from seoul to singapore

as much as i love to travel beyond my shores, i always love flying home and the anticipation of getting that first glimpse of home. and as corny as it sounds, i always play michael buble's home during the aircraft's final descent, that is until the air stewardess asks me to take my earphones!

singapore is really gorgeous in the evening. our skyline and our waters are as distinctive as it gets.

this is the last post from my travels to korea earlier this year. it's been a pretty long ride, and i thank you so very much for staying all the way through with me. all the comments i have received meant so much and i have thoroughly loved sharing one of my favourite countries with you. the next few posts will be from my short trips to bali and bangkok in the last couple of months but i will be keeping them short with the hope that in a couple of weeks, i can begin to share an blog my everyday life.

hello kitty cafe

one of my travel pals love all things pink and cutesy, on our last night in seoul, we decided to indulge her when we found the hello kitty cafe had opened up a branch in daehangno, right outside the door step of our hostel.

hongdae & porridge

on our last full day in seoul, we had hoped that the weather would stay fine enough for the hongdae weekend market craft market to happen. hongdae is known as an arty and collegiate district so we were really looking forward to spending all our remaining dollars there. unfortunately the clouds rolled in and the skies opened up. the first shot is the only photograph i have of hongdae. :( in the end, instead of staying at hongdae, we headed to myeongdong for a soul-warming bowl of abalone porridge. it was gooood.

one last breakfast in seoul

delicious.

205°C, our neighbourhood cafe

this is possibly my favourite cafe of the whole lot that i visit. situated in a quiet yet convenient spot (below my hostel), check. run by a husband & wife team addicted to travel and design, check. grinds its own beans, check. have an incredible collection of tea cups, check. simple and clean decor, check. incredible coffee & food, check check check!

i heart namsan.

at the open viewing platform area at namsam, lovers "lock" their love onto the wire barricades. it's amazing to see the amount of locks, some of them are old and grungy, some of them brand new and shiny. there are all sorts of locks too and it was incredibly fun to poke around trying to find the most unique ones. one of the coolest ones was a set of bicycle chains!

i always thought that only namsan tower had this unique feature but it seems like that the River Seine in Paris has lovers "locking" their love on the bridge too! I found out when I saw Rhianne's photos from her recent trip to Paris. Does anyone else know any other locations that features this as well? I would love to know.

and with this post, i finally get to link to Anna'a Much Love Monday post! it's been way too long since i joined in the fun but i haven't had a good photograph in ages! so yes, this makes me really happy this monday!

the teddy bear museum

the adorable little teddy bear museum in namsan tower. i loved how they used teddy bears to depict the history & traditions of korea, and daily life in each neighbourhood. it's all kinds of cute.

seoulscape

my soul is in seoul.

namsan tower

namsan tower is undoubtedly one of the iconic landmarks of seoul. we were lucky that the day we went up the tower, the day was pretty clear (it began to rain later). namsan tower is pretty fun, you not only get to view seoul from the highest tower in the city, there's also a teddy museum and this open viewing deck where couples lock their love (will explain more about this later in another post!).

you have to pay a little extra to go all the way up to the tower and being total tourists, we shelled out the extra dollar to go up. i love that they labelled the windows which point towards other great cities and including the distance between seoul and that city. such an amazing spot to dream of faraway places. and i particularly love that my next travel destination is in one of the two "window" photographs. guess which one? :)

a typical korean lunch

01. a korean style chinese restaurant in ehwa

02. sweet & sour chicken

03. jajangmyun (black bean noodles), jampong (spicy seafood soup) and fried rice

04. street cart

05. ddeokbokki and deep fried eggs

a walk around hyehwa #2

so many more to discover in hyehwa, if all goes well, i might be back next autumn. *fingers crossed.