8 September 2011
Yongsan and Itaewon
This evening I visited 2 different yet geographically relatively close regions, however getting between them required multiple train changes.
Yongsan is the site of the wholesale electronics markets. It is a series of stores with boxes piled high.
Prices were nothing special...where they had prices. This isnt a real wholesale market, its advertised as such but the only buyers are regular people. It would help if they put prices on things.
The guys in here all look disinterested and are busy watching baseball on their cell phones that have in built tv tuners (all korean phones seem to, they watch regular broadcast tv, not IP streaming tv.
Itaewon is near the US base thats closing soon. As such its full of tourists and fast food restaurants. This was my first ever real experience with loud groups of large excited african american women who were basically on the set of oprah whilst they were walking down the street. It was hilarious watching them get excited at everything.
I only saw maybe 2 actual US soldiers here, other than the tour groups of Americans, it was mainly Indian guys, most of whom were dragging all their luggage and enough shopping to last a life time.
Also, I have never seen so many donut shops in my life.
This is the very impressive Yongsan station. As well as being a metro station its also a KTX bullet train station.
An example of a bustling street corner in electronics town. The main types of electronics seem to be cctv setups, anything that vibrates and sends out ultrasonic waves, possibly built into a chair, netbooks that cost more than they do in Australia, those weird pocket organizers that are sold only in asia despite smartphones eliminating the need for them 10 years ago.
Between electronics town and the station is this urban wasteland. Amazingly you can walk right down there in amongst the tracks and trains.
Looking back to electronics town, you can see the stairs coming off the overpass I just walked across where you can get right down into the shunting yard. Seems very dangerous but there were people down there just wandering about.
Then I stumbled on a few hundred teenage girls all armed with the latest dslr cameras and big lenses. In Korea the girls have the cameras pointed at boys rather than the way it is here. There was a lot of screaming and signs being held up....
And the reason, album release by k-pop sensations 'Super Junior', they are pretty well known I think, because I have seen posters of them in Korea Town in Sydney.
In Itaewon now, home of American fast food, so what did I have? Would you eat taco bell in Korea? Would you eat Taco Bell ever? To be honest I wasnt sure...but I am feeling pretty brave.
I opted for 2 x 'lite' soft tacos. They seemed to have real meat in them. They were not too bad, a bit like I would make at home but a lot less spicy and with no avocado or yoghurt or capsicum etc.
The seating areas were spread over 2 floors, completely segregated! Level 2 was Americans only. Level 3 was Koreans only. I sat with the Koreans. There was a hushed tone when I arrived on the scene.
Back near my hotel now, this is a typical street in Myeongdong. This place is huge, it reminds me a lot of Shibuya Japan. I think each street is about a kilometre long, and theres a 10x10 grid of streets as busy (or busier) than this.
Theres some big multi storey malls on some streets, and the entire underground thing too, its just an enormous place. Has to be 500 restaurants alone in the area.
At night they fill the middle of each street with street food stalls such as this. Mainly deep fried things on sticks like Taiwan, but a bit less terrifying than there, except of course for the dog.