On Monday, Alrica and I visited the Seongsu neighborhood. This neighborhood is known for several things. It is the home to beauty, to salt bread, and to shoemakers. Let me describe each.
Beauty
In Seongsu, there are many stores selling beauty products: creams, lotions, cosmetics, tools for caring for eyebrows, nails, and teeth. The idea of beauty is very important in Korea, and this is the district where you can find all your beauty needs.
One of the big cosmetics/toiletries chains is called Olive Young. Their flagship store is in Seongsu. And one of the services they offer is a skin assessment. However, this is incredibly popular, and they only give out so many in day. So you are supposed to arrive right when they open if you want a chance at it. We believed that they opened at 10 and we arrived at 10:02. Either they opened earlier than 10 or it really is true that you have to line up before they open, because there were already too many people there and there were going to be no more skin assessments.
Maybe we will go back and try again. We may not. It depends mostly on if Alrica wants to do it or not. Personally, I know the biggest thing to know about my skin, I have psoriasis. But I suppose there could be secondary features I could learn about. But if I am being honest, I'm not likely to buy whatever products they suggest I buy based on my skin assessment. I agree it could be fun to see what a skin assessment is, but I'm not sure if it is fun enough to be worth the effort to me.
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| A fire extinguisher for the Ultra Facial Meltdown Recovery Cream |
Though we weren't able to get assessed, we still wandered the store a bit. Alrica was probably interested in the products. I was interested in the marketing.
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| Why would a skinless skeleton be chosen to hock skin care products? |
Salt Bread
One of the virally trending foods in Seoul right now is salt bread. Salt bread is bread rolls that are made with lots of butter and, as you might have guessed, are also made with a good deal of salt. They are smooth and soft and definitely very buttery and salty. No surprises on those last two. Seongsu is the part of town where all the elite find their finest salt bread. This is to the point that you have to wait in line to enter the bakeries.
Before we purchased our salt bread though, we saw a shop called Bagel Land. Now, we had not had bagels in a long time. So we decided to head inside and get a bagel sandwich. It was good. No, it wasn't New York bagels good, but it was good. And after a long bagel drought, it was even more attractive.
On a Tangent: Ratings Racket
Throughout our travels, we have used Google Maps to navigate a lot of places. It works great usually, though there are some places that it is not very effective. I'm thinking of the medina of Fez, for example.
South Korea is another exception. For a long time, the South Korean government withheld its detailed GPS information from Google. There are specific South Korean mapping apps: Kakao Maps and Naver Maps. They are fantastic so long as you are in South Korea. They even have a Marauder's Map feature for the metro. I can see where the metro trains are in real time. But they only work in South Korea.
You see, South Korea felt that Google doesn't play fair. They will show you locations of businesses that paid them for the right and fail to show you the locations of businesses that didn't. In other words, they are racketeers. If you zoom in far enough, then you can see the businesses that didn't pay. But if you just do a search for pizza, you are going to see the pizzerias that did pay in the initial map area that Google gives you. So South Korea said, no pay to play! We are opposed to you Google.
Until last month.
South Korea reversed its previous course in regards to Google. Since Google is the powerhouse that it is, and so many foreign tourists use Google Maps, the government decided it had to let Google compete with Kakao and Naver. Basically, South Korea decided in favor of tourist friendly rather than business protectionism.
This has led to the "Google Review Event". What it means is that there are lots of businesses in South Korea that have no Google reviews and no ratings, because until now Google Maps hadn't known those businesses were there. Seeing as how this move was to make foreign tourists more likely to use the app they already know, this is concerning for the businesses. Tourists won't choose them because they have very few ratings and no reviews.
So many such businesses are offering a "Google Review Event." If you complete a Google review of that business (and usually you must include a picture) then they give you something for free. Bagel Land was having such an event. Alrica completed a Google review with a picture and she received a plain bagel for free.
