Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 02.2 - Sinchon, DDP & Hongdae

Travel Vlog

After we’re done with the wedding shoe shopping (see part 1 here), we headed to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) to check out Seoul Fashion Week that was going on (see more pictures and read the story here). We spent a good amount of time people watching before moving on to Dosan Tower, more well known as Doota (두산타워), one of the largest fashion malls at Dongdaemun market because Grace and Marshellia wanted to browse around and maybe do some shopping. By the time they finished browsing, the sun already set and we started to make our way to the subway station to head to our dinner plan.

But of course when the two spotted a street vendor near the subway entrance that sells a variety of street food, they had to make a stop and bought some. I guess the walking around we did the past couple of hours have burned all the food that we ate earlier because they said they were hungry enough to eat that and dinner later on.

Christina joined us again for dinner with Soo Zee and Leigh (see more pictures and read the story here). And after dinner was done, we stopped by the convenient store to buy some water and other things before going back to our Airbnb and calling it a day.

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Samgyeopsal Dinner with Soo Zee & Leigh

For Dinner, we actually met up with my friends, Soo Zee and Leigh, for some samgyeopsal dinner. Marshellia and Grace actually knew them from the time they came to visit me in Jakarta and we hung out together then. So since Marshellia and Grace were visiting Seoul, they invited us to get dinner together with them. We met up at one of their favorite spot—which has became one of my favorite spot too after the first time they brought me here—and had those delicious thick pork bellies. The sizzling sound of oil meeting the pan the first time the thick chunk of meat were laid down officially kicked off our dinner and then followed by tiny splatters of oil hitting the tables and sometimes our hands causing some of us to flinched every now and then. We were all eager and ready to just eat everything that was in front of us, especially when the smell of the cooked meat started to spread around the table. When the pork belly pieces were ready, everybody took a piece and eat in silence. The meat and fat ratio was perfect, perfectly cut, and perfectly cooked. And my friends gave me their approval of the food after they finished their first piece of samgyeopsal and I was glad they like this place too.

There’s always something about eating good food that made it tastes even better when you’re having it with a good company. It might be your family, or friends, or maybe significant other. At least that’s how I feel. I don’t have a problem eating out alone, but for Korean Barbecue, I think I never eat it alone. Part of it is because I don’t think it’s a common thing to do here in Korea (some restaurant actually don’t let you eat solo in a barbecue joint) and part of it is because I just feel like it’s so much better to have it with other people to share the meal with.

The rest of dinner was pretty normal, filled with half-shouted conversations amongst us because like any other meat joint in Seoul, the place was pretty noisy. Soo Zee cooked for Marshellia and Grace while Leigh was explaining to Christina how to make a proper wrap of samgyeopsal with the lettuce and sauce and everything. We shared conversations and stories until the last piece of the meat disappeared from the pan and everybody was full.

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2017 F/W HERA Seoul Fashion Week

On the second day, one of the things that we decided to do was to visit HERA Seoul Fashion Week that was in full swing at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). Fashion week is always exciting and interesting. DDP was packed with people and you can felt the energy and excitement in the air. Fashion photographers—professionals and amateurs alike—were trying to get the perfect snaps of people who were roaming the area with their sniper like long lenses, trying to catch the perfect shot of the day. Models, actresses, actors, singers, public figures and just regular people in general all blending in together in this area, strutting in front of the photographers as if it’s their private runway showing off their look (or looks I should say) of the day. There were a lot of people who dressed up in all kinds of styles and the overwhelming visual stimulus was almost too much for me to take in all at once.

We ended up picking up a spot in a less busy part of DDP and did people watching for a while. First of all, there were a lot of good looking people that were present. I mean, like really ridiculously good looking people. Tall men and women with symmetrical faces, prominent noses and jawlines, and flawless skin (or maybe it was just perfect make-up? I don’t know. Couldn’t really tell). It was also fascinating to be able to see what these people chose to wear as their personal style and there were definitely some cool looks that we liked, and some which just made the eyebrows on our faces hiked up and our eyes widen in confusion.

My favorite shots were probably these little girls, who were dressed better than I did by the way, approaching this man with a cat mask on his face. They were really really curious about the cat mask and I thought it was so funny because at first, the catman only attracted one girl and in the end her two friends joined in on her curiosity. It was the cutest thing ever. In the end, the catman never took off his mask and the girls went away with their curiosity still apparent in their eyes when their moms called them to get going. And not long after that show was over, so did we.

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Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 01

Travel Vlog: Took my friends around Seoul when they came to visit for spring holiday.
We explored Ewha & Sinchon area for the first day of the trip.

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Exploring Sinchon & Ewha

On the first day we touched down in Seoul, the cold early spring weather greeted us as soon as we walked out of the airport terminal. The four of us stood at the bus stop, waiting for the airport bus which was supposed to take us to our Airbnb to pull up into its spot.

I suppose I should introduce you to three people who were with me on this trip. Meet Marshellia, Grace and Christina. Childhood best friends who I’ll be taking around Seoul during the first week of my trip. My three companions were busy munching on the Honey Butter Chips that was bought earlier, partly for the purpose of a light breakfast replacement, partly because we all wanted to know if the Honey Butter Chips hyped that was going on then was really living up to the hype. (For me, it didn’t to be honest. Just not my thing)

As soon as the airport bus arrived and took us into the city, our first stop was our Airbnb in Hongdae. The place Grace has picked was really nice. Spacious apartment with two queens beds, living area, and dining area. We dropped off our luggages and took a little break before heading out for brunch.

Since it's our first day in the city and we took a red-eye flight the night before, my plan was to just explore the areas near our Airbnb so we don’t get too tired. The first stop for brunch was this Korean spicy soft tofu stew (순두부찌개) place in Sinchon. Everybody was feeling for something soupy and warm, so tofu stew was perfect for the chilly weather. After we stuffed ourselves with rice and stew, we went to one of the shooting locations of the popular drama ‘Goblin’, which happened to be around the area. Goblin was the big Korean drama at the time. The series has just ended a couple of months before so the excitement around the series was still there. I took them to tunnel where Goblin & Gream Reaper had their slow motion walking scene after they returned from buying groceries and we took a couple of pictures there.

After Sinchon, we walked over to Ewha to explore the area. The girls went shopping and we also tried some waffle for our afternoon snack.

When dinner time came, I took them to one of my favorite gyukatsu place and we each had a portion of the juicy tender deep-fried beef cutlets.

Shopping session resumed after we finished dinner. More clothing stores and shoe stores visits, resulted in more shopping bags being carried around as the night was getting darker.

When everybody was finally spent, we made our way back to our Airbnb and called it a day. And that was our first day.

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