Ch’ŏngdami-dong

We dedicated today to Gangnam. Sure, why not? On our way to Gangnam we stopped off at a good place to view cherry blossoms:

Stop 1
Seoul forest Park
Decent sized park at the banks of the Han River, located centrally only a couple of subway stops away from either the city centre or Gangnam. It's a popular spot for locals to pose for cherry blossom pictures; you get to see tome serious deep squatting skills as dudes crouch down to snap that perfect pic of their girlfriends grinning patiently in front a tree in full bloom. It also has little interactive sound installations such as big megaphones and drums for the kids. Its indoor insect garden was also very child friendly with turtles, fish, shrimp, spiders and beetles behind glass.

Stop 2
Borgeunsa temple
After having walked an hour through Gangnam's streets to get a feel for the place, our first stop in Gangnam was a large Buddhist temple. We weren't quite sure when to bow and all that, but copying the locals seemed to work. The temple has a large stone statue of Buddha circled by thousands of smaller Buddha statues. The large statue wore a graduation hat 🎓 with fish hanging off all four corners. While we had no idea what it all meant to the bowing, praying locals it was cool to see.

Stop 3
Coex mall
Large shopping centre, located underground as seems to be the typical Korean custom. It was big and sprawling with several high end shops. People around here sure appreciate their European luxury brands, their European style eateries and cafés, but seem to prefer Korean brands for cosmetics and skincare. One can observe how the Korean obsession with skincare, even cosmetics as well as luxury leather bags has reached some adoption in younger men. I wonder if we'll see the same in our neck of the woods in the future.

Stop 4
Starfield library
Also in the shopping centre is a large library. Its escalators and massive curved book shelfs make it a famous picture taking spot for Instagram girls. Cool to check it out and get ourselves a couple of photographic souvenirs.

We finished the day with a classic Korean meal; Bulgogi rice pot. There was a whole ritual to eating it. Transfer food from pot to bowl, stir in raw egg yolk, pour buckwheat tea into pot, let soak, cleanse palate with fermented, spicy radishes, stir pot to release burnt rice stuck to bottom and drink your rice soup. Good thing it came with instructions in English.Read more