Monday, February 27, 2012

Why shopping in Korea.. expensive?

Sometimes, not everything you find in Korea is cheap. If you plan to buy foreign branded clothing (like H&M, Zara, etc) in Korea, be sure to fork out more than you would elsewhere or back home. Argggghhh!



Hi, I am a glove in Korea, 14000 Won only ^^



When I (the glove) am converted to USD, 12.32 USD... it still sounds okay...



BUT only 7.95 dollars in the states?

Don't believe me? Compare them yourself! This is another practical guide of buying stuffs in Korea. ^^

Turkish Delight @ Daegu

I've been to Seoul, I like Seoul and it also cannot be denied that the best Kebab in Korea is in 이태원 (Itaewon, Seoul). Itaewon is usually crowded with foreigners and is well known for the many foreign restaurants, great concentration of foreigners unlike in any other places around Korea and it is also an infamous transvestites infested area.



Well, I'll leave the transvestites for next time. Anyway, every time I am in Seoul, I would be in Itaewon (Ankara Palace - highly recommended!) for the kebab. Check out this link for the directions.



Star Kebab in Daegu, I see some meat..



Ankara Picnic in Seoul, heaven-icious!

In Daegu, it is difficult to find any Turkish restaurants serving kebabs. The only place to get a decent kebab is at Star Kebab. This restaurant is located not far from the middle of downtown but I do get lost sometimes while on the way there.



The menu list



The entrance to Star Picnic

It's quite hidden on the alleys but you can get the direction in this website (This is also an English online magazine about happenings and events in Daegu) for the site map of my downtown Daegu. The dishes there look authentic but the set meals are a bit expensive and may not worth your money. Oddly, my biggest complain is the fries. Although, it is uncommon to eat fries with kebab, the fries are extremely flaccid and looks like they re-fried the leftovers.



Shall we say this is a "photo map" there?

Nevertheless if you would like to have a decent Turkish meal, make sure you drop by to the one and only Turkish restaurant at the Daegu downtown.

Friday, February 24, 2012

그리워..



"그리워,그리워 니가 너무나 그리워서
보고싶어서
잊고싶지않아서 잊을수가 없어서
못해준게 너무 많아서.."

**



담주에는 한국에서 3년동안 살았어요. 후회가 많지만 살기 위해서 계속해야한다. 잊어버리고 싶어도 가끔에 난 넘 그리웠어요. 힘들어도 어려울 때도 누구나 몰라.. 사람이라서? 왜 나 완벽한 사람 될수없어? 어떻게하니? 난 행복한 거 대신에 성공이 많이 찾았어요. 하지만 내 마음속에서 아직 성공한 사람도 아니고 행복도 안 잡았어요. 난 자신 많이 있지만 사랑은 자신만 없어졌어요. 후.. 빨리 잊어버리고 빨리 나아야해. 참 그리워..

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Shopping in Korea & Gmarket Step-by-step!

When a guy shops, it is usually very fast. We rarely window shop but sometimes we do it during the middle of the month when we have no money left. Guys live like a king the week he receives his paycheck and live like a pauper at the end of the month. In Korea, cloths are expensive for men. Lets not even talk about branded stuffs here.



In Daegu, in my opinion, the best place to shop is ZARA. For any westerners to Korea, the main problem is finding clothing that fits their sizes. Korean clothing brands don't cater for that kind of market. I am not fond of Korean brands because they jacked up the price and I couldn't afford anything else after buying one. Bean Pole Korea is a good example. ZARA is very expensive in Korea in comparison to Spain but what choices do you have when living in Daegu? Uniqlo? Giordano?

Koreans love to shop, this is almost like their second nature. Everytime during sales, you can see old ladies crowding the Lotte Departmental Store to buy tiny weeny 9,000 Won handkerchiefs, the 30,000 Won (around 27 USD. Wow!) patterned umbrella or the young ladies crowding H&M in Myeongdong, Seoul to get a discounted skirt while some guys at home crazily searching online for nice boots to wear (To make them "taller").



In Daegu, usually having a clear budget on what to buy is very important - you will overspend. The best clothing investments I ever made were my suit (It was around 250 USD, I wear it quite often too) and my 100 dollars pea coat (I had a brown one, but I gave it away. I have a black one now and it still looks good!).





I believe having a good suit is important, it can be worn on weddings, special occasions, meetings, etc. Then comes the neckties. I like ties very much. Windsor, Pratt - The knots I learned when I was in school. Windsor knot was taught by my Form 1 school teacher while my dad tied Pratt for me.

In Korea, I am grateful to be able to choose what I want to wear without any interference from my great mum when I am back in Malaysia. "Oh My God, did you cut your jeans?" "No I did not, some crazy cats scratched it!" (In my case, the jeans were already worn out when I bought it). Cool right?

**

Shopping through G-market is easy as there is an English website too. Nevertheless, if one is interested in buying or looking at stuffs through the Korean webpage. This is the way.



장갑이 마음 안 들어 ㅠㅠ
Gloves bought in G-Market.. Hmmn..

In Korea, you need to register and login as the member of G-Market. Check out for the steps below - it's very easy because it's in English! After you had registered, login again and you are done. There's a "Wheel of Fortune" thingy where you can try your luck in it once a day by clicking onto the "button". In the 나의 쇼핑정보 (My Shopping Info) part, you can click on G 통장 (G Bank book) to see your balance.



This is the G-Market Korean Page



If you are a foreigner. Here.



Fill in the form.





Login here.

