Korean Winter D2: Fixing My Hair and Cafe Sukkara 머리 하기와 카페 수카라

I cannot resist getting my hair fixed in Korea because majority of the salons are better than those available in Singapore~ ^^ And my hair was in a horrible state at that time, so I had to make a trip!

하연 언니 and I searched on coupon websites to choose a good salon the previous night. These coupon websites like Coupang offer lots of good deals and bundles for products and services from food to beauty and even travelling~ Unfortunately they require an identification number in Korea for registration, so you've got to have a Korean friend to help you buy stuff if you're just travelling there for a short while without the alien registration number.

After being unable to decide for a long time, we finally picked out one that looked decent in Hongdae. Sorry but I realised I totally forgot to note the name of the salon or take a picture of it. Oops.

It was a morning appointment and so we set off early.

Dreamy 우장산 동네 Ujangsan Neighbourhood~ (:

I miss walking along this street every morning.

Morning subway.

Quiet and calm Hongdae, the lively partying district, a rare scene only seen in the morning!

I wanted to perm my hair again, but I sort of already expected I couldn't because it was spoilt. Yes, spoilt hair, it was that bad. Obviously my hairdresser suggested treatment and coating to save my spoilt hair.

We were given lockers to put our stuff and coats and we put on a sort of gown. The staff gave great service and even tea and snacks were served. Not very common in Singapore!

After a little more than an hour, my hair was done! It definitely looked heaps more alive and healthy than the frizzled mess it was an hour ago. Yay~

I left 하연 언니 who was still getting her hair done to wander around for the rest of the day because she wasn't free that day.

It was time for lunch and I was hungry~ I initially wanted to visit Cook and Book, a cafe with good reviews of their vegan meals and desserts, but when I reached the place it wasn't there anymore!! ㅠㅠ They either closed or moved...

Thus I decided to go to another cafe in the Hongdae area called Sukkara. It's an organic cafe serving healthy cuisine with a few vegan and vegetarian options.

Finding my way there~

I love all the pretty things you can spot around artsy Hongdae. (:

Oh yes, it was Christmas! There were pretty lighted candles in front of the churches I passed by.

Stupid me took forever to find Sukkara because I didn't realise that I walked past the cafe and kept doubling back and hunting around the area. I was wondering if Sukkara also ceased to exist like Cook and Book...

Starving me finally found it!

Well you can't blame me, the only sign indicating that it was Sukkara was that faint tiny printing on the door please~~

The cafe had a very cozy and chill atmosphere with indie music in the background. Open kitchen concept with a bar in the middle where you can see the drinks and some of the simple food being made.

The Menu!

Good thing is that they indicate whether a dish is vegan or not. But the food here is definitely on the slightly pricier side..

I heard that they served delicious soy tea lattes. Didn't get a chance to try it yet!

I ordered the special menu of the day. Requested to take out the cheese to have a vegan one.

Ta-da~ Rice gratin with soy bechamel sauce (12,000KRW)
Winter cabbage, dried mushrooms, root vegetables and brown rice baked in a creamy plant-based white sauce made from soy milk and brown rice powder. Yuzu flavoured enzyme carrot and radish pickle and chickpea salad on the side.

It was a very warm and welcome meal for a cold and starving me. A decent well-cooked meal but in my honest opinion not very outstanding and worth 12,000KRW... ^^;;

Time to fill the dessert stomach... hehe

A little disappointed cos I was hoping to see the Apple with Steamed Grain Cake I saw on Alien's Day Out that had red bean paste but it wasn't there anymore. ); So I had to settle with something else..

I was so tempted by the pumpkin pudding with cashew cream!! But decided to go with the more special Raw Persimmon Cream Pie. Raw cakes in Korea! I wondered if they were as good as The Living Cafe in Singapore.

Raw Persimmon Cream Pie (7,500KRW)
It did disappoint me actually... oops. It came from the freezer I think because the "cream" part had icy flakes in it, not creamy. The nut taste was stronger than the persimmon, in fact I couldn't really taste persimmon... Crust was a tad too sweet and on the chewy side. Conclusion, The Living Cafe in Singapore really produces waaay better raw cakes and at a slightly cheaper price!

My overall verdict about Sukkara is that the atmosphere is really cool, but the 2 items I tried were well, fine, but not that worth the price tag. I still would give it a chance to try perhaps another vegan dish and their soy drinks before I can totally make my mind up about Sukkara? (:

I chilled out for quite sometime after my late lunch and did some research on what I wanted to do the coming days using the free wifi.

