Seoul Trip

A throwback post too for about 6 months back, my last trip after graduate before entering to the working society. This post brings back a lot of memories of me being in Korea still having this flowy long hair wearing contact lens, the most beautiful moments in my life I guess. But coming back with really dry skin, the weather there though cooling but dry. 

When we first arrived in Seoul, it's T-card top up for public transportation usage. Do visit the Korea Tourism Organization located at Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur before you depart. You get to redeem a lot of free stuff and booklet from them after answering a short survey form, definitely help you save up a bit. 

After asking around, we managed to finally sit on the All Stop Train heading to our hostel in Hongdae. We opt for this as it's much cheaper costing 3850 won for a 50 minutes ride as compared to the AREX Express line that took 43 minutes to Seoul with no stop but cost 8000 won for a one-way ride and we need to ride the commuter back to Hongdae which is more time consuming and hassle.

The sky is already dark when we reached our hostel. Two aunties and four young people carrying their luggage searching for their hostel in the middle of a busy road. We got a sweet police to show us the way using his internet connection. We then settled into our room, placed our luggage and are all ready for our first dinner in Korea and a night walk around the neighbourhood and that's how we spent the first day here.

Here's a few tourist spot I manage to visit while I'm in Seoul:

1. Gwangjang Market

It's a morning market where you can try out lots of traditional local food, souvenir, clothes, and snacks

2. Gyeongbokgung Palace

You can witness the royal guard changing ceremony at the gate. We took a few pictures here and leave without entering the palace. Anyway, the ticket will cost you 3000 won only if you are interested.

  

This photo is taken when a group of police pass by, I think they had some sort of training happening. They all looks good and debonair.

Art exhibition going on at the Subway station of Gyeongbokgung Station, it's stunning with some Chinese calligraphy.

Just an attractive yellow jeep that catch my eye.

The walk and look back pose *wink*

3. Bukchon Hanok Village

A Korean traditional village where architecture admires and a good place for the youngster to take ootd photos. There's some stall opening too for perfume and tea art.

4. Namdaemun Market

A large traditional market you can shop with much lower price on clothes, shoes and accessories. The food here is cheaper and good too. You see fewer teenager and tourist here, most of them are ajumma which makes you feel more to the countryside.

5. MyeongDong

Shopping street for all the skincare and makeup ladies. Pack with people with sales girl from China speaking good Chinese and English you got no worries on communication and bargaining. You can use credit card here if you didn't bring cash and there's a lot of tax refund (do remember to bring along your passport for instant deduction) with giveaway free samples when buying in bulk. In conclusion, discount and sales are happening in almost every shop, just beware to not get into their setup as they will introduce you to buy in bulk but actually by buying it individually the price is still the same so think twice if you really need that much before you even pay for it.

6. Ehwa University

Didn't get to take a photo here only food photos on the next post because shopping street actually all looks the same :P A place where you get cheap clothes and accessories.

7. Hongdae

Another random street of Hongdae I come out at night for some snacks. A very happening place when it reaches night time. People starts to have picnic laying down their mat on the grass or park for some chat and beer time. To experience the local culture, we do buy fried chicken and beer for the last night having small talk while snacking at the park but on the bench :P They do have free market too near the university area selling pretty handmade stuff every Saturday between month of March to November at 1.00pm - 6.00pm 

Some photos on the different side of Seoul. 

1. The long stair from the underground subway station to the ground, imagine if the escalator at the side is not working. *facepalm* During the busy hour, you can see lots of Korean is actually climbing these to rush for the subway. No wonder in average there's not fatty though they drink a lot. 

2. The door in Seoul city are mostly without key and automated with password like what you watched in most of the Korean drama. Just scan your palm on it and the number pad will appear, key in the password and tadaa you can enter your room with the correct password!

Off to Jeju island, the walkway from the subway to the Gimpo airport.

Very lucky to had the window seats for such a beautiful view.

Bangkok Food

After trip post not to forget my food post. I always make it a habit of posting a separate post for food in another country. To introduce food I ate in another country and to compared it with my country. I always love to eat and had been adventures in trying new food except for those monkey brain and something that really cruel, fried insects are exceptional anyway they are insignificant :P

So our first food in Bangkok, the famous pork knuckle rice (khaokhamu) from Trok Sung. It's 5 mins distance walk from Saphan Taksin BTS station. You can come here to eat before going to Asiatique. This restaurant had a history of 40 years. Pork are stew for 10 hours making it very tender and it literally melts in your mouth without much chewing. One bowl of pork knuckle with rice cost 50 baht. And that big bottle of coca-cola served with ice cost only 20 baht which can be shared among the three of us.

