Seoul Korea September 2024 #4 visit

 

Anyo Assého

3 days here in Seoul we were all excited until we found out that it was a holliday.

Visit:

Maxtile district

Itkeasong

Insadong

Gangnam district

FIRST DAY

Korea

tiny on the map but

43.2 people per square mile

10 M in Seoul

51M in all Korea

18:00 in hotel

8:30 out of the hotel

Shower 

dinner

at the Hyundai food mall

Thai meal

Here everything is shutting down in the preparation of 

Korean thanks giving well its not quit thanks giving but expat called it like this and it last for many days....

big big celebration here

people go back visiting their family to celebrate together over great meal.

They visit the decease love ones and offer some rice and gifts at the temples for the monks to take care of the temple. 

So during a week of festivities, the only place open are the one that foreigners workers take care of. 

Don't get me wrong but not all of them are close but you dont know which one are open and the concierge....well....they are very limited in english and giving you the proper informations.

This time, I did not have a good sleep. 

I woke up in the middle of the night. 

Twice and I was not able to go back to sleep.

Its a big price to pay when you come to Asia.

Sleepless night 

Oh non.

And it will be harder when I return home.

Beside sleepless night, everything is great so far.

SECOND DAY

We went to the textile district, 2 girls and I by metro.

  Nice and clean

Unfortunately, the textile market was close a few shops are open and when its open they only take cash.

Do you have cash lady

oh yeah a lot of cash but its in Canadian dollars iiiii

 Do you have cash lady

cash cash cash

Do you have cash lady 

So we kept walking in search of open shops or something to do. 

Our day will not be as the greatest plan day we tought it will be.

I usully have planned all my day trips but not today beside ibe thing gojng to insadong.

So we arrived at Gangnam food market woa the olace is jam pack.

We managed to have lunch with the millions of others Koreans in Gangwang market.

( ok in books its written differently be aware)

We had  lunch  

We sat down, had some kimpap and a coke and the girls had also dumplings.

The woman serving us give us this kind of sticky rice paste fill with red beans inside it was blend and quite sticky but what a nice gesture. 

Lunch cost 8 won 

isnt it a fabulous the display

      (mung beean pancake)

brrr

     tempura style veggies

           gingseng liquor

Than we walk under the extreme heat looking for my friend's husband pants and some shower baby gift... I did not need anything.

       ok fish hanging

Well, well, it took for ever for my friend to find something...

The place is like a huge warehouse.

Food in the middle of the market and tiny streets that lead to the back...

           fish hanging

Meanwhile, I went shopping for one of those Korean bag for my cousine's daughter. Im telling you; everyone love those funky bags.

Hopefully she will receive it before she leaves for USA

I was surprised that I find something I like on this particular day.

                oh woa !

   Amazing food display

Afterwards, we took a cab and we went to Itskedong.

The girls wanted to see it but

omg 

it was jam pack again like crazy and the cute little place I had previously found was totally full.

             watching you

We had coffee and ice cream in it and one girl had a beautiful aromatic jesu water.

So as we were walking we crossed the street and were right there in.

INSADONG!

yes

This was on my list for today.

             garde royal

I loved that place but the girls were getting tired and all and I was over expose from the heat afraid to have another insolation.

    robe coréenne typique 

          poterie en celadon

So we walk to find a place for a massage.

The 3 of us got a massage at the same time.

80 minutes for 80 dollars

not free

and not good either.

Vietnam girls

(OK i had a massage from blind person in Shanghai a scrub in Morroco and now a body massage. 

And now after all this

NEVER AGAIN!

I was not to keen in going there at the first place, I rather pay more but the girls wanted their massage and since I joined them today in their outing I had to follow...

We found out after putting our nose in the hole close to the blanket that the place was not (aromatic) at all and our massage either and on top of it we could hear all that time a person passing  a vaccum cleaner above our head. Not pleasant.

but we did it in Korea.

Horrible experience

and was it a big mistake....to go in this place...it was the third place we tried.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel  

15 dollars taxi

I was tired but I knew I will not go out and party for sure.

I usually cut my day in two when I am in Asia and it work for me for jet lag but today we did not break when it was time to break and that ruined my day because you are dragging yourself instead of being full of energy.

After lunch time,  it was time to come back to the hotel but I stayed with the other girls; big mistake for me.

Dragging yourself is no fun and the heat was too much for me.

Too hot every where I go 

When we arrived at the hotel,

Some other crew members were going out for dinner so i decided to join them as they were living soon. 

