We started our day with breakfast at Migabon, located within walking distance from Hotel New Oriental Myeongdong. For those who are familiar with Korean culture, porridge or congee is a popular choice of breakfast by the Koreans, and Migabon serves a wide variety of awesome porridges that help to warm our stomach in the cold weather.
Migabon
Address: 2-2 Myeongdong 2(I)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Migabon
Address: 2-2 Myeongdong 2(I)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
After much contemplation, hubby finally succumb to my persuasion and agrees to have a hair cut done. We entered 1 of the Juno Hair salon in Myeongdong, and were warmly welcomed by the salon staffs. After keeping our belongings in a locker, the hair stylist asks us to choose the desired hair style for hubby using pictures of various Korean celebrities while drinks and snacks are being served. An assistant then help hubby to wash his hair, before the hair stylist began her work to transform hubby into a K-Pop star, while the assistant was kept busy wiping off any hair that falls onto hubby's face.
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End product - side view
Back view
Top view
I didn't engage their service as I just did it my hair before the trip. Verdict - Great service from the staffs, nice cut (but somehow the hair style seems nowhere near that of our chosen celebrity's hairstyle), but a bit pricey considering Korean standards.
Next on, we venture into Common Ground, a hip shopping center made up of container boxes, before taking a bus to Gangnam to have lunch at Aori Ramen, a ramen restaurant owned by K-pop singing group Big Bang's Seungri. My friend recommended this ramen restaurant to us for its rich broth and springy noodle (although its owner plays a part too), and we were not disappointed.
Common Ground
Address: 200 Achasan-ro, Jayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Nearest Subway: Konkuk Station, go out via exit 6 and about 250m straight
Aori Ramen
Address: 7 Dosan-daero 57-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
We took bus 4212 near Konkuk Station to this restaurant
Common Ground
Aori Ramen @ Gangnam
After a satisfying lunch, we took bus 472 to Ewha Woman University (about an hour journey), and then explore the shopping lanes near the University, before making way to Hongdae via subway for more shopping.
Ewha Woman University
Ewha Woman University
Main shopping street near Hongik University
Interesting Lego theme restaurant
Brick Burger!
After an afternoon of retail therapy, we had yet another dakgalbi meal at Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu, which was quite highly recommended in many travel blogs. We didn't understand the hype though, probably due to the fact that we had tasted better ones the day before on our excursion to Nami Island.
Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu
Address: 1, Yonsei-ro 5ga-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
Nearest subway: Sinchon Station
Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu
Before we call it a day, we went for some yummy mandu (dumplings) at Myeongdong Kyoja.
Myeongdon Kyoja
Address: 29, Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
Day 9 is a day of fantasy as we are visiting Everland. We've pre-booked our admission tickets from Trazy.com after comparing the prices of a few sites, and initially, we wanted to make our way to Everland via public transport. After much thinking, we decided to pick up the shuttle bus service from Trazy.com as well to save us some efforts, since the shuttle bus can pick us up directly from Myeongdong.
After our breakfast at Macdonalds, we board the shuttle bus, and arrived at Everland in around an hour's time.
Macdonald's breakfast
The famous magical tree near the entrance of Everland
Our first stop is Safari World in order to avoid the crowd that usually appears in the afternoon to have some close up encounter with lions, white tiger and bears.
Safari World - queuing up for the Tiger Bus
The lion family
White tiger
Bear - cutie pie which did some performance based on the cue of the Tiger Bus driver
I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't see the liger (cross breed of lion and tiger) this time, and I attached an old photo of the liger taken during a previous trip to Everland in 2007.
Liger - note the stripes on the body which is typical of a tiger
1 of the perks of visiting Everland during winter is opening of Snow Buster where one could enjoy the trill of sledging down the snow covered slopes. We had quite some fun here sledging down various slopes of different heights, and then we headed to 1 of the cafes to have our lunch.
Tube lift - no need to climb up the slopes to do the sledge
Our lunch - a pretty decent katsu curry rice
We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the amusement park - watching shows and taking rides before its time to go back to Seoul.
We had our dinner at Andong Jjimdak, a popular restaurant selling jjimdak (braised chicken), a dish which originates from Andong (hence the name). We totally enjoyed the tender chicken and thick gravy that goes so well with rice that we almost ordered more rice to go with the gravy.
Andong Jjimdak
Address: Myeongdong 2ga, 2-2, Seoul, South Korea
This marks the end of Day 9, paving way for an exciting Day 10 ahead.
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