two week of naver maps & banana milk
12 days in Seoul, Gyeongju, and Busan
Dispatches from my two weeks in South Korea this October with my parents. Extra special thanks to WOWPASS, warm ginseng pharmacy drinks for my perpetual sore throat, the Shilla Hotel’s breakfast buffet, and my lovely coworker Jane who taught me how to spell “vintage” on my newly-installed Korean keyboard.
Seoul
My favorite day in Seoul was spent at the Dongmyo flea market 동묘벼룩시장 near Dongdaemun, where, as my dad put it, “The entire reason we’re here is so you can dig through piles of used clothes.” My favorite type of souvenir is something I’ve had to roll my sleeves up and haggle for – anything more straightforward doesn’t quite scratch the itch deep in my brain’s reward system – and my ideal trip to any city involves some kind of secondhand rummaging.
At the flea market, my mom and I enjoyed ourselves immensely among streets lined with stainless steel kitchenware, stacks of eyeglasses and books, racks of pants and polos and sweaters (hellooo Piko cargo jeans), and plastic stools for a street food break. We were lucky to have my dad, who thanks to a month-long intensive language course had a decent grasp on shopping vocabulary; I’d recommend learning at least how to ask how much something costs in Korean before going.
As for retail, I did my best shopping in Hongdae, which had a distinctly student-oriented environment due to its position right next to Hongik University. Clo Studio had my favorite kinds of silhouettes – draped pleated trousers with tie and buckle details, semi-sheer knits, asymmetry, clingy sleeves, wide boat necks. I also snagged a few heat-tech layering pieces from SPAO in Gangnam that are going to take some configuring in terms of underwear (we’ll see).
I picked up a pair of both Korean and Japanese-made sunglasses at a shop in Namdaemun Market, and my mom also got a custom prescription pair here – Asian designers understand about frames that will fit a Filipino nose bridge lol. I loved the shoes everywhere I went, but pairs in a women’s size 8/39 were few and far between.
Oh, and the eating! I will never shut up about the rotisserie chicken we had at Wangsimni Chicken with Scorched Rice Grill 왕십리누룽지통닭구이. The bird is stuffed with sticky rice, slow-roasted, then butterflied and grilled rice side-down over a hot iron, so it forms a savory crust on the bottom and caramelized skin on top. We got it smothered with thinly ribboned scallions and corn cheese, washed down with gulps of Terra beer. Heaven.
Other food highlights included the pork cutlet at Haigajjeu 하이가쯔 near our hotel (I did not appreciate how much I needed to scarf down black sesame coleslaw before this), Buchon Yukhoe 부촌육회 본점 next to Gwangjang Market (a bit of an internet sensation, but nonetheless Michelin recommended and incredibly fresh – almost more than the tartare itself, it’s the julienned Asian pear that excites me), and classic barbecue accompanied by grilled leeks, marinated mung beans, and blanched courgette salad at dot506 돝고기506.
Gyeongju
We expressly went to Gyeongju for its history, namely the UNESCO sites and architectural feats Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, though I equally enjoyed the town itself. Hanok style buildings housed surprisingly trendy restaurants (we loved Duckle 덕클 황리단길점 – savory jjajangmyeon and cold barley tea mmm), and whereas the sheer expanse of Seoul’s cityscape was enough to easily overwhelm, in Gyeongju the stimulus receded into something more manageable. Not to mention, our family-run hotel provided us every morning with homemade breakfast sandwiches and coffee, and our rooms had a pool inside of them, which was a new experience for me. We didn’t see Moon Lake at night because it was raining and I was sick, which I regret. In the end, I wished we had a few more days there.
Busan
Busan was packed days of playing hard-core tourists, and truthfully – it was a relief. I love being picked up in a car and dropped back off! I love having someone to answer my ceaseless stream of questions and locate the toilet for me! I appreciate being told to just wait here and someone else will figure it out! Although, at this point, perhaps I’d also had entirely too much of being the only one in my party who knew how to navigate using her phone.
I hate to break it to you, I too detest anything that could be described as “instagrammable,” but the viral picturesque Haeundae Sky Capsule train ride is 100% worth it. The thirty-minute trip through the pines and along the coast had me craning my neck and squashing my face against the car window like a toddler on a road trip. It was like a Ghibli movie. It was like Adventureland. We saw a baby deer tucked into the mountainside, munching on foliage. I was so giddy the rest of the day, I could barely even tell you what else we did.
