Here's what we did, in no particular order.
Korea was cold – down to -2 C. Apparently tomorrow it will be -11; I wore two layers on the bottom always and 4-6 on top, depending on how brave I was feeling; plus gloves, scarf, hat.
Very few English-speakers. Most, however, do know the phrase “go straight.”
Luckily, and oddly, there were many who spoke Mandarin. That saved us a few times –once at the bathhouse, and a couple of times in restaurants including when I desperately needed rice for my omelette. Taking a cue from the past few times, Eug busted out with Mandarin just in case. Lo and behold, bitch spoke Chinese ☺ She, too, was pleasantly surprised and smiled at us a lot afterwards. Before the big discovery, no one spoke English and there was no English menu so we just pointed to the table next to us and ordered whatever they were having.


Eug says the Chinese towns bordering N. Korean basically all speak Korean to some extent, so a lot of them must come to S. Korea to look for work. Phew.
We did a DMZ tour, which was kind of cool. Explored the 3rd tunnel dug by N. Korea, discovered by the S. Korean government in 1978. Saw propaganda-y video and installations. Observed N. Korea up close through super-binoculars. However, our tour guide blew and was once a little irked when Eug, being his usual sel, asked a gazillion questions in a row. She was pretty lazy and for some reason really resisted giving us restaurant recommends no matter how often we asked. The one she did give us just happened to be in our drop-off location. We’re pretty sure she and other guides get some sort of kick-back as we saw other foreigners there, a few accompanied by their own tour guide. Lucky for her the food was not bad. Or else...
Dragon Hill Spa.
We went to
Dragon Hill Spa, a 6-story bathhouse, on the recommendation of our concierge at the hotel. (BTW, the site on the link makes it look more luxurious than it actually is. It is not.) Because of our previous experience at Queens Spa in Shenzhen, this was not shocking at all. This place was different though and way cooler. The floors were heated for one. You don’t realize how welcoming that is unless you’ve been wandering the streets freezing your ass off. It was heaven. Eug, of course, went to the men’s floor and I to the women’s, where we both had to get butt naked. I was shy at first but hey, when in Rome. While it was a kind of liberating, I was never 100% unaware of my nakedness.
There were numerous types of hot indoor baths, a few cold ones, a sauna, a steam room, and outdoor hot baths, my fave. Also available were manicures, eyebrow threading, eyelash extensions, massages and body scrubs, which I tried out. Koreans are obsessed with scrubbing their skin and scrubbing really, really hard, which is why they have really amazing, shiny skin. I enjoyed my experience – it was a good kind of pain. You get on a massage-like table and are scrubbed really, really hard by these women in their 50s who wear black bras and undies. And they scrub just about everywhere my friends. My skin literally fell off. And, almost everyone had their own scrubby thing and sat at these little mirrored stations, with loose showerheads and buckets, scrubbing themselves and their friends/mothers/sisters. Eug asked me if I could have gone with a friend. I said no. Probably could with my sister and mom. The whole thing is odd, of course. You’re literally in a giant bathroom taking baths and showers with strangers. If you’re going to enjoy yourself, it’s best not to think about it that way, I think. On our second day there (yes, our 2nd and consecutive) Eug saw some pubes floating in the bathwater and I think that ruined the experience for him. I bought my very own scrubby thing on this day.
There’s also a playroom for kids, where you can rent a PSP, which Eug did. We laid our relaxed little heads on the pillows provided for us, got comfy on the communal floor and played Miss (Ms? Mrs?) Pacman and Galaga. It was a giant room with almost no walking space because people were sitting or laying around eating or taking. We saw a couple of white kids really enjoying themselves wearing facial masks being total locals. There were unisex kilns as well on the first floor, of varying temperatures. I really like those, too. Eug and I were like Hansel and Gretel just baking away.
Here are a few
flickr pics I found that I wish I'd taken. I forgot my camera that day. And I forgot to mention the princess leia towel buns that were very popular with the ladies. luckily, there's a pic of them in there.
We went shopping one day in the Dongdaemun district where the youngsters apparently go. Had no clue where the cool stores were so we decided to secretly follow some hip and trendy teens. In the underpass, we thought they were on to us when they turned around; we both instinctively quickly locked our hands behind our backs, looked up to the ceiling, and maybe even pretend-whistled. though, i could be making that last part up. (is this what ppl really did, which then influenced films, or vice versa??! ) if we had newspapers, we just might have covered our faces with it. Eug even abruptly cornered me and we "pretended" to make out. no, we didn't. that party i actually made up. anyhoo, we did last about 15 minutes, though they led us nowhere; seemed like they were waiting for someone or something, out in the cold, so we ditched their sorry asses. Here are some photos.



I then spotted a dude who looked like he had the potential to lead us somewhere interesting. He led us to the public restroom, as you can see in the pic below. We decided to head back to where we left our 4 young friends and wait for the toilet guy. The kids were gone by that time but the guy was quick and we continued on his trail. He led us to the Adidas store a few meters away. Apparently he works there. Makes sense as he was wearing an Adidas t-shirt.




Things worked out though, in the end. Eug nabbed himself a pair of Adidas yellow swimming trunks for 40% off. Yes!

On the same day we spotted a kid wearing a Name Ribbon hoodie! (
Name Ribbon is Eug’s friend Jay and his buddies streetwear line.) So cool. I got a pic of him. Tried to explain why I wanted it, but neither he nor his friends understood me and I think they just thought I was hitting on him.

Eug managed to ask him where he got it so we headed to the department store called APM, I think. We searched all the men’s floors for Name Ribbon and did finally find one. They were only selling one. Here’s a pic. Later, in the Korean streetwear mag,
Cracker Your Wardbrobe, we see a photo of a guy wearing a Name Ribbon bandana.

As always, I got waaaaay more descriptive than I intended to and have exhausted my brain and finger muscles. So I shall end it here and continue tomorrow. Check back for the exciting story of how I found a digi camera in a cab! Ooooh!
Sadly, on Sunday night, one of S. Korea's most important historical monuments burned down. It's located in the Namdaemun district and is literally called the
"the great southern gate." It survived WW II and the Korean War. Last I heard, an
old dude was responsible.