continue learning and not give up) we would have another tool, another instrument, in our hands to explore new places.
Although we still did stumble a little bit this round, even taking the subway/Korail with four changes of the train was ok. Korea’s subways were a little confusing at times because the direction of travel could literally mean taking a long flight of steps up or down and walking a big round to another side just to take the train towards the opposite direction.
It impressed me how convenient it was to travel this long two-hour journey and it cost us only 4000+₩ a person. We arrived exactly at Gimyoujong station at 10:11am, as predicted by Kakao Metro, and a right turn and two minutes walk and Gangchon Rail Park ticketing booth were there. Two days ago I bought the online ticket for a two-person ride for 35,000₩ (S$40.69) and the county staff straight away could scan my QR and issued us the ticket.
Sitting outside at a table and eating our gimbap and sandwich breakfast, the very friendly cleaner lady urged us to go into the cafe:
“추우시죠! 카페에서 들어가셔도돼요!” (It’s cold outside here isn’t it. You may go into the cafe.)
So nice of her. Anyway, must give it to Serene who meticulously prepared breakfast and all the hot and cold drinks to bring on this ride because the wind factor really drove the cold right into the bones, especially during the ride. It was touted to be a totally environmentally friendly ride because the track was a gentle downslope mostly and we just paddled and enjoyed the sceneries and the musical tunnels. I would have loved to have a snowy morning to ride through the wintry track but it was not to be on this day.
“Wah lau eh.. thighs aching and left ankle aching ah,” complained Serene. Yeah lah.. we haven’t cycled for a long time liao mah..
“It’s so cold my feet are numb liao,” she complained again
“Yes lah. I also cannot feel my feet already,” indeed that was true.
We ordered a medium size pork knuckle and a Jinro soju for lunch right across Myeongdong subway station in a highly-reviewed Jokbal SikTang called Tung-Tung-i Jokbal 뚱뚱이족발 （fatty pork knuckle).
“Hmmm.. I still prefer the 满足 Manjok五香 Jokbal that day,” compared Serene.
“Ok tonight I will bring you to the Manjok Jokbal branch in Myeong-dong,” I promised her. But somehow the small bottle of Jinro soju must have been quite strong as it knocked us both out, and we only left our room at 8pm to gai-gai along Myeongdong and to catch a glimpse of the Christmas lighting at Shinsaegae.
Actually, the Christmas lighting at Shinsaegae was nothing much lah. Earlier a few days ago I remember Kim Man Jung was commenting that the people who would crowd around just to watch the Christmas lighting there was crazy.. or something to that effect.. and now I totally agree with him.
“춥죠! (It’s cold, isn’t it?!)” nowadays Serene very clever to talk like the local Koreans already.
“Ok, let’s just walk zig-zag within Myeongdong and slowly make our way back to the hotel.”
8pm. And Myeongdong shops were closing their doors already. On a Thursday evening, 8pm.. it was quiet. We walked by a whole row of empty shops with glass panels glaringly announcing “For rental”. We were heartened to see still several carts on the road selling steaming-hot Hotteok, sweet potato, chestnuts - all of which we bought one stall-cart after another stall-cart. In our own ways, we were also contributing to the economy here hahaha...
We were also heartened to hear the way too familiar Singaporean accent amongst 2-3 scattered groups of young men and young women. Wah, heng ah.. still got Singaporeans out here. I thought we were the rare few.
~.~
Day 10
31 Dec 2021
“喂！Cannot wake up early early one ah， I say first ah!” warned Serene the night before.
Ok lor. 9:05am. Lazy bum, this girl.
Had a leisurely coffee mix and Pasir Baguette buns and bread breakfast in the room and then - Full Battle Order.
I knew today’s weather wasn’t going to be warm. It was around negative 8 degrees Celcius in the late morning. Thankfully we had our power-bank driven heated middle layer, SMOL middle vest, SMOL outer vest and our USB palm heater which Serene has come to call it her beloved 鸡蛋 (heater egg),
AND I made her ditch her own small backpack and dumped everything onto my Osprey trekking backpack … we had our whole thermal flask of coffee, a bottle of water, our extra breakfast which came in really useful, and whatever additional stuff.
So walked today we did. I really didn’t know how far. But aga aga it was going to be about 6km… or slightly more.
“Wah if the weather is so nice I don’t mind coming here and exercise and walk,” said Serene, about 1km into the walk. “Is this considered hiking or walking?” she asked.
“Erm.. walking lah,” I said.
Once again, young and old, men and women were brisk walking in the negative 7 degree morning. We saw several young men and women were huffing and puffing actually running pretty fast-paced up and down the undulating road. Some parts of this loop actually had pretty terrible gradient.. and there were cyclists on road bikes going up and down- amazing!
“Wah how many degrees is this gradient ah?” asked Serene.
It was roughly about... 17-18 degrees? Wah this one this one.. easily 20 degrees gradient .. and the round just kept going up and up and up.. no respite one.. not like our Vigilante Drive back home in Kent Ridge and our Mount Faber, where there was short middle flattened parts for us to take a breather.
Truly along the last part leading right up to Namsan Tower, Serene even had to walk several steps and stop a while and then walk again. See beh pai seh… the old Ajummas and Ajussi just walked right up. Hahahaha..
It was cold. Again the wind-chill factor was in full play and although initially I had to remove my middle SMOL down vest, but once up at the top I had to put everything back on because it was really cold.
Remembering that in deep cold, one of the most important thing was to keep our bodies well nourished and well hydrated. First thing we did, arriving at the top was to grab a bench in one corner of the Namsan tower little square and to sit down, spread our bread, eat and to drink our hot coffee. Cold.. cold.. cold.. but it felt really nice to have the warm food and beverage.
“Quick, let’s finish eating and go look for our old locks,” urged Serene.
As expected, try as we could, we could not. Either our old locks in the last two visits were removed as part of the regular clearance carried out by the staff, or the old ones we left over the years could have been buried underneath the hundreds of new ones.
深一层想，事实上，人生嘛不过就是如此。世事无常，若一味执着、迷恋，永远无法放下枷锁。回顾回顾，好多到此的人们，之前在栏杆所上的锁嘛，或许有一二，无法、也无缘保留，因此强求不得。觅不着，也罢了。深信，许多寻不见了锁头的人，亦是如此信念吧。我用我这十指冻僵了的、差不多无法使唤的手指，慢慢将这一回的新蓝、黑锁头配上一张新年的心愿，再次为我们生命的旅途，许一个新的愿望。祈福若干年后，当我们有缘再次归来，能够再寻得。
没想到，在这2021年的最后一天，能够跟阿华两人漫步上南山上锁，绕着南山感受着韩国冬天的寒冷，享受着本地人们的日常活动，何尝不是一件好事。
“要是，要是有一天，我们有这种缘到韩国住上1、2个月.. 要是说嘛，住在刚才那个比较简单但依然处于市中心而还是挺方便的 Crib 49 般的小客房，每个星期绕着南山两、三次运动呼吸新鲜空气，如何？” 我问阿华。
”OK呀，好啊。”
“This is something like our Interim park at home right, running round and round it,” I used the analogy.
“This is more siong than our interim park leh,” she argued.
OK lah actually not too bad lah. Just that some parts were a little steep but otherwise distance-wise it wasn't that bad, 话是这么说，但是我们心中都有数，韩国嘛，我们只喜欢春天，秋天与冬天。韩国的夏天真是太热太热了。
The next time we come over Namsan Loop again, I was determined to try the smaller little tracks detouring from the main road. After such a nice long walk, I just had to reward that young, overworked girl. So onwards to Shijong we walked and made our way to her favourite Jokbal SikTang.
“还是满足的猪脚最好吃，下次我们不用点一半原味一半辣味的这一套，全部点原味的就可以了!” Serene은 좋아하는 족할 식당이 만족 오향족발밖에 없었다.
”哇！我很饱了！吃不下了!” Aiyah this Serene ah… again eat until cannot eat any more.
~.~
Day 11 (brief account)
1 Jan 2022
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| Chungmuro neighbourhood |
Wah day by day... as we continued to stay in Seoul, I kind of began to find it more and more challenging to find new things to do. Actually, it wasn't because there wasn't anything interesting here. Just that my mind was reaching a state of saturation.. perhaps fatigue had set in.. mental fog...
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| Some old electrical shopping block |
About 3-4km of walking north-East of and we arrived in Ihwa-dong. 이화동 梨花洞 did have quite some history to it. It was an old neighbourhood inhabited by the poorer segment of the population and the working class who chose to live in this part while working in the central parts of the city. It also housed refugees post Korean War. Though destined for demolishing and redevelopment in 2006, it was revamped and redecorated into a mural street by students and artists and it became a local attraction for Koreans as well as tourists. A small section of the old city wall 성곽 城廓 run along the edge of the village located at the foot of the 125m high Naksan.
“Wei! You are not going to bring me to climb mountain again ah!” kao beh-ed Serene.
“No lah. We will just walk to the edge of this Naksan Park (낙산공원 骆山公园) then we will just walk down the mural village,” I promised.
Ihwa Mural street itself really wasn’t long. Maybe say.. 500m or so. Some of wall paintings on the facade of the homes, others are quaint decorative shoes, pots, old scooters arranged outside other homes. If you’d asked me, I would say that what drawn me to this little flavourful village wasn’t the mural paintings.. but the two facts that it was a typical olden village we always saw in the drama with exactly the same type of old housing, narrow little alleys with steep steep slopes and steps leading up and up, and lined on both sides by those old iron gates often found in the dramas; and the second fact was that at the edge of the village we climbed to come upon a long stretch of the old Seoul city wall.
I loved that as we walked slowly and panting (Serene, not me) up the oft-seen Korean drama slopey path, we were filled behind by a pair of old Halmoeni (grandmothers) who disappeared into another alley, and I loved that when we arrived at the top, we beheld a warm sight, a group of neighbours (Ajussis and Ajummas) sitting outside their homes and chit-chatting… in apparent oblivion to the mess happening in the metropolitan city below them. It was like travelling to a tiny hamlet in time.. back to perhaps the 80’s, the 90’s…
“Dar, I am so happy to have found this neighbourhood. I am also very happy that we decided to explore this little dong,” I happily said. “Would you like to live in a little home like this by the side of the slope?”
“No!” declared the young girl. *Alamak*!
Setting off from the hotel at around 10:30am, but the time we finished exploring and walked down along 율곡로 19길 栗谷路, Serene was really complaining that her plantar fasciitis was acting up.
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| Old Korean drama scene |
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| climbing up the alley |
Wah.. didn’t realised that the walk up and down the slopes of the old village took so much out of our lower limbs. By the time we arrived back in the hotel, our legs were painful. Shucks.. this was terrible. So out of conditioning. 안되겠다…
We attempted with a bit of detouring and more walking, to visit the Seoul History Museum near 서대문 incurring plenty of wrath from the old lady. But we found the glass doors shuttered. I could not believe it. A museum in Seoul, and they were closed on a public holiday?! 말도 안된다…
That evening we had a most most wonderful dinner with 김만중 at our usual haunt in Myeongdong, 왕비집 王妃家. Nice. Warm. Memorable dinner ‘twas.
~.~
Day 12 (brief account)
2 Jan 2022
Last night it snowed in the early hours of the morning. But I was so tired that I didn’t even bothered to wake up to watch the snow at 3am or 6am. We just slept through until 9:30am, 10am.. just tired lah.
“… I look so tired hor…” agreed Serene when she saw herself in her photo.
Two caramel macchiato and we were off taking a bus from 삼일대로 towards 서울여사박물관 정료장… 6 bus stops away. Wah this Seoul History Museum hor.. wah really really something. I was so glad we went.
It was all about the history of Seoul, how Seoul was during the Joseph period from 1392 to 1863, and it vividly exhibited paintings, history snippets, literatures, official records and writings, and audio-visual displays and a magnificent 3D model of the present Seoul landscape. I spent plenty of time peering over the 3D landscape lit model pointing out to Serene where we started off.
Man, I would easily spend half a day here. This was that historical part of Korea that I have forgotten to explore. There are quite a number of museums in Seoul, and I made a mental note to visit more museums and dedicate more time to museum visits in our future trips.
It was heartening to see a mother bringing her sons and explaining to them about their country’s history. And I was so happy to see three old men walking along and pointing to the exhibits and discussing animatedly what 조 and what 종…
I simply left the bored Serene sitting in the lobby of the museum playing her handphone game while I slowly explored the exhibits and stood for minutes on end just watch the videos and reading the words.. slowly. Very slowly. I believed had I been here two years back, I may not have gained as much as I had on this very day, all thanks to our Korean language 선생님’s effort in teaching us.
Not only did I finish the section on Seoul’s history during the Joseph period, I also visited the exhibits on the urban planning professor Kang Byeong Ki who designed Seoul’s infrastructure. Sincerely I should have minimally read up more before I visited the museum and stood and internalised all these information. Never mind. It was meant to be. This simply meant that there has to be another visit, another time.
As we ended our Seoul History Museum late we decided to scrap the Nanta theatre did today and push on to tomorrow. Instead we took a Subway to GOTO Express Bus Terminal to search for the 800m biggest underground shopping centre that impressed us so much. Man, we really got ourselves a little confused taking the Subway to GOTO Mall. Why? I think I was just too over-confident. I used to remember it as GOTO Express Bus terminal. I wasn’t sure but I saw the name Express Bus Terminal station and I assumed that one the only one and the same. I turned out to be indeed similar but just that we kinda approached it from another end, the Exit 1 side and arrived at the more modern part of it. Thankfully Kakao Map didn’t fail me and after catching the GPS again and just walking a couple of hundred metres either down to arrive back at the GOTO Mall we knew. It hasn’t changed too much. The store were all filled and none were empty, demonstrating fine resilience in local domestic spending as GOTO Bus Exchange fully and successfully lived on local consumption. This season they were selling all women fashion and mostly winter clothes. I told Serene: “Aiyah. If we were to spend three months here to enjoy the winter then we Will stick up your winter clothes here.
GOTO Express Bus Terminal being unchanged, the Ajumma stalls were still going at 10,000₩ but not many make boutique wears. The small SikTang at the end of the 880m underground shopping mall were still there. But the stalls have changed hands from a few years ago.
Things really were meant to be. I amazed myself with my perseverance. Last afternoon we missed Seoul History Museum because it was closed on 1st January 2022 but yet today we pushed on to visit.
And in a similar vein, we pushed on to take a bus from the museum after we finished at around 2pm to make our way to 이모네곱창 Imone Gobchang (姨母Aunty’s intestine restaurant) in Chungmuro 충무로 忠武路 which was highly recommended by Mango Plate. But.. as expected, the Aunty was closed on Sunday! Kana-Sai!! Good things were never meant to be achieved on the first attempt. Kwenchana! Tomorrow we will try again.
But we did managed to dabao fried chicken from the chicken street in Myeongdong. This round we tried the other shop 오빠 닭 Oppa chicken, and we purposely closed the original flavor.
I was amazed by Serene’s determination to order in Korean: “치킨 이거 하나, 이거 하나 포장해주세요,” she tried again. This time successful!
Oh this 오빠 닭 hor.. the taste was beautiful- we both devoured the chicken completely and the beer and the cola that evening in our hotel room. One thing that was lost from the streets of Myeongdong was the all too-familiar Sulbing Korean Dessert restaurant. We tried but couldn’t find it. Only after confirming with the Tourist information ambassadors standing in Myeongdong that we realised that Sulbing chain in Myeongdong was closed again due to poor business. But apparently Sulbing was still opened in Chungmuro. Kwenchana. Tomorrow we will try Imone Gobchang and Sulbing in Chungmuro.
“Wah I got plantar facilities,” kao-beh Serene while walking back to the hostel. My shoulder also is having shoulder-itis, neck got Nexk-itis and the arm I have arm-itis. Every where also painful.
~.~
Day 13 (brief account)
3 Jan 2022
I was excited about waking up and going to Nanta Theatre today and going to eat my 이모네곱장 in Chungmuro.
But sigh.. Nanta wasn’t meant to me. I checked their performance days and found that they were opened only Thursday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Today being Monday, they were closed. Aiyah.. really 没有缘. Kwenchana… at least it meant that we will have to make another trip once again to watch the hilarious Nanta Theatre performance.
It was 48 hours before departure, and we walked the 800m to Euljibareun clinic to have an ART done with English certificate for the purpose of PDT (pre-departure testing). The staff were really efficient, spoke good English and were able to understand my halting Korean, and very quickly registered us, and they swabber very quickly called our names and swabbed each of us, one nostril all the way deep inside.
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| Jongro |
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| Jongro Shin-jin Market |
“Wah hey.. you know.. we haven’t never been to this Dongdaemun city gate before. I am glad we just walked to here,” I shared. “Forget about that Dongdaemun Design Plaza. That one is better viewed at night with all its lighting effects. Let’s leave that one for another visit in the future.” Wah.. I am starting to be very 随缘. If have then have. If don’t have them Kwenchana.
