It only rained for one day while we were in Seoul. As most major attractions are outdoors, we thought of relaxing inside with a little bit of retail therapy. We are not generally high-end shoppers or the sort of people that just load up at cheap markets. We sit somewhere in the middle, think H&M or Cotton On ect. So we were on the hunt for the Korean equivalent, and who better to ask than a local at the reception counter in our hotel? She put us in a cab and sent us to the Hyundai Mall.
Hyundai Seoul
The Hyundai Mall is one very high-end department store set up, with Tiffany, Ralf Lauren, and every designer bag imaginable. Not our vibe. The only thing we purchased was a bottle of wine to enjoy with movie night. But we did have a look around, and went to the basement to enjoy some food. Tip: Pretty much every major mall there has a food court in the basement, to see more eating recommendations go here. This food court in particular was beyond packed, and most places had no seating. After looking for a while we managed to snag a spot at a Vietnamese restaurant.
Being November there was an elaborate Christmas village, called ‘H Village’ located on the top floor. Decorated as a European town square, decked out in faux snow, Christmas trees, and ample lighting. Think shopping mall Santa on steroids. We queued in the 100 person line with the hopes of cute photos. 15 mins later an usher came to us specifically and handed us a card that said entrance at 5:30pm, as it was 12:30 there was no way we were hanging around for 5h! Even if the insta story was going to be adorable. Is H Village worth visiting? Yes, if you are prepared to wait. We would recommend getting there early and immediately asking for a waiting card.
IFC
Completely defeated from our unsuccessful shopping day, we headed to the train station to go home and maybe watch a movie while waiting for the rain to stop. Heading through an underground tunnel for what seemed like forever, we came across another mall: the IFC (International Finance Centre).
This was middle-class shopping heaven, with 110 stores perfectly tailored to our budget ~$50-100AUD/item. We spent the next few hours accomplishing the days mission. We both picked up some warm clothes, Cam especially loaded up! There were also some beauty stores and tech stores for those who are more interested in stuff that’s not clothes. One thing we found that was extortionately expensive was the bath bombs from Lush. No joke, they were $25AUD each!
We finished off the day by finished by having dinner at Agra, the most aesthetic Indian restaurant in Seoul. As we were there pretty early, there were very few people in the restaurant. We got the set menu which was pretty affordable, roughly $80AUD for the both of us. The courses came out like a show, there was dry ice and fire around the dishes. This was an unexpected activity that we are so glad we did, and the food itself was unreal!
We then caught the train back to the hotel and watched the South Korean cinema masterpiece “Parasite”. Bottle of wine ready to go, it was the perfect way to end the day.