Graduation Trip To Seoul Day 6, 7 & 8

the last of #7inseoulheaven for keepsake :)

on the 6th day , which was also the most epic day ever, we visited the carribean bay. 

didn't get to visit the water theme park since it was winter during my last visit. 

our minds must have went bonkers from all the shopping because in the morning, we decided that we shouldn't bring our individual wallets but a fixed amount in one pocket instead. we did some research online and after much calculation and consideration, we brought a total of 180000won. we thought we would have more than enough. 

never did we imagine that the actual price of an entrance ticket is way higher than the ones stated on the internet.. nearly went nuts when we thought we couldn't enter after the long long journey. the prices stated on the visitkorea web weren't accurate at all, for most of the attractions we've included in the itinerary. it was so frustrating because we were told that we've to rent life jackets even when we barely had enough to cover for the cheaper ticket which admits entrance at 2pm. nevertheless, we decided to just play by ear and went ahead to purchase the tickets and enter. 

after we entered, we encountered yet another financial issue. we had to purchase a card to rent our life jackets and the minimum amount was 30000won. we were short of 3000won. literally had to give the counter stuff ( who's a very nice lady ) the puppy eyes as i narrate our very unfortunate circumstance in my very limited korean + english before she allowed us to pay the 18000won for the life jackets in cash. & then we were told we had to buy swimming caps which we obviously couldn't even afford one with the meagre sum left. thank god, we noticed a few locals who weren't wearing them in the wave pool and decided to just go without them. it was all worth it because the wave pool's so fun and it was truly entertaining to see feli scream at the top of her lungs as the wave swept her back. at the later part of the day, felicia decided that the rides were too overwhelming for her so she would rather utilise her 42000won worth of entrance fee in the hot jacuzzi. fortunately for me, rachel was gutsy enough so we managed to take a few rides. 

& then it was home sweet home after bathing with all the naked ladies in the bathroom. as luck would have it, our subway card had insufficient value. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? & the angsty bus driver wouldn't allow us to pay in cash , even when a nice local tried to argue on our behalf. we had no choice but to take the subway which will take us x3 of the journey time. you know what? time wasn't even an issue, money was. we decided to get to the main city line and utilise every cent we had to get as near as possible to hongik station (where we were staying). when we reached the main city line, we realised we were only short of 3000won to get to our destination. we actually thought of taking a cab to our hotel while one of us run up to the guesthouse to grab money to foot for the cab fare but the thought of being hurled obscenties by the ferocious cab driver deterred us. in the end, we had to ask for some tokens from the kind locals. it's truly an epic, embarrassing and whatever you deemed approrpriate day.. 

we were starving by the time we reached the guesthouse and scrambled for dinner after which. 

day seven was so much better. 

here's a picture of our outfits which got our day started. 

we went back to edae to continue with our unfinished shopping :) managed to grab the last few pieces of the laneige sunpowder which was completely wiped out in all outlets. i was gonna make it HG when they announced that this product has been discontinued and replaced with the bb cushion. isn't the idea of a sunpowder brilliant? it's hard for us to reapply our sunblock when we have our make up own but sunscreen in the form of powder would totally do the trick. keeping my fingers crossed that some brands would manufacture something similar. xx 

went broke after shopping so we needed to replenish our korean wons but there weren't any money changers, even in the popular streets of hongdae. we couldn't even change money in the banks because it was a public holiday and the banks were closed. we were told to head all the way to myeongdong when we chanced by this in seoul station. managed to get the cash converted at a pretty good rate :) 

to sum up the day  : we had yummy kimchi fried rice with seafood toppings, went mad shopping at a grand mart and had delicious kimchi stew with bbq bacon and ended the day with ice cream waffles at caffe bene 

then it was the final afternoon in seoul . got up much earlier and usual to chill in hongdae. 

second visit in this restaurant which serves shabu shabu. love how they are so generous with the portions and sauces which went so well with the food :) it was only 11SGD per person. 

we meant to just take a walk after a meal when we chanced upon banila co, yet again. banila co x rachel&felicia is such a lethal combination. we went in , got our pockets emptied and went back to the guesthouse. our favourite brand in seoul. it's more expensive than the rest like nature republic, etude house , innisfree and all but it offers really good products which are comparable to MAC (in my opinion) my eyeliner wouldn't stop smudging because of my oily lids and they had this miracle primer powder which allowed my eyeliner wink to last throughout the day !! imagine my happiness when the salesperson introduced it to us. 

