Ochen Priyatna

18 BESTS OF SOUTH KOREA

Disclaimer: these "bests" rankings are selected based on the places I've visited in South Korea (Seoul, Busan, Jeonju, Jeju) and is not exhaustive since I couldn't possibly have visited every single place in each of this towns in 18 days.

So... here goes nothing!

1. BEST FRIED CHICKEN

We tried 4 fried chicken places because we are a sucker for chimaek - chicken and beer so we often find ourselves navigating towards a hof restaurant before we know it. We tried 4 places in total (in Amsa, Seoul, Busan, Jeju and finally in Jamsil Yagoochang) and hands down we both agreed we had the best fried chicken in Amsa. It was just an ordinary shop 30 seconds from our airbnb lodging but in a span of 4 days, we ordered their takeaway chicken menu twice. What sorcery. All that yummy into our tummy. A pity we did not take pictures on both our takeaways since we were too quick gobbling them up as we watched movies in the comforts of our airbnb home.

Address: alight at Amsa station, after you exit, you should see Paris Baguette on the opposite. Continue walking and you should encounter a Lotteria and a Caffe bene. The shop is located in Amsa 1-dong and (i think) you can take a turn at Olympic-ro 100-gil and beside a family mart, the chimaek restaurant lies.

We also tried a decent Chimaek restaurant in Jeju but we felt that the texture of the chicken still lost to the one at Amsa.

Jeju Chimaek Address: Hidden Place (955-7 Hamdeok-ri, Jocheon-eup) 

Phone: 064-782-1579

Enter their phone number into your GPS to find their exact location.

2. BEST BBQ

Having so many korean bbq restaurants in Singapore meant we easily drew the link between South Korea and its BBQ offerings and were determined to find good ones to satisfy our cravings. The above Samgyupsal was at a random store we chance upon in Jeju while searching for another shop. Our policy of good food in Jeju was if 1. There were no tour buses around and 2. Its popular amongst the locals.

While driving around one night desperately looking for a dinner spot, we found a beef bbq place (i think it's a chain) that was located near a Tous Les Jours. (While looking through the pictures, I GOT THE NAME OF THE SHOP FROM A PICTURE! tried to Google it but there were no results for the romanised words. If you're searching for this place, type the name into the gps!) It was a really lucky find and the restaurant was having a sale where 900g of beef was going at 40,000W. We wanted a 2-people set for about 30,000W but the shopkeeper convinced us to get the value set instead so we found ourselves facing almost 1kg of beef with 1.5 hours to their closing time. Mad experience but this place was a gem as the meat was really well marinated and the galbis were the length of my arm.

Address: Nope, we didn't take it down but the name is Bulso Sikdang and I think it is a chain since there were namecards at the cashier area.

3 & 4. BEST FOOD FINDS

okay sorry the first 3 were all about food. This would be the last consecutive ranking of food, I promise. We relied on reviews and abit of chance in finding food that we would eat throughout the 18 days and both of these places were recommended by reviews! torn between both because these are food places that I would definitely visit if i'm back and whose food I still crave for!

Red elephant in Jeju-do (064-712-8825)

THE BEST TONKATSU I'VE TRIED. I haven't eaten much tonkatsu before red elephant but having it there really got my cravings for tonkatsu appearing so frequently. The nicely-fried, thick tonkatsu was moist on the inside, crispy on the outside but I would say the sauce sealed the deal. Tangy and sweet with a spark of something special I cannot put a name to it. Paired with side dishes and rice. I actually ordered kalguksu at red elephant instead and I TOTALLY REGRETTED and found myself going for more of the tonkatsu and sulking after the meal because...i should have ordered the tonkatsu instead.

Veteran in Jeonju Hanok Village

This place sells the best Kalguksu and Soba omg I ate it twice in 4 days despite all that yummy food available both inside and outside the Hanok Village. The Kalguksu tastes like Youmian tang you would get from the ban mian store in Singapore but something about the chilly weather makes the experience in Jeonju far better than having ban mian in a hawker centre in sg. I actually prefer the soba over the Kalguksu. The soup was some sweet-salty mix and the noodles were so chewy I tried to replicate them in SG and I failed. I blame that on those daiso soba that are likely to lose out on those handmade soba in Veteran. Service was fast (a little overstaffed) and the offerings were relatively affordable in the Hanok Village.

5. BEST MUSEUM

We went to several museums throughout the trip, being tourists, and we learnt quite abit about Korean history and culture as a result. Not as much as a local Korean being educated in the History of Korea but the rough idea, like how a Korean imperial officer looks like in the Joseon Dynasty or How black pork got its name, yes we can. 

The best museums were actually in museumland, Jeju. Why museumland? Jeju is splattered with over 30 museums all over the small island and there are duplicates of each type of museum on the North (Jeju-do) and South (Seokgwi-po). We didn't visit all since we were short of time in Jeju but main ones were the Jeju folk museum, the trick eye museum and Loveland.



