Jaunted

Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / South Korea Travel / Seoul Travel / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The French Fry-Encrusted Corn Dogs of Seoul, South Korea

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

American amusement parks and state fairs could learn a thing or two from the way South Korea has mastered hot dogs. They're available in every way, including spiral cut, wrapped in bacon, stewed in a curryish chili paste, and nearly tempura-ed with vegetables. Even some rice cakes, like Ddeokbooki, imitate hot dogs. Still, our personal favorite remains the infamous french fry-coated corn dog.

These deep-fried snacks usually figure into visitor's breathless descriptions of Seoul, a little like this: "The palaces! The shopping! And the ice cream cones...they were this tall. And and and the corn dogs were covered in french fries!!"

more ›

Awesome Stuff / A380 / Airbus / Korean Air / Airplanes / Business Class Travel / First Class Travel / South Korea Travel / ICH / → All Tags

Korean Air's A380 Has...Get This...a Luxury Onboard Lounge

Ho-ly crap. Have you seen what Korean Air has done with their very first Airbus A380? The superjumbo not only has the world's first flying mini duty-free shop (which already caused us to go bonkers), but there's also a full-fledged in-flight lounge. Yep, sofas and TV and boozy drinks and all.

Check out the A380 plan above, courtesy of Seatplans.com, to see the massive area they've dedicated to this chill space. Here is a photo, and here is another, of the actual thing. As you've probably already guessed, it'll only be open to those flying in Business and First Class, but the price of those seats also secures you early access to the duty-free shop and onboard bar. We're officially naming it a lifetime must-do-at-least-once experience. >

more ›

Shopping Travel / Duty-Free Products / Korean Air / A380 / Airplane News / Fashion Travel / Airplanes / Seoul Travel / South Korea Travel / → All Tags

Mini Duty-Free Shops Onboard Korean Air A380s is the Best Idea Ever

Have you ever gone shopping in South Korea? It's an experience, to say the least. And when you combine one of the country's favorite pastimes with discounts on luxury items as you find in Duty-Free, pardon our French but shit gets real. Real awesome. And soon you'll be able to indulge in duty-free shopping over South Korea—and indeed most of the rest of the world—as Korean Air is installing the world's first in-flight duty-free shops onboard their Airbus A380s.

Korea is crazy for duty-free; indeed there are entire malls in Seoul where you need to have an international trip planned in order to make a purchase, which you then can't pick up until you're safely inside the airport and headed out of the country with the goods. And these malls and special duty-free store levels are gorgeous places where big brands create their own mini luxury environments, so why not translate this success to something that fits on a plane?

more ›

Airplane News / Korean Air / In-Flight Comfort / A380 / Airlines / Airline News / Airplanes / Airbus / South Korea Travel / → All Tags

Korean Air's A380 Will Be the Most Spacious Big Bird in the Skies

We knew that Korean Air’s first A380 was getting its final touches, and it now looks like the airline has been chatting with Airbus about exactly where they want all the seats to be installed. Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll even pay for massaging seats as long as they’re still working on figuring out all the different options and features.

While many airlines using the new super jumbos are busy jamming as many seats into the plane as possible, it looks like Korean Air is going to take a different approach. They’re planning to devote all the upstairs real estate on the double-decker plane to business class—or Prestige Class as they call it. Here, big spenders will enjoy fully lie-flat seats as well as a roomy 74 increase of seat pitch. There will even be some sort of partition thing between the seats so you don’t have to watch your neighbor’s choice of in-flight movie.

more ›

Shopping Travel / Louis Vuitton / ICN / South Korea Travel / Fashion Travel / Seoul Travel / Duty-Free Products / → All Tags

The First Duty-Free Louis Vuitton Store is Coming to Seoul's Incheon Airport

There is no airport we've been to thus far that has more focus on duty-free shopping than Seoul, South Korea's Incheon International. Not only is there what seems like mile after mile of top luxury brands offering their products in mini version of their regular store, but there's even malls in the center of Seoul where you can go to purchase duty-free items and later (even weeks later) pick them up at the airport. We have a friend in Seoul whose family will even take short international flights just for the purpose of getting duty-free deals. That's dedication.

Incheon Airport has proved itself to be such a moneymakers for big brands that Louis Vuitton who just do not do airport stores, has given in and will open their first airport location here. LVMH prez Bernard Arnault personally swing through the airport earlier this year to check out the prospects, and apparently all met with his approval. Although there's no opening date set, the airport is already taking about increasing flights to China just because of the demand the LV duty-free shop will create.

more ›

Obama-Around-The-World / Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / Political Travel / Hotels / Landmarks / Japan Travel / South Korea Travel / Indonesia Travel / → All Tags

Take the Whirlwind Obama Tour of Asia

President Barack Obama has just had quite the whirlwind travel weekend, hopping and skipping from Japan to Singapore to China to South Korea in a matter of only a few days and yet he managed to fit in a few cultural stops in amongst all the flying and diplomatic handshakes. Most of the time, the sightseeing came with a required speech or a luncheon with a world leader, but still we're pretty jealous of all the places he got to go. We've listed the touristy places he visited below, just in case you'd like to take your own Obama Tour of Asia:

more ›

Political Travel / North Korea Travel / South Korea Travel / Dangerous Travel / Travel News / → All Tags

Is It Still Safe to Visit the DMZ Between North and South Korea?

