Millidream II: Seoul Trip Feb 2012

Finally I got on a non family trip (excluding biz trip) after so many years. The last one was probably the Tokyo trip I did with Joc in 2003. After that, before and after Lynn was born, I had quite a few family trips, which were fun in their own ways, but never this relaxing and satisfying (from the shopaholic point of view!).

So this is the second trip I did with Joc. I enjoy holidaying with her, cos she is very easy going, flexible and has good temper. She can chiong, but she don't mind accommodating my slow pace. So while we shopped, we had regular breaks, which helped me to last longer. Still we end our day usually at 8 or 9pm, which is very early for most people. I had a great time, shopping a lot and resting a lot!

At SQ lounge, on Friday afternoon:

Friday night, a pic of myself at Incheon airport baggage claim, at around 11pm:

My verdict for Seoul? I enjoy shopping in Seoul very very much. We went in winter, we still got quite a lot of stuff. We definitely want to go back there again during summer, which we think we will "shop 到瘋掉“.

Here's some info and personal experience for friends who may consider going.

1) Shopping trip
If you goggle "Seoul shopping" there are about 7 to 8 shopping areas. From what we read and friends' feedbacks, we chose 4 sites for women stuff (clothes, accessories, cosmetics and skin care, etc). Some of the other places that we did not go, we read that they are either more "touristy" (Itaewon), slightly more high end, or sell traditional art and craft stuff (Insadong).

The 4 areas that we went were Dongdaemum, Namdaemum, Myeongdong, and Ewah women Uni. All these 4 places are a few metro stops away from each other, like shopping from Dhoby Ghaut to Orchard to Novena.

(i) Dongdaemun has 2 sides, the "old Dongdaemun" and the "new Dongdaemun". The old site has a few wholesaler markets. A lot of websites wrote that there's cheap and good stuff at the wholesaler markets. Me and Joc are not there to buy in bulk for selling in Spore, and we were overwhelmed by the huge number of stores in the cramp wholesale market, so we were out of there in 15 minutes.
The new site has 4 shopping complexes. 3 of them (Hello apM, Good Morning City and Migliore) are like Far East Plaza here, with lots of small sized stores that sells young executive fashion (local brands) at very good (low) prices. Each of them is 7 to 8 stories high, with clothes on the first few floors, followed by bags/accessories and shoes on the upper floors. We spent slightly more than half a day at these 3 complexes, and bought quite a few exquisite pieces of accessories there. However, one thing to note is that there's no changing room facility at most of the shops here. The 4th one is Doota, but it's like Taka/Tangs here, which sells the expensive international brands.

(ii) Around Ewah women Uni, there are many shops that also sell young women stuff (local brands) like Dongdaemun. While there are more main stream items are Dongdaemun, there are more unique pieces at Ewah. The other difference is that Ewah area is made up of many shophouse type of (short) buildings, with the shops on the first floor, meaning its walking outside the building when going from shop to shop. We enjoyed shopping here as much as we did Dongdaemun. We managed to find some very good bargains here, as the shops are bigger so there are items on clearance going at 5k to 10k won (about S$6 to S$12).

Here's some photos which we take at outside the Uni entrance:

This is the exterior of a hair salon at Ewah shopping area:

(III) We stayed at Myeongdong Ibis hotel, as recommended by Joc's friend. Myeongdong has a mixture of local brands/fashion and international brands (Zara, HFM, Mango). It's best known for having all the skin care/cosmetics brands there (Faceshop, Etude house, and a lot more). Most of the late afternoon and evenings after visiting Dongdaemun/Ewah/Namdaemun, we came back to Myeongdong for some more shopping and dinner.

Along the streets of Myeongdong. (See how slim the Korean ladies beside me were. I needed to be wrapped up like 肉粽 in this zero degree weather, unable to look pretty and fashionable. Some of the ladies we saw were in short skirts and flimsy tights!)

