21 May 2022
Anal has probably dethroned Scomo
Eating Bibimbap in Hongdae
Election day update, looks like Anthony Albanese (Anal) has defeated Scott Morrison (Scomo). Korean election update, its neck and neck between 1 and 2. Although they are still campaigning now, so maybe the election lasts more than a day.
It is Saturday here, as it is in most places, so I thought I better go to the most popular place in town, Hongdae. Last time I went here I ordered grilled chicken and salad and got served fried chicken with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
This area is sandwiched between a heap of different universities, I was clearly the oldest person here (there, tense, what is that, past present and future?).
Anyway, you could suggest this is Korean Harajuku, it is much larger than I remember, and much busier. Too busy. Due to fears of covid and ice cream chicken, I settled on a dependable favourite for my dinner.
I wrote this to be confusing, but and if you are Australian you might know what I am talking about, I sound less confused than Anthony Green, he needs to pass the baton.
Which reminds me, Korea still gets the Australian ABC propaganda station, which is doing the live election coverage and earlier had AFL football on, I thought that service got shut down by Scomo? Ok thats enough dribble, except I probably should have taken more pics, but it was very busy and hard to do so.
Start of the busy Hongdae area. I am sure it looks more impressive after dark, but I have a big day planned for tomorrow, so have to rush back to my hotel to beat fat cat.
This is where you become the next Psy.
Most of the stores here are not the big brand stores, perhaps similar to Harajuku, that means they are selling cheap crap to people who photograph it once and throw it away, like Harajuku.
It goes on and on, quite a few people have gone maskless, every foreigner was maskless, one guy with a French accent decided I needed to be told personally by him, that it is now legal to remove your mask outside, thanks for that, please get out of my face.
It is concerning how dirty the feet of these teddy bears are. Do they get up and walk around? Almost reason enough to start drinking so I can see that happen.
Streams of people coming from all directions. I deliberately went early as video of this area after dark looks, uncomfortable.
I had to go about 6 blocks back to find a place to eat at, I settled on the local grandma run standard Korean food outlet. These all have basically an identical menu consisting of the same 6 or so things. Some Koreans eat nothing but these 6 things their entire lives. It is a well known fact that this is 100 percent true. Anyway, you use a ticket machine and pay with credit card, convenient, it spat out the ticket of the person who ordered before me, mass confusion. My number comes up on the cuckoo clock alerting LED screen and I present the ticket, its not my meal, grandma has no English at all, I told her "Bi bim bap", and she understood that, but had no clue how I got the wrong ticket, so she yelled at me, finally the person before me who presumably got their meal without a meal ticket explained to poor old grandma what was going on. Just as well, she was really starting to yell at me!