Sweet Korea :)

THE PREPARATION  

Actually this journey was have many struggle inside it. I and my friend, yessy almost didn’t go because of many obstacle. But with belief, miracle and faith so finally we can backpack to korea. :D

There re no many things to prepare actually. We just made Korean visa in Korean embassy, Sanlitun, Beijing. We need to pay 210 RMB each and bring our itinerary, photos 3x4, our bank account, passport, student card, and the copies of them. Its so easy to make visa in china than in Indonesia. After that, you just wait for 1 week, and the visa will be done. J

Anyway, firstly when I and yessy count the budget of backpacked and with tour(china travel agency) we found it’s almost the same. It wasn’t surprising actually, because its well-known that china travel agenct is so cheap. Its aonly cost 2500 RMB for 5 days! Imagine! Then because we’re foreign student, so we need to pay another 1000 RMB each. And after that we will extend another 5 days to explore by ourselves. I remembered how we’re so happy at that time, because we could visit korea with the lowest price ever. But our happiness wasn’t last long. We felt strange when 1 week before the day, we called the travel agency and they still don’t know what time the flight is and they still don’t gave us the fix itinerary. We should aware at that time, but we didn’t. we just felt weird, how come they didn’t make it fixed? And 2 days before our departure, we called again with the anxiety. And our anxiety became reality. They said that we can’t join the tour, not because they didn’t have enough participant, but because we’re foreigner, and the Korean government didn’t allow foreign student come to korea during the lunar new year. They said the Korean government only allow the Chinese citizens. Okay, to be honest it sounds ridiculous for us. We tried hard so we can go, but it was useless. They said that they couldn’t do anything, so they just can give our money back. We said okay. Because we’re insist and insist but that’s useless, so we tried to go by ourselves. And I can said its so hard, because every ticket is fulled booked, and the week after, the price was so expensive. Its kinda depressed us. We’re really mad with the travel agency, because they’re so crazy. They inform us about the ‘nightmare’ only 2 days before our departure. Wasn’t that so crazy? I felt so, and how do you guys think? We feel disappointed and anxious with this kind of thing if we have to travelling with this travel agency. And our nighmare wasn’t done yet, the money wasn’t sent to our bank account, even til our days in seoul. They promised us to sent our money on 18^th jan, but they said theres problem, and they keep phostponement. Again again and again! Finally we got quite okay air fare price on 27^th, so we booked it. And we need to get our money back from the travel agency, so we could pay the air fare, but they didn’t sent it. At that stressful time, we really think that they could be deceive us, and it made us even more terrifying. But we ensure ourselves that they will gave back our money, because they still keep contact with us.

So, after that I changed my date of arrivals with the host. Its quite cofusing, because they can’t on these date, but we tried to figure it out and finally we can fixed the date, and on our first date of arrival, because we don’t have any host yet, so I search on wimdu.com to get the cheapest price, we found it. But because we don’t have credit card or paypal to pay so its kinda hard, but the guesthouse’s was really nice. His name is jae hun, and he said that we can pay when we arrved later.

Actually we got many miracles there. I really thanks God for this. He really give us the best. J and the second good thing when I was searching  jeju local tour. Firstly we plan to explore jeju by ourselves, but the public transportation there is quite hard, and the air fare was really expensive, so when we got the great deal in www.sallytour.co.kr , we’re so happy. The price was really a great deal, and the payment is kinda confusing, at first. But ms sally was so kind to us, she really give her trust for us. She booked the tour which include the hotel, breakfast, lunch entrance fee and air fare. And we don’t have to pay the deposit. She said that we can pay all the money later in jeju. Its so sweet of her. I will recommend her to anyone that wanna visit korea.

So, after the visa, tour,air ticket, we searching the top destinations in seoul. After that, we arrange it based on the area, the time and the subway so its easier to us to go. We write all the information, from the name of place, the address, phone number, website, entrance fee, how to get there by bus or subway. Then after we finished made the itinerary, we count all the costs there. It’s a bit expensive then our first plan. Its because we cant get the cheap price when theres a big day in korea, especially when the date was so closed. You must booked 1 month or 2 months before to get the cheap price rite?

And because its winter, and when we checked the weather channel, seoul’s temperature is colder than Beijing, so we have to bring many warm clothes, and heater pocket.

