Day 2 - Nami Island (Naminara Republic) ~ An Island In The Sky

When people mentioned about Korean Drama Series, Winter Sonata will be the first to be mentioned. It will be followed by how beautiful is the scenery in the drama.

So today, our plan is to visit the the film recording place of this famous drama which is - Nami Island.

Nami Island is situated 63km away from Seoul in the heart of Han River. Nami Island was named after General Nami, a brave name from Korean history who courageously fought in battles and died at the ages of 26.

May you be a Korean drama lover nor just a pure visitor, Nami Island is a must visit place when you visit Korea. This romantic place is where the main actors, Bae Yong Jun and Choi Ji Woo fall in love in the drama. 

There are several way to go to Nami Island. For us, we have prebooked the tour bus (http://www.namisum.com/) between Insadong and Nami Island. The ticket price is 23,000 won per/pax which includes the round trip bus fare and ferry to/fro Nami Island. The bus will depart at 9.30am sharp from the bus station near Tapgol Park and retrun from Nami Island at 4.00pm sharp. Another alternative will be by subway. But I reccomend to use the prebooked bus to save all the hassels. Wanna know why? Read on...

After having a simple western breakfast provided by the hotel, we boarded the train from Hoehyeon Station to Jongno 3-ga Station(Exit 1). Walk towards Tapgol park direction. It will take about 10 min by walking from the Jongno 3-ga Station(Exit 1). 

This is the bus to send us to Nami Island.

Our bus ticket and ferry ticket.

While waiting for the departure of the bus we took some picture around Tapgol Park.

After 90min of bus journey, finally we reached Nami Island! As it was a Sunday, it was "People Mountain, People Sea! :P But, no problem for us, we have already collected the ferry ticket from the bus driver as part of our package.

Quickly hopping onto the ferry and here we go!

During the 10minutes of ferry journey we got the chance to galvanise ourselves on the beautiful scenery of Namiseon Island. I will let the photo to do the talking..

Upon reaching Nami Wharf, Nami maid statue was our first destination.

The ministry of tourism for Naminara Republic.

After that, we walked along the Central White Pine Tree Lane towards the First Kiss Bridge.

Came the cool breeze and the golden leaves withered.. Actually it is human made.

I like this red leaves a lot!

1, 2, 3 Jump!! Hooray!!

Glass Sequola and the First Kiss Bridge.

We leave our memory at Yeonryeonji Pond.

It is also the 5th Nami Island Children's Book festival during our visit.

It was about lunch time, is time to find something to eat. We got ourselves a hot dog bread + cinnamon pastry stix. 5500won for both.

A strawberry and a grape flavoured ice-cream to go along. Each is priced at 3000won.

We walked towards Recycling Garden and Metasequoia Lane.

The scrupture for the actor and actress in Winter Sonata - Bae Yong Jun and Choi Ji Woo with Metasequoia Lane as it's foreground.

The bicycles ride by the actor and actress in Winter Sonata.

A scene from Ginkgo Tree Lane.

Our final destination was at Reed Woods Lane.

As clock is ticking fast, it was about 330pm. We quickly walked back to Nami Wharf in order to board the returning ferry to Gapyeoung Wharf as our bus will be leaving Gapyeoung at 4pm sharp.

Guess what we saw? A long queue which was abt 200m long to board the ferry!! Here is where our advantage take place. With our prebook package, we do not need to queue up for boarding the returning ferry. Just show them your ticket and you get the priority to board the ferry.

It was a great 5 hours we spent in Nami Island. It was dinner time and we headed to Myeongdong for the famous Ginseng Chicken Soup - 百济参鸡汤

This restaurant has been operating since 40 years ago and this is the place to get the best Ginseng Chicken Soup in town!

There will be always unlimited flow of kimchi when you visit any restaurant/ food stall in Korea.

This is the glutinous rice and beside it is the ginseng wine to be mixed together with the ginseng soup or to be drank directly if you want!

 Below, the abalone served with creamy congee.  The taste is mild and not salty. It also contains some fine cuts of ginseng roots.

