All Around Seoul: Itaewon, Lotte World, Banpo Bridge

I have to admit...some of the places we chose to visit in Seoul were based on selected kdrama scenes. But seriously there's nothing wrong with that! These locations provided mesmerising background to thousands of photos taken :D I'll try my best to cover several of those destinations in this post, and elaborate the rest in other posts. 

Itaewon is the home to the US military base and also known for shopping, bars and nightlife. It's sort of an international spot as we could see many people from different countries converge in this single location. Once upon a time Itaewon was where the Seoul Hard Rock Cafe was. Now, the HRC has been replaced by a clothing shop.  

There were many international restaurants around the area. As for our group, one of the main reasons we went to Itaewon was for the halal food. This was where the Seoul Central Mosque was located, and naturally there would be muslim quarters nearby and therefore some halal food source. 

At the Seoul Central Mosque

True enough, there were many halal Turkish, Indian and Pakistani eating outlets all around Itaewon. What's sad was that there were no halal authentic Korean cuisine in sight. There's this one noodle shop that offered selected halal menus, but these were served alongside those non-halal ones. So, I'd guess some of our muslim brothers and sisters would have a hard time swallowing those. 

The highlight of halal food, or at least the one that appealed to us the most was the Salam Bakery. Apart from the usual bread, cakes, and baklava (the owner could be Turkish), there were also other sweet stuffs we believed to be Korean (we couldn't be sure). Anyway, we were sure to drop by Salam Bakery everytime we're in Itaewon. 

There were grocery shops selling halal food supplies along the road to the mosque. Malaysians would be glad to know that Milo and Maggi are some of the things displayed in these shops. 

One of the shopping attractions at Itaewon had got to be the Itaewon Underground Market. There's a good selection of branded items for sale that were mostly clothes like jackets, coats, blouses, etc. For a Malaysian like me who rarely wears a jacket on a daily basis, I found the many patterns and designs thrilling :P However, I thought the prices were still on the high side and the ahjummas were not so willing to bring down the price during haggling. 

 

One might also come to Itaewon for antique furniture. There's a long stretch of Antique Furniture Street  offering just that. Along the sidewalk at the Itaewon main road, we came across somewhat like a hall-of-fame of countries around the world. International indeed :) 

Itaewon can be reached by Seoul Metro Line 6 (brown colour): Itaewon station. 

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Lotte World has everything under one building. There's the hotel, department store, shopping mall, plaza (these are not the same, mind you), etc. The famous attractions could possibly be the ice skating rink and the Lotte World Adventure theme park. We didn't budget for the theme park, and so a snapshot or two at the area was good enough. 
Note on kdrama: some scenes from Full House were filmed at the rink ;)

Anyhow, the recent addition to the many Lotte attractions was the Lotte World Star Avenue. This is where the Lotte ambassadors like Rain, Jang Keun Suk and JYJ put some of their personal belongings into display. Some other artistes were BigBang, Kang Ji Hwan, Song Seung Hoon and Choi Ji Woo. I sooo likeee!! 


Opposite the line of display, there's an entrance to areas that would allow the visitors to pose with the lifesize version of the stars. After lurking around and sorta snooping from the outside, we figured that it was not worth the fee. Maybe next time. Regardless, the chance to be at this Lotte World Star Avenue was such an exciting moment, albeit the obvious nonsensical to some :P 

Lotte World can be reached by Seoul Metro Line 2 (green colour): Jamsil station. 

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The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain at Banpo Bridge (Banpodaegyo) is a simple attraction. Every night from 8.00 - 8:15 pm, there'd be a light and sound show at this bridge. Various movements of water and lights, accompanied by lovely music at the background gave way to a nice atmosphere and spectacular view. 
Note on kdrama: this bridge was seen in Boys Over Flowers 

One could either find their way to this place by land or get on the Hangang Cruise that would pass by this bridge. Make sure that you board from Yeoido dock at 7:30 pm so that the intersection with the bridge could happen at 8:00 pm. Recalling our adventure to reach this bridge, it was really something. Imagine walking for some 500m from the subway station to the bridge! And none of us really knew where we were going at that time! Wow, the thing we'd do for love, huh? :) Thank God the view was pretty and the music was heartwarming.

Banpo Bridge can be reached by Seoul Metro Line 2 (green colour): Gangnam station. From the station follow the exit that shows Banpo Bridge. At the exit, turn left and walk towards a flyover. Upon reaching flyover, cross the road via the Gangnam underground market. From there you've got to walk some 400m along the sidewalk. Later as you see a flight of stairs at a major junction: go down the stairs, walk 10m to the left, go down some more stairs and you'll reach an open space. A further walk would bring you to the fountain area. 

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