Another update on my trip to my boyfriend’s hometown in Busan , South Korea.

Every morning , i woke up to the view of Seomyeon shopping and medical street.

The other side is the view of mountains. The air was so fresh and the breeze was abit chilly though cos it was end of Winter and it was really cold.  Freezing at 8 degrees and sleeping on heated bed every night. As you can see the trees were bare from the winter chill.

So in the previous post , i blogged about shopping at Seomyeon shopping and medical street.

How to get there ? 
Take the MRT and stop at Seomyeon station and when you come out from the gantry , you will be greeted with lotsa fashion shops and beauty shops like Innisfree , VDL , Clio Professional , It’s skin , Etude house , The face shop , Nature republic , Espoir , Holika Holika , Aritaum etc etc. Whatever brands you can think of that are Korean. The salesgirls in the clothing shops are not very friendly to foreigners. So it will be good if you can speak abit of Korean. And if you can speak and understand Korean , they will also be very aggressive in pushing their sales. Oppa and i spoke in English abit and the salesgirl wasn’t that friendly and i was not allowed to try the top. When we switched to speaking in Korean , the attitude changed. Suddenly become friendly.

You will see staircases at the sides , go up and and it is the street level filled with more beauty and fashion shops. The shops at street level are bigger but scattered everywhere. So it will be troublesome for you to compare prices, colours , sizes or whatever you need to compare and hesitate about. If you shop underground , the beauty shops are side by side or just opposite each other. So it is easy to move around the different brands and get everything one shot. There are more fashion shops underground than at street level.

We went on a trip to Oppa’s University with his mother. Yup , we were greeted with this beautiful beach/view which is just right in front of his faculty block. I was told this is the place where campus couples usually go on quiet dates and students have picnic here in summer.

 

Imagine sitting here and reading your school notes. Weather was pretty good that afternoon before it suddenly turned soooo cold at night. Checked the weather forecast and it was supposed to be cooling (18-23 degrees celsius ) instead of cold and windy. So I brought bandage and skater skirts , dresses , stockings and high waisted pants to be paired with crop knit tops  but i ended up have to buy a new top and new pair of jeans because it was too cold. To be in fashion or keep myself warm ? I prefer to be more practical and that was to keep myself warm. So i borrowed the puffer coat from Oppa’s mother. I only brought a trench coat , denim crop jacket and a biker rider jacket.

This is a great place for photoshoot. Found lotsa secret places for photoshoot and if only it was summer , i could have done my shoots here.

I got my top from TOP 10 and jeans from one of the shops at Seomyeon underground shopping strip for only KRW 29,000.  There are alot shops selling ripped jeans in Seomyeon. I wanted to get more but i don’t wear jeans in SG and it will be waste of money to buy all the colours i want to even though they are so pretty and chic ! So , i only got one pair. Im wearing size M . Their sizing are reallly small. I even wear size 28 for some Korean jeans.

The view was beautiful and noon sun was great before the weather turns cold late afternoon.

After visiting his University ,  Oppa’s mother drove us to Gamcheon Cultural Village.

It is like Italy’s Cinque Terre where you see colourful houses on the mountains and cliffs overlooking the sea.

Gamcheon Cultural Village is just like Korea’s own version of Cinque Terre.

Over here , you can get to enjoy cool and breezy view. And also learn more about Korean’s way of living back in the 1960s and when it is still not a developed country.

  

There are alot of phototaking points where you can go up to the roof tops to take picture and enjoy the view. If you are hungry , you can grab abite at the cafes or road side stalls selling hotdogs , spicy rice cakes and grab a cup of coffee if you feel cold.

Roof top on one of the cafes where you can write love notes and pin it on the railings.

Everyone was queuing up to take picture with this statue. I was on of those who queued for it too lol.

It ain’t scary as you think it is to sit here and take a picture with this little guy !

Oppa’s mother was feeling abit tired and cold after the long drive and walk . So we stopped by one of the cafes to have a coffee. There are alot of French themed cafes here. I realized that alot of Korean cafes are very French themed. Eg. the interior designs and music they played in the cafes.

You can buy sovenirs in the cafes but i think they are too expensive and over priced.

After Gamcheon Cultural Village , we went to Nampo-dong shopping street.

How to get there ? 

Nampodong Station (Busan Subway Line 1) .

You can put Gamcheon Cultural Village , Nampo-dong shopping street and famous Jalgachi fish market all in one day. Because Gamcheon Cultural Village is just 10 minutes drive away from Nampo-dong and Jalgachi fish market is just next to Nampo-doing shopping street. So you can have lunch at Gamcheon Cultural Village or light snacks there , shop at Nampo-dong and then dinner at Jalgachi fish market. Also a super huge Lotte Departmental Store is located at Nampo-dong. You can do all of them in a day.

Oppa wanted eat Ho-ddok ( which is a kind of pastry ). So we queued for the famous one. There is a street in Nampo-dong which was lined up with alot of Tarot cards reading stalls and street food stalls. You know those you see in K-dramas. Where they had street food in a plastic sheet covered stalls.

Lotte Department Store Gwangbok is just next to Nampo-dong shopping street. Nearest MRT is Nampodong station , Exit 10.

The world’s largest indoor musical water fountain and the rooftop park, which is the largest in Korea and it offers a great view of the entire city of Busan.

