Seoul-ly Ours Nov 2015 - Day 3 & 4

Day 3

Despite clubbing till late the previous night, we managed to wake up at 11am and get started for Day 3. Since I slept the whole of yesterday away, we had to make changes to Bec's carefully planned itinerary. First on our list is National Palace Museum.

Stars OOTD and coincidentally, both of us had it as scarf.

I am always interested in history but I had never really studied Korean history except Korean War. Though we went to the palace in Nov 2014, I didn't quite enjoy that. I guess it was due to the lack of English explanation and I was also distracted by many other more interesting things in Korea then. Haha.

The library that we always see in Korean drama. 

Seals for different people for different purposes across different periods.

Maybe cause I didn't understand their characters, the inscriptions look too similar to me. I remember we were joking that these were probably a result of the snake game in our old nokia phones - the game whereby you have to move the "snake" to connect to the next dot and the "snake" will become longer and longer. Haha. And when it is GAME OVER, the end result will be the pattern for the seal.

Their ancient clock and this is impressive. It takes so much effort and such sophisticated mechanism to tell the time. Impressive!

After the National Palace Museum, we had a last minute meet-up with Daniel. Dan is probably a typical American or Korean who has problem with his identity. Korean by birth but American by nationality, Dan kept emphasizing that he is American. The way he dissed Korea and certain Korean practices, he is American. Yet when  it comes to eating, he is so~~~ Korean. Kept asking for rice for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. Arrgh. I never ate so much rice before. 

Anyway, we didn't quite confirm on the meeting venue but since Dan was early, he made his way to the museum. Unfortunately, we were already at Anguk station when he reached the palace. So we had to wait a while for him to train over to Anguk.

Next on our list is Samcheongdong. We wanted to comb Samcheongdong again, hopefully both the traditional houses and the shopping area. First on the list is definitely the accessories shop but we only stayed for a brief period. I guess having Dan around made the walk a little awkwardly different. Since it was Dan's first visit, we brought him around Samcheongdong for a while before heading for an early dinner. 

You know you are THAT familiar with the place when you do not need a map back to the subway station (not forgetting we brought Dan around) but the thing is... Dan didn't know the way and assume tourists like us wouldn't know as well so he went around asking for directions. Being nice, we followed his lead. Keke.

Being Korean by birth and having stayed in Seoul for 10 months, Dan wanted to play host by bringing us out for dinner. Since he asked what was on our food list, we told him pojang macha. Or rather, I told him 'orange tents' and that got Dan a little confused, With Bec's help, we managed to communicate to Dan more effectively.

We were a little too early and we were like the first customers on the entire street. We should go back again later the next round to witness the bustling scene. I want to drink soju there leh! Can anot?

The tent was smaller than what I imagined it to be. The ahjuma was really friendly and food was good!

Dan claimed he had a heavy lunch and was not exactly hungry... That was one of his first few lies. People haven't even take picture, he already started eating. Evidence captured at the top left hand corner. TSK!

Incomplete eggs picture as Dan ate them (again) before Bec could take a picture! When he took the first piece, I was like 'Can wait for Bec before you eat anot? I am also damn hungry liao. EGGS leh!!! Bec is going to kill you but she will not cause it is the first few times that we are meeting so she will be nice to you (still).'

Pancake which is different from our usual SG ones. SG ones are usually crispy and dry. This is really full of moisture.

After pojang macha, Dan brought us over to his neighbourhood - Sinsadong. We chilled, talked and people-watched the night away.

With Sinsadong as our last stop, that pretty much sumed up the lepak Sunday. Keke. We were already exhausted from overnight flight and not forgetting that we clubbed for the past 2 nights, we started Sunday on a slow note and ended it off very peacefully with a hot drink. Despite it being a slow day, we still clocked like 19,653 steps. I wished my Korean wannabe butler includes warm water service for my tired feet as well. *hint*

Day 4

Since the previous night ended early, we woke up a little earlier on Day 4 to accommodate our  pretty tight schedule.

First stop for the day - Ilwa Mural Village. The very moment when both of us suggested to one another to include Ilwa Mural Village is our first "sync" moment. We had been to Seoul together for 2 trips and honestly, we have probably done and covered all the top tourist spots. While we are googling for more possible places to visit, we have expanded our search from 'top 10 places/ things in Seoul' to  'top 100 places/ things in Seoul'. Haha. So I got to know about the mural village through Running Man (always my first source of information while I forgot how Bec got to know about it) and since it was late into the night, I made a mental note to tell Bec about it the next day. Before I had a chance to message her the next morning, she sent me the link to the mural village and asked if I want to go and I was like 'I saw running man feature this mural village yday!'. Of course this easily made into our itinerary as I wanted more sightseeing than shopping and I wanted to take a lot more pictures beyond OOTD and food.