End that day with some random street food near Robinson store after Asiatique at the street where we try out different types of sausage cost 25 baht per pack, one is kinda salty another one is slightly acceptable but weird too compared to the normal sausage. We bought sandwich too below the BTS station cost also 25 baht.

The second day, I spent most of the time eating in our hotel after the early morning wakes up shopping at Pratunam market. Our hotel provides lots of good foods and it's in buffet style and hence munching and exploring on all types of foods. And because of this late huge breakfast, I don't feel hungry and literally skip lunch. We had some random street food at Chinatown while we exploring the market. My sister actually did homework searching all those good foods before we depart but out of 16 foods she prepared on the list we tried none. We are too full and the weather is really not good (gloomy and rainy), will try it out on our next trip and maybe some sharing and review on those must-try-foods on the internet. Oh, we bought back some beer and wine to try, their famous Chang beer and Full Moon wine, both are good. I don't drink all the time, just on occasional, mostly during travelling to try out different local brand of theirs. Note that there are time range in Thailand for buying alcohol drinks, you can only buy during 11am - 2pm and 5pm - 12am

Had some 7-11instant food for tea time before dinner. And here we are to P'Aor Restaurant for dinner locate just within walking distance from our hotel. It is hidden within the Muslim area. They served tom yum lobster at only 1200 baht which is the set as below. The set includes 3 pieces of thick salmon slice, 2 mussels, 1 soft boiled egg cut into half, 2 mini crab stuff with meat and 2 squid stuff with meat, noodles of your choice with one big lobster at the middle. So so attractive and is a must try! The soup is not really spicy but you can actually taste sweetness in it and the sourness of the soup is just right.

It's the third day of my Bangkok trip and here we are for boat noodles, another food that is famous in Bangkok. You can find lots of boat noodles in Victory Monument area. Most of the taxi driver and tuk-tuk will fetch you to this tourist hotspot boat noodles which locate near to the roundabout and is easy to access through public transport. But I personally love to explore neighbourhood area and this Doy Kuay Teow Reua, Ratchawithi Soi 18 (Wat Makok), Thanon Ratchawithi, Bangkok 10400 is the address to the one we had which taste really good. The hawker there don't speak English and we basically order/communicate through hand gesture and body language. One bowl cost only 15 baht. You get to choose between pork and beef, I tried both and are equally good! They do taste different between both dishes. You see the broth is thick, the ingredient in it and the noodles, so so cheap for the price! If I have not had my breakfast earlier, I'll definitely order more. Taste really good, definitely another must try and not miss dish in Bangkok, Thailand.

Tea time again snacking in Union Mall food court for cheap sushi, one for only 5 baht and we bought 10 of it. And also the Hong Kong egg waffle cost at only 45 baht for a mixture of two flavours matcha and chocolate chips.

Settled dinner in MK Restaurant steamboat at Central World. They had a lot of branch around Bangkok shopping malls. This meal cost us 750 baht for these two sets of steamboat material, the meat and vegetables, 3 cups of cold tea refillable and one matcha dessert which is new on their menu. Steamboat food is so so for me as we can find all these back in my country as well so is just a pass for me.

Our late night snack, the fried banana pancake, they called it the prata. It tasted a lot like the roti canai we had in Malaysia except that Thai people love sweet stuff and hence the additional condensed milk on top.

Lunch for the last day we finally get to try out their authentic tom yum soup and green curry soup in Inter Restaurant near Siam Square. Taste good except it's a restaurant price not to compared with those street foods. And that the waiter wasn't really friendly.

After you is a famous dessert cafe for their Shibuya toast. We ordered their signature shibuya honey toast and the chocolate toast. It does taste a little too sweet for our desire, the butter and the honey on top taste okay at the first bite but after a few more it actually accumulates and get sweeter by time and hence we couldn't really finish the two dishes we order though we tried really hard to not waste food and try to mild the taste away with the free drinks they provide. Probably we shouldn't be that greedy and opt for smaller ones just to try and not straight jump into the conclusion for big ones.

