Seoul - Day 3: Costco & ID Dermatology Clinic

I woke up yet again at 3am...I think that's just going to be the norm for this trip. Gemini did tell me that trying to adjust to Seoul time was likely not a good idea given I'll be headed to Europe within a week of our return, so I guess I'm just heading that advice?

Sadly today is Monday back in the States, so I had work emails and pings waiting for me even at that early hour. Photo proof taken by H -- who also was working this trip -- she was very jealous of my foresight in bringing an external keyboard and mouse. :-D 

Thankfully not that many afternoon meetings, so by mid-morning local time, I could go back to being a k-beauty tourist. Not a bad time shift arrangement actually, which I guess makes sense since it's only 7 hours off from California if we count forward. 

First stop this morning -- visit to our local convenience store. 

I have to report that the stores in Korea are not as exciting/bountiful as the ones in Japan....but they still have the basics!

Today is our big dermatology clinic visit, so the only other item on our agenda was a lunchtime visit to...

That's right - Costco! Happy to report that our US membership cards worked seamlessly -- and even paying with our US Costco visa cards was easy. We had heard that the Costcos in Korea had some interesting food court items - still ridiculously cheap pricing - the exchange rate here is about $1: 1440 won, so the items below (generous serving sizes -- more than a single person could eat) are only $2.40 each. 

I devoured my bulgolgi pizza -- it was basically like a supreme (with olives, peppers, etc) but tastier because it had bulgolgi instead of pepperoni. 

It was really fun exploring each aisle and looking at what was different.  Interestingly, there was a pretty high amount of overlap from the US stores but still plenty that was unique. The top floor was mostly home things and fashion -- it had me worried that Korean Costcos didn't even have snacks -- I was very very relieved that there was an escalator down to a basement floor -- should have taken a photo, but it was reassuringly massive. It was so hard not to buy every pastry item.  We limited ourselves a bit based on suitcase space availability -- but still a pretty good haul!  

After lunch, it was time for our true destination of the day (and arguably of the trip): skincare treatments! We were introduced to ID Dermatology (which is the dermatology branch of ID Hospital) by a lawyer friend of mine who had come a year earlier and raved about the treatments. One of the founders also happens to also be a high school and college classmate of a new lawyer friend of ours -- so even if the prices weren't going to be the cheapest, I took comfort in the fact that we weren't going to be featured in any "medical travel disaster" horror stories. If you'd like the contact info for the ID Dermatology "VIP English" team -- feel free to shoot me an email. 

Oh - one very important note -- you MUST bring your passport with you to the clinics. V's husband F didn't have his passport on him when we got to the clinic and they would not allow him to even get a consult! I was really surprised that they were just turning away business like that. I had assumed there'd be some "you can send us a photo later" workaround but nope -- very adamant. So they ended up not getting any treatments today -- they'll be in Korea for another two weeks though and they both speak Korean so they'll just do their treatments later in the trip. 

Meanwhile, we sat down in our consultation room with our fancy Hermes tea cups -- look at the anticipation in our eyes! 

After some LONG consultations (maybe people who come often are in and out, but we were all newbies to this world of skincare treatments, so we all had very long conversations with multiple dermatologists/doctors), I decided on a session of Ultherapy (which is an ultrasound machine that shoots deep into your skin to promote more collagen creation).  Thanks to the color consult, I was really focused on fixing my under-eye darkness (which is partly due to poor sleep but is probably more caused by the lack of collagen from no longer being 25 years old) and giving me more neck definition (or as one of the doctors bluntly put it, "ah, the double chin" 😂).  I actually had come into the trip wanting to get some sun spots lasered off and some broken capillaries/scars hidden -- but the doctors told me that mine were not good candidates for laser! Apparently because my spots and scars are all not very dark (or rather, they were very close in color to my skin), you can't actually use very powerful lasers -- the lasers work best when the color of the spot/scar is highly contrasted against your skin. I was really sad about this -- but consoled myself with the reasoning that this probably meant they weren't too noticeable? V, as our local expert, suggested I visit a pharmacy and get some melatoning cream instead which targets pigmentation spots that are lighter.  A much cheaper option too!

