9 October 2006: Part Two

We left the grand palace in the afternoon after a whole morning touring the place. We headed first for Namdaemun, which sells a variety of things such as traditional medicine, exotic foodstuff, clothings, textiles, and sundries. Namdaemun resembles Shilin Night Market in many aspects, and shares many similarities with the People's Park Complex of Singapore. Namdaemun receives its present name because the market lies adjacent to the South Gate of the old city walls of Hanyang (Seoul).

We had bought little (or nothing?) in Namdaemun, and went to Dongdaemun Market (as suggested by Daniel). Francoise fell into a state of ecstacy upon seeing so many shopping malls with clothing vendors sprung all over the blocks. These malls are exactly like Beijing's Xiushui Street (秀水街; not a street but a shopping complex "renowned" for clothes and imitations), except that they are many! Dongdaemun area offers clothes at very competitive and reasonable prices, and Francoise had bought 3 pieces there. For guys, the apparel offered does not suit Singapore's hot weather, because the shirts are literally all long-sleeved ones with outside sleeveless vests to match in colour and style. Not very practical if I had purchased them.

Dongdaemun has authentic Korean food stalls lined along the ever-busy streets, and the market literally operates on a 24-hour basis (it never sleeps!), and some of the shopping malls are open only from late evening to the wee hours of the morning! We were barred from entry into some of them at as late as 9pm at night! Similarly, Dongdaemun receives its current name because it lies adjacent to the ancient East Gate.

Then to conclude the hectic day, we paid for an expensive cab ride home (~S$40!) at midnight because all forms of public transport had ceased operations then. The cabby literally shook our hands profusely after we had paid him and gave his heartfelt thanks to us happily. In Mandarin, we 哭笑不得.