End my Bangkok trip with the Thai milk tea, drinking in the taxi, way towards airport journey :) Even though I bought back some Thai red and green tea leaf but I couldn't get to brew that equally good taste from Thailand anymore :( Still finding the ratio between the tea leaf and condensed milk.

Bangkok Trip

Thailand is a place where most Malaysian will come to visit as it's located just above Malaysia, it's so near where you can actually go by car or van from Penang to Hatyai took only four hours journey. Bangkok is known as the shopping heaven and food heaven for people all over the world especially Malaysian and Singapore. The things selling there is cheap and famous as compared to here. Not with the poor currency now, I don't know where can I fly though flight ticket is cheap, the amount need to be spent for eating and hotel will be much higher compared to those days. 

Note: It was an overdue post, my trip there was actually last October.

So people will ask where to visit in Bangkok, isn't this a place for shopping, shopping and even more shopping or in another case drinking? As I planned my flight, I didn't really start my research on Bangkok. Almost everyone in Malaysia visited Bangkok at least once in their lifetime so it should be a great place to travel. I was thinking of the cheap clothing they mentioned on the social media, that night market and that delicious food. And being a very cheapskate person, I chose the cheapest flight which is flying on Monday and coming back on Thursday ticket. And only after that we scroll through the internet and found that most of the famous night market or spot/activities are open on Fri to Sun. I even missed out the chance to watch free Muay Thai show, which one on Sunday (Channel 7 Stadium near Chatuchak market) and another on Wednesday (MBK stadium but is closed down for renovation).

Luckily I had my sister with me this time round, she's a great planner and a very detail ones! You will know how detail she is if you ever had the chance to travel with her. She will have a screenshot on google map or shop/street picture; she will have the arrow and detail address on places to visit or hawker stall to munch on; she will list out all the must eat food, must buy things will price labelled so that we won't get cheated as a tourist though we are.

We reached Bangkok, Thailand around 3 pm. We took the airport bus orange in colour from Door 6 to Mo Chit BTS which cost us each 30baht, you then can move on to any station for BTS line. We are staying in Bangkok City hotel which is just 150m from Ratchathewi BTS. The location of this hotel is good, near to those famous malls and accessible to almost everywhere BTS, taxi and tuk-tuk are just outside the hotel, breakfast is delicious, and one last thing is the cheap hotel room cost around RM200 each person for 3 nights (we stay in a 2 person room with one extra bed), the only cons is the wifi wasn't good.

The first spot to visit, Asiatique! You can reach there by free shuttle boat, but if you want a faster way there's a lot paid ones available. The famous sign there is their Ferris wheel, you will see it from far the blue lighting with the word Mekong red on the center. I spent around 30 minutes just to get a good picture of it and of course that include a full shot of me (us), selfie and wefie :P Would love to stay here longer as there's a lot shop to explore, my favourite self-made stuff can be found lots here and the price wasn't the highest anyway, you can buy unique souvenir here. But due to time constraint, I need to rush for the shuttle boat and BTS hence I didn't manage to walk around the whole area.

Apart from the ferris wheel, the store and the design of walkway is artistic in their own way with all the cafe hype.

After a few walk around Saphan Taksin, this ends my first day.

Waking up very early the second day for Pratunam market. We just literally walk there walking distance around 15-20 minutes from our hotel. The crowd wasn't that huge on Tuesday early morning. It's more to like wholesale in the front part with narrow walkway considering all those wholesale people are carrying trolley, very pack and you couldn't really buy much here as there's a minimum buying on the same pattern of clothes. Walk till the end for a wider roadway and somewhere near a plaza or so, there's much little wholesale going on, they sell for 2 or 3 minimum pieces with this price and 1 with a slightly higher price but still consider cheap and the design is much more in trend. You can spend time shopping around there, but guys can feel pretty bored following. There's another alternative anyway to shop in a mall where I will take about it later which is much more comfortable but slightly further from the main town area of Bangkok.

After a bit of shopping, we walk back to the hotel for our breakfast. They provide a slightly different choice of breakfast each day. And definitely delicious enough as a hotel inclusive meal. We then rest awhile and continue our second-day journey.

