Seoul - Final Thoughts

Photos of our individual hauls (we helpfully separated them into beauty, snacks, and clothes)!

Clearly it was a productive trip. 😆 

Thoughts on Seoul:

1. Makeup-forward. For all of the clean beauty/skincare focus there is, I actually felt like most of the local folks (office workers, store keepers, restaurant staff, etc) actually wore quite a bit of makeup. Maybe the key is that on camera, it gives more of a natural look? Or maybe this was just a misunderstanding of mine. 

2. Less tourists. Compared to Tokyo/Japan, Seoul was MUCH less overrun with tourists. We really didn't have much of a wait anywhere and it didn't feel like we were pushing through crowds all the time. 

3. English-lite. I was consistently surprised by the number of times we found ourselves unable to communicate -- even in some of the tourist areas, it seemed like people didn't speak any English. The difference from Japan was that the Koreans also didn't seem as familiar with Google translate or other app/live translation options. I should have learned how to say "please say it again" in Korean -instead I would just hold up my phone and gesture to it and they'd look at me blankly. 😆 

4. Cash is helpful. If you don't have any, you should also be okay...but especially at the smaller stands/stalls -- some literally would only take cash. And there were a few places where paying in cash got a not insignificant discount.  It also made bargaining sometimes easier (sorry, I literally only have 10000 won...)

5. Recycling separation is not a joke. Koreans take their trash type separating very seriously. I kept worrying that we'd get in trouble for putting the plastic stuff in paper or compost in trash. This might be significant enough that I'd pick a hotel over an Airbnb next time...

6. Like Japan, jet lag is not bad. Yes we got tired around 6 or 7 pm, but it really is nothing compared to how difficult transitioning in China normally is. 

7. Downloading Naver is necessary for map navigation. Google maps can find locations but it can't navigate. Especially for walking, Naver was key. But I found the Google maps reviews/recommendations pretty helpful..so maybe use a combination of both.

8. Kakao and Uber both worked well. Uber was the only one that seemed to allow for adding mid-journey stops though, in case that is important. UberXL didn't seem that prevalent, though the price seemed similar if you could get one. 

9. Common clothing suppliers. The items at all of the shops (whether they be standalone boutiques or shops in a mall or stalls in a shopping complex) were actually often quite similar. By the end of the trip, we would see the same jacket in a variety of places, just with different prices. More reason to go to Gotomall first! 😁 

10. Olive Young (especially for on sale items) did have better prices than most of the other beauty shops.  There might be exceptions, but you'd have to really know prices and products to find the deals. 

11. Plan for extra luggage space. If I had more room, I would have bought more!

12. Air Premia - I think the Wi-Fi is a ploy - it wasn't working on any of the flights any of us took. So make sure you download things before you go! But otherwise I can vouch for the legroom being more generous so I would be willing to take the airline again. 

13. Air quality was not great - I wasn't expecting this, but it turns out Seoul actually deals with quite a bit of smog. The local folks complain that it's blowing over from the factories in China. It didn't interfere with anything, but if you have asthma/respiratory issues, just make sure you bring your meds.

Other thoughts:

Would I come back again? Absolutely. I think the twins would love it -- we will have to add this to our list of family trip destinations. Maybe 2027? Or even 2026 Thanksgiving! Will get the palace and temples in there too then. How expensive was it? Not very -- I actually thought it was cheaper than Japan, particularly in the way of taxis, snacks, and hotels. Beauty treatments actually weren't as cheap as I was expecting, but certainly still better than the equivalents in the US. 

Favorite snacks:

The milk cookie things (cheese flavor personally). Red bean pastries (the ones from Costco are individually wrapped and last about 3 weeks -- they were the kids favorite snack that I brought back). Flat croissants (they press them and then it almost gets caramelized). Salt bread - it was worth the hype. 

Favorite meals:

Maybe all of them? I really can't pick a favorite. Bossam, Korean bbq, gimbap, fried chicken, and hotteok were the highlights. 

Regrets:

If anyone goes back to Costco, can you pick up one of these bags for me? 

