Our trip to Korea September 2010: Day 3 - Hongdae & Sinchon

On our third day in Korea, we went to Hongdae and Sinchon.We were aware that Hongdae (홍대) was famous for its entertainment and chilled out vibe through dramas and variety shows. There are lots of clubs and cafe in the area. Lots of indie singers are actually discovered in Hongdae, such as 10cm. (If you've never heard of them before, check out the videos below)

10cm - Americano

 

10cm - Hug Me Once 

First we went to Sinchon as my friend had told us a lot about it. The streems of Shinchon were bustling whith people and it kind of reminded me of London, except it had more life to it. We had a look at some of the shops in the area and there had such cute items.

In Sinchon

After all that shopping we got a little bit hungry so we popped into a Korean restaurant. Our friend recommended we try naengmyun (냉면). It is which is basically cold noodle made of handmade noodles. It was our first time and we were curious as to how it would taste. Unnie showed us how to cut the noodle and mix them and we had trouble doing it so it did it for us

Although naengmyun was tasty it was too cold for my mouth but I've heard the more you have it, the more accustomed you become to it so we'll try it again when we have the chance.

Naengmyun

Unni showing us how to mix the naengmyun and Afsana carefully watching

Our table with the free mandos the waiter gave us

Reshma & Tamanna posing with their naengmyun

All our energy had to be put to us so we decided to do karoke in Hongdae. We had done karoke in London so we wanted to see how the experience was different in Korea and there was a big difference.
The karoke room we went to seemed familiar to one we'd seem 2PM go to on one of their shows.As soon as we entered the karoke building, we were greeeted by staff who then offered us ice cream and then shown to the karoke room.
The room was far bigger than any karoke room we'd see in London at the time. There was a big sofa, chairs, a mini stage and maracas in the room. The perfect place to sing our favourite Korean songs off key. Haha.
The room next to us even had disco lights as well. How awesome is that?

Dancing on stage in karoke

Sisters With Seoul with unnie

Once an hour and so of singing out hearts out had ended we wanted to walk around Hongdae but it was raining like mad so we quickly ran to station as we had to be up early the next morning. One our way back to the station we saw a kebab shop. They have kebab shops in Korea~! o.O Haha. Awesome.


Useful websites:

Korean Subway
http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264152

Visit Korea (Hongdae)
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=309690