Graduation Budget Trip 2017 {17 days of Korea + Japan } ❤️ Part 2

Graduation Budget Trip 2017 {17 days of Korea + Japan } ❤️ Part 2 - Hongdae/Myeongdong Shopping

- August 11, 2017

Hi lovelies,

Im back with Part 2 of my Graduation Trip series.

This part is continued from this post~

So after we settled in for the first night, had ramyun at 1am KST, we were up at 7am to go to Mangwon Market ( 망원시장) one of the local markets in the Hongdae area. We must had a lot of energy as we were barely awake after the stopovers and long flight the previous day :)
Although it was early March, I remember Seoul being 5-6 degrees in the morning!

Hapjeong in the morning. Very different at night.

I remember this to be opp the Hapjeong bus station.


My chiobu friend posing for me :) She probably would be appearing more in pictures than me cos shes the chio one:)

Look at the prices of Soju there~ This is a mart along the way to Mangwon Market. By the way, I used Naver Maps / Daum Maps on my phone while in Korea!

Mangwon Market!!

Jokbal that smelled so good at 8am in the morning. The shops here tend to open a little later

Croquette shop

Other part of the market. Its not too big but plenty for some shopping and breakfast.

Blocks of Meju~

Issac toast is here too~ No long queues.

Ddeokbokki~!! This stall was featured in the Seoul Battle Trip episode when Apink went to eat there and i happened to see the poster and i decided i had to give it a try.

This was so good!! It was the best I had among all the ddeokbokki stalls that i tried in Seoul!! Its on the spicy side tho( which i love ) and the rice cakes are soft but chewy~ Must try!!

This stall at the market which sells noodles for 2500won

Huge bowl thats easily shared by 2 people. Taste is mediocre.

Mandu was good tho :) We were totally stuffed and skipped lunch after that:)

Look who i saw:)

Chop Hair salon (http://www.chop.kr/)

My friend really wanted to do her hair in Korea so we did some research before hand and went to this shop in Hongdae. It was only 11am when we walked in but it was rather full already. They asked if we had any prior appointment and what we wanted to do. Although I saw some reviews saying staff were proficient in English,the staff were delighted to hear that I could translate whatever they were saying. No english from that point on >< They were super professional in whatever they did, even i was impressed! They are super strict and particular about bleaching and dyeing hair. My friend had badly damaged hair and they did not let her do even damaging works.

This was the manager ( So Yeol)that served us. Super professional and nice:) She was super concerned about my friend's damaged state of her hair and recommended suitable treatments for her..Do give them a try! Though i do recommend you to bring a friend that is fluent in Korean along if you want to do more works on your hair. My friend did cut+ treatment+ colour + perm

Payment in cash gives you a 20% discount so do keep that in mind.

So i left my friend at the salon:) And went ahead for some retail shopping ( rather than that, i went ahead to check out cosmetics prices) I taught her how to use the subway app and she met me after doing her hair. Do donwnload the app if you are travelling to Seoul.

Look at my etude house masks 30pcs for 9900 won!! My friend and I went by 2 rationales while buying cosmetics in Korea... 1st: Price must be at least 50% off 2nd: If not, cant be found in SG. if not for these, we probably would lug the entire myeongdong back home.

Closer look:)

Look at this~

Myeongdong~

The cosmetics stalls are generally having the same promotions but they do have specials only at Myeongdong. But so far, the best deals i found were at subway stations.

Look at who's here:)

Here too. Generally shops at Myeongdong have great lunch promos.

Look at how cute Sally is ~~

We found a restaurant selling a set of Budae Jiggae and a huge Jumbo Cheese Omelette for 25000

Banchan was good:)

It was filled with Koreans and two Japanese tour guides so we felt it was a pretty legit restaurant in Myeongdong( I couldn't believe that i could eat mala hotpot in Seoul lol) Dinner prices in Seoul were rather steep at Myeongdong as its a touristy place.

Yummy:) ( and cheap) I remember our daily budget for food in Korea was $20 per day. Final calculations showed us that we spend $15/ pax for an entire day of meals. Plus we were totally stuffed!! You will see in the upcoming posts.

This was so good~!!!!! Seriously I dont really like cheese that much, but this cheese filled omelette was seriously so good!!!

Part of the set::) Super worth it and super filling. Super delicious as well.

The shopfront. Its in a small alley of Myeongdong that we stumbled upon.

We took the bus back from Myeongdong back to Hapjeong cos we walked so much that we wanted to have a seat. The bus was pretty empty but the funny thing was, there was this big protest going on that day and i was shocked by the number of protesters turning up. It was peaceful though so it was nothing much.