PS: don’t forget to bring the chargers! And the chargers in korea with china re have different shape. So don’t forget to make sure. ;)

Summer Holiday in Beijing

July 26- 31 August 2011

 I do really enjoy my summer holiday even theres a bit problem here and there, but everything can be handled and i spent so much fun with the gals. :) let me introduce you to my pretty gals that i met in Beijing. Yessy Sutana (yessy) and Andreani Triningsih (Ani). I and Ani call Yessy 'Mommy' because her personality and her behavior like mommies. lols. She like pets, especially dogs, like to try snack(just like me), skinny(just like me), sometimes can be cute, but she can be hideous if she want. :P she looks pretty and calm, but in fact she's really talkative and funny. she looks so young, even in fact she's 7 years older than me and ani.

Okay, now i decribe Ani. Ani is one of the beautiful girl that i ever met. she's so pretty with the white skin, big eyes, wonderful eyelashes and thick black hair. her personality is quite the same with me, she's also skinny and really nice. a bit weird sometimes. :P

she want to be fat so badly, but the strange thing is she doesnt like eating. lols. not like me and yessy, she didnt like snack, but she loves pork so much. she loves shopping, korean movies, korean people, korean language( but she's not korean fans), and she's so dilligent. she smart, but dont ask her about the way, map, bus number or a kind of. 

its very co-insidence that we didnt back to indonesia. :p

so, we manage the schedule for holiday. ;)

On weekdays we have chinese course at Wudaokou. Its quite far from our place, and it takes approx 1 hour to get there by subway or by bus. Wudaoukou is like a korean city, where many korean lives there, and also you can found korean saloon, korean boutiques, korean stores, korean market, and plenty of korean restaurants.

in there, there also bakery like Paris Baguette and Tour La jours. There also malathang, topokki, and many snacks near Hua Lian mall, and theres also BHG (super,arket) where you can buy international food and stuff there. In wudaokou, there are many restaurant who serve Kao Rou(grill meat) and many flavours of Fried Chicken, and theres one restaurant that hv been my fav since i arrived here. ;) they sell grilled chicken that you can mix with seafoods, and they ill mix it with kimchi and mozarella cheese. umm.. yummy! :D

okay, if go by subway we must transfer to line 13 at Xizhimen than go to wudaokou. and when we go back by bus, we use 690 then stop at Xishilukoubei then continue 102/103 to Fuwaixikou, or you can use the short one. use 562 then stop at Xizhimen Nan, then cont with 106 to Fuwaixikou. ;)

i admitted that its tiring. because i must go from my dorm at 1.30 pm then we arrived at almost 18.00 then we must go to the market to buy the ingredients, then start cook at 19.00. we usually finished cook and eat at 20.45, then we must do the homework, or usually i felt lazzy then i just browsing, or drawing. :P

but because we re doing together with friends, times flies so fast and even its tiring but i felt so much fun! our schedule was:

monday, wednesday, thursday: courses then cooking

tuesday and friday: going somewhere

weekend: i go to church and after thet we can go to cafe or just having the girl talk or playing card or do something fun in one of our room. :P

so, we do pajamas party...

....we went to Raffles Mall(Dongzhimen). it so much fun! there are plenty malls to there, and we had dinner at Sizeriya. we all have steaks. ;) me, definitely with cheese! ^^

....we go to xidan market and mall, we ate ice cream, pancakes, nai cha, and do window shopping. ;)

...we went to Wangfujing, window shopping, and ate the snacks there. so fun!

...we went to Dongwuyuan market, shopping around.

...we went to 85 degrees to eat our fav bread!!

...we went to Xisiluoubei, going around and eat much things. ;)

and yesterday we just cut our hair at korean saloon, we were very satisfied with the service. they are very nice and the price isnt expensive. ;) we ate malathang, prata bread, sweet potatoes, and we were so excited look many sellers in front of Hua Lian at night. They sell much things. Books. Chinese and import books. Accecories. Clothes. Dress. Legging. Note Books. Audios. Fruits. Dolls. Toys. and much much more!!

and what we cooked:

huo guo(steam boat) and prata bread

kangkung cah terasi(veggie dish from indonesia) and fried mushroom

gado-gado(mix veggies with nut sauce) and bakwan(corn that miz with the flour then fried) => we ate so much til soooooooo full.

butter fried chicken and mun tofu(tofu that mix with prawn, garlic)

bai chai soup and many other soups ;)

rendang(beef, potatoes,tofu taht mix together with reandang sauce, and coconut milk) and egg buncis
omellete with sausage and cheese ; corn soup
sweet and sour chicken
mushroom broccoli
kwetiaw bun (yummy!)


