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I arrived on Sunday morning, dumped my luggage at my friend's place and rushed down to a wedding hall for the wedding of my friend's colleague. So my 1st meal in Seoul on this trip was a wedding lunch reception. I found the wedding ceremony too rushed and short; everything was wrapped up like in an hour from the start of the solemnisation ceremony to the end of buffet lunch. The wedding hall staff were rolling up the red carpet like 5 steps behind the bride and groom !
That night, I finally got to stroll through a supermarket (Lotte), which I didn't manage to do on my last trip. What did I buy ? Things like Jinro soju, pine salt toothpaste, chewing gum, plum tea 메실차, etc.
Dinner was al fresco grill/BBQ at Guri City, off Seoul, a suburban neighbourhood. Weather was cool for al fresco BBQ.
That night, slept on Ondol floor for the 1st time.
The next morning, I was woken up at about 8 am by an announcement (yes, can be heard in the apartment !) inviting participation to dunno what.
I watched TV at about 9 am while having breakfast and SBS was reporting on the events taking place at PIFF, Busan. Just made me sad because I could not be there, although I was in Korea.
On the way out to lunch, passed by Techno Mart and went up to the Sky Garden for a view of the Jamsil Bridge (i think).
At lunch time, I met the 1st of several Korean friends I have known for quite a long time because of this blog. 정만씨 treated me to lunch at a really nice Korean organic restuarant near Seoul National University Station. I doggie-bagged the 메실 반잔 and would have bought the maesil concentrate but it came in a huge 2 litre recycled Coke bottle.
Over lunch, Jung Min pointed out a glove filled with water and hanging at one corner of the restaurant. He said it kept the houseflies away ! 너무 재미있어요.
MShyun called in the middle of lunch and said she could come join us but before she arrived, we managed to take a fast tour of SNU campus (take bus 5112 near the SNU Station) with Jung Min as my guide, of course.
That night, I went to a 찜질방 for the 1st time. I had been forewarned but it was still an educational experience to see all the women walking around in their birthday suits ! Also, kind of strange to sleep on the floor in a room with other strangers (we stayed overnight). The next morning, bought kimbap from a franchised store for breakfast and went home to catch an hour's sleep before meeting my friend's friend (a fellow Singaporean) for 도토리묵탕 acorn noodles soup.
After lunch, had drinks at a nearby Minto cafe, which had a concept for pay 3,000won and drink free flow from a choice of tea and coffee.
Later, in the afternoon, popped into Express Bus Terminal but probably didn't find the right place and shopped for a short while only before leaving for Sindang to have 떡볶이 dinner at Tteokbokki Alley. I ate the not so spicy version, where the sauce was not red but brown and was closer to 자짱면 sauce.
At Sindang Station, while waiting for Jung Min to arrive a Korean man mistook me for a local and asked me for help; he seemed to be having problems operating the instant photo booth at one corner of the station. I also had time to walk through a marketplace near Sindang Station.
After dinner, I walked the stretch of CheongGye Steam 쳥계천 from Sindang to Dongdaemun, popped into Migliore and The Face Shop before heading home. I subsequently regretted buying The Face Shop stuff so soon because had I bought them 3 days later, the free gift would have been a big bag instead of a tiny pouch.
On 12th October Wednesday morning, I met Ms Yoo at Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel. I felt like a little school girl. Although I had seen her photograph, in person teacher Ms Yoo looked really elegant and somehow I could understand much more of the Korean she spoke compared to other Korean speakers, the other exception is my 언니 (MShyun). For lunch, I tasted 너비아니 for the first time (I didn’t take any picture of this, hope I spelt it correctly.)
In the afternoon, I met Nikkie, who is petite and has the smallest face, at COEX Mall. I tried a version of밭빙수 at Red Mango, a chain dessert store that Jung Min had pointed out to me the night before. Then Nikkie accompanied me for a tour of Bongeunsa Temple봉은사 nearby.
In the evening, I met Tony and Osuke at Yongsan and finally bought an electronic dictionary. By 8 pm, it was too late to shop for pirated dvds at Yongsan, so we went to Hongbae area for 불닭 and불닭 pizza. Dinner was followed by 노래방, where I was entertained by Tony, a Korean guy who sang Chinese songs and Osuke, a Singaporean gal who sang Korean songs. (I can’t sing.) After an hour, it was too late to catch the subway anyway, so we went to Princess Tea Room for a drink. I can’t recall what time we left, probably 1 a.m. but Tony still went back to his office to work. Poor guy and such a workaholic !
I had no appointments on Thursday, so I got up late, took the Blue bus 201 from Guri City for the first time and ended up at the Lotte Department Store at 청양리 Cheongyangni. At a nearby carpark, there was a tent full of old folks seated for what looked like a Christian worship session. Is this common ?
