COEX Mall and Movie

Inside Theater

Tonight's Diner-Bulgogi Burger, Fries, and Zero Coke

COEX McDonald-Bulgogi Burger

Kimchi Museum

I'm not sure whether he owns this restaurant or not.

Megabox COEX Movie Theater

Empty Kangnam Street on Sunday Night



 The stripes on my forehead is still very much visible, but it looks like it's looking a little bit less obvious than yesterday.  Since I only have 3 more days in Korea, I decided to go shopping and watch a movie.  It's been almost over 16years since I watched a movie in Korean theater, so I was very excited about that.  I decided to go to a movie theather inside COEX mall near my hotel.  COEX mall is a huge international business exhibition and convention center with shopping mall, aquarium, Kimchi museum and a movie theater.  This place is huge, it took me about 15 minutes to get to a movie theater after I entered COEX mall.  The Megabox COEX movie theater was also very big.  It's bigger than the new movie theater in Fredericksburg.  I tried to watch a Korean movie called "Ajussi(Mister)", but the movie was all sold out and the next movie started too late, so I decided to watch whatever the movie that was available that doesn't start too late.  I picked movie called Piranha.  This movie was terrible...I don't know what I was thinking when I picked this movie.  I had about an hour before the movie starts, so I decided to stop by at Lotte Duty Free Dept. Store to get some facial mask made by Amore Pacific.  Everybody was raving about this mask, so I decided to try one.  It was quite expensive $55 for 5 packs, but the employee gave me an extra facial mask.  After shopping, I stopped by McDonalds, I wanted to have something better, but I only had 20 min. until the movie, I decided to grab something that I can eat fast.  This was the first American food since I got here.  I haven't had any American food for over a month, but I didn't have any cravings for either.  I was looking for Lotteria, but they didn't have it at the mall.  Since I can eat McDonald burgers back at home, I decided to try something different-Bulgogi burger.  It was okay, it tasted smilar to teriyaki burger from Lotteria.  When the movie was over, it was past midnight.  I was planning to walk back to hotel which would only takes about 20 min., but the street was quite empty, so I decided to take a bus.  I visited Korea several times before, but I never got a chance to ride a bus.  Since my hotel was only one subway station away from COEX mall, I figured most bus will stop near my hotel.  I just got on a bus that just arrived at the bus stand when I came out of the mall.  It was 1000 won which is about 80 cents, I believe it used to be around 500 won when I last rode a bus which was over 16 years ago.  I had no idea whether it'll stop near my hotel, but it did. 

Fastforward

Volvo at Hangangjin

Bakery Corner at Shinsegye Dept. Store

Spicy Kalbi Jjim

Spicy Cold Noodles

HoeDupBab (Sashimi and Vegetable Rice)

Chungmuro Street

The Statue of Emperor Sejong and The Blue House (The Residence of the South Korean President)

