Jules, James & Jade: November 2023

Thursday, November 30, 2023

10D9N | Korea Seoul Day 1 | Cartoon Street

29 Nov 2023 | Our much anticipated year end trip is here!

11pm: Hired a maxi drive from Klook to Changi Airport. Cost: $60 SGD. The car arrived promptly with twinkling interiors. The kids were so excited and so were we. Our flight to Seoul Korea via Asiania was 145am. Yes, red eye flight. Target to reach Seoul 755am on 30 Nov 2023.

Although it is late night, but we were all so awake. So we went to have some coffee, eggs and toast.

The plane was slightly delayed but the boarding time was very fast.

2am: Boarded the plane! YAY!!!

The kids had breakfast on the plane. Jules didn't sleep a wink. Jade slept next to hubs. I slept for awhile, at most 1 hour. I think we are all running on adrenaline.

930am: Got our luggage, passed through immigration in a breeze. OMG, it is so cold here in Seoul. It was -15 degrees! The kids were all puffing like dragons breathe in the cold while hubs went to get us a Jumbo Taxi. So exciting and so cold!

First thing we did was to check into our hotel - Hotel 28 Myeongdong where is was just opposite BHC fried chicken and super convenient to 2 MRT stations. After checking in, next stop was to get our lunch!

Myeongdong Kyoja here we come!!

Myeongdong Kyoja is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant that serves piping hot dumplings (mandu), spicy noodles which I absolutely love and hot bowl of noodles (kalguksu noodles). Their in-house garlic kimchi is also wonderful.

Today's itinerary is super simple as we just touch down Seoul and I bet everyone will be battery dead by evening time. So we are going to do only a few places.

1. Myeongdong Kyoja
2. Cartoon Street

3. Pet Cafe - Cat Garden

4. Dinner at Myeongdong Budae Jigae
5. Shopping at Myeongdong street

Cartoon street is a short walk from Myeongdong street. It is a short street filled with cartoon characters and huge murals on the buildings for many photo opportunities. There is a Tayo bus stop just outside Cartoon Street, so you wouldn't miss it.

10D9N | Korea Seoul Day 1 | Cat Lover Garden

Cats here are very friendly. Once you sit down, they will start to come onto your lap. Entrance ticket includes a drink and you can stay as long as you like.

There are about 100 over cats here with all sorts of species. Above photo, far right is the owner with a 100 year old cat!

See! So many cats came to our table!

Most of the time, hubs has 2 cats sitting on his lap. To be more exact, it is sleeping on his lap.

Above: One naughty cat was crawling all over James' head!

Above: far left, these 2 kitties were sleeping on hubs' lap and one of them was snoring so loudly!

5pm: Back to the streets of Myeongdong. Bought fish sticks for the kids to eat.

Dinner at this hole in the wall restaurant for Army stew and Jokbal! It was so craowded with locals that we had to wait about 45 mins for a table. But we were quite determined to eat here, so we just waited out. Finally we got ourselves a table and ordered Army stew, Jokbal,and seafood pancake.