Med school has been pretty great for me so far but the pressure is only going to increase from now with our first finals coming up and the eventual progression into clinical years. But I love what I study and cannot wait to use my knowledge to benefit others so all the hard work is worthwhile.
It's Labour Day today + weekends + no school on Monday so it's technically a long and relaxing weekend...but nope. I've got a summative reflections due on 11th May and Anatomy Spots test on the same day. Plus continuous, never ending preparation for TBLs.
But I have some time to write my final post about the Seoul & Tokyo trip in 2014.
Day 8 - 4June2014
We woke up early to check out and lugged our stuff to Shinjuku station for the last time to catch the Narita Express to Narita Airport for our flight back to Seoul. We reached the airport pretty early and had time to buy an onigiri from 7-11 for brunch.
While checking in, we ran into some problems because we had too many hand carry baggages, and the lady was like 'No more shopping at Duty Free!' But Tokyo Banana and Bai Yi Lian Ren are must buys! So we did not heed her advice haha. I even had to change my Korean Won into Japanese Yen to buy them.
Our flight on Eastar Jet was slightly delayed but the plane took off quite quickly. Due to my motion sickness pill, I fell asleep really quickly and when I opened my eyes, we were back in Korea! So we took an airport shuttle to our hotel, ibis Myeongdong, located just beside Myeongdong. Super convenient!
After checking in, we quickly headed out to explore Myeongdong, which is a bustling street full of shops and street stalls. So of course we tried lots of street food like the fishcakes and meat sticks. And ddeokbokki that was unbelievably spicy.
We didn't really buy a lot here though as the prices are a lot more than the shops at the subway stations. Also, beware of the scary sales people who stand outside the skincare shops ready to pounce on you! Some of them even tried to drag us in! They target you especially if you look Chinese, so my friend and I kept trying to pretend like we didn't understand Mandarin haha.
This was also the day when I found out I had been accepted into medical school! Which created mixed emotions in me - reasons for which I will elaborate in another post.
Day 9 - 5June2014
We spent the whole day at Lotte World. Our hotel is conveniently located a mere 5 minutes walk away from Euljiro-1 station, so we had a direct line to Jamsil station.
This was undoubtedly the worst day of the entire trip.
We should have guessed when we first met problems at the ticketing counter - it was like a moshpit. We stood in the 'queue' (more like a sea of people) for the tickets for almost half an hour before we decided it wasn't moving and at this rate we weren't going to enter the theme park at all so we got tickets from the self automated ticketing machine instead. Slightly more expensive, but we were tourists with little time!
And we immediately regretted buying tickets upon entering as it was ridiculously crowded and the queues for rides ranged from 2 to 3hours.
We didn't only have to queue for rides. Everything from the washrooms to the food stalls had a queue.
But since we were already there, we decided to just go ahead and queue for the best ride - French Revolution, an indoor roller coaster with a 360degrees turn. 3hours, in which we spent gossiping about the (lack of) manners and etiquette of Korean teenagers, the couple behind us who kept trying to cut our queue, ate lots of food and generally feeling quite miserable. I had taken this ride before when I came to Korea in 2004 and had a really strong impression of that ride. Thankfully, the ride itself was amazing and washed away our annoyance.
By then, we wanted to leave the park and come back at night when there would hopefully be fewer people. But we weren't allowed to leave!!!! So we were stuck there trying to make our money's worth. We ended up queuing for another 3h for the next most thrilling ride, Atlantis Adventure, in the outdoor segment of the park. We didn't have much time to explore the park but the queue snaked around so much that we did manage to see most of it while queuing haha.
What did we do in this 3h? Ate more food, took pictures of the litter left behind by the guests of the park and started writing a negative review of the park on our phones.
But thankfully, once again, the ride was exhilarating and ended our miserable day on a high note.
To say that we were sorely disappointed is an understatement. So by the time we made it out of the park, after having taken a grand total of 2 rides the entire 8h we were there, it was already 8pm. We spent an hour at the Lotte Hi Mart to buy ALL THE PEPERO!!
My enormous haul, which the amazing cashier somehow managed to fit into 1 bag with some nifty Tetris skills.
By then, it was 9pm and most restaurants had closed, so we ended up in Lotteria, the Lotte fast food chain, before heading back to our hotel to complete our really hilarious negative review on Lotte World that will never see the light of the day.
Day 10 - 6June2014
We headed for Namsan Tower in the morning to see the famed love locks and catch a glimpse of Seoul from the aerial view. It was just a 15min walk from our hotel. And there is a cool diagonal elevator that takes you from the ground floor to the ticketing center to buy tickets for the cable car up the mountain. But you had to pay to view from the observatory deck at the top of the tower which we decided not to.
