Travel Diary: Korea Winter Wonderland (Part 1)

2016 was amazing! (See other reasons why 2016 are amazing, here) I went to Korea twice and the second trip I did was on winter season. I went there with my friend, which it is our first duo trip ever. We used to be in a same room whenever we went for school trips, but never go for a trip together. We randomly planned for this trip earlier in 2016. It was supposed to be a 3 girls trip, but one of my friend couldn’t join us because she already got a job and she couldn’t take a leave. 

Well since we went by ourselves, without our parents, this trip was kinda spendthrift. Sometimes we bought some useless stuff and procrastinate where our money gone and some other girl problem that only girls know. Nevertheless, it was a very exciting and fun trip. Since, I spend 11 days for this trip, I’ll divided the blog post into 5 parts, each part consist of 2 days. This is the same with the travel diary video. You can watch the video here. And you can read my previous story when I went to Korea last April with my mom, here. 

Day 1

Usually I took Garuda Indonesia flight whenever I go to Korea. But this time, I took Singapore Airlines (SQ) because I got a cheaper price. The departure date I chose was extremely expensive with Garuda Indonesia. So, this time I chose another airline. It is my first time using SQ and experiencing transit. It was okay since we stopped at Changi Airport, one of the world’s best airport. We have 3 hours before we took off to Korea. We got some shopping vouchers, SGD 20, for each of us for free from SQ. So, if anyone of you used SQ and have a stopover in Changi, don’t forget to claim a voucher from them. 

Well, on the first day of our trip was mostly spent on airport and aircraft. Eating, watching, and talking are most of our activities. I think we ate like 4 times a day, until we don’t want to eat anymore. By the way, SQ’s in-flight meals are quite nice. I liked all of the meals they gave. The downside is they don’t serve hot bread. Indeed, that is why SQ recognized as one of the best airline.
My uncle picked me up this time, because we arrived quite late and the airport bus has stopped running. From the airport, we went straight to my aunt’s apartment around Dongdaemun area. I really liked living there, even though I’ve never tried living around Gangnam area or other tourist area. 

Flying with SQ!

Pikachu Christmas Tree @ Changi Airport

Day 2

On our first day, we started our day with a nice and sweet Korean strawberry and some our Burger King take-away leftovers. Yeah, our breakfast was kinda lame, but that’s okay because we can have more space to fill-in our tummy. Actually, we want to go to Gwangjang Market to have our brunch there. But, since I never went there and my cousin doesn’t explain it clearly how to go there, I use the direction from the internet. But then, I was lost. By the way, Google Maps doesn’t work in Korea, you should download Korean maps, such as Naver Maps. Then we just went for Cold Noodles or Naengmyeon, because it is what we saw and I’ve ate there before. It is the same cold noodles I ate last April. 

At Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Exit 13

Then, we off to Gangnam area, specifically, Cheongdam-dong a.k.a Korean Beverly Hills Rodeo. It was my first time to that area by subway and walk through the road by foot. The reason we went to the most luxurious area in Korea is we want to have our hair cut. We are going to have a K-makeover at Jenny House Salon. It is a salon of several Korean celebrity such as, Park Shinye, Song Jihyo, etc. But, unfortunately we didn’t saw any celebrity at the time we visited. It was extremely cold and we lost our way again because of Google Maps again. Actually it doesn’t very hard to find the salon, but the intersections were little bit confusing. We were afraid to enter the salon actually. We are a little bit shy and have a bit of burden, because the salon is quite famous and it charge quite high. In the end, we entered. We were assisted by a nice lady, who can speak English and she used to lived in Indonesia! So, she can speak a little Indonesian. At first we ask about the price, the lowest one is 66,000 KRW. But, we paid 77,000 KRW because the hairstylist handled us were charged at that price. Actually, I’m okay with the price, but I’m kinda disappointed that I didn’t feel really changed my hairstyle. I feel like just cutting my hair, not doing a makeover. Next time, I’ll just go to the salon around Ehwa or Hongdae area. I think they have a better price for a standard cutting.

Home to Luxurious Brand, Cheongdam-dong

Infinite Gangnamdol

Getting ready for the makeover

K-makeover on the process

TADA!

excuse our mirror selfie, becos the toilet was awesome

Taking photo infront of Bvlgari Christmas Tree

Pretty Street Lights

Oh! Happy Winter!

On the bright side, we’ve got to try how luxurious Korean Salon is! They gave us robe and they kept our coats and bags in a room. But the downside is they don’t give us free drink. Even in the cheapest salon in Indonesia, give their customer a glass of water. Well, at least I’ve experience it and I will remember how fun it is to have a lot of money, especially in Cheongdam-dong. 

After that makeover, we went for dinner at Sindang Ddeokbokki Town, to eat the ddeokbokki eaten by YongSeo couple. When they shoot WGM, they have visited one ddeokbokki restaurant (watch it here), and that makes my friend wants to try it. She is a fan of Yonghwa, so she wants to eat what Yonghwa have eat with Seohyun on that program. But, after I rechecked, the restaurant we ate was different. I was mistaken by the similar name. The restaurant name I've visited is Maboknim Grandma and the one YongSeo Couple went is Maboknim Grandma Last's Son. But, basically the menu and the food was pretty much the same. The portion was huge! We ordered the 2 pax portion actually, but it came out that big. We barely finished it, but since both of us haven’t ate anything since the brunch time, we finished it all. The food was okay, not really wow like how it looks like maybe, because we didn’t really know how to cook or mix it properly. The server didn’t explained it to us also, so we’re both just mixing it up and then eat it. 

Believe me it's a 2 person portion

Because we thought that it is too early to go back home, we stopped by at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). We went inside and spotted the design art market shop. Then, we stroll around it, spotted a lot of cute stuff that I wanted to buy. After that, we went back home and we were asked to have chi-maek, or chicken and beer, at home. I said okay, and we both eat again after that spoonful of dinner. HAHA. 

Design Art Market @ DDP

We ate, talk, and watch The Legend of the Blue Sea together (oh yes Lee Minho is such an eye candy!), then we went back to our room. Watching some vlogs in Korea, then we slept. We have a long day ahead tomorrow, since the next day is the coldest day ever.

Thank you for reading it all till this point. Do wait for the next part! See you soon.

Details:

Jenny House

28, Apgujeong-ro 75-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

서울특별시 강남구 압구정로75길 28 (청담동)

How to: Apgujeong Rodeo Station (Seoul Subway Bundang Line), Exit 2. Go straight for 200m and turn left at Louis Quatorze. Continue for 100m. Jenny House Primo will be on the right.

Ojangdong Hamheung Naengmyun

108, Mareunnae-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 중구 마른내로 108 (오장동)  

Telp: +82-2-2267-9500

Maboknim Grandma Ddeokbokki

5, Dasan-ro 35-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 중구 다산로35길 5 (신당동)

Telp: +82-2-2232-8930

How to: Sindang Station, exit #8. Then just go straight until you see a gate, Sindang Ddeokbokki Town, and the restaurant will be on your left.