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| OMG! Free bagel! |
This leads me to the second Google racket, the reviews themselves. When we started our travels, I was great about doing Google reviews of places. I felt that it was very helpful to the businesses to have a detailed review (and I am detailed) in English for their international travelers. And I felt like I was giving back to the travel community because my review might help them. (As I said, very detailed.)
When you write reviews, you get points for the review. The number of points depends on how much you write, if you include pictures, and if you answer specific questions. But what do you need points for?
When you've done five review, you become a "local guide". But you start as a local guide level 1. And you need a small number of points to make level 2, maybe it is another 20 points. But then you need like 100 points or something to make level 3. And maybe 500 more points to make level 4. I'm not sure of the exact numbers. But it is a growing scale.
This is exactly like Dungeons and Dragons. You start out as a first level character. Maybe you need 2000 experience points to reach second level. But then you need 4000 more to reach third level and 8000 more than that to reach fourth level and so on. But here's the question. What are the points earning me?
In D&D, as I gain levels I am better at attacking my opponents. I get more spell slots and access to better spells. I can better resist poison or the breath weapon the titular dragons that I might meet in the titular dungeons. Experience points matter, at least for playing the game.
But with Google, what do these points earn me? Well, I have a badge, a little orange circle with a shape in it. At fourth level, that shape becomes a star, one with four points. At fifth level it is a five pointed start. At sixth level, it is a six pointed star. I think you see the pattern.
That's it! That's all you get. You get the title of Level 6 Local Guide and a badge with more points on the star. Google claims you "might" get early access to new Google features. But what features? Unspecified. Has it ever happened? Not in my experience.
What's more, Google started to flood me with emails telling me 100 people have read my reviews. Oh look, someone thumbs upped one of my reviews. Hey Erich, your reviews are really helping people. Why was Google so desperate to tell me how effective my reviews were? That's when I realized it. I'm working for Google. For free.
Every time I complete a review, I'm making their product more valuable. And what am I being paid for that service? Points. Points that don't do anything. I don't gain spells. I don't get better results from Google searches. My Google Translate app works the same no matter how many points I have. If my contributions are truly so valuable, why are you only compensating me with the Emporer's New Points?
So I have scaled way back on doing Google reviews. If I really believe it will help that business and I like that business, I would write one. If I have an exceptional experience, I would write one. If I think I can impart something to my fellow travelers in a super helpful way, I would write one. But I am not going to write reviews about every restaurant, vendor, market, or museum I visit. I'm done being part of the racket.
Okay, rant over, back to Seongsu.
Back from Tangent: Salt Bread Continued
As I said, at the bakeries, there are lines. So we got into one of them for a place called Haz Bakery. We waited maybe 15 minutes to get in. Inside we bought salt bread (cause you have to try that) and some bagel dessert thing. It was like chocolate mousse and a hard hazelnut chocolate layer on a plain bagel. But note: this is not a bagel dish. This is a dessert dish that happens to be on a bagel. Both were good, though I'm not sure what makes salt bread the viral food that it is. It's good bread, but it isn't astronomically good bread. It isn't so exalted over other breads that I am tempted to return to Seongsu just to get more of it.
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| Some of the options at Haz Bakery |
Maybe I just lack a proper Korean palate.
Shoe Making
There are shops in Seongsu where one can go have shoes made. Yes, you can also buy Nike and Adidas shoes at shoe stores. But you could have shoes made to fit. We didn't do so.
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| Shoe Mosaic |
But we did visit a park that is shoe themed. So this is a serious trait of the neighborhood.
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| That is a HIGH heeled shoe |
Also, beside the park was a convenience store and we were thirsty. So we stopped to buy some beverages. Being the brave culinary adventurers we are, we tried this:
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| In case you don't read Korean, that's an apple cider vinegar drink |
Guess what happens when you try something called an apple cider vinegar drink? Yeah, it tastes like you're drinking vinegar. I'm sure my insides are squeaky clean, but I won't be buying a second package of it.
Maybe more confirmation that I just don't have a proper Korean palate.
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