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Part two of Auntie fall travels is all about Su’s adults-only trip to Asia. First is Japan, where Su experiences a semi-normal adult vacation out in the sunlight. Then it’s lasers, botox and hair for real “new face, who dis” energy. Did you know you can get botox duty free? She’s gathered some gems for your listening pleasure – but if you want the real scoop, you’ll have to slide into the DMs.

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Please note, Add To Cart contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners.

To see all products mentioned in this episode, head to @addtocartpod on Instagram. To purchase any of the products, see below.

• Su is only traveling on ZIPAIR to Asia now

• Su’s suitcase scale is always handy

• The notebook worth traveling overseas for (thank you ATC listener Hilary Elise!)

• teamLab and Golden Gai are must-go places in Tokyo

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Recording, Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak

Kulap Vilaysack  00:10

Welcome back to Add To Cart. Fall travel part two, I’m your auntie Kulap Vilaysack.

 

SuChin Pak  00:17

And I’m your travel weary but refreshed, Auntie Su, we didn’t know this was going to be a two part series, and here we are. We should have, though, sitting in our second part, I thought that we could get through a normal conversation about travel. Ha, ha, oh, what folly.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  00:38

And what folly.

 

SuChin Pak  00:39

We had to stop the recording last week and say, You know what we got to do part two, and that’s where we’re at. So if you’re just tuning in, go ahead listen to part one first, where Ku talks about what a child centered vacation looks like, and how that has its ups and downs, mostly downs, but also ups.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  01:00

Yeah, look and and I really understand that my hips are tight and that I need to stretch before sleeping. And that’s 44 for you.

 

SuChin Pak  01:10

That’s 44.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  01:11

That’s part of it as well. I didn’t even bring that up. I got tight hips.

 

SuChin Pak  01:14

You got tonight?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  01:15

I’ve been having tight hips. Su, I’ve been having it.

 

SuChin Pak  01:18

You know, once you pass 40, I would say 85% of my injuries happen in my sleep, which is shocking. I’m talking about my teeth cracking. I’m talking about my neck being out sleep. That’ll do it, while Ku had her child centered vacation, I had my adult centered redo Korea. Hashtag, no hashtags.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  01:45

Hashtag.

 

SuChin Pak  01:46

No slime. Cafes trip.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  01:49

You went with your best friend, Annie, your partner in travel, crime, and she was in rare form.

 

SuChin Pak  01:55

Really? I really thought I saw all the aspects of it. I tried to take a picture at every place that she bought kitchenware from. I’m talking about pots, pans, tables, stools, cutlery sets.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  02:14

Okay, now, if you guys will recall the last time that they went to Paris, Annie, she really leaned in on hats. She had a lot of hats, more hats than we think in our heads. You’re thinking a lot of hats with more hats than that. And so now we are, we are moving to Homewares?

 

SuChin Pak  02:38

Yeah, there were just moments where I actually wanted to, like, fight her and be like, No, you fucking cannot buy another piece of Tupperware. She got stopped at customs, every single customs agent, every single border. She got stopped because of her peelers, her knives, her graders, her whatever that she was buying in these different countries, it’s just on not their level.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  03:12

Okay, and I understand that cutlery said that, how does a table come to play that’s getting shipped, right? Like that’s coming.

 

SuChin Pak  03:18

What? No, she bought a very large round table that it’s a Korean I don’t know it could be an Asian thing, but it’s a Korean thing where we like to sit on the floor. So it’s a table that is like a floor table with legs, and then the legs fold up, and then there’s a giant metal round disc. And I’m trying to think of how she well, no, she bought it on our second leg, so I actually don’t know how she got it home. And I am for the best. I am. It stresses me out when I saw her buying hats in Europe, and she kept buying more hats. And I’m thinking, in my mind, this is only our first of three countries that we’re visiting. We have to haul these hats.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  04:10

We, by the way, we.

 

SuChin Pak  04:12

And even if I’m not touching the hat, I still have to be involved in some way of transporting these numbers of hats, because I’m gonna be honest, I need a lot of help, and I rely on her for that help. And so if she’s fussing with hats, that’s less fussing with me, and that stresses me out. That’s Anna. And so when she bought that table, the only thing I was like, this is the last leg, last hotel of our trip, and from here we part ways. And I was like, go ahead, buy the table. What do I care? I was there when you bought the stool in Japan. And I really, really did not want to figure out how to get that stool to. Korea, and yet, I was there. I was there. I watched her pack away a mushroom shaped stool.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  05:07

Whoa, wow, okay, wow.

 

SuChin Pak  05:12

What did I say? I said, go back to the first EP. I said, this was going to be a fire hose to the face. Put your face shields down.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  05:20

We’re only talking about Annie. We haven’t even, like got into which I know to be damaged by SuChin Pak.

