Gukje Market
Apr. 23rd, 2006 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
av8rmikeWords can't even describe what today was like. I'll try to let the pictures speak for themselves. My co-worker and I walked down the hill from the hotel to an area of town called Gukje market. It takes up several blocks of the main street, then extends off each side for several more blocks before merging with another shopping area further downtown.
The main part of the market is lots of tiny stores, most selling clothing, shoes, luggage/handbags, but others selling electronics, office supplies, other textiles, anything. Off to the right of the street above is the really cramped part of the market where they sell mostly food products: fresh fish, other seafood and products I couldn't even identify, packaged goods... It kept going on and on. Unfortunately, as I look through the pictures I took, I was trying too hard not to look like a complete tourist to take pictures of the really crowded section. This, coupled with the fact that most Koreans just don't speak English well enough to want to deal with me, made me feel pretty uncomfortable.
This side street had a number of video arcades, and according to one map I found, a big movie theater at one end.
This street marked the end of the market proper and the beginning of a slightly more upscale shopping area. For the three or so hours I spent in the market, I didn't buy a single thing, mostly because there was nothing I was wanting, no one in particular I was shopping for, and no desire to buy cheap knock-off Korean goods.
A different street in the area, looking back toward the hills.
Batman Bar!
The whole time, I had this song going through my head, appropriately:
A man walks down the street,
It's a street in a strange world.
Maybe it's the Third World.
Maybe it's his first time around.
He doesn't speak the language,
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man,
He is surrounded by the sound, sound ....
Cattle in the marketplace.
Scatterlings and orphanages.
...except that I didn't see any angels in the architecture, and was carrying about 90,000 KRW.
The main part of the market is lots of tiny stores, most selling clothing, shoes, luggage/handbags, but others selling electronics, office supplies, other textiles, anything. Off to the right of the street above is the really cramped part of the market where they sell mostly food products: fresh fish, other seafood and products I couldn't even identify, packaged goods... It kept going on and on. Unfortunately, as I look through the pictures I took, I was trying too hard not to look like a complete tourist to take pictures of the really crowded section. This, coupled with the fact that most Koreans just don't speak English well enough to want to deal with me, made me feel pretty uncomfortable.
This side street had a number of video arcades, and according to one map I found, a big movie theater at one end.
This street marked the end of the market proper and the beginning of a slightly more upscale shopping area. For the three or so hours I spent in the market, I didn't buy a single thing, mostly because there was nothing I was wanting, no one in particular I was shopping for, and no desire to buy cheap knock-off Korean goods.
A different street in the area, looking back toward the hills.
Batman Bar!
The whole time, I had this song going through my head, appropriately:
A man walks down the street,
It's a street in a strange world.
Maybe it's the Third World.
Maybe it's his first time around.
He doesn't speak the language,
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man,
He is surrounded by the sound, sound ....
Cattle in the marketplace.
Scatterlings and orphanages.
...except that I didn't see any angels in the architecture, and was carrying about 90,000 KRW.
