Coex Aquarium

This weekend Jennifer and I spent a day in the Coex mall because we wanted to go to the aquarium there.  I had seen someone else's pictures from the aquarium and so even though it cost w15,000 for admission, we decided that it would still be worth it.

Actually,  Seoul's aquarium might be one of the coolest aquariums I have ever seen.  Other top aquariums include Boston (which has a massive muti-layer walk around tank), Sydney (which I only barely remember since I was 7 years old) and maybe Monterey (which is just a classic aquarium).

So what made this aquarium so fabulous?  Well, mostly it was because it wasn't your run of the mill, standard aquarium.  Yes, they did have a starfish petting area like Boston, yes, they did have penguins like Australia, yes they did have sea otters like Monterey.

But the Seoul aquarium is the only one that I can think of that also has monkeys.

Still, this is not the reason why it is so cool.  The award is given because it is the most creative aquarium I have ever seen.  Check out these fish tanks!

Hot tub fish tank  (above left)                                                           Refrigerator fish tank (above right)

 Fire hydrant fish tank (above)


Jennifer looking at the fish in a bed-frame (right) 













After the aquarium we wandered, got lost, wandered some more, and got lost some more inside the mall.  The mall is huge.  I mean, you figure any mall that hosts both a 16-screen movie theater and an aquarium is large, but it also has hundreds of stores, two food courts, and a Kimchi museum.  The underground mall is the largest in all of Asia and spans 85,000 square meters (or almost 915,000 sq. ft!!)

After shopping we went to the Hyundai department store.  What? Hyundai has a department store? Yes.  And it's like a Marks & Spencer because it sells food too.  I had a great Italian dinner there for about w7,000 but the people sitting next to us in the food court had something not so great.  Well, perhaps it tasted ok but Jennifer and I were totally freaked out by their moving food and we could not figure out what the heck it was even after blatantly staring at it for 20 minutes.   Finally Jennifer worked up the courage to ask what it was.  They said it was this but it doesn't explain the creepy moving objects so the case is still open.

After dinner we got some gelato.  They have crazy flavors like rice, sesame, and red bean.  I tried the red bean and I couldn't help but laugh as I ate it because it tasted exactly like red bean.  I LOVE red bean but apparently not in ice cream.  Instead I settled on white chocolate.  It may have been the first time I didn't get a coffee-flavored ice cream in years.  It was delicious!  But it would have been even better if I got 2 scoops white chocolate and coffee mixed..

All in all it was a wonderful day and a great way to spend the cold afternoon.  Additionally, I would like to say that I'm so thankful for my friendship with Jennifer.

HALP.  I'm stuck at the COEX aquarium.