Then I decided to check out 하늘공원 Haneul (Sky) Park next! I had to hurry cos I wanted to reach before the sun sets~! It's quite inconvenient how the sun sets around 5 plus during winter. Bad for photography. (-.-)

Ok I complain but the winter sun is really lovely and romantic for photos. It's soft and golden! ^^

I usually use Naver maps to navigate around Korea cos it's very convenient and better than Google maps obviously since Naver is from Korea. I prefer buses to subways where it is usually more crowded and busy~

Waiting for my bus...

Sukkara
Address: 1F Sanullim Bldg 327-9 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
서울시 마포구 서교동 327-9
Tel: 02-334-5919
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-11pm (Last order 10.30pm)
Lunch 11.30am-3pm
Dinner 6pm-8.30pm
Only drinks and desserts available all day.
Closed on Mondays

Vietnam Adventure D1: Lost! 길을 잃었다!

What an exciting experience (crisis) to end our first day in Vietnam~

Our next destination was Ben Tre, a town along the Mekong Delta where we had arranged a homestay with a local there. I found his homestay via a travel blog. Our host's name is Phuoc and he had given instructions on how to get to his home via email:

"You can take the minivan from Sai gon:( 78.000 VND) 70B Hung Vuong 9 ward,5 distrist, HCM city and tell them bring you to : 217C  Hung Vuong, 5 ward,  Ben Tre city ( My office)."

Okay. So I keyed in the address into trusty Google maps. It appeared to be quite a distance from the frozen yogurt cafe we were at beside Ben Thanh Market, but a rather straightforward route. We still had slightly more than a couple hours before we were meeting our host around 6pm, so we decided to walk to the minivan station. I assumed it would be reachable within an hour or more and for some reason I kept thinking that Ben Tre wasn't very far away from Saigon.

Oh and this is the reason why most people wouldn't really fancy travelling with us I think. We just walk and walk and walk and just looking at our surroundings while walking is interesting enough for us. :P

But to be honest I was a teeny bit afraid of walking a lot then, because my backpack was becoming heavier and heavier and my shoulders and back were getting a lil' sore. Still, I figured it would be interesting enough and that it would be a very good workout... haha

I was a little confused about where exactly we were because I was using Apple's (not iphone, my friend) phone and it had problems using GPS to track our location. My phone was running out of battery at that point of time, her phone too...

Finally I got our bearings right and I double confirmed with a middle-aged guy by the pavement. Turns out he was a taxi driver (or was it motorbike?) and he told us where we were going was really far away and he told us to take his cab (or was it his bike service?). We politely rejected his offer and set off on our way.

Vietnam Adventure D1 - Binh Tay Market & Ben Thanh Market. 빈떼이시장과 벤탄시장.

I love Google maps, because the find directions function is so convenient! It has the public transport information of most countries, which makes it so easy to get around. ^^

On the bus to the largest wholesale market in Saigon, Binh Tay Market! They sell everything there, more of a local market than a tourist one~! I love exploring markets because they're really fascinating and especially revealing about what that country and culture is like.

Vietnam Adventure D1 - First Vietnamese Phở and Kem (Veg!) 첫 월남포와 켐 (채식!)

What's the first thing everyone thinks of when Vietnamese food is mentioned? PHO. Phở, it's pronounced fuh, with the second tone in Chinese. Yes, not fo or po like we always thought it was.

So what's a more fitting for a first meal in Vietnam than a bowl of Pho? You're right, nothing! Okay, Banh Mi and the spring rolls run a close match too.

Unfortunately, Pho is traditionally rice noodles in meaty beef broth so for a vegetarian like me, the traditional pho is out of the question.
But vegetarians still can eat their share of yummy food!!

Korea Winter D1 - Home Christmas Eve Dinner 홈 크리스마스 이브 저녁

Time to make dinner! Frankly I'm not a great cook at all and apparently it turns out that the two of them also don't follow recipes like me. We just do it by feeling... ㅎㅎㅎ

Korean Winter D1 - There's Vegan Cheese in Korea?? 한국에 비건 치즈가 있다고??

The three of us decided to go shopping for groceries to make a Christmas eve dinner together at 하연 언니's home in the evening. We couldn't make up our minds for quite some time, jumping from shepherd's pie to soup and salad to raw food etc etc. In the end we decided on a 3 course meal of salad, mushroom cream pasta and pizza!