& it was time to head to the airport. we had too many baggages so we couldn't fit into one public taxi. two public taxis would cost us close us to 90000won so we decided to book the maxi cab , with the help of the owner of the guesthouse. so thankful that we changed extra cash the day before or we wouldn't have enough for the cab fare.  that sums up the entire yolo grad trip xoxo. till the next vacation, ladies ! :) 

Graduation Trip To Seoul Day 2

it's been two days and i am still experiencing massive withdrawal from the grad trip!

can't wait to meet the girls this tuesday to revive our happy moments and reclaim our respective items.

we bought so much that we couldn't keep track our own items. 

anyway, here's day two's itinerary : famous ginseng chicken , gyeongbokgung palace , insadong ( tourist information centre , miss lee cafe ) and namsam tower. 

snapshots for the vainpots and camwhores along the way :) 

first stop at tok sok chun ginseng before we visit the palace. 

the queue's pretty long but eased pretty fast because of the spacious interior. 

we paid 16000 won each for the ginseng goodness and it was worth every penny :) 

love the herbal soup but not so much for the glutinous rice that's stuffed in the chicken .

it's a MUST-TRY!! you won't regret it. 

gyeong bok gung palace next! it's my second visit and i didn't pay to visit the interior previously.

& by sheer luck we reached just before the start of the marching procession :) 

lyla and i got bored of the marching procession halfway through so we decided to snap OOTD against the sparse background. pardon my squinty eyes but the sunlight was so strong that day. 

mandatory group shots upon entry of every place of interest. 

gyeong bok gung was rather boring for me. i'm not the kind who appreciates historical sites :( 

i think i've visited way too many palaces in China and all we did was to take pictures. 

$50 bucks for anyone who can make this skeleton overweight. 

my 24/7 #skinnyspiration #starvation #anorexic #darsarinawhyyounoeat? #sendyoubacktoaAfrica

made a pit stop at insadong. the main street is Insadong-gil, which is connected to a multitude of alleys that lead deeper into the district, with modern galleries and tea shop. there's a lot of souvenir shops along the main stretch of road too. we stopped by the famous o sulloc teahouse which is apparently very popular among the locals. they had a wide variety of green tea products to offer and the prices were pretty reasonable for non premium range. most of us bagged the soy green tea latte and green tea latte home! 5000won for a small box of 10 satchels :) 

it's a common sight to see young budding artists performing on the streets of insadong 

people would crowd around and show their support, how lovely :) 

our infinity bracelets which cost us 5000won each.

most of our bracelets broke at the end of the day. what kind of infinity bracelet are these?!

their lifespans are far from infinity -.- blatant waste of money. 

bought malt candy from this uncle who's partially disabled. feels good to be able to bring a smile across someone's face :) 

we had been on the hunt for tourist centres to try on hanboks when we chanced upon this place!

insadong tourist centre. great heavens above must have heard our prayers :)

if i'm not wrong , we paid 3000 won each and were given 20 minutes to take pictures.

no camera provided so we had to use our own and lyla's DSLR came in handy. 

the assistants are not obliged to help you take the pictures but you can ask them to take a few for you. 

there weren't a lot of selections when it came to the costumes and we pretty much wiped out the rack.

6 concubines fighting for the king. 

our failed consummation. we are forever taking couple shots somehow. 

hahaha lyla yang in her masculine mode. she was the man on the set. 

here's me doing what i'm best at - being nonsensical and drawing laughter from the rest. 

it was fun while it lasted. 

we had dinner at the famous miss lee cafe which serves bento set. 

some of you might have heard of this cafe, made famous by one of the korean programmes.

it's actually located on the second level of the start of the insadong stretch (as pictured above)

sealing our memories on a piece of paper :) 

hello, we made a stop here!! 

koreans seem to like the idea of leaving messages on papers/post-its in restaurants/hangouts

we ordered the bento set which comes with an egg, kimchi, luncheon meat and seaweed soup. 

it's a very simple meal so i wouldn't recommend if you're on the hunt for good food. 

i would say the ambience makes up for the food and it's a good place for couples to date.

it was getting late so we split up into two groups to cab down to the cable car area for namsam tower. 

 bought a round trip ticket at 8000won if i'm not wrong. 

there was a long long long queue when we reached so we had to wait quite a while for our turn. 

& if you were expecting a romantic, private cable car ride up the mountains, DREAM ON. 

it was so crowded and stifling inside the cable car it reminded me of our MRT trains during peak hours.

it's a relief the ride only took 5 minutes maximum. 

three part #BullyFeliciaTillSheSurrenders movie.

& that sums up our day two . it was a long, long , long day and we crashed the minute we got back.