But back to the Ultherapy (using an "Ulthera 2" machine, which I think is also known as Ulthera Prime) -- according to Gemini, the price I paid is on the higher end for Korea but still way way cheaper compared to the same treatment being done in the Bay Area. Here's me in the pre-treatment room waiting for the numbing cream they applied to my face to set in:  

 

They put eye patches on my face during the actual treatment so unfortunately I have no pictures to share of that -- but here's the immediate after-shot from the treatment chair! I admit the picture seems really good (no dark circles at all! face seems so glowing!) but I'm pretty sure it's the lighting -- Ulteraphy results aren't really supposed to be THAT noticeable until a month after treatment.

Y on the other hand was a good candidate for laser -- so she got several dozen bumps removed from her hairline/forehead/ear area. She was quoted about $7 for each one (which we think is a good deal compared to US, even if it was on the higher end for Seoul). Afterwards she got these pimple patch-looking things individually placed on each one -- you're supposed to keep them on for about two weeks until they fully heal...so she's considering how she's going to manage work calls and meetings.  She also decided to opt for a round of Thermage, which instead of ultrasound uses lasers and focuses more on tightening/reducing of fine lines/wrinkles. Like the Ultherapy, the results aren't really noticeable for another month or two. For immediate results, they recommended Botox, but that wasn't of interest to us -- my rules for treatments were that I didn't want to inject myself with any foreign things (which took Rejuran and some blood injection things off the table) or do anything that was so temporary that I'd have to return every six months. 

Were the treatments painful? Well, for my Ultherapy, I only got the numbing cream and I can report that outside of say, a 5 second segment in the middle where they were shooting deep around my chin that I probably couldn't have handled if it went longer, the rest wasn't too unbearable.  It did sting a little as the ultrasound rays were shooting in (so imagine like, 100 pin pricks, uncomfortable certainly, but not unbearable) and then afterwards my cheek and jaw bones felt a little sore (like if you hit yourself on something). Overall I think my pain tolerance is on the higher side though so perhaps I'm not a great reviewer on this point.

By comparison, Y kept vocalizing her wimpy pain tolerance levels so they decided that besides the numbing cream, they'd also give her shots of local anesthesia. She reports the shots weren't that painful (probably because her face was already numbed up from the cream) and as a result, she really didn't feel any of the treatments. For the Thermage she said it's basically electric currents of fire going deep into your skin. There were about 5 "shots" (not needle, just laser) of the 600 that must have hit in places where the anesthesia didn't take and she said those were pretty painful -- to the point where she will never consider not getting the local anesthesia in the future. If you are REALLY worried about pain, ID Dermatology actually offers a full anesthesia option (very rare and only possible because they are connected to ID Hospital)

By the time we were all done, the sun had gone down and we were pretty famished. We decided to order from the bossam take-out joint across the street from our apartment. What is bossam? It's basically thinly sliced boiled pork belly that you wrap in lettuce leaves or radish slices. 

Really hit the spot! Besides the normal bossam (center box, mostly white-colored meat), we also got the stewed kind that reminded me of Chinese pork knuckles (V informed me it's actually pork trotters - jokbal). Both versions equally tasty!

As you can see from the photo -- another benefit of either Thermage or Ultherapy is that the aftercare is basically nothing. You have no scars, no redness -- the only thing they said was to avoid alcohol for the rest of the day and to be more careful with sun exposure -- but we are literally in the land of sunscreen so that isn't going to be hard at all. 

Tomorrow is my "lots of meetings" workday, so I went to bed pretty early -- as a follow-up on the scalp cleanse, hair still feeling pretty bouncy and light today!

