Annyeong Haseyo Seoul!

Our trip to Seoul, South Korea was purely by chance. I mean, Seoul was not on our list of must-visit places, and we're not even K-Drama or K-Pop fans, so how did we end up with Seoul as one of our 2013 destinations?

Ah, well..

Call it the pregnancy brain, or whatever impulse it was, when AirAsia announced one of their low fare promotions last year, I quickly consulted hubs on where to go for our next holiday destination, to which he replied Tokyo, Japan. I googled Tokyo and found that it's one of the most expensive cities in the world and wasn't sure whether we're ready to travel to one. So we decided to experiment and see if we could survive traveling to Seoul (since it was rated slightly cheaper than Tokyo) maybe then we could go visit Japan. And that was how we decided that we'd be going to Seoul in 2013.

When we booked the flight tickets, I wasn't even pregnant...

In the duration of my pregnancy we'd debated whether we'd be bringing Alexa with us to Seoul or maybe just cancelling the trip (which for a travel junkie like me is something I'd really want to avoid, although unfortunately my trip to Bali last April was canceled as I was already more than 8 months pregnant at the time), but we finally decided on bringing Alexa along since she's breastfeeding and it would be a really great opportunity for me to try and find out how it feels to travel with a baby and how Seoul would fare as a breastfeeding-friendly city. You can read all about it in my post [here].

Anyway, we absolutely adore our trip to Seoul and this was among some of the things that we managed to do:

1. Witness a guard-changing ceremony

I really wish that I was able to do this during our trip to London last year but there wasn't enough time. I'll definitely bear this in mind for our next trip to London.

We got the opportunity to watch the ceremony at Deoksugung Palace (there are plenty of palaces in Seoul but not all of them have a guard-changing ceremony) so if you want to experience one (I must say being able to watch the ceremony was quite a wow experience for me) you might want to visit this palace.

2. Visit a Hanok Village

A hanok village is typically a traditional Korean Village in which you get to see how the people of Korea used to live (I suppose before all those high-rise buildings were built and all) and we managed to visit Namsangol Hanok Village in Chungmuro which was only a walking distance from our hotel. I must say the it was an interesting experience getting to learn on the traditional Korean culture and of course getting to see some of the people walking in full costume (which is not easy I guess considering the humid weather; we were in Seoul during the end of summer so some days it was pretty hot and other days it can be quite cool and windy).

3. Padlocked our love at Seoul Tower

The thought of visiting Seoul Tower never occurred to us. And we never even knew about the custom for lovebirds to buy a padlock and locking them at one of the poles at the base of Seoul Tower. For couple travellers, this place is definitely a must-visit.

A photo of Seoul city taken from Namsan Cable Car on the way up to Seoul Tower.

4. Visit Nami Island

Although I did say that we're not K-Drama nor K-Pop fans, we do know that there's a famous K-Drama called Winter Sonata, filmed at Nami Island (which is by the way a man-made island not far from Seoul) so we decided to visit the island and am glad that we did. This island definitely one very unique island, it definitely has a very quirky and cheerful ambience.

Psst: this island is accessible via subway (which will only bring you to as far as Gapyeong station) then via taxi or bus to Gapyeong wharf. From there, you'll need to buy a ferry ticket that'll take you to the island. Or alternatively you may want to read on travel instructions to Nami island [here].

5. Visit Seoul Mosque at Itaewon

Getting to visit this mosque is not easy, simply because we took the subway and had to walk our way uphill (I'd say it's roughly a 20-minute walk) to the mosque. Peeps, for convenience, I'd recommend the cab.

However, this mosque certainly is huge and what's even more interesting, there's a private Islamic school near the mosque grounds.

6. Shopped till we dropped at Myeongdong

Before we touch on the subject of shopping, I must admit that most of the imported stuff in Seoul, specifically at Lotte Departmental Store are actually slightly more expensive or equal to the price of imported stuff in Malaysia. However, their sale items are sold at very generous discounts, which are to die for.

Bought a pair of Dr Martens for Alexa (which she'll only be able to wear when she's 1 year old unfortunately). Sadly this wasn't on sale, we bought it for about KRW60,000 (converted roughly to about MYR180). I can't wait for Alexa to wear this on our next trip, which will be to Tokyo somewhere during Spring 2014. She'll be almost one then =).

All these Dr Martens were on 50% - 70% sale. I actually had my eye on a few of them. Oppsie!

And this is what hubs got me as an early anniversary gift =). This one was sold at KRW200,000 but was marked down at 50%, so we only paid about MYR300 for this one *yippee yeay*.

