South Korea Trip - Day 4 - Itaewon, Namsangol Hanok Village

It's time for my Seoul trip report! (yeah.. ive got nothing better to do..) On our 4th day in Seoul, we went to Itaewon to meet another CS friend- Jordan. He's an American and has spent a few years teaching at an English hagwon (academy for children). The awareness of importance of English is increasing nowadays so the parents would send their children, as young as 4 years old to learn English at hagwon. So, most of the youngins can speak good English. Accent American berhabuk.. hehe. If i were to convert the standard salary of an English teacher to RM, it is over RM6000 per month and on top of that, lodging is provided. $$$$

Itaewon is also known as the 'foreigner's district' because of the diversity of the people here. Most foreigners in Seoul would come to Itaewon if they want to eat smthg from their motherland. There's a lot of Middle Eastern kebab (HALAL!) restaurant, African restaurant, Thai restaurant etc.. Unfortunately no Malaysian restaurant. If I were to open 1 sate restaurant, uuu.. makcik kayo! My junior, Liyana once told me.. one ahjumma (old lady) suddenly asked her why she's staying in Guro instead of Itaewon. Haha!

Waiting for Jordan in front of Hamilton

Sweet, sweet Jordan.. We had lunch at one Thai restaurant. The tomyam was SUPERB. A bit different from what we have in Malaysia, there's santan in it.

We were excited to see halal meat eventhough it was in this form. :)

Nuur in front of Itaewon mosque. The Islamic centre is located here. We even met 3 female muallafs. beautiful..

After Zuhr prayer at the mosque, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village. Nuur wanted to try on the hanbok (the traditional dress) there. We couldnt find the place first so we went in Korea House. We thought it was a museum, it is actually a hanok (traditional korean house) converted into a restaurant. Chincha yeppuda! We were allowed to look around the place.

I dont know what these are..

Peek-a-boo! Mende ni weh?

Doenjang! It's fermented beans, used to cook doenjang jjigae.. This is the must-have in every Korean home.

A teepee look-a-like. Nuur tido situ mlm tu..

It is actually a shed for the porcealain pots(?). Usually the pots that are used to store doenjang and kimchi are buried in the soil during winter. It allows better fermentation. Healthy!

We were wandering around Korea House compound and the next second, we were at Namsangol Hanok Village.. Haha! They are connected. Unfortunately, no hanbok available for us to try.. I dont know why. Maybe the hanboks are frozen in winter. :p

A ssireum (Korean wrestling) ring.

Swings used in the palace. I dont know how it works..

The kitchen.. If u're an avid viewer of Family Outing, they've used these many times before to cook rice, beans.. etc.

Weee~ See-saw!

Enjoying a cheap cuppa beside the beautiful pond..

Nuur would have jumped in if it wasnt winter..

Areumdaum! (beautiful!)

Meditating.. Trying to get the voices out of my head. ;p

You're supposed to run while driving the metal ring in front of u. We weren't able to make the ring stand for more than 3 seconds. Babo..

This is melted sugar snack.. I thot it'd taste sweet but it has this bitter after-taste. ew. You can see Namsan Tower in the background.

We went back to Nuur's cousin's apartment. Something happened and we couldnt stand being in the house any longer so we went to Times Square in Yongdeungpo to catch a movie. We watched Ninja Assasin, the UNCUT version. Coolness.. Gory, but awesome!

The movie 'tickets'. Looked more like receipts.. 8000won/pax. It's RM24. Baik tgk Gold Class kat GSC. hehe.

More to come, ppl!