 

SuChin Pak  05:29

Okay, where do let me start at the beginning always, which was summer. Some of you may remember, I took my children to Korea, and as I was planning this for a year, I realized that I wasn’t going to see Korea the way that I needed to see Korea and do Korea. The day before I left for my trip with my kids, I bought a plane ticket to Tokyo, then a plane ticket from Tokyo to Seoul, Korea, and that’s how I was able to get through what was a kid centered Asian vacation, because we would pass by all the laser shops, all the restaurants, all the places I wanted to shop with my kids, and I wouldn’t have any sort of feelings about it, because I knew I was coming back in the fall, self preservation got it. Okay? So this was my redo trip. It’s not even a redo trip, it’s an adult center trip, because that was a great trip for many reasons. I needed this trip. I needed to see Korea for myself, because also contextually, I have never really been to Korea. That trip with my kids was really my first time, and so it’s not like I had this experience before. So I needed to have the full experience.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  06:56

SuChin does Korea.

 

Recording  07:01

All carry on, items should now be stored securely in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of you. Thank you and enjoy your flight.

 

SuChin Pak  07:09

Okay, the first leg of the trip was Japan, and now in Japan, I met up with Annie, and then I met up with two dear, dear other friends. Oh, fun, that’s right. So there was four of us. We had never traveled together, but the four of us have been friends for a really long time. These are friends. These are godparents to my children. Ryan introduced Mike and myself to each other. These are very old friends. They are not going to shop till they drop. They’re normal.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  07:39

Oh, they’re normal people. Got it.

 

SuChin Pak  07:42

They have a list. They want to make reservations, they want to see they want to go to the mini pig cafe. They want to go to temples and parks. They want to go to Golden guy, which is this alley of bars that’s very famous. They want to do these. It’s called Piss Alley. Piss Alley because you just get drunk and you pee in the alley?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  08:06

I don’t know it’s called Piss Alley.

 

SuChin Pak  08:09

We didn’t get we, we skirted the fringes of golden guy. Um, so anyway, so we did all those things. And turns out, cities have a lot to offer.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  08:20

Says the rat.

 

SuChin Pak  08:22

Turns out, hey, laughs and giggles at Team labs, amazing experiential place, and the four of us went in visual art tech. You take your shoes off, there’s water elements, and it was amazing.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  08:40

I always say that your kids would like Team lab.

 

SuChin Pak  08:43

Yeah, my kids would love the mini pig cafe. My kids would love a lot of the things that we did. I just, I’ve, I have never experienced cities with adults in this way. This is beautiful. I love to hear. So I said there was a balance, I have to say.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  08:59

An expansion, even at your advanced age.

 

SuChin Pak  09:03

I did not want to go to a mini pig cafe. You gotta go when you’re with people who want to actually experience the city that they’re traveling in.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  09:13

And did you enjoy your time at the mini pig cafe?

 

SuChin Pak  09:15

No, but I enjoyed that. They enjoyed it. And I shan’t have a pig crawled into my crotch to root around my vigine. That shunt happened in Tokyo. It shan’t happen in Paris. It shunt happen in any city across the globe.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  09:36

Is there anything that will be allowed to root around your vignes? Is it totally limited, or is there sort of, is there any light.

 

SuChin Pak  09:45

We’re talking out a full out ban on.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  09:49

Any living creature so we are in October. So you are okay with paranormal rooting around?

 

SuChin Pak  09:58

Only you would bring a Paranormal, you freak, just two freaks on the mic. So no, I wasn’t going to let a pig root around my vigine. But that’s okay, because it was funny to watch it root around their their peens and their visions, and I just laughed my ass off. So anyway, so that was Japan. I do have to say I traveled a discount airline called Zip air. Okay. Did you know that there are things called discount airlines?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  10:34

I’m aware of them. Are you talking inner Asia travel? Are you talking to there?

 

SuChin Pak  10:39

No, I’m talking to there.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  10:41

Yeah, that’s a pass for me. That’s a hard No, that’s a hard pass.

 

SuChin Pak  10:46

So I traveled on zip air, which is a discount airline, and they have two cabins, they have economy and they have lie flat. It’s not business, because all they are offering you is the ability to lie flat, there is not a meal, they’re not blankets, there’s not a screen, there’s  just lie flat. And I was like, yeah, I just need to be horizontal on this trip, because I was not lie flat when I went with my kids to Asia, and I would say that’s never happening again. So for a pretty reasonable price, I’m gonna say this Add to Cart. It was a dream.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  11:35

Okay, so when you were saying you’re never gonna do it again, you will never do that experience you had with your kids, but you are endorsing lie flat at zip air.

 

SuChin Pak  11:44

I’m endorsing lie flat period, and I’m endorsing lie flat at a discount rate, because you don’t need the screens. I don’t want your pillow. I don’t want your blanket. I don’t need want your food.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  11:57

Not only do you not want it, you’re gonna bring your own and leave it behind.