For those who love to shop, don't forget to complete your tax refund paperwork before you leave the store. This one is located at Ground Floor, Lotte Departmental Store, Myeongdong. Should you be in doubt, just ask the customer service counter on where are the tax refund counters for tourists. Tax refunds can be claimed for cash at International Departure, Incheon International Airport. 

Us at Lotte World. When we arrived, it was already night time so we decided to forgo visiting the theme park and just chill and do some people watching =).

So that was among the things that we did in Seoul. Unfortunately there were some other stuff that we wanted to do like enjoy the themepark at Lotte World and Everland but we did not want to squeeze in too many activities in a day considering that we are traveling with a 3-month old baby who gets cranky if she stays up too late. It's good enough that we're able to enjoy the trip as it was *syukur alhamdulillah*.

Here's hubs with Alexa in an Ergo PPB. 

Seoul's public transportation system (specifically the subway) is not very stroller friendly so we opted for the Ergo carrier from Day 2 till our final day in Seoul (on Day 1 we had to carry the stroller up and down the stairs of Seoul's many subway stations). For parents traveling with small children, I do recommend the baby carrier as it's much more convenient compared to a stroller.

Psst! If you love handbags, we recommend buying them at International Departure, Incheon International Airport. I was eyeing the Furla Candy Satchel at Lotte Departmental Store but decided against buying it because the price is similar to buying it in Malaysia (to tell you the truth, the price is slightly higher than Malaysia). At Lotte Departmental Store the bag costs roughly about KRW600,000. However my jaw dropped when I found out that the same bag is about 30% cheaper when bought duty free at the airport. And the best part is, it's from their Autumn/ Winter 2013 collection *drool*. Thank you hubs for the early birthday present *grin*.

So the question is, will we be back to Seoul? Most probably, no, because there are plenty of other countries that we have yet to visit. But will we visit other places in Korea? Definitely!

To love, family and travel.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Fashionista Mommy Adventures: Breastfeeding in Seoul

At the end of last August, we went for a trip to Seoul, Korea, bringing with us our newborn baby, Alexa (who was only 3 months at the time) and was joined by my brother and sister-in-law, Zyan. Some had commented that Alexa was too young to be on a trip overseas (the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul took about 6 hours) but the thought of bringing Alexa with us was not made on purpose; our tickets were booked even before we knew that I was pregnant with Alexa. After much deliberation, we decided to bring her along (because she's breastfeeding so it made a lot of sense to bring her along on this trip).

 

Breastfeeding in Seoul is actually a pleasant experience as all of its metro stations are equipped with a nursing room. Here's some of the photos: 

 

Here's one at Gapyeong Station, the station that you have to get off if you're intending to go to Nami Island.

 

However, the room is locked most of the time so you may want to go to the station's management office and request them to unlock the room for you.

 

Inside the nursing room at Gapyeong Station. The room is equipped with a basin to wash your hands, a changing table and right next to the changing table is actually a sofa where you can nurse in peace. 

Nami library at Nami Island.

The nursing room is located inside Nami library, so you may want to walk right through this door to get to the library. 

 

Here's the entrance to the library.

 

The door to the nursing room is located at just behind the entrance to the library. I just love the cheerful colors!

 

And here's the inside of the nursing room, it's equipped with a changing table, a microwave (for I'm not sure what because you're not supposed to heat up breastmilk with the microwave), a baby cot, a changing table and a bench for you to nurse.

 

At Lotte Department Store, Myeongdong:

 

 

This is among the best place to nurse that I've ever been to! There's a baby care centre located at the kids section in the department store (if I'm not mistaken it's located at the 5th floor of the building) and this place is equipped with a changing station, a waiting area complete with couches, a very helpful staff that can help and guide hapless parents like me, a private nursing room and a private sleeping corner for the babies.

 

 

The entrance to the baby care centre. Here's the waiting area complete with its green couch. Some parent even chose to feed their babies here and there's some highchairs provided just for that.

 

The view from the sleeping area. There are about six baby cots in this area, it's actually very quiet here as there's a glass door separating this area making the room very, very quiet.

 



 

Alexa in the baby cot. Actually at this moment she was quite grumpy because she's too tired from all the excitement and sleepy at the same time. However, despite the soothing music that they had on in the room and the cool conditioning system, Alexa only managed to sleep for only 10 minutes =(.

 

 



 

The nursing area. This area is separated by a piece of fabric covering the door opening. The room is complete with several nursing pillows and a humidifier. It could comfortably fit about six to seven mummies at the same time (it's that big!).

 

At Itaewon Station:

 



 

The nursing room is located inside the station's management office.