We then headed to Namdaemun, which is like an ahjumma shopping haven haha. Lunch was chicken noodles, bibimbap and kimchi jeon (pancake) in a typical Korean eatery.
I managed to get a pair of converse-looking shoes with higher soles for around 30SGD, which is a feat considering how ahjumma-ish everything there was.
Next and final stop for the day was Itaewon, a short train ride from Namdaemun. My friend's aunt recommended the chimaek (chicken & beer) stalls there and Passion5, a dessert place. Somehow, despite walking the entire street, we couldn't find a single chimaek stall, so we had dessert first. No pictures allowed but I managed to sneak a few. SO GOOD.
We were still trying to find our chimaek stalls and ended up in this street just behind the main street and it was filled with clubs and bars and smokers - the wild side of Itaewon. But we still hadn't found our chimaek stall!!!
So we headed back to the subway station's tourist information counter to ask where we could find a fried chicken stall haha. Of all things to ask......It was also really funny because the lady couldn't understand me when I said chicken but understood when I said chikin!
She directed us to a chimaek stall, but we passed by The Frypan on the way there and decided to just eat at The Frypan since it was considerably famous. But I'm not an alcohol person so I got Coke with the huge plate of chicken + chips, while my friend got a mug of beer. My friend finished her beer while I didn't even manage to finish my lousy can of Coke haha.
Day 11 - 7June2014
IDOL EXPERIENCE DAY!
So we started the day at Garosu-gil, a pretty street lined with trees and full of cafes and fashion shops in upscale Gangnam area. Managed to find coffee chu, the cafe owned by the boss of Pledis, by a stroke of luck. With lots of memorabilia by Pledis artists.
We then headed to Apgujeong to hunt for the Kona Beans outlet owned by LeeTeuk, KyuHyun and SungMin's mums since my friend is a fan of Super Junior, and managed to find it by another stroke of luck. We initially passed it as it's not on the main street. Its decked out in Suju memorabilia. Also spotted other Suju fans around.
Spotted Kahi's autograph.
We chanced upon SM Entertainment, but didn't wait to see idols or anything since we had other stuff to do.
Had our first BBQ samgyeopsal!
My friend had to go to Dongdaemun for her musical, Singin' in the Rain starring KyuHyun, while mine was at BBC Hall in Gangnam. It ended up being really near where we had our dinner. Collected my ticket from the ticket box and snapped pics of all the Kahi banners hanging around!!
Finally entered, and snuck a few illegal photos XD I was seated at Row E, 5 rows from the stage, so I had a wonderful view.
The musical started, and I died when Kahi came out. AHHHHHH!!!!
She was gorgeous, perfect and completely impressed me with her much improved vocals. Those high notes!! The musical was slightly risque though since Bonnie and Clyde were lovers, so she came out in just underwear a few times....definitely M18 haha. But wow....2hours of Kahi being so close is a dream come true.
Her leading actor was Enoch, a musical actor who is really good. The supporting actors and actresses were all wonderful as well. Despite not understanding much, I understood the story (with a little help from Google beforehand) and fully enjoyed myself.
I stood up during the curtain call when Kahi came out to show that I was there for her.
Also bought a souvenir:
After that, I wanted to wait for Kahi at the rehearsal/prep room but left after 10minutes. While boarding the elevator down, a Korean lady almost closed the door on me and she was so apologetic. We started talking after that and she was SO NICE, giving me her name card and offering to bring me around. Sadly, I didn't have much time left in Seoul :(
Returned to the hotel room and my friend and I spent 2hours just spazzing and not shutting up about how flawless our idols were haha.
Around 1am, we decided to make use of the free hot spring in the hotel.
Day 12 - 8June2014
We started the day at Gyeongbokgung palace. Managed to pay teenager entrance fees which are 1500KRW each.
Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to explore before we had to leave to meet my friend's aunt and her friends for lunch at ToSokChon, a famous place for samgyetang (ginseng chicken). The queue was insane when we reached but luckily, my friend's aunt had already gotten a seat. I'm not a big fan of ginseng chicken but this was really nice and the chicken was stuffed with herbs.
They fetched me back to the palace as I wanted to visit the museums at the palace while they went to shop at some high class places. On the way, we passed the Blue House, which is where the President stays! Back at Gyeongbokgung, I visited both the Folk Museum and the Palace Museum. I could spend an entire day there. Museums and history always fascinate me. But I had limited time so I spent only 2hours, before going to Insadong, just 1 subway station away.
Insadong is a beautiful street filled with artsy stuff. It wasn't very crowded so I felt really peaceful and had a great time even though I was alone. There's this really cool mall called Ssamzigil that has no proper levels - the entire place is just a big spiral! It's really good for buying souvenirs.
