Early last month, I took a quick weekend trip to Seoul to do some skin touchups. I went back to the same place as last time, Alive Dermatology in Gangnam. This will be a short post, mostly to share some food images and cool architecture we came across.
Incheon Airport Tips
Before I share information about the hotel and location, I wanted to give tip about the Incheon Airport. It’s become notorious for long immigration queues and our experience unfortunately agreed with that.
To reduce the chance of being stuck in a long queue, please note that the airport website provides waiting times for each of the different immigration channels. It may not seem like it when you arrive, but you can actually walk past your designated immigration channel and go to other ones.
Furthermore, Korea has an arrival app called ICNSMARTPASS. I haven’t been able to get it to work myself, but others have noted that they were able to use the e-channel gates once the app accepted their ID information and gave the ok.
AC Marriott Gangnam
We chose to stay in Gangnam this time to cut down on the travel time to the clinic, however this turned out to be a poor choice, because traffic within Gangnam can be worse than the time it takes to take the metro from Namdaemun, where we stayed last time.
Our stay at the AC Marriott Gangnam was comfortable and convenient for most things. However, this is very much a business area so there’s not much going on after work hours. Even food was hard to find late at night, although we did run across an empty Korean BBQ place that ended up being excellent.
Architecture
If I could go back to my youth and start again, I’d become an architect. Being able to touch and see your creativity on full display, for 100 years or more, is so compelling to me now as I age. All the work I did in the past will be quickly forgotten, but if I had built something, it could easily outlast my time on earth.
The below are some random buildings I found interesting or compelling. Seoul is a great place if you love buildings. For example, a new store by 0914 recently opened in the city and it’s so unique that I’m already planning a visit to see it in real life.
As a Canadian, I get a kick out of seeing Tim Hortons coffee shops around the world. Ever since Restaurant Brands International bought a significant stake, they’ve been expanding the brand around the world. What started as a cheap coffee fix in Canada has transformed into a pseudo Canadian luxury brand around the world.
Cocktail Bars
As always, we tried to hit a few cocktail bars new to us. This time we tried Elements in Gangnam, where we found a simple and minimalist aesthetic, great service and perfectly made cocktails. After that, we bar hopped over to Bar Tea Scent where they make very unique tea-based cocktails in a zen-like environment.
Taking the advice from the bartender in Bar Tea Scent, we made a final stop at Bar Alice Cheongdam. There was a small wait, but nothing like the bar we wanted to go, Bar Zest. Once inside, the fun began with really uniquely designed cocktails that provided not just a tasting experience, but a visual one too! I hope that we can book a table at Bar Zest for the next Seoul post.
Summary
Even though it was a short weekend trip, Seoul delivered with great food, drinks and an energetic vibe. We got our skin treatments done (Rejuran, Juvelook, Sculptra and Botox) and headed back home shortly after. A very productive weekend.
Gear Used
- Fujifilm GFX100S II
- Fujifilm X100VI
- Fujifilm GF55 f/1.7
All images edited on Capture One Pro using an Apple iPad Pro M4
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