We were starving when we reached the area and as usual, Bec needed to satisfy her Carbonara craving. There were 2 pasta restaurants and I was telling Bec 'Choose this one (restaurant) leh. Can sit by the window and people watch.' Thinking back, this is such an idiotic statement as you can people watch from both restaurants but I think the windows of the chosen restaurant appealed more to me. Haha. So we went into an empty pasta restaurant (again) but the difference was the server was tall, muscular and cute! Keke. We were ordering our food in English but he was like 'My English no good'. No good? Please loh~ His English is as good as his looks. He just looked a little too tired and  probably still recovering from hangover. Haha.

Us and our pasta. We seem to look prettier in Korea hor?

There was this plate of pink pickles as appetizer and Bec suggested playing a round of scissors, paper, stone and the loser would have to have a piece of the pickle. Seriously, I do not know why she suggested this game when she DID NOT want to eat the pickles and she loses to me like 80% of the time. The odds are not even in your favour la.

After the lunch, we made our way up to the mural village. We passed by a lot of houses with an attic/ rooftop when Bec started the following conversation.

Bec: We should stay in the rooftop next round.

Me: (TV shows) only poor people live in the rooftop one leh.

If all rooftop apartments were as chio as this one, I do not mind but who is going to carry our luggage UP?!?!

Some artistic stuff along the way.

Our first picture @ the mural village. I like the colour contrast in this picture.

I am not doing justice to the 3D effects. 

The interesting point about the mural village is these mural paintings and statues are just outside any random residence. Imagine you living in this neighbourhood. You have to bear with the number of tourists wandering around in your neighbourhood and taking pictures just outside your house everyday. How to tahan sia?

Sweater OOTD

This was one of the paintings featured (in Running Man) that appealed to me. 

The picture looked as if there were only Bec and me in the area right? You are SO wrong. There was actually a line of people queuing to take picture with this angel wings. So you queue and wait for your turn. When it is your turn, you walk quickly to the wings, snap a picture and go. That's how fast you have to be.

So I wanted to be different and pose this instead. Embarrassing when there were like 5 more people queuing. Haha. So all I wanted was snap the picture and go. Then (!!!) Bec went 'one more'. I kind of lost it and niao-ed her 'no one more lah!'.

I like the exterior of the guest house but we were joking about how do those people who live in this area go clubbing. So the conversation revolved around what will happen if they were dead drunk like me? Chances are the drunkard will be abandoned at the club. Haha. It is impossible for the cab to drive to the doorstep so the drunkard and his kind friends (if any) will still have to walk the countless steps before reaching his place. No way that anyone will send the drunkard home so he will have to sleep his drunkenness away in the club.

The number of steps we climbed that day, not once but twice. Did we do the 3rd time? We climbed that many times as wanted to cover all the paintings and we missed some along the way. Tiring but we enjoyed all the walking and complaining very much.

Taking a short break before continuing the tiring steps.

Bec suggested a star jump. Ok loh. I need to practise my expression.

Do a proper star jump next time leh.

One of Bec's favourite picture for the day and mine too. I think she wanted a normal picture but I just had to disturb her by doing a 后弯腰。

After the mural village, we hurried for our hair appointment. It took us another 5-6 hours. Back almost break and butt almost crack. While Bec did colour and treatment, I did perm too. Didn't quite like the perm and colour initially but I am slowly liking it. I like the slight contrast in colour and the sexy waves. Haha. I am into the sexy thing recently. Bad influence from Bec again.

The entire hair thingy took way longer than usual and it made me anxious for no good reason. That was mainly because we estimated to be done by 7pm but in the end, I was probably done like just before 9pm and Dan sat and stared blank for 2 hours. 

We ended the night with some light street food (meat skewer), dinner and noraebang. It was a very simple and small noraebang with no disco lights. Nowhere as happening as what the TV shows but I guess cause we were not happening to start with. Bec, let's go next time leh.

12,717 steps clocked for the day.

This trip had been fantastic so far! The first 2 days were mainly about clubbing and they have been awesome! We were getting good at rejecting unwanted attention while we made friends and hang out with a lot more people. I am thankful that these people added colours and memories to our trip and brought us to places that we were unaware of. They fulfilled one of my Korean dreams which was to experience Seoul with the locals, especially eating in the pojang macha. Day 3 and 4 were just lots of walking and these walking didn't decrease over the days. Walking = Sightseeing! L.O.V.E..