I also bought lots of random stuff like a wooden gun that can shoot rubber bands and some tea, including Omjia. I try to collect fans from each country I go and I managed to find one at Insadong. The ahjussi does the painting of the fan himself, and even writes a poem on it! He offered to write my name in Korean on the fan too. We proceeded to have a full conversation in Korean because he couldn't understand a word of English as he tried to explain what the poem means. Finally, my years of unintentionally learning Korean from watching too many dramas and variety shows have paid off!
I then hurried back to the hotel to meet my friend's aunt's party to eat 'palace food'. It was good but ridiculously expensive. Almost 100bucks per person! I would never come here if not for my friend's aunt (who paid the bill), so thank you so much!
Next was Dongdaemun, the fashion capital of Seoul. Since it opens till 4am, we only arrived at 10pm. We shopped till around midnight so we could only cover one mall. The things weren't very cheap though so I only bought one piece of clothing.
Then went to Holly's coffee for dessert. Luckily, my friend's aunt hired a driver so he could fetch us back to our hotel at those ungodly hours. Apparently, taxi drivers try and fleece you and charge exorbitant prices if you hail from Dongdaemun past midnight.
Day 13 - 9June2014
Last full day in Seoul! We met my friend's aunt & co. at a BBQ place in Myeongdong. It's a lot more high class than the first one we ate, but I didn't eat much because they ordered lots of beef and I don't feel very comfortable eating communally with people I'm not that familiar with.
After lunch, we went to the shops selling albums and idol merchandise in the Myeongdong Underground Shopping Mall where I bought 2 Wonder Girls albums - Wonder World (which I've wanted for a long time due to its sheer perfection) and 2 Different Tears (because it was cheap!). Sadly, After School is not popular enough to have idol merchandise, but my friend got some Suju stuff.
We then headed to Insadong because I wouldn't stop raving about how lovely it is to my friend. I bought 2 bags for 10000KRW each! Nice, cheap and durable.
On the way there, we also met Edmund Chen, Xiang Yun and family there! Haha it was so unexpected but really funny. Edmund Chen is really nice - I think he smiled at us because he recognised our accent.
Next, we went to Dongdaemun as we wanted to visit the other 2 malls we didn't the day before, but they all close on Mondays :( It wasn't a wasted trip though as I managed to buy a handphone cover from the subways shops. The owner ahjumma was really nice. I managed to have a full conversation with her in Korean and she complimented me on it :D My friend also got some really nice heels.
On the way to take the subway back to Myeongdong, we passed Dongdaemun History & Culture center, the famous spaceship looking thing that appears in many MVs.
At Myeongdong, we wanted to visit the Lotte Young Plaza but it was also closed!! So we just decided to start on our mega dinner consisting of 3 rounds since we wanted to eat all the food we hadn't tried on our last night. First, we had jjajjangmyun from a street stall since it appears in every Korean drama. It's nice, but not as good as how the Korean drama characters make it look.
Then we went to a chain that is everywhere in Seoul called School Food, which serves......school food. And lastly, we had budaejjigae or army stew with some soju. As usual, we died from the spiciness and couldn't finish our alcohol.
To our horror, after heading back to our hotel, we realised we had missed the last airport bus to the airport! We ended up taking a taxi that cost us 50000KRW, which is not too expensive considering we had a pretty comfortable ride (we had tons of luggage!) and reached quite quickly too.
And so at midnight, we boarded the SQ plane bound for Singapore and left the land of idols, touching down in Singapore around 6am.
Post-trip comments
This was the longest trip I had ever been on, and it was unforgettable. Not only because it was my first time going on a self planned vacation with a friend, not only because I experienced so many new things, not only because I saw my idol, but also because it was the first thing I spent my self-earned money on. The trip cost about $4k, and I paid for it fully using the money I earned with blood, sweat & tears (literally, but that's a story for another day) while working between A Levels and university. It felt surreal spending my hard earned money on something that I've been dreaming about for so long. Really felt like a dream ended when I returned.
I'm really grateful to my parents for allowing me to go on this trip. And also my wonderful friend for keeping me company those 2 weeks and going on this once in a lifetime adventure with me.
I am planning a 2 weeks trip to Croatia & Vienna, Austria for my upcoming July holidays so I'm really excited for it! But I will be going with my family, not friends as they will finally be back in Singapore after 8 months of university life in London and travelling in Europe (these lucky people...) and they aren't about to go back to Europe to travel with me haha. We are planning a short getaway to a nearby country though, which I'm looking forward to immensely because I miss them sooooo much!