COEX Mall - Its diversity

On the next weekend we had thought of going to COEX Mall. It is the largest shopping centre in Seoul. It is the largest underground mall in Asia with an area of about 85,000 square metres. Among its 'must see' areas were Aquarium,Megabox, Kimchi Museum and Bandi Luni bookstore. It is located on the COEX center building which is the World Trade Center for Korea. So we planned out beforehand which areas to explore first as we got all information from this site.

This time while we ventured to go alone without taking someone's company. We had the map with us, train info as to in which stations we need to change train. This time we had to transfer 2 times. We were kind of unsure in the beginning. But we kept moving on, issued our tickets and boarded the train. The whole time we were alert and kept checking the voice announcement inside unless we miss the station to get down. So we exchanged line at a station and went on to our next destination where we had to change again. But the second time we got confused as to which platform to go. The platforms were diff for to and fro trains. Suppose you want from A -> B that will come in Platform 1 and B->A in Platform 2. But we kept searching for our platform and kept coming in a full circle to where we got down. Tried asking local people but it was not very helpful as they don't understand english. Finally someone told us the right way and we got the train to Samseoung station. And above the underground lines was the COEX mall. So we need not move to some other place and it was easy to get trains.

When we came out from the Millenium Plaza we came into this open area with food joints on both sides. It had multi cuisine resturants from diff countries.We thought of exploring food area first as it was near the entrance. The Food court had resturants serving Korean, Chinese, Japanese, American, German food with many Cafes. We strolled and looked at all items taking some snaps as the food court was beautifully decorated. I wanted to try Sushi as I had seen so many times in my fav travel channel. Then we kept on window shopping and exploring the area. The clothes and all items sold were branded mostly so it was expensive. One thing I like most about Korean people are they are very fashion conscious. Till now I haven't seen a single person dressed badly. All seem to come straight from the pages of fashion magazines. So I enjoyed browsing though the stores. Highly priced but super cool and stylish attires. My hubby kind of enjoyed my sense of amazement by looking at various stuffs. And he had to drag me from the stores to keep moving :-)...

Then we went to the Aquarium. It is the greatest theme aquarium in Korea, with 2,500 tons of water, and 40,000 marine wildlife of 650 species. It was divided into 4 sections. An Ocean Theme Park Water Journey, Undersea Tunnel, which passes through 2,500 tons of sea water and a walkway that takes you through exhibits of sharks and other marine life. It was amazing to see so many different types of fish and other water animals. We enjoyed the whole trip immensely. And I thought the penguins were really cute and had some great snaps of the jelly fish. But watching shark and Ray fish swimming around us was the ultimate experience.

Then we thought of having something as were hungry by the long walk. We tried some Kimbap (Korean sushi rolls). I liked it very much. We took a veg one as others had beef or pork in them. It was a dish made up of small pieces of veg inside rice, rolled over by a piece of laver. Then we again explored the area looking at different shops. And suddenly there was a commotion, the reason for which we realised after some time. Apparently some celebrity was there too!! And I guess from Hollywood by what little I could see from a distance. I had read in the site that the mall was a frequent visit for celebs here and abroad.

The other must see places were the Bandi and Luni book shop and Megabox theatre. We just had a walk by both of them as we wanted to see the Kimchi museum. But before that we went out towards Millenium plaza,had lunch at KFC(safe option). Then we rested for a while and started for the museum. It was mostly visited by the tourists and no locals were present. So it was kind of deserted. There the journey of Kimchi was presented in different forms. Kimchi, which is made of fermented cabbage and spicy hot pepper sauce, is a Korean staple. The vessels used to prepare it were displayed along with diff types of Kimchi according to diff regions. The overall experience was ok.

Then finally after spending the day here we decided to board the train and take rest for the remaining weekend at home. While returning it was a smooth journey but I was feeling dead tired and sleepy due to all the walking. Just wanted to sleep in the comfort of our room for a long time. As as it was Sunday nextday it was ok to wake up late. It was great day overall with our making the journey on our own, seeing the most hippest people and place in Korea but the best were the fishes.