On Day 6 we decided to take some public transportation to Myongdong where there’s a shopping hot spot for tourists and Koreans alike. It’s also popular hangout and destination spot among younger Koreans from all over. The bus ride took about an hour from Suji and is about 20 miles away to the southeast. The fare was only 1800 won, ~$1.80US so that was a pretty good deal if you asked me! Only problem is that unless you speak Korean, you might have a hard time interpreting the stops as there is no English translation on board.
Traffic congestion in Myongdong.
Butt loads of people getting off of busses onto a street median.
Busses are everywhere in Korea, often times seen in caravans.
Shopping in Myongdong
Namdaemun Market
If Myongdong is for the hip youngsters, then Namdaemun Market would be for the older crowd and a good spot for tourists to shop for souvenirs and trinkets. I found that prices for the same goods and souvenirs were about double the cost in other tourist hot spots like Itaewon.
One of the many gates leading into Namdaemun Market.
The guy pictured below was the highlight of my visit to the market. I was told that he was a retarded beggar that went around to every vendor in the market yelling a Korean soccer chant from there last world cup visit circa 2004? It was pretty funny actually, it was interesting to see the locals staring at him as well so I didn’t feel so left out 
. When I took this picture I was standing about 30 feet away from him just watching and then he spotted me with my camera around my neck and posed for me. Hilarious!
Retarded yet crafty beggar with a loud voice.
Phone booth based fish monger.
One of the many fruit vendors.
Subway
From Myongdong, we hopped on a subway to our next destination for ~$1 (1,000 won). The subway was a treat since it was first time taking a subway anywhere and man, how I wished we had one underneath Southern California! It was very clean here and had stops like every half to 1 mile? We eventually took multiple lines all the way home to Suji for a $1 ticket (16 mile trip).
Clean subway.
People on subway.
Itaewon
We then took the subway to Itaewon which I think should be called little America or Europe or something. You can find a ton of internationally recognized brands here along with a lot of higher-end shopping. There was also a surprising number of Americans here! I’d say out of all the people I saw walking around a good 30-40% were either Americans or Europeans. I even heard the loud booming rap music from cars just like at home. And if you didn’t know, there’s a US military base nearby which explains it all.
Western restaurants.
Nightclub for foreigners.
Got Yahoo travel luggage?
Bulgogi burger! It was ok.
‘Triangle Pie’ – It tastes like a deep fried hot fudge brownie, except the crust was 10 days old.
Itaewon street vendors.
Illegit street vendor with a legit Nike store in the background.
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