23 April 2024
The other main station
Yongsan station and mall
A monk tried to fix my karma. I was standing in the light rain looking around at the buildings, and a dodgy monk came over and asked if he could ask me one question, after my obvious answer of, you already did, he asks, where do you come from... Planet earth, and I walk off. He follows me ranting about how he can sense that I have very damaged karma and he knows how he can fix it, which involved him following me around with a string wooden pearls I had to buy. Hurling insults had no effect, threatening to take his photo did. I chased after him for a while with my camera. Satisfying.
Before the monk action, I walked through Namdaemun market, got on the train and went to the huge mall with many places to eat at Yongsan station. I had been there on previous trips. It is one of the best places to eat I know of in Seoul. The dinosaurs from the outdoor garden are however gone. First the duck, now the dinosaurs.
Also it is starting to rain now, I am hiking tomorrow but might need to not start quite as early as normal.
Here is Namdaemun market, the local fabric market. It is mostly underground and I am amazed it has never burnt down (up?) yet.
A bit more market.
These are parking buildings Korean style. You place your trust in the machinations of the car stacker, and hope it does not get stuck for any reason, which generally requires a controlled implosion to bring the car chimney down.
To cross over to Seoul station I took the overpass, which is more interesting after dark.
Good view.
You can get a view of the overpass from a view point on the overpass.
Now for some Yongsan station experience. Here is the view from the station entrance.
The roof garden is multi levelled. Good times can be had here still, but it was better with dinosaurs.
The food court is fantastic. 20 good places to choose from, and a lot of places to sit.
However, I opted against the food court and instead went to a vegan restaurant. My choice that drew me in, 'soft tofu from hell'. It was pretty delicious. They were generous with the bread.
Ring appreciation time.
I was here minding my own business when a criminal monk from one of the warring monk gangs decided to try and scam me for a karma fix.
I was going to walk back, but it started raining. This is Namdaemun market again, where the roads are lined with fabric.
At this point of the short walk back to my hotel from the local station, I realised I had made the correct choice in not walking back from Yongsan.
Like I said above, tomorrow is a hiking day (the last one!), with a possible weather forced late start.