    

We've been wanting to visit trick eye or the longest time in Singapore but the expensive tickets and huge crowds are a major turn-off since you need ample space to take a cool picture with the exhibits and you don't want people staring at you to speed up (like at hawker centres). Interesting exhibits, but I found myself throwing my body around trying to take pictures with everything. Squatting, lying down, sitting, crawling, half-squats - kinda tired after touring the entire museum hahahaha

The best museum experience have got to be Loveland, hands down. Not just because the exhibits were intriguing but wow, where else do you get such open display of various positions that are often taboo in Asian culture. (okay i'm being very conservative right here) Anyhow, for 6000W, you get a whole garden of various exhibits depicting various aspects of Sex - sex toys, positions, parts. Treat yourself to some boobs or penis waffles at the u-turn and you're off to the other half of the park. Pretty interesting.

6. BEST SHOPPING EXPERIENCE (FOR FEMALES)

I have read many blogs prior to my trip to Korea and so many bloggers have raved about shopping in Myungdong or Dongdaemun. My previous trip to Korea (before the exchange) saw us only touching foot on Myungdong due to lack of time so I was determine to visit other shopping-worthy places. Sharmaine recommended me express bus terminal and since its near where I was staying, we decided to meet straight at the metro station.

So after all the drama (because I didn't have a data sim card and I mistook the meeting place...) we got on to exploring EBT and omo, so much shops there and most were priced at 10,000W - 20,000W. The designs were all pretty simplistic - meaning lots of t-shirts, denim, parka and culottes on racks. Many cosmetic shops were there as well so no need to hop over to touristy areas like Myungdong or Hongdae! Spent almost 200,000W there so you can predict how much awesome stuffs there was to purchase there~

7. BEST SHOPPING EXPERIENCE (FOR MALES)

You must be thinking, why must I be so gender-specific in the shopping places??? Nope, I'm not sexist but its a natural phenomenon that some shopping places offer 99.9% female clothing and only 1 store for males and there is a high chance that the one store sells clothes that do not appeal to you. EBT is one of them. 

Hence, the best shopping experience for guys, in our opinion, is at Edae! Just outside the Ewha University station, many stores are setup to cater to the university students and prices are affordable too! Bought 8 bags that night and only 2 were women bags. Food offerings were generally at 5000-6000W as well. As usual, cosmetics shops are aplenty in the shopping district. After touring Korea, I kinda get a feeling cosmetic shops are everywhere and you don't exactly need to head down to Myungdong or DDM to get your favourite brands.

8. BEST BEACH

When one mention beaches in Korea, surely Busan comes to mind first. Being a coastal town and boasting the ever-popular Haeundae and Gwangali beaches, the best beach has got to come from Busan. oh nonono, we are hipster like that (there we just lost our hippiness). Didn't really favour the crowds at those beaches. The sand was fine and the weather makes the beach less of a tanning solution and more of a phototaking location. However, the large throngs of crowd makes it hard to take a picture without photobombing occuring. 

The best beach we encountered was when we were driving around Jeju (aimlessly). Since Jeju was an island, it has plenty of beaches and coastal areas and we were pleasantly surprised when we chanced upon a relatively unknown beach. Skipped the popular Hyeopjae beach and Hamdeok beach and this beach has a isolated appeal to it but sadly the only thing I can remember about the place was that there was a bridge to connect between small islands and that there was a Caffe Bene there.

9. BEST KOREAN EXPERIENCE

This is a highly recommended activity if you ever visit Jeonju - rent a Hanbok and walk around the village like Koreans from the Joseon Dynasty! In the Jeonju Hanok Village, there are countless Hanbok rental shops that rents Hanboks for a reasonable price for 1 or 3 hours. Then and there, explore the village (comprising over 200 Hanok shops and houses) and do a photoshoot in the area! If you're afraid you'd be the standout, no worries. More often than not, there are more people in hanboks than those in modern clothing - and this is the charm of the traditional Hanok village!

Head to the highest point of the village, a cafe located on level 4, to enjoy the view of the sunset while overlooking the Hanok village!

10. BEST HIKE

We hiked 2 mountains in total: the ChimYongJaSan Holy Ground in Jeonju and SeongSanIlChulBong in Jeju. Nope, we're not catholics but we climbed the mountain on our free day in Jeonju and it was so steep we panted heavily as we took the steep steps winding up the hill (with the peak nowhere to be seen). Along the way there were crosses with Hangul on it (seen above), couldn't really understand since we were neither well versed in Korean nor in the Catholic religion. anyhow we reached the peak and the information board there stated the tough climb was to gave pilgrims an experience into the hard life of the first Catholics in Korea. No wonder.

Anyhow, our best hike was not in Jeonju, but in Jeju. Seongsanilchulbong is in every tourist's must-do list in Jeju and since our airbnb was a 10min drive from the peak, we count ourselves lucky as we only woke up at 5am (reaching at 5.30am) compared to many others who had had to wake up at 4am. Though we did not manage to catch the sunrise as it was a cloudy morning, being on the peak overlooking the entire Jeju island as well as catching a sight of the seamless sea was (rather) worth our sleep time.