Seoul Weekend Part II - Saturday

The next morning Wanjun and I were very hungry because we skipped dinner. Well, we ate some chips and cookies before bed the earlier night, but that wasn't a good meal. We walked around Myeongdong for a bit and we went to this Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant that we saw the night earlier. It was very delicious. Having some chinese food for the first time in 2 months was so good, especially dim sum. We ate...let me try to type this out.. Har Gow, Jook, Shrimp & Mushroom spring rolls, and fried rice. Although it sounds small, I was telling Wanjun that I think my stomach has adjusted to Korean size food so it was enough for the both of us. The meal ended up costing 19,800won for the four dishes plus the extra side dishes. Although the food was good, the atmosphere was amazing. The seats were cozy couche like chairs and the decorations were traditional unlike the dirty white clothed crowded dim sum restaurants I am used to in Richmond. After eating, we walked around Myeongdong for a bit of market shopping and then ended up going to Lotte Young Plaza which is a big department store. They had I believe 8 floors and tons of clothing. We just walked around and went to the Lotte Mart next door and saw some authentic Gucci, Prada, LV, Tiffany & Co, and Coach etc. I don't understand why people would shop there when they have the real stuff for $5 outsides on the street! Anyways we walked around and more pictures then decided to go Insadong area to look at the piano key floors and the pretty lights. We walked there and we decided to get some Baskin Robins Ice cream along the way. After arriving in Insadong, we took a short walk over to Tapol Park which has the monument of some artifacts from ancient Korea. It is also where the freedom speeches are held every year. The markets in Insadong are so packed. There were tons of people around and lots of performances because it was also Childrens day (05/05). After a long day of walking, we decided to go to Walker Hill Casino on the east side of Seoul. We took the Line 2 subway to the Technomart, and did some shopping there while waiting for the free shuttle bus. The casino was medicore, but the surrounding area was nice. The hotel there was the Sheraton and it had a nice lounge, Italian restaurant, and buffet. The hotel also had a bunch of dirty free shops that we walked around in. The casino was one small floor with only a few slots and table games. They also had two 2/5NL Texas holdem games running and the players looked pretty bad. I wanted to play, but time and Wanjun wouldnt allow me too so we decided to leave. I wanted to eat at one of the restaurants at the Casino, but we decided it was too costly so we head back to Dongdaemun area. We got off the free shuttle bus and I spotted a Pho restaurant called Pho L.A. and I really really miss pho so I wanted to eat there. The food was expensive there. A "large" (small in Canada) bowl of beef noodles was 9500won and 4 spring rolls was 5000won. Wanjun had some wierd vingerette think noodles for 9000won. The food was decent, but nothing amazing. The presentation of the food was good though and the cleaness of the restaurant was nice. Something I am not used to for a pho restaurant. The bathroom was super nice. Had lots of nice decorations and cloth towels to dry your hands. Usually at the pho restaurants in Richmond, the washrooms are dirty with flies around. Again, small food but we were full so we took the subway to Dongdaemun and we were determined to find a place to stay. The bag that I was carrying got really heavy after we shoved all of our (Wanjun) bought items. It took us forever to find a place to stay. We couldn't find a motel and we didn't want to stay at a Sauna or Best Western. We walked into one "motel" place but it ended up being a massage parlour. We finally found a place to stay for 25,000won after 1 hour of walking around. We put down our stuff and took an hour rest before heading out to the late night Dongdaemun shopping. We went to the complex malls to get some coffee first then walked around. It is wierd to see 8 floor buildings being open at 1am and it is even more wierd to see girls getting their nails done at 2am in the morning. Wanjun ended up buying a few shirts but I couldn't find anything that was nice for me. We walked around to the side markets and just shopping around. The time was around 4am and we were both tired so we decided to walk back to our motel room to sleep for the night. Bellow are all the pictures that we took for Saturday:
This was the chinese restaurant that we ate at:













Outside Myeongdong Area:




Some random performance:


mmmm ice cream in Insadong


Wanjun bored while waiting for me to try on clothes:

Canadian national...

Of Hong Kong decent..




At Technomart waiting for the shuttle bus to Walker Hill Casino:





Walker Hill Casino and Sheraton Resort:











The Vietnamese Pho restaurant we ate at:








Look at the cleaness of the washroom!



Back in Dongdaemun area:





My "real" Gucci socks:





Mmm coffee at like 1am:








And that's it for the night. We were too tired to take pictures (ok we forgot) of the motel in Dongdaemun. But just imagine a place for $25. Oh, I also saw a big cockroach in the room that scared the crap out of me!