Your Korea Talk with Hyeji
Hello. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for coming out today. Please give us a lot of tips.
Hello. I'm Hyeji. All right. Thank you for inviting me.
Hyeji, you said whenever your friends came to Korea, I heard that you gave them a tour. So, I thought it would be nice to share what things your friends liked and other small things. I think it would be a great help to the viewers.That's why I invited you today. And I heard a bit about the course which was amazing. I have invited you here because I thought it would be nice to hear more about that too.
Where's the friend who you gave a long tour from?
She's from Switzerland. I met her when I was in middle school. I lived in the U.S. for 10 months. I went to church one time, and there was this friend who wasn’t good at English, and looked lonely just like me.
You two saw each other’s loneliness.
I felt like we became friends right away.
She's an old friend then. Was it her first time traveling to Korea?
Right, it's her first time in Asia. It's the first time in Asia but Korea trip.
She’s been in Korea for 7 days?
6 days.
I personally think about 6 days is a great time to see Seoul. The 6-day duration.
Where did you go for six days?
First, we met in Seoul. After we went to my hometown, Cheonan. And then to Jeonju
by train. And we went to Jeju Island by plane. Then back to Seoul. I was overambitious. I so wanted to show her beautiful Korea.
It's not so easy to go around 4 cities, were you okay?
It wasn't okay.
“It was so hard even for me”?
Yes.
There are people who’s like this. “I'm going on a trip for a week. I want to go to 3 or 4 cities”
To those people, do you recommend going to 4 cities in 6 days?
Oh, but you need to think about this. Korea is actually small so unless you’re not going to places like Yeosu, it's almost an hour or two away if you take the train.
So, actually if you want to go to many places in a short period of time, then I recommend it. But I think it depends on the travel style. Like if you want to enjoy in one place, then for sure no.
Korea is really.. Trains are well established and to go from end to end, it takes two and a half hours or three hours. If you really want it, it’s possible to go several places for 6 days.
If you want to focus on a city, I think 6 days is enough just see Seoul.
Right.
I’m sure you might have been to a lot of places during those 6 days. Can you pick the top 3 places that your friend liked the most?
Oh, top 3?
First, it’s not related to a region but I think she really liked coin noraebang.
Coin noraebang?
Yes.
That was so unexpected.
She seemed like she saw a strange world the moment she entered it.
But I'm curious.Is there a song to sing at coin noraebang?
There are foreign songs too. These days, K-pop has a lot of English lyrics. It's possible to sing it together.
That's amazing.
We sang a lot of NewJeans’ songs.
She really liked Jeonju.
Oh, Jeonju.
In Jeonju, we didn’t go out of the Hanok Village tho. Since we had no car, we didn't go around here and there. So, we just stayed in Hanok Village and Gyeonggijeon. But still
she really liked it.
Another nice thing was that we tried on hanbok. I'm a little shy. I never wear them. There were a lot of people wearing hanbok in Jeonju on the street. It was nice to walk around wearing hanbok. I didn't draw much attention. And when we went inside Gyeonggijeon,
there were only people wearing hanbok. It's weird to wear regular clothes there. So it was like watching a historical drama, she said. My friend really liked it.
Jeonju Hanok Village is a place where people wear hanbok. If you're a shy person,
I think you can try wearing Hanbok when you go to Jeonju Hanok Village.
That's right.
And there are a lot of street foods in Jeonju Hanok Village. There's a dumpling place that I like. I eat it every time I go.
The last place she liked?
She liked Banpo Han River. There, we cooked and ate ramyeon at Han River.
We had chicken together. Then had a drink while having a serious conversation. She loved that time.
Did you go at night?
We went when the sun was going down and stayed until night. There's the rainbow fountain, you know. But we missed it that day eating.
There is time for that so you should check the time. I'll check it out and share it. So check that.
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What kind of food did she like?
Galbi pot rice. It's in Insa-dong. Jongno. The good thing about that place is that food comes out on a tray for one person so it's convenient to eat it. Also, something like hot pot rice is very Korean.
There were some foreigners there.. but when you have hot pot rice, you scratch off the rice first when it’s out.
Yeah, you put rice in a bowl.
Then, you ask for nurungji water and pour water inside in advance.
That's right. That's how rice become nurungji.
But tourists don't know about it. There was no hot water. It’s usually there, but you had to ask for it. So I bragged about it to my friend like “because you came with me, you are experiencing this culture.”
How was the pot rice?
It was amazing.
I also think foreigners will really like it.
Is there any other thing you did for a local experience?
We shot an arrow in Jeonju, and the thing she really liked was making perfume. She's into cosmetics and is interested in skincare. That’s why I thought she'd like to make perfume. So I took her, and she really liked it.
Is it making perfume in a bottle?
There's a variety of reagents that contain scents. You choose the scent that you like
and mix them together. Customizing it to make what you want.
But I recommend that you do it in Jongno. They should have English manual there. So, everything should be in English. But I did it in Seongsu. Seongsu definitely has less
foreign travelers than in Jongno so I had to translate everything for my friend.
Near Jongno is where many foreign tourists are, so you recommend to do the experience there?
