According to certain Chinese beliefs, you are not supposed to celebrate Lunar New Year if you had a recent death of a family member.
Ah yes, this sounds like the perfect opportunity for me to spend it overseas since I technically am not supposed to go for any festivities. Perfect. That said, my mum and I spent a week in South Korea, specifically Seoul and Jeju.
Ngl the last time I went to South Korea was during my secondary school days which was donkey years ago. Tbh I never understood the Korean hype so I never considered going to Korea but my wallet says otherwise. I actually wanted to go to Japan but the air fares were insane. So Korea it shall be. Main highlights of the trip would be going skiing in Seoul and also the jjimjilbang (Korean public bath house) in Jeju.
Landed in Seoul in the morning and collected our E-sim card from the airport which was super convenient and fuss-free. FYI you have to restart your phone after collecting the sim card and the data bundle will be activated immediately (works both in Seoul and Jeju). Took the AREX train from the airport to Seoul station and checked into our AirBnb.
What screams more Korean than staying at an actual Hanok i.e Korean traditional house?
Yup, that’s exactly where we stayed in Seoul – Stay256. Bonus, the host was kind of cute too(; Check it out here:
We bought or rather I bought a lot of skincare products, shoes and clothes. Note to self, please bring a guy along for shopping trips because I was struggling to carry so many paper bags back to our hotel. Myeongdong was truly a shopping heaven and I had a great time there. As for mother, she was not as an avid shopper like me, in fact she was more interested in the street foods; the lobsters, the skewers, the seafood which was interesting. She’s more of a foodie than me I suppose.
Skiing @ Vivaldi Ski Resort
Brought my mum skiing for the very first time in her life at Vivaldi Ski Resort in Seoul and it was hilarious af. So, we had to meet at Myeongdong at 7am in the morning to get onboard a coach which will take us to the ski school first before going to the actual resort. The whole journey took about 1.5hrs.
After arriving at the ski school, we had a short briefing about the equipment and the dos and do nots. Then we proceeded to change into our ski attires (provided of course) before getting back on the coach and departing for Vivaldi ski resort. They recommended us to get protective gear like butt pads, knee pads and helmets in case we got injured and because I need my dear mother to be safe, we rented them as well. When we arrived at the resort, we promptly collected our skis and geared up before going to the battleground.
Ngl, gearing up already took up my entire energy bar. It was so tiring to put the shoes on. Geez. Yes, we were all covered up like ninjas because it was cold af (-16 degrees like whuttt). I couldn’t film much because my fingers were literally gonna freeze to death when I took my gloves out to film anything.
Watching my mother learn skiing was definitely quite a sight. It was tougher than it seems but she didn’t give up which was pretty commendable tbh. The instructor was literally hesitant to bring her up the slope to actually ski because she felt that my mother wasn’t ready for it.
However, my mother insisted on going up the slope and guess what? She immediately fell down after stepping off the ski travellator. So the thing about skiing is that when you fall, it’s really hard to get back up because the skis are very heavy so you have to use your core muscles to “push” yourself up. My mother literally was lying in the snow defeated for a good 5 minutes HAHAHA.
Meanwhile, I managed to go down the slope at a breakneck speed and honestly, I thought I was going to break my legs because in that moment I forgot how to stop. Yup, tumbled my way down the slope.
Mother said a good Samaritan came by and helped her get up from the snow. After which, she gave up and took off her skis before slowly making her way down the slope. Overall, she said it was a good experience and no she will not ski again in this lifetime HAHAHA
As for me, I actually loved it. Personally, I reckon this will not be the last time I will be skiing because god damn the adrenaline rush was like WOAH. Need to do that again.
We also took a cable car ride up the mountain to see the snow coated mountain view and it was sick af. Simply amazing.
Here’s one for the LOLS:
Next up, Jeju
I booked a hotel facing the sea without actually thinking too much about it because I just wanted a sea view. Surprisingly, the view from our hotel was breathtaking. In fact, on our last two days in Jeju, it snowed. Yes, it SNOWED. The snow coated rocks by the coast was so sickeningly beautiful I can’t even describe it.
My mother has never seen snow before so imagine her excitement when she actually did see it this trip. HAHAHAHA Case in point:
Visiting the jjimjilbang (Korean public bath house) in Jeju
So, this was rather interesting. Ah yes, we were supposed to be entirely naked for this experience. This is the part where I’m thankful I didn’t get a tattoo or else I would never hear the end of it from my mother. Once we were inside, we had to shower to make sure we are clean before getting into the different types of pools (Sea water, Green tea, etc).
Oh, the facilities separate females and males so I don’t think (straight) couples will enjoy it very much. Either way, there was also two sauna rooms (one with benches and one for people to lie on the floor). Funny story, they had a pool outdoors (in the cold winter) and I wanted to try it so I went into it and the wind was blowing so furiously at my face that one of my contact lenses FLEW OFF. I was literally hiding in the corner of the pool trying the prevent my towel on my head from flying off HAHAHA
We spent about 2 hours in the bath house before we decided it was time to leave. You would think my mother or rather the elderly wouldn’t enjoy this experience but surprisingly she did. In fact, she said she will want to visit jjimjilbang again. Good detoxing for the skin she said. Ngl I thoroughly enjoyed it although I did get a few weird stares perhaps because we were foreigners.
After we left, we were greeted by a mini snow storm so we decided to chill at a nearby cafe with some coffee and cake.
On our last day in Jeju, we went to do our hair at a salon. On our way to the salon, started to snow on the streets and the scene was like straight out of a painting as well. So damn pretty.
POV “your daughter wanted to save on the cab fare so she made you walk back to the hotel in the snow” kind of face. We just did our hair here by the way. How did we manage to overcome the language barrier and get the hair stylist to dye our hair? Papago translation app and a dash of YOLO. The hair stylist immediately acknowledged that this was my mother….do we really look that alike???
Random foods we ate in Jeju as well (clearly food is not my priority when I travel LOL)
That sums up or 8D7N trip to Korea. Well, it’s not perfect but I think it was a good break from the hustle and bustle from everything that has been going on. When I was a kid, one of my goals was to bring my mother to a winter country so she could see snow and this was it. I guess, it’s sort of a happy ending for me but maybe not for her I suppose. Undoubtedly, this trip did bring us a little closer but I’m not sure because she’s still in the grieving phase so yeah. Alright, I’ll be back Korea, once my skincare products expire HAHAHA.
Until the next…trip:)
D
theniecextn. 
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