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| Dongdaemun! |
The slow saunter down to Dongdaemun took us ambling along a bustling old-fashion part of Euljiro to Jongro… almost like back to the old Chinatown areas with old Ajussis, Ajummas, Halaboejis and Halmoenis running their small shops and stalls and old customers going about their daily shoppings. Although the place was different from back home, but the feeling was nostalgically similar. Until 东大门 and the edge of Dongdaemun City Wall Park 东大门城廓公园 we ventured but not beyond.
It was time for my highly awaited lunch at Imone Gobchang, the pig intestine restaurant in Chungmuro. But I could not understand why it remained closed after our second attempt today! The words and the door still clearly displayed that they would be open 11am until 12 midnight (granted, now that it was Covid, maybe up till 9pm 吧), and that their break was 2-3pm. But our timing was just right. Yet.. the door cold-heartedly locked us out. Even exploring the street up and down found no other Gobchang stalls opened.
“Aiyah you! 认命了吧!” said Serene.
“哎呀，好吧好吧！要是真是这样的话，我就只好认命了。真的是不明白，要吃一个 곱창 都这么重重阻饶。”
Exhaustedly we staggered back to the hotel and snored for about two hours plus.
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| Kampong Dueji Village |
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| Kampong Dueji Village |
The Ajumma ShaJangNim was also really friendly.
“QR 코드를 여기 찍어주세요.” As usual she pointed to the QR scanning machine.
“우리는 싱가포르 사람인데 해외예방접종 확인서가 있어요.” now we have practised to much that it was easier to come out of our mouths.
“Wah just now not many customers one.. but after we came in suddenly many people came in hor.. I think it is because it is after work lah,” observed Serene.
“The taste not so 香 leh,” I said.
“It’s not bad lah,” said the Chief Chef. Ok if the chef said it was good then it must be good.
At least I knew my mind and body were in splendid states after this lovely dinner, exactly just like how the local Koreans loved to have nice warm meal and alcohol and get a little tipsy and warmed up, and we just walked and walked. Secretly I knew I was going to bring Serene to have Sulbing, that bing su chain that we loved so much, but had disappeared from the face of Myeongdong. One of its other surviving branches were still in operation in Chungmuro, and that was where I was heading to.
Gastronomically satisfied, we stepped out to find it snowing. Not much, just a little, but enough for us.
“눈이 왔어요!” exclaimed Serene.
Haha yes, it had started to snow. Like what the weather forecast predicted.
~.~
Day 14 (brief account)
4 Jan 2022
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Wah we slept until 10am again today! A full 10 hours of slumber. Either this trip was really tiring or the winter weather too sleep-inducing and the Korean food too soothing.. whatever the reason, when there was no need to wake up early, we literally slept in. See beh jiaklat.
“What are we going to do today?”
Wah lau.. if one is on holiday in an overseas country and woke up one day asking this question… then either one was too shagged and too tired, or one really had exhausted all destinations.. most likely the former in our case. Hahaha..
I knew my Serene was aching. Shoulder aching, neck aching..
“I have plantar faciitis, shoulder-itis, neck-itis, leg-itis…” see beh 可怜, this young girl. 旅一个行，就全身痛。
Lunch time. We walked to the spectacle shop and found that 함상문 씨 was serving customers. We stepped over to Momo Cafe and hey.. 김만중 and 김학중 were both busy and there were quite a few groups of customers inside. Wah.. good good.
“Ok, Dar.. let us do this. We will recce from Myeongdong station to take Subway to Seoul station and check if there were escalators or elevators to make it easier for us to bring our luggage down tomorrow,” important was to ascertain the feasibility of solely using the subway, now that the Airport shuttle bus was no longer in operation.
But one thing for sure.. from Myeongdong station to Seoul station and then transfer to the AREX (All stop) train to Incheon airport terminal 1, was totally feasible. Saved me the headache of having to take a taxi.
We tried walking around Seoul station on the ground level and found Seoul Sation tower (mainly office), Seoul Square Mall (mainly restaurant). Another trip, another day we would explore Seoul station area more. I was, we were, still more taken by the more traditional parts of Seoul.
“Ok Dar, let’s go back and see if Gana Building 7th storey Happy Skin massage is opened or not.. let’s ask Kim Man Jung to book an appointment for us to massage,” I finally relented. Hahaha..
“Wah, JinJja?! Kamsahabnida, Chagiya!” now Serene was happy, really happy, knowing that a nice massage was awaiting..
“Ok Dar, there is one thing I really really need to do, otherwise 我不死心. I want to eat the Gobchang (pig intestine) at 중로신진시장 Jungro Shinjin Shichang, where yesterday the Ajumma welcomed us but we couldn’t stay to eat,” I announced. Of course Serene couldn’t say no.
“I am a little hungry now,” she said.
“No problem. Later at the SikTang even if you cannot eat much we will order just a little.” I reassured her.
From Dongdaemun Subway station we retraced our steps back toward the 줄로 신진시장. I was so thrilled to find the store that we saw the day before.
At the end we ordered 막 창 (small intestine) for 26,000₩. And wah.. this one was one of the most delicious thing I have eaten in Hanguk. Even Serene also devoured her share of the Gobchang.
The hard-of-hearing SajangNim and the SaMoNim were pretty relaxed this Tuesday noon and we were the only customer in their SikTang.
“사장님, 죄송합니다. 카드고 계산해도 돼요?” (SajangNim, may I pay with credit card?) I asked, after realizing that I had only 6,000₩ cash left on me.
“현금 없어요?” The SaMoNim asked. I shook my head to admit that we had no cash. She agreed. Good.
For 26,000₩ (S$29.80) we had one of the most delicious meals in Seoul - MakChang 막창. Even Serene ate much more than what she originally intended to.
“Wah the seasoning is so delicious,” said her.
Arriving back at Momo Cafe at 2:45pm, we were just in time for our Full Body Aroma oil massage at 7th storey Gana Building. The Korean (this time was really just two very experienced Korean Ajummas) introduced the 80,000₩ aroma oil massage for 80 minutes, and boy did we totally enjoyed it!
The hot stone and oil massage was nothing like we had ever had. A nice warm foot soak, followed by lying face down and the Ajumma masseuses kneaded our backs, shoulders, necks, legs, thighs and arms. I especially enjoyed the hot stone 온돌 massage. The Ajummas really put in plenty of strength and kept asking us ‘Kwenchaneu-seyo’. We went back to our hotel blur-blurred and seh already.
Dinner time, and we had a most lovely 소고기 at SoonWoo Black restaurant, with 김만중. Another nice dinner, nice chit chat and more story-sharing, talking about populist Korean government, about army National service, about Bitcoin, about charts, about vaccinations, about travelling, about businesses.. many things to talk.
When asked about if we would come back during Autumn or Winter this year I replied 김만중: “복권에 탕점된다면 꼭 다시 외양돼요.” (If we strike lottery we will definitely have to return).
~.~
Day 15 (brief account)
5 Jan 2022
Click here for the home run summary... hahaha!
We had to die die collect our Overseas Vaccination Certificate confirmation in Korean...
Day 2
23 Dec 2021
The temperature stood at -1.4 degrees as we got up. In retrospect we would realise that this was a nice and warm temperature. On this morning it didn’t feel like that warm to us who took a bus 271 to Mapo-gu Public Health centre to receive our Korean-endorsed vaccination certificate.
Please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
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| Again, took bus to Mapo polyclinic! |
“How to tell them I want to collect my overseas vaccination confirmation certificate?” asked Serene as we walked.
“저는 해외 예방접종 확인서를 받고싶어요…”我要来索取海外预防疫苗注射确认书 and man, this Serene impressed me by the way she kept repeating this as we made our way. She was determined to ask the man or woman there this question.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Asked she did, the female reception on the second floor and instantly she got gratification with our certificates. Actually, it was later in the trip that we found that these certificates were important. Though it has been a month since this VTL-thingy was implemented, the local merchants and restaurateurs were not really updated so some of the Singapore travelers were denied admission into certain restaurants. But with this Korean certificate, it lubricated things.
Certificates in hand, we took the bus to Myeongdong. Annyeong, Myeongdong ah! Wow.. it’s been two winters since we were last here. And truly, poor little Myeongdong had suffered greatly. By my estimate, yeah… 40% of the shop spaces remained abandoned, and even the Nature Republic’s grass-laden facade, once a prominent landmark, had half of the grass dried and yellowed.
The flagship Uniqlo was no longer there. Human traffic on this Thursday late morning was quiet.
한상문 씨 was manning the spectacle store while 김만중 and 김학중 were busy preparing coffee for their customers in Momo Cafe next door.
Were they HAPPY to see us!
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| Han Sang Mun our ever trusty optometrist. 항상문 씨, 우리 안경선생님. |
“오랜만이에요!" (It’s been a long time) Serene candidly chirped to them all. She has been practicing this for the longest time. “보고 싶어요!" (I miss you all) 来了来了… 哈哈 Serene’s best Koreans were these few sentences.
김만중’s Uncle 함상만 씨 was as professional as ever and I was silently glad when he found that mine and Serene’s eyesights did not deteriorate.
He explained that even if I were to increase the degrees of my glasses it would do no good to my sight, because at this moment our glasses would still allow us good vision for years more. Unbelievable, that’s why I like this man.
“요즘은 관광객이 거이 없어요." (Nowadays there is almost no tourists) he said, when I asked. Understandable. No one could travel in and out easily. “여기 온 외국인은 한국에서 살고 있는 외국인이에요." (Those foreigners who walked into the shop are those already living in Korea)
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| MOMO Cafe |
It’s true. Aside from ourselves there was only another old old Korean man who walked in and asked about something trivial of his pair of glasses.
“Even for the cafe, we are only busier during lunch, otherwise it’s still quiet.” explained 김만중, whose entrepreneurial spirit drove him and his older brother 김학중 to take over an empty unit next door (previously a 麻辣 shop), redecorated and redesigned it all by themselves and their father, took up the barista course and set up this MOMO Cafe. His coffee and pastries were magnificent! We loved it.
How I wish things would soon go back to where it was. At least something resembling the past.
And it was amazing how 김만중 was able to, through his computer system, retrieve our 아버지 and 어머니’s record.
“여기 있어요!” Serene was so excited to find 爸爸妈妈’s old records. 妈妈 had her glasses (most likely thrown away accidentally by 爸爸) lost. So we made one as close to the one she made two years ago accordingly to her records, and for 爸爸, we replaced some of his 老花 lenses. Serene and I made couple glasses! Hahaha..
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| Seollongtang and Samgyetang! Yummy! |
Our first proper lunch since arriving in Korea, was that Ajumma SikTang 食堂 across Gana Optical. And wah, this Ajumma was really good. She must have been well-versed about travellers from Singapore not having the QR code. We had one nice Seollongtang and one nice Samgyetang here and we were ready to go!
Banpo Hangang Park
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| How to get to Banpo Hangang Park? By bus of course. Arrive at Banpo Big Bridge 반포대교 盤浦大桥 |
The afternoon was still young. And we just wanted to make our way to Hangang just to stroll along the Hangang parks. Although because of Covid, the daily and nightly famous Banpo Hangang Park fountain display show has been stopped, we still took a bus to Banpo Big Bridge 반포대교 盤浦大桥 and leisurely strolled to the park. It wasn’t late but in winter the sun was already setting and it was streaming golden light at acute angles through. Traffic on the bridge was heavy, and with the sun so low it kinda gave us the feeling like it was rush hour when people were driving back home... only thing was, this was Covid, and many people in Korea were still working from home.
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| Masked even doing chin-ups |
I loved the fact that the Koreans loved exercising, running, brisk walking and cycling along the park even on a cold wintry evening. There was a banner hung across in the park that said “한강 공원에서 산책하면서 사회적 거리두기 지키고 마스크도 쓰세요”.. or something like that which literally meant “even strolling along the Hangang park please maintain social distancing and please wear your mask”.
And what do you know! All the cyclists we see were wearing masks even while cycling and ajummas were walking with masks on and young men and women running were masked too! Most impressive. I am not sure, but maybe in Singapore it is hot that’s why we have no choice but not to wear mask when we are running outdoors?
One thing hor about wearing masks in winter… those of us living in the hot tropics we never had to
face this problem. Imagine, the temperature outside was already in the negative territory. And every exhalation brings out steam which condensed and fogged up our glasses. What more, those water droplets inside the masks get caught in between the fabrics and became icy cold. In no time we had pool of water inside the masks. Yucks! And no matter how I adjusted my glasses kept fogging up.
“Shit, man. If I have to still wear masks in the winters to come, I will think many times!”
It was much later, after much suffering, that I learned from Kim Man Jung that alamak.. I should have used those anti-fog solutions/sprays that the Koreans all use to prevent their glasses from misting up. Well, at least the next time we would know. It was also after we returned from Korea that our Korean language SonSengNim taught us 안경은 김이 서리다 glasses misted up.
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| “My atas condominium in Socho" |
Back in Hongdae...
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| Waiting outside Saemaeul SikTang, Hongdae.. a good place to unwind with bulgogi, soju and beer... Jinjja. |
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
We had a wonderfully delicious bulgogi meal at the 인기가 많은 새 마을 식당. We were totally impressed by how popular this Saemaeul Siktang Hongdae branch was with the young students. We ordered soju, beer, three orders of different pork.. it came up to 48,000₩ (S$54). I would say for Singapore standard, it was on par with our country in terms of pricing for Korean barbecue. It was well known that dining in Hongdae was slightly cheaper than in other parts of Seoul like Myeongdong or Gangnam, because here they catered more to youngsters and university students.
“Dar!” cried Serene.
“Simi?”
“I want to go sing karaoke! I want to eat the chicken across the road!”
“Wah lau you want so many things one shot. No. Tonight we just go to the Coin Noraebang to sing.”
The 코인노래방 are such interesting little setups that anyone can just go in and for a small amount of money belt out to one’s heart’s content singing in a small cubicle. The ShaJangNim here was an Ajusshi who was very courteous, and we were impressed that he actually checked our foreigner vaccination certificate, and for 5,000₩ (S$4.80) we had such a great time singing several of the many Korean songs that we wanted to sing back home but could find no karaoke on them.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
“Tomorrow night I want to come again!” declared the young lady.
“Ok onz! Tomorrow we will come again.”
We arrived back into our 옥탑방 to read with sadness, the news that the Singapore government will suspend the selling of VTL plane tickets entering Singapore with effect from 23rd December 2021 until 20th January 2022. That was terrible news. Because just as the travelling sector was starting to pick up and people started to travel out of Singapore and foreigners started travelling into Singapore, the government literally pulled a hand-brake on this. So those who, say, wanted to travel to Korea for holiday but procrastinated in buying tickets, would have less than a day’s time to grab their plane tickets, which by the time had been jacked up to upwards of $1500-1700 per ticket, or totally forget about the idea of travelling to Korea until things settle.
“You know, Dar,” I told Serene. “For all we know, we may be the last batch of travellers to Korea for a long while more until the government reinstate the VTL ticket sales.”
Yeah.. it is so unpredictable, this business of travelling.
Next stop... click below.
Day 3: Of Geongui Line Forest Park, GomTang, Bongeunsa and just.. Gangnam
A Leisurely Gyeongui Line Forest Walk and the oh-so-delicious Gomtang, Bongeunsa and well... 그냥, Gangnam...
24 Dec 2021
“Today I am going to bring you walk walk gai gai in this nice nice cool weather,” I told Serene, waking up on a nice cool (not cold) Christmas Eve morning.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
And the end of it we turned left and plonked directly into the tiny lanes of the residential area.
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| Wasn't this so typical.. this house just at the edge of Gyeongui Line Forest park? We always see houses like this in drama... |
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| Half underground apartment, anyone? |
“Oh this is nice,” I told Serene. “I don't mind just walking zig-zag in this residential area.”
“I just need some nice warm soupy food for breakfast,” said Serene, hungrily searching for one of those ubiquitous SikTangs run by ajummas or ajussis.. and we found a nice cosy little one on the right side- 감나무집 곰탕… the very popular GomTang beef bone soup.
This Ajumma was very up to date. One look at our Foreigner Vaccination confirmation certificate 해외 접종 확인서 （海外疫苗注射确定书) and asking us to make the AnShimCall 안심콜 (安心 Call) we were quickly seated and before long our 10,000₩ (S$12) per bowl of really delicious GomTang with the usual assortment of Banchan were served. Really tasty these were. We ate our hearts out. So did a few of the middle-aged men on the other tables. It was later then we found out that this place, the SikTang next to it called 감나무 기사 식당 （KamNamMoo drivers’ restaurant) caters to taxi drivers who would pop in for a quick and cheap meal. A meal like this could be had for S$12 a person, including plain water free flow, free flow banchan 반잔 side dishes which typically included kimchi, radish and occasionally bean sprouts.
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| Up till today, Serene is still talking about THIS GomTang meal! |
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
The weather was lovely. Crisp cool air, not cold. Soaked in the peaceful residential area, we walked about less than an hour before arriving back at the Hongdae Entrance Subway station. We laughed at ourselves secretly because despite visiting Korea so many times we have not made our way to Gangnam to view its splendour.
“Today we will just go gai gai at Gangnam!”
The Coex Subway station was easily reached. On this Friday Christmas Eve late morning, Coex subway station was crowded.
