Spring in Korea 2015 (Part 2) ~ Roaming about in Myeongdong in 2D1N



Arrived at Incheon Airport on-time at 3.30pm, the easiest way to head to Myeongdong is probably by the Airport Bus 6015.  The bus-fare hasn't changed for the past years.  For as far as I can remember, it has always been 10,000 won.  Of course, there are other options such as taking the AREX (Airport Express) or taxi.  Whenever I stay in Myeongdong, my preferred option have always been to take the Airport bus because:

1.  It has luggage storage compartment where the luggage can be safely kept and you need not lug it up the bus.

2.  The bus brings passengers directly to downtown Myeongdong, where the subway station exits are.  From there, it is easy to navigate to the hotels.

3.  The buses are rather frequent, approximately once every 20 mins.

4.  Avoid the hassle of transfer from 1 (subway) train to another and fighting the crowd in the populated city, which would be unavoidable if you take the AREX.

 

For more info on airport bus, check out this link.

 

Here I was, arrived at SkyPark III Hotel, conveniently located about 50m away from the Airport Bus-stop.

 

The hotel is especially catered to female tourists, especially if you're a fan of Etude House products.  There are also a few limited "pink and princessy" rooms which makes fans of pink go ga-ga.  Price for a twin room is quite reasonable at ~ S$110 - S$120 inclusive of tax.

I didn't manage to get a pink room.  But a regular room work just fine for me.  The basic facilities are complete.

 

The toiletries, as expected, are products from Etude House.

Myeongdong is one of the very popular "integrated downtown hubs", for shopping (duty-free shops, cosmetics, food, fashion etc etc).  This is also the place for checking out the latest Korean Streetfood.

Deli Manjoo, a small store located in the Myeongdong underground shopping mall, has been around for quite some time.  The corn-shaped warm custard puffs still taste as delicious as before.

Strawberry is seasonal fruit and it is commonly found during the winter season in Korea.  During this time, lots of cafes and bakeries uses strawberry as their key ingredient.  This street-food stall was selling strawberry mochi.

This stylish-looking guy moves in a groovy beat while making the banana-nutella crepes.

And look at these colourful cotton candies in pastel shades.  They are about 30cm in height and 20cm in width.

The thing about living in a country with 4 seasons is that you get an abundance of seasonal fruits.  This stall is selling freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice !

Fish-shape redbean waffle might be a passé by now.  The trend now is croissant fish.  Also filled with redbean.


What is popular for breakfast in Korea? 
One, rice with kimchi and soup, or two, toasts.  Isaac Toast is a popular breakfast stall, a stone-throw away from Myeongdong station exit 5.

With more than 20 types of toast, including basic ham & cheese to bulgogi to potato & cheese, deciding what to order might be a chore. 

For me, it was simple.  I decide to go for a non-meat option and I only needed to decide between cheese & potato or cheese & vegetable or vegetable.  Simple!

Estimated queuing and waiting time ... about 15 minutes.

How to get to Isaac Toast?




What about Dinner?
A question that may make some local Koreans scratch their heads would be "Where can I find vegetarian food?".  A common response that I get is "Koreans love to eat meat!"  There is hardly any dish that is without meat except for vegetable salad and bread.

A friend who arrived in Seoul before me checked out this interesting Tteokbokki restaurant, Kang Ho Dong Cheon Ha, a new celebrity restaurant specially in hotpot rice cakes.  What caught our eyes from the menu was "Yachae tteokbokki" which means vegetable tteokbokki.  We decided to just go for it, although sliced fish cakes is one of the ingredients. 

There are tips plastered on the table for cooking the rice cakes and the ingredients.  We had to adjust the heat level along the way.

Here how the hotpot rice cakes (tteokbokki) looks like when served.  Besides rice cakes and fish cakes, the other ingredients included glass noodles, ramyeon, lots of vegetables and some dumplings.  The serving portion is just nice for 2 to 3 persons.  We opted for the set meal which comes with a portion of fried chicken.  There are other side dishes on the menu such as cheese fries.  Total damage is below 25,000won.  Overall, the food and ambience were good.  Because this place was very new, overall cleanliness was very good.

How to get to Kang Ho Dong Cheon Ha?

[Jeju-do, Korea] Guesthouse in Jeju City, Worlang House

Whenever I think of Jeju, I am reminded of this very cosy guesthouse - Worlang House - where I stayed in and it felt like home.  Fully lined with wood flooring, the guesthouse is modern and comfortable.  It is bed and breakfast guesthouse, and so you get to prepare a simple breakfast at your own time, own pace in the morning.  Mr Heung, who is in-charge of the guesthouse is conversant in English and is very prompt, responsive and helpful.

Worlang House is located just 5-mins drive away from Jeju Airport.  The guesthouse is located on the 3rd floor.  On the ground floor, there is a DIY coin-operated laundry shop equipped with a computer, wifi and coffee for guests while waiting for the laundry to be ready.  Convenient stores, restaurants and bistros can be found in the vicinity.  The walk to the main road is about 3 to 5 mins where you can take a bus to town or to the bus terminal.

A point to note is that most guesthouses in Korea have no lift!  Be prepared and manage the weight of your luggage as you dragged it up the stairs!

Right from the moment I stepped into Worlang House, I could immediate feel the comfort of a home.  The place has 3 bedrooms on the 3rd floor and 1 bedroom at the attic.  The living hall at the 3rd floor has a coffee table, books (including travel books) and a music player.  There is no in the hall as well as in the rooms.  Wi-fi is available in the guesthouse.  Music and lights at the living hall go off at 10.30pm every night.

