19 March 2015
So many socks
Eating Korean style Ramyun
One simply cannot underestimate how many socks a Korean person might need, underwear too. Shops selling socks and undies come in many forms.
Lady sitting on the street with stuff laid out on a tarp, lady with a trolley, mobile truck, kiosk in mall, boutique store with a theme, regular store for your upmarket brand name socks, and finally giant city block store located near every apartment complex.
More on that later.
I probably should have had an extra day in Gwangju, as I feel I didnt see enough of it. This is mainly due to the rain yesterday. Tomorrow I am off to Seoul.
Whilst the city is very compact, like most Asian cities, it is dense to its very edge, there are no outer suburbs, you dont start to get single houses on large blocks of wasted space. Therefore the transport, facilities, hospitals etc. can all be provided to everyone. I have another rant coming on.
Tonight I had a very long, unwanted conversation with a guy whos job is to stand by the subway gates and make sure no one tries to go past without scanning their card.
I scanned my card fine, and just walked past... WHERE YOU ARE GOING? he asked.
Sangmu - I knew the name of the station I was going to at least.
I show you the way, please, follow.
I tried to tell him I know the way, I dont need help, why are you escorting me?
He kept looking back to ensure I was following him, down 2 sets of stairs and standing by the yellow line, I thought that was the end of it, no.
Then he decided to explain to me what I might experience as the subway train arrives, the doors will open, you will get on, you will find a seat, you will hear beeps, the doors will close, you will go 4 stops, you will get off at Sangmu.
By now I was just looking at him like I might throw him in front of the train, 20 or so Koreans were looking at me like I might be special.
But still we stood there, until the train came, and then he stood in the doorway of the train until I got on and sat down, then finally, yelled HAVE A SAFE TRIP!
Apparently this is a famous food street, favourite of foreigners, famous for only serving fried chicken in buckets.
I was impressed by the size of the Porsche dealership, so I wandered in, acted like I owned the place.
This Audi driver thinks his base model A4 needs 2 spaces.
And here they are, at last, KOREAN SALT N PEPPA, P-PUSH IT REAL GOOD, so urban.
Then I saw a place advertising authentic Korean style Ramyun. So that will be the same as Japanese style Ramen then.
I did however get some extra vegetables to add, and there was a bonus ingredient of wood ear fungus. I think thats what my extra 1000 krw got me, I ordered the most expensive thing they had.
And now tonight, the anti neon! This is a pedestrian street, but its dark and closed.
Closer inspection reveals it to be wedding dress street. So my top tip, if you want to buy a wedding dress, go before dark.
Now some ridiculous pizza, left to right we have king prawns on top of tofu squares, then prawns wrapped in potato string and deep fried, then bacon and kimchi, and finally pastry wrapped hotdog sausage.
And now, heres a shot of the inside of the socks and undies shop you can find near every apartment complex, open until midnight.
They really are a whole city block, and only sell socks, underwear, pyjamas.
OK, above was the anti neon, so I had to balance it out.