Korea- Seoul, Jeju, Busan {Part 4 SEOUL}

A Girl's Heaven

From shopping to partying to beautifying yourselves, Seoul is probably the perfect place for a typical girl. Myeong-dong, the equivalent of Orchard Road in Singapore or Shinjuku/Shibuya of Tokyo, is really the best place to stay in, if you're looking for a central area that connects shopping, sightseeing, eating and partying.

Being the primary shopping district with tons and tons of makeup, food and the very hip korean youth culture; you have endless of options for fun!

Our EKONOMY HOTEL room in Myeongdong - with the best view out of all the rooms!!! (or so we heard) It was tucked in a cosy corner of Myeongdong. Super convenient for us as it was a 10 minute walk to the Subway line that we used to go literally everywhere

Rainy day in Myeongdong, the streets that we were so familiar with as we have to pass it everytime we travel out

Could never forget the raspberry maekgolli that we tried here. And my favorite naengmyun (cold noodles)

This is actually a fraction of what our haul included.

Met up with a local friend who brought us for Korean BBQ!

Hongdae 

a.k.a Hongik University  - by far the place we miss the most
Well known as the artsy "nightlife area", hong dae streets enclose various gathering spots for youngsters. Trendy, well-dressed people swarm the area. While strolling along the street, more often than not there will be street buskers performing; occasionally these will be university students showcasing their talent or just taking turns singing for fun. The whole vibe just gets you hyped up and feel like joining in. Girls walking in little groups laughing, dance groups taking over a certain territory for practices, couples dating hand-in-hand, blasting music everywhere - gathering little crowds --- all these complete the whole university life scene. It is very influenced by the indie music culture. This area not only holds the crowd of Hongik University students, but also youngsters from everywhere else; including tourists like us!

For party-goers: The famous clubs in Hongdae include NB/NB2, Cocoon, M2, Club Vera, Club Mansion.. the list goes on but from our mini pre-party research and speaking to locals, these are the more well known ones. They even have a Hongdae Club Day that admits you to 11 clubs at only 15000KRW! The well known NB/NB2 has a wristband deal that allows you to hop from one to the other. I think we paid 15000KRW. It's mainly popular because it is owned by the YG Entertainment company and it plays LOADS of hip-hop music. It wasn't really my thing too until we actually experienced it. Trust me, the vibe is just... WOW. Cocoon was not in our plan but since we had so many nights in Seoul, a spontaneous chance led us there. It was 10000KRW on a weekday. The music was more of pop songs and at some point we really just missed NB2 so much. I'd give it the benefit of the doubt though, since we heard that it is famous, and it was a Wednesday night anyway.

Party people there are generally very friendly and wouldn't mind trying out abit of english to try to communicate with non-korean speakers. It is also filled with youngsters from all over the world so you actually get to mingle around, make some new friends or just dance the night away. You might get to catch a glimpse of some YG artists there although unlikely; but young trainees sometimes practise their dance there. Tip: You'd wanna dress your best or up your game because people generally dress VERY WELL there. Eye candy everywhere, whether you are a girl or a guy haha

Itaewon and Gangnam

are two other famous locations to check out. I can't remember exactly where we went but there was a nice eatery upstairs that served chilled YUMMY FLAVORED MAKGEOLLI (put that in your to try list!) and then we went to a club but decided to hop back to HongDae instead and I can't even remember why. But Itaewon does have quite a lot of good clubs as well, such as Octagon and Arena, but you could easily search up the new popular ones.

I knew Gangnam as an area well known for their vast amount of plastic surgery clinics. We only passed this place twice, once to shop in a random mall and the second because we needed to take the bus to Everland from there. It's basically the "designer" district where everything is expensive,trendy, high end and upscale. Quite alot of high end clubs/pubs there as well.

E-hwa Women's Uni

It was a last minute decision to go, just to check out the popular "shopping street". The place just gushes with feminine vibes, with plenty of makeup stores, drugstores, clothing/apparel stores; youngsters on the sidewalk dancing, singing, rapping (abit similar to the HongDae scene but more shopping) I did remember buying quite a number of masks from one of the drugstores there. Their winter coats were really pretty too but I thought I'd save the money for makeup stuff then.

Experience it: Eating in a pojangmacha on a cold night near the Uni
Tteokbokki and warm fish soup!

TBH I can't remember where this was. One of the examples of food stalls in a market (probably Namdaemun market) that sold intestines and such. Again we took it with makgeolli!

The famous banana milk! They sell this everywhere, I think. We got it from Lotte Mart at Seoul station
There's a hype about Lotte Mart and a WHOLE list of things you need to get if you're there 😍