mask, cosmestic, skin care products, ginseng ...

Apparently some palaces are opened at night during the autumn. Those who are there now perhaps can go have a look. Quite romantic

yes. if you like photography, you can take lotsa night view at the palace

what you want to buy or think is cheap then you just buy. buy only necessary not by impulsive or people who tell you it's a must to buy. cause by the end of the day, you will end up wasting your money as you won't be using it

This post has been edited by yvonnesoo: Oct 12 2016, 10:19 AM

Anyone from klang valley is going to SK?
Can tumpany/help to buy this? I bought 2 jar previously. Seriously addictive.

going there this coming 19th - 25th.. where you bought it? i am first timer there. but if can get good direction, i might help you get it. my wife is a serious green tea lover!

thanks....my wifey la happy

I saw some of the Osulloc outlet in Seoul got.
Since your wife love green tea, and if you going to Jeju...then can visit Osulloc green tea museum! Confirm got sell there.

Agreed. Last week I saw someone left a baby stroller outside the restaurant with the baby still sleeping inside totally unattended


South Korea is the most wired city in the world. A picture of you is captured by the CCTV on an average of every 10 seconds once you walk out of a building in Seoul.

i miss my home town

I was there for two weeks recently. I arrived there a few days before the 10 days long China national holiday. There were so many PRC and Chinese written banners everywhere. Promoters were shouting in Mandarin. Street vendors in Myeongdong were shouting in Mandarin too. I was at one point confused if I was in Seoul or Beijing

alot of places priority prc as their power spending is very high. you go touristy area especially myeongdong of cause la. unless you don't feel like prc to them, they won't call out to you or approach you in chinese hehe. did you notice that they won't bother or promote much to locals? although they like prc customers, but at their back they speaks bad about them

Actually I stayed in Sindorim... Pretty far from Myeongdong. Orange cab ride cost me KRW18,000 - KRW20,000 each way. But of course since it is such a happening place I went there several times during my two weeks stay in Seoul

Nobody really approached me though. But it was probably I showed a long face so no promoters will approach me. I avoided speaking Chinese as I do not want to be mistaken as PRC.

It was actually my 9th time going to Seoul. My last trip to Seoul prior to my recent trip was 23 months ago and I did notice some changes, not so good ones unfortunately. I noticed the locals are not so friendly and polite anymore, a stark contrast compared to my first ever trip to Seoul in year 2011. The place have also become dirtier (I do not know if the huge tourist arrival from China had anything to do with it).

And another thing I noticed is that many young PRC work for those street vendors in Myeongdong these days. Many of the Chinese speaking staff in major department stores and those cosmetic shops are actually PRC citizens too, not Korean. Just a few years ago, many Mandarin speaking staff are actually Korean. I suppose with the huge influx of tourist from Mainland China they couldn't get Korean to study Chinese fast enough so they resort to hire those PRC university students studying in Korea instead.

By the way, at the Doota Duty Free in Dongdaemun, they had announcements in Mandarin only. They were having some 'event' outside and again promoters were talking using loud speaker in Mandarin only. They do not bother to speak in English or Japanese at all these days.

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Oct 13 2016, 01:09 AM

backpack..haha..10k won can buy nice backpack..

last time yes, but maybe now not anymore..when innisfree, laneige, too cool for school all those kinda common in msia d..

uncountable trip to korea haha. never really track how many times. orange cab usually cost higher as it cater for tourist. sometimes eventhough you don't speak in chinese, they will approach and speak with you in chinese guessing from one outlook. that's what my friends encounter. some ahjumma is not friendly to them and have double standard once bring along my friend to a shop to purchase some accessories, we choose and pay the bill separately. my friend was told if she need a plastic bag, there will be an additional charge. when i pay the bill, the promoter provide me the plastic bag automatically without additional charges . i only realize after my friend told me outside the shop and she is so pissed off

yes true indeed. many prc working there. never think of korea is clean because they are the same like prc. older gens like to spit err.. we can't say that the locals is not friendly or polite.. is just that their culture is actually like this hehe.. so far no issue for me

Still much cheaper to buy in Seoul though especially during the grand sale period and tax refund.


Not quite so. Orange cab is no longer considered as international taxi anymore and the flag down fare for the orange cab now is exactly the same as the silver cab which is KRW3,000. Eventually all silver cab will disappear from Seoul for good as they change the regular cab color to orange color.


Totally different scenario for us though. On our first two days there, 4 different Korean people approached us for directions. Not a first though. I've been approached for directions in Tokyo and Osaka too. I think that unless one has a very typical Korean face (normally squarish like Park Ji Sung), or a typical Japanese face, it will be hard to tell whether you are Japanese, Korean or Chinese as we're all East Asian.


I was in a similar situation too last week at SPAO Myeongdong store. Before it was my turn to pay a tourist from China was queuing in front of me. Cashier is a young Korean who understands the very basic Chinese such as tax refund in Chinese and how to pronounce the figure in Chinese. Anyway, the Chinese tourist can't speak Korean. He spoke Chinese to the Korean staff all the way. I did not seem to remember the Korean staff asked the Chinese guy if he needed a bag.

Anyway, when it was my turn, she asked if I need a bag and I said yes. I bought 3 pieces of sweaters so they are very bulky when folded. But she gave me a really small plastic bag. The guy before me bought only 2 shirts but she gave him a big plastic bag


Overall cleanliness was definitely better last time. At the Incheon Airport food court, there was water on the floor near the drinking water station and no one bothered to clean up the place. People were much more polite too a few years ago. These days even at 5-star hotel like Sheraton Seoul D Cube at Sindorim-dong some staff are not friendly anymore. It was magical the last 8 times I stayed with them. That was the main reason I kept going back to the same hotel even though it is quite some distance away from places I like to hang out such as Myeongdong and Gangnam.

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Oct 13 2016, 02:03 AM

totally agree but our rm keep depreciated lately, also no use


oh really? been ages didn't flag down the cab.. last was 2 years back hehe.. i'm budget tourist, seldom take a cab


perhaps you and your partner looks korean ehehe. i always been mistakenly thought that i am a japanese mix korean


you should request a bigger bag instead. seldom will go to myeongdong unless my friends ask me to purchase something. can't stand the crowd though..


i prefer to stay in guesthouse as i feel their hotel price is overprice.. no money go for 5 star hotel ler haha. i rather use the money to spend on foods, cafe and shop

Lol I remember when I wanted to ask directions at the airport and tried to speak some Korean the lady replied to me immediately with Mandarin. Hilarious.

IME, the moment you speak Korean and you have an accent, they will usually reply you in Mandarin. Happened to me long ago when I first went to Korea to work, especially since I was in Busan. I couldn't understand the dialect in Busan at all, so it was very awkward for me as I studied the language with Seoul dialect.
The only way I got over it was I kept speaking in Korean despite the difference in accent and my still poor vocabulary at that time, eventually people will just be like "oh whatever.. I'll just speak in Korean". That's the only way to realistically improve in the language.

And I do agree that recently, many locals are starting to get a little more "unpolite". The youngster ones are kind of mix 50/50, many of them are like brainwashed to being "westernized" now a days. Then the middle-age ones, they're either very polite or they give zero F about who you are.
The older ones... don't need to say la. It's built into their blood to be as rude as possible because age = superiority in Korea.

But generally, it's really still not that bad. I mean compared to other Asian countries like China for example... lol, Koreans are like angels.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 13 2016, 01:45 PM

haha.. this i agreed!! so are you base in busan now? so i guess now you can speak very fluent korean but i feel locals in busan or other small places is better than seoul.