by Marian Antony
7 girls, 3 days in Korea? Sounds like a recipe for disaster! Luckily, it ended up being one of the best trips I have been on. Making a trip to Seoul is a good chance to get away for a few days cheaply! Reiko, Yuri, Shirelle, Cindy, Kylie, Mina and I packed our bags and flew off to Korea during exam week. We booked a great deal through JTB - our flight and hotel came out to a little over 30,000 yen. This included pick up to and from the airport. We even had someone waiting for us at the airport! How movie star desho? Since we were only there for 3 days, we spent most of our time exploring Seoul and Itewon. We stayed at the Crown Hotel, located about 15 minutes away from Seoul.
The food was absolutely amazing, but a word to the wise - a lot of it was spicy. If you cannot handle spicy food, be careful because almost everything had a kimchi sort of wang to it. One restaurant, which I highly recommend, is a Buddhist vegetarian place. For about 3000 yen you get a HUGE, oishii meal and see some traditional Korean dancing. The restaurant is located in the traditional shopping district in Seoul (near some art museums and palaces). Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it seems pretty popular, so ask around! Most of the restaurants, shops, etc. did not have English menus, nor did the shopkeepers really speak a lot of English. Oddly enough though, almost all of them spoke Japanese. We did almost everything in Japanese (reservations for dinner, ordering food, taxis- we went everywhere by taxi).
Another popular thing to do in Korea is to get scrubbed down at the spas. We did a pckage deal that included Korean scrub, facial, massage, and saunas for about 7000 yen. Ask your hotel if they have any special deals or can recommend a good spa.
Of course, no trip to Seoul would be complete without shopping! There is an area called Myondong, which is like Harajuku. There are various paths to take which hold some name brand stores and smaller boutiques. There is also a huge department store called Lotte Plaza, which is like Marui or Vivre. There is also 24 hour market shopping.
Since we were only there for a short time. we went out our last night to Limelight which is located near the Hamilton Hotel. This club is pretty much like Pure, but a nicer version. The music was a mix of Hip Hop, Dance and House. Most of the people there were army guys or Korean girls, but in a big group it is chooo fun! If you go on a Thursday night (ladies night), the girls can get free drinks until 10pm and there is some entertainment, which, well, you have to go there to see it!