Seoul - Day 2: EcoJardin Spa & Korean BBQ

I woke up around 3am today...about on par with the previous Tokyo trip experience. But this time without the twins in the same room, I actually managed to fall back asleep at 5 for another two hours or so, making my overall sleep total for the night a full 7 hours! But according to my Fitbit, it wasn't great sleep and my resting heart rate is very elevated. Oh well -- at least it's not complete sleep deprivation. 

Today our plan was to begin the day with a visit to the Google Seoul office -- it was actually a really nice walk from the apartment to the office - cold but not unbearable, perfect for feeling more awake.

Visitors are only allowed on Mondays and Fridays so this was basically the only day we could come this trip. As with Tokyo, the view from the office was quite impressive:

Very clear skies too -- could see the mountains in the background really well. Someone told us today that Seoul actually has a lively hiking culture -- one day when we come back as a family I'll be sure to add some hiking to the itinerary.

The cafe spread was not outrageously elaborate but it was still cool to see how different it was from a US cafe breakfast spread. I was told many of the things weren't very traditionally Korean though -- like the fried cheese stick in the middle of the right plate and the Caesar salad. But hey -- still tasty!

The highlight was definitely the juicer though. There were fresh whole apples, kiwis, carrots, and pomegranates that you could cut up and personally press into juice. Everyone had multiple glasses -- gotta keep up the vitamin C immunity when you're traveling!

The Google office was helpfully on the same subway line as our Eco Jardin scalp treatment location so off we went to experience the subway system in Seoul: 

Learnings here: like in Tokyo, cash is helpful for using the subway. So...perhaps unlike China, having at least a little cash in Korea is still necessary. We were very glad that V was able to spot us - having a "local" friend is so helpful!

Eco Jardin is a chain with a bunch of different locations in Seoul. I think they're known as the ones who first introduced this 18-step scalp cleanse concept so lots of people recommend them. I'm sure there are lots of other spa places who do very similar things but hey, in the name of travel research, we figured we would go with the originals.  We made our appointments for the Eco Jardin Jamsil mall location -- which is the same mall that has the Seoul Sky observation tower and the Studio Ghibli store (important info to store away for future trips with family!). 

I started off with a color consult -- I knew it would be a little gimmicky/questionable in value but I was so curious I couldn't help myself. Y and H both got haircuts -- they report that the cuts were very simple -- felt like they were a little rushed and didn't feel like the folks were really that precisely getting it perfect (compared to haircut places in Taiwan). Probably took 10 minutes, but they reported that they did do a good job styling it. To be fair the haircut was also pretty cheap -- so good deal if you need a haircut anyhow but otherwise not worth adding.  

So - back to the color consult! Here's the first step -- confirming what numbers you are based on your lip, cheek, skin, and hair colors. I was basically all warm. My hair was a slightly browner tint than I expected, same with my eyes, my skin was actually more peach than brown and my cheeks were pinker than I expected.

Then we started comparing my face against various swatches. First we did comparisons of cold vs. warm swatches to confirm that I was warm. This part I found interesting because it really was quite noticeable that the cold ones made my cheek redness stand out and the dark circles under my eyes more prominent whereas the warm colors just made my face more generally one single color. We did this for all the major colors - blue, green, yellow, red, and pink. 

And then after that was confirmed, we compared the two warm color versions between spring and fall to see those differences. For these, it was more that springs made my face look brighter (second picture) while autumn made my face darker (first picture). 

I do think a lot of this is just being under a bright light and lighter colors making you look lighter because of the light reflecting on your face. Nonetheless, it was interesting enough that I think it was worth the cost to do once. The woman also said I should look to navy and browns instead of black and ivories or creams instead of bright white. If nothing else, this really highlighted how much of an issue dark circles are for me! Will keep that in mind for Olive Young visit...

If some of you folks reading are also Asian and thinking of doing this, I'll say that my consultant admitted that almost all Asians are warm colors, though some are more autumn instead of spring. To summarize my personal results: Pink: aim more for a darker peach -- otherwise it accents my red splotches on my cheeks. Red: aim more for orange-red. Blue: aim for turquoise for darker and seafoam for lighter. Yellow: marigold more than light or bright yellows. Green: pastel or backup olive, not forest or green-blue. 

