Nandaemun Market

Where Autumn Doesn't End

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We decided to go to Nandaemun Market instead of Dongdaemun Market.

Tips : Most of travelers will go to Dongdaemun Market as it is one of the most popular destination and located in special tourism zone. It has 2 sections, retail and wholesale.
Anyhow, we didn’t always follow the travel rules. We took train at Jonggak Station – Line 1 and changed at Seoul Station. We then stopped at Hoehyeon Station – Line 4 and walked about 10-15 minutes towards one open space. We seriously where to head as we were not prepared for this market.
“Sit first…take out the map…” hubby asked me to sit on one of the bench by the roadside.

“I think that way la…you see this…” I pointed to the right and noticed one old couple with two black plastic bags sat next to us.

“Not sure…we can try…” hubby replied and sat next to me.

We sat for about 10 minutes and suddenly, the old lady came to us and handed in 2 bananas! We looked at her, smiled, and said “…err…its ok…sankyu, sankyu…” rejected her gift.

She insisted and smiled…still stood in front of us and asked us to take those two bananas. She must have thought that we were lost in space, finding our way home, only had ‘serunding’ to survive, and now no more money…(in this furry jacket? Hahaha!) Both, old lady and old man were so nice, to give food to strangers. Kudos to the Korean old folks.
Anyway, we REALLY hope those two bananas didn’t come from the pig ceremony just now. Hahaha! We concentrated looking at the map while eating those bananas. 20% energy was added! Hehehe! We then walked 50 meters, and saw one big camera shop.

“WAHHHHHHH…CAMERA LA! FINALLY!” Hubby shouted happily. Believe me, he was looking for camera shops since day one and he only found it on our last day in Seoul. Well, Canon still open but Nikon not! Hik!AND thank god he found it on our final day! Or else, he would have spent all his money there!

Anyway, he bought two types of hood that were half cheaper than what M’sia could offer! Maybe because Korea is nearer to Japan. Don’t you guys think so?
We walked by the roadside and passed by few street vendors. Most of them selling shoes, leggings, winter attires, foods, and such. We didn’t know whether we should crossed the road or remained on this side.
“AYANG! AVANTE!!! HUIYOOOOO!!!” Again hubby shouted when he saw Hyundai Avante 2011 that just newly launched and haven’t come to M’sia. Dang! It was so stunning! Can’t wait to have one! (Got money meh?)
We walked further up and saw one ‘bibimbap’ restaurant. We once thought of trying this dish as it is made of rice, egg, and vegetable. Some has beef inside. We noticed that this resto served ‘bibimbap’ WITH beef. (Zzzzzzzzz…) We clearly had to pass it.
We finally reached Nandaemun Market Gate 6.
Tips : Nandaemun Market is the biggest traditional market in Korea selling children's clothing, men & women's clothing, daily miscellaneous goods, kitchenware and local and imported products. It has 8 gates that encircled the market. It is massive and packed, so note your gate clearly.
There were lots of products that being categorized, such as accessories, women’s clothing, kids’s clothing, imported goods, traditional foods, you name it. But walking in this enormous area made you confused with what you see and what you want.
I saw one vendor selling Korean t-shirts and asked, “How much?”

“You from where?” He asked me. “Malaysia…” I answered and wondered. What’s got to do with where I came from?

“Murah…murah…” he answered. Wah, he straight away spoke Malay. Haha! Only that word la. The rest he spoke simple English.

“4,000won.” RM12 each. But looking at the material, it wasn’t the same like what we bought in Insadong. Good material normally 8,000won and above. This one was thinner and wider. Cheap material. So, I skipped to buy for Nanzo and Deb.

We walked deeper in the alley and lost in directions. We tried to find our way out and bumped into two tourist guide in red windbreaker.
“How to go back to the subway?” We asked them.

“Oooo…you walk straight and turn left. Subway is on your left.” Easy huh? Do we have this in Petaling Street?

We walked towards the given direction and saw the main gate of Nandaemun Market. We snapped few pictures, again, at the Canon shop, and took a train from Hoehyeon Station – Line 4 and changed at Dongdaemun Station. We then took a train and stopped at Jongno 5 (o) ga Station – Line 1 and headed to the locker, where we kept our bags.
“Ok…we had issue when we wanted to deposit our bags…now, how to get it open?” We looked at each other and laughed.

Again, we looked for the subway officers nearby and asked them to do it for us. The same thing happened, they also unsure which button to press and how it worked.

Finally, “Ting” the locker automatically opened.

“Yeayyyyy!” Everyone clapped. Hahahaha! IT WAS FUN YOU KNOW, exploring new thing with locals.

We quickly took out our bags and we had 2 hours to reach Incheon International Airport. First, we took the subway train at Jongno 5 (o) ga Station – Line 1, changed at Jongno 3 (sam) ga Station, then switch to Line 5 and straightttttttttttttttttttttttttt to Gimpo International Airport Station. It was a long way and thank god we had place to seat. At Gimpo International Airport Station, we had to walk 2 level down to take a train to Incheon International Airport.
Tips : Ask subway officer if you don’t see any board or direction. Gimpo line is in purple, while Incheon line is in baby blue. During our time, they changed the Gimpo International Airport Station, one level down. Luckily, two officers waited there and directed all passengers to downstairs.

Train to Incheon International Airport was really fast, though it only has 5 stops. The longest stop took almost 30 minutes to be reached. Unexpectedly, I saw Wifi in this train! WOW! Can we have this in our LRT or Mono? Hahaha! See how advance huh people out there? Sigh…
We finally reached Incheon International Airport and checked in. Since there was no web-check-in, we had to queue as usual. I stopped at Lotte Duty Free shop for a while to get ciggies for Dibitz.Once boarded, we went straight to our seats and bought two dishes when the air crew started to sell in-flight foods.
About 5AM, we reached LCCT and walked straight to the end of the airport, to catch a bus. Hell no, the bus still not operated! It started at 7.25AM…so to kill time, we had our breakfast and ‘lepak’ at the waiting area.

Then I saw and heard this one auntie, who was in the same flight with us. She had a chat with one guy about her travel stories to Japan, China, and such. Wah, this ‘makcik’ also travelholic ke?To add into excitement, she took out one black log book and showed to the guy. HUIYOOO! THIS AUNTIE HAS TRAVEL LOG BOOK! Come to think of it, if she knows how to use Blogger, she must have one blog about travel…isn’t it? Kalah I, Chawana, Lily! Hehehe!

We reached home at 9AM and both of us were surprised with one amazing scene…

We have autumn in Puncak Jalil!!! Awwwwww...

To end Seoul Trip post, I leave you guys with my total lost.

The end
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