Morning call still at 7am and breakfast at 8am. We had a good night sleep although we were sleeping on the floor with mattress only. Probably because of the pillow. It is the traditional small rectangular pillow filled with beans, like those slept by ‘Da Chang Jin’. It was really comfortable.
1st sightseeing stop – Mt Sorak National Park
We left the hotel at 9am sharp for Mount Sorak National Park. This is also the park where the bears (in safari world) are found. We took another group picture at the entrance where they had a statue of the bear.
It was a long stroll into the park to visit a Buddhist temple, about 20 minutes. Along the way, there is a Buddha statue and picturesque scenery to snap the camera away. Finally, we reach the temple ……
2nd sightseeing stop – SeongGukSa Temple
According to Rosa, you do not need to enter to the temple to pray to the Buddha. You can stand at any part in the square, as long as you can see the Buddha, you can pray and make your wish.
3rd sightseeing stop – DaeBoHang Seafood Market
We make a short stopover at a live seafood market. All the seafood there are sold live. You can then ask the seller to cook for you immediately for you or you can bring them back to do your own cooking. Of coz we cannot buy any so we spend some time to have a look.
I was more interested in the Korean aunties selling seafood and those aunty hawkers…. All of them have a common trait…they all wore make up ! Even the old old granny don at least lipstick and eyebrow pencil. So cool…….
Our very own Singaporean aunties (among the tour group) decided to do some bargaining. After some haggering, our aunties got chase away ! Ha ha ha…bcoz the seller couldn’t agree on the price from our aunties and to stop the bargain process, the Korean woman simply signalled them to leave her dried cuttlefish stall…. Ha ha ha….they are really direct and this leave no room for shopping excitement…
We had an early lunch and this time, no pork. We had a seafood hot pot ! Steaming hot with prawns and sotong, still with lots and lots of vege !
We began our 4 – hour coach ride to Seoul immediately after lunch with just a 15 minutes break along the highway. However, the driver was way too fast, so much to the horror of Rosa who had to remind him to slow down a few times….
4th sightseeing stop – DongDaeMun
DongDaeMun is the name for the whole district and it does not specifically mean a building or mall. We were given 3 hours to shop.
We headed straight to the famous wholesale district in Seoul ! We were dropped off in front of this 7 storey shopping mall called DooTa ! Each level sell different kind of goods for example, level 1 is reserved for females’ clothing, level 2 for men’s clothing, level 3 for shoes and bags…and so on…… The stall in there are very small in shop area and all the bosses there are the youngsters. Something like those little shops we have in Heeren and the 2nd floor of those shops opposite Bugis junction. We trekked level by level by the price tag on each item is SUPER EXPENSIVE lor !!!!!! You couldn’t bear to part the money for the items that you took fancy on. Alright, you may say that they carry the most fashionable trend of items in the region but for me, I still wouldn’t part the kind of money for it. But I do agree that the fashion sense is really on the top of the region. Even though, it’s selling winter clothing but I do drool over those clothing. Whereas, talking about bags, there are still a lot of imitation of luxury brands around. Whenever I walked near a bag stall, the owner will whisper something to me, initially I think nothing of it. But as I move from stall to stall, I finally knew that they actually wanted to know I am looking for Grade A imitation bags ! Ai yo !!!!!!!
And oh yes ! Item which a price tag cannot be bargain. Item with no price tag also seem to be not able to bargain. The owner named the price, you like you buy. No discount. I’ve heard this umpteen times during the 2 days in Seoul.
We moved on to the next building, called Migole, which sells similar things. So, we existed at less than 30 minutes. There’s also another building called AMP. We skipped that as we knew it will be selling the same thing. So, we moved on to the Korean-style of ‘pasar malam’ and managed to get a woollen pullover for W10,000 (approx. ST 17.00) for each of us at a roadside stall. We wandered the pasar malam and ended up in canal which is being converted into a park-like underground walkway. This was the work of the Mayor of Seoul which I think he did a good job by providing alternative tranquil relaxing place midst the bustle of the city above the ground.
We ended up in another district of DongDaeMun and this place housed many older shops which they dun seem interested with you when you browse at their shops. Later we realised they might be the ones doing wholesaling so that aren’t interested with us at all.
In fact, shopping at DongDaeMun starts at about 10.30am and until probably late in the evening. By 12 midnight, it’s shopping for those who do business with the wholesalers. Don’t think you can get wholesale price if you shop between 12 midnight to 5am, one look by the wholesaler they will be able to tell the difference, so you still ended up paying retail price. Ha ha ha….
3 hours is indeed to long for me – shopping queen who can never stop buying things. We met up with the group again and went for dinner at 7.30pm. We are having Ginseng Chicken for dinner ! But I was so hungry that I goffled down all my food so no picture ! It was NOT NICE at all. No ginseng taste or smell at all although I don’t like ginseng. Anyway, I was tired by then and just wanted to check into the hotel.
Our hotel was 30 minutes drive away from the city centre. Pretty far huh….. It’s also like a serviced apartment style but just that it smaller. SO MUCH SMALLER that there is any extra space for me to open up my luggage and also there is no separate area for shower and the toilet bowl. Once you shower, the entire bathroom is TOTALLY WET. I really detest this as I don’t like wet toilet. The only thing I’m contented with this room is the heated floor. The warmest of all ! My buttocks felt so warmed when I sat on the floor. So shiok. Oh yah, the ‘hotel’ is called Coop Residence.
No comments:
Post a Comment