I like going just to look at all the strange things in the open markets. Going to a regular grocery store or department store is old and busted. I could have done that back home. Here in the open markets, who knows what you’ll find. Most veggies I can’t identify, some I don’t want to. SaTang likes going because there are several food vendors that sell ready-to-eat things like stuffed fried peppers, fish ham sticks and myriad other things. There’s always scraps on the ground for her to scarf up. Women’s clothes, particularly the t-shirts cast out by western clothes vendors, can be found as can children’s clothes. Household goods, fresh fish, chicken and pork, fruit, live animals of the pet variety – almost anything is here.

Yesterday at the market, I bought SaTang a gut pile – a mess (literally) of steamed liver, intestines, esophagus and whatever else Koreans keep and eat from pigs and cattle. She didn’t waste time in picking through it.

But aside from all the things in the market, what amazes me most is that they’re always crowded with people. In the Seoul market of NamDaeMun, it was just a Thursday, not a holiday. A work day. But it was wall-to-wall. Or rather stall-to-stall.  The Busan market of NamPoDong we visited on a Sunday and it was just a crowded with people.

Below is a short clip of the Korean markets that seem to go on for blocks and blocks. They fascinate me.