And then 하연 언니 told me there was a place in Seoul that sold vegan cheese... *GASPS* OKAY LET'S GO~ Impressed by how Korea is making progress in the vegetarian and vegan industry yay.

We got lost again while finding the place and ended up in lots of weird alleys because 하연 언니 still preferred to stick to her instincts... ㅎㅎㅎㅎ Apparently it's rather dangerous to sit in a car that she drives, 미선 says. Gosh. ㅋㅋ

Finally~ It's in 합정 Hapjeong, which is near 홍대 Hongdae.

Korean Winter D1 - PLANT, My Love 플랜트, 내 사랑 ❤

The first destination of my trip.... A long-awaited visit to vegetarian/vegan cafe PLANT !!! Home to my favourite vegan cakes and pastries made by the cute Mipa! I got to know her through her blog, which shares about her daily life as a vegan, and veg-friendly eateries in Korea! I benefited so much from all the information on her blog for all my Korea trips. ^^ The baking studio and cafe was opened in collaboration with Yona's Kitchen , who makes beautiful (non-vegan but ovo-lacto-vegetarian) pies and pastries.

Mipa and Yona opened PLANT officially on the last day of my July trip and of course I visited them! I was so happy~~ ㅋㅋㅋ But mains were not available on the first day. ㅠㅠ So this time I was looking forward to tasting them after drooling at all the delicious pictures they posted every week on Facebook and Instagram when I was stuck in Singapore!!

하연 언니 drove us to Itaewon, where we would also be meeting 미선 at PLANT. She was coming up all the way from Yongin to spend Christmas Eve together!

하연 언니's really funny because she doesn't like to refer to maps and she just navigated around by her hazy memory and instinct... ㅎㅎㅎ We went in rounds for quite awhile before we found a carpark at some office building nearby. Then we walked to PLANT. Fortunately, I must say I have quite a good sense of direction. Even places I have been to just once in Seoul, I am most probably able to find it again~! I'm not too bad with maps too~ Very thankful for this skill since I really love to travel and explore!

Korean Winter D1 - Patjuk, Red Bean Porridge 팥죽

It was 동지 Dongji, Winter Solstice, the previous day so we got to eat the 팥죽 Patjuk, red bean porridge cooked by Hayeon's 어머니 mom for breakfast!

Korean Winter D1 - Just Like Going Home 귀국처럼

To think that I just returned to Singapore only a few days ago on the past Sunday night... Here I am reviving the moments of the first day of the longest overseas trip I've ever taken to my beloved South Korea. It was also my first experience of winter with snow!

Many people exclaimed when I announced at the end of October 2013 that I was making yet another trip to Korea for 20 days because that would be my third trip in a year. Honestly, I didn't expect this chance to go again too! The 10 day May trip was planned long ago in 2012 and the 14 day July trip was well, because of a fantastic Scoot airfare promotion that would be too much a waste to let it pass. 

While I was in depression after coming back from July and thinking dejectedly I will have to wait torturously for a whole year before returning to Korea again, there came a chance to participate in a Korean Speech Contest organised by the Singapore Korean International School. The first prize of a round trip air ticket to Korea sparked a fervent preparation for the contest. I didn't really think I could nab it, but I did it!!! I was near tears when I was presented with the prize... ㅎㅎㅎㅎ :P My speech topic was rather unique, about 아줌마 파워! Ajumma (Korean aunty moms) Power, their "comical" stereotypes and how they are the pillars of Korea. Again, I can't thank my dedicated Korean teachers from my university's (NTU) Korean language course enough for their guidance before the contest!! And all the friends who help and supported me! 모두 다 너무 너무나 감사합니다~ ^^

And I digress... So happily I decided to go for as long as I could this trip during the short one month holiday to make the most of the air tickets. I already had planned a 10 day backpacking trip to Vietnam (updates on this super exciting trip coming up soon too!) so I decided to fly on 23 December night and return on 12 January night. I started school on 13 January morning...ㅋㅋㅋ On a side note, I'm still a bit sulky that I had to pay quite a sum for the air taxes because the ticket was supposed to be a top prize after all... (><) Oh well, it did give me a good excuse to visit Korea again in such a short period of time.

Yes, there was only one free ticket, so I decided to go alone. But looking back, it didn't feel like a solo trip at all because I barely had days when I was alone, I was with old and new friends almost every other day. It was an amazing 20 days of Korean Winter.