A year and a half back when we moved to Seoul and found an apartment in the Gangnam area, my first instinct was to explore the neighbourhood.

Every day after finishing work, not knowing where to head exactly, I picked a random road and kept walking on it until my legs hurt while taking everything in. And if something caught my eye I  stopped and took a few minutes to examine it, like the vending machine for flower bouquets I once stumbled upon by the roadside.

A standalone booth with multiple glass panels displaying a collection of flower bouquets  was something I had never seen before! Or the mobile tarot card reader conducting business from a lurid pink truck. I still remember being amused by the life-size Statue of Liberty replica outside Gangnam station’s exit 11, looking as much out of place as the mom-and-pop kimbap (korean sushi roll) stall beside it, both dwarfed by shiny hi-rises, plush hotels, designer boutiques, clothing retailers, cosmetic surgery clinics and cafes!

It took me a walk or two to realize how ubiquitous cafes are in Korea! They seemed to be everywhere, hidden in basements, inside shopping malls, museums, subway stations, on rooftops, under office buildings, along narrow alleys, and on bridges even. An article published in Korean Herald in March 2017 says Korea has the world’s fourth largest number of Starbucks coffee stores in relation to its population.

In the evenings, I found people gathering in front of food trucks lined in the back alleys selling barbecued meat on skewers, corndogs, teokbokki (rice cakes in hot and spicy red pepper sauce) and Odeng (fish cake on skewers served with hot broth) or making a beeline for the numerous Dak-galbi (spicy stir fried chicken), Korean barbecue and fried chicken joints.

In hindsight, not having a destination is sight was exactly what I needed to process my surroundings. I let curiosity fill the blank slate I arrived with to my neighbourhood with new impressions. Having lived in Seoul for a while now, I may not see everything with a fresh pair of eyes as I once did, but I still go on my walks, without a destination in mind and with a sketchbook in hand.

Because you never know what lies at the next corner.

Like the wondrous sight of streets covered with golden gingko leaves after a light shower. See the first sketch. On my recent walks from November to early December until it became too chilly to spend time outdoors, I observed my neighbourhood transitioning from fall to winter. Having lived on a tropical island for the last seven years and stuck with the same weather, the novelty of changing seasons isn’t going to wear off anytime soon.

And I find myself attuned to everything that enunciates this seasonal transition. From a guy furiously sweeping dry leaves off the sidewalk along Teheran-ro which is one of Seoul’s busiest roads to someone browsing winter jackets at ‘Vin Prime, the Vintage select shop’, I have them captured in the pages of my sketchbook. With the sudden drop in temperatures the mannequins at the shop windows of Gangnam’s local boutiques had changed their look too. In the drawing below, I sketched this girl checking out a bright red coat freshly displayed at Dalfactory and probably trying to find a reason to come back for it later! I know I would.

The last sketch is also of a scene observed on Teheran-ro which is lined with giant trees that were hurrying up and shedding their giant yellow leaves. What caught my eye was the caption on this guy’s sweatshirt. He was waiting for the traffic light to turn green and I was standing right behind him wondering if the hoodie looked like a shark’s jaw.