Friday, September 01, 2006
Sometimes I wish I was a chick, a quick Seoul snapshot
Seoul is one neon megaplex of shopping malls, stalls and eateries, and more shoping malls, stalls and eateries until you cannot shop or eat anymore. It's overwhelming. 1000 Sandton Cities on steriods. 500 Long Streets and Hatfields of student hangouts. Everything works, it's clean and the people are beautiful (Maybe it's just because I'm staying near Hongik University but I have never seen this many attractive ladies per square metre outside of Hamburg's HerbeStrasse.
Never having been a good one for aimless shopping I just do not not where to start. Give me a list to tick off to search for something particular and I'm your man, but to be presented with this wide array of anything and have to choose something that I like, I'm paralysed. Picture exiting the subway and navigating 2 kilometres of pavement stalls of clothes, and nicknacks and then entering a building with 6 floors of high end stalls selling waist high stacks of designer clothing (pick a brand - any brand). And there are hundreds of these buildings. Then specialty streets of food, a street that just sells shop mannequins!, malls that sell electronics, more fashion, toys, everything. Paralysed by choice I may be but I will try to empty my wallet as best I can.
The food is absolutely mindblowing. These guys love their food and yet I've hardly seen a flabby waistline since landing here. At dinner last night which was , according to our hosts, a modest cheap traditional meal I counted at one stage no less than 30 bowls on our table serving four. I hate to say I'd left my camera behind to capture this. But to cheat have a look at this guy's very thorough Seoul food blog to get a very solid flavour of Korean chow. Note to self l- learn to use chopsticks properly - restaurants should be about me enjoying the food, not me being the entertainment for the locals! The streets with restaurants lining both sides, all weird and wonderful meals. Restaurant windows a fish tank full of swirling octopi and shellfish. Wow, wish I had more time and some like-minded company to share this experience with.
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7 comments:
Wow.
What's with all the travelling? What business are you in?
I'v only done Indonesia and a quick stop at Singapore airport in the east. It is very much on my agenda. So I'm jealous.
Being the Scarlett fan that you are, I assume you've seen Lost in Translation - your post evokes the same feeling the movie created. Can you get by relatively easily speaking English to the locals?
And yes, exactly what is your occupation? :)
Yip it's worth the 12 hour workdays to see the place in the offtime. But shopping till 11pm is quite an experience.
Put it this way the work involves wearing a tie and pretending to be intelligent but is not all that exciting. Any more would give the Thirdworldant too many clues in her sleuthing exercise.
Ant, not much English spoken here at all.
Very difficult even asking for directions because my Korean pronunciation is about as bad as my chopstick ability. But everyone understands the colour of money.
I see Scarlett's getting much acclaim for her appearance at the premier of "The Black Dahlia".
Right now atw, I could use all the clues I can get! I've abandoned the sleuthing out of sheer frustration :)
our dear Scarlett can't put a foot wrong, it seems. She also looks heavenly in the latest Elle's L'Oreal lipstick spread. Sigh!
The thing that amazes me is that she is only 21!
I actually read this a few days ago, but forgot to leave my tuppenc worth. Sounds phenomenaaaaal! Bet you're glad not to have missed this opportunity!
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