12 Sept - Second day in Seoul

Dear Imaan,

Ok. So on to the second day in Seoul. Retrospectively, Mama think it was a bit unorganized.. well, at least not as organized as Mama had planned. The initial plan was to hop on the Seoul City tour bus and spend the day touring the city (obviously). The plan was thrown into disarray when all three of us only managed to leave the residence at about half past ten.. due to waking up late, of course :P So we decided to just board the bus at one of its stops nearby (Dongdaemon stadium).

Luckily there was a Tourist Information centre there where we can ask a few things like about the "T money " card (works like our Touch n Go --plus u'll get discounts for each ride on the subway train summore...). Abah did all the asking and Mama held you while a Korean 'Auntie' who works there cooed at you in some Korean gibberish. They were all quite taken with your big eyes and kept comparing them with Abah and Mama's not-so-big eyes (told me through our ayam-itik conversation). But anyways, all Koreans here are crazy about babies.. both (not surprisingly) the aunties and (surprisingly) those grown-up men in office attires -- they would do that clucking-sound with their tongue or weird-weird faces at you. So every now and then Mama and Abah will have to go through what abah called 'toll'. Unlike western people, orang Korea ni akan selamba je tetiba cium2 imaan, tenyeh2 pipi imaan and even angkat imaan and dukung2..from Mama's experience, in western countries people takkan berani buat camtu because parents diorang kan lebih cautious about 'germs' and what nots and you might offend them if you touch their babies.

We were then instructed to wait for the bus at the stop just opposite the information centre. We waited like 15 minutes only to find that the bus that was scheduled to come every half hour conveniently decided not to stop (sending us chasing after it 3 blocks down before giving up). So.. time for plan B (which is to plan for Plan C :P )

PLAN C:
1) Visit the Toy Market near Dongdaemon as stated in the map.

2) Buy the T money card (around 2500 Korean won each) at the train station.

3) Go to Itaewon. Visit the mosque and the much acclaimed Salaam restaurant for lunch.

4) Not sure. Maybe go to Yongsan to check out the price of Plasma TV (Samsung and LG) and see if they're any cheaper.

After finding there's nothing much except for the easy access to halal food at Itaewon (plus finding rows of antique furniture shops at the back row), we decided to head to Yongsan as planned. It's supposedly the biggest electrical market in asia. It's not really a wonder as Mama noticed in Korea they tend to group shops together in one area. So if you find yourself lost and in some place selling something like shoes, you'd likely to find that there'd be ten more stores just next to it selling the same thing. Anyways, Yongsan was like, a shopping mall as big as Mid Valley filled with shops selling mostly electrical appliances. We found the Plasma TV only that here it goes under the name Pavv for Samsung and Xcanvas for LG -- plus it was more expensive there due to the currency exchange rate (it was RM3.85 for 1000 Korean won at the time).

We ended up wandering around aimlessly until we decided it was time to head home. Dah laa Mama tak bawak stroller Imaan! Aduhai... sakit pinggang Mama. Nanti Imaan tolong urut ek! :)

On the way back, Mama and Abah decided to pandai-pandai turun at the train station yang sounded much more nearby to our place (Uljiro). When we emerged from the subway station, nothing looked really familiar but from afar we can see the "Doota" and "amPm" building which was supposed to be 5 minutes walk from our residence.

So we walked straight along the road from Uljiro 3 to Uljiro 6 (where we're staying). Found rows of shops selling hardwares untuk rumah-- tiles yang cantik2, even wallpapers- which instead of in small rolls like ours, wallpaper diorang lebar macam sebidang kain and the rolls were stacked up on the wall ready to be pulled and cut by the yard (or how they say it "yard-de" ..no metric system here). We stumbled across a market selling seaweeds and all those kimchi like thingies (jeruk ala Korea-- ada sekali tu Mama nampak ketam seekor2 tu pun diorang jeruk!:o ) We bought some of the seaweeds and like 5 ekor udang basah for dinner. Malam tu Mama masak sambal tumis (packet :P) udang on the kitchenette stove of our room. The sambal might not seem much here but at that particular place and time - was heaven sent!

Well, hopefully the third day story won't take as long as this one to upload and write! The connection here at Mama's new workplace is sometimes like dewa siput (especially peak hours). It's just my fifth day working from 8 to 5 and already I'm feeling that I've missed a whole lot of seeing you growing up. Sedih pulak :( especially when it was the maids who announced to the family of the things they saw you've done and achieved on that day . . . . . . .

wasn't that supposed to be me?

:*( Mama miss imaan