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| Tom N Tom's Cafe |
Bongeunsa (Bongeun Temple) 奉恩寺
The very friendly waitress at Tom N Toms explained to me that the famous historical temple Bongeunsa 奉恩寺 was only about 100m walk from right outside the cafe. The weather was only mildly negative, so it was a lovely walk in the crispy air. In front of us walked two ladies who, from their conversation, sounded like Taiwanese to me.
We loved the serendipitous atmosphere in Bongeunsa. It was peaceful, an oasis of calm in a maddening ring of modernness surrounding it. Despite just a few tens of metres away from the main noisy road once we stepped into its compound it was quiet. A typical Korean Buddhist Temple, run by quietly-cheerful volunteers who checked our Overseas vaccination certificates.
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| What every parent would hope for... |
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| What every parent would pray for... |
“Wow this Bongeunsa looks exactly like the temple we visited the last time in Busan with Papa and Mama,” exclaimed Serene.
Indeed the architectural design of 봉은사 奉恩寺 was almost similar to Beomeosa 범어사 梵鱼寺 in Busan. On this cool day, a slow stream of Ajummas and a couple of young ladies made their way to the altar, stopping to bow and pay respects to each Buddha on the side of the garden path.
A sense of peace permeated. I saw many colourful well wishes written on colour papers with tiny lanterns, and I wanted to do a set but sadly they could only accept cash.
我望着释迦摩尼佛，想着想着.. 肩膀上的负担或许也是应该卸下了吧.. 近来身体我频频给予自我警告，再加上刚刚在Facebook 上看到一位好久没见到的病人- 一位50出岁的女病人，在国外忙忙碌碌突然脑出血而病倒在病床上，顿时紧绷着的肩膀也松了一点。
汉城江南的奉恩寺，与釜山的梵鱼寺，是历史悠久的韩国佛寺。史上朝鲜的帝王与历代文人都远来供奉。今日有缘到此，虽仅仅一会儿，但亦已满足了。我本身认为，有时候人生嘛，就是如此。旅行归旅行。但是偶尔在旅行路途之中，不知觉中步入一个景点，或身处一个环境，在不知不觉中产生一种顿悟，也是一种人生的体验。
或许，这次韩国之行，不就是与这一刹那心中的领会有缘吧。
COEX Mall and Starfield Library
Slowly walking out from Bongeunsa and walking back down to Coex Subway station, we found ourselves benign drowned yet once again in the crowds of people thronging the underground station, and back into the reality of modern Hanguk. Upon the ground laid a blue path that indicated the way to the famous Starfield library, known as 별 마당. We have always seen Instagram posts of this but have never been here. With tingling anticipation it was, we made our way slowly along the blue path squeezing in between crowds.
There were people, young and old, standing around this landmark gigantic ground to ceiling bookshelf, just staring in awe at it, and shooting wefies and exclaiming excitedly.
For me, I would have loved to buy some Korean books back home. But this is too busy a place to be able to leisurely look through and choose a suitable one.
“Wah.. hou-gok, hou-gok ah!" (Very stuffy in Cantonese) kao-beh-ed Serene. It’s always like this. Outside in the open we were comfortable wearing all these layers in the cold, but after a while in the indoor, we start to feel the warmth over-bearing.
“Ok let’s take the escalator up to ground floor and once we see an exit we will escape.”
Found, we did, and once again immersed ourselves in the comfort of the outdoor cold. Actually my Serene she was quite cute. She had the initiative to bring a flask of hot tea wherever we went. And sitting down in the outdoor yard, we sipped tea and watched quietly the people going about their own businesses.
“Actually hor, this Starfield Library really nothing much one hor?” I remarked. To which Serene agreed. “Let’s take a bus to Gangnam subway station because I read that around the Gangnam station there are a lot of exciting shops, eateries, cafe and huge shopping malls and outdoor shopping lanes.”
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| It was sooooo cold waiting for the bus outside we had to hide inside the bus-stop with heated seats! |
By this time on Christmas Eve, the streets were filled with people doing their last minute shopping. I guess Gangnam area would be very representative. Apart from a little half-underground Daiso where we happily bought a couple of silver Korean bowls and Korean cups, we didn’t feel the urge to go into any other shops. It was only about 4pm and the sky was darkening and the mercury started to drift downwards.
Enough of Gangam. And enough of stuffy subways on a cold winter evening. Happily we grabbed a 1 hour 7 minutes bus ride from Gangnam right back to Hongdae. Gradually we were enjoying ourselves commuting in buses. It was simple and really convenient and it was very cheap.
The main roads of Gangnam were 5-lane wide thoroughfares. And cars honked and sped along, a reflection of the Korean mentality of haste and impatience in their quest for perfection. Driving in Korea has always been described as hazardous. An attempt in imagining myself driving in the heart of Seoul brought about a deep feeling of unwillingness hahaha..
"Hey... it's snowing outside the bus!" said Serene, as we enjoyed the scenery from the bus. Oh it really was. But tiny bit only it snowed and it didn't last long. So 可怜，we both. So gian to see snow, but here in Seoul, it was really cold but people didn't usually have plenty of snow, unless it was a snow storm like exactly one week ago before we came, and also in Febuary 2021.
[EDIT: It did have plenty of snow in the winter of 2021. One week before we arrived in Korea, Seoul had two days of heavy snow fall, and exactly one week after we left, another two days of snow storm that covered everything in white and made the ground all slippery and icy.]
That night.. the weather registered still a not-so-warm level... No wonder we were trembling outside at Gangnam while waiting for the bus. After simply just a couple of days we learned something very important. Taking an MRT (or known as subway in Korea) in winter was tough because when we kept our winter clothes on, inside the subway train the heated environment would make us sweat, and when we came up to the cold, the glasses would start to fog up once again. But taking a bus was different. We were encouraged to open the windows at intervals and the breeze and the atmospheric temperature meant that there wasn't such dramatic change.. we'd much prefer taking a bus.
Warm, heated floor at the OkTabBang...
It was so comfortable stepping on the heated floor of the Rooftop apartment that we simply enjoyed this feature during winter. The temperature during winter here in Seoul was just as freezing, if not more, than when we were in Nepal. But the extra measures the Koreans took (since way before modern times) to give themselves some form of heated comfort in their building structures, made all the difference. We found the floor so warm we even laid our base layers on the floor to air them, and warm them up... the next day everything was dried.
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| No wonder they needed no dryer in winter... |
Next Stop... Click below
Day 4: Full Body Massage in Korea - Huh, are we crazy?!
The Foot Shop 더풋샵 - for full body massage, and Hongdae, Hongdae and more Hongdae...
25 Dec 2021
The mercury plunged to negative 13 this morning. We lazed in bed until almost 10am. Now I finally understood what the rooftop is for. It was for me to try various combinations of layers of middle-layer, battery-operated warm middle layer, vest, and outer down jackets…
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
And after a few tries, I realise that wah today morning’s -13 degrees was no joke, and I had to go on full layers in order to feel comfortable.
“I want to go massage,” said Serene.
"Huh, Gong simi ah?" an amused me.
"I said I want to go massage! 내가 마사지를 하고 싶다고 했어 !" Wah even Indirect speech in Korean also came out liao. Better obey the Queen. See beh jiaklat!
Wah lau eh.. this girl ah. People go Bangkok to massage I can understand, but she comes to Seoul where to go massage? I have never massaged in Korea.
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| The Foot Shop, Donggyo-dong branch |
"Eh my this black colour Ajumma slip in shoes I bought from Shein.. it's too lose and doesn't hold well in this winter," complained the Queen.
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| The Queen's brand new fashionable white Korean sneakers! |
Increasingly, we were seeing many many MANY young teenagers, young fashionable ladies, and some slightly less-youing ladies wearing min, medium-mini and super-mini skirts in this freezing weather. Every time we saw a couple of them we could not take our eyes off because we were dumbfounded. How they TAHAN-ed one ah? I really didn't know. Better ask Serene the Queen to go buy one pair and try it out. Maybe here in Korea, their miniskirts have something special built into them...
The Foot Shop 더풋샵
Arriving at 더풋샵, climbed to second floor and a cosy, warm set up welcomed us. Once the staff heard that we are from Singapore she started speaking Mandarin to us. And with our overseas vaccination certificate checked, we were ready. 60 minutes 후면전신 케어 （后面全身 Care) at 50,000₩ we were ushered to changed and had our feet soaked.
The 사장님 herself was friendly and I guess nowadays having hardly any tourists her business was mostly local customers.
‘한국어 정말 잘 하시네요!” She said.
“아니요, 아니요… 우리는 싱가포를에서 한국어 학교에 한국어를 배우고 있는 것이에요.”
“Today Christmas Day you are also opened?” I asked in my halting Korean.
She smilingly replied that they opened daily. Before Covid, they would open from 11am to 2am daily. But with the restrictions nowadays they operated from 10am till 10pm. Interestingly this SajangNim she knew that the cost of living is high in Singapore and she was planning to go to Malaysia and buy a home in Malaysia to live there. Of course, she was inquisitive to more information about doing that and we chatted.
Our male and female masseuse were Mandarin speaking sifu and wow did they do a good job! They kneaded our painful necks and backs so well we hadn’t had such great massages for a long time.
“我跟您按到手都没力气了,” joked the male masseuse at the end of the 1 hour session.
“진짜 시원해요!”Serene said to the 사장님, using the newly-learned word for ‘Shiok!’.
Just walking around Hongdae...
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Oh this was a very familiar part of Hongdae where we were walking along. We were here a few times in our previous visits. But somehow, this time round, the 心情 was very very relaxed. I was sure the fabulous Full Body Massage had a lot to do with this.
“Wah how come so much haze over there ah?” I was astonished to see, in the distance, very hazy atmosphere. And suddenly screaming ambulances and fire engines zoomed past us. It actually turned out that a shophouse nearby caught fire..
Yoongane Dakgalbi 윤가네닭갈비
So this was our second time having Dakgalbi in our lifetime, the first time being a few years ago in Bangkok.
“주꾸미 닭갈비 look nice,” (Octopus and Chicken Galbi) I suggested. “And this 불국사 (cold buckwheat soup) looks nice too. I really want to eat the Nengmyeon.”
The pair of petite young Ang Moh girls behind us were enjoying their Dakgalbi and speaking in a Spanish-sounding language. They were very fluent in Korean too, Serene was so surprised to hear them speak.
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| This Ajumma really good. She kept wanting to try to order in Korean.. each order was a learning experience. |
In search of yet another Victim of Covid - Nanta Hongdae Theatre
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| Searching and searching.. just on the right of this shop was where the fire was earlier. |
Sad. This Nanta Hongdae theatre must be one of those who died of severe complications from Covid in the ICU without even regaining consciousness. I even went to the Hongdae Tourist Information Centre to asked, but the lady didn't know how long Nanta Hongdae Theatre had died.
So we walked back to our OkTabBang to take an afternoon nap instead. Hahaha.. Rest again?! Were we on holiday or were we on holiday? Well, that was the thing about going on a really easy holiday by ourselves. We had perhaps one event in the morning, then we would rest and sleep and recharge and then we would see if there was anything else interesting as a second highlight for the evening. So that was it - wake up, gai-gai, eat, sleep, wake up, gai-gai, eat and then finally sleep again.
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| Everyday walked this path back to OkTabBang |
Woke up around 5pm and wow it was cold. Around -10 degrees. Wow that was cold. By now Serene was already very good at judging how much to layer on. All she needed was to ask me "How many degrees now?" And on these evening with the mercury hovering at 영하 9.9도 零下 9.9度 she was dressed like this.
Just ‘…walked walked and see see and look look…’ in Serene’s favourite words. Wow on this Christmas Day, Saturday, Hongdae was bustling with young people and young couples. We turned round and round and just soaked in the atmosphere. Tried to find that Spoa departmental shop that we could see from our Rooftop but just couldn’t find it when we were walking on the ground.
The whole Hongdae was abuzz with beautifully made-up mascara-ed eye lashes and sparkling eye shadow colours dressed in tiny mini-skirts and long knee-high boots… everywhere we turned.
Made me wonder what steel legs these young girls were made of, that allowed them to tolerate the deep negative 10 degrees cold wearing only stocking..
“They would rather be super pretty in the mini-skirt and die from cold.” remarked Serene.
Walked past a Pojang Macha and wanted to dabao some food but I remembered aaarrrgh we had no Korean cash and had to give up that idea. There was no money changers around. The only money changer shop we found was closed. I didn’t think there was much use for money changers this period. Shocking was also the fact that Innisfree here in Hongdae had not many masks. But a few shops away Etude House had plenty of selections and Serene happily snatched them up at 15,000₩ for 10 pieces + 10 pieces.
“Careful don’t overload our luggage weight ah…” I had to warn the young lady.
“I am surprised Innisfree doesn’t have too many masks,” mused Serene.
“I heard on the web that Innisfree did T do too well because of Covid,” I said. “But apparently other cosmetic houses were not so hard hit.”
Garlic Chicken 마늘 지킨
Po-Jang-Hae-ju-sae-yo - "Please let me Da-Bao."
“Dar I really want to dabao that fried chicken where we walked past last night,” insisted the young lady.
I thought this would be a great chance to force her out of her comfort zone…
“Ok of course you can dabao.. but 我考考你.. you your ownself order from the waiter in Korean and try,” I challenged her and she took up the challenge. She must be hungry hahaha!!
“포장해도돼요?” (Can I take away) she asked the young waiter.
”네, 네… 뭘 드릴까요?” (Yes, what can I get you?) came through fast and furious reply from the waiter.
“마늘 닭 한 마리 포장해주세요."(Garlic chicken please give me 一只) Ok.. haltingly she said it. But hey not bad leh, REALLY not bad at all, this Serene!
And she successfully ordered her own one whole chicken meal at 17,800₩, which we later on, happily devour back in the Rooftop! Happy supper with fresh green grapes.
“Actually hor.. if I were a young Korean student this chicken meal with one can of coke, a big whole grilled garlic chicken with lots of glutinous rice and some vegetables, would be enough for me to have for lunch and dinner.. maybe even longer.. maybe two days?” said Serene, of this S$20.40 dabao. “Actually to save money if I were a young student here in Hongdae I would eat cup noodles every day even.. and do some simple cooking.”
Huh? Not enough still? Still want late night coffee?
People always said that in Korea, the coffee and cafe cultures were strongly entrenched as part of their daily lives. The recent restriction by the Korean government in allowing only up to 4 persons to dine in restaurants and cafe, and to have the dining establishment close at 9pm actually dealt a major blow to businesses. Even back home in Singapore, we were allowed up to 5 persons to dine in (of course gradually we arrived at 5 persons) but there was no restriction in time.
Still, just around 7-8pm, the cafes were bustling.
Thinking back at The Foot Shop massage SaJangNim’s words.. I still feel that in terms of eating, Singapore is cheaper than Seoul, though Hongdae is definitely one of the more affordable areas. Here in Seoul, a full meal with Banchan and drinks would set us off by at least 10,000₩ (S$12). But back home in an equivalent setup, say in a kopi tiam, you can get a bowl of wonton mee, or bak Chor mee for $5.50 and drink for $2. It will still total S$7.50. Still cheaper than here in Hongdae.
Luckily we had our late hot coffee to keep our bodies warm... Because that night... wah it was really cold with the temperature registering a Negative 14.1 degrees. Serene asked me how cold was this.. I told her... well, we could compare this to that fateful early morning at Dingboche, along Everest Base Camp trek when we all were in full battle order, ready to trek out...
So cute wor.. our RoofTop Terrace host texted us to turn on all the water taps and the kitchen faucets, as well as the showerhead, and let a slow trickle of water run at all times. Hmmm? Why ah? He explained that as the weather was so cold, this was to prevent the pipings from choking up with ice. Wah... such attention to details, even down to the water piping... Of course, for us who spent our whole lives in the Tropics, we never had to deal with these. But here it was a real problem.
Next stop... Click below..
Day 5: Moving to North Korea (erm.. North of Korea) - only a short distance.. to Bukchon only!
Emigrating to our Traditional Hanok in Bukchon!
26 Dec 2021
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| Traditional Hanok! |
Next stop - Sophia Hanok Guesthouse, a traditional Korean House, where we would be spending the next three nights.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
Bye Bye OkTabBang!
We were again to do our own ART and to take a photo of these with our passport. There was no instructions to upload these to any official Korean website.. so we just do it and Guai Guai kept the photos on our handphone.
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| bade one last bye bye to our Rooftop Terrace. |
Apparently, despite our taking to public buses in Seoul, it’s not recommended to bring our huge luggage into public buses, from what I searched, and from 민준원’s (our AirBnB host) advice. Thinking about carrying the heavy luggages down the steps of Hongyik University Entrance Subway Station was not our most preferred and thus the last resort. But hey.. Kakao Taxi App wasn’t bad at all in booking a taxi, even though not having a local Korean phone number meant I was not able to input a credit card as a form of payment into my Kakao App. Still, 18 minutes taxi drive and at 8,700₩ (S$10) was really not too bad.
