FAmiliARiziNG...

Day 2- Sunday, had buffet breakfast which was included at the Metro Hotel, not many choices, but the choc croissant was nice, so we smuggled some food for mum and papa who came to meet us back in the room... after breakfast, we made our way to the tourist office again...where we got some assistance looking for accomodation cos we only had accomodation booked until 12 April... was told that most of the places are fully booked already cos it is the peak season now, so we spent quite some time at the tourist office going through our options... in the end, we decided to book 3 nights at this guesthouse which I was told that we would be sleeping ondol style, which was one of the things I wanted to try... and we booked our Jeju trip from 12 April to 14 April, 3 days, 2 nights, and decided to go on a coach tour from 16-18 April 3 days 2 nights as well... and we booked 2 different daily tours... 

after all that, mum and papa went off with Mr Park and his wife to visit the DMZ and some ginseng wholesale market... whilst pong and I made our way to the Cheong Gye Cheon (this stream that stretches quite a long way) which was located across from the tourist office... walked along the stream for abit, and saw this singaporean opened kaya cafe similar to the Ya Kun toast place here, but this cafe was ran by Koreans... did not go in to eat but decided to come back another day to try the food... after that, made our way on foot to the Astoria Hotel, which is approx a 20mins walk, we definitely walked the long way bcos we later found a shortcut through the Myungdong streets... when we arrived, checked in and decided on the 6th floor rather than the 4th floor where mum and papa were, cos we were told that 4th floor is noisier cos there is a karaoke place, when we arrived in the room, realised that our room did not have a nice view like mum and papa's room where they could see the Namsan tower and our room was really hot and stuffy... anyway, we decided to stick with it for the next 4 days... 

we decided to catch a train to Hongdae where apparently Hongik Uni is located and weekend markets... we were told to purchase this Tmoney card which you can use on buses and trains, when we arrived at Hongdae train station, we got off at the specified exit but did not see the uni at all, tried to ask some people but again, language barrier, so we decided to walk towards the direction where more people are heading to, and went into this clothing store to ask for directions... and luckily this storeperson could speak some English and pointed us to the right direction... when we finally got to the place, it looked similar to Myungdong, alot of alleyways filled with shops selling food, clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and street hawkers... and alot of young people... it was pretty crowded, probably becos it was a sunday... you pretty much have to walk along the alleyways if you want to see more stuff otherwise if you stick to the main road, it looks pretty boring on the outside... walked quite awhile before deciding on a place for lunch, this small store where the seats are facing the wall, selling ramyun... it was not bad and it was pretty cheap... I chose this spicy ramyun and it ended up spicier than I could handle so pong and I swapped... after that we decided to go have dessert to cool ourselves... for some reason, it was pretty cold on the first day when we arrived, but that day it was pretty warm... dessert was at this place called nature cafe and we had waffles and brownie with ice cream... after that, we decided to catch a train to Insadong, where apparently it is famous for it arts and crafts and antiques stuff... again, when we got there, we had to ask for directions, this time from a policeman who was standing guard outside the police station... who also luckily knew some English... pointed us to the right direction and there were also alot of people... it was a whole street with shops selling arts and crafts, traditional Korean stuff and street food... also came upon Ssamziegil, where they sell accessories, clothes catering to the younger generation... it was actually quite a cool place, we went all the way up to the rooftop (only 4 stories high) where you can experience some traditional korean way of life... there were also narrow alleys where traditional restaurants are located... after that, we met up with mum and papa at Lotte department store and foodcourt, did not end up eating anything cos we were all pretty full still... made our way back to the Astoria after buying some bread for breakfast the next day... initially booked our daily tours to start on Monday, not knowing that mum and papa made plans with Mr Park to go out on Monday, so in the end, we had to postpone our daily tour to Tuesday and Wednesday... 

after 2 days in Seoul, the things I noticed were 1. alot of Koreans smoke, more males smoke than females, but it was not very pleasant when walking on the streets 2. alot of coffee cafes, the Koreans must drink alot of coffees 3. the streets are not very clean 4. there are no such thing as traffic rules, cos even though there are pedestrian crossing, you pretty much have to start walking first otherwise you are never going to cross the road, cars still go ahead even the lights are red, and there are U-turn lanes, but you can U-turn anywhere within the lane, no need to take turns 5. toilets- there are no such things as sanitary bins, people throw their pads into normal waste bins, and the bins are open... gross... but I think what they do is they wrap the pads in toilet paper and throw them in the bin cos the pads are not visible thank god...