The kitchen is also a cosy area.  It is complete with cooking utensils, water dispenser and microwave oven.  There is also a fridge for guests to keep their food there.

The bedrooms are clean, simple and functional.  The space isn't luxurious and just enough for luggage and some walking space.  Mr Heung cleans the house everyday to keep the rooms spick and span.

 (Double room)

 (Double-decker room)

 (Family room which has both a double bed and a double-decker bed)

 (Room at the attic)



(Mirror in the room)

Mr Heung gets the breakfast ingredients ready at about 8am every morning.  That includes salad, fruits, hash-brown, orange juice, bread, eggs.  Guests can then cook up their own breakfast.  Coffee and tea is available throughout the day.

Guests can choose to have their breakfast at the living hall or at the cosy corner with chairs.  Breakfast is also the best time to get to know the other residents in the guesthouse.  During my short few-day stay, I noticed that there were quite a number of solo travellers who stayed at Worlang House.  Most of them stayed for only 1 night though.

Overall, my experience at Worlang House was great except for a little encounter where we would hear the domestic fight from the neighbour downstairs.  As usual, Mr Heung was quick to come up to the guesthouse to assure us of safety.

The place is really affordable as well.  The charge for 2 persons is 50,000 won (~ USD50) per night.  Other pricing details is available through Worlang House's website.  The guesthouse was full-house on most of the days where I stayed, so it proofs to be quite a popular place amongst travellers.  Do book early to avoid disappointment!

For booking, visit BnBHero.

Website: http://www.worlang.com/

Address: 1271-5, Nohyeong-dong, Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea (36 Worlong Road 6)

Check-in time: 4pm, Check-out time: 11am

Getting there: Best to catch a taxi from Jeju Airport directly since the distance is really short.  Estimated taxi fare is 3,500 won (~ USD 3.50).



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[Jeju-do, Korea] Guesthouse in Seogwipo City, Jeju - Minjunggak (민중각)



Jeju Island is an oval-shape volcanic island located at the southern tip of South Korea.  The island is 73km from the east to the west, and 31km from north to south.  It is approximately double the size of Singapore.  The island itself is a favourite vacation spot for many Koreans themselves.  Tourism is one of the key businesses in Jeju.  In 2010, domestic tourists accounted for almost 90% of the total tourist count of 7.5 million.  This figures is rather significant considering that the total population on the island was less than 600,000.

 

On the island, there are many mind-blowing ocean, mountain and natural scenic spots and that was why Jeju was selected to be 1 of the world's New 7 wonders of Nature.  There are 368 small mountains within Jeju and 90 islands off Jeju, which is why Jeju is the ideal place for hiking and island hopping.

 

In terms of accommodation, the key consideration would be whether to stay at the northern Jeju in Jeju-si (Jeju City), where the airport is about 10 mins drive away, or to stay at southern Jeju in Seogwipo, where you will be nearer to ferry terminals making it more accessible if you plan to island-hop. 

 

For myself, I stayed at 2 guesthouses during my recent trip to Jeju.  The name of the first guesthouse is Minjunggak and it is located at Seogwipo city. It is 5-min walk from the Seogwipo intercity bus terminal and eateries such as Paris Baguette, Dunkin Donut. It is also a stone-throw away from 2 food streets! There are also several convenient stalls such as GS25, Familymart, 7-eleven.

Those of us who had stayed in guesthouse in Korea would know that the rooms are general quite small, and expect to lug your luggages up the stairs - don't expect any lift in the guesthouse. If you are lucky, the friendly host may help you with the luggages but they aren't obliged to do that.

 

Minjunggak's room is very spacious and clean. The room came with 2 single beds complete with quilt and blanket.  There is enough luggage packing space for both occupants, which is almost rare compared to guesthouses in Seoul.  On the floor that we stayed, there were about 5 units in total. What I like is also the big LCD TV in the room... wow! There are 2 sections within the room, one of the main bedroom while the smaller section is the toilet cum shower room.  In the shower room, there is a bath-tub and a rain-shower facility. The only downside is that there isn't any wardrobe and as such clothes would have to be hung on the door or on the wall.

The guesthouse hosts were very kind. It happened that I was on vegetarian diet on one of the days. I bought some vege-dumplings from a nearby restaurant which turned out that there was meat in it. The hosts helped me called up the restaurant to check if they had mistaken my order and they even accompanied me back to the restaurant, hoping to get an exchange. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get an exchange.  The lesson learnt here was that vegetable dumplings in Korea typically would be made with some meat.  This was the box of dumplings which I did not get to eat =(

When we returned to the guesthouse, the kind lady host offered to cooked me some vegetable pancakes.  She prepared a mugwort pancake, kimchi pancake and even gave me mugwort rice cakes (wrapped in cling wrap). It was my lucky day ^^

I have not heard of or tasted mugwort before this.  Pronounced as ssuk (쑥) in Korean, it is a seasonal vegetable and it is harvested typically in the spring season.   It is a common ingredient used for Korean rice cake, tea, soup and pancake.  Known to be a blood cleanser, the vegetable contains medicinal properties.  In Chinese, it is known as ai cao (艾草).  It is served as a form of cold dish or stir-fried with meat.  It is also used in the Chinese Acupuncture process.

(Fresh mugwort sold at traditional market in Jeju)

The overall experience with the guesthouse has been great, in terms of its location, its service and its facility.  The price is almost very reasonable!

For the guesthouse address, map and rates, you can refer to this link (http://univird.tistory.com/109) or book via BnBHero.



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