1H grabbed one but Y and I missed it -- so regretful. Also sad I didn't get the makeover...will definitely do that next trip. 

That's all I can think of for now...thanks for reading! 

Next destination: Galapagos! 

Seoul - Day 6: Gotomall & Herbal Medispa

I can't believe we are already on the day of departure! So sad. The day started with one last round of US-time work calls/emails -- I did sleep in all the way to 6am today though...adjusting just in time to start the trip back to California 😂. We did some last minute rearranging of purchases without our respective checked baggage/carry-on luggage to confirm how much space we had left for additional purchases -- conclusion: not much!

We didn't have a ton planned for today given our flights in the evening -- Y and H wanted to hit up one last shopping mecca: Gotomall underground shopping center. Luckily the very first restaurant we saw upon entering Gotomall was a gimbap shop! This was something we had been wanting to do all trip. We got orders of the fish roe, bulgolgi, and spicy pork. Happy to report that all three were DELICIOUS. This ranks very high on the list of culinary satisfaction moments for the trip.

Each piece was packed with meat and veggies -- very little rice around the sides. All the veggies were shredded too so each bite was such a nice melding of the ingredients. 

With full bellies, we embarked on the shopping. I have to say it was a little overwhelming. It reminded me a lot of Xiushuijie (Silk Market) in Beijing circa 2008 - I'll have to visit again next trip to Beijing to see how that has changed.

If/when we come back for a family vacation, I think Baba would stay home and L and R would spend an entire day here. Okay maybe Baba would have to come just to keep watch of all the shopping bags. 

I hear that H and Y didn't even get to explore much beyond the first 500 meters or so -- but they both report that we should have started our clothes shopping here. The prices were lower here than anywhere else we went this trip. Next time we will know better!

While they were shopping, I decided last minute to accompany V on a visit to this Chinese medicine/herbal diet supplement medi-clinic (Vyneherb) to round out my K-beauty research trip. Turned out to be very informative/comprehensive!

The interior of the office was very impressive too -- very new and high-end looking. You had to take off your shoes upon entering so you wouldn't stuff up their white floor. 😆 

I did this skin scanning thing where they had me stick my head into this tunnel and then took pictures from three sides using three different types of camera filters to gauge my moisture levels, soil levels, bacteria, pore sizing and shape, wrinkles, age spots, and redness. 

The results were a little surprising -- I am doing fairly well on age spots and wrinkles and moisture, my biggest problem seemed to be elasticity (so lack of collagen!) and drooping in my smile lines area. I have more oil in my T zone area (all over the nose and a little on my forehead). And my pores are a little large, particularly around my forehead and nose and mouth. So I guess I'll focus on cleaning my T zone and use more of those wrinkle strips around my mouth. They recommended some massaging exercises for my face and said to really spend a longer time massaging in serums and moisturizers so they take effect. My best result was sun damage! I'm above average by 7 points there 😆 -- all the sunscreen use is working!

We also did a body scan where they put these sensors on our ankles and wrists to measure BMI, visceral fat, etc. 

My results here were good for internal health (visceral fat, cholesterol, diabetes risk, etc)...though they said ideally I would weigh 10 pounds less. Sigh, I guess I knew that too. 

As with the other clinic we visited on this trip, there were a LOT of staff involved - someone to consult about the body stuff, someone else for the skin stuff, and then prep people, actual doctors, etc -- this clinic had very few customers (V's friend is a friend of the head doctor - this seems like a trend -- maybe there are so many clinics and doctors that everyone in Korea is good friends with at least one head doctor 😆). 

We both decided to try out this body sculpting/muscle building treatment. Then for weight loss, they basically had two options: serum shots or supplements. V opted for the diet suppression supplements while I went for the serum.

First we did the machines -- I have seen this advertised in the states as well -- basically the machines target your muscles to make them feel like they got workouts -- it uses radio frequency pulses and sort of jiggles all your muscles through these bands.