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| One last check.. HEY! Not supposed to wear shoes inside the OkTabBang! |
Sophia Hanok - Bukchon 북전 北村
Bukchon 북촌 北村 has six hundred years of history as the residential area for the aristocrats and government officials, the upper class of Joseon dynasty known as the Yangban 两班. As such Bukchon has an unmistakable medieval feeling to its surrounding.
It took us a while to drag our luggages to the correct spot. Much of the gratitude went to a very patient female boutique store 사장님, who took all of 5 minutes to show me exactly on the map how to walk.. “여기에서 이렇게 가시고 여기 내리시고 베스칸을 보시면, 계속 이 쪽으로 가시는데 이니스프리 지나시고, 오른쪽으로 가시면 됩니다.”
By the time I walked out of the boutique store, Serene was already shivering out on the street and kao-beh-ing.
Luckily for me, the SaJangNim had pointed out the 24 Emart, the Baskin Robbins and the Innisfree shop as landmarks for me. Walking along Bukchon drew out a feeling of dejavu because a few years back we stayed in one of the traditional Hanoks here.
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| Outside our Hanok... |
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| Inside our Hanok |
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| In our Hanok bedroom... |
Sophia Guesthouse was right at the end of an alley, an oldish little house with a central yard like 中国人的四合院. The owner Mr Lee welcomed us and told us: “There, small room. Here big room for you. Service. "(Service in Korean means free of charge)
“Today very cold,” he said, and showed us the room and the attached private bathroom.
He was absolutely right... it was super cold on this day. If a Korean said that it was cold, it could not be anything else but cold.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Right up till this stage we literally had only about 5000W cash on us. Barely enough to buy a couple of Hotteoks.
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| Walked across the short distance from Bukchon to Insadong. |
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| Bukchon Klaguksu restaurant in Insadong |
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| Lunch at Bukchon Kalgukgsu! |
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| Kalguksu |
Across the main road 율곡로 was cultural Insadong. The tourist information lady patiently searched for us but found all the money changers to be closed on this Sunday. Who could blame them? No tourists, no tourist money, and the locals were also no longer travelling. Thus we had to live another day without cash. Insadong on a Sunday afternoon was a really sad affair. My memory of Insadong few years back was a bustling, noisy walking street with plenty of locals and tourists and the arts and traditional calligraphy shops doing brisk business.
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| MAKGEOLI? IN the middle of the day?! |
Fast forward to this day, a few shop owners selling 龙须糖 called out to us: “Singapore? Here this delicious!”
We smiled at the two young men manning the stall and nodded our heads. I was impressed they could
tell we were from Singapore - we all in masks, and not speaking a single word as we passed, but perhaps it was our dressing that let the kittens out? We didn't buy any from him, sadly.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Quite a dead town, was Insadong. On a cold afternoon, a nice warm meal of GomTang, Mandu 국 soup and makgeoli, pancake was a heart and body-warming affair in this restaurant called Bukchon Kalguksu.
“Wow! This is the most delicious kimchi I have ever tasted,” said Serene. “And this Mandu 만둣국 馒头汤 is superb. And your GomTang 곰탕 is also very delicious. The seafood pancake 해물 파전 matches with the magkeoli (rice wine) is perfect.” Wah 우리 집사람 must have been really hungry. Hahahaha…
As much as Bukchon was dejavu, strolling along Insadong was as nostalgic. It brought back memories of our very first trip to Korea with the children and, at that tine Ah Sing was looking to visit art galleries in Korea. It’s strange how memories are such powerful links to the past and how they conjure emotional responses deep within.
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| Our Traditional Hanok - 소피아 Guesthouse |
Had a great nap in our Hanok room, as the floor was warm and we were insulated from the harsh cold outside, until 5pm.
“I really want to slowly walk Bukchon, like the way that Seoul Walker took his two hour videos of heavy snow walking along the alleys of Bukchon like that,” I told Serene.
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| Waiting for the Ajumma to prepare our special Red Bean Hotteok |
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| Dead town Bukchon |
黄生家 칼국수
“Let’s support the local industry leh,” urged Serene, and we bought some buns and we even popped into a 黄生家칼국수 restaurant where Serene had a 사골칼국수 (牛骨汤面) and I ordered a 만두국 (馒头汤). I personally found the kimchi here spectacular. And we had such a wonderful meal this evening, that we didn’t mind bearing the cold walking back to the Hanok.
During this meal, the ladies took our orders but failed to deliver. So we Chogiyo them.. Chogiyo!
“뭘 드길까요?” courteously asked the Ajumma.
“저는 이미 주문했는데 근대 음식 아직 안 왔어요.”
And they apologetically delivered our ordered food to our dining table. Actually, the service staff in Korea are generally very good, and very efficient.
It’s been well said that living and being immersed in a culture is the best way to expose oneself to learning its language. Nothing could be more true in our case. Within these short five days, both Serene and I have gained so much in confidently expressing ourselves and finding it a little easier in at least attempting to find the appropriate words and phrases to suit the situation. From every Korean contact, we learned and we continued to learn. Even sitting and stealthily listening to the young couple in conversation at the next table was a learning opportunity. Without subtitles, we had to make out what the drama characters on the tv were saying, and faced with a continuous bombardment of quickly-spoken Korean from the cashier, the waiter, or even the Ajumma selling the Hotteok, we had to adapt fast and try to catch short segments of words that allowed us to guess what he or she was trying to, in such a friendly tone of voice, convey to us. Even our lovely Serene gained much confidence.
Next Stop...
Day 6: Of PCR and Gyeongbokgung.. Wonderful Palace and.. oh, snow!
Day 6 PCR and.. Snow in Gyeongbokgung!
27 Dec 2021
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| Geongbokgung |
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
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| Wah.. Hansik for breakfast leh - our first breakfast in the Hanok. |
We loved the way the SajangNim prepared our traditional Korean breakfast and served us in the cozy dining room just right next to our bedroom. It’s like we got ourselves an attached private dining room. The hearty meal was more than enough to last us till dinner.
What? What did one of you out there asked? Oh about the Hanok Bedroom? Oh comfortable of course it was.. small, but cozy and the Ondol 온돌 (warm-stone) floor was ooooohhh... just so lovely to sleep. Erm.. just don't let the ShaJangNim come into our room and inspect it. Because had he.. maybe we would have to check out a few days earlier. Hahahaha!
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| Registering for our PCR in Kangbuk Samsung Hospital |
“Dar, I think hor… let’s forget about Seegene Medical for our PCR because it’s further away. Since Kangbuk Samsung is only 2km away let’s just take a bus there and do there,” I suggested.
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| Confirmation of details and making payment |
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| And finally... doing the poke. |
109,080₩ (S$125) and one poke in the throat and one more deep one in one nostril, and we walked out, exactly 39 minutes in total. Talk about fast service. Here it was even better and more efficient than PDTSwab back home in Singapore.
“Ok let’s just stroll leisurely from here down to Gwanghwamun and let’s visit Gyeongbokkung (once again) and just relax relax walk.”
Wah lau don’t say hor… it was really cold walking like that..
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| Walking just passing by the outside of Seoul History Museum... on our way to Gwanhwamun |
“Wah luckily we have the heated vest inside and the USB heater egg in our pocket,” noted Serene. “But hor.. even with these USB heater egg at maximum level 3 hor, when it is so cold outside, the egg doesn’t feel hot at all.. but hor.. once we go indoors wah the egg becomes super hot.”
“Yah lor… it’s like that one. So you can imagine how cold it actually is outside.” I replied.
“My ears are so cold that they are painful,” complained Serene. “Last time when we were in the mountains of Nepal, even when it was so cold it also wasn’t like that.”
Along Gwanghwamun Square
“Aiyah you old already lah.”
Gwanghwamun Square was all fenced up and heaps of sand and construction materials were inside. They were actually doing major re-building of Gwanghwamun Square. 좋은 생각이다. During Covid, the best thing is to rebuild so that everything will be just nice for recovery. [EDIT: Oh AFTER visiting the Seoul History Museum a couple of days later then I realised that they were actually EXCAVATING Gwanhuamun Square - part of Yukcho because they have discovered important artifacts from history there.. how exciting!]
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Interestingly, perhaps it was just us, but walking along any streets in Seoul, one main road with all the buildings on both sides appeared no different from another main road at another part of Seoul. They all looked the same and I was thinking to myself, if I were to be plonked right in the middle of any part of Seoul, a typical road like this, I would be lost without my Kakao Map.
Gyeongbokgung 경복국 景福宫
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| Inside. |
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| Panorama by the Queen of Panorama |
“This 殿 is named because it is used the Emperor is sick of listening to the governors and wanted to sit alone quietly to think and study. Here this 宫 is when the Emperor is sick of studying and wanted to look for his empress."
"Of course, if you see the name of this other 殿, it’s when he had enough of the emperor and wanted to look for concubine number 2. Oh and oh.. this one 财成门 is when the Emperor desired to tiok TOTO…” I joked.
“And this one leh? Heard this one was used when the Emperor wanted to have his Empress give birth to a dragon (a son),” I added.
It was COLD in Gyeongbokgung.
“Hahaha then these two? These two 宫 with the 双喜 words? Don’t tell me he used them when he had all his weddings with all his new wives?” Serene quipped.
“맞아요!” I replied.
Jokes aside, I have always found visiting Gyongbokgung to be quite an overwhelming experience - each and every single time I was there. So far I was guilty of merely precursory walking on the grounds of the palace. This palace and all its chambers and halls had tonnes of history I made myself a promise that the next round when we visit Gyeongbokgung again, it would be after I have read and understood as much as I could of the history, and spending half a day there instead of one hour. I really didn't want to 走马看花 again.
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| So true. Probably it would be a while before you start seeing Singaporeans again. |
The National Palace Museum of Korea
I remembered having a great time on our last visit into the museum. But on this day, the Queen was kind of not interested. So we skipped this and played with the 十二生肖 outside.
Onwards to Insadong...
We managed to survive until today day 6 with literally only about 20,000₩ (S$24) cash. The rates at the Singapore Money changers were not that good (S$1:850₩) and I could get better rates in Korea, I knew. Thankfully the money changer in Insadong that was closed yesterday Sunday was opened today.
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| Insadong was famous for its arts and culture shops. But perhaps because of that its current visitors are the older generation. |
“사장님, 싱가포르 달러를 한국원으로 환전하고싶어요,” wah steady liao.. the Korean that our SonSengNim taught us finally got use liao. “지금 환율은 얼마나죠?” Just hum-tum lah. And the rates came back 863… wah better than anything I could get in Singapore.
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| Perhaps the younger ones still come but on this day we see mainly older patrons. |
So far up till this day we have been using two Master Debit cards- one was Wise (previously known as TransferWise), and the other one was YouTrip.
Each of these debit Mastercards just needed to have me top up its value inside. Wise MasterCard’s advantage was when I PayNow into my card back home in Singapore, I already locked in the rates and the S$ got converted immediately into Korean ₩ and stored inside the card. Wise had another advantage as I could use it to transfer money directly from my card to anyone in the world’s personal bank. This I used for Kim Man Jung’s glasses payment because by doing so he will incur no credit card merchant admin charges. But there was a tiny admin fee on my side, but not significant compared to the merchant admin charges. Of course Wise could also be used as a normal Debit card to swipe at any shop.
As for YouTrip, it was good because it stored my money as Singapore dollar, and only at the point of use then the amount was converted according to the exchange rate at that time. So far YouTrip’s exchange rates were fantastic, ranging from 1:869 to 1:871. Way better than any credit card could offer.
So I gave Serene the YouTrip MasterCard to hold and every meal, every purchase, and every transaction I made her pay. Actually it was an excuse… it was so that she would be forced to converse in Korean to the cashiers, the waiters and such. In this aspect the YouTrip card accomplished its mission perfectly because by Day 6 my Serene could order almost anything and could ask for payment for almost anything, in Korean liao.
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| The once crowded Samziegil was merely a single digit percent of its old self on this day. |
Walking through Insadong to look for (probably the only one surviving in Insadong) that Money changer, I was really saddened to find that today Monday Insadong was dishearteningly quiet. We saw mainly old folks, old Halabeojis and old Halmeonis claudicating along the streets looking into windows. Even the usually bubbling Samziegil zig-zag Mall was dead.
What was so wonderful about travelling in winter, again to remind ourselves, was: 1. We got to eat aplenty. 2. Because the weather was so freezing cold we usually clawed back to our AirBnB or Hanok and grabbed a couple of hours of nap, then we roamed out again. 3. We invariably slept really early, aga aga 9-10pm and we woke up relatively late at 9am.
Good life, eh? Haha that was what travelling free and easy was supposed to be.
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| 仁寺洞这里也下雪呢！ |
Before our trip, our children, Kat and several other friends asked us what would we be doing in Korea, to which my answer was standard: “We will pretend that we are retired in Korea with a daily limit amount for expenditure (not restrictive, though) and we will behave as we live there as any Koreans, walk the small small streets of the dongs, eat all the local food and drink soju and beer at the local 식당s, pay exactly the same price as the locals pay… buy from the convenient stores and bakeries as the Koreans do, take the buses and Subway, and walked.. just like the men and women on the Hanguk Street… and importantly to attempt to communicate bravely in Korean with any Korean person anytime the opportunity arises, be him or her a driver, a passerby on the road, a student, a store-keeper, or the owner of the Hanok.. and just gar-gar whack Korean, from what we learned from our SonSengNim, and speak like the ways babies explore and learn.”
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| Go back Hanok to sleep first before we move out again. |
Although it was only a short 6 days till this day, our constant exposure every second, sights and sounds, significantly consolidated our Korean vocabularies and sentence structures because we were forced to think how to ask or how to say before we verbalise. And our confidence level ramped up a few notches, most improved was my Serene. The astonishing amount of confidence she exuded belied her apparent ignorance and finally I could tell myself even if I let her loose with a debit card in Seoul she could easily get food, her herself filled, buy warm clothes and take bus and take subway and make her way back to our hotel or apartment.
Dressed up to go gai gai again! “What?!?! So early! It’s only 4:50pm, not even 5pm you wake me up already?! For dinner? I am still very full leh!” kao-beh the Empress.
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| The Queen said she was still full. But her ears are not 听话. They are freezing (quite funnily so) so we bought a pair of 5000W ear muffs. |
Dinner at Gongpyeongdong
공평동장어 公平洞鳗鱼店
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
But of course, if the Emperor says go, no one can say no. Still, a cold late afternoon and again sky was darkening.
I promised Ah Li and Fann we would go look for that 呱呱叫店, a local Korean siktang that was near Jongro where all the children and ourselves had a most unforgettable meal of bulgogi on a deep-freezing night in December 2015. It was so memorable that we had always wanted to find our way back but never succeed until recently Ah Li and I searched on Google Map and found its location along Jongro, this restaurant called 공평동 꼼장어 (GongPyeongDong Eel).
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| Oh this restaurant brought back so much memories. |
It was merely an 800m walk from our Hanok. On this day, the long long queue outside its premise in biting cold, standing next to charcoal warmer to keep its customer warm while queuing, was no more. Although there was no queue outside, once inside the unmistakable cacophony of melodious Korean floated from every table at an uninhibited level of decibels, both men and women, just like the way a local Korean SikTang should be. Hardly any foreigners come here one.
At 5:30pm the sky was dark like the deep of the night and the bulgogi restaurant was full of patrons all talking at the too of their voice.. totally Hanguk Style. We were the only foreigners… but we were foreigners who could communicate a little one ok… When again as usual I told the waiter “우리는 싱가포르 사람이에요. 해외 접종 확인서가 있어요.” (We are Singaporeans and we have the foreign vaccination confirmation certificate) the waiter’s face lit up and directed us to make the AnShimCall and quickly got us seated.
This time round with our ability to read the menu on the wall we placed our order very quickly - 석쇠불고기 (steel grilled beef), 꼼장어 (eel), and 불막장 (the distal end of the small intestine, grilled and seasoned). The one bottle of soju and one bottle of beer only brought out the aroma of the food even more. So we joined in the spirit of the restaurant in speaking loudly and jovially. Our outer jackets and middle layers were safely covered up in big transparent plastic bags that they provided to each of us, to reduce seeping of the fumes and smell into our clothes. As thoughtful as always.
The one thing about this roadside small restaurant hor.. its tables are placed, not only very near to each other, they were also very near the entrance so much that halfway through eating we started feeling the cold seeping onto our body and the guy next table had to put on his outer jacket, and another young couple moved to a table further in. For us, not only our legs were cold, our hands were numbed. Thankfully we had the soju and beer to warm us up, and our USB egg and power bank-heated middle best kept us going.
춥죠!
Being here at 공평동 꼼장어 본점 started flashes of memories of our first trip with the children. Kairen and Fann made all the bookings and arrangement we just followed. That was in Dec 2015. Wow indeed swept through like a hurricane. Walking deep inside Insadong and weaving through Bukchun, and meandering even Hongdae that was relatively newer to us, we discovered so many scenes of nostalgia.
Walking back, the coldness in the air seemed to have taken a back seat.. but as we walked there were still frozen pools of ice on the ground which we had to be careful not to slip on.
