The Power of Heart and SEOUL!

(As published on Hardware Zone Magazine's November 2015 issue)

What makes Seoul an ideal travel destination is that, it is a modern yet a history-rich city where one can experience its preserved traditional culture and at the same time, its cosmopolitan urbanity.

OOTD: Top and pants from Forever 21, Cardigan from Cotton On, Wedge from Landmark

 On September 2015, I went on a 4-day trip to Seoul, which was already my second. My first was in autumn of 2012 where I visited some UNESCO World Heritage sites in and out Seoul. But in my recent trip, I focused on discovering more of the city.

When deciding on where to go in Seoul, just follow your heart, and choose what you love. In my case, I like Korean dramas so I decided to visit some of the shoot locations of my favorite K-dramas. First stop was the Geongbokgung Palace, one of the sets of The Rooftop Prince. Luckily, I also got to witness the “changing of the guards” ceremony. Next stop was the Mangosix Café (Apgujeong Branch) in Gangnam, the set of A Gentleman’s Dignity. However, it has been renovated and is now known as Koffisix Coffee. I got pretty disappointed and wished I visited the Daechi-dong branch, one of the shoot locations of The Heirs instead. Lastly, I tagged along some Seoul-based Filipino friends to visit the shoot location of The 1^st Shop of Coffee Prince in Hongdae.

Changing of the guards ceremony at the Geongbokgung Palace

The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince in Hongdae

That's Yoon Eun Hye's signature inside the coffee shop

 For couples, a popular destination is the N. Seoul Tower in Namsan Mountain, which can be reached through a bus or a cable car from Myeongdong. This is where couples express their love by putting love locks in the railings of the viewing deck, just like those in the Pont des Arts Bridge in Paris.

N Seoul Tower 

lovelocks

My three favorite neighborhoods in Seoul are Hongdae, Myeongdong, and Gangnam. Hongdae is known as the university area (where Hongik University is). It is where the youth comes for shopping, dining, and clubbing. Foreign and local fashion brands, street foods and mid-end restaurants, plus bars/clubs are found here. Myeongdong is a shopping haven. It is where numerous beauty and fashion brands are; and trust me, they’re priced 3x less there than abroad. Gangnam is where high-end brands and the elites are; and is perfect for celebrity spotting.

street art in Hongdae

Korean BBQ (I love Hongdae street food)

my favorite shopping district: Myeongdong

comfy OOTD: Nike sneakers, denim top from Japan, denim shorts from Forever21 and Coach sling bag

Don’t worry about the expenses because it’s not as expensive as you think. Well that’s for you to experience; so book your flight, pack your bags, and prepare to have fun!

Hey SEOUL Sisters! (Day 5)

We've been travelling hardcore for the past days so we decided to go a bit slow on our 5th day (Nov. 19). Two of us were about to fly back to Manila at 7am from Incheon Airport in the 20th; and since there's no subway, nor airport bus at 3am yet and the cab fare would be very expensive, they just decided to go to the airport on the night of the 19th. With this, we made our last day/night together in Seoul to be more laid back.

We woke up late this day. We were very happy about that because we've been waking up at 6 or 7am for the past days because of our tight itineraries. This day we woke up at 10am because our only schedule for the day was to have lunch with our new Korean friends (Pam's colleagues from the Korean branch of the multinational company she's working for in the Philippines). After taking a few photos in the apartment with our new Malaysian friends (housemates), we headed to the IDC office at the Trade Tower in Samseong, then we had Italian lunch at a restaurant in CoEx Mall, the mall connected to their building and to the subway station. We were treated to lunch by their office hunk whom we called "Piolo", but his real name was Pyongjik (whatever spelling haha). It's so funny 'coz we've been calling him Piolo and everytime we did, all of them (Koreans) were laughing. When the boys went back to the office, the girls admitted to us that they've been laughing because "Piolo" in Korean means "so-so" hahaha! Okay, so we never had a chance to apologize to Pyongjik for calling him "so-so" LOL! We super enjoyed the company of our new Korean girl friends. They have almost the same personality as ours, so we really got along well. They love shopping, they shared us some Korean beauty secrets, they told us which Korean beauty product brands were really good, they said the girls of  Girls' Generation are their enemies because every guy wants them, they also like my Korean crushes e.g. Coffee Prince, and more! Yeah they're the nicest and funniest too!:)

