.... Shopping The Korean Way ....

We never really had time to shop when we were in Seoul .... our schedule was jammed packed with allocation for prayer .... meals ..... travel time.... travel takes quite a bit cos for us to travel out into the city and Sam-Gak San .... two ways ... we need at least 3hrs ... and not to mention ... Seoul can be quite jam .... especially peak hour!!! Highways and byways .... all packed with vehicles!! Reminds me of KL .... especially Federal Highway or Golden Triangle peak hours.

So, did we shop in Korea? What we heard from Pastor Joyce and Bro Dae Koreans shop online a lot ... they will just call their neighborhood supermarket and order all that they need for a meal and the things are delivered within 1hr or so ... so by the time they get home from work ... the things are at their doorsteps .... ready for them to cook dinner. Seems this is the typical way of working moms operate in Korea ... anyway ... my dear Pris also shop the Korean way ... she will order clothes online ... and they will ship it into Spore from Korea ... she seems to like this way of shopping so far ... she loves Korean fashion ...

Anyway .... on our 5th day, we was taken to a local supermarket that sells fresh vegie and fruits ... cheap cos its a joint venture between the government and the local company. Here, we were given 20minutes to shop.... which was later extended to 30mins ....

We rushed into the supermarket .... grab all that we can ... we dont have time to think if its cheaper here or not cos we dont have time to convert ... we don really have time to read the labels because 95% of it is in Korean!!! So how do we shop??? Hahhaha ... using the "aunty" instinct .... we just grab grab grab ... you buy what ... i also buy mode .... hahahha ...

It was really hilarious - because at the end of the way ... what I wanted to buy was Kimchi .... and discovered that what I got at the end was kimchi paste instead ... what I wanted to buy was something like Uncle Ben's rice with some instant dish .... spicy chicken etc ... what I got was just the instant dish ... I had to rush to cook rice to eat with it just now ....

Anyway ... I ended up buy lots of instant noodles (yummy2) ... 2.8kg of kimchi sos and more ... cos got free gift (super heavy ... make me over weight ...25.1kg!! .. so happy cos tot I can eat kimchi when I get back ... but low and behold -- its just the sos ... hahhaha ) ... few boxes of the instant chicken meat cooked in some Chinese sos ... but Korean style .... seaweeds .... and also chili power ... and anchovies powder ... to make kimchi myself (I have not learn how to make it but I have seen someone doing it .... go hopefully .... can agak my way into making kimchi) .... got a set of those powder for SM as well ..... I shd be expecting kimchi from her as well :0

After "attacking" the supermarket for 30minutes ... we lined up to pay ... we could not understand what the cashier was trying to say to us ... after awhile they gave up ... showed us the total sum ... we paid.

Then comes the packing time .... hahhaha ... betul2 like siau char bors .... we quickly packed them into carton boxes available .... imagine 15 people buying stuff ... race against time .... and now ... race against time to pack ... lolz ... betul2 crazy one ... the aunties each carried at least one non stick pan to bbq chicken/beef etc ... it seems no need add oil and easy to clean up after use.

We laughed all the way in the bus after the shopping experience ...

After attending the Fri prayer meeting at ChooYong Ci church .... we headed for our 2nd round of shopping ... where we were taken to was a place like Bai Yoke in Bangkok ....its the area where wholesellers and distributors sell their goods .... from shoes .... bags ... accessories ... clothes ... you name it .. they have it .... we spent about 2hrs there ..... the place opens at 12midnite - 4am ... there are some things that we want to buy from stall ... but the owner is not around ... either because she is eating and chatting away with some of the other owners or she is just not to be found ... I manage to buy some tshirts and blouses here ... but I find that the things are not cheap ... very hard to bargain because we do not buy them in bulk. But it was quite interesting to see the night shopping of Seoul...

The last place we shopped was off course the airport .... the flight was delayed 1hrs ... so aunties had opportunity to shop again .... I did not shop because I will NOT pay for airport price items unless I know that it is super cheap --- which it is not in the normal case.The aunties bought watches .... ginseng sweets .... etc ... I ...NIL ... I logged into the net to clear my mails and virus attached my hotmail ... hahhaa ....

Here ends my shopping story in Seoul .... interesting ... fun .... m sure their is much more to explore ... but things are expensive ... so ..... cant really shop here ... at least for my standard ... perhaps if I can go with a local .. it can be much cheaper ...