Yay I'm finally gonna continue writing abt my Seoul trip!
(You can read the first part on what to eat in Seoul here: http://weilingweilingweiling.blogspot.ie/2013/11/seoul-cos-stuffing-your-face-with-good.html)
I love Seoul becos there are so many things to do and so many places to visit! On my second trip to Seoul with my best friend, Ashley, we tried our best to fit in with the other Koreans and went to some of the places typical Koreans would visit. Really enjoyed myself a lot!
So I'm gonna be recommending some of these places today! Do spend some time to check these places out when you're in Seoul!
Jjimjilbang
찜질방
Silloam Fire Pot Sauna
실로암불가마사우나
128-104 Jungrim-dong
실로암불가마사우나
128-104 Jungrim-dong
Jung-gu
Nearest train station: Seoul
Nearest train station: Seoul
Directions frm Seoul station:
Walk to Lotte Mart
Walk towards Korea Economy Daily News for 30m
Turn left
We took a cab there and arrived at slightly past 9pm. Most jjimjilbangs open 24/7. At Silloam, it costs abt 15,000 won per person (SGD$17) for bath and sauna when you visit after 8pm. And you are allowed to stay until 5am the nxt day aka you can slp there if you want! Hee hee I'm so gonna do that the nxt time I visit Seoul and save on a hotel night stay!
So basically, you are provided with t-shirt and shorts which you are to change into when you enter the place. There are female and male changing rooms with lockers provided for you to lock away your belongings. After you get changed, you can start to explore the place!
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| In our cute matching sauna attire and a towel wrapped around our head hehe! |
Korean jjimjilbangs are srsly the bombz! There are so many facilities available in one building. In my opinion, it shld be called an entertainment centre instead of a bath-house. So basically, Silloam is a 5-storey building with facilities which include sauna, beauty salon, gym, PC rooms, snack bars and a Korean restaurant.
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| At the main area where there are massage chairs and a TV with mats for you to lie on |
So there are many different sauna rooms in a jjimjilbang, including an ice room, oxygen room, jade fire sweating room, salt sweating room etc. Each room has a different temp and are said have various effects (Eg. Circulate physical energy and restore vitality, relieve shoulder aches etc)
We checked out every room in the place and I have to say that some of the hot rooms are really HOT. After staying in the room for 2-3mins, I could feel my contact lenses melting in my eyes and it was so painful! That was when Ashley and I would run out of the hot room and dash towards the ice room (where it's -10 degrees) to cool down haha.
Some of the rooms with a more comfortable temp aka air-con kinda temp, tend to get more crowded at arnd 11pm as people who are intending to spend the night in the jjimjilbang start to find a spot to slp. It's actually very comfortable just lying down in one of the rooms and chatting to your friends. Felt really relaxed the entire time!
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| This room wasn't too hot and yup those holes were made for people to lie in! |
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| One of the extremely hot rooms |
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| Playing arnd with the shovel and yup that's "sand" I think haha |
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| Yay ice room! |
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| Haha Minjung's face reads, "OMG I'M SO COLD!!!" |
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| Minjung helped us with the sheep head towels hee hee so cute right! |
So after running arnd the entire place and checking out all the rooms, we decided to sit on the massage chair and enjoy some full body massage. There was this particular machine which was really weird and it made me laugh so much!!! Unlike the normal massage chairs, this machine requires you to lie down on it and it vibrates so hard that all your fats will start to jiggle non-stop. I was laughing so hard the entire time that random old uncles (ahjussi) who were watching TV started staring at me.
Lol but do check out that machine if you visit this place! It was quite fun hahaha.
Anywayz after that, we decided to act Korean and get some typical Korean snacks to eat! So Minjung said that we had to eat baked eggs (맥반석) and drink sikhye (식혜) when we visit a jjimjilbang! The baked eggs were really nice, tastes somewhat like normal hard boiled eggs but better! And sikhye is a traditional sweet Korean rice beverage which is made frm cooked rice! Yum!
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| Posing with our baked eggs and sikhye |
So based on what I saw in Korean dramas, you're supposed to crack the egg on your friend's head and then eat it. Ashley and I tried that on each other and here's a video of the process:
Haha this video nvr fails to put a smile on my face. We had so much fun that night!!!
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| YUMMY!!!!! |
We decided to leave the place after spending almost 4 long hours there. Just before leaving, we found the hot bath place just beside the female changing room! Well the hot bath place is split into males and females only area, and you're supposed to strip naked before entering the bath place. So essentially, everyone in the hot bath is naked and most people are just chatting to their friends etc. There are many different types of baths including hardwood charcoal bath, wormwood bath, steam jade bath etc and each bath has their own "special effect" like relieving menstruation pain, helping in blood circulation and metabolism etc.
It's sth like Japanese hot spring (onsen), where you get to soak in the hot bath for as long as you like.
It was Ashley's first time to a public bath and she was really shocked when she saw naked women walking arnd lol. I've been to Japanese onsen loads of times when I was younger (my parents LOVE Japanese hot spring) so I'm no stranger to it. I told Ashley that perhaps we shld go to the bath tgt before leaving the place and we almost did, but decided to chicken out at the very last min. Hahaha I guess life wouldn't be the same if I saw Ashley and Minjung naked and vice versa. Imagine how awkward it would be when I see them in sch, lol just joking.
But no, I actually didn't mind going to the hot bath with them but I don't rmb why we chickened out in the end haha. What a pity!