 

SuChin Pak  12:01

That’s right, you will be dealing with my refuse. So I was, I was like, this kind of feels like my jam. It was my jam, my temperature and my taste. Nobody was bothering you with cart service. You didn’t see a flight attendant. They just took you went to your life flat seat, and that was it. And then when you woke up, you were at your destination. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it. I think from now on, it is the only way I will travel. So it just means I have to always stop in Tokyo.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  12:38

I mean, I think you called it. You said pause on Europe, and it’s gonna be Asia for some time.

 

SuChin Pak  12:44

Now, this is how I’m doing it, because you I mean to fly business to and from Asia, but I mean one ticket, fine, but now you’re buying four tickets. You know, if you’re with kids and you know your partner, that’s, that’s, that’s astronomical, that’s untenable. Zip, air, totally doable. So number one, add to cart. Zip, air, life. Lap, uh. Number two, add to cart. Pigs rooting around your friends pins, hilarious. Number three, add to cart get a haircut when you’re in Japan, get yourself to any old salon.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  13:25

Why?

 

SuChin Pak  13:26

It doesn’t matter. You just walk in and you say, cut my hair in Japan, it takes sometimes up to three years for a hairstylist to get their license. It’s like on another level. It’s almost an undergrad degree.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  13:43

Wow.

 

SuChin Pak  13:44

Minimum two to three years.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  13:45

I didn’t know this.

 

SuChin Pak  13:46

And so the precision, the level of expertise that you’re going to get get yourself a haircut, okay, the shopping in Tokyo, I’m gonna say this, none of Asia is my size. So just think about that, because think about how many other sizes there are besides my size that I can’t really fit into. A lot of things. I can fit into things generally, like an oversized top situation, but a bottom or a shoe, they ain’t gonna have it. But even given that handicap is just shopping in Tokyo is on another level. It is on another level because even they’re sort of like their target, you know, which is Tokyo hands, and you’re just getting kitchenware, and I don’t know, cheap luggage, and.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  14:41

Only SuChin knows every Target in every other country, like their version of target.

 

SuChin Pak  14:47

Are you not going to targets? I the first thing i i Look up when I get to a place or I’m researching is, what is the target of that country?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  14:54

I don’t do that.

 

SuChin Pak  14:55

Wow. No, don’t you love a target.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  14:59

Yeah, but if you recall, may I just remind you, is that you purchased items in the target in France that you could just purchase here in the Target in America now.

 

SuChin Pak  15:11

And that hurt a little.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  15:11

It did hurt that did but let me just shit on what I just said, you also got me the most gorgeous clothes for Emmy, that a fruit, that target cardigan that people still are like, where did you get this? The cutest, the  stuff. So, oh, look, yeah.

 

SuChin Pak  15:31

French car.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  15:31

You know.

 

SuChin Pak  15:32

I understand what you’re saying. This is the thing I’ll say about my strainer that I got in the Paris.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  15:39

A spatula, that is, it strains pasta. That’s basically, it.

 

SuChin Pak  15:43

Strains pasta, right? Let me tell you two things about number one, every time I use it, I say, Huh, got this in Paris. All right, that’s enough, but, but number two is, had I seen it online, I never would have bought it. I’m like, What do I need that? I don’t I don’t even know why someone would buy that. I use that spatula, slash strainer every day, eggs, pasta vegetables.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  16:11

Because it was the experience.

 

SuChin Pak  16:13

But the fact that I know I got to hold it and look at it, and you know what I mean, like, that’s not gonna be I don’t know what store to walk into, especially here in Santa Barbara, where I can be like, wow, this is actually really useful. Like, just like online shopping has its limitations, I would have just looked right, but.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  16:30

Just throwing up again is that you probably could have walked into a target. I bet it’s there at Target right now, but I see your point. Your point, though, is the experience, the experience for your friends. It was a mini pig rooting around their their peens and their regimes. For you, it’s you rooting around a Parisian target to get that strain yes.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  16:52

Paris’s regime. That’s right.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  16:55

That’s right. I do the rooting. That’s right.

 

SuChin Pak  17:08

So at the Tokyo Target, even at that price point, everything is so well made. Let me tell you, Japanese people do not fuck with quality at any price point. It will be better quality maybe if you buy it more expensively, but it will never be bad quality if you buy it inexpensively. So that’s what I mean by shopping on another level. Oh, yeah, I agree. No. There’s no garbage there that.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  17:38

I just go to a 711 in Tokyo. That’s it period that explains everything.

 

SuChin Pak  17:44

It’s Italy, it’s 711 it’s Italy. That’s where you start, and then you just go up from there. So that was, that was Tokyo. It was a mix of, I got to experience a city like normal people do in the sun, out there, in the in the wind and the rain, and that was in the daylight experience. In the daylight, I do have to say, on the last day, when they were like, We really gotta see a temple. And I said, my last few hours here, we’re gonna have to separate, yeah, and they were okay with that. They understood. I said, I gotta get myself to a mall. I’m sorry you go pray at your temple and I will be at mine. Yeah, and so we did separate, and I did draw the line at a temple that

 

Kulap Vilaysack  18:30

You spoke up for you, and I’m proud of you.