Fyi , Lotte and Shinsaegae departmental stores close at 8pm. So you need to plan your shopping. Street shops don’t close that early and usually before 11 pm.

Street food galore. Street food can fill your tummies and there is no need to go to restaurants or cafes. So many things to eat and so many varieties of local food at Nampo-dong street. You can also visit Busan Tower located at Nampo-dong.

After the street food street is the shopping stretch.

Somewhere along this shopping belt in Gwangbok-dong , you can see an escalator and it leads you to Busan Tower. I have been there 2 years ago so i didn’t go this time. It is the Busan’s version of Seoul Tower. Kinda similar.

How to get to Gwang-bok dong ?

Take MRT to Nampodong station , Exit 1.

So in fact , you can drop off at Nampo-dong station and shop at Lotte , Gwangbok-dong and Nampo-dong shopping stretch. These 3 places are connected. So connected that you don’t know if you are at Nampo-dong or Gwangbok-dong lol.

And after that you can walk to Jalgachi market from Nampo-dong for dinner and go back to your hotel via Jalgachi station.

Difference between Nampo-dong/Gwangbok-dong and Seomyeon shopping stretch is that in Nampo-dong/Gwangbok-dong you can find more bigger brand names like MLB , New balance , Adidas boutiques etc and the shops are bigger whereas in Seomyeon , you can find more local designers and smaller fashion shops. Of cos , the ones in Seomyeon are cheaper than Nampo-dong/Gwangbok-dong. But for beauty brands , all outlets sell same things lah.

We walked further in to Gwangbok-dong.

  

We ordered Woo-Jing-Or-Tuee Kim ( Squid tempura )  , Korean pancake and Spicy Rice Cake ( Ddok-bokk-i )

Sooo nice !

Korean pancake with spring onion.

Shop and eat . Shop and eat. Because the street food carts were all lined up infront of the fashion shops.
It turned windy and cold so suddenly (8 degrees and im feeling so cold in my outfit ) ,. so the only comfort was to keep eating and drinking the free flow of Oh-Muk (fish cake) soup to keep my body warm. Busan is famous for their Oh-Muk ( Fish cake ) . You should buy them home or eat at the road side stall.

We were standing at the stall eating the street food for dinner and i don’t wanna leave because i felt so warm eating and drinking the hot soup.

Street food are very cheap. We ate so much and spent less than KRW 10,000

Jalgachi Fish Market at night.

So cold lor…i cannot take the cold and just want to go to the nearest Lotteria for a cup of hot coffee.

So we just rushed through a small stretch of Jalgachi fish market , walked back to Nampodong for final dose of Oh-Muk Soup before we head back to our home in Seomyeon via Nampodong station.

I bought alot of beauty products and make up when i shopped at Seomyeon which is just opposite our house. Last post , i blogged about the A.H.C (Korean professional skincare line) which was widely used in aesthetic clinics.
This post , gonna blog about a new serum i bought from Iope and a Leaders Vitamin C serum Oppa’s mother bought for me.

I heard about this brand called Leaders before but i don’t have the chance to try it because it is sooo hard to find. You can buy their masks in SG but not their serums , creams or cleansers etc.

This brand was created by dermatologists from Seoul University.

I tried this serum and i love it . Easily absorbed and after applying the serum , i can apply my emulsion , moisturiser and creams without worrying that it will make my skin oily. It comes with capsule beads which contains high concentration of Vit C. I have been using this for a week already ! I saw that there is a slight improvement in my skin tone. With this Vitamin C serum and other products im using , i think it makes my skin tone looks better and brighter. This is not easily available online and Oppa’s mother bought from the HOME SHOPPING TV program. Lol. That is her favourite TV channel. I tried to find it in Gmarket but it is not available.

Iope Moistgen Serum Skin Hydration.

I tried the samples before i bought this full size bottle. Some times you must be thick skin abit and ask for samples before you buy the full size bottles. I always ask for samples to try first so that im sure the product suits my skin  condition before i spend money and buy. If im not wrong it is about KRW 49,900. Lol. I threw away the boxes and can’t remember the price.

What i like about this is that it is not oily and easily absorbed. Im currently using this and Hera’s Waterin Serum. I switched Hera’s Waterin Serum to night because the texture is more sticky than Iope’s. I find it easier to apply make up if i used the Iope one. Hera’s Waterin Serum is good and really hydrating too.

I had my Eyelashes done at Seomyeon eyelash extension studio.

I walked around Seomyeon and all the eyelash extension shops there are having promotion of KRW 30,000 which is approx SGD 35 only. I did it 3 weeks ago and the eyelashes are still very dense till today and i am happy with the results. Usually the ones i did in SG all dropped off within 2 weeks. But the one i did in Korea are still going on strong and dense even at the 3rd week.  I took pictures with my HP but i have problem transferring them to the lap top to post it here. Once i have resolved this problem , i will post a picture for you all to see.

The shop i went to was called Magic Face. They do not have any website. I just chanced upon it and read from naver blogs and reviews from other Koreans. You can go to any beauty shops in Seomyeon to ask for the price and usually outside the shop , they will hang a banner or poster if there are any promotions. Seriously you should get it done in Korea instead if you are there for holiday because it is so cheap ! I had eyelash permed and extensions done for total of KRW 50,000 ! I checked with my Korean girlfriends. For eyelash extensions , usually it is only KRW 30,000 even in places like Seoul . It should not be more than KRW 50,000.