Noryangjin fish market
노량진수산시장
13-8, Noryangjin-dong
Dongjak-gu
Nearest train station: Noryangjin
Dongjak-gu
Nearest train station: Noryangjin
Directions frm Noryangjin station:
Take Exit 1
Walk 100m on the overhead bridge
(Alternatively, you can just follow the fishy smell haha)
(Alternatively, you can just follow the fishy smell haha)
So we went at abt 1.30pm and the place was pretty quiet. I think we were the only tourists arnd lol. It was so difficult trying to pick a stall to buy frm becos we're n00bs are choosing seafood and I can't really speak Korean so it was a headache trying to bargain etc. Really had no idea which stall had the freshest items but decided to buy frm this stall owner who was able to speak Chinese!
Srsly, the minute she spoke Chinese to me, I was like Hallelujah. It's really frustrating trying to buy stuff from someone you can't communicate with!
Becos I did my research before embarking on the journey to Noryangjin fish market, I knew what I had to order! Ashley and I really wanted to try the Alaska crabs but it was too pricey so we skipped that and got some fresh sashimi, abalone and octopus instead!
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| Looks like a typical wet market |
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| HUGE scallops! |
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| My first time seeing this and are you thinking what I'm thinking.... This is actually a type of spoon worm, commonly known as penis fish or gaebul. I didn't order this, can't bring myself to eat it cos it looks so gross. |
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| Octopus (sannakji) |
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| Acting likka tourist and taking pics with stall owner who was able to communicate with us in Chinese! |
The stall owner who could speak Chinese was quite nice! I wanted to buy fish but I can't find a stall selling live fishes so she brought me to one and helped me talk to the owner in Korean!
Decided on getting seabass (gwang-uh) and the fish stall owner just scooped the fish I chose out of the fish tank, and used a sharp hook to kill the fish on the spot omg. And then he took the dead fish to the back and cut off its head and started slicing it into sashimi slices for us. Talk abt having fresh sashimi lol...
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| Killing the fish in front of us |
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| Sashimi in progress |
So after getting all our fresh seafood frm the wet market, we proceeded to the restaurants located on the 2nd floor of the market! So you're supposed to hand over whatever seafood you've bought frm the wet market and specify how you would like them to cook it.
So we started off our lovely lunch with our freshly sliced seabass sashimi! It's so fresh!!!! And what Koreans would usually do is that they'll bring the fish bones to the restaurant and request the chef to whip up some fish stew (maeuntang) We made the mistake of ordering the spicy version which was really... super spicy for us! It was really quite yummy though!
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| Seabass sashimi |
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| Spicy fish stew |
For our abalone, we decided to have one of them raw, and butter grill the other one. But sad to say, I didn't enjoy both the raw and butter grilled abalone. The abalone was somewhat tough, not as tasty as the ones I've had in Spore hmmm.
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| Raw sliced abalone |
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| Butter grilled abalone |
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| Scallops -- I forgot how we asked them to cook it |
I was determined to try sannakji (산낙지) which is live octopus that is served immediately after it has been cut into smaller piece. It is usually seasoned with sesame oil and you can often see the octopus squirming arnd on the plate. And yup, you're supposed to eat it even when it's squirming arnd!
Becos the suction cups on the octopus are still active, it is possible for small pieces to stick to your mouth or throat while eating. Hence special care must be taken as it runs the risk of being a choking hazard!
I was really apprehensive abt it at first but eventually, I just decided to go for it (#YOLO)
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| Sannakji, they were squirming all over the plate when it was served |
Ashley took a video of me trying sannakji for the first time in my entire life:
In all honesty, it tastes just like normal octopus to me??? I was really scared, so the minute I placed the piece in my mouth, I started chewing really fast cos I didn't want anything to stick to my mouth or throat haha. But anyway, taste wise, nothing spectacular abt this dish.
Overall, you shld definitely visit Noryangjin fish market when you visit Seoul! Good and fresh seafood at an affordable price! I'm definitely going back there when I visit Seoul again!
Ehwa Woman's University
이화여자대학교
Nearest train station: Ehwa's Woman's University
After our satisfying meal at Noryangjin fish market, Ashley and I decided to take the train down to Ehwa Woman's University to shop! We wanted to check out the university, as well as shop arnd the area.
The university campus is so nice and modern looking! Walked arnd the campus for a bit and then decided to head to the shopping malls! Read online that shopping in the area was meant to be really good and glad to say, we weren't disappointed at all! There were so many good bargains!!!
If you're a shopaholic, DO NOT miss this place! Saw loads of clothes which were similar to those in Dongdaemun but were much cheaper!
Lotte Mart
롯데마트
432 Cheongpa-ro
Jung-gu
Nearest train station: Seoul
Decided to act like a Korean again and visited their local supermarket -- Lotte Mart! I had a whole list of food items I wanted to buy back to Spore, some of which included yulmucha (율무차, also known as job's tears tea), chocopie, soju, Market O real brownie.
I was really excited abt going to Lotte Mart as I heard that it's massive and there's loads of free goodies for you to sample. I love free food haha!!! #cheapskate
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| Saw this inside the supermarket! Not sure if they're really planting it to sell or it's just for display??? |
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| Just had to pose with these huge watermelons! They're 10kg each and I couldn't even lift it up (TOO HEAVY) |
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| HUGE chicken cutlet |
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| Ashley posing haha |
Anywayz there was so many things in the supermarket! It's like a food lover's paradise! And everything was so cheap as well!!! And yes, a lot of free food samples! Ashley and I just kept walking round and round the place and trying out all the free food stuff lol.
And the soju was so cheap!!! It was like SGD$2 for a small bottle. BUY ALL THE ALCOHOL!!!! Just kidding.
If you wanna get any food items frm Seoul, this is the place to go! It's easy to find this supermarket and it's huge. You can definitely find whatever you're looking for there!
Okay that's all for now! Will continue my entry on Seoul soon! Nxt up, Everland and Bukchon Hanok Village! Stay tune! X
