Seoul DIY Itinerary - Day 5 (Final)

Date of Travel: 3-8 Nov 2010

Today is our last day in Seoul, our flight departs at 11:20pm, so we've got a whole day ahead of us. Since HH is into photography, we decided to check out a techie mall. There are 2 very famous such malls in Seoul:
1) Electroland at Yongsan Electronics Market
2) Techno Mart (Gangbyeon Station)

We picked the second option, Techno Mart. The place was huge, consisting of 10 floors filled with almost the same thing. I gotta tell you, I was shocked that they had motion sensors in the toilet. In every cubicle, the moment you step in and closed the door, the light comes on. I know they do this at corridors of apartments, but in the toilets too? Wow.


Walking around in here, we felt like a prey waiting to be pounced on. We gingerly walked up to one, and started asking about lenses for our DSLR. He promptly brought out a range of lenses, and snapped it onto our camera, and started taking photos to show us how good they were. He kept pushing and pushing, and we had to take a step back.. it wasn't our style to buy under pressure.

Technomart in Seoul

Why do you keep putting your lenses on my camera and taking photos of me??

After discussing privately, HH decided to buy a Sigma 18-125mm f3.5-5.6 DC OS. We walked around and chose a shop that looked desperate. It was an old uncle reading newspapers, and a stall that looks rather dark and unimaginative. We wrote down the lens, and asked Urmaehyo (how much)? He took out a folder, and flipped through and took a calculator and showed us 385,000 Won which was approximately RM1400 at the time. I knew I could probably get it for RM1600 in Malaysia, so the saving was not significant. So we declined, and he pushed the calculator back to us, and asked us to punch a number.

Both of us were stunned... what do we do? I don't feel like being shouted at on our last day of such a wonderful holiday, but yet I did not want to let a good deal go. I looked at Hui Hui, she shrugged. So fine, how much would I be willing to buy it for? I'd say roughly RM1000 which was approximately 300,000 Won. I boldly took the calculator and keyed in that number, showed it to Hui Hui, and she shrugged again. I flashed it in front of the guy, and closed my eyes waiting for onslaught of shouting in Korean. But it was silent. I opened my eyes, and saw the guy frown. He took out his folder again, and took back the calculator and kept punching numbers. He kept calculating quietly for several minutes and finally punched in 320,000 and showed it to us, and closed his folder and kept it under the counter. He made hand gestures indicating, "No more - this price is final". Not bad, it came to RM1100, that's quite a bargain. So we took the deal and happily went off with the new lens!

After a quick lunch at the food court, we decided to test out the lens. We headed to the Namsan Seoul Tower. Our directions indicated:

Subway Chungmuro Line 3/4, exit 2 to the right of Daehan Multiplex entrance. Take yellow bus # 2 at bus stop in front of subway, get off at N Seoul Tower stop.

Fare: 550won, 0800-2400, every 5-6 mins

Tips:

- If you want to take an entire picture of N Seoul Tower, you have to go to the Roof Terrace at P2 level and lie down on the floor down the stairway.

- There are two cable cars in operation. If you want to take a picture of it, take a back seat inside a cable car, and take a picture of the other one going down or up.

- In the evening when the lights are turned on, you can take a romantic photo against the night view of Seoul and fabulous illumination of the terrace on the first floor.

The treacherous hill you have to climb all the way up

It was such a lovely place to be at. Plus all the leaves were red for autumn, the weather was nice, the view was great. As it was getting late, we did not want to risk missing our bus to the airport. Plus we haven't had dinner yet and needed to pick up our luggage from the hotel. So we just got some photos from the outside and headed off.

Laughing at the people having to climb this torturous hill

Dinner was once again at Sinchon Seolnongtang, our favourite! Then we bade goodbye to Seoul and promised to return for the Seolnongtang one day.

Other posts in this series:
Seoul DIY Itinerary - Day 1
Seoul DIY Itinerary - Day 2 
Seoul DIY Itinerary - Day 3
Seoul DIY Itinerary - Day 4