Bread Comma, Cafe Bonjur | Korea Travelogue

Whenever we walked from our guesthouse over to the main Hongdae area, or to take the subway, we always pass by this lovely cafe which always seemed to be crowded even late into the night. We never had the time to check it out but we finally did on our very last day in Seoul. It looked warm and inviting, especially with all the bright colours on the outside, very spring/summer appropriate.

School Food | Korea Travelogue

Whenever we find ourselves at Sinsa-dong, Garosu-gil, we always head to School Food because it's one of my sister's favourite food places. When we were there in May last year, we were (not so) pleasantly surprised to realise that they changed up the menu quite a bit and a few of the items we loved having there were no longer on the menu. For better or for worse, this meant that we had to try new items.

While the menu is mostly written in Korean with only the names of the food items are in English, you can pretty much guess what the food is based on the names themselves so ordering really wasn't much of an issue for us.

Coca-cola (1,500 KRW)

Tosokchon Samgyetang | Korea Travelogue

Whenever someone asks me where to go to have samgyetang (Korean ginseng chicken soup) in Seoul, I always say "Tosokchon". Tosokchon is probably one of the most famous places in Seoul to have samgyetang at and this is evidenced by the long queues outside the shop for a table during lunch times (I have never gone there during dinner time so I can't testify to that. 

A trick to beat the queue is to head there right when they open. They open at 10am so if you reach there any time between 1000 to 1015, you can pretty much guarantee yourself a table with no queue and no waiting time. I've been there 4 times and have never had to queue for a table.

Favourite drinks in Korea | Korea Travelogue

This is going to be a very random post but if any one were to ask me what were the 2 drinks I would have to have whenever I'm in Korea, it's definitely these 2. I'm not talking about drinks which you find in cafes or in coffee shops but just drinks that you can find in their local convenience store like 7-Eleven or GS25.

The first drink is nothing surprising, it's the famous Korean banana milk. It's one of the must-have drinks whenever you visit Korea and for good reason as well. It's very fresh, the banana taste is just right, not too overpowering or too light, and it isn't too sweet as well. If banana milk isn't your cup of tea, the melon milk is pretty good and refreshing as well. Besides banana milk and melon milk, they do have normal milk and strawberry milk as well. 

The second, lesser-known drink, is this, it's called Coolpis in Korean (if I'm not wrong). I was addicted the moment I took my first sip. My friends and I were having jjimdak (Korean braised chicken) and the set meal they were offering at the moment included Coolpis with it. The jjimdak we had was pretty spicy so we were gulping this down and we realised that it did help to cool our mouths (and stomachs) down slightly.

Since then, I have always hunted this down whenever I'm in Korea. Not all 7-Elevens and GS25s sell this though so you may have to go into a few to grab this but if you do see it then please give it a try. If I have to describe how it tastes like, it's a light peach-flavoured yoghurt sort of drink. Absolutely delicious.

Thank you so much for reading and you can check out my Korea vlogs HERE! x

Top 4 Places to Shop in Seoul | Korea Travelogue

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, and it is definitely the place to be if you are interested in all things Kpop and Kbeauty. I have fallen head over heels in love with Seoul since the first time I visited 2 years back and every year, I make at least one trip back to shop and to eat. Seoul is definitely a shopper's paradise when it comes to fashion, beauty, accessories, even lifestyle items. 

Many Korean beauty brands have made it to the world stage and some famous ones are definitely Laneige, Amore Pacific, Sulwhasoo, The Face Shop, Innisfree and Etude House. There are so many Korean brands focused on makeup and skin care that you will probably have to do good research before heading there if not you'll be swamped with the sheer amount of products available to you at very affordable prices. 

I have been to Seoul 4 times in the past 2 years and all 4 times, I find myself gravitating to the same few places to shop because they never disappoint. Since many of my friends have been asking me where to go to shop in Seoul, I thought I would compile a list of my top 4 places to shop. 

You may or may not agree with me as to where are the best places to shop in Seoul but these are just the places that worked for me. So if you only have a few days to spend in Seoul and you want to do some hard core shopping, then please carry on reading.

Mary Brown | Korea Travelogue

My dad always says that the difference between males and females when it comes to shopping is that females usually go shopping with the intention to buy something, and not with something specific in mind. Females then end up loads of other items that weren't on the list. Whereas for males, they go out with the intention to buy one specific item, and they come back with only that specific item. As sexist as that sounds, and I know this does not apply for everyone (I am not generalising here), he does describe me perfectly. 

Being in Korea does not help because there are so many shops around that sell items that I while I do not technically need, they look so cute that I just need them in my life after seeing them. One such store is Mary Brown in Hongdae.

