Korea Day 1- Hongdae

Once we exited the gate, we headed straight to the information counter to grab the railway map and brochures. We were told by some friends that it is important to get the brochures for some tourist destinations in order to get tickets at discounted price (same goes to jeju. grab the brochures once you arrive at jeju airport).

After which, we went to get T mobile card (3,000 won) from the 7-11 convenience store near the Incheon Airport metro station (note: it cant be bought from the counter at incheon airport station).

T mobile card works just the same way as ez link card in Sg. The good thing about their self-service top-up machine is that they have a lot of options of the amount you wish to top-up and it can go as low as 1,000 won (about 1 USD). So let's say you only want to top-up 3,000 won but you only have a 5,000 won note; you just click on the 3,000 won tab on the touch screen, feed the machine with your note and they will return you 2,000 won, IN NOTES. I just cant get why Singapore's SMRT top-up machine can't dispense notes. But the downside of their train system is that there is no such thing as control station. Therefore when people get stuck on either side of the gantry and it seems to be due to a problem with their T mobile card, they always look so helpless and anxious. We experienced that during the later part of the trip and we felt just as lost too. D:

Our hostel, Hongdae Uncle Residence is located 10-15mins walk from the Hongdae metro station. For anyone of you going to korea but still undecided on the hostel/hotel to stay at, I would highly recommend you guys to stay near Hongdae station. There are 3 railway lines intersecting at that station thus making it really accessible and convenient. For people with heavy luggage, do not attempt to take the train like we did. There is no elevator/escalator to help you to get out of the station!

We exhausted every ounce of energy we had in our body by the time we reached the hostel (which is on level 4 without lift). But I would still recommend this hostel due to their fabulous rooms. Every room is equipped with private bathroom, tv, computer, cabinets, shoe cabinet, fridge and washing machine, regardless of how the number of occupancies in each room. There are also 2 common hair dryers free for use.  Coffee, bread (toaster available), biscuits in the pantry are complimentary too!

Our meal was settled at a kimchi jjigae restaurant (B.S food) just right beside our hostel's bulding. Famished, we just entered the first restaurant we saw but it turned out to be our favourite restaurant of the trip! Ambience is good, food and service are fantastic. We ordered 2 portions of  kimchi stew with pork belly to share and the bill only came up to 12,000 won! SO CHEAP. Something unique about the rice they served was that millet (which is supposedly good for digestion) was mixed into the rice and it was really yummy!

Dessert at Michaya to complete the meal! We ordered a cake and 2 coffees to share. The mocha was soooo goood. Espresso bitter blended nicely with chocolate sweet- such perfect harmony on my taste buds! Needless to mention, the pure cheesecake was superb too. Every forkful of the delicious pure cheesecake brought us to heaven for as long as it lasted in our mouth. In fact, every cake on display looked so drool-worthy we had such hard time choosing!

It was a rainy first night so we just walked around hongdae. It had only been a few hours but I'm already in love. <3