 

SuChin Pak  18:33

No regrets.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  18:33

How many days in Tokyo.

 

SuChin Pak  18:36

Five?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  18:37

Damn girl, I didn’t you. Why are you not talking? I didn’t know you were gonna spend that much time. Well, first of all, as established, I didn’t know you were in a Tokyo period. I don’t like these secrets that are between us.

 

SuChin Pak  18:49

I was just surprised. I wanted to, I like to, it’s not secrets. I wanted to surprise you with this so, with this little trip. And then we split off and Annie and I went underground once again, into Korea. And when I mean underground, I’m talking about sewage. I’m talking about pipes.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  19:12

I’m talking about tripping tree parasite.

 

SuChin Pak  19:16

I’m talking about sea creatures, animals that can’t see because they don’t need to. They have other senses. So the boys stayed in Japan. They wanted to do a Japan trip. They wanted to go to Kyoto. And I, once again, I said, I’m gonna just leave it there. I will go back for Kyoto and the unsens and the nature that’s just not what I need to do, not this trip Annie and I peeled off.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  19:47

Can I pause here first suchin alone? Because I already got a sense of Annie and her and her stools. Where are we at? Luggage wise filled at this point.

 

SuChin Pak  19:59

Okay. So glad you asked. I didn’t even Okay. Wait, okay, I’m gonna get to the luggage thing. Okay, oh my god, Kulap. You’re gonna love this. Okay, let me just backtrack one more thing, because while I was there, from a listener, Hilary Elise, she DMed us about this Japanese notebook. Remember this? This that you’ve been looking for, I’ve been looking for this notebook, right? And so I she found me the link, wow. And I was like, oh, you know, and it’s a Japanese distributor. And I was like, You know what? It costs more to ship it, but it’s worth it. It’s still, at the end of the day, paying $40 for this thing that I use all year long, and it is my most coveted. I love this. I will never use another agenda worth it, but I found it at Tokyo. Target, 10 bucks.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  20:54

Wow.

 

SuChin Pak  20:56

Would have paid 40.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  20:57

but just paid. Sounds like we’ll be going to Tokyo every year on zip air, and this is Add to Cart math with your professor, SuChin Pak.

 

SuChin Pak  21:13

I mean, it just makes sense. It saves your media accounts. I mean, it just accounts. Everyone listening, by the way, is in a complete agreement. Because if that this math isn’t working out, you wouldn’t have stuck around this long. And what I am telling you about this is that this notebook traveled with me to all the countries in carry on with my cash and my jewelry. I said, lose all the other garbage I’ve picked up along the way. This is the gold. Okay, the snow book. So I traveled that. You asked about luggage.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  21:53

Because I want to get a grand total at the end of what we’re coming home with. What tonnage?

 

SuChin Pak  21:58

Yeah, the tonnage. I have a photo of it and and Now, mind you, this is just a two hour change flight, so it’s a small plane, so the luggage is even more diminished. So we weighed everything, of course, on my, you know, travel scale. And I was like, it’s looking real close, because, you know when you’re lifting up like 70-50, pounds, you know, I can only hold that for a second or two. Like, that suitcase is like, swaying, and I’m like, I can’t, you know, and I’m doing, like, three or four to get an average of because I can’t, you know, I can’t hold that suitcase up that long to get the precise weight on my scale. But I was like, oh, it’s Pekin. And then it’s not, I don’t know. So we get there, and of course, we’re over, yeah, and, but Annie has a way, you know, she’s like, sweet talking. She’s got, yeah, she’s got, she always has a chestnut bun ready and wrapped to give away to people, store, shop, people. She just does she and she says, I look, I have these, these chestnut buns. Please take a chestnut bun. And so this, this wonderful lady said, You’re a little bit over, but okay, we’ll let you go. She said, and I have never heard an airline employee say this, and I don’t know that she’s ever said, she said, No, duty free, and she gave me a big ex so that I understood that we were absolutely forbidden, legally, constitutionally, from purchasing one more fucking thing on the other side of the gate before we got on this like we could never I died. She said no duty free. And I was like, thinking in my head, like, there aren’t duty free show, I don’t know what she’s saying. And she just kept saying, no duty free. No duty free. And I was like, Oh, this lady is saying we cannot bring any more weight.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  24:06

One piece of chocolate, no water for you sorry.

 

SuChin Pak  24:10

Did Annie buy something duty free? Did she buy an electric shaver for her uncle?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  24:22

What the fuck.