 

And it's also complete with a changing station, washbasin and sofa.

At Seoul Tower:

 

This one was rather small though, the nursing room was equipped with the basic sink, changing table and sofa but the sofa was placed right behind the door so it wasn't very comfortable as you might have to watch out for people opening the door and the door hitting you while you are nursing.

 

At Seoul Incheon Airport:

 

This one was located at the departure hall (there were some mommies using the room so I couldn't take any photos of the room's facilities).

And this one is located also at the departure hall, after you've gone through immigrations before boarding your flight.

So, if you're traveling with a baby to Seoul, be rest assured that Seoul is very baby friendly, every metro station (and most of their department stores) are equipped with a nursing room, just make sure you look for this sign:

I love my experience of traveling to Seoul and I love the fact that they respect the mothers enough so much so that there's plenty of nursing and diaper changing rooms everywhere and there's even special seats for pregnant mommies, or mommies with kids on the metro.

 

Here's my brother with his six months pregnant wife in the metro =).

So for mommies who are planning to travel to Seoul, be rest assured, there's plenty of nursing and diaper changing rooms in Seoul =).

However, the metro stations are not very stroller friendly so it might be wise to invest in a good baby carrier. Luckily we bought an ergo carrier specifically for the trip and ended up using it everyday!

Have a great trip!


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Halal Food in Seoul, Korea

Here's a follow up to my Halal Food Guide in Seoul (from the previous post Halal Food in Nami Island). Despite the plentiful list of halal outlets at Zabihah.com (there were about 20 listed in the website, by the way), most of the halal outlets are actually located in ONE place, that is in Itaewon. Thus if you're planning to visit Seoul, I do suggest looking for a place to stay in Itaewon as this would make it very convenient for your trip.



 

 

Unfortunately for us, we didn't stay in Itaewon, therefore we had to take the subway there.

 

 

Since you're in Korea, eat like the Koreans, no? Well, we really, really wanted to try some Korean food so on our first day we headed out to Murree which served Indian and Korean food. If you're planning a trip to Seoul and if you're planning to walk most of the time in you're trip, be forewarned that Murree is quite a walk up the hill from the station (I'd say it's a good 15 minutes walk uphill) so be prepared peeps!

 

 

However, we were definitely served good food and the Korean food is absolutely delicious as well, so I'd say it was worth the walk.

 

 

A friend of mine, Lorraine recommends this restaurant (unfortunately we were unable to dine there due to our hectic schedule) but if you like, this restaurant, Little India Seoul is located just opposite of Murree.

 

 

Another restaurant that we went to is Kervan, which offers a lunch set promotion which we tried on our last day in Seoul.

 

The promotion is only available during weekdays, so do take note!

 

 

One lunch set menu consists of salad, bread, soup and a main dish of your choosing (i.e. pasta or kebab rice) and tea. If you're on a tight budget (or on a diet) this menu could be consumed by two people =).

 

Another place that we went was Dubai (on top of Dunkin' Donuts), located right next to Kervan.

 

 

These were among the food that we ordered. The food was absolutely scrumptious, but among all the restaurants that we visited, Dubai is among the priciest. However, the food is absolutely delicious!

 

 

On our last night, we visited Mr. Kebab.

 

 

Here's the deco of Mr. Kebab.

 

Had some kebab beef with rice. Definitely delicious and it's way cheaper from Ankara Picnic (which is on the same row of Mr. Kebab but located right next to the Itaewon station's exit). FYI we had eaten at Ankara Picnic on our first day in Seoul but because we were extremely starving and it was raining heavily, we didn't manage to capture any photos of the place.  

 

 

Here's Seoul Mosque located on top of the hill at Itaewon.  

In Itaewon, there's definitely plenty of Halal restaurants, however, most of them offer either Indian food or Middle Eastern food so there's not much choice in terms of food selection (there were one or two restaurants that offered Malaysian food).

However there might be some circumstances where you might be at a place where it's quite challenging to find halal food. We did the next best thing by getting donuts at Dunkin' donuts or stopping by at Lotteria (Korean version equivalent to McDonalds or KFC) and getting some of their shrimp burger.

 

Our typical breakfast in bed since our hotel was located right next to Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.

 

For more lists of Halal outlets in Seoul, I suggest you visit: Zabihah.com or alternatively you may also want to visit this site, Muslim Backpackers Seoul.

xoxo Mrs Fashionista


Psst: I'm actually very, very excited that we have a trip scheduled for Spring, 2014. Here's a hint, we'll be going to Doraemon land! Looking forward to listing more halal food outlets there =).