Aquarium and Kimchi Field Museum

With a title like that, I assume you are wetting yourself with excitement already! This post, and the one below it, concern a few things we have done in the past couple of weeks, which I kept intending to post properly but never quite got round to it. Now, a major backlog of bloggery has occurred, with more recent and exciting events meaning that these posts really will be downgraded to good old pictures and captions. I know I've said that in the past, and proceeded to knock out a small novel beneath each picture, but I'm serious this time.

Of course, the main event recently was going to watch the Switzerland match at 4am in downtown Seoul. I honestly cannot stress just how amazing it was, and I can't wait to post some absolutely quality photos and videos. I was forced to eat more fish with eyes by some Koreans, it was disgusting. Also, the War Memorial Museum was extremely cool, and worthy of some description. The other reason I don't have time to write much, is that I've set aside tonight as "Extermination Night" for the resident cockroaches. My new lodgers are going to get a beating tonight. I've grown somewhat attached to the little blighters, every time I fail to catch one of them doing a Linford Christie dash across the floor, I can't help but feel a little bit of admiration. The bastards. I'll maybe take some pictures to remember them by. Or maybe I'll just name them and keep them as pets.

So....the aquarium at COEX mall. It was very big, and full of sea creatures. Just as you would hope. COEX mall is ridiculously huge and modern looking. We also found an Italian restaurant there, which was fantastic!



I think this is a puffer fish. It's a shame he didn't "puff" it up for the camera. Like Michael Barrymore or something. Look at it's mouth, it looks someones nicked it's falsers. Puffer fish are extremely poisonous, a delicacy in Asia, where only a select few highly specialized and trained chefs can legally prepare them for consumption. People in Haiti are believed to use it's poison in the resurrection of zombies. This was some useless guff most people know, but for those who didn't, I hope you enjoyed it.


I presume this is some sort of Catfish. I don't know anything about catfish, I bet you're glad.



Although this might look like an LSD hallucination or some kind of aquatic rave, it is, in fact, some fluorescent jellyfish. I once stood on a jellyfish in St.Andrew's. It was dark red and stung the shit out of my foot. The fucker.



This poor fish just looked really dumb and gormless. Considering all fish are dumb and gormless, he really is a sad case. Might as well try and jump out of the bowl. No doubt some Korean will eat him soon anyway.

Now, after getting you all worked up, it's time to push you over the edge of excitement. As you well know by know, we love kimchi, and eat it every day, sometimes twice. Because we're mental. So, it would be rude not to pay our respects to the Daddy of foods when the Kimchi Field Museum is next door to the Aquarium. If truth be told, we did travel to COEX mall with this place in mind as much as the Aquarium. Look at the fancy, expensive sign, we were so excited. Honest.


As you can see in the picture below, this is an extravagant and opulent homage to cabbage, an invigorating orgy of the senses!


Of course it isn't! It took a grand total of 10 minutes to walk round, and half of them were spent in the tasting room. There were lots of plastic models of the various types of kimchi, examples of earthenware storage pots through the ages, and some information on it's nutritional benefits. Wow, I want to go back now! I'm teasing myself with such memories. Luckily, the main attraction was a brilliant photo oppurtunity, where you get to pretend some freakish Korean mannequin is feeding you some kimchi. That's certainly one to get framed!


I started feeling a bit bored at one point and tried to make my own fun. This is me attacking a village of kimchi makers, Godzilla style. This was fun for all of 5 seconds, and my personal highlight of the museum. Well, apart from the earthenware pot section. And leaving.



Are you still awake? Good, because this next thing really IS genius! One of the coolest things about Korea, are the amount of different recreational "Bangs". Bang means "Room". Not something rude. As you certainly know by now, we are big fans of the most popular variety, the Noraebangs. In addition to these, and in decreasing order of abundance, are PC Bangs, DVD Bangs, Board Game Cafes, Console Bangs, and Ping Pong Bangs. All of these are basically self explanatory, and just like the Noraebang, generally involve you renting out a plush private room for very little Won, with an almost limitless list of the relevant form of entertainment at your disposal. Apparently, this stems from the fact that Korean children tend to stay at home well into their 20's, and the surge in "Bang" popularity was brought on by their desire for some privacy. Including a chance to do rude things, so there is some correlation between the 2 definitions after all!

The exception to these, are the board game cafes, which are more like Starbucks or Costas, with a huge selection of board games to choose from. We payed for an hour (again, very cheap), and had a quality laugh playing Ker-plunk and Jenga. In a fantastic move of Koreaness, the very helpful employee brought us over this large rubber hammer, which I had noticed the other tables of Koreans gleefully swinging around. When I asked him what it was for, as the UK edition of Jenga never employed such a prop. He looked at me like I was mad, and told me it was for smashing the person that loses each round. All those miserable mornings of wishing you were the one invited to play Mallet's Mallet on Wacaday, are now just a distant memory. Of course, this is.....Utter....Genius.