 

SuChin Pak  24:24

And I was stressing. She was like, they’re not gonna know. I was like, wait a minute, does this, does this duty free thing? Does it like, doesn’t it like, go to a computer system and then don’t they, like, hand it to you? I’ve seen this happen. I don’t know. She got on the flight, and I just, I, she, I was so stressed and like, that’s another place I just wanted to wrestle her to the ground. But she, she got an electric shaver for her uncle, duty free, even though we were legally, legally forbidden, because of our weight limit, to go and buy any thing else.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  24:58

Amazing.

 

SuChin Pak  24:58

She bought one just. One, one more thing.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  25:02

Wow.

 

SuChin Pak  25:03

She lives to just double middle fingers up. That’s just her.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  25:09

Wait so let me but no SuChin Pak, you yourself. How much have you acquired? I want to know how much you acquired in Japan, is what I’m getting at, yes, and that was five days in. How? Half a suitcase, a carry on size, not even carry on no, not even.

 

SuChin Pak  25:24

No giant, giant. So much so that I really could not buy that much in Korea, okay, I took on probably 70 pounds in Japan.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  25:36

Wow, that’s how much you weigh. So that’s kind of crazy.

 

SuChin Pak  25:41

Because I think the weight limit was 50, and so I had my check in, plus i Two check ins, so I’m just kind of averaging it. I didn’t bring very much. Obviously, I don’t travel. I remember I had to buy so much underwear in Korea. So much underwear. Thankfully, though, Annie loves buying underwear. She doesn’t care. She’s buying underwear for me when she’s at her underwear shop. She said, I found an underwear with some sort of extra panel in the butt. Why? And she said, I think you’ll like this. What does the panel watch? You three pairs?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  26:23

What’s the pain on the butt? I don’t know.

 

SuChin Pak  26:24

I don’t know what the other panel does. I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s for warmth, or for moisture, like a pot, you know, put, like a heated thing in there, like an extra panel, like a layered panel on top of the underwear, but just in, like a triangle form on the butt. Can someone who speaks Korean better than me and has been there, can you? You all know what that underwear is.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  26:52

fFor blowouts? That’s what it’s for. That’s I’m a toddler.

 

SuChin Pak  26:57

It did feel toddlery. It did crinkle a bit. When I put it on.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  27:05

Was she at a hospice store?

 

SuChin Pak  27:08

She was on the Korean target called jaju. And chaju, in Korean, translates to often.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  27:17

I like it. You go there, often, oh, my God, I’m dying. I’m dead. We even got into your face treatments, which I need to know everything about.

 

SuChin Pak  27:27

So in Korea, I got my face lasered. I got my eyebrows done. I got hair treatments. I got Botox. I got everything short of surgical procedure, because that’s what you want to do in Korea, I didn’t do anything the last time. And so this time around, I did everything short of surgical procedures.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  27:57

I believe multiple places, one place, one day, multiple places.

 

SuChin Pak  28:03

Multiple days, and I think I can confidently say these are some of the best, if not, the best places in Korea. Speak on this please only because I got these recommendations from sources that go to Korea very often and are extremely trusted sources.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  28:24

Will you gatekeeper? Will you be sure?

 

SuChin Pak  28:26

I am going to gatekeep. I’m going to share with those that will DM me. Okay, that’s what I will do. Okay, so, so first of all, it’s not for anyone that’s not listening to add to cart. That’s for sure.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  28:38

Got it. We’re not going public.

 

SuChin Pak  28:40

It’s not for you to have. So then your friend who doesn’t listen to add to cart is like, oh, oh, you’re going to Korea. I heard on this podcast. I love that this is where you should get your lasers. Now, okay, DM me, and I’m happy to share these places with you. Respect. But I’m not just putting it out there. I’m also not going to put out my less than $350 a night hotel coulop, that will blow your backside out.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  29:09

It is so I’m out, though, because.

 

SuChin Pak  29:12

I know what your no I know what your version is, and even your version, I’m going to tell you, I’m gonna show you photos and videos, and I you are your jaw is going to draw because there are windows. This hotel is so fucking beautiful, and this hotel is so beautiful that I went to the gym. What to do, to just look at it mainly, but also I needed to experience what a gym. If Hermes was like, I’m going to make a gym, and this is what the gym would look like.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  29:50

Su are you going to share with the listeners what you shared, what your doctor said? I think it needs to be spoken?

 

SuChin Pak  29:57

So I had my I had a recent. Appointment with my doctor, and she said, we have tested you, and there is so little muscle in your body that you are dehydrated. Because, guess what, even though I am the most hydrated person, in theory, because I drink all the time, you need muscles to retain hydration. And she said, your mitochondrial functions are not working, because, guess what? Your mitochondria exists in your muscle tissue. And she’s like, I need for you to get serious about building muscle. And I said, can I do it on YouTube? She said, like the duty free? No.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  30:41

She exed that idea.