Jumped in the shower and left to have a Korean style dinner and an early night. We went for 

tang

kamba tang

its called potatoe soup 

Everyone in the restaurant was eating the soup.

We had a beer

and we paid 15,00 each 

not bad

When its hot 

beat the heat with heat

meat and rice ok

however this being said it was a hot day again in Seoul.

Humidity is disgusting

Avoid this time of the year.

Everything is good so far

THIRD DAY

So for my third day,

 I went to Gangnam area

way too big its like another city.

way too far

Even the taxi driver didnt know how to get to the restaurant I picked for breakfast.

So I decided to go to the temple instead since the taxi driver (again did not speak english ) 

You need to have a plan B

Its one of the biggest temple in Seoul. 

I got there and on the right, above the stairs, there is a little coffee shop.

Very nice lady. She warmed me up my grilled cheese sandwiches and I took a cappucino. Unfortunately my coffee was too hot undrinkable too hot even with cold water in it 

oh well

than I started exploring this huge up hill site it was nice and calming and there was a nice view from Seoul. Very peaceful.

On that particular holliday,  the monk were busy that day because of thanks giving (action de grace) 

The humming in the mountain was very therapeutic.

I am more buddhist than catholic.

Looking to enhance your person, to pursue enlightement within and with others is whats important to ne.

Buddha is like your spiritual guide thru your journey on earth.

I than went across the street to see the librairy in the Ceoxx mall. 

Beautiful design quite original, this was almost the only place open.

So much walking in that huge mall. 

I took a picture of gangnam style SPys hands and left to go back ot the hotel. 

So many big buildings its so huge everywhere you go high rise ....but compare to Shanghai I can see a blue sky.

The heat was unbearable.

 I waited for a taxi its not bad 5.6 mins.

again taxi driver did not speak english.

He stopped me at another hotel...

but under that heat, even a block to walk its too much to walk.

I got to my room exhausted fell asleep until 18 :00 at nigth found someone from the crew to come and eat something with me. 

Again the concierge are useless.

And their english pathetic.

I ask her where should I go and eat should I go to the food mall in the shopping mall

no no everything close 

we got inside the mall 

everything was open

what the fuck is wrong with her.

All I ask was a place to eat

so we went for thai 

again 

not much choice 

You go where people go 

my pad thai was over cook

chicken so so 

my friend had a better meal she took the cury

Yes I know 

why not eat Korean 

well down there in the IFC Mall the korean is not good only in the Hyundai mall. 

So on our way to the hotel, we stopped at Olive and young to grab the latest stuff for your face.

About me rice water cleansing 

Dr.G black snail cream 

Abib collagen patch 

and some shampoo Folligen silk for hair lost therapy...

We were happy with our finding but 

they say Korean cosmetic are the best in the world so why

90% of the women have plastic surgery...?

Tomorrow, hopefully before we leave, the markets will  be open again will see.

Everything is good so far....

DEPARTURE DAY 

We leave the hotel at 15 hundred so we had time to go around and rest before flight.

Woke up and went for reuben sandwich down stairs.

its heavy but with the time difference your stomach and your brain dont work with the time differences.

Its dinner time at home

and breakfast time

here.

So one girl joined me and we were told everything close.

So we went to Gangnang market again to browse around and do our 10,000 steps exercise fitness.

My eye got cut on what the lady was doing. She was cutting square of pork fat and soak them in spicy kimchi.

Oh my god 

that is pure fat.

We sat down and I ordered some kimpap for my lunch and some vegetarian dumpling to bring back home while I was inspecting her bowl of fat kkmchi fat red kimchi fat.

Incredible to see all these women in their tiny food shop.

We walk and left to have some rest before our flight it was still and extreme day of heat unbearable again its so hot your skin is burning.

Everything is good so far

When we boarded the flight

I notice the filter of our crew bunks were filty 1 inch of dust on it, it was not clean so I asked the cleaners to come and clean it they did not do a good job so I took a cleaning towel and wiped it again

it was black full of dirt...

we were in a rush as they wanted to do the boarding ..

On my return flight we got lucky not too many passengers but a lot of them were sick.

I went for my break came back to do my shift.

Everything good so far.

The other half of the crew went on break and when they came back to do the other service 

one of them came back and had lost his voice.... I told him he should put a mask on...

he was very close to me when he said that he had lost his voice...

we did the service....

I went home

I got out the car 

what the fuck

super weak

super sick

lost my voice 

coughing 

fever and all

Fuckin shit!

