jyp house Airbnb @ hongdae

wife booked JYP House, a Airbnb studio at hongdae 弘大 locality. it was just 20m from hongik station exit 2!🙂

hongdae i guess is the cheaper out of town locality c/w insadong or myeongdong.

it is a youthful neighbourhood of live cafés and clubs, art markets, and gourmet eateries with indie bands street performancs & a popular hang-out for local youth, a fascinating place to walk around.

according to the info provided by the hosts, 2 young university students sorin & zero, JYP House was their studio which they now renovated for Airbnb letting.

wife downloaded the lin apps & connected with zero, & he arranged to meet us at hongik station. so we messaged him when we were about to board the AREX commuter train for the 50mins journey. & he met us at hongik station & took us to the studio apartment.

jyp house Airbnb @ hongdae

there was no guest the previous night so we were able to have early checked in.

apartment was quite spacious. 2 queen beds, very comfortable. i estimate 280sq ft or more.

lots of pillows & blanket was warm.

jyp house Airbnb @ hongdae

• room temp control was good, effective. room was warm
• wifi was good, fast! very important la. ^^
• there was the multi-socket extension cord, and one korean power adaptor (anyway i brought 2 adaptors myself)
• kitchenette has electric kettle, and there was stick coffee. we did not use microwave & the single stove/hob.
• & a huge fridge on the right side.

jyp house Airbnb @ hongdae

toilet/shower & hot water all working.

there was tooth paste, & all the hair & body shampoo.

there were lots of toilet rolls, many clean towels in the wardrobe.

& the room was accessed by security code. good & bad i guess but that’s the practice, very convenient for us i must say.

the entire building seem to be leased out for Airbnb…lol! we see hoards of travelers & their luggage every day at different time of the day la…

wife booked one extra night on 13.11.2016, as our flight was 12.35am. this very important as we want to have a room to return to, to bathe etc before leaving for the airport around 9pm. the extra night just S$90/night, & with cleaning & admin charges total about S$495 for 4 nights.

this was a very pleasant stay, everything very convenient, right at hongik station, right next to the walking streets & restaurants.

one set back which other travelers mentioned it can be noisy. so on saturday night, there was a street promotion with games & participants right outside the building, and they were on loud hailers till like 11pm. didn’t bother me much as i sleep after 11pm la…

c.h.e.f andy

fried carrot cake asia treasures T3 lounge

our SQ608 flight departing 12.10am from changi T3.

we booked the complimentary pick up, arrived & check in about 11pm.

decided to go asia treasure lounge as quieter, less traffic, usually food better though smaller range than SQ lounge.

fried carrot cake asia treasures T3 lounge

not today i guess….errr…but still ok la…

did not have the usual berries energiser smoothie! got some apple etc ok not as great.

the fried carrot cake very nice atcually, very flavourful, just took a little for sampling.

likewise the thick beenhoon goreng with pulled chicken. tasty too just a little dry & stringy.

meet soto SQ lounge

decided to drop in at the SQ lounge also to look see.

taste wise, asia treasures food better. SQ lounge has a lot more variety & quantity, and also a lot of people.

mee soto was ok.

chicken wing & rendang SQ lounge

chicken wing, rendang quite pedestrian….

lobster thermidor SQ flight – book the cook

i “booked the cook”. ^^

for the onward flight, i had lobster thermidor. 🙂

lobster thermidor – london return flight 4apr2016

well this lobster themrindor NOT that lobster thermidor la!

see the one i had on SQ london flight in apr2016 (above photo)!

lobster thermidor SQ flight – book the cook

still cannot complain la…

lobster was tender & tasty enough…rice ok i took a little.

asparagus was good i finished all.

lobster thermidor SQ flight – book the cook

presentation not so nice as the previous.

still one whole lobster i think, maybe smaller one.

lobster thermidor SQ flight – book the cook

quite a decent meal overall.

i watched allegiant, the 3rd movie, very average, and slept about 3hrs on the 6.5hrs flight.

c.h.e.f andy

Day2 – autumn colours nami island, chuncheon

wife & i left for seoul 10-13.11.2016. ^^

our brief plan was to catch whatever autumn colours there still was, and to do a day hike at bukhansan.

and of course to eat & eat & eat! later nami island was added to our make-shift itinerary. ^^

