Will Robb Photography

It’s my last day in South Korea today. I’ve been out in the country away from the net for the few days, so a big back log of photos, but once again I’ll post up some snippets from last week.

We’re staying in a quiet area called Insadong. It’s noted for it’s galleries, tea shops and art scene. A lot of people selling their crafts in shops and stalls, you can often see people making things and it’s a good place to spend at least a few hours wandering around. I like it at night, most people disappear but the backstreets full of restaurants and watering holes light up and it’s a good spot to unwind.

Something that’s caught my eye here is the amount of people transporting goods with good old manpower. There are a lot of stalls all over town and people just push their stalls all the way to where they are going to be. Some people have small trolleys to transport things as well.

However, for those who need things transported over longer distances, or in a hurry, motorbike messengers are the ones to do it, you see them buzzing about all over town, transporting food, clothes and even people.

Next, street eats. Half the street vendors sell food, half of them sell clothes and fake designer goods. I don’t have much need of the latter, but I do spend a fair bit of time at the food stalls that are on every street here. Absolutely delicious and extremely cheap.

I think the highest concentration of stalls of all kinds must be in Myong Dong, which is mainly shopping area that is so full of Japanese people it feels like I could be back in Tokyo. It’s a pretty lively area, good if you want to do a bit of shopping, but it can get so crowded at times it can be a bit of a pain in the arse as well. It’s an odd set up, they will have a shop selling name brand clothes and accessories, but just outside there will be a stall selling replica items at a fraction of the price. I thought the stores would be a bit pissed with this, but apparently if the stalls clearly state their items are fakes it is OK.