 

SuChin Pak  30:43

She exed YouTube. She said, Get a trainer do three sessions and then get the routine. So I shared this with Annie, and she wasn’t having it, so she brought me down to this gym, and this gym, I mean, I’m just telling you about this hotel. This hotel is so beautiful. But anyway, again, I’m not sharing that I understand, unless you DM me.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  31:10

Did you guys share a bed, or did you have separate beds?

 

SuChin Pak  31:13

No separate beds, two story room.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  31:16

Two story room?

 

SuChin Pak  31:18

Yes, upstairs, downstairs, balcony in Korea, two indoor outdoor pool Seoul in Seoul, in the heart of Seoul, Gangnam, Gangnam Style, Gangnam Style. So we can take a trip with Casey, with June, with all of our friends. We can get the lasers stay at this hotel. It’ll be great. So the lasers, I did the lasers, I’ve never done one single laser on my face.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  31:49

Okay. Also wanted to know, have you ever done Botox before?

 

SuChin Pak  31:53

No, but I didn’t do Botox on my face. I did Botox on my shoulders, for all the tension and the migraines and the tension headaches, oh, and it was fantastic. And by the way, the place I got the Botox at, I got it duty free. I got money back on it, tax free Botox. So that was that place. I mean, not every place does it, but that place, there are a lot of foreigners that come there, and they’re really highly regarded, and they can do that. But anyway, so I got these lasers, and I got like, Pico, and I got radio frequency, I got all the lasers. Okay, I had five lasers done on my face. And I’ve never had lasers done so when you walk out, you’ve done lasers on your face.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  32:45

No. Oh yeah, no, no lasers.

 

SuChin Pak  32:48

It’s so when you walk out, like basically your face, every place that you have a sunspot, and by the way, 90% of it is not visible to your eye. It gets really dark, and like a little scab forms. So you look insane. You don’t look well, but you deal with it. And everybody in Korea is in the same boat. Nobody even blinks an eye there, because everyone’s doing it. And then over time, just over the next week or so, all that comes off. So half of my face is still covered in dots, but the front half of my face, the things have fallen off now a Kulap, I’m telling you this right now, the sorrow I feel for the amount of money and time I have spent on creams, on devices. I mean, just the years, I will never get back in pure research. Oh, what were we doing?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  33:50

Oh, my God, are you serious?

 

SuChin Pak  33:52

Gone, really? Gone, erased, talking. I was thinking. I was like, Oh, I probably, you know, in my mind, I’m like, Oh, you probably have to go to, like, a few sessions again, not knowing anything about lasers, someone listening to this that has done lasers is like, yeah, that’s why I do them. But I, for someone who has never done it, I’m like, Oh, you probably have to go a few times to, you know, because people do this, right?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  34:18

No, we talked about this with Deanna the device detective.

 

SuChin Pak  34:22

Wait till Deanna. She ever done lasers? I don’t think she has. I’m talking about 95% erasure on the stubborn ones and then full erasure on just, you know, just the the lighter ones that I’m like, Oh, I don’t even mind that. I’m shook. I’m my jaw is dropping as I’m looking at my face. Now I’m, you know, what day is it? Tuesday? And I did this a week ago, and as like, the stuff is coming off of my face, I. Looking and I’m like, I don’t even know how to how to comprehend what’s happening. They have very high tech lasers in Korea, like, that’s where you go to buy the lasers, which is why you do it there. But it’s not like they have lasers you can’t get in America. I’m just saying that these lasers are out. They’re gonna be state of the art. They’re going to be the most like the most, newest version, and they’re going to be 50 cents, you know what I mean, compared to what they cost here.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  35:30

We should say, when St Clair hears this like, she talks about how, like her neighbor, once a year, comes back looking 20 years younger, and she’s so pissed. And she always says, St Clair, you have no idea how much this costs, how little this costs.

 

SuChin Pak  35:43

I just did the lasers. Obviously, I didn’t do any surgical things, but I didn’t even do like, there’s like stuff where it’s like firming.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  35:50

That’s was my follow up. So the lasers that you did were specifically for melasma and spots. It didn’t it wasn’t aging, okay? It wasn’t about tightening. It wasn’t about.

 

SuChin Pak  36:01

It wasn’t for tightening. I didn’t do that because I have a very low pain threshold. And I’m gonna be honest, from what I heard, it’s like, very painful. Okay? And so if you’re okay with that, because most of my friends are like, What are you talking about? Who cares about that? And I’m like, I just, I can’t do it. Like, I just won’t. I mean, there are places that put you under Wow, in Korea for that, because they just know that certain people just don’t have that pain threshold, and they have no problem putting, you know, I mean, it’s such a it’s so common for them, or like, in like, a twilight, or whatever. I just didn’t want any of that. I just wanted. What can I do take me to the maximum threshold with numbing cream, got it. But I’m just like, I don’t know, maybe I’ll keep it up. But I mean, there’s a part of me that’s like, Well, why wouldn’t I go once a year and zip air just for Yeah, two days in Japan, three days in Korea and back? Like, why wouldn’t you less than a week?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  36:55

Well, at that the only thing I would say to that point is like, at least go a week, just simply for you’re going all the way there, you know, like,

 

SuChin Pak  37:06

Okay, I’m only a week in, and I this. My face hasn’t completely cleared. I’m gonna see, I’m gonna sit with this face, and I would say, if the the results are this remarkable, yeah, maybe I would do touch ups. I would do another laser, because I think they recommend it every six months or so, and so maybe I would do that in America and not travel all the way there. Like, do you need to do that? But I just really wanted to do this version of Korea.