I was low on time so I couldn't do the sauna portion where you flush out your impurities -- so I moved on to the serum injection -- so I have to be honest, when they were describing the treatment during the consultation, I didn't actually understand that they were injections -- because the way it was described, I thought it was a bunch of little pricks -- like a series of acupuncture needles (they DO keep referring to themselves as based in Eastern/Chinese medicine!) -- not like individual shots where they inject chemicals. Well...I was mistaken. The consultant lady also had assured me that it wouldn't really hurt and they don't even bother with local anesthesia because of that...well...that was incorrect as well. Turns out she just has a very high personal pain tolerance level -- actually maybe all Koreans do since they're more used to doing these treatments every year? Because for this newbie, I have to report that it actually hurt quite a bit! But after she did the first shot and I realized this, I also only had like 20 minutes left before we had to leave to go to the airport so didn't really time to stop for anesthesia (also I'm not really sure they could have offered anesthesia anyhow, not being connected with a hospital like the ID clinic). At least the sting wore off after a couple minutes, but the whole process was way more painful than Ulthera. I asked them to focus on my upper back -- they did keep emphasizing how they were injecting 100% natural ingredients instead of steroids and more foreign supplements that are common in the Western lipolysis, so it was much more healthy for the body.  If you are interested in visiting, they do have English and Mandarin language capabilities.

V on the other hand opted out of the injections and instead left with a TON of supplements. 

We will both have to report back in a few months to see how they our respective methods worked!

So this rounded out my K-beauty research experiences for the trip -- truly down to the wire -- went directly from the Medispa to the airport. We all came with small suitcases inside most empty big suitcases and left with both filled to the max.

Such a great trip! The tax refund process was fairly straightforward...note that the windows will give you USD but the exchange rate is not great. The machine kiosks will only give you won, unless you're a Chinese national, in which case they'll give it back to your wechat or alipay.  If you visit the tax refund in Myeongdong (apparently next to the Nike store?) you can get it back on your card (which I didn't know until I got home). Oh well - I guess I have cash ready for the next trip! 

Farewell Seoul -- we had an amazing time. General thoughts and tips to follow in final post!

Seoul - Day 5: Bread, Sights & Namdaemun

I actually think the subconscious "relief" of knowing it was a PTO day made a difference because I woke up at 5AM today! Okay, that or just the multiple days of being in APAC were finally shifting my body clock. Either way, good night of sleep! Having woken up early, we decided to venture out for some Korean snack souvenir shopping. 

First we hit up this little mochi place right outside of our apartment -- I think because we were hungry - but hey, new food experience! 

I liked the beige "cheese" flavored one the most. I think Y and H appreciated the dried fruit/nut top one more.

We checked out random shops while we waited for the grocery store to open (yes, we were rope-dropping the e-mart 😂) - these grapes looked amazing...but they were also something crazily expensive (like $30 for the bag). I guess like Japan, fresh fruits like strawberries and grapes are expensive! (Update - V informs me that normal grapes are not this expensive, these ones were extra special - shine muscat - much sweeter and juicier than normal ones, this the high price!)

This is also when we hit up a pharmacy to pick up some Melatoning for Y (NOT to be confused with melatonin -- every time I asked for it, they'd first bring out the sleeping pills and then I'd have to point at my cheeks and emphasize the "niNG" syllable more and then they'd get it). Maybe I'll do a follow-up post in a month or so and report on how well it worked.  

Our top item at the grocery store were these milk cookies. We all bought multiple packs. My favorite was the cheese flavor - SO good. Basically like a cheese puff, but lighter and tastier (and I think healthier)!

We were headed back to the Myeongdong area today, but to a slightly different location -- instead of the street shopping, we were in search of the infamous salt bread.  A friend had informed me that there were multiple branches, but for the first-time visitor, the aesthetic of the one in the Jongno area would be best. So...here comes one of our tourist failures of the trip....

Look at how excited we are to find the place! (Yes we are wearing matching shirts today):

Me in the shop -- so proud of our purchase:

Close-up of the famous salt bread:

Close-up of the other fruit cream croissant we picked up:

And the little cafe was in this cute little preserved village area (sort of like the hutong experience in Beijing) with a ton of little shops and cafes. 