Some youngsters were shouting "free hugs!" along the streets (at Myeongdong). Joc had one, and I took a pic of them:

Some of my purchases (I think this was day one's reap):

Overall, I enjoyed all 3 places very much. I would greatly recommend these places. We went Namdaemun too. Namdaemun is know for 2 things. Firstly it has lots of wholesalers, where prices can be cheap. Secondly it's pasar malam stores sell fake branded goods (Chanel, Gucci, Fendi etc). Joc and myself were not interested in either of those, so we only spent about 2 hours there before heading back to Myeongdong.
A simple ceremony performed by the staff of a shop at Namdaemun:

2) Hotel / airport transfer / going around by Metro
Having read that Dongdaemum is the main shopping area, I had wanted to book a hotel there. However, since Joc's friend recommended Myeongdong Ibis, so we booked Ibis. I must say, staying at Ibis was one of the best thing for this trip. The location is great - only 200m to metro and a few steps to 7-11. There's a airport bus (6015), that cost 10kwon (one way), which is suppose to be extremely convenient. Unfortunately for us, the last bus leaves the airport at 2245, and our plane was delayed, so we ended up taking the metro in the midnight cold. However, we took the bus when departing Seoul. The pick up point was right outside the Hotel, and after a comfortable 1.5 hours ride, we were dropped off right in front of the airport entrance. It would have been great if we could catch the bus on our arrival. The hotel room was small but reasonably priced (about $250 per night for a double room), and the service was good too (friendly staff who can understand and speak English).
Weather forecast at the Hotel lobby. This was taken on our last day there, when it was -5 to -10 the whole day!

Getting around Seoul for shopping and some sightseeing is not much of a problem with it's Metro system. They have many lines, but the station names and directional signs (in english) and the clear exit numbers are good enough for the reasonably experienced MRT users like us in finding our way around.
These pics were taken at the Metro station nearest to our hotel:

(3) Sight seeing
We didn't plan any sightseeing. Instead, we decided when we were there. If not for the weather, we would have gone to 2 places. I would recommend both place.
(i) Namsan
This peak is only about 262m high. It's a bit like 山顶 of HongKong. This one offers hiking, recreation and views of Seoul city. One other attraction is that it's a place where lovers place a lock and throw away the key, to signify their bond and everlasting love. Here's some photos.
View of the city from on top of Namsan:

Some artistic shots, lol...

Not my hand, haha...

Do we look like lovers?

Lovers' locks:

Changdeokgung
It's a real pity that we didn't get to tour Changdeokgung (way too cold for us to hang out in the outdoors that day). This palace was built in 1405, and its a world heritage site. To enter, one must buy ticket for a guided tour (1.5 hours). So we just took some pics outside the palace door:

(4) Food
Before the trip, I seldom eat korean food in S'pore. I never thought that I will enjoy them so much during the trip. My fav was the porridge, be it ginseng or seafood. I like eating it with kimchi. The various hot pots (pork, tofu, etc) were great too. Love the BBQ (pork and beef) too. My least fav was the ginseng chicken, but that was actually great too. If I'm not on a diet now, I would start eating kimchi fried rice at TPY lorong 1 regularly already! Not to miss out, I love the side dishes (kimchi, seaweed) too. Here are the delicious pics!
Day 1 breakfast - porridge with potato rice balls

Seafood 年糕 hot pot. Yummy!

Ginseng chicken:

Pork hotpot, yummy!

(Can't remember what this was, some kind of egg pancake)

Porridge for breakfast again, at a different restaurant.

Quince tea and Omija tea (red); too sweet for our liking:

Last day tea time lunch - tofu hotpot, Yummy!!

Last night dinner, Korean BBQ. This was great too!

(5) Incheon Airport
Ha! I must write about our experience when departing from Incheon airport. We took the bus from our hotel at slightly before 8pm, and reach the airport at slightly after 9pm. Our flight was at 12nm, so it was a deliberate decision to go early (incase traffic jam etc) so that we can do some shopping at the world class Incheon Airport. We took our own sweet time, and managed to check in/clear immigration at about 945. To our great disappointment (and horror) all the shops closed at 9pm!! As we walk along the huge airport, we were cursing and swearing about what were behind the closed shop doors. We were thinking aloud that at least the DFS shop should be 24 hours. And WK's mum actually asked me to buy ginseng, which we read on the website to buy at airport (ensures quality). Suddenly we saw this sign (see below). We were elated. However, when we tried to enter, we were told that the sales staff will get us what we want, meaning we can buy but cannot browse! Luckily, I asked the sales staff if there's any shop selling ginseng stuff, and was told that there's one that opens 24 hours. I got what I wanted finally. Still it was a great discovery and disappointment with regards to Incheon airport.