Just the 2 of us. Seoul, Korea- Last Days (Jimjilbang, Juno Hair salon, Lotte Mart)

So, this is the last entry for my Seoul trip.

And it’s time for R&R!

If you watch Korean shows, you would’ve come across this thing called “Jimjilbang”, basically they are public bathhouses furnished with hot tubs, saunas, cafeterias and resting areas where you can bathe, sleep and eat.

We visited Siloam Sauna near our apartment at Seoul Station. It’s pretty easy to find, just a road across Lotte Mart.

The receptionist ahjumma was efficiently welcoming and obviously no stranger to tourists as she directed us upstairs in simple English.

“Go up, change. Female, man, separate. Meet at floor two. Together.”

Unfortunately, I got a bit confused at the second floor. There’s a row of lockers in front of me for the shoes and then more lockers inside that looked like that: It took me some time to figure out the area selling food and other stuff right next where the shoes were placed was also the reception I had to get the second locker’s key from.

After changing into the Siloam’s outfit (I opted to just change discreetly in the far corner instead of the bathroom), I explored the place a bit, scanning the stairways leading down to the baths before going up to meet K.

However, the husband was not visible anywhere and I waited quite a bit before he appeared and explained he thought I’ve gone ahead with the bath (conveniently forgetting I was having my period and obviously couldn’t go into the water).

Anyway, since we’re finally reunited, here’s a commemorative shot (the sheephead towel thing was totally his idea, I didn’t want to do it lol).

There’s a total of five floors in Siloam, the bath area, meeting place (with massage and nail art services) and cafeteria, recreational area (with really really old games like street fighter) and gym, saunas and the sleeping area.

We tried almost all the saunas (salt, charcoal) of different temperatures and I think the killer was this:

We barely lasted 5 minutes. K was slightly traumatized.

But then there’s the ice room:

Being a cryophilic, he was happily smiling whilst the photographer (me) was freezing to death.

But there’s always food to cheer me up.The portions were HUGE. I came to dislike naengmyeon (cold noodles) ‘cos they feel like octopus tentacles sliding down your throat. 

Very affordable though, about SG$6-7 per set.

After lazing almost half a day at Siloam, we headed down to Edae. Can you guess for what, just by looking at the pics below?

 

Answer:

It’s for a haircut! Did you get that right? Haha~~

The cafe you see is part of the salon’s services, free of charge!

 

I was at Juno Hair outlet 2 for a Magic Straight treatment. My hair stylist was Jun K.

Now, although I have basic knowledge in Korean, it’s still difficult to explain properly once he started asking me about hair dyeing. Fortunately, there was a Chinese-Korean assistant at the salon and they told me it’s not advisable to do the Magic Straight and hair colouring on the same day due to the intense pressure on the hair.

So I chose to do the Magic Straight only whilst K waited for me at the side (he didn’t want to walk around okay).

Just a glimpse of what happened in the two & a half hours.

I was chatting with the girl in my broken Korean and her trying her best in her haphazard English lol~ Though they did praise my Korean for being good! Haha~

It was mostly boring for K until we got to this part:

I don’t really know how to explain all the things that’s happening on my head. Just, I wasn’t making the best faces lmao~ K was cracking up and gleefully taking pictures…

I really appreciated it when the refreshment came along:IT’S HI-TEA FIT FOR A TAI-TAI!

Delicious orange muffins by the way (at least that’s what I think it was).

Can you believe that we actually didn’t remember to take a picture of the final hairdo after I’ve finished? Lol~

But anyway, to summarize my visit,

1. I really liked how I was attended to meticulously throughout the process. You know how in Singapore, sometimes the hair stylist just leaves you hanging there even after the beeper goes off or talks over your head like you’re invisible? NONE of that happened during my visit and they actually bothered to discuss with you thoroughly over the colours you wanna choose, bringing out photo examples in their IPad on the hairdo etc… I felt so pampered.

2. I hated the washing cubicle. It must be the MOST uncomfortable hairwash I’ve had MY ENTIRE LIFE. Like you don’t lie down to wash your hair, they have this head cushion thing whereby you sit down and lean your head back but the angle was just so awkward I felt my neck was breaking at the end of it all.

3. The end result was wondrous. So far I’ve only been receiving praise on the hair I’ve done and it wasn’t even my favourite. I don’t like curling my hair but everyone said it suits me including the hair stylist so I’m just like, ok, whatever, lol~

This was like the closest we got to a decent pic on the hairdo:

Just a note though, the haircut was really expensive, like $299,000 krw (SG$370).

Juno Hair 

준오헤어 이대 2호점     서울시 서대문구 대현동 37-3

 

It was night time after the hair experience and we headed to Palsaik Samgyeopsal for dinner.

This restaurants boasts of 8 different flavours of samgyeopsal (bbq meat) and is located in Sinchon. Obviously famous enough judging from the tv coverage:

Again, we were surrounded by tourists and the staff were quick to offer us a seat and set down the vegetables once we ordered.The staff helping to grill the meat.

The set included a seafood soup (which was a tad salty for my taste) and here’s our 8 flavours:

There’s curry, ginseng, pine, garlic, miso, spicy… But my favourite was the wine and herbs. Surprisingly, although that looked like a lot of meat, we finished everything.

For the variety and amount ($30k krw≈SG$40), it was very value for money!

Palsaik Samgyeopsal

18, Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Sinchon Station (Line 2 Exit 6)

 

 

For our last day in Seoul *sobs sobs*, we went grocery shopping at Lotte Mart.

Look at the husband hard at work…

We decided to ship 2 boxes back to Singapore via EMS ‘cos there’s not enough room in our luggage. Just note that the courier counter is on the same level where you pack your groceries at the far right.Secondly, you need to let the staff check which items are suitable for shipping before sealing the boxes. We made a mistake of taping them first before bringing to the counter and had to repack again.

One of the items not allowed was the banana milk in this packaging:

Which actually disappointed me to no end ‘cos this was the best banana milk we tasted in Korea but anyhoo~~ We brought back 3 packs of it in our check-in baggage instead.

But if you can help it, don’t ship it back to Singapore, ‘cos the first kg is already like $20 and our parcel, which weighs slightly over 10 kg, costs us $60. Ugh. Too bad our luggage really had no space.

I didn’t expect myself to bring back so much stuff to be honest, like look:

And this is only some of Oliver’s and my stuff lol~ I am weak…

Will probably do up a review of the notable cosmetics I brought back from Seoul when I’ve the time.

또 봐요!

Click here to see the rest of our Korea trip’s experience.