Our shot of a Republic of Korea soldier at the DMZ

So, we're sure you've heard about it already in the news, but there were actual shots fired between North and South Korea yesterday, and in the most hotly tense area: the demilitarized zone between the two countries. Aside from having some of the shadiest history (spy tunnels, tourists shot, etc), the DMZ remains one of the favorite tourist sites for visitors to South Korea.

In fact, an official USO tour departs from the American embassy in Seoul, and for around $40 per person, they'll take a busload up to visit the border and the famous Joint Security Area at Panmunjom. We've done it; it was great, but now with the escalation in tensions, is visiting the DMZ still safe?

more ›

Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / South Korea Travel / Seoul Travel / Drinking Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: Pocari Sweat Across Asia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Once you've sipped your first Pocari Sweat, you'll never go back. That is, back to thinking it's gross because of its name or weird because it's a completely clear sports drink. Tasting Pocari Sweat is a right of passage for travelers. We snapped the pics here of a Pocari Sweat vending machine on the ground of Seoul, South Korea's Gyeongbokung Palace.

The taste: If you aren't daunted by the name of the drink and you actually allow the clear liquid over your lips, you'll discover that Pocari Sweat tastes nothing like you imagine it would. It's not salty-sweaty, it's not watery and it's not super syrupy either. The taste is lightly citrus and is best likened to those Gatorade waters, if they were only available in a grapefruit flavor.

more ›

Festival Travel / Dirty Travel / South Korea Travel / Beach Travel / → All Tags

South Korea's Most Popular Tourist Attraction is...Mud?

South Korea wants you to come visit and get down and really, really dirty. At Boryeong City's 13th annual Boryeong Mud Festival, it's mud madness, and you're encouraged to sling the stuff on yourself and others.

This festival, held on Daecheon Beach July 17-25 (book your airfare now!), draws the largest number of international travelers to Korea, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. It's not a surprise, since it has events like mud wrestling, mud sliding and swimming in a mud mega tub.

more ›

South Korea Travel / Korean Air / Korea Travel / Religion Travel / → All Tags

Be a Buddhist Monk for a Day on a New Korean Air Templestay

Amidst the high rises and shiny modern department department stores in the middle of modern-day Seoul, South Korea, sit a few quiet vestiges of the past. These are the traditional temples, dotted around the city and the rest of the country, whose short-term "Templestay" programs allow South Koreans to both explore their cultural heritage and escape from their hectic routines.

Our Korean friends have done them and we were totally jealous, but now—thanks to Korean Air working out a deal—foreigners will be welcome to enjoy these brief Buddhist lifestyle-focused breaks as well. Korean Air is offering 24-hour templestays, which envelop you in the life of a Buddhist monk, complete with a ritual ‘Dado’ tea ceremony, ‘Chameson’ meditation, 'Yebul' ceremonial chant, "Baru Gongyang’ silent communal meal and a tour of the Temple.

Find out more on how to sleep with the monks here, and we'll see you at the temple!

Related Stories:
· Templestays [Hanjin Travel]
· Korean Air Launches Templestays Programme for Foreigners [AsiaTravelTips]
· South Korea Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted]

Dangerous Travel / Communist Travel / South Korea Travel / North Korea Travel / Political Travel / Ecotourism / Green Travel / → All Tags

Korea's DMZ Border to Become World's Most Dangerous Bike Path?

A North Korean underwater mine just blew up a South Korean naval vessel a few days ago, and at the same time as all this tension mounts and the border between Kim Jong-il's communist North Korea and the rest of the world starts to shake, we hear that South Korea is turning some of the Demilitarized Zone into an ecotourism hotspot.

The DMZ has been around since 1953, keeping the two Koreas separated by an untouched area of land 155 miles long and 2 miles wide. Any person setting foot into the area, outside of specified paths and heavily-guarded roads, can be considered to be invading the other side and can be shot on sight. Nonetheless, the UN joint security area at Panmunjom, just north of Seoul and manned by both US and Republic of Korea soldiers, has been bringing tourists to the DMZ for years. We've been there ourselves recently and can say that although more ecotourism is great, we're not so sure about exploiting this controversial area further.

DMZ photos and more, after the jump!

more ›

Medical Tourism / Medical Travel / South Korea Travel / → All Tags

South Korea Promotes Itself As The Spot For Eyelid Surgery

With health-care reform stalling out and the recession in full swing, there are more reasons than ever for people to seek cheaper medical treatment overseas. According to a recent report from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, although the U.S. economy has slowed down, the demand for cosmetic procedures is up. In 2007 an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care, and the number is supposed to reach 6 million this year, Deloitte reported. This week, we'll look at popular medical tourism spots.

South Korea is one place that's really pushing its medical tourism services. It has its own government-backed Council for Korea Medicine Overseas Promotion and will turn the island of Jeju into a resort-style medical tourism center dubbed "Healthcare Town" in 2011.

more ›