I was fine for 5 days not a single moment of sickness full of energy walk over 14,000 -22,000 steps a day

what the fuck

4 days still with fever as soon as I move or talk I cough....1

I was fine when I was there...

I spend my time mostly out door market is outdoor temple ...beside eating and being on the plane.

No fun.

Seoul Korea #3

 

Hi everyone  

I'm back in Korea for more exploration of this Asian city.  

I still have to mention that this is a very very long flight. I dont know how the passengers do it really its very long. So  we arrived in the dense traffic around 6 ish at the beautiful hotel.

You can not go to bed right away or you will be screwed. You need to make an effort to stay up 2 to 4 hours.

This is our first day in Seoul                                                                                                                            So we wanted to try this amazing bar:

ZOO BAR

and great restaurant:

KYOCHON PILBANG

for a cocktail and maybe dinner at kiochon pilbang but according to the concierge it would have taken another 40 minutes in the traffic not tonight maybe tomorrow.                                                                     

We opted to go across the street for BBQ pork or beef BBQ. 

We opted for pork belly and a beer. A cook came and cooked the meal at our table how lovely after serving over 287 passengers this was perfect for us and a cold beer  perfect because August is a deadly month to come to Korea. 

The temperature here is unbearable luckily the restaurant has air conditioning.

We had a good meal.

We stopped by at our 7- 11 corner store a usual things to do in Korea. We picked up a few snacks for desert and back to our room.

Grill it and fill in the leafs. And again in Korea all the little things can be order as much as you can without a cost. 

More leafs please!

J'adore ce gadget dans ma chambre j'en veux un dans ma maison.

DAY 2

I slept pretty good and I was starving I got up around 05:00 ish so I got myself ready for my beautiful day in Seoul. 

First, I had to find a place that is open for breakfast early morning...it so difficult.

I tried the coffee shop across the street for a change, I was not sure if it was a car dealer or a coffee shop. 

Its called coffee bean and its a chain. 

Got in!

I had a coffee and a toasted grilled cheese; perfect.

but no fancy design on the mousse but it was very thick however the coffee was more a café latte than a cappuccino.

details...

I went back to my hotel for human service and asked the concierge to write down where I was going to go today in korean. You must have a hotel cardd or you are screwed if you travel by taxi.

Even with that concierge note its still problematic, Im not sure if he, she, taxi drivers: 

#1-they know how to read 

#2-need reading glasses

or 

#3-dont know where the fuck is this hotel...

Probably #3

Beautiful grand hotel but is so far away from main Seoul  far away from everything but if you tell the taxi driver, when you want to get back to the hotel, its easy tell them its next to the Hyundai mall, it works.

All right!

I will go and discover. 

ITKSEON DONG area 

taxi

12 000 won

metro #3 ga

Jongon station

A very important station.

You can visit 3 castles around here and a bunch of hanok villages area.

On the side of the castles behind and around.

And across the street you will find 

IKSEONDONG

A little cute area not to be miss. Over 100 little stations café bars built on calmness water and bamboo feature.

No rush here.

Spend a beautiful morning mid afternoon there.

Morning in Korea starts at 10:00 a.m

Coffee shop are all too cute you would like to sit in all of them.

But I had one in particular, I wanted to see from my very own eyes that I saw on tik tok and it was just the same

perfect

modern and asian style 

so cute so zen

CHONG SU DANG café

but I made a mistake I did not order the famous cheese cake or mousse what ever I order simple cookies and a cold coffee.

          Yes this the one

but dont get me wrong you have to go.

Too cute shopping the boutiques here are all cute.

Guys can always have a cool beer somewhere if they get tired while you shop girly stuff.

   line up

   its clean 

   kimchi pots

  very tiny little places

clean quiet and just too cute

  a french café

so its a bit like an area in Shanghai China, all little mini streets in a labyrinth and its very clean!

You walk in it 5 times in and out and around and around left and right until you get daisy and you still love it but the heat....is killing me.

Here at night with little lights it  might be very cool to see.

There are a lot of  line up for water for ice cream its ...no fun so go early or late at night.

I will definetely come back at night.

Afterward I saw a temple 

but of course I went in 

elevator has air conditioning said the monk take the elevator not the stairs.

allright

Peaceful moment of the day 

but hot hot hot

I split the picture to see the details a little more.

   The old way...

    very old café.

   The modern way

I wanted to grab a taxi  the heat was unbearable. I ended up on the jewelry street couples looking at diamonds...behind a huge wall.

I hit the main road and saw 

the secret garden and the palace.

