Day 3 - 24/3 Hongdae, NANTA show

Decided on going to Hongdae as we weren't early enough for the Gyeongbokgung palace.  

This guy is bothering me

It was early spring, so FLOWERS! 

Mummy says these are dog-faced pansies

Just a tad too early for cherry blossoms though.

Us and cherry BUDS

We walked around a bit.  The Line forest park wasn't impressive and we didn't see the lively streets I expected.  Headed to Mangwon market after a while.  Lots of food for sale but I was too excited to take photos.  JE proved her worth... she located this dodgy-looking staircase.

Here, let's go down

At the bottom was the famous 'hotteok'/Korean pancake!  Yay this pancake was on my list but I didn't come across this shop during my research.  Loved the setup, street food prepared fresh in a spacious basement.  Ordered one tagged 'original' and one tagged 'best'.

 

Frying and prepping 

One original and one cheese

While both had brown sugar filling, the 'best' was then rolled in cheese powder which was... just too much powder gahh.  Anyway how bad can freshly-fried be?  JE and me enjoyed chewing the piping hot pancakes while SE only took a tiny bite.   

Lunch was SE's pick - a hole in the wall which looked well-patronised.  JE got a big bowl of noodles.  SE wanted bibimbap which in this shop turned out to be a big bowl of (only) beansprouts on rice.  The friendly waitress 'auntie' recommended to put sauces in.  She squeezed some into SE's bowl which SE didn't want, being the minimalist at the moment.  Auntie mistook SE's apprehension and kept reassuring her the sauce wasn't spicy.  She motioned to the other sauce and stood there smiling.  I swear she looked like she was going to start feeding SE like a baby next!  Hahaha.  At KRW4500 a serving, this was our cheapest meal in Korea.  It was 90% carbs though the taste was pretty ok.  

Carbs everywhere

After that we walked to the Han River.  Walked through a pedestrian tunnel...

Rabbit pops out

Rabbit goes in

The day was warm and JE got grumpy.  Well sometimes travelling as we do, relying on our own research to plan what to do and where to go, things don't always turn out perfectly.  We ended up very far from our next destination.  At least we learned how to take the bus using the Naver app.  :)  The app tells you where to board the bus, when it is coming and which stop to get off.

Made it in good time for our NANTA show.  This was a 90-min live show combining comedy, dance, audience interaction... the performers put in their all to entertain.  Sure some parts were slightly over the top but if you're determined to enjoy it like I was, you probably will.  I did sneak a peek at JE and SE who looked rather bored.  So I ignored them and laughed my way through the show.  Our S-seats cost RM115 per ticket - got lucky as a buy1-free1 offer suddenly appeared. on Klook.  (If only hubby had been there... we could have taken buy2-free2 sigh.)  

Haiyaa!

Wallpaper with funny chefs

Walked around after the show looking for dinner.  Decided on this Dakgalbi place.  Oh this was nice.  The veggies were 'self-bar' style i.e. take as you like from the serving counter. The pan of chicken and cheese looked huge when it arrived but we ended up demolishing it. 

 

This was yums!

I had hoped to catch street performances which were supposedly common in Hongdae and yes, they were.  Some sang, some danced.  This group was pretty good.  It had a red-haired guy and a blond one.  Overall we saw many people in Korea with hair in bright colours, possibly due to the Kpop influence.

 

Dancing group behind me

We watched this group a while.  JE doesn't have much interest if it wasn't one of her favourite groups though!  To me, overall a decent day with some good parts.

School Award

JE just picked up her award for last year's class placing.  She expects this award to be the last one though.  Since she did well, she got to move to the top class and she wouldn't be able to outshine her new classmates. 

Good job, my big girl!  

All my hard work!

JE's Birthday 2026

JE is sweet sixteen!  

She didn't feel like eating cake.  She actually wanted a BaskinRobbins cake.  But we went to look and this stingy mama noted the cake prices were DOUBLE that of normal ice-cream. The 'cake' of course would be 100% ice cream.  So we got a normal quart hahaha. 

Happy birthday to me!

She chose Haidilao for her birthday meal.  I only remembered the camera at the end...  here she's trying to make a syrup for 'tanghulu', little sis was tasked to hold the scoop steady.  (This mama remembers she loved mixing and stirring stuff when she was a little kid.)

Hold still

Since she was in 'birthday mode', we went to get Tealive also.  She said I get her everything she wants (hey that's a good thing right?) so she couldn't think of a birthday present she wanted.

Spot the Popmart plushies

One more for the album

Nearer her actual birthday, we went for Syrian food at Mozer's with the grandparents.  This time I totally forgot to take pictures. :)

Happy birthday to my big girl!

Day 2 - 24/3 Bukchon Hanok Village, Banpo Bridge

Didn't bother waking up early the next morning.  :)  First destination - Bukchon Hanok Village, which is Korea's most famous residential area with traditional Korean houses (which are called 'hanok').  It being very early spring, I was excited to see the first tree in blossom.

 

A flowering tree!

Hmm we found the place a little underwhelming.  It was pleasant enough, but seemed too new and clean to be 'traditional'. 

Does this look traditional?

