Saturday, April 21, 2012

Travelogue Korea: Shopping Districts.

This is a special post. All about our favourite pastime in Korea: Shopping! ^^ These are the shopping districts that we visited during that 7-days trip. We went to at least one shopping spot each day, since we don't really want to spend one whole boring day just on shopping.

DAY 1: Namdaemun.


Streets of Namdaemun.

If you're shopping for souvenirs, Namdaemun is just the place! And they're pretty cheap too compared to other shopping spots that we went to. And we went to Namdaemun twice! On our first day, we went there just to fill in the spot in our itienary. Bought one or two stuffs during our first trip, but mainly, we were just too tired to shop then. 

But we had fun trying on tteopokki~ It's rice cake dipped in sauce, and it's a famous korean delicacy, although it was regarded as 'street food', meaning that you can get this a lot at streetside stalls. And since it was made of rice cake and red pepper sauce, it was halal to eat. But you kinda have to watch out though, because sometimes the rice cakes were mixed with other ingredients in the sauce. When we bought ours, we thought that, since the Koreans that we saw on TV has hearty appetites, we thought one portion of tteopokki would be small. So we bought two, for both my mum and I. But when the tteopokki were give to us---- Wow! In the end, our stomachs nearly burst eating all those tteopokki. 


Feasting on tteopokki~

Take a mental note: First tteopokki, you're fine. Second tteopokki, still okay. Third tteopokki, you're good. Fourth tteopokki, will probably be enough to make you full. dare enough for the fifth, it'll make you full to the extent of sick. >__<

During our second trip, which was on our fifth day, the last day before we board the plane back to Malaysia, we bought lots of last minute souvenirs! It was because it's hard to find a place that sells plenty at a cheap price other than Namdaemun. As much as we wanted to buy souvenirs for our friends back in Malaysia, our tight budget really limited that thought. So, mianhae, chinggu ya >__< And we bought the ricecake-wrapped-in-fish like the one we had in KFV here, too! It tastes good, even though not as good as the one we had in KFV, because this one had too much rice cake. But eating it after a long day, tired and cold, it still tasted awesome :)

DAY 2: Itaewon.

After a tiring day at Nami Island, we chill out at Itaewon---- The place for expatriates (pekerja asing). Itaewon was supposed to be ultra-happening with underground bazaars (chi-ching! Shopping~) during daytime, but unfortunately, Itaewon wasn't a 5-star on nightlife (except for the pubs and bars; then you'll see plenty of ladies dressed to the nines), so when we went there, most of the shops were closed. So after a little photowhore session in the cold, we had dinner at Burger King (Coffee and French Fries only). We didn't stay long, because there weren't much to see and it was really cold that night >___<

Itaewon Station.

The Subway.

My mum :)

Cold >_<

Colourful Itaewon ^^

Ayah penat tunggu kitorang photowhoring. =_=

Minho of SHINee <3 Tapi banner je, huhuu sedih T__T


BK! Apiz tak kerja kat sini, HAHA xD

Makan time <3

Anything looked yummy in the middle of the cold ;D

My mum's worst fears: the stairs.

We're not SESAT, okay? Just confirming the directions xD

DAY 3: Myeongdong.

Myeongdong, with no doubt, was our favourite shopping spot during our trip in Korea! Absolutely 5 star! Myeongdong was ABSOLUTELY irresistable, with plenty of little stalls set up along the street, and the make up shops assistants calling potential customers (like us) to their beauty lair. And say, how could we resist? We shopped a lot in Myeongdong, well, at least, my mum and I did ^^ Korean makeup: WE LIKE <3 Haha ^^

Actually, that time, we got lost on our way to N Seoul Tower. So, too tired to look for it after half an hour walking with no sense of direction, we stopped at Myeongdong. We had Myeongdong in our itinerary, really, but we were supposed to go there the next day instead. But since we were already there, guess it doesn't make much of a difference, does it? At first, the eye-catching alley of Myeongdong didn't really captivate us. We just thought, we were there, we were tired, and oh, there's a McD not too far away, and after that we could have a walk around.

But then, from a not too deserted alley, the road we walked had gotten wider and busier... Until me took out our map and realised, oh, we were in Myeongdong! Korea's makeup heaven! So from that point onwards, my mum, who said that her knee was killing her countless times already had suddenly found a cure for her illness, haha. 

We went into a lot of makeup shops in Myeongdong; Holika Holika, Missha, Etude House, etc. I've never even heard some of them =__='' The price was okay for KRW, just DON'T CONVERT THE CURRENCY TO RM PLEASE! I love going into the shops, because as we step in, they will definitely give us freebies! And the more you buy, the MORE freebies! We loveeeeee freebies! Haha. :D I wasn't much of the makeup type, but you can bet from that point onwards I will be carriying a makeup pouch when I go for outings! HAHA :D

Myeongdong


Myeongdong Theater.

Busy Myeongdong.

