Our Neighbourhood and Shopping Tales

Have been meaning to post some photos showing you our neighbourhood. Finally have a little time, so here goes, plus a few interesting shots from elsewhere in Seoul and some shopping photos.

First is a classic shot of Hannam-dong, an old neighbourhood located on the hilly slopes between the Han River and Itaewon-dong. The Hannam Presbyterian Church caps one hilltop and the Seoul Grand Mosque (close to Itaewon) caps another. Betweeen them is a warren of laneways, alleys, stairways, and narrow roads. It's fun and a bit of a workout to explore. It's easy to get lost, but if you keep an eye on the sun (having a built-in compass helps too), it's not hard to get un-lost.


In the lower part of the Hannam-dong there are commercial streets with lots of restaurants and 4 storey apartment blocks (called villas here) where more affluent Koreans and foreigners (like us) live. I posted a picture of our building in a post in April. Our neighbourhood is bound on the east by a busy 4-lane road the goes south to the Hannam Bridge, one of 17 that cross the Han River in Seoul. Here Jin and Lili wait for a green light to cross this busy road. Below right is a quieter commercial street down the road from our place.

A little further down that road is the Chicken Hof where they serve up great BBQ'd chicken. Here one of the many cardboard box collectors hauls his wagon by the hof on his way to a nearby depot. And on the right is a more typical Korean BBQ restaurant. Photos of their menu items (mostly various cuts of beef shown raw) are on display out front.

There also a bunch of seafood restaurants with their menu items swimming in tanks out front. Here the girls watch squids swim round and round.

And there is a variety shops and restaurants with more western fare. Like Mr. Pizz,a Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins and Paris Bageutte. The ice cream at Baskin Robbins is very expesnive. We find the ice cream sticks and popsicles available at most convenience stores are much cheaper and surprisingly good. The last photo shows Jin (under the blue umbrella) waiting outside the "Pizza School" for our Friday night pizza. This place has great cheap ($5 to $7) pizzas!

For foreign food items we can go to the upscale Hannam Supermarket, in the basement of the Volvo Building (the Hannam Bowling Alley is in the second basement - it has the nicest washrooms we've seen yet in Korea...but that is another storey). Up in Itaewon there is the "Foreign Food Market"which has a large variety of food items from around the workd, but caters more to the relatively large Muslim population in this part of town.

Speaking of Itaewon and Muslims, here is a shot of the entrance to the Seoul Grand Mosque grounds. There are a number of Halal shops in this neighbourhood. Note the wires in the picture. The wiring in this city is crazy! It's hard to get a clear photo of anything without at least one (or ten!) power, cable or telephone wires being in it. Check out this maze of wires!


I think I've mentioned the crazy driving here. What has been amazing is that we've only seen a handful of accidents and most of those were just fender benders. This is even more amazing considering that people commonly ride motorcycles without helmets, on sidewalks, through red lights and sometimes with their kids sitting on their laps!!!!). Anyway, here is one accident involving a tow truck (lucky?) where I happened to have my camera handy. If you have a serious accident you might end up in our neighbourhood hospital (below right), the Sooncheonhyang University Hospital. The good thing for us is that it has an International Clinic with English speaking staff. Been there a couple times (kid stuff - fevers, sore throats, etc.) and they have been great.


Here at last as promised are some shopping oddities we've collected from our 3 months here.

Much to our happy surprise we found that our local grocery store stocks Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Club Soda (cans in middle top). And those are cans of latte and other coffees in the lower shelf. Canned or bottled cold coffee is real big here. Every convenience store stocks at least a dozen varieties. And here is an old friend in the chocolate bar aisle...or is it....Kic Ker??? They taste pretty much like KitKats.

As we expected peaut butter is real expensive. These small jars of Skippy cost about $7.50. And Pumpkin Gruel?! Hmmm...it might be cheap, but I think I'll pass.

Canned meats like Spam are very popular here. Perhaps a hold over from the hungry years after the Korean War when US Army rations (like Spam?) may have been a staple and kept people alive. Koreans do like their food spicy. But chocolates???

I really like this style of labeling. It warns the buyer just how hot the product (chili paste) is. I think we'll buy the one on the left.

And here is some Bordeaux flavoured dish soap. Odd?!

There is so much more to show you, but its getting late. Gotta hit the hay.

Talk to you again soon.

Derek, Deb, Jin and Lili