Final Photos from Seoul

 After I finished looking around Ikseondong, I jumped in a cab and went to the neighbourhood of Itaewon. When I first came to Korea, Itaewon was a rather scummy place where people would noisily try to sell you fake luxury goods and custom suits on the main street. When the sun went down you would be accosted by prostitutes standing at the entrances to dodgy looking bars and dark alleys.

The city cleaned the place up and the main drag now has Starbucks, nice hotels, expensive clothes shops, luxury apartmetns, an Apple store, and so on. But off the main drag is where the 99% live. That's where I spent my time making photos because it's a lot more interesting.

Morning purse shop.

Maybe this guy spent so much on his BMW that he could only afford to live in a back street.

Some of the back streets are starting to go fancy. No doubt driving up rent for the locals.

I'm guessing 'Yurt' is a café.

I thought this was rather funny when I saw it, but I'm not sure the garbage bags in the background stand out enough to make the photo work.

Frankie Coffee and Barbara's Kitchen. 

I sweat like a (insert obscenity here) walking up and down the hills of the neighbourhood.

Hyeseong Market. A shop that, according to their sign, sells rice, fruit, vegetables, side dishes, and cigarettes. There's probably ice cream in the cooler in front of the store.

A shop advertising general construction and repair. Not sure I'd call them.

Didn't attempt these stairs . . . .

Picture of Jesus at the bottom of a tall jumble of apartments. 

Love this Honda motorcycle. I would love to have one, but I'm not that suicidal yet.

Colour!

This halal restaurant used to be a famous bar called Polly's Kettle. They served lemon and cherry soju that tasted like Kool-Aid, and you didn't know you were plastered until you stood up and tried walking back to your hotel. So I've heard . . . . 

Foreign Food Mart. Groceries from around the world. A very interesting place to browse.

I took a taxi to the express bus terminal after I did a bit of shopping in the Foreign Food Mart. Seoul has an excellent subway system, but I stopped using it when visiting Seoul. Taxis are more expensive, but they are comfortable. And it's not like I visit Seoul every weekend or anything.

The bus home. It rained heavily near the mountains separating Gangwon Province from the west.

Seoul was pretty good, but next time I'll go when the weather is cooler and I don't sweat so much on the hills.