Soaking My Feet in The Water

The Entrance to ChungGyeChun

Art Disply at ChungGyeChun

ChungGyeChun near the Blue House





YeonSe Elegance Clinic in Apgujung Dong

Inside Clinic

Well...many things happened for the last 6 days.  I went to my first IPL session today, and things did not go so well.  It hurt a lot during the procedure, but apparently it's not supposed to hurt like that.  When I left the dermatologist office, my face was red and swollen, but not burnt.  But soon after, I noticed stripes (tiger/zebra stripes) on my forehead and chin.  It looked horrible.  I called the clinic and they told me to come over the next day.  When I went to the clinic the next day, the doctor said he hadn't seen such a thing before.  He believe this happened because I had too much tan over the summer.   The reason he wanted to perform IPL the last was to avoid this kind of the problem to happen.  Apparently, IPL is not recommended for someone who are tanned or who has darker skin.  Although he used lower light setting, it still burned my skin quite a bit.  Most of the scaps are gone now (normally, scaps supposed to stay on for at least a week, but scaps tend to come off within a few days for me), but now there is big difference in color where the scaps were.  I just need to wait about a month or two until the skin tones look even.  I need to stay away from the sun and always put on sunscreen when I go out.  I'm very angry about this, but will try to think positive.  Since my skin tends to heal faster and dead/old skin tends to come off easier than most people, I'm hoping the marks will be gone within a few weeks.  After having IPL, I mostly stayed in my room for the next few days.  I only went out to visit the clinic, Chunggyechun and to get parasol and sunscreen.  Yesterday, I had dinner with my brother.  We ordered Permented Kimchi (mukeunji)  Jjigye at Hangangjin area near my brother's company.  Since scaps are gone, I decided to spend some time outside my room today.  I first went to the clinic to get some skin renewal treatment for the affected area, and then I went to the dept store (Shinsegye Dept.Store) to buy a moiturizing cream.  My skin seemed to be drier than before after the treatment, so I decided to buy a good quality moisturizing cream made out of Korean herbs (HanYak).   Skin products made out of Hanyak is very popular these days in Korea.  The store was filled with people shopping for Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving Day).   After shopping, I headed back to my hotel to have a dinner with my brother and his wife.  We went to Samgyupsal (Grilled Beacon) restaurant, and had 4 orders of Samgyupsal, Kimchi and Pork JJim and Makkuli.   Since no great dinner is complete without a desert, we went to a bakery to have blueberry soft cream cake and coffee.  It was overall a good day.

Mr.Brown and Makkuli At HongDae

The Makkuli

Hongdae Street

Makkuli, Muk Muchim, ketnipjun

Mr.Brown Coffee Shop

Public Bathroom Inside Coffee Shop Building (it has button to open automatic bathroom door; pretty fancy)

Inside Public Bathroom

Yuko, Japanese woman who is in my cooking class, and I went to Mr. Brown coffee shop yesterday to have a cup of coffee.  Mr.Yu who is also in my cooking class owns a coffee shop named Mr. Brown near my hotel.  It's right next to Samsung SDS building, although it's more like coffee stand, it was extremely crowded.  Kangnam is one of the most expensive areas in Seoul, even owning such a small coffee stand is expensive (a few hundred thousand dollars).  He even have a certificate from a renowned cooking school (Le Cordon Blue) in Australia.  I think he wants to open up a french restaurant next year.  Coffee was very delicious.  After talking with him for a few hours, I headed to Hongdae to meet my sister in law, it was girls only night.  I met her up at the subway station and started looking for a bar named The Makkuli.  Since it was saturday night, the area was very crowded.  HongDae reminded me of Itaewon since 1/3 of people who were clubbing/drinking there were foreigners (mostly GIs and English teachers).  As it gets darker, HongDae area street was flooded by people clubbing.  Hongdae was great at first, but later on, some of the club street were going out of control.  It wasn't a great scene.  We had 5 bottles of makkuli, Muk muchim (kinda like jelly made out of acorn powder), Ketnipjun (meat wrapped in sesame leaves), and various other side dishes.  We got to HongDae around 6pm, and left the place around 4:30am, but street was still crowded.  Although we had lots of makkuli, we were not that drunk as I expected since we were drinking over 10 hour period.   HongDae was definately a great hangout place.

Edae, 4th Cooking Lesson and Apple Mojito

Outdoor Terrace

Pool Table

Bar Below 42

Slushed Apple Mojito

Tonight's Dinner

Ddukguk

Tangpyunchae

Ready to put it in the oven-it smelled so good

Ddukgalbi - ready to cook

Ddukgalbi

Edae Subway Station

Bibim Nangmyun

Burgar King Ad.

Ewha Woman's College

Edae Shopping District

I went to Ewha Woman's College for shopping.  I bought a few dresses and had a BiBimNangMyun for lunch.  After shopping, I went to my 4th cooking lesson.  We made TangPyunChae (It's Palace food; made out of white muk), Ddukgalbi, and DdukGuk.  Everything was awesome.  After the lesson, I went to a bar in Sinsadong with one of my Japanese cooking classmate.  She was meeting her friends there. One was French, another one was Korean-French.  I had a slushed apple mojito (my special request) and peach margarita.  The drinks were great, but super expensive ($12 each).  I'm going to meet my sister-in-law tomorrow for drink party at HongDae.  I'm looking forward to get totally drunk. 