housemates

group pic inside the apartment :)

lunch with IDC Korea :)

the guy we called Piolo haha

After lunch, we headed to Myeongdong for shopping. Gosh, it's heaven! Imagine, in one street there were more than one store of every brand! We've gone hoarding lots of BB creams, nail polishes, makeups, sleeping masks, collagen creams, and more! And we got lots of freebies!:) We didn't have much time to shop so we're not able to go to H&M anymore. While some of my friends were shopping at Forever21, I was taking photos of their Hello Kitty collection display, until a guard dressed in a trench coat, called my attention. Apparently, taking of photos wasn't allowed. He even asked me to delete the photo and I showed him that I did. But he didn't know that I've taken a lot of photos already before he caught me hihi! Anyway, Myeongdong reminded me of Harajuku, a shopping strip in Tokyo. Plus, I was amazed that salesladies in Myeongdong also speak good Japanese so I asked why, they said 60% of their customers were Japanese. Then I realized that yeah, if I was that near to Seoul, I would travel every now and then to shop for beauty products because it's way way cheaper there than in Japan. Anyway, my most favorite purchase there was Nature Republic's Snail Therapy Sleeping Mask, which I bought for 28,000 won! So cheap for something that gives visible results.:)

Myeongdong

inside Forever 21

I'm a fan!

Hello Kitty and Bad Badtz Maru stuff

inside the train

From Myeongdong, we headed back to the apartment for Dianne and Pam to pack their stuff. Then we went out for late dinner with our flight attendant friends from Aseana, who were based in Seoul, and were staying at a hotel a few meters away from our place. We had Korean barbecue buffet also called "samgyeopsal" at Meating in Hongdae. It's just a couple of meters away from our place. That's actually what I really liked about our apartment, it's near everywhere! Hongdae is really a nice place to stay at because it's very cheap there and everything's just so accessible. At dinner, I also met up with new friends who were the friends of my friend who used to live there. Yeah, this trip was about making a lot of new friends and that's what I really liked best!:) Anyway, usually, a buffet dinner isn't timed, but since it's very in demand, this new place, "Meating", only allows their customers to stay for an hour and a half. So they're charging 9,000 won per pax plus additional 2,000 won for those with leftovers. Of course, we're not willing to pay 2,000 won more so we just finished everything we got.

before...

:)

the girls :)

...after haha!

After dinner, we walked around Hongdae, checked a couple of stores of beauty products (yeah we just can't enough of this!), and looked for a perfect coffee place. There's a coffee shop wherein you'll adopt a cat while you're there having coffee, another is for dogs. But we wanted to bond more so we didn't choose any of those. We went to a coffee shop with themed cubicles, one was like that of a dorm that had bunk beds, but I failed to see the other cubicles since the place was full. You know, Koreans really got this thing about coffee. There have been a lot of themed coffee shops because more than the taste of coffee, what would make people come to specific coffee shops is the ambiance and the dining experience. Anyway, after 30 minutes of walking in a 1-degree weather around Hongdae to find the perfect coffee shop, we ended up at the Hello Kitty Cafe again haha! But for me it's okay because I really love their coffee. After an hour of girl bonding over coffee, we headed back to the apartment. After some last-minute packing, we sent Dianne and Pam to the subway. Then Thina and I headed back home, and our FA friends headed back to their hotel.

at Olive Young. #1 best BB cream: Dr. Jart, #2: Skin79 (but quite expensive)

popular cosmetics brand for teens in Japan

Hello Kitty Cafe again...

so lovely :)

Hello Kitty :)

coffee!

happy girls :)

Total spending for the day for 4 pax:

1. Transportation - 13,800 won

2. Lunch - FREE

3. Dinner - 36,000 won (9,000 won each)

4. Coffee - 18,000 won (4,500 won each)

TOTAL: 67,800 won = Php 2,598 (or approx. Php 650/pax)

So it's Thina and I who were left on our last night in Seoul. See my next post for the story of our last official day in Seoul, and the summary of our trip.