 

SuChin Pak  37:43

It’s good that one doesn’t speak the language, because when you lay on that table and what these doctors are asking you, and I’m just like, wow, I would be offended. I mean, it’s just like, they’re like, do you even know what sunscreen is to you? Of all people, they’re like, where do you live? What island do you live on? What field do you toil in?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  38:05

You’d say, the field I toil in is sunblock. The amount of research you’ve done, the R D on sunblock alone.

 

SuChin Pak  38:15

Annie was there and she was dying.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  38:17

Wow.

 

SuChin Pak  38:18

She was like, I can’t believe that you even laid there for her at such an offense. But she was like, Oh my god. So I told her where I lived, and she was like, Okay. I was like, but I’m not like, you know? She’s like, No, it’s the car. It’s all the accumulation. This is a Derm, by the way. So, so all the places I have recommended, they’re all real doctors. Okay, I’m not messing around with, I don’t know what other places are, you know, on the Instagram. I’m not messing around with some, I don’t know, some, quote, unquote, nurse, some technician. I want full medical degrees. Got it. Okay. So the Durham was like, you know, just all that, that sun exposure, that even though you don’t sit in the sun because I was like, I’ve I don’t, that’s just not what I do. She’s like, the walking, the driving, all of that. And as you age, you know some of this stuff is hormonal. It has nothing to do with the sun. But then your your skin reacts to the sun in different ways. She was like, even if you’re indoors, cloudy day, whatever, I don’t trust you. Every two hours you need to reapply, especially post laser. So for real, now I’m on that regimen, jeez. But I mean, I can’t wait to talk to Deanna about this, because what are we doing? Oh, boy. What are we messing around with.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  39:40

Can you give me a, I need a number?

 

SuChin Pak  39:43

I had four different lasers, four different laser tag, uh huh. And let me get the currency here, 226 US dollars.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  39:52

For all or for each?

 

SuChin Pak  39:54

Yes, Annie did the full treatment with. The with the firming. So they did two firming I think it was like Morpheus and Thermage. You know, they call it.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  40:06

I’ve heard of Thermage.

 

SuChin Pak  40:08

Two plus the four lasers.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  40:10

Two plus the four, okay.

 

SuChin Pak  40:11

It was $528.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  40:14

For the whole the works, everything, nothing. That’s the works. It’s like nothing, wow. Okay, what hair treatments did you do?

 

SuChin Pak  40:23

So you get your haircuts in Japan, and then you go to Korea for all whatever you want. I’m talking about, like, perms, straightener what? What treatments they’ve got all that. Yeah, like, you sit in a chair and you’re like, you’re like, you’re in space odyssey. You’re like, hooked up to wires and blah. It’s so inexpensive, and there is a perm for every hair texture you want. There’s straight perms.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  40:50

There’s sea curls there.

 

SuChin Pak  40:51

There’s, yes, there’s waves there, you know.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  40:54

Basically there’s perms that basically just make you look like you have a blowout all the time.

 

SuChin Pak  40:58

And it’s so inexpensive, and there’s just, like, two salons on every block. It’s just a great place.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  41:04

You do this in KTown and San Gabriel. But it is because it’s here, it’s going to be more expensive. The rents are higher.

 

SuChin Pak  41:09

Yeah, and maybe they won’t have the whole menu right of perms, right? You know, for a while, for a second, I was like, you know, I had seen challenger on the way in. I was like, God, that Zendaya hair and challenger, I haven’t seen. Should I get that perm? Yeah, no, I get it, the Zendaya perm and challenger. Like, I’m gonna walk into a place and I say, Hi, I want the Zendaya challenger perm. And they probably have it. Probably the other thing I’m gonna highly recommend for Asian people. I’ve never had eyebrows, and so my friends were like, Oh, you need to get eyebrows from this woman.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  41:45

As you recall, SuChin did there were stamps, I think there were eyebrow stamps, and she did them, and then she sent them to our producer, Claire, like it was traveling pants.