After you had make your purchases (I did it through bank money transfer to my G-Market bank account) and then you wait. In Korea, postal services are very very efficient. I got my Korean-English dictionary in less than 2 days. However, the last time I bought something over the net. It was 4 days! So read carefully on the buyer's after sales comment first before making any moves (Mine has lots of complains on late deliveries but I did not check them. Hmmn~).



"Wheel of fortune"



Your bank account.



Parcel on the way.



After you received your parcel, click on 수취확인



Timeline of your parcel's location. Cool!

From the time you banked in the money, you can track your purchases, whether the goods are still under packing, at the post office or already on the way to your house. Finally the delivery man will call you to say your parcel had arrived and get it from him. Very efficient postal service in Korea right? You bet.

Friday, February 17, 2012

I am a Malaysian too.

Sometimes, I always wonder what makes a Malaysian, a true Malaysian. Must all Malaysians have only light brown skin color? or maybe yellow? How about the dark tone ones? Must they be judged by the color of their skins? or by the value of their characters?

Malaysia. Malaysian.

I am born as an ethnic Chinese. Contrary to a popular belief that all Chinese people are rich, I am never a rich one. Though I wished to have a car by the time I turned seven, the closest thing I ever got then was a toy car - a Police Hot Wheels Toy Car. As I searched the mangled mess of my childhood box - toys that were kept aside. Many of the toys were quickly forgotten and chucked aside as I grew older.

A week ago, I was back home during my winter vacation. Out of curiosity, I rummaged my dusty toy box. There was a huge stack of hot wheels toy cars (Kept in a plastic bag), I have lots of them. Most were given to me as gifts, birthdays and some of them, I simply cannot remember how I got them. Did I steal them from my sis??!

And then comes the Lego. Lego was the very first toy I like. It all started when I won a first prize and also the runner up prize (another event) in a Lego "My Dream House" Competition when I was very young. I have to admit that I love building things and I had a knack for doing things my way whereby most turned out to be job-well-done. I love Lego. I still do, of course secretly.

As a young kid then, I never remember treating anyone of different beliefs with a double standard. They were all my peers. They were my equals. Of late when I read the newspaper, politicians as old as the tree trunk behind my old school were crying out loud that certain race was left out, etc, I felt..

"Oh Shit. Is this the Malaysia that I knew?"

Life is like the Lego "My Dream House" Competition. In my dream house then, I partitioned a house into 3 parts, a room for my parents, an empty room for my sis (It was empty but at least I was still thoughtful for my sis!) and a room for myself. There was also a living room with the furniture made out of Lego bricks and an attic with a telescope.

This is like a country we want to live in (I think). Instead of building a dream house with only a big room for our self, like a country, it should be inclusive and accepts each and everyone as part of the occupants. We built the rooms to shelter the people. The attic too resembles a store room for the monkeys and politicians.

I remembered clearly that there are some kids (Yah, Kids!) that built their dream houses more resembling a stadium than a home. Alright, these kids might be footballers one day. Ha Ha. Nevertheless, they were my peers, my competitors, so Zappp!! They were eliminated. Nope, not me eliminating them! It was the judges!

Of course along the way, I discovered a lot more about my Chinese ethnicity. I went to a Chinese kindergarden a short distance away from my home while my sister attended a more "prestigious" kindy, the kindy at the Trinity Church. There I learned Chinese but it seemed then I was much more interested in killing the snails in my garden that I sadly neglected learning the still mysterious Chinese characters.

I miserably failed to learn Chinese. But I am still an ethnic Chinese!

Been a Chinese sounds great. You are said to be the brightest, the cleverest and yet you are also the unluckiest when it comes to getting scholarship. Well, too many smart kids, too few books to be shared. Scholarships are limited and somehow everyone regardless of ethnicity need to be prepared for the Plan B (No scholarship).

Some Malaysian Chinese really fare well (They are said to be politically connected. LOL. I was joking okay!), some had to work as a moto (Motorbike, we Malaysians shorten "Motorbike" to just "Moto") repairman, some started fleecing (Kidding) people to buy insurance, some sold Penang Char Koay Teow by the roadside (And the word "Famous" is always added before the "Penang Char Koay Teow") and finally the crazy stingy rich sons of the *****es (They just attend school and inherit the company the next day, something like that lah).

This shows that ethnic Chinese like others are equally at the same level, some are rich and some are poor like the Malays, the Indians, the Eurasians, etc. The poor regardless of races have the same hope and aspiration, to be successful one day. Having special policies to be in favor of another ethnicity is unfair because the poor from the marginalized ethnic group will definitely be against the rich with special privileges, those buying expensive houses with discounts. If the special privileges can be given to all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, it will be a day fairness prevails.

I am a Malaysian not only because I am born in Malaysia. It was a choice. Citizenship is not about a person knowing each and every lines of the National Principles (Rukun Negara), not only about knowing the Malay Language - our National language, not just the sense of belonging every time we meet fellow Malaysians abroad but in fact it is the concern on how the country that we belong to are heading.

We can fight over policies, unfair to some, fair to some. But fighting endlessly without a compromise will be like burning the bridges to no return. My dream country rightly resembles my first Lego blocks competition. It doesn't matter which color the block of Lego bricks were, as long as they fit perfectly, I am still going strong. No matter how many mistakes I designed my home, I can still remove the mismatched blocks and refit it again. And with that kind of attitude, my fellow competitors should be seeing stars with their stadiums, cattle pen or chicken coop in this "My Dream House" Lego Competition. I won that competition.

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"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" ~Winston Churchill~