Day 6 - 28/3 BTS ex haunts, Gangnam

The morning was dedicated to the BTS fan apparently willing to move half the earth for them.  Luckily I simplified her travel plan to a doable one.  Arrived at the nearest metro station and began walking.  The way was long and hilly.  Why do these roads go up AND down?  Surely it's either up OR down?  This was NOT kind to my leg muscles.

Down and then up

Finally reached this graffiti-covered building.  Upon closer inspection, the 'graffiti' which covered every inch of the building are actually declarations of love from fans like JE.  And mind you, this is the PREVIOUS location of their recording company.

This is the EX-company HQ

Once JE was done soaking in the atmosphere, we walked to the cafe where the group USED to hang out.  The BTS fan enlightened us with the history and snippets of trivia.   

 

And this is their EX-lunch place. So cool!

Food was decent but I forgot to take pictures.  Onwards we go.  I was actually more excited to find my first salt bread hehe.  This is a buttery bun with salt on top.

Salt bread and me

Next stop was Bongeunsa Temple.  Reviews say it feels authentic, spiritual, and deeply calming.  Well however much I might attempt to feel that, the kids don't have much patience with temples.  But we went to check it out since we are already there.  The grounds were large for a temple.

 

Going in

Big statue of Buddha with many small ones around

Then we walked across the street to the Starfield mall.  We had visited the Suwon library earlier.  There is actually another one in this mall in Seoul itself.  This one is a tourist attraction as well.  The design is a little different.  Actually I'm not sure of its function - having many visitors taking photos definitely goes against the purpose of a normal library.  It's not a bookstore hence not revenue-generating, there is no charge to enter.  Maybe it's to generate foot traffic into the mall.

 

Another pretty library

JE wanted to visit the "Psy hands".  Many were doing the steps for Psy's 'Gangnam Style' hit right at this statue.  This song was played over speakers which set the mood nicely.

Psy hands!

We walked around the mall a bit and opted to leave.  Had a good meal (overall I enjoyed the food in Korea) at a place near our hotel. 

A nice dinner

An ok day... JE got to do her BTS stuff but as the photos show, she became grumpy towards the later part.  Being out from morning to night daily IS tiring. 

Day 5 - 27/3 Gyeongbokgung Palace, Cheonggyecheon stream

Now why the concern on getting an early start for Gyeongbokgung palace? Because we were going for hanbok/traditional Korean clothing rental!  Erm the backstory is, the kids weren't keen on this as they said hanbok made people look fat.  I thought we might as well pack in the extra experience and decided on a 'basic' (as opposed to 'premium') package as a middle ground, which explains the limited choices.  For RM32 a basic hair design was included. 

You select the top and the skirt separately.  JE found a very nice combo...

Tadahh!

Well I wasn't going to let the kids have all the fun was I?  Somehow we all ended up in blue!  

And us too!

Gyeongbokgung was free entry for people wearing hanbok.

Going into the palace

Almost there

Inside. Three pretty maidens (cough)

We were initially underwhelmed by the palace, then realised the grounds were actually huge and beautiful.  Took so many photos I had trouble choosing those to post here!  Our package was 2.5 hours which was enough to see everything.  We ended up on the opposite side to where the shop was though and had to do a long brisk walk back!

 

By a lake

Lunch was at 153 - simple-but-good bulgogi, tteokboki and pork dumplings.

Hmm not bad

Next on the itinerary was Cheonggyecheon stream.  We were rather tired and wanted to get a snack to eat beside the stream.  Walked into Abebe bakery, got one Earl grey and one Matcha cream-filled donut - I didn't realise till later that I'd come across it before as a famous must-go place!  The donuts were good, filled with thick cream which wasn't too cloying to eat.  Not cheap at KRW4200/RM11 each.  I'd get them again though given the chance.

Donuts for me and Mummy

With the name of the shop

It was a major urban renewal project to clean the stream from its initial eyesore state.  Now the water is crystal clear and attracts visitors along its 10km length.  How lovely to have this nature habitat right in a city centre. 

Clear water and natural rocks

Our target for dinner, the Michelin-starred Myeongdong Kyoja.  This place sells exactly 3 things hahah.  Well plus one more which is only available in summer.  So we ordered all 3 things - knife-chopped noodles in soup, spicy noodles and dumplings.  Yep, food was good!  Prices were reasonable at about KRW13000/RM35 per item.

Ordered literally EVERYTHING on the menu hehe

JE seems to have a separate stomach for snacks.  But I was also keen to try the viral 'marshmallow ice-cream'.  Now this, at KRW8000/RM23 was NOT cheap.  It tasted just like toasted marshmallow and ice-cream hahaha.  Oh well, at least we have tried it.

 

Yes, got it!

I think it was this night JE dropped that smiski hipper on her phone (the glow-in-the-dark thing with green hat seen in this picture) which broke and she had to go buy another one.

Review of day:  So glad we finally managed to get the hanbok done, and with good results!  

Day 4 - 26/3 Suwon Day Trip

Day 4.... we didn't awake early after our late night at Hongdae.  Decided on Suwon for the day.  Took the subway to Suwon station then a bus to Padalmun Gate (no longer scared of taking buses now!).  

Padalmun Gate behind us

First we headed to the 'chicken street' for fried chicken.  Reached this crossroads with a few shops in sight and googled for which one to go.  Selected Maehyang which turned out to be a short walk away... by the time we arrived, definitely didn't feel like walking back.  A chicken was listed as one item on the menu and the waitress said one order would be enough - so glad we weren't made to order THREE chickens!  

The chicken arrived simply salted and freshly fried.  I'd hoped for more complex cooking but oh well, it was pleasant enough to eat.  It wasn't that large and we easily finished.  We saw two solo diners having a chicken each.  At 20,000KRW/MYR55 feeding three of us, it was one of our cheaper meals - food in Korea is generally expensive.

Chicken, dipping sauce and sides

Stomachs satisfied, on with sight-seeing.  The weather was lovely.  

Magnolia blossoms! 

Underside is also painted

Janganmun gate with BIG steps

We armed ourselves with drinks and snacks, then climbed up the big steps to walk on the walls.  This was nice!  Unhurried pace, walk as we like, stop as we like.  Some parts were level, some parts ascending (I was thinking we should have walked in the other direction then it would be DESCENDING instead?)  

Up the steps we go

There were observation towers, gates, command centres and even a secret gate along the way.  Eventually we reached this mid-point which seemed a good place to conclude our walk.

Can see the city below

There was a series of stairs to descend from the fortress to the city.

Then here we go down, down

It was a long walk of 45mins, but taking a bus wouldn't have helped much seeing we were ON the fortress in the middle of nowhere.

Rest a while on these yellow benches with yellow people

Finally reached Starfield mall where our target was the instagrammable library.  A first for me to see a library as a tourist attraction!  The books were in Korean and of course we weren't there for reading.

Yeah very beautiful

We were there too!

Job done, all planned destinations covered.  Looked around the mall for dinner options but didn't see any restaurants so we settled on the food court.

 

Take a photo first...

The good thing was after all our walking for the day, we ended up near a metro station.  Simple matter to zoom back to our hotel.  Now this, was a very good day. :)

Day 3 - 25/3 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!