Graduation Trip To Seoul Day 1

i'm finally back to revive this space. a quick check and my last blog post was in january !! *gasps* 

exams are finally over and i'm officially done with school, for good. liberation smells so sweet.  

for the past four months or so, i've frequented woodlands library, republic polytechnic, holland village starbucks/wendys, west mall coffee bean , orchard central starbucks to mug. 

in fact, these are the only places that i go apart from my tuition venues. #nolife

mad hate the entire routine. wake up, mug, tuition & back home to mug.

& the anxiety on the day before the paper. having to memorise all the facts in your sleep.. insanity.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Anyways, I've just touched down from Seoul last midnight and i'm experiencing massive withdrawal symptoms. I had SO much fun the past few nights with the girls and we wanted to stay so badly. Thinking back, I'm so glad this graduation trip happened. Thank you Lyla, Feli, Rachel, Aiai , Sabby and Tracy for the beautiful memories (and tons of yolo moments) in Seoul.  Special thanks to lyla yang for planning the itinerary and all *lovelove*

We booked our tickets via cheaptickets for about SGD600 ++ with transit at HongKong. Poor Rachel, Feli and I had to top up SGD200 ++ because our last paper postponed by a week. We went through so much trouble to seek assistance regarding this issue and managed to get part of our extra expenses waived. I really wouldn't recommend cheaptickets unless the prices are really tempting because their systems are too confusing. We were directed to and fro, before I managed to grab hold of a responsible and accountable local customer service officer who helped me out a lot when she heard my desperate pleas :( Nevertheless it was all worth it and I had a good time bonding with my friends without the notes/papers. The three of us headed straight for the airport right after our paper. Talk about #youonlyliveonce huh?

here's a picture of our room which holds 7 of us. credits to tracy's iphone :)

 that's rachel feli and i soundly asleep on the first night. we were too zonked out. 

On my previous trip with Sonia, we stayed in Ewha University area. This time round, I decided to stay in Hongik University area and everyone loved the location. I like how it's bustling with activities at night and the plethora of food restaurants. We took the AREX to hongik university station which is so convenient and so much cheaper (3850won , 45 minutes) than the taxi (Sonia and I took the 55000won the other time) and even airport limousine (10000won).

 We stayed in Ann Guesthouse , which is conveniently located just right outside Hongik University Station Exit 1 :)  We paid about SGD30/pax/night and the owner, Ann is very very helpful. I wouldn't recommend you to stay there if you're planning on a trip with a small group of girlfriends though.  Ann Guesthouse operates out of an office building which means that corridor lights are turned off once office hours are over. It was alright for me when there were seven of us but when it was down to just three of us, we felt rather scared groping through the dark to head back to our room. It didn't help at all that our room was located at the end of the corridor. Nevertheless, the room was well equipped and wifi was super fast :) Ann Guesthouse offers complimentary laundry service but some of our laundry came back badly stained. If Ann Guesthouse is not for you , you can try Boa Guesthouse or Hongdae JK house which are also located in Hongdae. 

Check out our happy/excited faces. I was too excited so i didn't sleep much on the plane. 

Did I mention that cathay pacific offers pretty good in-flight entertainment ? :) 

It was pretty cold that morning when the three of us touched down in Seoul. 

Love how the weather's chilly enough for me to snug comfortably in my parka heh. 

darsarina in her chaobin on and off mode respectively. 

outfit of the day for the day one!



first meal in Korea which was pretty disappointing :(


with sabby my little mouse at the basement food area at Jamsil Station.
If you're bored of Lotte World, you can shop in the underground mall :) 

We were supposed to go to Carribean Bay on our first day ( which was their 4th day) but it was too cold and the travelling time was too long so we switched to Lotte World instead.

Tracy, Rachel and Lyla the three daredevils took this ride.

I was too scared so I opted out but I regretted so I took the shorter version of this. 

Can you believe it ? Skinny Rachel Tan is so skinny but her guts are very fat. 

