[Travelogue] Korea Joa Day 8 – Namdaemun, Lotte World Mall and exclusive interview with DABIT

November 12, 2015July 30, 2019 Jiji

October 7th, Wednesday – The theme of our day eight for Korea Joa is free and easy! We had been given a free day to do any coverage we want. So, we woke up early in the morning and got ready to go to Namdaemun!

Our hotel, Ritz Carlton, is just 3 minutes walk away from the Shin Nonhyun Subway Station. We took a train to Namdaemun that morning for some shopping. Namdaemun Market is the largest traditional market in Korea with various goods in store. A huge variety of clothes, glasses, accessories, hats, ginseng and many more, are sold at affordable prices. We spent few hours walking around, shopping.

Our next stop is the one and only Hard Rock Cafe in Seoul. Hard Rock Cafe Seoul is located at the Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, one of Seoul’s greatest new landmarks. The restaurant has a retail shop as your enter, as well as a bar, and there are live performances from house bands as well as other well-known international and local musicians.

Lotte World Mall (2) — One of the interesting shops for K-pop fans

We didn’t really explore Lotte World Mall since we have to rush back to the hotel for another schedule. Well, it’s a shopping mall anyway, so, you can imagine right? Haha…

Lotte World Mall (1) — Super cute Pororo in line…and 2PM poster in the middle

After a quick freshening up at the hotel, we’re ready for an exclusive interview with singer songwriter, Dabit! Ida and I met up with Adrian and Yun Ting from Hellokpop, and the four of us tried to find the place together. Since the meet-up location is just near the hotel, we just walked there. But here comes trouble! We relied on Mr. Google Maps, and he said it only took a 5 minutes walk to the destination, so we just walked leisurely there. But then we walked, and walked, and walked, but the cafe is nowhere to be found. We walked the same area back and forth a few times, but the map keep re-routing our destination. Yes, we were lost!

We asked for directions like a hundred times but unfortunately, most of them were not familiar with the address. 40 minutes passed and we almost gave up. We decided not to trust Mr. Google anymore. Finally, Ms. Minju from KOFICE came to our rescue, picking us up and showing us the place. Thanks Minju^^ We are also grateful to other Korea Joa members who backed us up, changed their slots with us during that time. Thank you guys! Great team work! 😀

Luckily the interview with Dabit went smoothly. David Kim, better known by his stage name Dabit, is a solo singer-songwriter under KoffeeDream Management. He was born on 5th December 1989, and debuted in December 2013. Born and raised in the state of Ohio, no doubt Dabit is a fluent English speaker. We can communicate well without any translators. After meeting and chatting with Dabit, I think he’s so cute and charming in person. Of course very talented too! Check out our exclusive interview with the man himself and yes, he sent a message to his Malaysian fans.^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irGhOkHhUZ4

Once we were done with the interview, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our dinner. We had dinner at Octopus and Chicken Restaurant near our hotel. Since it was just a few block walk away from Ritz Carlton Hotel, we walked to the restaurant. It was a NO-BUS day for all of us, so we walked a lot that day! It’s good to have some exercise after being fed with delicious food in Korea.:p

Cheesy wedges — The octopus was so good that I forgot to take any photos 🙁 But this cheesy wedges was also delicious!

We just spent the night together with Korea Joa staff members and staff, chatted over food and drinks until late at night. Then we strolled around the hotel’s neighborhood, took pictures and breathed in the night air in Gangnam (lol) before we went back to our room to rest. Day 9 will be an exciting full schedule so stay tuned for our next travelogue!