Kangnam and Ddukbokki

Bar/Restaurant Street

Main Street near Teheran Ro

Ddukkbokki

Street Stand

Rows of Street Stands

Kangnam Street

Today was supposed to be rainy and windy day due to Typhoon, but it passed by Korea this morning without causing big problem in seoul.  Subway stopped running due to power outage for a few hours and trees were done, but there were no major damages compared to the previous typhoons.  Since I didn't plan anything today thinking I'll be stuck in the room all day, I just decided to go out to a nearby place.  I went to Kangnam.  Kangnam is known for business district, but it is also known as the most busiest meeting/partying area in Korea  because there are lots of foreign language institutes.  Friends usually hang out in Kangnam after foreign language lesson to drink and to party. There were plenty of clubs, restaurants and bars in that area.  After I walked around a little bit, I had some Ddukbokki and fried pepper.  It was okay.

Changkyung Goong, MyungDong, And Nanta

The Stage

After the Show

Nanta

Dessert

ChungMu Gimbab Restaurant

ChungMu Gimbab

Tower

Different Building Structures

ChangKyung Gung

Entrance to ChangKyung Gung

The owner of the restaurant-he is famous

Done

Level 3 Chicken Curry

Menu- it explains different levels of spicyness

Entrance to the Persian Palace

Typhoon was supposed to hit Korea today, but when I got up, I didn't see anything but clear sky.  I check out the weather report and the typhoon will hit Seoul sometime tonight.  Since it'll be sunny during the day, I decided to go to ChangKyung Goong.  While I was searching for the directions to the Palace, I decided to stop by another palace called Persian Palace, since both places are at the same subway stop.  I first went into Persian Palace.  It's the spicest curry restaurant in Korea.  The spicyness is categorized in different levels ranging from 1-10 (spicest), apparently, no one was able to finish curry that's hotter than 5.  I was gonna order level 4, but waitress insisted that I tried 2.7, if I think it's not spicy enough, then she will switch it to level 3 for me.  Level 2.7 was spicy enough, but I wanted to try level 3 which is 3 times spicier than very spicy octopus tang (it's supposed to be one of the spicest korean entree).   When they said it's very spicy, they were not kidding, it was extremely spicy!!!  That was the spicest curry I've ever had.  I was virtually crying while eating the curry, but I finished it.  The owner gave me free Naan, cold persian yogurt and lemon slush, I'm guessing because I came from the US to try his curry.  After the meal, my stomach was in pain for a few minutes.  Today was a extremely hot and humid day.  As soon as I left the restaurant, I realized that eating a spicy curry was a bad idea.  I was soak in sweat soon after I left the restaurant, and I started having stomach cramps.  The ChangKyung Goong was about 15 min. away from the restaurant by foot.  This wasn't a pleasant walk at all.  When I got to the Palace, I was ready to go back to hotel and crash.  Sweat was falling off my forehead, and half of my shirt was soaked in it.  I only stayed there for about 30min.  After that, I decided to go to MyungDong via Taxi since it's only a few minutes away from Changkyung Goong.  As soon as I arrived at Myungdong, I needed to get into the cool place, so I went into Lotte Dept. Store.  I felt whole lot better after I got into the store.  From there, I decided to get some free makeup trials at Bobbi Brown.  The makeup artist shaved and shaped my eyebrows, and tried on different makeup bases and color makeups on my face.  I'll try to post my new eyebrows tomorrow.   After shopping at Lotte, I went to eat Chungmu Gimbab.  Myongdong is famous for that food.  I didn't think it was great, but some people love it.  I've been waiting for a chance to watch a show call "Nanta", and the show was worth every penny and more.  That was the greatest show I've ever seen, much better than broadway shows.  I would recommend the show to everyone who visits Korea.  I wanted to video taped the show, however no pictures or video taping was allowed.