Oh My Janey

Life Lately: On Staying, Leaving, and Finding New Beginnings

I vowed to blog at least twice a month this year, but it’s been incredibly hectic that I didn’t have time at all. I swear I wanted to, but there were too many movements the past few months that I could barely sit down to blog about everything. Can you believe we’re already on the second quarter of the year?!?

January felt so long, February seemed so short, and I feel like we skipped March and it’s suddenly April. But when I looked back at the first few months of 2018, I realized that so many things happened. Though I have fully embraced being a homebody, some major life events actually took place. [Read more…]

Package Tours Versus Independent Travel: Which One is For You?

Dalaguete Beach

Over the past few years, I get a lot of questions on whether I prefer package tours over DIY traveling. It’s a difficult question to answer, because the answer is always a case to case basis.

Though most of the traveling I share on my blog are independent traveling, my first overseas travel was actually one organized by my parents when I was just 17 years old. Everything was arranged by a travel agency, and my sister and I just had to join tour groups to make sure we wouldn’t get lost in Hong Kong. It was convenient, and for a minor, it was the safest mode of touring.

Since I started organizing my own trip, booking my own flights, and making my own hotel reservations, I enjoyed planning my travels so much that I usually plan everything myself without joining any tours.

But still, I am always careful when answering this question because there are different types of travelers. There are no ideal traveler and no wrong way to travel. There’s just finding what suits your needs and wants as a tourist, or a traveler, if you’d prefer being referred to that way.

So, what really is it? What’s the better way to travel? [Read more…]

Annyong, 2017. Annyong, 2018.

2017 came and went, and I only managed to blog nine times. Can you believe it? I couldn’t even post at least once a month.

I started writing a post on the last day of the year, but I didn’t even finish it before my mind drifted off elsewhere. It wasn’t my best blogging year. And to be honest, it wasn’t the best year in general.

I tried a couple of times to keep the blog active, but soon enough, I ended up not posting anything for months at a time. There was rarely anything particularly exciting or something I felt the urge to write about. I didn’t want to talk about work nor did I have the energy to write about it. There were days when I felt like nothing’s really working for me, but I pulled through anyway. [Read more…]

Seohwa Hanbok Rental in Seoul Near Gyeongbokgung Palace

wearing hanbok in gyeongbokgungEverytime I visit South Korea, it’s mandatory to try on a hanbok and pretend to be a sophisticated lady from the Joseon period. Out of all my hanbok experiences in Seoul, the most recent one had to be my favorite. We usually just rent hanbok for free in tourist centers in Seoul, but I got offered the chance to roam around Seoul wearing the traditional clothing. It’s an experience that I just couldn’t pass up. I mean, how can you say no to wearing pretty traditional dresses, right? [Read more…]

Lunch at Bok Chicken: Weightlifting Fairy Kim BokJoo’s Filming Location

weightlifting fairy kim bokjoo filming location

No trip to South Korea will be complete without visiting a K-drama filming location. With so many dramas released every year, pretty much every tourist spot in Seoul is a shooting location. However, there are still some hole-in-the-wall spots that you really have to go out of your way just to reach. Such is the restaurant used in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo, and it was the first spot we visited for our South Korea trip last spring.

But out of all the Weightlifting Fairy filming locations used for the drama, this was my priority! Watching the show, I could hardly believe that a chicken restaurant could look so pretty so I was surprised to learn that it’s a real restaurant in Seoul. I just had to visit it, and I was glad my sister agreed. So far, it’s my favorite 2017 K-drama, and it was the one that pulled me out of my drama slump. (You can read all about it here if you want, hehe.) I couldn’t visit all its filming sites, but I could fit in at least one. It was more than enough for me because at least a fourth of the series was filmed here!

When I said that it’s out of the way, it’s really out of the way. It’s not a tourist spot and it’s near Kookmin University. However, it’s still pretty easy to reach, and we didn’t even get lost looking for it. But I guess I just have to attribute that to my killer sense of direction, or I can just really sniff out K-drama spots. (Seriously though, every corner in Seoul is fit to be a K-drama filming spot. The city is just that photogenic.)

After quickly dropping off our bags at Hotel Maui DDM, we went straight to Bok Chicken. But of course, it wasn’t really called Bok Chicken but Jak-eun Ma-eul, which I think means Small Town. But please don’t quote me on that. [Read more…]

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