then, yesterday i and yessy went home so late because we're almost didnt get bus to home.
we almost desperate because of that and decide to take taxi if theres no bus til 11.30 pm.
the bus and subway will stop operate all the operation at 11.00 pm from the first place they're going. so, we're really shocked when we found out that its almost 10.30 pm when we still looking the books.(the books is so cheap, i bought 3 books for 30 yuan!! :D Pride and Prejudice, Pretty Liars and Sleeping Arrangements by Sophie Kinsella a.k.a Madeleine Wickham) then we run and get 562 easily. but when we arrived at Xizhimen Nan station and waiting for 106 we're getting frustated because til 11.30pm theres no 106. so, we decide to take any bus that going at least 1 station after this, because during that 20 minutes theres no bus or i can say so rare, so we decide to take any bus, then we DID it! we took 44 to Fuchengmen Bei then we walk to Fuchengmen, then we wait 10 minutes til 101 coming. we're sooooo happy and relieved that we dont need to walk. hahahaha.. :) :)

Beijing's shopping place ^.*

Beijing Shopping place

Nah, for gals..be prepare! I will share the shopping place that I know to you all! :D

People said things in china is cheap, some are right, some are not.

If you go to shopping place like ‘mangga dua in jakarta’, perhaps Beijing is the nice place to shop, but not the best. Because the best place for shop things, especially clothes is guang zhou. Every things that sell in Beijing, Indonesia and all over the world mostly from there, so that’s why colthes there are very cheap. But, Beijing is fine too. ;)

So, here we go:

1.      Dong Wu Yuan Market

If you’re shopaholic and like variation of clothes and dress that you often see at shopping online or Mangga Dua, Jakarta, Indonesia, perhaps this is the right place for you! XD Dong Wu Yuan is my fav among all of this. Because I like most clothes that they sell. its my style! If you went here, you must be find clothe that you like. In dong wu yuan, there are 4 buildings. First is exactly up to the bus station. The second is across the station. And beside it, theres Korean building where they all about Korean stuff, like dress, accecories, bags etc. korena stuffis more expensive, obviously. The 4^th place is not a building. Its closed to KFC and if you see a tunnel, you go down and just go straight and arrive! This place is the most suitable for my style. And there’s another building beside it, so close. You can go here by 102/103 from fuchengmen. J

2.    Wu Dao Kou Market

Actually its hard to decide between Dong Wu Yuan and Wu Dau Kou, because they sell pretty clothes that I like. Wu Dao Kou is amazingly cool when they sell nice stuff. Every store sell fantastic dress with fantastic price, and even I and my friends already bought many things just in the first one hour. Its crazy! All stores could be so nice and sell different kind of clothes. But when they’re not sell good stuff, maybe you can’t found any clothes that you like. So, because of that I choose dong wu yuan for my fav. Dong wu yuan isn’t extreme, like when they sell good things all of them are good, or otherwise. But you can always find any 4 or 5 clothes that you like, depends on uour shopping passion. :P If you arrived at wudaoukou station on line 13, by ditie, you must find taxi to go there. 10 yuan. You can go to the old or the new one, and ask the sifu(taxi driver).

3.     Yong An Li

Yong an li is known as silk market. Its quite famous for tourists. I saw many tourists from many country that visit there. In Yong An Li, there are 6 or 7 floors. I forgot. But you can find shoes and bags at the first floor, and at the ground floor you can find cafeteria. The next floor isc clothes(but not really good for shopping,because mostly they just sell jackets and stuff) and you can find pizza restaurant and yoghurt there!! :D I was excited when saw it at the first time. Its name is Yogorino. And the next floor is for accecories, stamps, etc.(mostly are bling bling, shimmering). Then the next floor sell many kind of silk, necklace and jewelry that made by pearls, and there are also clothes and scarf like chong sam, etc. the next floor is for the restaurants. So, just find out by yourself! But WATCH OUT for the seller! They give super high price, so you must bargain 80% of the price, seriously! For example, if they give you 450 yuan for the shoes, you must bargain 50 yuan. ;)

4.     Xi Dan

Xi Dan is most of ppl’s fav place. Because in here, beside two malls and stores like semir, metersbonwe, you can also find the cheap market. In here there are only 2 building, across each other, so you won’t get loss. ;)

5.     Tian Yi

Tian Yi is exactly beside my school. I like this place freaking much! :P you can find any of house equipment here! Like, any any. Haha. Your regular needs or product that you need or even for the decoration. You can find all that things here!! There are 6 floors in tian yi. The ground floor for something that you need for your house, like hangers, lamps, carpets, umbrella, wallpapers, gift covers, bedcovers, tissue place, products in toilet, mop, broom, bucket and etc etc, the 1^st  floor consist of small products that you need like any of clock. Wall, watch, cute glasses, curtain, perfume, aroma teraphy, paintings, umbrellas, games, phones, drink bottles, weight scale, sticker, wallets, etc etc. The 2^nd  floor there are any of clothes, panties, etc. The 3^rd floor there are many kind of electronics like hair stuffs, rice cooker, dolls, etc. The 4^th floor there are accecories place, especially bandage and other hair stuff! So fascinating and tempting! And the last floor is for foodcourt. ;)

6.    Beijing Vulcan Culture & Art Bookstore at Nanluoguxiang

If you like handycraft, handmade potteries and custom-made outfits,  perhaps it’s the best placefor you@ ;)

7.     Qianmen

Its so complete here! If you go there, you can find pretty ancient architecture, so you can take pictures there! And in qianmen, there are many store such as: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Herbs, silk shops, clothes, even there are cinemas, karaoke bar and clubs.