I took a lovely, lovely HOT shower because the night before it was so cold (and the warm water in our room wasn’t working) that I decided to do a Nepal style of skipping the showering last night. Today the hot water for the shower was back! IT was especially so when the weather was so freezing on such a night, and we had the luxury of a warm ondol floor, and a warmed room so that my teeth did not chatter after the shower, like what always happened when I was in Nepal.
We slept early this night.
Next Stop...
Day 7: Discovering - the Serenity of Traditional Bukchon
Second Hanok Day traditional breakfast.
“Breakfast is ready!” called out the Hanok ShajangNim Mr Lee.
“哇佬，每天早上一起来就是吃!” remarked Serene. “Every day hor.. we just eat, and eat and eat and sleep and sleep and shit and shit…”
What she said was quite true. But she left out the major part that we also walked and walked and walked.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
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| I love the fact that my Queen brings me hot water every morning. |
While having breakfast, 김만중 Kakao-Talked us our Negative PCR results for the test done the day before.
“It’s really cold today,” he texted. “Please be careful.” So thoughtful of him.
It was cold. Still cold. Though a tad off the lows of -14 a couple of days ago. This morning the mercury stood at -8.1 degree and the weather forecast said he may snow tonight and be a little icy tomorrow.
“What’s your plan today?”sked Serene during breakfast.
“I don’t know leh” my answer.
“Good! Then I am going back to sleep!” this girl very naughty ah.
漫步北村
Hmmm.. really didn’t know what to do today. Sometimes when one is on a free and easy holiday, if tine allows, it is never ever a bad thing to have one day when the mind doesn’t know what to do and where to go, and one would simply let nature take its course and let one’s feet do the walking. Today was just one of these days.
Our feet took us up the slope from the Hanok and up and up some more slopes as we strolled northwards towards the more mountainous part of Bukchon. Bukchon, interesting, was a village that was on the hill between Geongbokkung and Changdeokgung, a fact that was apparent to our gluteus muscles when we started climbing and Serene started Kao-beh-ing.
“One of the reviews said that one of the best way to explore Bukchon is to get lost in it,” I shared with Serene. “Now with Kakao Map, it’s so easy.. we can walk and just walk along whichever alley or street and totally get lost.. Nothing that one glance at our Kakao Map App cannot re-locate our position.”
With that we walked up the hills and were impressed to find ourselves peering over some Hanoks below us and looking far upon the palaces and mountains. Wah.. what a view. My good friend Michael urged me to go hike up Bukhansan. But upon Serene’s fierce resistance this plan died a natural death. Perhaps next time.
We kept coming upon upslopes after upslopes with every turn we took until we realised that hey this is not going to be easier. Might as well just grit our teeth and keep climbing. So continue kao-beh-ed the Queen did while she activated her long-unused gluteus muscles. I was looking at some official-looking government building compound when I turned back and saw her drawing on a frozen windscreen of a car. This girl ah.. at the most unexpected times she would do the most unexpected things one.
"Hey, take a photo of our reflection inside the mirror," commanded the Queen at one of the flats after a climb. I kept checking my Kakao-Map and I was very impressed to find that even the small small little alleys were correctly reflected in the map. Only thing was, of course, one must read the map in 한글 lor. But it was really quite a exhilarating experience, topo-ing among the small little 胡同 골목 of the village.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
We found all the Hanoks with their central courtyard and the ondol (warmed stone heated flooring) and maru (raised floor) very attractive. This ondol technique of having study rooms and bedrooms elevated by stone base that was heated up by piping steam from fires in the kitchen from cooking, was known to start during the Goryeo Dynasty in the 10th century. The maru was a raised wooden floor used mostly for room to host guests and it keeps air circulating beneath and kept the room cool during hot weather. The designs of the Hanok entered our hearts and we joked with each other each time we saw a beautiful hour with a central yard and rooms on each of the four sides of the yard
“How? This one nice right? Want to rent this one and stay here?”
“Don’t want! This one is right up so high up in the hill, I walk also want to die already. The alley is so small car also cannot come in, and if I carry a heavy bag of groceries you want me to walk all the way up here. And each time I want to go market I got to 下山? 안돼!” hahaha this Serene gave no chance.
But at the foot of the mountain we did come across one really lovely Hanok that was very near the main road and the main junction and was nestled in a quiet corner by itself. Wah, this one we did.. kind of... 마음에 들었다.
We didn’t manage to walk the whole of Bukchon and explore every single alley. But we did enough walking and I was totally satisfied, soaked in the tranquil medieval environment with many a touch of modernity.
Wanted to find a Hanbok Studio but most of the shops were Hanbok Rental shops and not Hanbok Photography Studios. Found one in Insadong and that one charged an exorbitant price. Found another studio in Bukchon and was happy with the price but within our Kakao Talk correspondence, I realized that for that price they will not give us the original RAW file but instead a downsized processed file and some prints. Ah.. forget it lah. I think I could just set up my own lights at home and do the job... we already have all the necessary equipment at home. hahaha...
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| First time in our lives we acted like young cute Korean girls... and boys. |
I can understand why. The business has been poor and thus the photo studios had to struggle to make ends meet. But honestly for professionally-shot portraiture of us as a couple wearing Hanbok, no lah... I won’t pay that kind of exorbitant prices, as much as I would like to support the local Korean professional artist community. Kwenchana.
Strangely we found ourselves eating lunch again after a very heavy breakfast of bibimbap. At this hole in the wall SikTang we ordered 칼국수 knife cut noodle, 만돗국 Mandu soup, and 모든 만두 a mixture set of different Mandu. And we ate until our stomach felt so bloated we wanted to throw up when we stumbled back to our Hanok to take a much-needed rest.
“I feel like vomiting,” I said, lying on the ondol.
“Hey me too leh,” admitted Serene.
Walking to Myeongdong...
Jiaklat. This cannot continue. We needed to keep walking to burn off all these. So I told Serene ok, my plan for the evening was to walk from Bukchon, through Insadong, to Myeongdong.
"It was a pleasant walk, about 30 minutes, yes, but a lot of things to see many signboards to point out to each other and to read out loud to each other. Travelling in Korea was like this.. it was maximizing our exposure to the language visually, auditorily and having the perfect opportunity to mouth and vocalize the words we see. In short, every moment is a learning moment, every walk is a practice in reading, every turn is a chance in deciphering the meanings of the signboards, and every second is a Korean Language lesson for both of us. That was what young students experience when they get sent for exchange in another country - total immersion."
I could see that Serene was slowly getting the hang of reading and understanding faster, and verbalising her sentences quicker.
"I need to read more, and listen more. You really need to speak to me more in Korean," once again she said. Yes, she is starting to study more, although in her own very special way - learning by Osmosis.
Serene was pleasantly surprised how near Myeongdong was from our Hanok at Bukchon. And she happily announced to 한상문 씨, 김만중 and 김학중 separately her newly-learned phrase:
“우리는 북촌에서 명동까지 걸어왔어요!” (We walked and came to Myeongdong from Bukchon !)
Sitting down in MOMO Cafe and sharing about Options trading over coffee with the two brothers, I naughtily took that opportunity to practise using economic and financial investment terms that I could squeeze out of my brain and incorporate these into Korean sentences. We were just sharing with them the learning of this special Options strategy and that I was so convinced by it and been relatively successful with it that we got our daughters to attend the course and even my young nurses to attend the course so that they can attain financial independence.
“Options?! 위험한 것 조?” asked the 35 year old elder brother 김학중.
“Yes only if you leverage massively.”
As we talked, our conversation came to property prices and 김만중 said that the property prices in Seoul have doubled since Covid started and that the prices of apartments in Mapo (an expensive area) is double that of a similar unit in Incheon.
Talking about cost of living…
在北村漫步的这一天，所见的景色，使我们回想起北海道冬天里小尊市或函馆市或甚至好比澳洲 Busselton 的那一种悠然寂静的风味。这北村的店铺都不外是美术点，画廊，韩服店，服装店等等与艺术有关联的。我们走着走着，心想，客人这么少，如何可以维持生意？上山下山，古色古香的韩屋景色尽入眼帘，很是吸引人。我们本身比较喜欢东方的冬天。红毛国家嘛就别说了。日本北海道和韩国北村，各有各的味道。但试想想，每天上山下山，爬上坡走下坡，客观来说虽然是一种健康的生活方式，但是对我们新加坡人来说，累坏了…哈哈哈。
我问阿华：”要是我们在这里长期生活，每天的费用会多少？如何减少开支？”
阿华说：”早餐就自己煮，午餐可以在外面吃，晚餐呢也就回来家里煮来吃。这样的话，在外面吃的那一餐午餐就大概新加坡钱$30-40。”
”这样的话，我们两个人在这里的开支每天大概还是要$100吧。还没包括祖屋子呢… 加上住宿的话，每天$200？哇佬… 不便宜 leh…”
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| Having lunch today in one of the cheapest hole-in-the-wall SikTang in Bukchon 7000W per person (for a bowl) The Mandu combo was more expensive. |
That evening consolidated one thing. It’s not impossible to live for an extended period of time in Korea, but we got to try to live and travel and eat as the locals do. And that is not considering medical expenses too. Because if we are not foreigners working here in Korea, holding the Alien Registration Card, then we don’t get to enjoy the medical treatment like the locals, who pay medical insurance. Food for thought…
Next Stop....
Day 8: Myeongdong... Annyeong!
Finally moved to Myeongdong...
Day 8
29 Dec 2021
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| My favourite Gwangjang market restaurant |
Last night I set my alarm and woke up at 3am just so that I could try to see the weather-forecasted snow. Disappointedly I went back to sleep, but in the morning the ground was glistening with newly-fell snow.
Aiyah.. Kwenchana ya.. the weather forecast said that on the 2nd January there will be heavier snow in the morning. If it was meant to be it will be. Anyway today's weather was.. WARM at negative 1.9 degrees.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
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| Our third Hanok Day breakfast |
The Hanok Mr Lee told us we need to check out at 10am and sorry no choice because the part-timers need to come and clean the room. Ok lor.. chin chai lah. Actually we also didn’t mind because nothing else much more to do in Bukchon. Our original plan to walk from Bukchon to Myeongdong did not materialize because our two huge luggages were not so easy to roll on the very uneven tile-paved path. So finally right at the entrance of 한옥길 we flagged a Kakao Taxi.
우리가 한국말 할 수 있는 싱가포르 사람이라서 이 기사님은 많이 놀랐다. 10분만의 짧은 택시노정에서 우리는 기사님에게 호텔부터 음식값과 한국에 살고 있는 중국인의 생존력인까지 많이 이야기했다. 그분은 계속 우리가 한국말 잘하신다고 해서 우리 좀 paiseh 이었다. 그 택시 요금은 5,900₩만이라서 정말 합리적이었다.
“Dar…” started Serene.
“什么？”
“Dar, I want you to start talking to me in Korean from now,” she said.
“Huh? Wae?” She suddenly kena tiok-gon-tao or something?
“I hear the way you talked to the taxi driver just now.. I also want to be able to speak Korean like you.” wah this girl this time round hor, she was for real liao one eh…
“Ok onz!”
So cute ah.. my Serene. Sometimes hor her 머리가 아무것도 없어도… 갑자기 maciam kena knocked on the head like that and suddenly wake up her ideas one leh! Best lah, my Dar!
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
Not wanting to waste that three and a half hours while waiting to check in at 2pm, we opted to just continue our usual 산책하다 and just walked from Myeongdong through the usual Myeongdong streets, to City Hall 시청, and started from the beginning of Cheonggyecheon 청계천 (清溪川) all the way to Gwangjang market 广长市场.
We were finally able to experience for ourselves the sad state of the commercial shops in Myeongdong. Out of every 7-8 shops, about 3 were empty, with ‘임대’ signs in front. Serene was correct when she said about 40% were empty. She was so looking forward to her Myeongdong Ajumma street food stall but what we encountered was a skeleton of the old place, shutters half shuttered with thick layers of dust covering the steel table surfaces. Yupe. This Ajumma street food stall was one of the many victims too.
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| "The economy has to quickly get better, tiok-bo?" |
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| Seoul City Hall - nostalgic |
Cheonggyecheon
It was a Wednesday morning and understandably Myeongdong’s streets were very empty. The weather was a warmish zero degrees. I was so happy being able to properly walk Cheonggyecheon that nice little revamped canal through euljiro that used to be a dirty canal. Young people and older men and women were exercising (surprise! In the middle of the day!) along the stream. And a small handful of Ang Moh men were taking photos.
“Wah if the weather were so lovely every day we could simply exercise any time of the day, right?” I said.
As she agreed, she had to stop to remove her outer down jacket and just continued walking in her middle layers because she felt so warm from walking that 2.1km from 청계광장.
Gwangjang market was still her own self from 4 years 10 months ago. For Gwangjang market, I believed nothing much had changed, as she had always been catering to the locals. The small little food stalls were still bustling with customers, the textile shops were still opened, almost nothing has changed.
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| Seoul MaeoonTang |
We even found that Seoul Mae-oon-tang stall that we had so much fun eating in almost five years back. Although disappointingly that lady with whom we took the photo was no longer there, the food was just as great as it was on the 16th February 2017, and from what I could remember, the prices had not changed from when we were there in February 2017.
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| Classic pose - flash back to 5 years ago in 2017! |
The only price that was different was the strawberry. This trip we bought one packet at Hongdae for 9000₩ (S$10.45). But here at two separate stalls they were going at 15,000₩ (S$17.44) and 17,000₩ (S$19.76) respectively. Simply for the sake of reference… as we bought a similar pack of strawberry almost five years ago here for 7000₩ then. As what Kim Man Jung and Kim Hak Jung said, the property prices here in Seoul has doubled, but would essential commodity and foodstuff prices also jump so much? If indeed it would, then the serving of 매운탕 and 산낙지 at Seoul Mae-un-tang stall would no longer be selling for 24,000₩ and 15,000₩ respectively, but would be double that amount by now, five years down the road. Strange…
[Edit: after visiting the supermarket at Myeong-dong and finding that they sell the same bigger package of strawberry at 14,900₩, I finally concluded that perhaps the market prices for fresh strawberries were high this season. So Gwangjang market prices were still in line with the normal market standards.]
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| Every day every where must find Korean Gaolat to eat... |
Still, as I explained to the Kim brothers and also the taxi driver, I strongly believe that the cost of living in Seoul is still slightly higher here in Seoul than in Singapore… if one compares the prices of properties, food, essentials etc.. however the public transport prices are comparable.
“Wah, not bad hor,” I said to Serene. “We really walked a lot hor.. this trip.”
“Yah lah.. because I am a good supporter mah,” there she went again… hahaha.
Sometime this afternoon on the 29 December 2021, the Korean government finally announced its tit-for-tat response to the Singapore government’s suspension of VTL Plane ticket sales on the 22 December 2021, by announcing that the Korean government will ALSO suspend sales of VTL plane tickets until the 21 January 2022.
Man, honestly if this goes on, we would be among the very last batches of Singapore tourists setting foot on Korean soil for a long time more to come!
Our walk back from Gwangjang market meandered through the small lanes of what I have always called jokingly they ‘Balestier’ of Seoul- Euljiro, where there were many electrical appliances and lighting shops very much like our Balestier at home; and this round we also walked through some oldish market places very similar to Hong Kong, and before arriving at Myeongdong, a part of Chungmuro where the small street was lined with camera shops. I loved walking around with this young girl. She has always been very daring one. And she would just zhao-cheong one, which was great when it came to travelling because if one had never daringly explored one would never discover.
In the evening we visited 한상문 씨 who carefully tuned and adjusted our new glasses and meticulously arranged everyone’s glasses in their respective package.. wah nice! Another two bags of glasses to bring home.
“40%이라고 하셨어요?” he replied when I remarked that we thought around 40% of the shops in Myeongdong was closed. “50%이상이에요! 한국에서는 가장 안 좋은 것이 바로 명동이에요. 왜냐하면, 외국인 없으니까, 가계들 다 닫았어요.” (More than 50% of them shops have closed in Myeongong. In Korea, Myeongdong is the most badly affected place. Why, because there are no foreigners, the shops have all closed.).
“지금 한국에서 가장 안 좋은 곳은 바로 명동이에요!” (In Korea, the worst place is Myeongdong now.)
Slowly walking through the Myeongdong streets on this evening we reminisce those good old days when a typical night like this Wednesday evening would have tourists from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand rubbing shoulders on these very streets, elbowing for space to enjoy their street food in from of the stalls run by busy and loud ajummas, and those days standing in the midst of the crowd we would hear conversations in various languages from countries around. It was a melting pot of tourists in those days. And in those heydays, Innisfree and Etude House and Nature Republic salesladies calling out in Mandarin to us to come in and buy. But now? No one gives as much as a glance at us.. Myeongdong has lost a great chunk of her soul and her spirit. She is suffering, down with the malaise of melancholy that sees no cure in the near future…
Next Stop...
Day 9: Gangchon Rail Park - what a lovely, COLD, WINDY morning paddling trip!