I finally found an Ohui counter at Lotte and bought a bottle of cleansing oil. After I had paid, I forgot again and waited for the salesgirl to wrap my purchase but this was environmentally friendly Korea, so she merely put the paid item on the counter and waited for me to keep it in my backpack. ^-^
Then I hopped onto another bus and ended up at Namdaemun. I finally saw a box of 수정과 dried persimmon tea for sale in one of the shops. After asking how much, I realized the salesgirl was Chinese and so I completed the purchase speaking in Mandarin. A guy in the shop was having his lunch and said something in Korean, which I failed to comprehend (what’s new ? sigh !) and she translated for me. Apparently, he had asked whether I was an air stewardess ! Makes me wonder how he came up with that guess because I sure don’t have the looks of an air stewardess.
A few shops later, I was mistaken for a Japanese and I had to tell the guy 전 일본 사람 아니예요., which he repeated to his co-worker, who was similarly mistaken and tried to sell me another product.
Look at this stall selling pig's trotters, it could have be a scene out of China !
It was already about 1:30 pm and I saw a group of ajumma shopkeepers sharing what looked like부대정골. It sure looked very delicious and made me hurry to Namsan Tonkatsu by cab for lunch.
Tony told me the night before that Namsan Tonkatsu is known to all cab drivers, so I hopped into a cab and gave no address but merely said 남산 톤까즈.. Lunch was cheap and good, although it seemed strange that 2 bowls of soup were given, one was cream of corn and the other was miso seaweed soup. This shop had a dish of 100 won coins at the cashier and customers were free to take a coin for a free cup of coffee from the vending machine outside the shop. The guy at the cashier was kind enough to draw me a map when I asked for directions to 한국의 집, which seemed too far to walk, so I decided to go by cab. And he was kind enough to tell me I was waiting for a cab on the wrong side of the road and was shouting to one of his touts across the road to help me hail a cab when one arrived. He also sportingly gave a V sign when he saw me taking a photo of the place. That’s him standing by the doorway.
I had a quick walk through Korea House 한국의 집 and Namsan Village 남산골 and even had time to pop into one building at Dongdaemun before meeting Osuke after work at Gangbyeon to shop for groceries for Saturday’s chilli crab party.
On Friday, I got up late again and met Ae Ran in the afternoon at Kyobo Bookstore at Gwanghwamun. Ae Ran had studied English in Singapore for 6 months and had returned to Seoul just a couple of months ago. I spent 200,000 won there in barely an hour, locked the heavy books in a locker and tagged along with Ae Ran to meet her friend at Myeongdong. We had a bite at the foodcourt before strolling down the main street of Myeongdong but all too soon Ae Ran had to leave for her studies. Korean university life sure sounds tough.
I finally stepped into a Skinfood store that Osuke had told me about and bought some more stuff and then went next door to Swiss Pure and bought yet a couple more items. That Friday evening, Tony, Osuke and I attended the monthly dinner of the Singapore Club in Seoul. The venue was a German pub at The Somerset near Gwanghwamun. Thanks Tony for carrying my heavy books from Kyobo to the dinner place !
On Sat late afternoon, Tony, his colleague and another friend came over to Osuke’s place for chilli crab dinner. Besides chilli crab, there was fruit punch, 불고기 and my version of 떡만두. Everyone fell asleep except me and finally at 2:30 am, I decided to wake Tony up and so we set off for 동해 at 3 a.m. ! At about 4:45 a.m., we made a pit stop and ate hot soupy udon. We arrived at the seaside at about 6:30 a.m, about 20 minutes too late to catch the sunrise but the view was nonetheless glorious.
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We proceeded to 설악산 and on a Sunday at about 8 a.m, the carpark was already full and the local Koreans were out there in throngs. It was afterall the weekend before the best weekend to view the autumn foliage at Mt Sorak.. We walked for several hours just to reach the entrance and realized that it would take another 3 hours of waiting in order to be get to ride the cable car. So we only walked for barely an hour and took a few photos before beating a retreat.
We subsequently saw part of 오대산, which had more autumn colours to show than Mt Sorak, which was still largely green only. We drove for a long time before seeing a lunch place but there was already a hungry crowd waiting and most food items were sold out, so we drove to another place and finally had lunch at close to 3:30 pm. All in all, I had a good taste of the infamous Seoul traffic jam and we joked about the 5 of us spending 29 hours together at one go ! We got back to Osuke’s place at 10 p.m. and Tony’s colleague, who was the driver, needed a couple of days to recover from the trip ! 미안해요. My apologies to Gina too. Because I was late in returning from Mt Sorak, I had to cancel my appointment to meet her.
On Monday, 17th October, I finally met Hisomu for lunch near her workplace. She also recognized me without any difficulty. Hisomu amazed me by sitting in the front seat of a cab and simply asking the driver to take us to a good Korean restaurant ! We ended up in a place crowded with people dressed in office attire and food arrived within seconds even though we had not ordered. This is because the place sold only one item, 김치찌개. The place was so full and busy, that even the 3 side dishes were left in large containers on the table for self-service. I tried asking for a name card of the place but they had none ! The cashier said the telephone number of the place can be found on the receipt !
After lunch, Hisomu accompanied me to the post office, where I mailed something to현우씨, who I did not get to meet because I didn’t go to Daegu. I went to Jeju instead. Look ! It is very hard for anyone to compete with MShyun’s son !
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