8.     Hongqiao Market

If you like fake designer’s product, here it is!

9.    Liulichang street(glass street)

If you seek something ancient and original in China, I recommend Liulichang street. In here you can see many traditional shops that sell Chinese paintings, ink products, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ancient books and Chinese ornaments.

10.  Maliandao tea street

China’s best known product is China’s tea, and many tourist wanna buy tea for themselves, or gift for their families and their friends. So, I think  Maliandao tea street is good for people who want to buy tea. There are many tea shopes there and they sell many variation of them, even they will give you tester and explain for the function. ;)

11.     Gulou East Street

Some of my friends ar gamers, so I was excited when know this place, because I can recommend to my gamers friends and to you who like any game or electronic. They sell the latest electronic games, games software, and music stores,

           

Beijing's Snacks ;)

Nah I will tell you about Beijing’s snacks now! :D

I divide Beijing Snacks into 2 part. First one is the street snack, and the second is potato chips and friends that you can find at any supermarket or just certain of them.

1.   Beijing’s special snacks (小吃)

You can found many of them in the street, like there are:

a.    Chinese Han Bao Bao ( Hamburger)

Is a small white bread that filled with sausage, beef and egg. (they mixed it)or you can choose the other filling, like ham for example. Its really yummy and cheap too! The price is 3 yuan only. ;)

b.    Chinese Crepes

Is like the other crepes(but there are 2 types for the skin, there’s flour and taro. I tried both. Both re nice. J) and it mixed with egg, and they put the crunch and sauce inside. So yummy!!!! Price: 4 yuan

c.     Chinese martabak/crunch pancake

You just can find it at acroos of Xin Hua Department store at Ji Sui Tan Jiao Nan station, Xin Jie Kou Bei Road. Its like a crunchy flour made with egg and added by sauce and curry filling. Its round, and so huge! But you can buy as much as you want, just tell the price. It could be 3/4/ even 10 yuan. But I tell you 5 yuan is quite much. ;) again, I love it too! :P

d.    Pancakes with meat filling (Rou Mo Shao Bing)

e.     Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings (Ai Wo Wo)

Its filling with white sugar, sesame, walnut, peanut and a kind of fruit. :P

f.    Filled Sausage (Guan Chang)

Its so common in Beijing, you can look it everywhere. Personally, I think its delicious. The price is normally 3 yuan/stick.

g.    Chinese Breakfast

There are many of breakfast place in Beijing. But theres one my fav, that closed to my school, named Dao Dao. You can enjoy it’s Dumpling (jiaozi, and hun tun), the price is 4 yuan/10 pieces/1 bowl, and theres Bao Zi too. All filled with pork, and theres Cai Gar(look like half moon and filled with konyaku and a kind of veggie =>love it!!), also Ma Zang (like a mochi ball), cakwe (you tiao) is like a long crunchy and mellow at the same time,  you bing (is a kind of cakwe, but bigger and wider). And in my school, you can find variation of bao zi. (many kind of filling, like meats, veggies, or sweet taste), manthou, and crepes that filled with meat, bread that filled with any of meat, or sausage and egg, soya milk, plain bread that rolled with veggies and much much more! The price is 1 til 2,5 yuan. J

h.    Chinese Prata Bread

It also common in Beijing. Its have good taste and also cheap! You can buy depends on how much price that you want to buy. Or depends on the weight. There are 3 taste: plain, egg, and chili. My fav is chilli. ;)

i.      Chinese sweet and salt bread

It just the bread, but theres something different with the texture of the bread. Personally, I like the sweet more. The price is 7 mao.(7 sen)

j.      Pea flour Cake (Wan Dou Huang)

The taste is sweet and they mixed with the corn too. Usually you can taste it on spring.

k.     Fried Ice cream cake (Nai  You Zha Gao)

It’s a kind f with fried ice cream in Indonesia. ;)

l.      Fruits coated by sugar (tang hu lu)