Traditional walls

More of the village

I had penciled in cafes to check out since cafe culture is apparently huge in Korea.  Nearby Dotori Garden cafe looked really cute with interesting offerings.  I loved the Studio Ghibli-inspired deco.

Found the cafe!

Got this funny creature in the flesh

HOWEVER... SE wanted to try a Korea BBQ all-you-can-eat.  No point filling ourselves up beforehand!  So we just looked around and then headed to Mongvely at Myeongdong.  Now, if our dinner the night before lacked meat, we sure made up for this at lunch!  The place offered various cuts of beef and pork at KRW31700/MYR86 per head. We ate contentedly for the whole 2-hour period.  Good stuff indeed!

  

First grilled meat platter, of many-many

Next we walked to the Line Friends Square shop where the BTS gang had left handprints.  Historic moment for a BTS fan haha.

Oooh I'm touching Jung Kook's hands'

She found a BTS bear statue nearby too.  

Me with BTS bear

Once the BTS fan was satisfied, we went quite a distance to Banpo bridge for the musical rainbow fountain show which normally starts in April.  It was brought forward to mid-March this year which was perfect for us.  The jets of water and lights are supposed to be synchronised with the music.  The girls weren't impressed though and pointed out most people were only there coz they were dating.  Oh well you can't win them all.  At least it was one item ticked off my list.

Dancing fountain

We headed back and grabbed some food from a convenience store for dinner.  Too full from our late and big lunch for a proper dinner.  As the main trip planner, I always try to evaluate how the plan went... this day rating, ok not bad. :)

Korea trip 2026 Day 1 23/3

JE has been a k-pop fan since she was 9.  Hence Korea had been one of her target travel destinations.  I was in no mood to plan anything since the unexpected loss of hubby.  She argued it this way:

1. This is the last year she can travel before her Form 5 examinations next year
2. Mummy is getting old so now is the time (before she gets older and more decrepit haha)

Well I guess time and tide waits for no man.  We HAD been planning to travel as a family, it was something hubby specifically said he wanted to do.  So I booked and planned.

Arrived at Incheon airport, found the all stop train (was planning to take the express but it was quite long to the next train) to Seoul station, transferred to Chungmoro station and made it to our hotel Wecostay without issues.  I liked that the bedroom was separate from the living/kitchen area.  :)

Our room, not bad

It was a 20min walk to Myeongdong which was no problem in the cool temperatures of 10-15C.  JE squealed at this cutout of Enhypen we saw on the way.  (To me these boy bands look pretty much the same!)

Take picture!  This is one of my favourite!

We randomly picked a dinner place down these steps.  The place, called Woo Bros, was bustling enough.

Let's go down here

Our choices turned out just average, containing barely any meat for an average cost of KRW13k/MYR 39 per person.  The banchan/side dishes were all veggie as well.  

Food... can fill stomach la

We then walked around the busy Myeongdong area till the shops closed at 11pm.  And I thought we would need an early night after the long journey from home!

We always enjoyed visiting convenience stores to check out the local offerings and stock up on breakfast and snacks.  JE would target ice-creams, SE the cheese. 

Mmmm good

This peach ice-cream was deliciously creamy.  Retired to our comfy beds at rather a late hour heh.

Spring cleaning

This was a BIG activity taking many weeks.

First part: After our maid Jane left.  I noticed her room was like a store room, containing boxes of books/toys and luggage bags containing clothes and more bags.  I brought one bag down - hubby's things, which I asked him to check.  He decided to throw some and keep some.  But after this ONE bag, I concluded it would be better to wait for our new maid to arrive before proceeding with the rest.  There would be too much work to clear so many things.

Second part: After hubby suddenly passed away.  I had to find out what was in the house since there was now nobody who would know.  Hubby owned a lot of stuff - he'd always liked buying things and apparently also liked storing them beyond their usefulness.  Strange how items which were important to a person loses much of their value once that person is gone.  I wondered if he was looking at me from somewhere while I went through his personal belongings.  I wished I could brandish items at him and ask what is this, why did you buy this for, why are you keeping this.  I held things thinking he'd touched them before.  Suffice to say this task was emotionally difficult for me. 

Third part: Toys the kids have outgrown.  The decision to be made was whether to keep, donate or throw.  JE generally said to throw everything so her part was over quickly.  SE looked through each item, reminisced on them, set some aside to give to her friends, even wanted to keep some for her future kids hahaha.  

Throw or keep for my own kids? Hmm

We disposed of many items - to charity, to the trash.  Almost there now, only a few more items to go.

Additional birthday meals

As always when birthdays fall on a weekday, the birthday person gets to pick a weekend meal as well.  I remembered this in time to claim my additional pick heh.  Well my original choices were derailed by free birthday stuff from various places - perks of joining loyalty programs.  Wataiwan was offering a free Taiwanese chicken chop - sure, I'll bite!

With said free chicken hehe

JE wanted this milk tea bingsu which I was expected to share.  Quite nice, just that it was a lot for only the two of us.   

This one is yummy

The next weekend happened to be my turn to pick.  Chose 103 coffee which was offering a free slice of cake.  Picked the alcoholic kahlua tiramisu - oh this was very good.

Our lunch spread

Purposely took pictures as I was already planning to post onto my blog.