I was so worried that she will be blown off her seat while she happily beamed with excitement at the thought of taking the ride -.- 

took the shorter , milder version of the previous ride to make up for my loss. 

yenqin the sneaky little girl took a picture of my backview for keepsake *shy*

I know Lotte World looks amazing on pictures but it was pretty boring for most of us actually. We didn't get to try to the ice skating rink even though it was very tempting. We weren't even sure if our admission ticket was inclusive of the rink but i doubt so? The actual ticket price was  32000won after 20 percent discount for foreigners. The website stated 26000 won so I'm not sure why the actual price is so far off. We were assigned a counter staff who can speak basic English so communication wasn't a problem at that attraction. 

swearing our love here at Lotte World with yummy churros. 

viking time!

Left around 7 for dinner at shinchon.

 pretty church along the way to the dinner venue

first reunion dinner at shinchon's 8000won bbq buffet (approx 10SGD)

I wouldn't say it's super good but I think it's pretty worth it for the price. Bags/Jackets are placed in a plastic bag to prevent them from stinking. I went mad spamming beef and it's the only meat I like actually :( If only they offer bacon!! Our clan craves for bbq bacon all the time!  After our meal, the auntie actually febreeze on us so we wouldn't scare the pedestrians away :) 

& that marks our day 1, stay tune for day 2-7

november updates.

went on a study date with jing at holland v's starbucks and i found myself highly motivated by her focus.  she was in the midst of her exams preparation while i decided that i should just get my revision start lest history repeats itself again. we were just chilling at one of the corner seats, sharing a cup of of hot green tea latte and catching up with each other before we proceeded with our revision. i actually managed to finish a few chapters and by the end of the day , i was beaming with great sense of achievement. you see, the people you hang out with have immense influence on you . hanging out with conscientious peeps can actually motivate you to study pretty well :)

been meaning to update this space but i was so preoccupied with my revision and other stuff. just as i was about to post an entry on our recent pjclique outing, blogger forbade me to upload anymore pictures unless i pay them a nominal monthly fee for data storage. it's so silly to pay for online data storage especially when i'm only blogging for fun. then one fine day (today) god reminded me of the existence of photobucket and here i'm blogging with pictures !!

met up with the bishan peeps on two separate occasions. the last time i saw grace was in january , on her birthday at regent hotel. i used to see her everyday when we were in PJC and it was so much more convenient to rant to her.  judging from the insane amount of workload that a SMU undergraduate gets , i'm in no position to rant or whatsoever. i should be fine and contented that i dont have to put up with sucky project mates and struggle with back to back datelines to meet. in fact, i'm really loving uni life even though i'm not immersing in any form of campus life. i guess i'm just happy to spend time with my friends during lectures ; be it paying attention / scribbling notes / checking out sneak previews of online boutiques. we could talk about shopping all day and that's what girls do :)

been going on many many movie dates with the boyfriend too . i've been thinking if i should give up my weekend tuition classes to spend more quality time with him. it's the kids vs le boyfriend. 

finally a rare TGIF dinner date with the pjclique :) dinner at yoshimaru , holland village. i'm not a big fan of ramen but i have to say that yoshimaru serves really good ramen. it was full house that night and we had to wait quite a while to be seated. prices are pretty reasonable with the 10% student discount.



headed off to island creamery where i bumped into my long lost friend sarah who's working there.  i can't get enough of their mudpie . it's my cheaper alternative to the mudpies at NYDC.  i'm so hooked on the ice cream flavour pingpong milo ever since nia made me try it a few months back. if only ice cream work like slimming pills or something, i would have this everyday. i don't have the habit of buying pints of ice cream back to feast on but i was really tempted to takeaway a pint of pingpong milo.
after 1 serving of mudpie and apple pie served with ice cream , we ordered another pint to share among ourselves. it was such a rare sinful indulgence and i was happy while it lasted until i got home. i was literally having war with my tummy.