Shopping time!

Borong ^^

"HOLIKA HOLIKA!" The shop assistant said that to us in 0.05 sec, man.

Makeup heaven ^^

<3

Korea Grandsale.

And Korea Grand-shoppers.

Oh, the sad news is, we lost one of the bags from our wild shopping madness! It was so devastating, but I guess we already had too much in hand. Tu lah, lain kali beringat ye, orang tamak selalu rugi. T___T

But then again, after a few days, we replaced the lost items with new purchase(s).

DAY 5: Hongik University

What have I left out about Hongdae? Naturally, a place crammed with students would be a happening place! I'll give it a 5 star for it, and I think this is one of my favourite places in Korea, since Hongdae is just so lively! I absolutely love the fashion and accessories on display, it made me drool >__< I felt like I was inside a K-Drama, walking up a street of high-fashion, haha. But the price there was rather costly, probably because of the competitiveness of street fashion among the students in Hongdae. And of course, the trendy cafes in Hongdae! Unmissable! ^^

Hongdae.

Fashionistas (?)

<3

We heart Hongdae ^^

Cafes, we like <3

<3

Happening Hongdae

Hongik University is daebak ^^V

DAY 6: Dongdaemun.

After we ended our expeditions in Korea, we went to Dongdaemun, as I've told you, to settle our shopping mission. I was told that there were around 10, 000 shops, both indoors and outdoors in Dongdaemun, and it runs 24 hours! You want it, you name it. In fact, Dongdaemun was supposedly to be more happening at night! Our initial plan was to spend the whole night in Dongdaemun and go back to our apartment the next morning, but of course, we had to cancel it because it's too damn cold to do anything =___= 

We'd thought of buying souvenirs here, since we thought that Dongdaemun would be our last shopping stop, but the price wasn't that reasonable compared to Namdaemun. In fact, the price was so high that I wasn't able to buy a handbag that I was madly head over heels with T___T But then again, I still bought something anyway ^^ The infamous Varsity Sweatshirt like Running Man always wear, I heart it <3

Dongdaemun

Excited nak shopping :D

Dah last day baru nak ada gambar "Hi Seoul". Ironic. =___=

:)

Doota fashionhouse <3

My mum resembed the 'O', isn't it? xD

Yeay, shopping <3

:)

Entah kenapa bajet lentok sangat entah =__=

My mum's kegilaan, susu pisang! She was really devastated when we came back to Malaysia, because: " Takde susu pisang ke? :( "

Penat berjalan. 10,000 shops!

Tengah pilih my sweatshirt <3

Puas hati gila ni :D

Oh, and after Dongdaemun, we went back to Namdaemun, as I've said earlier. Only to spend the last remanining pennies for last minute souvenirs, and for myself, I bought a backpack at Namdaemun ^^ After we went home, then I'd realised, "Ah, I think I bought a lot of souvenirs for myself." HAHA xD

CREDITS: Seoul Station.

Okay, I wasn't really that sincere about writing this, my mum insisted on this, and for surely, she'll nag until my ears come off, so that's why I wrote this anyway =___= We had to stop at Seoul Station a lot of times, it's like, KL Sentral lah kalau kat Malaysia ni. There was a huge shopping complex here too, but I shuddered to think of the prices, since Seoul Station is located in the city center. But I kinda liked walking pass this station, because it was really HUGE (we had to take the elevator to the 7th floor underground to  take the A'Rex back to Geomam), and there's always a lot of mid-aged people sitting at the benches watching dramas being shown on a big TV. Oh well, people loveeeee dramas xD 

Seoul Station

Marvelous nightview

Behind them was the old Seoul Station, now a museum, and Running Man filmed here once! It was the hiphop special episode, where Tiger JK, Haha and JiHyo won ^^

<3

Seoul City

Big screen (best kalau tengok bola ni, kedai mamak takde screen besar macam ni ke? Haha)

Inside Seoul Station.






Well, whatever the case is, to shop or not to shop, Korea was enjoyable anyways! ^^

To be continued---- Kozy Korea Guesthouse.


5 comments:

nis said...

wahhh.. Bestnye.. Cemburulah yg MINHO tu.. :)

anyway, nanti nk tau pak pasal Kozy Korea Guesthouse.

p/s: Psst!! Skrg kt malaysia dah pukul 11:24 pm.. Sanggup Nis Blogging malam2 nie.. :) Yela.. nk bace entry nie.. ^^^

Syu said...

Hee. Standee Minho tu pun boleh cemburu kea xD kalau tau amik gambar dgn standee Kim Hyun Joong sekali xD Hehe, tengs rajin follow akak ye :D btw, akak kat Msia dah, cume late update psal korea ni xD

nis said...

ooo.. Baru thu.. ^^

nis said...

hai kak syu.. jemputlah join segmen Nis..

http://nis-nisrina.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-review-by-nisha.html

Syu said...

Hee, okay nis ;)