Our second day is mainly planned to walk around the Chinatown. We went there by taxi and only that we found out that it could be the cheapest public transport in Bangkok if you are going by three people (even BTS ticket is higher). We visit the temples and more temples that day. The photo below is the Wat Traimit. And the next ones we just randomly pass by as we lost our way to the next spot where we previously planned. There are a lot more temples in Chinatown we found on the web such as Wat Mangkon Kamalawat and Wat Kanma Tuyaram which we planned to visit but end up very bored of walking so we went back after a random small walk at Sampeng and Itsaraphap Lane, where that place sell a lot of necklace, ring, accessories and stationery in bulk with cheap price. We walk in the Tesco Lotus supermarket too to look for alcohol but Bangkok actually had time limit on buying alcoholic drinks (do take note on that, it's a regulation that applies in all shop including 7-11). Chinatown is famous for selling gold too, you can see gold shop everywhere. I think their happening hour is around afternoon and night, if you plan to visit here don't come too early okay or else you will somehow end up like me. Not to mention my sister actually planned the whole day here and even list out at least 15 foods to try out here with pictures and all the information so that we don't get to the wrong ones but we end up not trying any one of them because we are still full from the previous breakfast and we end up eating random snack that we see straight.

After some rest, we continue our shopping journey at night to Platinum mall and Big C supermarket. Outside Platinum there's a small night market, things are unique, can have a look, I especially love their headband (my favourite florish pattern), regret buying only one. Platinum mall and Big C is linked by a pedestrian bridge. We went in a shop for quite some time buying all the to-buy-list from our list. Should have buy even more (regret again with the currency now and the price in Malaysia; with my extra luggage space from the previous trip; and with my leftover thai bahtI should have spent all of it before I return). I miss their instant noodles (tomyum and green curry flavour), the pocky (mango, banana, strawberry, chocolate), thai milk tea, seaweed, and Lay's chips. And another thing is that the tuktuk's driver there offer expensive car rate to fetch us back to the hotel and we end up carrying two bags of loads each and walk a good 30 minutes back to the hotel ourselves, definitely tough people we are. Very tiring actually, if you buy really a lot, just try to bargain a little and have a ride back.

The third day, we come to this victory monument place and only found it's in the middle of the roundabout. So we just spent some time taking picture on it from the pedestrian bridge. We later walk to a local boat noodles restaurant for some good boat noodles, not the famous fancy ones though, the taxi driver doesn't drive us to the exact place where we even showed him the address, he's trying to scam us I guess. But it's still great though we can walk and explore a little more of the village.

We then linger around Tops supermarket to wait for the rain to stop then we continue our journey by taxi to Union mall! This is the best mall to shop so far though it's a little far from the city Bangkok around an hour. I did most of my shopping here as I don't have the chance to explore Chatuchak market so this is it selling at cheap price, not retail and good quality with lesser people and good environment with air condition. Small tips here, shop from the bottom up as the few shops down there is cheaper compared to the upper ones for the same item. There's also some few own Bangkok design shop which quality are good with unique design. We did have some snack here before we leave, the food court sells cheap nice food! We limit ourselves on the time to leave as it will be a massive jam if we leave slightly later and the cost of taxi will be double, or else I would like to stay there and shop longer. At night we do allow ourselves to spend a little more by opting to ride tuk-tuk experiencing a little of Thailand to MBK just to have their famous steamboat branch dinner, MK restaurant. That night, we walk a little more around the street back to our hotel.

Here comes our last day in Thailand, we spent some time walking before the sunrise and some shopping opposite Pratunam mall, a little mall/shop opposite it selling cheap stuff where we bought a few stuff in it dad's purse, mum's bag, plain shirts, mum's CNY red shirt, fancy tube bra and panties. And then we purposely pass by Erawan Shrine to have a look on it. Anyway, we just watched it from the pedestrian bridge again, the sun is striking hot, we wanted to prevent ourselves from sweating as we checked out early morning and want to stay comfortable till our flight. We later visit the Siam area for some good lunch and dessert, we walk a little and spend some time doing our last minute shopping around the mall we didn't get to explore but still, Union mall wins! :P

Took the BTS back to the hotel and visit 7-11 for the last time for some snack and off we leave Bangkok. Will come back another time for their inner wear which is very comfortable, do check it out! Regretted buying so little of it. Anyway below is our haul for Bangkok, not very much compared to others. This is a wrap for our first Bangkok trip after we grown up! Will definitely be coming back again with my younger sisters for good stuff and definitely Sat/Sun will be considered and planned into our schedule next time for Chatuchak market where so many people brag about it.