Hongdae
After 2 days of exploring Seoul, Nadia and I decided to explore the area we were staying;
Hongdae!
Hongdae is an abbreviation of Hongik Daehakgyo, which means Hongik University.
It's located in Mapo-gu, west end of Seoul. It takes about 20 minutes to Myeongdong, and about an hour to the Gangnam area. It's on Line 2 of the Seoul Metro, which means it takes a couple of subway transfers to get to a lot of places. If you're planning to go to Seoul and not a fan of stairs, areas along the subway Line 1 (like Seoul Station, which is the KL Sentral of Seoul) would be a better choice.
However, although Hongdae might be a lil out of the way, I don't regret staying in this area a single bit! This place is so lively at night and is a fashion mecca of Seoul.
There's also a Hongdae Free Market held every weekend throughout March to November,
they probably skipped December, January and February because Korean winter is vicious.
During the nights, the playground area, which happens to be across the street from where we staying, is always filled with teenagers and 20-somethings crowding around a group of dancers, buskers, henna artists, going to Korean Noraebangs (karaoke rooms), going to clubs, pubs, you name it!
During the day, just like it's visitors, Hongdae sleeps in. Shops around there only open at 11am or at noon, but it starts getting crowded at around 5pm, which is when the students finish class.
So, we started with shopping, naturally.
The shops and the clothes and the sales assistants in Seoul are on a whole other level, mate.
The shops aren't the ones you find back home, nothing like H&M or Zara. They're better.
Back in KL, we do get Korean clothings here and there, but they're usually extremely expensive because the quality of the clothes are visibly a million times better than the ones mass made in China.
The sales assistants, they're.. something else.
In KL, they just follow you around and (if you're lucky) put the things you picked at the counter.
In Seoul, they still follow you around, but the second you even eye something, before you even pick the hanger up, a sales assistant immediately runs and takes out that same design in 5 different colours for you to choose. Then, they give you suggestions and what to pair with it. Pants, skirts, shorts, clutches, necklaces.. A whole outfit planned out for you, and they're all available in the store.
(Most of the things in Korea are free sized, by the way. But I'll save all that for a separate blog post)
After they've put together a whole outfit for you with color options, you'll just be there staring in awe at how incredible beautiful the outfit that was put together in less than a minute is.
The stores would also have some racks of clothes outside their actual store, those racks would be filled with clothes ranging from 5,000won (RM15) up to 20,000won (RM60), and usually cheaper than the clothes they have in the store.
You'd be surprised at how beautiful the clothes are for that cheap.
How does anyone resist when the window displays are these pretty!?
.......And then we found Stylenanda
Wow, this was a dream. I've only seen this store in pictures and on their website, so it was surreal to see it up close.
Stylenanda can be compared to shops like Urban Outfitters in the UK, the clothes are a little on the pricy side and a bit too daring for lil ol' boring me.
But the 3CE Make-Up section was amazing. Never have I gawked over prettily packaged cosmetics until I went in Stylenanda. From the bright pink lipstick cases, to the pastel pink limited editions, to their shimmer highlighters on display..
*heart-eyed emoji*
Too bad they didn't allow pictures in the store, boo! :(
Then we walked back to the playground area, which was a 10-minute walk from the main shopping street.
The street in the picture below is where all the magical street performance are at, along with a whole stretch of restaurants.
Unfortunately, probably 99% of them aren't halal. I'm not particularly fussy about food, especially when I travel. Not fussy as in I'm okay with any restaurant, and I'd just have their seafood and stuff. Not really particular about having to share the same cooking utensils or plate as they use to cook non-Halal food.
But these restaurants were hardcore.. As in their restaurant logo was a pig.
That one like cari pasal lah if we went in, so we had Halal kebab around the corner.
These were some of the street dancers, there was another one just a few meters from them.
They basically had to fight it out to get the crowd.
Basically, the sexier the girls and the dance, the bigger the crowd
LOL
Hongdae is easily one of my favorite places..
on Earth.
It really is, and I mean it.
I suggest Hongdae to everyone that plans on visiting Seoul, whether you stay here or you visit this place. Just go.
If a street could be a person, Hongdae would be the coolest kid in town.
The graffiti on the walls, the indie Korean music blaring from shops and restaurants, the cool Korean university students strolling around, everything about this place was just cool.
This place is best for solo travelers or a group of friends, because it tends to get a bit loud at night. Families traveling to Seoul would best stay in places like Gangnam or Myeongdong. Much more peaceful.
But all y'all cool catz better stay in Hongdae, you won't regret it.
I'll be back very soon, Hongdae!
xoxo
Tania
