A Closer Look

Well here I am again with yet another story from the places around town, shopping nonetheless. And it is to return for a closer look at Myong Dong. I was told that this place is very expensive in terms of their goods and not-so-goods, but also in the price of their land. Apparently their land costs more than Jeju Island dirt! Hm... I suppose that makes sense...

After going around and around the town, passing sky-scrapers and asking passersby where the huge mall was located, we finally came upon the Lotte Shopping Center... or I think that's what it was called. Entering through the basement, we were greeted by a spiral staircase made of marble and walls of the same. A fountain babbled at the center of the coil while windows in the walls held flowers of brilliant shades. We were led up to the first floor where there were private spaces for different companies to advertise their wares. The first thing I saw were purses. Tons and tons of purses of different brands, most of which I had never heard of except for Louis Vouitton. It was my first time seeing a Louis Vouitton purse let alone a store all to itself! Truth be told... those purses didn't look much different than mine. Haha!! A depression in the hallway led to a grocery store filled with fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fresh cooked goodies. To give you scale of price, I saw a pint basket of blueberries running for 14,000 won. O_o Since it was past lunch time, I sat down to a meal of.... red bean ice cream?... I forgot the name of it... at a price of 7,000 won. Kind of spendy, but it tasted good. I sure wish they had given me more than just two cubes of sweet dduk (rice cake) though. >.<

Looking around for something cheap but long-lasting, we went through some handkerchiefs. The cheapest 'kerchief was 10,000 won, and it wasn't even that good in pattern or color or material. >.< Scratch that. We went further down into the basement area, and saw handkerchiefs for sale. The lady said "Three for 10,000 won!" What a bargain compared to just "up the road"! Scrambling, we grabbed probably 60,000 won worth. :$ We had to put about half of them back.  Hehehe. ^^

From here we browsed all the floors, going from imported fashion goods to makeup (Clinique Lancome, etc), from brand name purses such as Coach, Louis Vouitton, and Gucci to all sorts of brand name shoes and clothes for women and men. At the top floors were restaurants, kids clothes, and nick-knacks.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. ENJOY!

Meandering around trying to find the monster store

Getting warmer!

See what they think of blondies?

The spiral staircase

Louis Vuitton!!!!

If anybody can point out what this brand's significance is I'd be glad to be enlightened. :P

Grocery store

Fresh fooooood

Sorry this was a run-by

Bpeet-bahng-soo... I think?

More brands... this time of shoes

Jewelry! Sparkle sparkle. Me like

I was doing a sneaky pic cuz they said "no photos!"

Makeup! This whole floor was nothing but makeup

Showing off my lipstick!... from Clinique back in WA state hah!!

When foreigners shop they get tax refunds here... if you don't mind showing the customs EVERYTHING that you got a tax refund for in the airport.

Gucci Gucci Gooooo! No? Not really? Okay.

Nothing too exciting. Just clothes.

Headless manikins. 

Even kids get Gucci???

Just... stuff

This picture is 3D! Not kidding

No no no, not cheese. 

This is the Duty-Free zone... whatever that means. It was swarming with people though so it must be good!

Awww is this fishy tank for sale??

These are aaaaall the floors O_o

I WANT KRISPY KREME!!!!

Nam Daemun

 If you think I'm not bored of shopping, lemme tell you I am!! >.< It feels like I've been shopping every single day since I got here! (Which was about 4 weeks ago) But yes, I went to yet another place to shop: Nam Daemun. We took a subway past No Won (Hehehe no one!) and past Dong Daemun to reach our destination. It's kind of an interesting town. It's like a mix between old and new technology. It is full of very random things for sale, such as very  hot fake fur coats... I mean in the dead of summer, when the LAST thing you want is hot thick coats? Of course they had other things like socks, Korean traditional attire, shoes,  LOTS of hats, imitations of brand-name purses, hand-me-downs, and other things. It wasn't a superbly eventful day, but I'll let you see what I saw. ^^

Not happy to shop AGAIN!

This is what I got to see... some of it

Say hi peoples!

My feet and back are killin' me!... and I'm bored

Purty pink shoe.

Please tell me what you see is wrong with this >.<

More people and stuff

Recognize anybody? ;)

Making kimchi dumplings (mondoo) by hand!

Big slices of fresh fruit for sale. I don't see that around here.

The kimchi dumplings are MINE!!

In Sol Dong

As if there weren't enough towns and people and things to buy, In Sol Dong came into view. It's completely a tourist trap! As soon as I left the taxi, I was surrounded by people of all sorts of nationalities and side-street carts full of colorful and flashy trinkets. The stores had unique collectibles including old fashioned pottery, clothing, pots, fans, hats, and other such artifact-copies. I entered a small park whose entry was an old fashioned traditional gate and wall. Once inside, I saw a very well polished stone wall to my right and two statues on either side of the wall. The wall had written on it Korea's writ of independence. It was written in English, Korean, and Chinese. Further inside the small park was an open patio type of building with traditional colorful paintwork. At the very end of the park by the wall was a very tall and old artifact that had been surrounded and protected behind glass.

The guardians of the gate!!... not really

The writ of independence

Surrounding city

Smirking me

Patio! It needs mosquito screens

A description of the above photo, and yes my reflection too

Another me next to the mosquito-screenless patio

From here we went to the side-street shopping stores and collectible shops. I broke down and bought a couple things... one of which was a lovely jewelry box with abalone shells to decorate the outside! :D I cannot wait to bring it home and use it! :D

A white guy painting Asian stuff... can't lie, he's good!

Hand-painted fans

LOVERLY! But about 200,000 wons

More jewelry boxes

Royalty crowns

More royal crowns

More jewelry boxes! You can tell I like colorful things

Rows of hand-crafted fans

Hand-made pottery

I wanna take these home!

Upper-class fans... not much different huh?

After this I went to the National Folk Museum of Korea. Here there were traditional buildings scattered across the huge museum grounds. At the center was a huge palace that had been renovated and preserved. At the far corner was an artifact museum where they kept smaller artifacts and showed the change of the times through the ages behind glass walls. I'll let pictures do the work here! Enjoy!

The entry

Supposedly a gate to protect the stone in the background, representing someone's son.

A grinding mill!

Water wheel

The forbidden palace, literally... we weren't allowed in >.<

An army!! about as high as my knee...

Traditional clothing

Old pottery. Me want!!

An old scroll in jibberish... It's Chinese.

A children's book apparently.

This has been used as decoration in rich homes.

Storage boxes for random things

Medicines... they look dangerous

A student's room

The family kitchen; I regretfully did not see the year >.<

**~XOXOXOXOX~**