Jung-gu
November 14, 2010
First day in Seoul was spent sleeping...you read that right, sleeping. We were totally absolutely super worn out after slogging for the past two weeks. We reached Jongno 3-ga at 8.30am but couldn't check in because our room was still occupied. Arghhhhhh! Torture. It was cold, we were suffering from fatigue and didn't have much appetite. The two zombies wandered into this shop that sells porridge in the vicinity of the guesthouse.
Mushroom oyster porridge (8,000W) and side dishes were good. No idea what the brown liquid (left) was. Taste like cough syrup to me. If you're looking for breakfast, Bonjuk's not a bad choice to start the day.
People like us from the tropics were naturally delighted to see foliage in different colours. Sadly, it was the last few weeks of autumn before the arrival of winter and most of the leaves were starting to fall off. Time your trip around October if you can. November's neither here nor there.
Hyundai has a prominent presence here. The home-grown conglomerate has a construction arm that has completed many residential projects in Korea.
At last we could sleep. I chose this place bcos Seoul Backpackers at Myeongdong was full and Jongno 3-ga was the next best alternative. Trust me, subway transfers are killers. Even though the rooms were crammed and worn out, we decided to stay put cos it was cheap (twin bed 20,000W/person) and location is more convenient compared to Hongdae, where all the backpackers were concentrated at.
After sleeping for 5 hours, we made our way to Namdaemun. We reached here early in the morning but our day only started at 3.30pm. Leaving on a Friday night right after working to the very last minute is not such a good idea after all...
Namdaemun is one of the oldest night markets around. It was also one of the detours in Season 17 of The Amazing Race.
We were famished and simply walked into the first eatery we saw. Everything was alien to me and the dazzling light bulbs made me more dazed.
All the stalls were selling the same food and the stall owners were calling out to us. Just when we were scratching our heads on which stall to pick, we heard "面条 面条" (noodles). You'll be amazed, the number of Chinese disguised as Koreans is alarming.
We got the seaweeds (lots of them) but not the ginseng.
The focus is actually on the lady in red balancing things on her head.
Pancake was nice but someone was clumsy and spilled the sauce on his own bag and jacket.
Nothing special about the buns actually.
We walked over to Myeongdong, one of Seoul's main shopping district featuring mid-to-high priced retail stores and international brand outlets.
Classy LV
Christmas is coming
The noodles were not filling so we ate this steaming hot samgyetang (11,000W) that comes with a small bottle of Yakult.
Still not full so I bought cuttlefish. Wrong choice. Hard, oily and pricey.
Ladies, stock up your favourite cosmetics and skin care products here. There's no other place that's cheaper than Korea. Don't buy sure regret!
2 comments
some of them looked v chinese to me, like those selling the buns.
ReplyDeleteEating hot soupy stuff ard winter is awesome. that warm fuzzing feeling in ur tummy... or drinking hot soju is shiok too.
anyway this is v nicely done. imagine the good pics u could have taken if u have a DSLR :)
HT
Yup, Namdaemun has a large Chinese population. There are shops which state they only give discounts to Chinese tourists. I wonder if the samgyetang caused me to have ulcer...I had to eat all the good food in Korea with the damn ulcer ugh.
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