Korea Diary - 4

Two things I wanted to buy from Korea – a mobile phones and about 20 DVDs. It never happened. One was available but expensive. On our return trip through Seoul, we dropped in at Yongsan electronics market. I bought only an umbrella from there – since we didn’t want to get wet in the rain pounding Seoul.

One-third of the shops were closed – it was Sunday. Another third refused to sell us anything. The rest always had the same answer: “Mobile phones only inside Korea. Other country mobile phones, very expensive!”

DVDs were the bigger joke. Apparently, no one seem to want original DVDs here. Everyone I asked, had the same answer: “Copy?” I checked at our hotel reception about DVD shops in the vicinity. Their reply was even funnier.

Receptionist: “Do you have USB?”

Me: “Yes”

Him: “I tell you site. You can download.”

Sacheon is a nice little place – a small town, with the biggest industry being aircraft manufacturing. In fact, even the streetlights are shaped like small aircrafts taking off. Like everywhere else in Korea, everyone has a touch screen mobile on which they depend for their life. The roads are full of Hyundais and Kias, with the odd Chevrolet or Daewoo thrown in. In fact, everything here is run either by Samsung or Hyundai - From making roads to running bakeries.

Being a coastal town, the biggest attraction here, are the raw fish joints.

Food has not been all about the marine life in the Pacific Ocean. We have had something like a steady menu, between Korean sea shell soup, fried chicken, kanji and pizza, for lunch. As for dinner, the raw fish experience was there only thrice. And it has been quite an experience. As soon as you enter the restaurant, you remove your shoes, and sit down on the wooden floor. The table is just about higher than the floor. A lady brings in some 20-odd dishes – kimchi (the vegetarian part of Korean cuisine – and they say they have about 400-odd varieties), potato, vegetables, noodles, fried fishes and all that. This is a round of starters. The smaller (Raw) fishes come next – shrimps, oysters, sea shells, octopi, sea urchins, pupa and all that. Some of them you can make out, since they look exactly like how they are in the water. The big fish comes as the third course. In fact the fishes are chosen right from the fish tank. You just point out what you want and they pick it up, kill it and serve them. The rice and soup follow, finally ending in a round of desserts. With all this, the Koreans are still quite slim.

I have an aquarium in my stomach.