The famous of all is here. The Ginseng Chicken soup! Great to eat in such a cold weather. Glutinous rice and ginseng root are wrapped with chicken and then boiled for 3 hrs before serving!

We totally spent 24,000 won for our Ginseng Dinner. And yet the cold weather make us crave for more. We headed along the busy street in Myeongdong and couldn't resist the temptation to get a Korean style Kebab. Very delicious but a little bit spicy. 3000won for this. Slurp~!

We did some shopping around Myeongdong and got ourselves some facial products.

Is time to go back and have some rest, we got ourselves something to chew from Family Mart. Cool weather does make people hungry. xD

Good night and ready for day3!

Geylang Cheap Eats

Well this time I am going to blog about the famous food in Geylang, Singapore.

Basically when you mentioned about Geylang, people will ask you, " Have you tried the famous 田鸡粥 a.k.a Spring Chicken(Frog) Porridge and 牛肉河粉 a.k.a Beef Hor Fan? Not to mentioned about the red light district.

We didn't wait too long approximately 8 months though when I started to work in Singapore, we visited Geylang with 2 friends who lead us then to this shop called 牛河大王(Beef King Hor Fan) at Geylang Lorong 9.

From the reviews of tonnes of Food Enthusiast, this shop in Singapore sells the best Beef Hor Fan. Serve it while it is piping hot and believe me, you will definitely crave for more!

Next up, located opposite of the Hor Fan shop, you get the best Spring Chicken(Frog) Porridge in town!

Both the porridge and spring chicken are served in claypot to keep their warmth. My first thumb up, is for the porridge. It is so creamy and tender at which it's puzzle would be completed by mixing it with the Spring Chicken(Frog).

Next thumb up - 宫保田鸡. The spring chicken is cooked with some dry chilli, soy sauce and some onion. This is a must try! Absolutely yummilicious!

A fried Sambal Belacan Kangkung and a fried oyster to complete our course for dinner!

At about 58 SGD for 4 of us inclusive a glass of sugarcane for ourselves too bad I forgot to capture it, it is quite cheap and we shall be back to this shop!

Buono Pizza Bar & Italian Restaurant

When people mentioned about Serangoon, their first thought would be Serangoon Garden, Chomp Chomp and etc... It is a food heaven as what I had heard from.

However this time, I am going to blog about a place hided in a high class secluded area in Serangoon whereby it offers excellent Italian Cuisine.

Operated by an Italian boss, the name of the shop is BUONO Pizzabar & Ristorante. Located at Lichfield Road right at the end of a row of shop houses. This shop has no big signboard, but it is very easy to spot as it is the only shop which selling food on that row of shop houses.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is best for friends gathering or maybe some private time to spent with your love ones. It also offers wide ranges of wines for wines lovers. Service wise is very good, price wise, it is a grab from the quality of the food they offer!

Connie get herself a Salmon Set. It came with a piece of succulent Salmon fish, grilled to perfection with a sauce made from spices from Italy(I guess from what I see, as I never tasted such spices before ;p) blended together with cheese and olive oil. Absolutely brilliant! Not forgetting the side dish, I gave this dish a name of Potato Lasagna. Potato wrapped up with cheese! Both of us love this side dish a lot. Not forgetting, some caesar leave to complete the Salmon Set. It is only SGD22.00!

For myself, I got a thin crust 12 inch large pizza cut into 8 smaller portion. The name of this pizza is called 4 Statsioni. The meaning is, it come with 4 flavors and topped with spinach leaves. I can't remember the exact name, but the picture show it all. Two thumbs up! The crust is freshly made(not those pre-made one like Pizza Hut ;p) and then baked with fire+wood! I wallop 7 pieces of pizza! :P I admit I am a big eater, but I remembered my colleague from Catania, can take 3 x 12inch of this pizza! Maybe due to it's thin crust, you wont get full up easily. For this you only need to spent SGD 22.00.

At the end of the day, we got ourselves a Gelato Napoletano - Strawberry+Chocolate+Vanila Icecream to complete the day! SGD8.00 for this.

If you ask me to rate this restaurant, I give them 4.5/5 Stars. Great food at absolutely reasonable price! We will be back!