Day 9
30 Dec 2021
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| Gangchon Rail Park |
“Dar Thursday morning hor, we got to wake up early ah, and take the subway early,” I instructed. “We will be travelling to 김유정역 (金裕贞 Gimyujung station) that is two hours by subway and Korail train, and then we will have fun doing the Railway Bike ride along the old railway track of Gangchon (강존 江村 레릴바이크).”
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
The wonderful thing about this Ajumma hor, is that she will kao beh kao boo, but in the end she will continue her full support for me.
The Kakao Metro App and the Kakao Map App were two fully-used Korean Apps this trip. The Kakao Map allowed me to locate literally every restaurant, every SikTang (식당 食堂), hotel, buildings, and any destinations. I tried Navet map.. but somehow I found that the Kakao series of Apps worked so much better for me. I could literally locate a place and, like many other navigation apps, navigate to that destination, with exact information about arrival and timing of buses, subways (yes Kakao Map also gives the navigation details for Subways and buses, in addition to walking!).
Kakao Metro is great for taking the Subway and the Korail trains. And I was able to find the exact timing for the Korail train to Gangchon (because it only had 2-4 trains an hour).
Kakao Taxi는, was great for booking a taxi, though we only used it once.
The good thing about the Kakao Apps was, we can switch to English too. But… I just left everything in Korean, even for Serene’s handphone because I needed her to get used to reading the language and to be more confident in deciphering information in the Korean language.
I recalled all these times when we were visiting Korea, especially the first few times, we were so lost, even in the middle of Jongro (my goodness!) and we didn’t even dare to step foot into Insadong because then we were frightened of getting lost. True, I remember the overwhelming kind of emotion when everywhere around us were in Korean, and we just heard an unintelligible flow of lovely pitches and tones from passers-by.
This time around, Serene was totally different already lor… everywhere she went she would point out information for me, she would forewarn me of things that I missed or I should know, and she was the one ordering food and drinks and making payments and buying things... sincerely I have always known that once we equipped ourselves with a new language (no matter what level, as long as we made an effort to slowly continue learning and not give up) we would have another tool, another instrument, in our hands to explore new places.
… it was quite some years back when we were able to bring the whole family to navigate in Hokkaido with whatever little Japanese we could muster (hahaha.. yes, a language is like this, the lesser we use it, the more it will disappear from our memories).
Although we still did stumble a little bit this round, even taking the subway/Korail with four changes of the train was ok. Korea’s subways were a little confusing at times because the direction of travel could literally mean taking a long flight of steps up or down and walking a big round to another side just to take the train towards the opposite direction.
It impressed me how convenient it was to travel this long two-hour journey and it cost us only 4000+₩ a person. We arrived exactly at Gimyoujong station at 10:11am, as predicted by Kakao Metro, and a right turn and two minutes walk and Gangchon Rail Park ticketing booth were there. Two days ago I bought the online ticket for a two-person ride for 35,000₩ (S$40.69) and the county staff straight away could scan my QR and issued us the ticket.
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| "Weather is cold, Hearts are warm, Coffee is hot..." |
Sitting outside at a table and eating our gimbap and sandwich breakfast, the very friendly cleaner lady urged us to go into the cafe:
“추우시죠! 카페에서 들어가셔도돼요!” (It’s cold outside here isn’t it. You may go into the cafe.)
So nice of her. Anyway, must give it to Serene who meticulously prepared breakfast and all the hot and cold drinks to bring on this ride because the wind factor really drove the cold right into the bones, especially during the ride. It was touted to be a totally environmentally friendly ride because the track was a gentle downslope mostly and we just paddled and enjoyed the sceneries and the musical tunnels. I would have loved to have a snowy morning to ride through the wintry track but it was not to be on this day.
“Wah lau eh.. thighs aching and left ankle aching ah,” complained Serene. Yeah lah.. we haven’t cycled for a long time liao mah..
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| I really quite enjoy this view. |
“It’s so cold my feet are numb liao,” she complained again.
“Yes lah. I also cannot feel my feet already,” indeed that was true.
Despite her kao-behing.. I actually thought this ride was quite a nice ride. Gangchon 江村 is in Gangwondo 江原道, a province north of Seoul. Its weather is also typically very cold and snowy. This journey 70km out of Seoul by train gave me plenty of the much-needed confidence to embark on future day trips out of Seoul, by ourselves on public transport, a form of travelling much preferred by us.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
We ordered a medium size pork knuckle and a Jinro soju for lunch right across Myeongdong subway station in a highly-reviewed Jokbal SikTang called Tung-Tung-i Jokbal 뚱뚱이족발 （fatty pork knuckle).
“Hmmm.. I still prefer the 满足 Manjok五香 Jokbal that day,” compared Serene.
“Ok tonight I will bring you to the Manjok Jokbal branch in Myeong-dong,” I promised her. But somehow the small bottle of Jinro soju must have been quite strong as it knocked us both out, and we only left our room at 8pm to gai-gai along Myeongdong and to catch a glimpse of the Christmas lighting at Shinsaegae.
Actually the Christmas lighting at Shinsaegae was nothing much lah. Earlier a few days ago I remember Kim Man Jung was commenting that the people who would crowd around just to watch the Christmas lighting there was crazy.. or something to that effect.. and now I totally agree with him.
“춥죠! (It’s cold, isn’t it?!)” nowadays Serene very clever to talk like the local Koreans already.
Shinsaegae Christmas
“Ok, let’s just walk zig-zag within Myeongdong and slowly make our way back to the hotel.”
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| Actually the Christmas lighting.. weh, so-so only lah... |
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| Don't see got several people in the photo.. it was actually a very quiet night in Myeongdong. |
8pm. And Myeongdong shops were closing their doors already. On a Thursday evening, 8pm.. it was quiet. We walked by a whole row of empty shops with glass panel glaringly announcing “For rental”. We we heartened to see still several carts on the road selling steaming-hot Hotteok, sweet potato, chestnuts - all of which we bought one stall-cart after another stall-cart. In our own ways we were also contributing to the economy here hahaha..
We were also heartened to hear the way too familiar Singaporean accent amongst 2-3 scattered groups of young men and young women. Wah, heng ah.. still got Singaporeans out here. I thought we were the rare few.
“Hey you also noticed several groups of Ang Moh travellers, some Indian travellers too, didn’t you?” I asked Serene. Ok these were all good signs. The world really needs to recover and get back in its feet. Personally I really thought that the Singapore-Korea VTL was a great idea and that the whole world was watching closely to see how us two countries would successfully navigate this.. until sigh.. out of sudden both parties decided to pull the plug. Silly…
Next Stop...
Day 10: Hking round Namsan Loop - we could do this everyday leh!
Day 10
31 Dec 2021
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| For the first time we never take escalator & cable car up. |
“喂！Cannot wake up early early one ah， I say first ah!” warned Serene the night before.
Ok lor. 9:05am. Lazy bum, this girl.
Had a leisurely coffee mix and Pasir Baguette buns and bread breakfast in the room and then - Full Battle Order.
I knew today’s weather wasn’t going to be warm. It was around negative 8 degrees Celcius in the late morning. Thankfully we had our power-bank driven heated middle layer, SMOL middle vest, SMOL outer vest and our USB palm heater which Serene has come to call it her beloved 鸡蛋 (heater egg), AND I made her ditch her own small backpack and dumped everything onto my Osprey trekking backpack (wah heng ah! I made the correct decision to bring this one instead of my Boeringer Ingelheim blue study back bag)… we had our whole thermal flask of coffee, a bottle of water, our extra breakfast which came in really useful, and whatever additional stuff.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
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| Namsan Loop? Very easy. Start right outside our hotel. |
Truth to be told, in so many trips to Myeongdong and in going up to Namsan we have always taken the easy way through Hoehyeon (회현 會賢驛회현역), and by the Escalator and the Cable car. I still remember earlier on in our previous visits, it took me a while to figure out how to get to Namsan Tower, with the maps in Korean, and me having to read and digest what some other bloggers described.
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| "Just aga aga walk in that direction of the Namsan Tower.. and we will eventually get there one lah.." |
There were travellers who have walked the Namsan Loop to explore the old Seoul City walls （首尔城廓 서울성곽). Time and time again we have watched the actors and actresses went up to these old City walls, sat there and had a drink of a can of beers while pouring their hearts out, yet we have never had the pleasure of visiting these old city/castle walls. In retrospect, these were not difficult to find. And there were many sections of these city walls scattered in the modern city of Seoul, just that we had to know where they were and just walked.
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| "Tiok liao.. Tiok liao.. can see the Tower.. Must be correct!" Haha.. No lah.. that is old-fashion method. Nowadays we have KakaoMap. |
So walked today we did. I really didn’t know how far. But aga aga it was going to be about 6km… or slightly more.
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| This relatively cheap Guesthouse called Crib49.. it caters to young students.. but honestly it's nestled in a lovely position, just that it is up a steep slope. |
Actually hor... there are many routes of assault on the Namsan Park Road 남산공원길, the main road upon where one does the Namsan Loop. Upon examining our KakaoMap, this was the way we walked up. We came to the Restaurant and the Toilet and then continued eastward on our walk.
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| Yes, this was the lovely restroom and starting point for our walk. |
“Wah if the weather is so nice I don’t mind coming here and exercise and walk,” said Serene, about 1km into the walk. “Is this considered hiking or walking?” she asked.
“Erm.. walking lah,” I said.
Once again, young and old, men and women were brisk walking in the negative 7-degree morning. We saw several young men and women were huffing and puffing actually running pretty fast-paced up and down the undulating road. Some parts of this loop actually had a pretty terrible gradient.. and there were cyclists on road bikes going up and down- amazing!
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| Slowly walk towards the top of Namsan. |
“Wah how many degrees is this gradient ah?” asked Serene.
“Wah I would say.. about 17-18 degrees? Wah this one this one.. easily 20 degrees gradient .. and look look they all just keep going up and up and up.. no respite one.. not like our Vigilante Drive back home in Kent Ridge and our Mount Faber, where there were short middle flattened parts for us to take a breather.”
Truly along the last part leading right up to Namsan Tower, Serene even had to walk several steps and stop a while and then walk again. See beh pai seh… the old Ajummas and Ajussi just walked right up. Hahahaha..
It was cold. Again the wind-chill factor was in full play and although initially I had to remove my middle SMOL down vest, but once up at the top I had to put everything back on because it was really cold.
Remembering that in deep cold, one of the most important thing was to keep our bodies well nourished and well hydrated. First thing we did, arriving at the top was to grab a bench in one corner of the Namsan tower little square and to sit down, spread our bread, eat and to drink our hot coffee. Cold.. cold.. cold.. but it felt really nice to have the warm food and beverage.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
“Quick, let’s finish eating and go look for our old locks,” urged Serene.
As expected, try as we could, we could not. Either our old locks in the last two visits were removed as part of the regular clearance carried out by the staff, or the old ones we left over the years could have been buried underneath the hundreds of new ones.
深一层想，事实上，人生嘛不过就是如此。世事无常，若一味执着、迷恋，永远无法放下枷锁。回顾回顾，好多到此的人们，之前在栏杆所上的锁嘛，或许有一二，无法、也无缘保留，因此强求不得。觅不着，也罢了。深信，许多寻不见了锁头的人，亦是如此信念吧。我用我这十支冻僵了的、差不多无法使唤的手指，慢慢将这一回的新蓝、黑锁头配上一张新年的心愿，再次为我们生命的旅途，许一个新的愿望。祈福若干年后，当我们有缘再次归来，能够再寻得。
没想到，在这2021年的最后一天，能够跟阿华两人漫步上南山上锁，绕着南山感受着韩国冬天的寒冷，享受着本地人们的日常活动，何尝不是一件好事。
“要是，要是有一天，我们有这种缘到韩国住上1、2个月.. 要是说嘛，住在刚才那个比较简单但依然处于市中心而还是挺方便的 Crib 49 般的小客房，每个星期绕着南山两、三次运动呼吸新鲜空气，如何？” 我问阿华。
”OK呀，好啊。”
“This is something like our Interim park at home right, running round and round it,” I used the analogy.
“This is more siong than our interim park leh,” she argued.
“Well, true. This is perhaps more siong in that some parts the gradients are more steep, but if you just count the distance, it is about the same right? Some more, the weather is so nice, I am sure we can just keep going and going right?”
话是这么说，但是我们心中都有数，韩国嘛，我们只喜欢春天，秋天与冬天。韩国的夏天真是太热太热了。
There were two or three smaller tracks that detoured from this main road, smaller trails that I wanted originally to attempt. But the surfaces were patched and the path sipped sharply downwards in the first part, and I was forbidden to go by my dear worried wife. Hahaha..
I made up my mind, the next time when we come back to do the Namsan Loop again, we will prepare ourselves properly with the necessary footwear and do these small little trails.
Originally I also wanted to take Serene up to hike the 900m Bukhansan. But seeing how our fitness is, it was perhaps a much better idea to leave this itinerary for another trip.. if the VTL were to be reinstated ever again. Of course I am confident. Still, I personally am of strong conviction that eventually both Serene and I would be able to explore Bukhansan and the other sans of Daehan Minguk.
After such a nice long walk, I just had to reward that young, overworked girl. So I to 시청 we walked and made our way to her favourite 족발 식당.
Manjok Jokbal at Sijong
“还是满足的猪脚最好吃，下次我们不用点一半原味一半辣味的这一套，全部点原味的就可以了!” Serene은 좋아하는 족할 식당이 만족 오향족발밖에 없었다.
”哇！我很饱了！吃不下了!” Aiyah this Serene ah… again eat until cannot eat any more.
Our final 9km Namsan Loop - SkyPark Myeongdong 3- Crib 49 guesthouse - 와룡묘 卧龙庙- 南山 tower - 백범공원 白凡公园 - 颂礼门 송례문 颂礼门 (also known as Namdaemun 南大门) - 满足五香 족발 本店(시청 市厅店).
Next Stop...
Day 11: Ihwa Mural Village - a walk through K-drama ...
Day 11
1 Jan 2022
Starting from this day I was beginning to feel more and more, the effects of having been living in the same place such that one would struggle to find things to do. It was just a tiny bit of decision-making in play, that in the tiniest way indicated to myself that this would be precisely the type of dilemma one would experience eventually.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
One of the most exhilarating experiences in travelling free and easy on one's own was, having absolutely no idea where to go, or how to get there, or perhaps merely a vague inkling of the plan of action... how one would simply take that first step out and just started walking.
Of course we modern human beings had our lives made so much easier with GPS-directed Apps on everyone's handphone. It now actually worked the other way round - one had to take a leap of faith by NOT turning on the App but merely walk aga aga according to ones internal compass. That was where the fun was.
So for the highlight of this day, I vaguely... vaguely recalled, from the far corner of my mind, reading about this little Iwha Mural Village 이화벽화마을 (梨花), at the foot of Naksan (骆山). Falling victim once again to the adventure-seeking crazy self in me, I decided to walk from Myeongdong to Ihwa. It wasn’t that far. But it took some topo-ing and weaving through the old Bras Basah-like old parts of Chungmuro and KaKi Bukit-like parts of Jungro, transforming once again to the older Seoul of the 80’s and 90’s. The shops at the side were mostly closed on this New Year’s day of 2022, saved for some hard-working middle-aged workers who were busy refitting some shops.
While crossing the road we decided to venture up to an overhead bridge kind of platform where they had old shops in an old electrical supermarket kind of set up.. I really reminded me either of the old Funan centre, or the old People's park, or Bras Basah or anything akin to that. But on this holiday, no one was opened.
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| Like Bras Basah |
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| Like People's Park. |
Most part of the journey to Ihwajang was flat. But once we came close, the gradient of the road started to take a tilt upwards. Times like these human beings would: either just laugh it off and walk in whichever direction he fancied, or check his much-folded map (in today's scenario, the KakaoMap App in the handphone) and try to figure where to head next.
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| Serene: "So where now? How to get there?" |
About 3-4km of walking north-East of and we arrived in Ihwa-dong. 이화동 梨花洞 did have quite some history to it. It was an old neighbourhood inhabited by the poorer segment of the population and the working class who chose to live in this part while working in the central parts of the city. It also housed refugees post Korean War. Though destined for demolishing and redevelopment in 2006, it was revamped and redecorated into a mural street by students and artists and it became a local attraction for Koreans as well as tourists. A small section of the old city wall 성곽 城廓 run along the edge of the village located at the foot of the 125m high Naksan.
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| "Ah yes! Here! We have arrived!" |
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| "Ok just climb up this direction can already." Serene: "Don't bluff me ah!" |
I have only seen some of the mural paintings online. And I really didn't know what to expect, and I was not even sure it was worth taking all the trouble to walk here and explore. Uncertainty was either the fear of unknown that incapacitated a homo neanderthal, or the spark of energy that propelled the homo sapien forward in his quest of the uncharted. Perhaps that was the main reason why the homo sapiens survived to outshine till this day while the homo neanderthals went extinct (hahaha joking only). I do like to think of ourselves as the latter, though admittedly one's appetite for the unknown usually increased with lessening burden on one's shoulder as one aged.
