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Sunday, July 30

My trip to Seoul
Do you know how it's so hard to get back to something when you stop? I've been putting off blogging for so long but it's time I blogged about ANYTHING. So KOREA it is! Warning generic travel post.

I was in Korea for 9 days. MY FIRST WORK VACATION! I HAVE EARNED MONEY I CAN SPEND! I met my SG friends there too

My goal was just to shop for makeup and chill with friends. So Korea was perfect... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Bestestsestst friends!

I'll talk about Observations, Food and Shopping in this post.
In the next post, I'll talk about Beauty, Theme parks, Sightseeing and misc stuff.

Observations
English won't get you far. Most of the population speak little or no English here. I had to use Google Translate (yay 💓) often to translate menus. In touristy areas and some shops, staff can speak good Chinese and English!

LINE and Kakaotalk are Korea's favourite messaging apps. Lots of shops use these for communication so I had them downloaded too

Google maps doesn't work well. I had to download Kakaomap, Kakaometro for map and transportation information.

Transportation system in Seoul is amaze. The subway map below looks like a monster, but actually everything is so well-connected and easy to get to. Transferring lines might be confusing at the start, but you'll get used to it.

No grocery stores?! You see convenience stores everywhere, but I had to travel ~40km to the east for Lottemart, a supermarket.

Food

KBBQ in Hongdae is pretty good. The thing about Korea is that the sharing culture is HUGE. So is meat culture. Food is awesome if you're with a bunch of meat loving friends. But God help you if you're a single vegetarian - my friend had to eat RICE FROM DAISO!!

Some people say KBBQ in Los Angeles is better than Korea... What the shit!? But I actually agree now. I've had way better KBBQ in LA. /gets smacked That said, it's hard to beat the feeling of having authentic streetside KBBQ in Seoul.

Korea has lots of cafes and bakeries too. Cafe culture is huge. OK see this chocolaty drink photo?! BEST CHOCOLATE DRINK IN MY LIFE. It's Gabo Coffee in Sinsa. They use cocoa nibs from nicaragua or something. ITS SO DEEP AND VELVETY. I loved it so much, I added it to Maps. GO THERE WHEN YOU GET YOUR PLASRIC SUGERY IN SINSA.!!

Also sweet potato lattes are a thing. They're great, lots of cafes have them!

Cheese chicken is SO GOOD and sinful. This is in Gangnam. I forgot where but you can try Gosoo Dakgalbi Gangnam.

One place I regret going is Noryangjin Fish Market. It's just the same seafood stalls over and over. Basically you get to pick your seafood fresh and they bring it up to the restaurant cook for you. But they charged us $13 ea on top of the cost of the ingredients, which weren't cheap anyway!

It's quite entertaining (but saddening) to see sellers do crazy stuff with seafood to entice you to buy from them. Like, wiggle octopuses or dangle giant crabs in front of you... or squirt water at you with phallic sea creatures, ugh wat

OK, Bingsu..
I've had multiple bingsu from shops like Wicked Snow, Sulbing, Gong Cha etc. They're OK. But THIs. THISIIIIISSS IS THE BEST BINGUS I HAD IN MYFLIFE!!!!2!!!!!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

this CHEESE BINGSU!

Why this photo tombalek?!

It has cheese cake, cheese powder, ice cream, milk flakes, condensed milk. ALL THE BEST VERSIONS OF MILK IN ONE BOWL!!

It's called Take Out Bingsu near Hongdae subway, photo below. I tried adding to Maps, but they haven't approve, they think this place fake because too good liao lah

Take Out Bingsu

Shopping
Seoul is a lot like Singapore, but a leveled-up version. Malls with big brands, with some indie and artsy shops, countless cafes and restaurants. HEAVEN. 🌈🌧

Bought $50 worth of Korean cat food for my cat

Shopping streets are very similar with a lot of the same shops. For example, you're going to see Innisfree or Daiso everywhere.

You tend to see a lot more skincare/makeup shops here. Seoul really tries to insert advertisements and shops IN EVERY PLACE. Even inside train station platform got stall! Even inside a theme park got ads to buy buy buy 💰! It's scary!!

Here's a summary of great shopping districts that are MUST GO

Hongdae, hip shopping street

My favourite place, super hip!! There are lots of young adults, I think got university nearby that's why. There is a well known meat street for KBBQ. And of course my favourite bingsu I just mentioned above.

It has lots of indie fashion, hipster shops, cafes and good food. I love walking down its streets.

And a cartoon network store!

MyeongDong, skincare heaven

THIS IS THE PLACE FOR SKINCARE AND MAKEUP. Lots of korean brands here. From big brands like Etude House, to smaller ones like Holika Holika, Apieu, Corsx and Moonshot.

Fashion here is decent as there are Korean fashion labels and I bought quite a bit of clothes!

You can also find GREAT STREET FOOD here!! Huisuan and I had lobster roll, it was BOMB.

Dongdaemun: clothes and night shopping

Absolute KING of malls and wholesale centers. It's crazy crazy HUGE. It's like Singapore's Orchard Road and Chinatown multiplied by 100.

My favourite mall is DOOTA MALL, a department store with korean fashion labels. I bought lots of clothes from this label called tibaeg!

Pretty patterns and colours! 😻

This is also the best place for NIGHT SHOPPING! 🌃 While the other streets close at 10pm, shops here operate way after midnight. After 8pm, you will see many clothes shops start to open! Many independent clothing stores will be selling different clothes, however, as I walked through 10+ levels of clothing stores, they started to look repetitive. I felt stressed trying to survey all the shops in one evening.

Speaking of repetitive, i bought like 5 of these pinafores lmao

You will also find CHEAP MAKEUP AND SKINCARE here. At wholesale prices, so 30-40% cheaper. 💰💰💰 Cheaper than MyeongDong! I bought a laneige lavender sleeping mask for $20 and peripera ink lippies at $4.

Peripera ink velvet, Korea's most popular makeup item.

It's said that every korean woman has at least 3 of these.

ONE DAY IS NOT ENOUGH TO EXPLORE ALL OF DONGDAEMUN. Hell, I'm not even sure if you can comb through every shop in one week. It's that enormous! So, plan your time wisely here.

Gangnam, food, shopping and more

I sure was excited to visit Gangnam because it's the only city I knew existed in Korea. LOL. Gangnam is great, because you can find EVERYTHING here and you won't be bored walking down the street. Clothes, skincare, beauty, cafe, bars, kbbq, food...

My hotel was here and I don't regret it! There's a straight bus to the airport, super convenient.

daiso~ BTW daiso here isn't a $2 shop, it's a home goods store with a wide variety of items!

There is also a famous largest underground mall in the world, the COEX mall. It's really sleek, huge and amazing.

Itaewon, pretty shophouses

Now, I didn't fully explore this place, but my friends say it has an European vibe. It has lots of artsy shops, cafes and bars. Googlers also recommend this place for people watching!

There's a giant LINE store!