Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Return to the Land of Kimchi

Part 4: Out and About II

Day 3 (21.5.2012) (The Plan)
Namdaemun Market (Closed Sundays) 
Dongdaemun (Closed Sundays)
cheonggyecheon stream
Lunch at Dongdaemun - Jeonju Sikdang
Yeouido park
Han River Cruise
Dinner (Yukaney @ myeongdong)
Back to Hotel


today we had heavy bfast as a result from lessons learnt from yesterday -  got to eat heavy bfast in order to get the energy to walk walk walk..... we had the Brahims Nasi Beriyani + kari ayam..  we went out late again as usual. but today we got smarter and use the subway. it was just one stop ahead to reach namdaemun. we left the stroller in our hotel as we felt that it will be hard to maneuver a stroller in Namdaemun due to the crowd and we had planned to go back to our room after shopping.

based on my extensive research, i found the e-lengdang building - the place to shop for brooches (near Namdaemun Gate 5 ).. i only managed to find a couple of stores selling brooches on the second floor and i was too tired to climb to the third floor. q was also not in a good mood cos she got a lot of attention from the ahjummas as usual, so i quickly pick up a few brooches and went out the building, plus it was quite hot and i was sweating like mad in the building. hubby bought a shirt and i bought a couple of comfy ahjumma pants at 10kwon to wear at home.. :D we did not explore the market much cos we were worried that we got lost in the maze of alleys in the market.

Namdamun Market - Gate 5
shopping for brooches
after about 1 hour we make our move to our next destination - Dongdaemun. its within the same subway line - 4 stops from Hoehyon (Namdaemun). i intended to buy korean silk at Dongdaemun but we hardly found any silk at that place, there was a lot of cotton fabrics but i was not too keen on them. we went to the shopping compelexes but it was still closed. it only opens later in the day at 7pm on Mondays.

no wonder it was quiet..
Q was really not in the mood by this time and we decided to go back and have lunch + rest. on the way back i saw lots of shops selling pretty comforters in the underground mall and made a mental note to return to this place later ;-) reached our room at 3.30 pm and had our lunch - instant rice + fried eggs + kipas udang soy sauce.. yum! after lunch  + throwing some tantrums, Q fell fast asleep -  for quite a long time. i think she was still tired frm the journey the night before. we dared not to wake her up or shell be in a bad mood all day long.. she slept long enough for us to take turns shopping at myeongdong which is just across the street :). i found myself a very nice korean style blazer in uniqlo at 19k won!!  

 Q woke up at 6 and our original plan to go to Yeouido Park and board the Han River Cruise was scrapped. i was looking forward towards this river cruise :(. we had dinner in our room and i decided to go back to Dongdaemun to buy the comforter - the image of the comforter was stuck in my head the whole time. after getting the comforter we went to doota! mall. i did not buy anything as it was quite expensive. hubby did bought 2 t shirts for 50 k won.. 


Doota! Mall
Dongdaemun Underground Shopping Center
Rows of pretty comforters! im a sucker for those..
My most prized purchase - Korean fabric comforter.. bought at 25k won..
Cheonggye Stream near Dongdaemun
since it was early, we took the subway to city hall to get to cheonggyecheon stream (the main entrance). Read the history of this stream here -->  http://insidemybackpack.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheonggyecheon-stream-and-gwanghwamun.html . we followed the directions given in the visitkorea website to reach this place but it was not accurate. the city hall station seems to be in construction works at that time. we were supposed to exit at the city hall building but we exited the subway to a some sort of field somewhere - where people just hang out after work,. there was a monument there but we did not know what it was. so we just hang out at the place to rest for a bit..
we got lost here
dont know the name of this place

after half an hour, we decided to just follow our instincts. im quite reluctant to ask around since communication was not that easy as our pronounciation is different from koreans. luckily the pretty lady i asked managed to understand that im looking for the cheonggye stream. she gave directions, and it was quite a walk to the stream. we made it to the stream and the view was breathtaking indeed. i would recommend going to cheonggye stream at night.. the lightings make the place looks like its amagical place.. we spent some time there just soaking up the ambiance and did some ppl watching.

breathtaking night view


 we took the taxi back to our hotel and had a nite cap at Caffe Bene which was just across the street. sadly, the waffles were sold out. so we just had coffee and muffins. after that we talk a walk at the shopping areas.. most of the shops were already closed by 10pm except for 1 or 2 accessories shop.

Caffe Bene



went back to our room, clean up a bit and zzzZZZZZzzzzzz

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