Whoa, that’s one of my fav! Its made by big variation of fruits, it can be just giant strawberries or mixed fruits like kiwi, grapes etc, and the price is 6/8 yuan. You can find it at wang fu jing street.

m.    Roast Sweet Potato ( Kao Hong Shu)

You also can look it everywhere. It looks tempted and it taste nice too!

n.     Shish Kebab (Yang Rou Chuan)

It just like the other kebab, but the bread is like Chinese hanbaobao, not made by prata bread. :P

o.     Malathang

Its so famous in Beijing! There are sticks with different kind, like meat balls, sausage, dumpling, and veggies. The price is 7 mao/stick and usually people eat with the peanut sauce.

p.    Dumpling

It also common in Beijing, and you can find it everywhere. ;)

q.    Mochi Soy Bean Flour(Ludagun)

Its like a mochi, that made by soy bean flour and sugar.

r.     Baodu feng (babat)

It taste salty and nice, they give much of kemangi leaf and many kind of sauce.

s.     Bugs

I bet you must be already know about this! It so popular in Beijing. Many tourists try these variation of bugs, but I even don’t want to taste one of them.

t.     Mung bean milk

Its like yoghurt. You can call it Chinese yoghurt. Its liquid and sour, but its quite nice. Price: 3 or 4 yuan, depend on where you buy it.

u.     Nai Cha

It also common in Beijing. Most of my friends like Happy Lemon more, but I like Coco more. Perhaps because of the size, the taste and the price. :P I think Coco’s taste is tastier, and its bigger and cheaper. :P

v.     Banana Caramel

Maybe it sounds ordinary, but the taste is unbelievable! Lols. The price is quite expensive. It can be 14 yuan/box.

2.   Beijing’s packaged snack (零食)

a.    Lays

There are many variation of lays(cucumber taste, blueberry, tomato with mayonnaise, cherry tomato, Italian soup, fish soup, chili red hot soup, lobster cheese, fried prawn, original, pork, lemon tea, and now theres another taste of lays that made by rice, rice with seaweed, and wheat), and you can find cruch lays(not made by potato) there are 3 tastes: tomato, fried prawn, and seaweed. My recommendation: Italian soup(blue cover), cheese lobster(green) and tomato mayonnaise (pink).

b.    Hao Peng You

There are 3 taste: kimchi(red), steak(blue) and original (yellow). I love all! :D

c.     Small Criso

There are many brands, but I recommend the metallic ba ba brand. There are many taste. But my recommend: 1. Blue, 2. Red, 3.White, 4.Pink, 5. Gold, 6. Green(seaweed NOT wasabi, watch out!!), 7. Silver

d.    Glico Product

There are: cumin taste, curry, pizza, red chilli onion, shrimp salad, tomato, malathang. My fav: shrimp salad! :D

e.     Pejoy

Pejoy is the newest product by glico, the different with pocky and pretz is the filling inside the stick, and pejoy is for the upper class with the exclusive and attractive cover, and with the most expensive price among pocky and pretz. There are: red wine, cheesecake, matcha, tiramisu, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry vanilla. My fav: cheesecake and matcha.

f.    Pocky

I know pocky since long time ago. There are: banana, strawberry, chocolate, peanut, almond, hazelnut and green tea. Now, pocky have other version like pocky mousse, and pocky with double layer, like banana, stawbeey and mango. I almost like most of all the flavours, but my fav is banana, obviously!

g.    Pretz

Is the other version of pocky, and its cheaper. But pretz have so many taste, like:  salad, tomato, pizza, butter, coffee, green tea, tomato, tiramisu. My fav: butter!

h.    Cheetos

There are: chicken, beef, milk and the purple one. My fav: purple! ;)

i.      Yatudou

There are: steak and fried chicken(green), steak(yellow), and tomato (red). My fav: green, but then yellow. I don’t really like the tomato taste.

j.      Cao Mei

Many taste, and its cheap, but I don’t really like it.

k.     Oishi

Many taste,like onion, cheese, orange, chocolate stick, crunch etc,  but my fav: chocolate filling, shrimp crunch, fish sweet.

l.      Calpico

I don’t like it.

m.    Sancha

Like it sooo muchhh!!

n.     Power of Life

Jiang Xi’s product is better than in Beijing. It tasteful. There are: fried chicken, steak, corn, black seaweed, chili, tomato, etc. my fav: chicken.

o.     Wannabe

Wang2, wang2 fried, wang2 fried big version. All tasty!!! :D and its really cheap here!!

p.    Yogorino

It’s the only yoghurt in Beijing, I guess. :p its quite nice, and you can found it at Yonganli 2^nd floor(its cheaper than in xidan, 7yuan for the small one) and in Xidan.