And now into the scalp portion! Here are all the steps. I took a video of the first 15 min or so with all the red light and blue light and serum cleansers and such. They're pretty good at upselling -- we all came in planning to do the 15 step and we all ended up upgrading to the 18. 

Why you ask? Well they use this camera to show you scary photos of your scalp and how yellow and gunky it looks:

So then it's like -- oof, I better add some conditioning after all! Here's me in the steaming portion. I don't look so amused. But after this there were some massage steps too which were VERY enjoyable. 

They then put a bunch of other stuff and such on my scalp and massaged it in. And then I moved to the washing room which was VERY soothing. These steps now focused on the hair instead of the scalp -- basically involved striping your hair of the environmental elements and then adding moisture back in.  You're also in a massage chair the whole time so you just end up not wanting to move at all. I started feeling very very sleepy...

But after 20 min or so, they made me get up for the final steps: blow-drying, adding hair growth serum and then finally styling. 

They also take you back to the camera room to show you how clean each strand now looks.

Here's a before shot:

And the after! (Yes I look a little dazed -- try to overlook that -- the washing portion was just very sleep inducing!!)

So was it worth it? I'm actually blogging this a day later and can report that my hair is much cleaner and lighter and bouncier even today compared to normal. I do have my suspicions on whether the 18 step was really necessary or how long the cleanness really lasts (my person said she does it once a month) but it certainly was an enjoyable "pamper" experience.  If you are headed to Seoul and want to visit this specific Eco Jardin, I took down the manager's Whatsapp and she promised that I can offer friends (or friends of friends) a 10% discount -- feel free to reach out! (zoubavacations@gmail.com).

After this, we walked around the mall a bit - including popping outside for an obligatory snap of the Seoul Sky/Lotte Tower.

After this we decided Lotte malls were not quite our thing (too many high end brands for our budgets 😆) -- so we decided to go hit up some vintage places instead over in Garosu-gil. We all had a few finds, which we modeled for each other back at the apartment:

By now it was time for dinner -- Michelin starred Korean BBQ at Samwon Garden.

The garden was truly beautiful, especially at night with the lights. Gets us into the Christmas spirit!

The private room was also beautifully set up - I have never been to a Korean BBQ where the chef literally prepares every course right behind you. 

There were so many courses that I have to choose just a few of my favorites to showcase here. This is the nine treasure pancake, apparently very traditional for Korean holidays but very time consuming to make all the treasures:

Here's the spread of kimchis and side dishes that accompanied all the meats:

We had five different meat courses - here's all of them being shown to us (it's like bringing the live fish to the table).

And here's just one of them in cooked form -- the plating was so artful too.

For the LAP crew -- there was crab!! The famous Korean raw crab -- you squeeze out the meat or scoop up the innards and then mix it with rice in the shell to eat. 

We even had a sashimi course. This is when we realized we were going to stuffed...because this was practically a meal sized chirashi bowl.

This was truly a meal for the memory books. Here's the menu for those who are into that sort of thing:

After all that...we were definitely ready for bed again. They even sent us off with some digestive powder (tasted horrible, but we all still took it because we all could tell we were going to need help digesting 😆). 

Tomorrow...skincare treatment day! 

Seoul - Day 1: Shopping! (And a little culture)

What better way to combat jet lag than to get out to the stores, eh? That's the plan at least. Y and H arrived at the Airbnb after their red-eye flights from California and we immediately celebrated with some milk bread. It's basically a pastry with a lightly sweet cream filling. Pretty good but also pretty heavy so glad I had two other people to split it with!

I then visited our local convenience store to pickup some instant noodles and Korean hi-chews and then off we went!