Flight

wife waitlisted a SQ redemption flight & had a confirmed flight notification on 3.11.2016. she told me flights were available & i went online & managed to also get a redemption flight, and we were flying in a week on 10.11.2016. taxes etc were S$404! but then economy tickets were like S$1800, S$2000!

among the more hasty of our trips i guess! 🙂

Stay

wife booked a Airbnb studio at hongdae 弘大. it was just 20m from hongik station exit 2! 🙂

hongdae i guess is the cheaper neighbourhood c/w insadong or myeongdong.

it is a youthful neighbourhood of live cafés and clubs, art markets, and gourmet eateries with indie bands street performancs & a popular hang-out for local youth, a fascinating place to walk around.

wife booked one extra night on 13.11.2016, as our flight was 12.35am. this very important as we want to have a room to return to, to bathe etc before leaving for the airport around 9pm. the extra night just S$90/night, & with cleaning & admin charges total about S$495 for 4 nights.

we were arriving at 7.35am seoul time. travel by AREX commuter train to hongik station is 50mins (see below on transport). we had 2 handcarries no check in so we estimated we would be in hongik about 9.30am, and we were about right!

the Airbnb apartment is accessed by code, but the airbnb host agreed to meet us at hongik station to bring us to the apartment. we were lucky we could check in immediately as apartment was empty, but otherwise we would just leave our luggage.

they (our airbnb host sorin & zero) used line in korea so we downloaded line apps & messaged them about the arrangements.

Transport

there is a AREX (Airport Railroad Express) commuter (all stop) train 11 stops from incheon to seoul station.

very convenient for us as we plan our airbnb at hongik on one of the stops. it’s about 50mins travel time & 3850won.

wife was in seoul with daughter the last time, so she knew about getting the T-money transportation card, useable on AREX, seoul subway & buses

Wifi – Staying Connected 

Seoul is the most connected city in the world with wifi everywhere in airport, shopping & eating places.

still it is useful to be able to connect with Airbnb host, search for subway maps, information on destinations, read blogs & reviews.

google no map data & functions in korea! 

&

naver map is only in korean.

we have a mifi, and was debating whether to get a sim card at incheon, whether we have to queue & wait etc.

anyway we decided to get the starhub happy roam.

Starhub use SK Telecom. network was ok. overall experience not so satisfactory, not all that Happy la!

we bought a S$15 Starhub happy prepaid sim card which has S$18 credit. paid S$7 for 1GB plan for 7days (we needed 4days) & had S$11 credits remaining.  we arrived 10.11.2016 morning & by 11.11.2016 late morning, data was depleted???? not just the 1GB deplete but the S$11 credit also? so does that mean the $7 paid for 1GB data or just access to 1GB while the remaining S$11 is paying for the actual data usage????

we didn’t figure out why but anyway we top up S$20, which supposed to come to 2GB bonus. yet it showed no data available until we bought another 1 GB for 3 days for $5, so we bought another 1 GB ie S$10 for 2 GB in case it used up too quickly again & we have to take out/put back the starhub prepaid sim card to load again.

So troublesome & so unclear what is paying for what???

so in total we used S$35 instead of S$7 for 1 GB for 7 days (I don’t even use 1GB for one whole month in singapore!!!)

anyhow it sufficed for our purpose until we find a better alternative.

Destinations

our plan was to have lesiurely visits to the autumn colour spots, plus a 1 day hike at bukhansan. ^^

so that’s visiting-

1. changdeokgung 昌德宫& secret gardens biwon 秘苑
2. & the smaller changegyeonggung (east palace) next to biwon
3. gyeongbokgung 景福宫
4. namsan park
5. bukhansan itself; & lastly we added
6. nami island 南怡岛in chuncheon春川

so we just need to research the places we visiting, how to get there, & to cluster the places for efficiency in traveling time.

there is also weather to consider & how crowded the trains & places would be.

we decided to go nami island on friday as it may rain (cannot climb bukhansan if rain), also less crowded & to go bukhansan on saturday.

anyway everything turns out mostly ok, with the short & limited planning. we had a compact (did many things) yet very relaxing & enjoyable short holiday, and also captured many beautiful autumn sceneries! ^^

c.h.e.f andy