1.3MP CamPhone | Seoul's Subway Train Passing By

Just a quick post from the el cheapo phone camera.



People watching as the train passed by.

SEOUL | NAMDAEMUN 4

One tip when travelling, don't just put your camera in front of your face all the time!

Take your time, enjoy the scene, indulge in the ambience, watch the crowd, because you just don't know when a moment like this happens.


The lady in the cafe, Anyong Haseyo.

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A different perspective of Namdaemun Market.



It is quite hard to maneuvere in the narrow alley of the market, especially if you are carrying a huge bag.

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Namdaemun Market is encompassed within heap of skycrapers.

Skycrapers, scraping the upper space.

Nevertheless, the ray of the sun can still penetrate in between them, giving the people opportunity to gaze at themselves for hours.


People browsing at the item on sale, as can be seen from the mirror's reflection.

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Now we are off to Namdaemun Market.

Namdaemun Market is huge, very huge.

It is actually an open air market selling varieties of item.

From Kimchi to underwears, from antiques to souvenirs, and even electronic especially photography equipments!

There are many gates in Namdaemun, so you can enter any one of the gates, which is clearly marked in Roman Numeral, so that easier for you to find your way around, nevertheless, in any gate you pass thru, be prepared to get lost in the mazes of alleys or market stalls.



A sign on the street to show your bearing.


No Photo Please! Yea, right, as if you can talk, one of the statue that awaits the heavy flow of people.


Some of the items on sale in Namdaemun Market.


What I noticed is that, there are hundred or even thousand of banners hang everywhere, some kind of publicity it were, even this guy was use as a publicity stunt, by having some adverts on his vest.



There were also some sort of auction going on, the locals are perhaps very use to such scene, you can learn from them in how to haggle for the best price.

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Another batch of photos of Insa Dong before moving on to another area.

Fast flow of people on the busy street.


Local souvenirs can be found here, from clothes to home deco.


For those who loves Korean Traditional stuffs, then you will be like a child lost in a candy store.


Loads of colourful small ornaments for your mobile phones and key holders etc, are sold along the street.


And with that, we will leave Insa Dong for a while, and the next destination is Nam Dae Mun.

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Now, I just feel like wanna put it in Black & White.

Insa Dong, as I mentioned earlier, is an interesting street, and was always on the look out to capture something as a memorabilia.

Hope, even in black & white, one can still feels the happening of the street.


A lady reading a pamphlet, may be, she is also a tourist like me, or may be just a local tourist, looking at another interesting places to go, or even just wanna know the bearing of her whereabout in Insa Dong.


This guy is waiting for customers, I was informed that, inside that huge pot is Kimchi, the local traditional delicatessen, pickled onion.


Whilst some of the people, browsing the items for sale, in this case, some antiques, very old manuscripts, junk to one but treasure to others.


Then, this veteran gentleman, just smoking his day away, enjoying his retirement life, yet he is very smartly dressed, kes abis bank lah ni.


Then for some, they have had enough happening for the day, they are moving away from the busy street of Insa Dong, to another place with a different ambience.

SEOUL | INSA DONG 1

After a few years absence from Insa Dong (as if I'm here every year), oh well, the last trip was actually in 2006, now I'm back again.

Insa Dong is one of the most visited street in Seoul i.e. must visit street when one is in Seoul.

The street itself, is still the same as few years back, still as vibrant, lots of people, and now I noticed that, large number of people are lugging around their huge DSLRs, so I was quite alright.


One of the signboards which one can not miss when entering the street.


Upon arriving at the area, there was a street show performing Korea's traditional culture, unfortunately, the show finishes less than 5 minutes after that, they might have started much earlier.


Hence, I was not able to capture load of stuff, and only manage to get these.


So why Insa Dong, what is there so special about it, you might ask.

Well, there are many interesting stuff that you can find here, from tiny little antiques, to the typical Korea souvenir and what interest me most is the many interesting type of people that you can see here.



Language might be a barrier for most of us, but numeral or numbers are still the same, so when you are traveling to a foreign area, remember to bring a compact calculator, so that it is easier for you to communicate.

FYI, USD1 = 1,000WON

More to come, with more insights and perhaps some travel tips and photo tips.

STREET | The Demonstration

In a very recent sojourn in Seoul, at the very first day, whilst one the way to Insadong, we encountered some sort of peaceful demonstration at one of the major street.

Not really sure what the commotion was all about, as all of the banners were in Korean.



At first, I thought that it was some sort of a celebration, as there was a band marching by, but there were banners everywhere.


The only word that I, and even you, could understand is "NO". So if anyone of you understand Korean, please translate it for us.


Obviously, all the security enforcement officers were everywhere, all over the place.

Many people were watching along the street. I just cannot imagine if there were an actual parade to celebrate a festival, even more and more people will definitely flood the area.


There were even children marching in the demonstration, also carrying a banner.


Thou there were a large crowd, but these youngster does not seems to care about the demonstration, the ladies are only interested in that young man, at first I thought he must be an artist, Rain perhaps? But no, I don't think so, perhaps he was too engrossed watching the demonstration that, the ladies is trying to get his attention off it.

On a different note:

Was reading the news regarding the Malay Regiments "Invading" Buckingham Palace.

Yeap, if anyone of you who are going to the UK, and just wanna capture those English guard in duty, with their afro looking hair, and red/black uniform, well, you are out of luck, instead you will find a Malay soldier, adorning the "Baju Melayu" with their local hat or Songkok, guarding Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and even St. James Palace for this month until next month!

I don't wanna spoilt the fun in this story, so to know more about this story, just search it on the net, bt don't worry, this a genuine news.

ABSTRACT | The Trolleys

What is more important than trolleys to transport your goods around.



Those trolleys in their yellow and blue jerseys.

TRAVEL | The High Ceiling

Part of some where HUGE.

So huge that they can contained trains and airplane, even the new 380.


A very good design, making use of the natural lighting, hence saving energy to light the huge area.