One of the best part of this trip was shopping in Seoul! We went to cosmetic house- The Faceshop, Myung Dong street and Dong Dae Moon!
Going to the Faceshop was part of our itinerary. This branch not only sell products from the Faceshop, but other brands as well. Once you check out the prices of the products, you will understand why almost every Korean woman wears makeup. Comparing with the Faceshop in Singapore, Korea’s products are… diiiiiirt cheap. Most products sold in Korea are half the price of the products sold here in SG. Some products are even cheaper than half the price! It’s just sooooo cheap.
Like the products which LY bought for her mum, in SG it’s sold for around 40SGD but in Korea, she got it for less than 20SGD! Both of us spent over 400,000won (around 400SGD more or less) and that got us a free luggage. Haha. Initially we didn’t spend over 400,000won but the amount was quite close, in the end, we added a couple of items to reach the amount because we wanted the luggage. Good thing for that because without the free luggage, we wouldn’t be able to squeeze all the things we bought from Korea. :x
Like what LY said, I don’t think we dare to buy things from SG’s Faceshop anymore! So damn ex!
When we went to Myung Dong street, it was unfortunately raining!! But we still managed to buy some things.
The street was bustling with tourists, especially Japanese people. Our tour guide told us that due to the currency exchange rate between Korea and Japan, a lot of Japanese have gone to Korea to buy buy buy because the things are so cheap.
Even when we went into a CD shop, there was a bunch of Japanese middle-aged ladies who came in after us. They hovered a lot around the OST section… yeap, definitely Kdrama fanatics. Lol.
Ooh…! CD shop in Korea is just my kind of world!!! It’s really HEAVEN to me. HEAVEN!! HEAVEN x1000000!! All the Kpop albums, all the OST albums, all the DVDs~~~ KYAAAA! I want to go Korea again! LOL. There is not a single shop in SG that sells an abundance of ONLY KPOP albums so don’t blame me for giving this reaction. It’s just so easy! Everywhere you turn, it’s a Korean music album.
Muahahaha… There was this section dedicated to DBSK. Almost ALL the Korean singles and albums were there. There were even official and non-official merchandises and official photobooks!! Although I’ve got most of the things, it’s still HEAVEN!!! XD
Well, there were a few Big Bang and Super Junior stuff in that section but majority of the things were of DBSK. heeeee. :]
Then there was Boys over Flowers OST which I wanted to buy so much! But I thought that we might come across another CD shop while shopping another time so I didn’t buy. Boohoo! We didn’t spot any CD shops after that. I regretted not buying because it’s so cheeeeap! :<
However I did manage to buy DBSK’s 1st ever Korean single, Hug, which I wanted to buy for a long time. It’s a must-keep since it’s their debut single. I also bought one of Brown Eyes’s old album, With Coffee! I loooooove this album! It has got a lot of my favourite songs from this group. Surprisingly it was very easy to find this album because it was released about 4 or 5 years ago, quite a long time ago.
Another big regret was that I didn’t buy more albums. T-T
After shopping, we went to have some afternoon snacks at a street side food stall!
We ordered rice cakes, 1 non-spicy pancake and 2 spicy kimchi pancakes.
All of them tasted delicious! The non-spicy pancake is probably the best Korean pancake I’ve ever eaten!! Sooooo good! And it’s cheap as well. Cheap and delicious authentic Korean food can never be found in SG.
We ate them at the stall itself and it was still raining at that time. Wah… Feels like something we’ve seen in the dramas. Feeling like we’re locals. Eating at the stall and all. But due to time limit, we had to packet the half-eaten food back to the bus. Then before we left, I told the ahjumma, “It’s delicious!” in Korean. :p Actually I was kind of scared of the ahjumma because her face was quite “black” all the while. But she replied, “yes, thank you…”
Dong Dae Mun is the place where the 3 of us were anticipating to go the most! Dong Dae Mun market is a well-known shopping “paradise” in Korea and has about 26 shopping malls in the market! We only went to one and it was already like WOAH because it has 10 levels. Inside this mall we went to, the shops are somewhat like what we see in pasar malam. They are side by side with no clear distinction of the individual shops.
Before we went into the mall, there was this performance going on outside. By a group of unknowns who were singing and dancing to Kpop songs. It's like some sort of publicity stunt to attract more shoppers. It worked quite well since there were a lot of people there watching. It was like a mini-live performance except the performers are some unknowns.
The things they sell are VERY pretty and stylish. No wonder Koreans dress so nicely because that’s what they sell there! There are a wide variety of clothes. Even the office wear look so beautiful. Oh yeah, there’s about 2 levels dedicated to shoes and accessories. Wow. The shoes they sell are mostly high-heels and the designs are really nice, man. They have a huge variety of designs. In SG, everywhere we go the designs are almost the same… almost same design of flats, etc.
The accessories we saw were not cheap at all! Very nice but quite ex! So I didn’t really buy any earrings, necklaces. I didn’t have enough money to buy as well. :x
It’s really difficult to resist buying when there are so many cute and pretty clothes! I wouldn’t say the clothes are cheap, the prices are average to me. We also bargained with the sales people. But they wouldn’t give too much discount. Some of the sales people we met knows a little chin/eng while some don’t know at all. So my basic Korean is rather useful. :D
Ah. Each of us bought a pair of spectacles from this shop. While trying on the spectacles, the sales guy gave a bit of comment in Korean- just basic comment which I could understand so I sort of responded.
After I bought my specs and while waiting for LY and Mic to choose their specs, the guy and I had a mini-convo in Korean! He sort of asked me how come I know Korean. Then I told him I learnt it before. He asked where were we from. I told him SG. Then he said I spoke Korean very well so he gave me a discount. He only gave us 1,000won discount each!! –.-“
Anyways I’m so happy to have used Korean while shopping! The more I used it, the less foreign it became, the more happy I become! It feels so good to used something I’ve learnt! :)
We spent a lot of time shopping in dongdaemun. The two hours which our tour guide gave us was not enough. We only looked at shoes and accessories! In the end, the tour guide wrote down the name of the hotel for us so that when we were done shopping, we could take a cab back. The night market in dongdaemun operates till 4am! But because we didn’t have enough money, we shopped until around 12.30am… I felt like I still have a lot of things I want to buy.
Getting a cab was easy because there was already a row of taxis in front of the mall waiting for customers. We got in the cab and gave the driver the note. When he drove us, we found it weird when the meter was at “0”.
Then half-way towards our destination, the driver gave out a frustrated sound and on the meter! Then it started running.
When we reached the hotel, the meter was around 9,000won. The driver then tell the hotel’s doorman something… which we guessed was about the meter thing. In the end we paid 15,000won. The doorman then explained things to the hotel staff who called someone else to explain things to us. They needed a translator to explain thus the message passing. Lol. But we could guess how it went.
The driver forgot to on the meter and did so half-way. We had to pay 15,000won because that’s the usual price from dongdaemun to walker hill hotel. Wah… the driver is really… It’s his fault for not switching it on! Muddle headed driver. Whatever.
The staff from the hotel is cute though. hehe.
Shopping in Korea is so fun and there are so many things to buy!! I can go there just to shop man. Shop and eat. Besides, there are about 26 shopping malls in dongdaemun and we were only in ONE. pathetic. I still have a lot of things I want to buy! The next time I go Korea, it’ll be free and easy. Then I can go to places… shop till I drop and eat whatever I want! :)