& here's a picture of my outfit on tuesday . ah boys to men movie date with felimbo . 

skirt's from lovebonito.com and bag's from http://tgif-ashion.livejournal.com . 

we're down to the last month of 2012.  make it count !! 

shanghai day 1 :)

i'm back from a five day trip to shanghai . i'm still adjusting to the humid weather in singapore but i'm definitely glad to be home. a new semester has commenced and i feel pretty regretful about missing the first week of school . definitely time to pull up my socks since the grades from the previous semester were far from satisfactory.. lord please give me the strength to pull through the final year !! 

anyway, many of my friends asked me " why shanghai? "

our original plan was to head to osaka but there was some rumour about harmful radiation which could be bad for females. we didn't want to take the risk especially when my mom is so protective of me. we decided to explore somewhere new and shanghai was our final choice. i was quite apprehensive at first because kun is such a cheenapiang who cant speak mandarin for nuts.  we went ahead with it anyway. 

& that's how i became a translator for five awesome days .

shanghai's huge but it's pretty convenient and super cheap to travel by metro . we took metro from pudong international airport to east nanjing station (which was where our hotel was located) and the entire journey took us slightly more than an hour . morning peak hour was insane but we managed to stay sane through the crowd. it only cost us 7RMB (~1.40SGD). our hotel was only 5 minutes away from the station . it was a relief that kun managed to locate the hotel with the aid of the directions provided online . i was in desperate need of a respite after so much travelling . 

we booked shanghai fish inn bund via agoda and we paid SGD250 for 4 nights. the check in time stated was 12 pm but the hotel kindly let us check in earlier since there were available rooms. they even upgraded our room to a pretty & cozy suite (pictured above) that totally lifted our mood. we were so impressed with our humble abode and the service provided by the friendly staff. 

outfit of the day :) 

it's pretty chill over there at shanghai so it was a good time to throw on my blazers. 

we went on wednesday and it was already very crowded. 

there's a very famous xiaolongbao stall called nanxiang xiao long bao. 

the queue was insane ( as mad as those iphone 5 queues) so we didnt bother. 

it's a bustling area with many shophouses selling food , souvenirs and apparel. 

apart from food & beverages , always try to bargain. 

i've read and heard about how the local retailers like to jack up price to earn more. 

always cut the price by more than half. don't bother showing them mercy man. 

when we reached there, I didnt dare to cut the price by a lot because i haven't bargained in a long while

so yepp, my bargaining skills were a little rusty but after some practice in shanghai, i went full force. 

competition is very stiff because there are so many shops selling the same stuffs. 

 First destination of the day : City God of Temple & Yuyuan Garden . 

I thought the Yuyuan Garden was quite interesting and served as pretty backdrop for phototaking. Indulging in flora and fauna once in a while could be very relaxing. 

Entrance fee for yuyuan garden was 40RMB (~8SGD) which was worth the money

I wouldn't say the same thing for City God of Temple which was 20RMB . 

Neither of us holds the joss stick so it was a pretty waste of money since there wasn't anything special . 

Second destination of the day : Tian Zi Fang 

One of my favourite places in Shanghai ! It's an arts and craft enclave which houses many quaint cafes , mini bars, restaurants and retail shops . It reminds us fondly of the haji lane back at home. Wished we had more time so we could chill there.  We settled at his western restaurant for lunch where the service was really impeccable. The waitress really took the effort to make sure we were comfortable in our seats. While the food wasn't up to standard, the ambience and service made up for it. 

Last stop : XINTIANDI . 

It's pretty much like our paragon / clarke quay where prices are pretty steep for local standards. 

We visited this shikumen open house which was 20RMB each and it was not bad . 

Apart from this open house ,  it was just streets of shopping malls and restaurants. 

We decided against spending a bomb at Xintiandi so we head over to our hotel area to eat instead. 

and if you're visiting shanghai, you must try this. 

xiao yang sheng jian 

it's like a bigger and fried version of the xiao long baos. there's one outlet near our hotel which is just opposite of exit 6 , line 10 East Nanjing Station. Kun loved it so much so we have it everyday. It only costs 9RMB (~SGD 1.80) for 6 pieces. They serve noodles and soups too. Every patron in the store will order this. Wished we could bring them home to satisfy our cravings now :( 

shall blog about the rest of the trip soon.