01.26.2011 End of the day visit to Dongdaemun area in South Korea

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After the DMZ tour earlier in the day, the hunger bug decided to strike again and the guide book directed Kaori and I to make a heading towards Dongdaemun shopping area. However, this was not as great and exciting as we had hoped for. The streets were brightly lit and the people were bustling around, yet the attractions and stores at this location were not at all happy to see visitors. To put it into to lighter term, Myeongdong is like New York, fast paced and everything you could want. Yet Dongdaemun is more like Oklahoma, hard to find places and no one wants to see you in their store.

Walking around the area, there are many stores and malls to choose from. There are also many outdoor “sit down food kiosks”, that one can drop in for a quick bite. The place looked amazing and there were defiantly people running around with shopping bags. A lot of the places our guide book told us to check out where in fact whole sellers, and fake items. There were no price tags on items, people are constantly eating food next to items for sale, and no one is “selling items at this time”, even thought you could clearly see people shopping and buying items at the mall. Kaori had her own little incident at with one of the sellers. This was the typical fake Gucci, Coach, Nike brand seller; but Kaori thought it would be nice to grab a coach purse for some friends back home. Immediately after making eye contact the seller he asked “Chinese, Japanese?” Kaori replied “no I am American.” Without hesitation the seller replied “Oh stupid Americans!” at which point Kaori replied “I’m leaving”. However the seller made one last ditch effort to sell the purse at $35, but she knew it what kind of quality it was and took off. Make sure to travel with another Korean if you want to shop in this district. A lot of times, Kaori had people talking to her in Korean. Once while walking in the court, a woman popped out from a restaurant and started yelling something to Kaori, as which point we told them “sorry, no” and turned around to walk back.

It was beginning to get really cold and we were still hungry from our last snack. Our wandering took us to a somewhat red light distract where surprisingly we found a small local restaurant tucked away in the side. From the looks of it, there were quite a few locals eating inside so it seemed like a good choice to try. Of course, no one spoke any English, so it was back to good old book pointing and butchering the Korean language. I love the menus in Asia. They all have pictures so at least you can see what you order rather than in America where you have to read what you want. We were feeling a little adventurous and asked, pointing in the book, if there was some kind of dog soup related item on the menu. Unfortunately, there was no item available. The owner made a suggestion pointing at the wall menu (which is all in Korean) but there was kanji for big and small, and prices were in international numbers. So we held up two fingers and pointed and nodded yes for the suggested item. Instantly after the order our kimchi arrived with a pair of scissors. Kaori guessed that we had to cut it with scissors rather than a knife along with our order of pork and veggies. I wanted to get a coke for a taste test in Korea but I was having trouble figuring out the price. Lucky a man walked in who spoke English and Korean, so a quick translation later I got my coke. Side note: In Korea I have noticed that if locals don’t speak very good English they tend not to talk with you. However, Japan is very willing to and eager to speak any English with you. However, in Korea I love the fact that all meals have great free side dishes like Kimchi, green veggies, pickles, and more. Also, the food is very reasonable as far as prices are concerned and its all made right in front of you so you know where everything comes from. Also, Korea has a floor heating system called “Ondol”; this is mostly due to the fact that meals are eaten on the floor, I wish Japan had that.

The food was delicious and our plates were licked clean, now it was time for the midnight stroll. We couldn’t find the subway station, and had trouble with which signs are which since you have to cross each street to get to each subway station. There did not seem to be any signals for pedestrians so you would basically walk across the street anytime you could find space. The cars didn’t seem to mind to much, and from the looks of it, neither did the pedestrians running into traffic. Kaori wanted to go to Dongdaemun Hiroban mall which is like a nice large souvenir store, but it was closed already. We plowed on to another shopping area, where I found a Minnesota Twins jacket, I asked the seller “how much?” to which he replied “no sale now, no sale”. Other than that nothing seemed to be of interest except for a few funny English translations. Our last effort was to walk outside and see if there were some cool fake items or interesting vendors, but again nothing caught our eye. I am amazed at all the vendors and I am very impressed with the amount of items for sale as some of the small outside kiosks. Although we didn’t buy anything at the malls or outside kiosks, it was still a great place to see thousands of bright lights and tons of local street vendors. The night was getting colder by the minute, and we were exhausted from walking at the DMZ/JSA and Dongdaemun, all we needed at that point was sleep. We packed up our stuff, picked up some “angel in us coffee” a crème filled popover from Beard Papa’s, and headed back to the hotel for the night.

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