adriana's travels: October 2016

Hello everyone!!!!!! It's already October... can you believe it???? My midterms are coming up in a few weeks' time and I. Am. Seriously. Not. Ready. I thought my study habits/time management skills would improve while I'm in Korea.. but honestly, it's actually becoming worse LOL.

Anyway, this post is about my trip to Bupyeong Underground Shopping Mall as well as my trip to Ihwa Mural Village. If I'm not mistaken, this was my first weekend trip after school officially started. (Yes, I really cannot sit at home and do nothing... there is so much to explore in a foreign land!!)

Bupyeong Underground Shopping Mall
In Seoul, there are heaps of underground shopping malls, where you can find a lot of things - from clothes to souvenirs. Most of them are actually quite cheap and affordable, so I guess that's why a student/tourist like me love these places.

Bupyeong is located outside of Seoul - it's actually very close to Incheon. It took me and my friends a bit over an hour to get there from Anam. We reached Bupyeong around 11ish in the morning I think? And there were a lot of stores that were still closed.

Anyway, this place is MASSIVE. I think we took nearly 2 hours to cover the entire underground shopping mall. And because the interior pretty much looks the same, I got dizzy after a while.... And to be honest, most of the fashion stores here probably got their stocks from the same supplier, so I guess that explains why everything looks the same to me.

As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of stuff you can find here - clothes, skincare products, shoes, souvenirs. Clothes are mostly 10,000 won, which is quite reasonable if you really look closely at the quality of the clothes. Some stores might sell their products a little more expensive than others, so you really have to look around to get the best deals. And if you're good in speaking Korean, you can try your luck at bargaining. (I still think my Korean skills are very limited, so I dare not bargain lol.)

The only picture I took of Bupyeong Underground Shopping
Mall. It pretty much looks like this throughout the mall.

After walking around the underground shopping mall, we decided to have lunch. And coincidentally, there was a halal Nepali/Indian restaurant nearby, so we decided to check it out. The restaurant is called Bihani, and they're self-certified Halal. Me and my friends had naan with butter chicken, and it was pretty good. The owner is very accommodating - he kept asking us how the food was, and he even provided a space for us to pray. So yeah, that was a really nice gesture.

Bihani from the exterior. It's located next to a carpark.

Naan and butter chicken :3

Afterwards, we decided to head to Bupyeong Shopping Mall, which is located above the underground shopping mall. We didn't really explore the place because we were already too tired at that point lolllll. There's Lotte Mart, a hawker food centre and some cafes here. Again, didn't really take pictures here. Sorry T_T But anyway, that concludes my trip to Bupyeong Shopping Mall!

Bupyeong Shopping Mall

Ihwa Mural Village
I decided to meet up with Jay, a friend of mine from Melbourne, who is also on exchange in Seoul. We decided to go to Ihwa Mural Village, since both of us have not been here before. Before going there, we went to have sushi for lunch. I actually have no idea where the sushi restaurant is exactly, but it's somewhere near the shopping area in Hyehwa.

Afterwards, we headed to Ihwa Mural Village, which is located 10-15 minutes walk away from Hyehwa Station. These murals are actually painted on the walls of the houses there. And yes, this village is actually a residential area, so tourists have to be mindful of the residents living there. Anyway, there's a lot of murals scattered everywhere, and it's just a really nice place to wind down and admire the murals. If you keep walking uphill, you'll eventually reach Naksan Park, where you can see a skyscraper view of Seoul. We didn't really explore the entire park, but managed to see part of the Seoul Fortress Wall.

Omg cool/funny story time! Me and Jay took a picture of a mural of a granddaughter with her grandfather. And coincidentally, the person in the mural was ACTUALLY THERE, talking with other residents. It was kinda cool to see that the murals of people at the village are actually the residents there. Anyway, picture spam time!!