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| A mixture of old and older and oldest.... |
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| Me: "This is the entrance to Naksan Park. Walking up here we will reach to top of Naksan." Serene: "NO NO NO!" |
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| Very interesting.. this "Live Well 学院 |
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| No mountain! |
“Wei! You are not going to bring me to climb mountain again ah!” kao beh-ed Serene.
“No lah. We will just walk to the edge of this Naksan Park (낙산공원 骆山公园) then we will just walk down the mural village,” I promised.
Ihwa Mural street itself really wasn’t long. Maybe say.. 500m or so. Some of wall paintings on the facade of the homes, others are quaint decorative shoes, pots, old scooters arranged outside other homes. If one looked carefully one would discover many tiny little artistic additions to the worn-off walls and paintworks.
I loved that as we walked slowly and panting (Serene, not me) up the oft-seen Korean drama slopey path, we were followed behind by a pair of happily-chit-chatting old Halmoeni (grandmothers) who disappeared into another alley, and I loved that when we arrived at the top, we beheld a warm sight, a group of neighbours (Ajussis and Ajummas) sitting outside their homes and chit-chatting… in apparent oblivion to the mess happening in the metropolitan city below them. It was like travelling to a tiny hamlet in time.. back to perhaps the 80’s, the 90’s…
After we finished off most of the wall murals, I thought to myself that was about all to Ihwa Village. Little did I know that another spark of brilliance would open up another totally uncovered part of the dong to us - I pointed to a very narrow stairway and gestured to Serene "Let's go here!" and took joy in seeing her frown form on her forehead.
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
I don't remember seeing any residential area like this in my life. The haphazardly-arranged alleys and walls of varied plasters and bricks and the zig-zagging fashion the stairs decided to meander. As we explored, we came upon scenes after scenes after scenes that kicked up dusts of memories from our minds - memories of various scenes in all the Korean dramas we have watched.
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| Serene: "WAH LAU! You BLUFF-ed me!" |
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| Happy Dreaming |
... Where the 40-year old actress, Gong Hyo Jin, who acted as the psychiatrist in "It's Okay that's Love" sat on the old city wall with the psycho author each with a can of beer in hand and talked - wow that scene was so deeply etched in my mind...
... where the handsome 1971-born actor Ji Jin-Hee buddily-hugged his female ex-comrade in the secret service on the slope road in the drama "Undercover" and unfortunately got seen by his wife in her friend's car...
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| The tree |
We actually set off this morning from the hotel at around 10:30am, but by the time we finished exploring and walked down along 율곡로 19길 栗谷路, Serene was really complaining that her plantar fasciitis was acting up. It was amazing how the Koreans could live with the steep slopes. It was certainly through no fault of their city planners because Korea's geography was literally all mountains (The US Marines and GI Joes in the Korean War would attest whole-heartedly to that) and even the eldest Halmeoni and Halabeoji would slowly but steadily walk up and down with gluteus and quadricep muscles that were not accustomed for use in Singapore-swelling people like Serene and I.
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| Dropped glasses also didn't know |
“Dar, I am so happy to have found this neighbourhood. I am also very happy that we decided to explore this little dong,” I happily said. “Would you like to live in a little home like this by the side of the slope?”
“No!” declared the young girl. *Alamak*!
Well, what she said was true too. I carefully studies the steps and the serrated ground, and I could not imagine if the floor was ice-locked and slippery, how would the old people walk up and down without falling? I dare not imagine ourselves doing that without the snow-studs on the shoes. For the purpose of this trip we actually brought two pairs of unused ice/snow-studs in our backpack, and on this day they were stored carefully on the outside pocket of my backpack, waiting to be whipped out at any instance of icy and slippery floor. The only ice that we saw in the village on this day was this poor little chunk of ice- in Korean in winter, ice formed in the outdoor usually finds it difficult to melt away because throughout the whole day the temperature stood in the negative territory.
We found a 선지해장국 식당 run by two Ajummas and had a surprisingly cheap (in Seoul) meal of 선지해장국 鲜鱼解酒汤 that had plenty of 猪血 inside at only 6000₩ (S$7) a bowl. I was impressed by the Ajummas who not only recognized our Overseas vaccination confirmation certificates but the serving Ajumma even remarked “wow you have gotten three shots each?”
Probably the booster Covid shot was something not that widely done yet at this point in Seoul, but we knew that the Korean government is already pushing hard for the third shots for its citizens.
Talking about Haejangguk 해장국, this Haejangguk was the famous Hang-over soup that all Koreans love to eat after they drank themselves silly on alcohol, We didn't know how Haejangguk woekd until our Korean SonSengNum explained to us that in Korea, people believe that you cure the hangover by eating. So then wah the Koreans would have this type of Haejangguk lah, that type of Haejangguk lah.. and so on and so forth. Hmmm... if Serene and I were to live in Korea hor, I think every morning we would both need to drink each a huge barrel of Haejangguk leh.
We attempted with a bit of detouring and more walking, to visit the Seoul History Museum near 서대문 incurring plenty of wrath from the old lady. But we found the glass doors shuttered. I could not believe it. A museum in Seoul, and they were closed on a public holiday?! 말도 안된다…
Wah.. didn’t realised that the walk up and down the slopes of the old village took so much out of our lower limbs. By the time we arrived back in the hotel, our legs were painful. Shucks.. this was terrible. So out of conditioning. 안되겠다…
That evening we had a most most wonderful dinner with 김만중 at our usual haunt in Myeongdong, 왕비집 王妃家. Nice. Warm. Memorable dinner ‘twas.
Next Stop...
Day 12: A journey through Seoul's history through Joseonian eyes...
2 Jan 2022
An invigorating trip for the history buff...
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| Seoul History Museum |
Last night it snowed in the early hours of the morning. But I was so tired that I didn’t even bother to wake up to watch the snow at 3am or 6am. We just slept through until 9:30am, 10am.. just tired lah.
“Oh you look tired today!” said 김만중 when he saw Serene in the morning.
“Yah hor… I look so tired hor…” agreed Serene when she saw herself in her photo.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
“어제 어디에 다녀오셨어요?” asked 김만중.
“우리는…” replied Serene. Actually she is as really not bad.. slowly improving day by day. “우리는 낙산하고 이화벽화마을에 갔어요. (Yesterday we went to Naksan and Ihwa Mural Village). 많이 걸어서 지금 너무 아파요! (Because we walk a lot now a lot of pain)”
Serene & Kim ManJung
“어디에 아프세요?” smilingly he asked.
“다리가 아프고 어깨도 아파요. (Leg is painful shoulder also painful).” slowly 김만중 half-helped, half-dragged these words out of Serene’s mouth. Hahaha.. language is like that one leh, hor... Have to force ourselves to keep speaking and keep practicing it, then can we begin to even sound anywhere near comprehensible.
“When we first went to the Public health centre 보건소,
Serene & Kim ManJung
Serene was practising on her own to ask the reception: '우리는 해외예방접종 확인서를 바고 으싶어요.' (We want to receive our foreign overseas vaccination confirmation certificate) which will show our third dose, the booster dose.” I explained to 김만중.
After that he started training and digging her: “you must say this.. 저는 백신을 산 차 다 맞았어요. (I have received all my three vaccinations.” And he was very good and patient.. he waited and repeated until Serene could said the words smoothly.
Two caramel macchiato and we were off taking a bus from 삼일대로 towards 서울여사박물관 정료장… 6 bus stops away. Wah this Seoul History Museum hor.. wah really really something. I was so glad we went.
Seoul History Museum (again!)
Being so immersed in history, and with her people so intuned with her own history, Korea has plenty of museums. I would slowly plot out my attack on the historical museums but for this trip I decided at least one museum would be worth the visit. And Seoul History Museum it was.
Here the exhibit was all about the history of Seoul, how Seoul was transformed from Hanyang to Hanseong during the Joseph period from 1392 to 1863, and it vividly exhibited paintings, history snippets, literature, official records and writings, and audio-visual displays and a magnificent 3D model of the present Seoul landscape. I spent plenty of time peering over the 3D landscape lit model pointing out to Serene where we were on various days, on the 3D model. Man, I would easily spend half a day here. This was that historical part of Korea that I have forgotten to explore for a long time. I made a mental note to make allowances for more museums and to dedicate more time to each museum visit in our future trips.
So the exhibits displayed historical notes on the Imjin Waeran 1594 (the first war waged on Korea by the Japanese), the Byungja Horan 1636 (the second war waged by Manchu), and how that totally wrecked palatial and residential architecture in Seoul and how they would meticulously restored over the decades and with each ruling emperor. It also remarked how these wars changed the way the military evolved to better defend the country.
"Establishment of the Capital Defense System - Capital City and the Four Cities
The military system that was structured to defend the whole country by dividing them into Owi (Five Commands), promptly collapsed with the Japanese invasion in 1592. Realizing that a capital defense system was far more important than border defense, Joseon installed the Eoyeongcheong (Royal Guards Command), the Chongyungcheong (Command of the Northern Approaches), the Sueocheong (Command of the Southern Approaches), the Geumwiyeong (Capital Garrison), and the Hullyeon Dogam (Military Training Command) to defend the capital. During King Jeongjo's reign, Yusubu (Special Magistracies) dedicated to military administration and protecting the capital, were installed in Gwangju and Suwon, which completed the Four Yusubu system along with the existing Yusubu in Gaeseong and Ganghwa. Hence, the defense system to protect the capital, centered around Hanyang with the four cities as the outside strongholds, was reorganized,by the late 18th century, the four Yusubu were collectively called the Sado (Four Cities). The area occupied by the capital and the Four Cities corresponds to the modern-day Seoul Capital Area." - exhibit, Seoul History Museum.
It showed ancient maps of Korea with indications of the major cities. It was very interesting to see how these cities remained similarly-named till today.
"In early Joseon, more than 100,000 people lived within the walls of the capital. Whatkind of people resided in Hanyang?First, there were people from Gaegyeong, the capital of the previous Goryeo dynasty, who were closely involved in the founding of the Joseon Dynasty. They were subsequently incorporated into the ruling class of the new state and joined the populace by relocating to Hanyang. However, the existing residents were evicted from the capital. Residents within the walls of the capital were granted a different status from people hailing from outside districts, which resulted in differences in taxation. While residents within the capital walls were exempt from military duty, the grain tax, the local tribute tax, and forced labor in lieu of taxes, which were imposed on the residents of outside districts, residents did have to pay land and housing taxes and provide the latbor necessary to maintain the walled city.It was during the late seventeenth century that Hanyang started to transform into a commercial city. During this time, a commodity money economy developed in Hanyang with the enactment of Daedongbeop (Uniform Land Tax Law) and the circulation of metal currency, and a trading system mediated mostly by currency was established. People with no particular skills or resources flooded into Hanyang as they were able to sell their labor. By the late eighteenth century, there was a sharp rise in commercial development, and major ports in Gyeonggang, such as Mapo, Seogang, and Yongsan, became commercial centers. Along with commercial development, growth in privately-managed handicrafts provided people with luxury goods of the finest quality such as gold, silver, and jade craft. As a result, Hanyang's population soared, and merchants, artisans, and wage laborers made up the majority of the city's citizenry." - exhibit, Seoul History Museum.
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| Green words by me |
It also interested me to see how the Joseon geographer drew the ancient map of Hanyang (the old Joseonian name of Seoul) and how they segregated the city to its various parts, that until today still was represented similarly - North, South, East and West. If one day I were to slowly explore, I would try to see where each of these parts would correspond to in the modern Seoul city.
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| Chinese words and English words by me. |
I vividly remember this historical institution for the 孺子 in the old Joseon Dynasty as depicted by the actress Park Min Young in the drama series 'The Scandal of Seonggyungwan'.
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| OK one day I will do all these one by one. |
"Gwanghwamun square is a historical space that has served as a political, admin-istrative and cultural center since the Joseon dynasty. The square has recently attracted intense interest more than ever. The State Council of Joseon site that had come to light through excavation surveys was designated as Historic Site No. 558 in 2020, and the square reconstruction project, which is currently takingplace amid great public interest and cooperation, is set to finish in April next year (2022) In response to this, for the first time, Seoul Museum of History, the National Palace Museum of Korea and National Museum of Korean Contemporary History have come together, and each museum holds an exhibition, under the title - 600 Years of Gwanghwamun; Three Stories -, exploring the Gwanghwamun area in-cluding the square and its history. Seoul Museum of History firstly opens up the story with the exhibition, Yukjo Street: The Symbolic Street of Hanyang. The ex-hibition aims to trace Yukjo Street, which has remained its position as a core civic center throughout 600 years since Hanyang became the capital city of the Joseon dynasty and the officials who walked along the street. We hope audienc-es have a meaningful time at the exhibition while experiencing the timeless historical value of the Gwanghwamun square." - exhibit, Seoul History Museum.
I simply left the bored Serene sitting in the lobby of the museum playing her handphone game while I slowly explored the exhibits and stood for minutes on end just watch the videos and reading the words.. slowly. Very slowly. I believed had I been here two years back, I may not have gained as much as I had on this very day, all thanks to our Korean language 선생님’s effort in teaching us.
Not only did I finished the section on Seoul’s history during the Joseph period, I also visited the exhibits on the urban planning professor Kang Byeong Ki who designed Seoul’s infrastructure. Sincerely I should have minimally read up more before I visited the museum and stood and internalised all these information. Never mind. It was meant to be. This simply meant that there has to be another visit, another time. 박물관 (博物馆), 박물관… 일찍 갔어야 됐는데… “이번에 서울역사박물관에 다녀보니까 신나던데요.”
~ VIDEO ~ Click below to enjoy!
I was heartening to see mother bringing her sons and explaining to them about their country’s history. And I was so happy to see three old men walking along and pointing to the exhibits and discussing animatedly what 조 and what 종…
GOTO Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping Mall
As we ended our Seoul History Museum late we decided to scrap the Nanta theatre did today and push on to tomorrow. Instead we took an Subway to 고속버스터미널 to search for the 800m biggest underground shopping centre that impressed us so much. Man, we really got ourselves a little confused taking the Subway to GOTO Mall. Why? I think I was just too over-confident. I used to remember it as GOTO Express Bus terminal. I wasn’t sure but I saw the name Express Bus Terminal station and I assumed that one the only one and the same. It turned out to be indeed similar but just that we kinda approached it from another end, the Exit 1 side and arrived at the more modern part of it.
Thankfully Kakao Map didn’t fail me and after catching the GPS again and just walking a couple of hundred metres either down to arrive back at the GOTO Mall we knew. It hasn’t changed too much. The store were all filled and none were empty, demonstrating fine resilience in local domestic spending as GOTO Bus Exchange fully and successfully lived on local consumption. This season they were selling all women fashion and mostly winter clothes.
I told Serene: “Aiyah. If we were to spend three months here to enjoy the winter then we Will stick up your winter clothes here."
GOTO Express Bus Terminal being unchanged, the Ajumma stalls were still going at 10,000₩ but not many make boutique wears. The small SikTang at the end of the 880m underground shopping mall were still there. But the stalls have changed hands from a few years ago.
Things really were meant to be. I amazed myself with my perseverance. Last afternoon we missed Seoul History Museum because it was closed on 1st January 2022 but yet today we pushed on to visit.
And in a similar vein, we pushed on to take a bus from the museum after we finished at around 2pm to make our way to 이모네곱창 Imone Gobchang (姨母Aunty’s intestine restaurant) in Chungmuro 충무로 忠武路 which was highly recommended by Mango Plate. But.. as expected, the Aunty was closed on Sunday! Kana-Sai!! Good things were never meant to be achieved on the first attempt. Kwenchana! Tomorrow we will try again.
But we did managed to dabao fried chicken from the chicken street in Myeongdong. This round we tried the other shop 오빠 닭 Oppa chicken, and we purposely chosed the original flavor.
I was amazed by Serene’s determination to order in Korean: “치킨 이거 하나, 이거 하나 포장해주세요,” she tried again. This time successful!
Oh this 오빠 닭 hor.. the taste was beautiful- we both devoured the chicken completely and the beer and the cola that evening in our hotel room.
One thing that was lost from the streets of Myeongdong was the all too-familiar Sulbing Korean Dessert restaurant. We tried but couldn’t find it. Only after confirming with the Tourist information ambassadors standing in Myeongdong that we realised that Sulbing chain in Myeongdong was closed again due to poor business. But apparently Sulbing was still opened in Chungmuro. Kwenchana. Tomorrow we will try Imone Gobchang and Sulbing in Chungmuro.
“Wah I got plantar facilities,” kao-beh Serene while walking back to the hotel. "My shoulder also is having shoulder-itis, neck got Neck-itis and the arm I have arm-itis." Every where also painful. Except her head.. I gently knocked on ber head her head must have been gong-gonn- and 머리가 임무도 없어요.
Next Stop...
Day 13: A leisurely day strolling Dongdaemun.. and hitting several brick walls...
Day 13
3 Jan 2022
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| Dongdaemun |
I was excited about waking up and going to Nanta Theatre today and going to eat my 이모네곱장 in Chungmuro.