That's right.
Some people do something like a dance class, K-pop dance class. People do that, too.
There are a lot of fun one-day classes.
Also I heard that you were surprised to see your friend's unexpected side.
My friend, she is very thrifty. I had something to do for a bit so I sent her to Daiso to shop first. In the shopping basket, there were this much stuff. I've never seen her overspend like that. Wooden chopsticks, a fruit-shaped scrubber.
Why did she buy those?
They were cheap and cute. She said there's nothing like those in Switzerland. She bought that, too. A tumbler wipe shaped in ice cream.
Oh, there's something like that.
So she bought those for souvenirs.
Sounds like a great place to buy souvenirs.
I think it's pretty good. I heard many foreigners visit Daiso these days. There are many interesting things which are in an affordable price.
Many people have asked me to recommend souvenirs. I think it's good idea to stop by Daiso.
She also bought dolls too. Because dolls are very expensive in Europe. She said. And a doll is only 5,000 won.
I guess there is no other place like Daiso to buy souvenirs.
We also bought many things at a supermarket. She bought some snacks. She’s like “How can Korea make snacks such a flavor like this.” She’s like “I will take them to my friends back in my country to make them try. To know if it really tastes good.” And she filled up the cart.
If you go to Myeongdong or Hongdae, there are so many snack shops. There are foreigners
buying souvenirs there. If you can pick up the delicious ones, I think it’ll be good to give out as a gift.
I heard that she loved this another place beside Daiso.
Oh, right. There's an amazing place for K-beauty, right? We went to Olive Young. There are many mild, high-quality, and affordable skincare products in Korea.
Many of my friends visit there too.
The last question I want to ask is if another friend of yours is coming to Korea for a trip,
can you recommend one place, one experience, and one food that you must do? One each.
The place I want to take my friend is Seoul Forest. Rent a bike, and go to Seoul Forest because when I first heard that my friend from Europe was coming, I took out all the park stuff because she’s from Switzerland. It's Switzerland, right? Instead, I wanted to show her the city. So I took all park stuff out but she wanted to visit parks. She loves grass field places. She told me that it’ll be nice to go somewhere like that. When I went to Seoul Forest in the summer, the weather was so nice. Everyone came out for a picnic. So I think it’ll be good to just go out there and see people living their daily lives and ride bicycles around the park while having a picnic getting some leisure time. I think it'd be nice. Seoul Forest.
For experience, I liked Seongsu-dong because you know Jongno is about old Seoul. I think Seongsu is a place where you can see recent Seoul.
A place full of trends.
One day, go to Jongno to see old Seoul. The next day, I thought I should show recent Seoul. There are many pop-up stores that are held in Seongsu.
My friend works in marketing field. That's why I thought it would be nice to take her to a pop-up store. Experiencing that with foreign friends will be great. That's what I thought.
These days in Korea pop-up store is a trend. It's nice to go around Seongsuvisiting pretty cafes, taking one-day classes, then going to pop-up stores. That’s what people do in Seoul these days. I thought to myself that this course is nice.
We couldn't go to a pop-up store. That's why I'm talking more about it.
That's right. Some pop-up stores have a reservation system, so you can't just go.
But if you go to the open ones, you can see interesting things. There are so many interesting things.
I hope you have a chance to try one.
What about the food?
I hope people can try ramyeon at Han River. I’m sure you can try Korean ramyeon all around the world. But cooking and eating it at Han River is different. It’s really different. She was amazed by the machine, too. The machine that cooks ramyeon. It was really fascinating for her that she took a video.
There's one more. I think it would be nice to try a Korean buffet. Because you can eat a variety of side dishes.
And I felt this when my German friends came, they complained that fruits and vegetables were too expensive in Korea. Avoiding expensive places and trying to save up were their travel style, but they couldn't get fruit because it was too expensive. They wanted vegetables so badly.
Right. In Korea, vegetables and fruits are so expensive, so if you go to a buffet
you can eat everything.
Really, today you gave us a lot of tips. I think this have been very helpful for the viewers,
because it’s all from your friend’s and your experiences. This for sure will help the viewers to prepare their trips. Thank you so much for today's tip.
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📌 Hyeji’s route: Seoul, Cheonan, Jeonju, Jeju, Seoul
📌 Places mentioned in the video:
📍 Jeonju Hanok Village: https://naver.me/xZDOP3wU
📍 Gyeongjijeon: https://naver.me/GEI2HGJk
📍 Dawoorang (Dumpling Store): https://naver.me/GFe02Cna
📍 Hanbok Rental:
📍 Banpo Han River: https://naver.me/GQ4YGCy9
📍 Banpo Han Rainbow Bridge: https://naver.me/GGhCouHM
📍 Doma (Pot Rice): https://naver.me/FCbBGfXI
📍 Lumiere Parfum (Perfume one day class): https://naver.me/xsUSJ8HZ
📌 Hyeji’s Pick
One Location: Seoul Forest, Seoul: https://naver.me/xC6ir63v
One Food: Ramyeon at Han River
One Experience: Seoungsu-dong Pop-up Store