luckily, seoul delivered! my first find was a cute little boutique in itaewon, a shopping district known for its international community (which i would discover much later) and bargain shopping. with colorful, funky displays and salsa music blaring out the front door, it wrested my attention away from the other shops in itaewon, many of which were the "wanna louis vuitton? genuine imitation, you see..." variety.
one thing i really like about writing on assignment: being "forced" to engage with people. so very different from writing for corporate or blog purposes. sometimes the story isn't in a place, but with people. after buying a really cute dress for 49,000 won (about US$49 -- a nice easy conversion there, just drop three zeroes), i unleashed my chika powers on the store's funky manager, jina, and her assistant ayumi. jina's atrocious english made for a rocky start, but once i had gotten it into her head that me = overseas publicity, she and ayumi instantly loved me!
then i discovered a few shops that sold itaewon's best-known secret -- designer clothes made in korea but for some reason or other do not pass muster with quality control, identifiable only by their slashed tags and whatever fashion stock knowledge you have.
i was tempted to buy a dress that i saw hanging in an itaewon shop (i now realize it was a short version of the evening gown worn by riyo mori, miss universe 2007! and it's gucci!) but didn't. a week later, i see oprah wearing it on perez hilton.
i think it's safe to assume that she didn't get it at itaewon.
i discovered to my shock, horror and rage that i had run out of cash -- and that marlon's atm card didn't work at any of the half-dozen atms i tried! i returned to the hotel on the warpath with the universe. i found it ironic that a girl writing a shopping guide would have so many thwarted attempts at shopping -- first the dud that was the beautiful store, now the atm!
in hindsight, the universe may just have been trying to stop me from succumbing to this temptation at victory town.
i know, i know. i live in singapore, what the heck would i do with a silver leather jacket?
before i left itaewon, though, i spotted... a first-world kariton! when the street vendors want to pack up and go, they literally close shop and tug it all the way home.
dinner was at a restaurant behind the hotel in the business district of gangnam.
we would be joining marlon's multifunctional team, adding pinoys to a table with an indian, thai, brit, pole (as in person from poland vs piece of infrastructure), and several japanese. it was the second time i would be sitting down with a gaggle of p&g'ers (including members of the leadership team) for dinner. the first time was a year ago in mumbai, during which someone at the table called me "incredibly brave" for coming to dinner.
then, i was the only girlfriend to come along for dinner; this time, i was the only wife. but who cares when there is... korean barbecue!!!
and lots of soju (korean sake) which i didn't like. marlon drank my share, but the brunt of the soju-drinking fell to young umeki from japan, who ate like a horse and giggled, red-faced, through the tail end of the meal.
i wondered if this electric fan was for exhaust purposes or if it had had too much soju.
at 10:30 pm, kaisy was still raring to shop, so we hit doosan tower (doota) in dongdaemun. jon, i think this is one of the 24-hour malls you were talking about! i asked one of the stall owners (who spoke decent english) what time they closed and he just twirled his finger around in a circle.
doota was great -- the ubiquitous kukur was augmented by lovely handmade shoes and clothes from young korean designers.
wouldn't you know it. fifteen minutes into my shopping paradise, i discovered that i was wallet-less! after putting some cash into my wallet, marlon had left it in the hotel room l instead of returning it to my bag.
as you can guess, we had an awful fight about it... after i bought a pair of lovely gold-brown leather shoes on sale. but we made up quickly enough. who can stand to be mad when there's too much fun to be had, an article to complete... and more shopping to be done?
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