 

SuChin Pak  41:58

I did, it was a sisterhood of eyebrow stamps, traveling eyebrow stamps. Because I was like, yeah, it’s not for me. Maybe you Hey, listen, by the way, Claire, I wouldn’t send it to someone that didn’t appreciate it and used eyebrow stamps to some of my other friends. But Claire was like, please, I want to try these eyebrow stamps. So she got them, and everyone was like, it’s game changer. And I was like, eyebrows, because I’ve never had eyebrows, yeah, yeah. That’s like, that’s also a game changer. I just didn’t realize that the eyebrows, and I again, for those that have eyebrows, they know this, that when your eyebrows are done and you have eyebrows, it frames the face, much like you put on eyeliner or whatever it is. It’s just like you wake up, he looked and you’re like, I don’t need makeup on. Like my face is pretty done.

 

SuChin Pak  41:59

Well, it’s because you had let it go. You had let it go for so many years, and you just said, Take you pushed it out of your mind.

 

SuChin Pak  42:58

I but I don’t have hair. And so this woman, I mean, it looks like hair, it just is. Again. DM me, I will give you the place. And then afterwards, you go to this restaurant in the neighborhood, and you have a few hours of just absolute bliss. So I did that, and then I did the Botox on the shoulders, which is really nice. I mean, still kind of working its way. And so that’s that. So, yeah, that was my adults only redo trip to Asia. Hashtag, nohash Brown. Hashtag no slime.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  43:34

It was a work trip, to be honest. It was a work trip.

 

SuChin Pak  43:37

I thought of all of our ATC listeners. I thought of mahandra. I thought of all of our friends over the years. Have we obsessed about, what are the treatments? I pretty much did everything, and I went to the best places, and now I have, I think, a golden list.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  43:58

I am ready to book the trip. Like, when do you want to go? Like, yeah, let’s go.

 

SuChin Pak  44:05

Yes, next year. And we can do it where people can come. And most of these places, not all, most of these places, speak English, but it is nice just to go with someone. We book all our appointments in one day. Like, clear their calendar for our friends, and just we’re like, today is everybody on the bus. I have a, you know, little flag, and it’s laser day. Today is eyebrow day. Today is eyelash perm day. Today is hair perm day.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  44:35

This is an absolute dream. This is like I would love to do.

 

SuChin Pak  44:40

And then everyone else can scurry in their own version. Yeah, like, I didn’t even tell you, because of the lasers, we couldn’t be out in the sun. No, doesn’t matter in Korea, because everything is in the subway. But everyone can have their version. You know what? I mean, you can go to like, the latest art show, the, you know, the museum, you can do all that. But then. I can just ground us in all of the beauty treatment.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  45:04

That’s what her day.

 

SuChin Pak  45:04

Thank you, Tiff, you’re invited. You’re young.  She doesn’t, you know?

 

Kulap Vilaysack  45:09

I don’t know. Maybe you want to wait maiden.

 

SuChin Pak  45:12

We are like, I don’t know if you’re gonna get the money we’re trying to get to Tiffany. But Tiff needs to go because she’s then she’s got her Rolodex stacked for when she got it. All right, all right, you know she’s gonna know the places. So tiff come along and experience it. And by the way, at these prices, you’re making money. I just made money.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  45:37

Oh God, this is so exciting. It’s so exciting. And so I’m absolutely thrilled. Wow, something to look forward to. You know, that’s what I like. You know, a goal, a goal in my sights. You know, when we slog through.

 

SuChin Pak  45:53

Yeah we slog through. The year, we work hard, and then we just.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  45:58

Shed our skin.

 

SuChin Pak  46:00

We shed our skin, the chrysalis that hard, brown, dry husk comes off, and we emerge as middle age butterflies.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  46:15

That’s right. So buttery two parter. Wow, what an education.

 

SuChin Pak  46:21

I’ll have some of these photos on our Instagram. Just a taste, yeah, just a taste. Just a taste. Because, guess what? It’s not for this isn’t free for everyone. It’s just for our Add to Cart folks. You can DM me for.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  46:36

Sorry you gotta listen to our ads so sorry.

 

SuChin Pak  46:39

Sorry, you have to listen to their ads. You gotta put in a code or two. I’m sorry. I think you can do this work.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  46:46

Because SuChin did the work for us.

 

SuChin Pak  46:48

You can pay me a few throw me a few pennies, few shingles, if you will, and listen to our ads.

 

Kulap Vilaysack  46:56

For this high, this level, hot list, go to Add to Cart Pod, bye.

 

CREDITS  47:11

There’s more Add to cart with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like where we tell you about the last item we bought or returned, and why subscribe now in Apple podcasts. Add To Cart is a production of Lemonada Media. Our producers are Kegan Zema and Tiffany Bouy. Brian Castillo is our engineer. Theme music is by Wasahhbii and produced by La Made It and Oh So Familiar with additional music by APM music. Executive producers or Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak, Jessica Cordova Kramer, and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Be sure to check out all the items we mentioned today on our Instagram at @AddToCartPod. Follow Add to Cart wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.