Amazing experience, yeah? So...turns out we just stopped at the first picturesque place the taxi dropped us off at, not realizing that the ACTUAL famous salt bread place was actually a few turns behind the block. The long line of people queuing tipped me off:

The real shop sold nothing but salt bread. It only comes in a little package of four - so most people were buying one or two packages.

So...we bought a second round of salt bread -- actually it worked out okay because this way we could compare the original with the knockoff.  We all agreed that hands down, the original is NOTICEABLY better. So much more butter - crispy on the bottom, soft all around, pillowy goodness. Even I - generally being a bread pooh-pooh-er, thought it was pretty darn good. Google maps link so you all make sure to go to the right place!

After two rounds of salt bread/croissants...we apparently didn't have enough gluten yet, so we rounded the corner and stood in line at MilToast:

This place is dine-in only and known for their steamed bread:

It was quite a long wait, but luckily with three of us we could swap out standing in line and shopping in the nearby stalls. I picked up some bookmarks for the twins while we were waiting. The atmosphere of the actual cafe inside was actually really cute and peaceful - it wasn't crowded at all because they really controlled volume which you don't appreciate as you're standing in line but once you're seated it made for a much more pleasant eating experience. We were able to actually rest and chat and take a breath from what has otherwise been a pretty go-go-go trip. Here's the famous steamed bread (we got a plain and a corn):

We also ordered a black sesame mochi covered version:

Overall thoughts? The steamed bread was good but not amazing (though it also suffered from being literally like the sixth piece of bread we were eating this morning) -- but the atmosphere was really nice -- so honestly this area (Ikseondong) ended up being one of the group's favorite places of the entire trip. We highly recommend it -- the whole vibe was just really cute and different from everywhere else in Seoul. 

After eating SO much bread, we were all interested in getting some steps in to help digest all those carbs. Naver maps reported that it would only be 30 minutes or so to Davich in Myeongdong (where Y had to pick up the glasses she ordered a few days ago), so off we went through the neighborhood streets!

We passed by a few parks that were actually pretty cool - I think this one is Tapgol Park - there was a big monument inside celebrating the fact that this was the site of the first reading of the proclamation of Korean independence.

Also modeled some street side sunglasses:

More shots of cool pagodas and statues.

We passed by a chestnut stand -- pretty cool as I didn't realize this is what chestnuts look like when they are picked from trees!

I thought Seoul was so much less crowded compared to Tokyo.

This is a shot of the Cheonggyecheon river walk:

The Myeongdong cathedral:

And we eventually found ourselves posing with the BTS bear...

Back again on the Myeongdong shopping street.

We didn't stay that long this time because we knew we had to get to Namdaemun before it closed at 6pm. We were in search of the famous hotteok pancakes -- first we tried the "sweet seed" version (very similar to the five-nut filling for Chinese mooncakes):

Before nabbing the larger vegetable/noodle filled version from the famous stall just outside the entrance to Namdaemun market:

This might be my favorite single food item of the trip so far - crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and the filling was tasty without being too heavy.

Somehow we still had room for more eating...we considered the Kalguksu noodle alley first:

But it was a little too overwhelming for me -- also the menus were too heavy on noodles -- I didn't think I could handle more gluten today...

Eventually we settled on Korean bbq at Namdaemoon Daega:

I really really enjoyed the kimchi at this place. They also had a decent bibimbop and the soup that came with the set wasn't bad either. 

The meat wasn't as impressive as Samwon Garden but I actually enjoyed the banchan here even more -- and after so much bread, it was nice getting some fresh vegetables in our stomachs. 

We couldn't leave the area without hitting the stalls one more time so we went off towards the Hoehyeon underground shopping mall -- and good thing we did because literally as the shops were all closing, we came upon this store and decided these jeans (with elastic waists - crucial after a day of so much eating) were special enough that we had to all buy our own pair:

The woman shop-owner also sent us off with these very tasty candies - they might not be Korean, but they were like softer hi-chews mixed with some soft fruit fillings:

Now it truly was the end of the night. We headed back to the apartment ready for bed - sadly tomorrow will be our departure day!