First stop: Starbucks. Yep, so Korean. But actually it was -- little cute Korean themed coffee mugs and trinkets and the seating was raised platforms too. I realized after we left I should have taken a photo...

Second stop: eyeglass store. Apparently prescription glasses and sunglasses can be made VERY quickly and cheaply. Like, within an hour or two quickly. 

But V and Y wanted styles that weren't immediately in stock so they'll have to go back to pick up in another couple days. We went to Davichi but there are a TON everywhere. It was next to the National Post Office.

Third stop: Myeondong shops. For those who recommend Lotte Duty Free -- I have to say even Duty Free, this was too expensive for me. 😆 I found the underground shopping at the little shops more my style. Picked up a bag, some socks, a pair of pants, and some fresh squeezed orange juice (very tasty!). 

By lunchtime, we were ready for some sustenance! Thanks to V for finding us THE place for beef noodle soup and dumplings - Myeongdong Kyoja. 

We had one cold spicy noodle (like a liang ban mian):

The kimchi was spicy but delicious! 

Two tiers of dumplings:

And four chicken broth dumpling and noodle soups -- what they are apparently really known for. 

Really everything (there are only 3 menu items) were delicious. But you have to order before you are even seated so be prepared. 

They are very proud of their Michelin recognition:

After lunch we split up a bit -- Y went off for a K-beauty makeup lesson (from a real life Kpop celebrity makeup artist) -- it was over 2 hours long and cost about $230 but it was VERY detailed. She reports that there were a lot of steps and left with a very long list of products to buy at Olive Young. She asked the makeup artist to do half her face and then she did the other half and the MAU corrected her as she went so very informative! (She reports a learning was how to use blush properly and properly prepare your face for the makeup). There were lots of options online -- though note that finding a lesson in English is generally harder -- Y thought it was a good pamper experience. No photos of the specific makeover but here's a shot of the private makeup room:

If you do want to try it out, it was Jung Saem Mool in the Lotte Mall at Myeongdong. Note that it's in the 10th floor of the AvenueL tower of the Lotte mall -- there are three towers/banks of elevators so make sure you to the right one. 

The rest of us went off to the Myeongdong shopping streets -- SO MANY STORES. It reminded me of the Tokyo Harajuku shopping streets but with much more manageable crowds. 

I purchased a few more items -- also hitting up a Daiso on the way (always hard to leave a Daiso without a bucket of purchases). The process left me winded enough that I totally succumbed to the marketing flyer for a foot massage. It was about $20 and kind of rough but I think good for my tired tired feet. It included a hot wax wrap at the end:

After all the shopping, we decided to get a little culture -- off to the Leeum Art Gallery! 

The museum is run/owned by the Samsung family. The permanent exhibits are free and arranged on four floors around a circular staircase. Kind of a cool concept architecturally:

This was a pretty cool room -- all of the jade saucers and cups inside are from different historic eras. 

Here's a miniature palace/pagoda -- more impressive in person. 

There also was a Tigers and Magpies exhibit - interesting seeing how the Korean ancient painting styles were sort of similar but noticeably not the same as ancient Chinese styles. 

There were also some more modern art exhibits -- I'm calling this the hahaha room: 

Dinner tonight was with our new friend Beomsu, the head of Baker McKenzie's Seoul office. He selected a very cool Italian restaurant in the Hannam area - L'atelier de Orzo.

The food was unexpectedly quite tasty. I have to admit we weren't expecting much at first for the quality of an Italian restaurant in Seoul but as one of my dinnermates said -- Korea tends to "Korean-ize" other cuisines - they add more ingredients or flavors to make it more complex. Every dish was really tasty -- in surprising ways. Here's the only picture we managed to take because every other dish we got too excited and started eating before we remembered to take a picture. 

After stuffing ourselves to the point where we had to let a piece of filet mignon go uneaten, we were yawning at a socially rude frequency...hailed an Uber and off to bed. 

We were all out shortly after 9pm. Very successful first full day in Seoul - tomorrow, spa!