But sigh.. Nanta wasn’t meant to me. I checked their performance days and found that they were opened only Thursday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Today being Monday, they were closed. Aiyah.. really 没有缘. Kwenchana… at least it meant that we will have to make another trip once again to watch the hilarious Nanta Theatre performance.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
It was the day for the 48-hour pre-departure ART before we flew back to Singapore. It had to be a professionally administered one. And close monitoring on the Telegram Chat group determined that for us the closest and the easiest would be Euji Bareun Clinic around Jongro and it cost around 45,000W, one of the cheaper ones around.
Again we walked. Here in Seoul we found it interesting to find zebra crossings with multiple criss-crossing zebra lanes, not different from the alleys in the village. And while we were confused how to walk in the beginning after a while we realised that when the lights turned red for the cars, they turned red on all sides and pedestrians may cross along ANY of these criss-crossing zebras located right at the traffic junction.
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| Want to criss-cross? Suit yourself! |
Eulji Bareun clinic, 800m from our hotel, wasn't difficult to find. For the purpose of PDT, we needed the English certificate. The staff were really efficient, spoke good English and were able to understand my halting Korean, and very quickly registered us, and the swabber very quickly called our names and swabbed each of us, one nostril all the way deep inside.
Most coincidentally but not surprisingly, we met another two groups of Singaporeans in the clinic, Carol and another couple Albert and Bon. I was so thankful to have met them and spoke because Carol reminded me to do the Singapore Health Declaration submission online before flying back. I totally missed this one, perhaps being so focussed on all these post Singapore-arrival ARTs and having to book the Day 3 and Day 7 ARTs in the CTC.
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| This Eujibareun clinic apparently also does plastic surgery one wor |
Not knowing exactly where to go, we simply wandered eastward towards Dongdaemun. Originally wanting to visit Dongdaemun Design Plaza but we ended up at the old city gate Dongdaemun 东大门 itself. Once again, we were immersed in old-time Seoul, like the Geylang of Singapore, the Balestier, and Sungei Road back home.
This slow saunter down to Dongdaemun took us ambling along a bustling old-fashion part of Eujiro to Jongro… almost like back to the old Chinatown areas with old Ajussis, Ajummas, Halabeojis and Halmoenis running their small shops and stalls and old customers going about their daily shoppings. Although the place was different from back home, but the feeling was nostalgically similar.
We were assaulted from all sides by sights, sounds, fumes of workers, men and women, working fast and furious pushing trolleys and carts of huge pile of textiles, boxes and rushing their way along the pavement. Here they were working and the rhythm of the city was so palpable. It didn't take much to forget ourselves drifting through the cacophony of noises.
Until 东大门 and the edge of Dongdaemun City Wall Park 东大门城廓公园 we ventured but not beyond. It was time for my highly awaited lunch at Imone Gobchang, the pig intestine restaurant in Chungmuro. But I could not understand why it remained closed after our second attempt today! The words and the door still clearly displayed that they would be open 11am until 12 midnight (granted, now that it was Covid, maybe up till 9pm 吧), and that their break was 2-3pm. But our timing was just right. Yet.. the door cold-heartedly locked us out. Even exploring the street up and down found no other Gobchang stalls opened.
We stumbled into a traditional market called Jongro Shinjin Shijang. Again, almost like the Gwangjang market it was, but selling slightly different things. The food stalls were tempting. And we walked past an Ajumma who introduced us her Gobchang... but alas we didn't stop to eat, because we were still aiming to find Imone Gobchang. I would regret not stopping for her Gobchang later that night.
We could see many of the skilled workers plying their trades along Jongro, and also within the shijang. These scenes reminded me of the Korean drama 'Designated Survivor 60 days' where the acting-President of Korea played by the actor Ji Jin-hee was fighting for the rights of the traditional market workers.
I knew we would buy nothing from them, but still, I would love to just walk along and to let the atmosphere filter through my body.
“Wah hey.. you know.. we haven’t never been to this Dongdaemun city gate before. I am glad we just walked to here,” I shared. “Forget about that Dongdaemun Design Plaza. That one is better viewed at night with all its lighting effects. Let’s leave that one for another visit in the future.” Wah.. I am starting to be very 随缘. If have then have. If don’t have them Kwenchana.
Yet again, we topo-ed our way to Imone Gobchang at Chungmuro. BUT it was closed! The day was correct, the timing was also correct. But they were simply... closed!
“Aiyah you! 认命了吧!” said Serene.
“哎呀，好吧好吧！要是真是这样的话，我就只好认命了。真的是不明白，要吃一个 곱창 都这么重重阻饶。”
Don't tell me that Imone Gobchang was also a victim of Covid? Could not be could not be.. because this small little SikTang catered to the locals. They are totally not tourists-depending. Sigh...
Exhaustedly we staggered back to the hotel and snored for about two hours plus.
Sometimes while travelling, we would like to attempt to find some of the local eateries that were frequented by the locals, instead of finding internationally famous ones, or those that had tourists foot-printed all over. A frustrating attempt to search for some of the local haunts failed whenever I entered Myeongdong as a search filter on Mango Plate, the local foodie App. Google and Kakao Map were a little not that useful because those shops that were closed due to Covid and poor business, didn’t show up as ‘Closed’ on these two. But in Mango Plate, their operating statuses were accurate indicated. Earlier we tried walking up a third floor 소고기식당 to find a big lock on the glass door, again another victim.
Dinner of SamGyeopSal at Chungmuro
Kakao Map led us walking zig-zag into some small alleys of 을지로 seeking this highly-reviewed 을지육점 for my SamGyeopSal. But strangely we were exactly at that spot but just couldn’t find the SikTang. Looking around led us nowhere near any signboard that depicted the words 을지육점 乙支肉店. So we ended up choosing one little restaurant called 시골돼지촌 (Kampong Dueji village). Prices were very reasonable and we ordered three portions of 생갈메기살 猪排肉 pork rib, 생목살 pork collar and 생오겹살 五花肉, one 된장찌개, one Cass beer and one soju. It was a chilly night and these nice food really warmed us up for walking down the street post dinner.
The Ajumma ShaJangNim was also really friendly.
“QR 코드를 여기 찍어주세요.” As usual she pointed to the QR scanning machine.
“우리는 싱가포르 사람인데 해외예방접종 확인서가 있어요.” now we have practised to much that it was easier to come out of our mouths.
“Wah just now not many customers one.. but after we came in suddenly many people came in hor.. I think it is because it is after work lah,” observed Serene.
“The taste not so 香 leh,” I said.
“It’s not bad lah,” said the Chief Chef. Ok if the chef said it was good then it must be good.
At least I knew my mind and body were in splendid states after this lovely dinner, exactly just like how the local Koreans loved to have nice warm meal and alcohol and get a little tipsy and warmed up, and we just walked and walked.
Korean Dessert Sulbing in Chungmuro
Secretly I knew I was going to bring Serene to have Sulbing Korean Dessert, that bing-su chain that we loved so much, but had disappeared from the face of Myeongdong. One of its other surviving branches were still in operation in Chungmuro, and that was where I was heading to. We were very thrilled to finally find it. Hey, it's not every day that one would be able to share a bowl of wonderful PatBingsu leh. And having so much beautiful memories of Korean Dessert Sulbing in the past, a trip to Korea would be kind of missing something, if we hadn't had a bowl of Injeulmi Bingsu, even if it was in the deep cold of winter.
Gastronomically satisfied finally, we stepped out to find it snowing. Not much, just a little, but enough for us.
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| Effects: me! Snow in the background: real! |
“눈이 왔어요!” exclaimed Serene.
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| Effects: me! Snow on her clothes - real! |
이렇게 길위에 가면서 눈을 보는 것이 우리 싱가포르 사람들한테 신나는 일이었다. 눈이 조금만 와도 괜찮다고 생각했다. 이 것밖에 아무것도 필요없었다고…
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| Effects: me! Snow on her clothes - definitely real! |
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| A final adjustment of the frame. |
Next stop...
Day 14: Finally got to eat Gobchang, and please the Queen with Happy Skin Massage!
Day 14
4 Jan 2022
Wah we slept until 10am again today! A full 10 hours of slumber. Either this trip was really tiring or the winter weather too sleep-inducing and the Korean food too soothing.. whatever the reason, when there was no need to wake up early, we literally slept in. See beh jiaklat.
“What are we going to do today?”
Finally ate one more time myChungmuro Gobchang
Wah lau.. we asked ourselves this question again? if one is on holiday in an overseas country and woke up several days starting to ask himself or herself this question… then either one was too shagged and too tired, or one really had exhausted all destinations.. most likely the former in our case. Hahaha..
I knew my Serene was aching. Shoulder aching, neck aching..
“I have plantar faciitis, shoulder-itis, neck-itis, leg-itis…” see beh 可怜, this young girl. 旅一个行，就全身痛。
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
Lunch time. We walked to the spectacle shop and found that 함상문 씨 was serving customers. We stepped over to Momo Cafe and hey.. 김만중 and 김학중 were both busy and there were quite a few groups of customers inside. Wah.. good good.
“Ok, Dar.. let us do this. We will recce from Myeongdong station to take Subway to Seoul station and check if there were escalators or elevators to make it easier for us to bring our luggage down tomorrow,” important was to ascertain the feasibility of solely using the subway, now that the Airport shuttle bus was no longer in operation.
And we found to our delight, there being an escalator at Myeongdong Exit 7 that allowed us to transport our heavy luggage down. We simply needed to walk through a small part of the Myeongdong underground shopping mall to arrive at the subway entrance and walk a short flight (well, two flights) down to the subway platform for the subway train to Seoul Station. Once at Seoul station, we just needed to exit the train and walk to near exit 15 and there was a lift to go up to B1 where we could follow the sign to walk to AREX train. If we had been on Asiana air or Korean air, we would be able to check in our luggage right there instead of at the airport. But it was fine. The next day we would try.
But one thing for sure.. from Myeongdong station to Seoul station and then transfer to the AREX (All stop) train to Incheon airport terminal 1, was totally feasible. Saved me the headache of having to take a taxi.
Of course the option of taking a taxi from our hotel, two subway station stops to Seoul Station to take the AREX was the second easiest. And it wouldn't cost much too. But honestly if one wanted to travel like the locals, then one must really try to think like the locals, and really maximize public transport.
We tried walking around Seoul station on the ground level and found Seoul Sation tower (mainly office), Seoul Square Mall (mainly restaurant). Another trip, another day we would explore Seoul station area more. I was, we were, still more taken by the more traditional parts of Seoul.
OK massage booked....
“Ok Dar, let’s go back and see if Gana Building 7th storey Happy Skin massage is opened or not.. let’s ask Kim Man Jung to book an appointment for us to massage,” I finally relented. Hahaha.. I knew this surprise would make our Queen overjoyed, and it did!
“Wah, JinJja?! Kamsahabnida, Chagiya!” now Serene was happy, really happy, knowing that a nice massage was awaiting..
Despite still being busy at the cafe, we gotten 김만중 to book an appointment for us at 3pm. Whole body massage.
Daejon Gobchang at Shin-jin Market
“Ok Dar, there is one thing I really really need to do, otherwise 我不死心. I want to eat the Gobchang (pig intestine) at 중로신진시장 Jungro Shinjin Shichang, where yesterday the Ajumma welcomed us but we couldn’t stay to eat,” I announced. Of course Serene couldn’t say no.
“I am not really hungry now leh,” she said.
“No problem. Later at the SikTang even if you cannot eat much we will order just a little.” I reassured her.
From Dongdaemun Subway station we retraced our steps back toward the 줄로 신진시장. I was so thrilled to find the store that we saw the day before.
“사장님, 어제 우리 지나갔는데 근데 시간이 없어서 못 먹었어요. 오늘은 꼭 와야 돼요!” I explained to the SajangNim that because we didn’t have time yesterday we could eat but today we had to come back to eat Gobchang.
At the end we ordered 막 창 (small intestine) for 26,000₩. And wah.. this one was one of the most delicious thing I have eaten in Hanguk. Even Serene also devoured her share of the Gobchang.
The hard-of-hearing SajangNim and the SaMoNim were pretty relaxed this Tuesday noon and we were the only customer in their SikTang.
“사장님, 죄송합니다. 카드고 계산해도 돼요?” (SajangNim, may I pay with credit card?) I asked, after realizing that I had only 6,000₩ cash left on me.
“현금 없어요?” The SaMoNim asked. I shook my head to admit that we had no cash. She agreed. Good.
For 26,000₩ (S$29.80) we had one of the most delicious meals in Seoul - MakChang 막창. Even Serene ate much more than what she originally intended to.
“Wah the seasoning is so delicious,” said her.
Hot Stone Massage at Happy Skin!
Arriving back at Momo Cafe at 2:45pm, we were just in time for our Full Body Aroma oil massage at 7th storey Gana Building. The Korean (this time was really just two very experienced Korean Ajummas) introduced the 80,000₩ aroma oil massage for 80 minutes, and boy did we totally enjoyed it!
The hot stone and oil massage was nothing like we had ever had. A nice warm foot soak, followed by lying face down and the Ajumma masseuses kneaded our backs, shoulders, necks, legs, thighs and arms. I especially enjoyed the hot stone 온돌 massage. The Ajummas really put in plenty of strength and kept asking us ‘Kwenchaneu-seyo’. We went back to our hotel blur-blurred and seh already.
“이렇게 마사지를 싱가포르에서 해본 적이 없어요, (we have not had such massage before in Singapore)” I told the Ajumma Masseues.
“마사지를 시작했을 때, 좋다고 생각했는데, 근데 마사지할수록 더 좋아졌어요. (When we first started the massage, I thought that was good. But the more we massaged the better it became).”
SoonWoo Black 한우 beef
Dinner time, and we had a most lovely 소고기 at SoonWoo Black restaurant, with 김만중. Another nice dinner, nice chit chat and more story-sharing, talking about populist Korean government, about army National service, about Bitcoin, about charts, about vaccinations, about travelling, about businesses.. many things to talk.
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| Truly delicious Hanoo. |
When asked about if we would come back during Autumn or Winter this year I replied 김만중: “복권에 탕점된다면 꼭 다시 와야돼요.” (If we strike TOTO we will definitely return).
Next Stop...
Day 15: Huh?! So quick..? Go home already?!
終於要回到熱帶新加坡的現實裏頭了。
5 Jan 2022
The Trip of Aga-Aga-ration...
Yes, got to fly back home already liao lah. Want to siam also cannot siam liao. Time is up, and it's time to say bye bye liao.
Continue reading below to follow our adventure on this day. If you wish to jump forward to any other parts, please click on each of the Days below to go into the detail, and fun-filled videos and photo travelogue for that day. Join us as we continue our Travel in Korea!
- We simply went with little planning - all in my head and my handphone in bits and pieces. No concrete itinerary. I read here and there over the weeks, and just... aga-aga travelled.
- Importantly we start flying once VTL opened and we hadn't been away for exactly two years, and we were able to make the Christmas and New Year holiday back to Korea. Were we worried that Covid would derail our plans? Well, no.. we simply aga-aga-ed that the timing was right.
- We really travelled as much as possible like the locals- our T-Money card was in FULL FORCE with subways and buses.
- We walked as much as possible like the locals - true! This trip was really a gluteus and quadriceps-busting trip.. how to walk? We just aga-aga lor.
- We ate as much as possible in the local SkiTangs (Restaurants 食堂) - yes, as ulu as possible would be the best way to eat. Yupe, we just aga-aga saw and aga-aga ate.
- We did the long-awaited Namsan Loop, and boy did we exercise, man- climbing up Namsan and Naksan and whatever slope that came. Yes, we aga-aga-ed the distance and just aga-aga direction and walked.
- Museum! Of course, a bit of history was always good for a holiday trip.. because of the time, I could only aga-aga view the exhibits.
- Local food - yes... I think we did our best in eating as many types of local dishes as possible. Of course one could never cover everything. But hey... there will forever be another trip. So, we aga-aga searched for all we could and, aga-aga ate.
- Soju and Cass beer - this trip we were good in drinking in abandonment - not drunk, we never got tipsy this trip - but we at least had a soju (mine!) and a Cass beer (Serene's) almost every meal. That was a record in itself. Not a lot of alcohol, but just... aga-aga drank.
- Pastries - oh, the Cream Baangs and the strawberry puffs and all the pastries we bought and ate for Paris Baguette, The Queens Bakery and all those boutique bakeries that the Koreans were so famous for!
- We saw with our own eyes the local neighbourhoods, the olden Bukchon.. and we discover much more of Seoul than we had ever in our previous trips. So we aga-aga had an idea that should we one day spend a couple of months in Korea during retirement, where we could spend our time.
- We utilised our KakaoTalk App, KakaoMap App, KakaoMetro App, KakaoTaxi App to their fullest. And even plotted route on the KakaoMapp app in preparation for the Namsan Loop hike. That was on-the-job training. Everything on the handphone App was simply.. aga-aga one: aga-aga think this is the bus number just get on, aga-aga walk this alley and then topo.
- AND we did these mostly in the local languages. Not only me, but also Serene. This was a truly levelling-up for us in our two and a half years of learning Korean language. Our Korean SonSengNim has prepared us well, and we have plenty to thank her for that. But when we were on the ground, we could do no better but just aga-aga read and make out the meanings of the signboards, and aga-aga spoke to the locals.
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