 

Just crossing the street was all ready too much heat so I got in and bought a bottle of cold water and relax.

too hot

ok 

I started my visit of the palace and waited for an english tour of the secret garden with no flowers.

its beautiful but I really tought it will be cooler in the forest. You better like walking. Its  a lot if walking.

I'm sure it is as much fun to come in fall with color trees or winter. 

little house, pagoda, water feature and a lot of walking up hill down hill.

secret garden reserved only for the royal family...

I took a cold apple juice after that having a hard time to recuparate so needed to go to the hotel a.s.o.p. 

I felt like vomiting all day really too hot but again another protest in the city jam pack. I was stock not moving for over 20 minutes stuck in traffic jam.

And on the other side this awful microphone of chirstian preacher screaming in my ears clean your sin.

yes right

no fun

so I got to the hotel

Luckily I asked 

Meta AI 

what to do for heat exhaustion not that I didnt know what to do but in case I misss a few things. 

Oh no

call an ambulance  he it, she  said

no way 

not just yet

ah 

lift my legs 

ok 

drink drink 

drink 

but it was awful...

I did not want to call 911 199 over there but it was a close call.

Wet towel cold shower sleep

I finally fell a sleep and when I woke up I decided to go for a bowl of rice and stay in the hotel.

When I was looking at the menu I saw my 2 colleagues that I had diner with the night before and we decided to try the restaurant in the basement of the hotel in the shopping mall.

We ordered bibimpap in a specialized bibimpap restaurant. 

How can you go wrong. It came with a soup and all different usual dip and sauces.

but oh my god!

I felt like vomiting again just the smell of it.

And it did not look good to me the sprouts did not look fresh for my liking.

Im so fossy when it comes to food eating around the world and I was not feeling good for sure.

I could not just run away, I was with my friends. 

Oh boy, it was so hard not to be impolite and ran away...

$19.00 down the drain

Yogeyo !

The waitress arrived with a pepsi!

fuck! Double fuck!

I did not want to disguss my friends because they enjoyed their meal.

so 

again another stop at the corner store  7-11 this time to search for something very salty. 

A bag of chips

bought it taste it perfect.

bought another one this will do for dinner.

They are kind of cook in oven so not greassy but they were not very salty and with my left over peach ice tea, I will be fine.

No fun. 

I had so much plan for that evening to go to this amazing food market...so sad.

but 

nup 

too hot 

36 plus humidity factor genre 48

I dont know  it was too much for me again. The second time the heat hit me bad.

Dont get me wrong if I had one country to recommand for food delight Korea is one of them beside their likes for SPAM can meat. 

It was not my day.

I felt bad but I stayed in my room did my schedule for next month even if it was late at night. 

I will see if  I did good in a few days.

THE THIRD DAY

I had all morning our departure from the hotel is at 15;00

so I had time to do something. I felt good so I went to my famous market.

Tried those famous grilled dumpling.

Delighfull.

And further up, I bought some sweet korean pancake to bring back home for my mom and my sister to try.

My my you get addicted ti this.

NAMDAMAN MARKET

To see if I could find my robber boots to fix my creek at home when I come back.

In an hour 

I had a good time!

I got a souvenir for my aunt  and my mom as well as  a pair of robber boot for all that rain, a great bag 

and a few sandals.

a bargain...at this market you need to bargain a lot but its worth it....

Everything under 20.00$ I usually find everything for $5.00 but since I had not much time this morning for shopping I was a bit easy...on the vendor

iiii

Love it !

I went back to the hotel happy with my bargain discoveries.

I never had time to get some lunch in Hyundai mall but I was hungry so I went.

OMG!

so many people on a Sunday afternoon.

Im hungry but Covid. .

I managed to order food found a spot and eat in a hurry such an amazing dish .

but I realized it was not Korean but Thai

but I could not order to take out I had to order and eat on the spot.

no plastic around

all real dishes 

too bad I had left over.

its quite pricy like Montreal 

18.00 but so delicious

Our flight was delay 

35 minutes. 

Perfect, I had time to snooze a bit before our long long long long return flight.

The passengers are very patient especially on the return lots and lots and lots of turbulence, service was shorten because of that.

So my advice do like the koreans.

Bring a lot of Korean snacks with you on the flight ....and fill up your thermos with hot tea as it is forbidden to serve hot bevarage when their is turbulence. Stop at a café in the airport pass security and fill up your thermos.

Oh yes, I got this gadget.... but I can not tell you because my aunt read my blog 

iii

Next time....

Meanwhile, Im getting a little Korean snack...I finally dare to bring a big bag of these snack I use to eat 30 years ago...