Korean Food & Ice Coffee in Hongdae | Korea Travelogue

If you're looking for food to eat in the Hongdae area, then you'll definitely be pleased to know that I have yet another eatery to recommend. I stumbled upon this place when I was in Seoul with my family earlier this year. We were in search of a place to have lunch at and we decided on this one (with the white sign board and red words) because it was one of the only ones open at around 12 noon.

I can't read Korean so I am no help in translating the name of this place but it's in the main Hongdae shopping area where the buskers usually are so if this is any help at all...

I think I love about food places in Korea is that they always have side dishes which taste amazing. My favourites are definitely the bean sprouts, kimchi and fishcakes. They have so many different kinds of side dishes (although kimchi is usually a standard one no matter where you go) that you definitely have to be there to try them all.

Korea Travelogue // A Twosome Place, School Food, Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil, O'Sulloc, Yeolbong Jjimdak, & Coffee Prince.

Sadly, this will be the last post for my Korea travelogues because I'm combining the last 2 days we spent in Korea together into one blog post. On a happier note, I do have 2 other travelogues coming up, one of them being my Okinawa trip with my family and my Hong Kong trip with my friends so once I'm done with this post, I can focus on getting up the vlogs done and blog posts done as well.

Also, because I'm finally done with school, I can move on with my next stage in life and whilst I'm applying for jobs, I can also focus on trying more beauty products to review here as well and in general, just focus on what I like to do besides school which is such a relief for me because as much as I loved studying, the last 6 months of my life was insanely packed.

Okay moving on to the actual post itself....

We started the day with breakfast at Coffee Prince which is just around the corner from our Airbnb apartment. We ate this in Gyeongju so nothing new here.

Korea Travelogue // Tosokchon Samgyetang, Samcheongdong, Innisfree House, & Insadong.

For our 6th day in Seoul, I brought my family to Tosokchon to have their very famous samgyetang which is essentially Korean ginseng chicken soup. I've had it 2 times already and I still love it. Everyone says that they serve the best samgyetang around but I haven't really tried others so I'm not the best at comparing.

We ordered 3 portions of samgyetang (15,000 KRW) and a seafood pancake (15,000 KRW) to share.

Korea Travelogue // Noryangjin Fish Market, Express Bus Terminal, Gamjatang, Isaac Toast, & Namsangol Hanok Village

On our fourth day in Korea, we set out to explore Noryangjin Fish Market. On my pervious 2 trips to Korea, I've always planned it into my itinerary but we always gave it a miss because we either didn't have enough time, or there were other things we wanted to do more. So this time round, we took it upon ourselves to wake up early and finally make our way over.

I woke up to this amazing view from our Airbnb apartment! I love Seoul so much :>

Korea Travelogue // Daereungwon Tomb Complex, Angel-In-Us Coffee, & Travelling back to Seoul

On our last day in Gyeongju, we decided to head to Daereungwon Tomb Complex because whilst we were at Gyeongju's National Museum, we read a lot about the tombs and how a lot of precious items were uncovered in them. (Also, we didn't know where else to go to.) 

Mummy said it would be chilly today so I pulled on a pullover and wore high socks but nothing could be further from the truth zomg. It was so hot because the sun was shining really brightly that we all nearly died from the heat (figuratively not literally). The shade was our best friend for most of the day.

Korea Travelogue // A Twosome Place, Bulguksa Temple, & Gyeongju National Museum

For our second day in Gyeongju, we went to have breakfast at A Twosome Place which was just outside our hotel. I've seen ATP around in Seoul during my previous trips but I've never been in one before.

Korea Travelogue // Cheomseongdae Observatory, Gyerim Forest, Wolji Pond

Hello everyone~~~ This is finally the first post of my long awaited Korea trip with my family in September. I'm so sorry this took so long to do up because I was literally swamped with work and school every single day and I had so much to catch up on because of my holiday. But! I am finally back to blogging again. Hopefully I'll manage to find time to do up my blog posts (and travel vlogs!) so that this space won't be majorly neglected again.

We took a night flight to Seoul and I basically spent most of the flight time watching back-to-back movies because I'm crazy like that. I really should be slept more on the plane but I was way too hyped up about the trip to even contemplate sleep.

Korea Trip Preview in Squares

I'm so sorry for the super duper long absence. I've been so busy with catching up with work and school stuff that I have missed whilst I was in Korea but I promise I'll try my best to find time to do up my Korea travelogues asap! In the mean time, you can check out the snippets of my trip that I posted on my Instagram (@YiQingggg).