A Week in Seoul

So we didn’t get enough of delicious spicy Korean food, pretty people and cheap shopping done last time we went to Korea, again for some more. We met up with friends we made on our last visit, went to Muuido Island, the DMZ, the world Taikwondo centre, a popular Nanta performance and were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the Gay Pride Parade.

This trip was a lot more successful than Hokkaido, maybe because it is cheaper to do ANYTHING in Korea than it would have been in Japan so we never felt bad about doing whatever we wanted to do, or maybe because we sort of played it by ear rather than following a strict plan that always has the potential of not going as you’d like… but mainly things turned out right from sheer dumb luck.

Caroline lost her  i-pod on the plane ride over, our DMZ tour booking turned out to not exist and without mobiles, we had no way to contact each other, a constant problem.

It was an awesome holiday though J

Day 1: Incheon AirPort and Airport backpackers hostel
Plan fail number one was Muuido, when Larry received a message from one of the Koreans on his friend-finding app who said it was going to be cold and dull. In the end we went ahead with it anyway, which was LUCKY, because if we hadn’t, we would have gone straight to Seoul and Caroline could have lost her i-pod for good. As it was, because we had to go back to the airport on our way from the island to the main city, we asked around and despite them saying they weren’t operating ‘till 3 (a lesson for me is to not take officials word as law), Caroline got re-united with her I-pod at the Air Peach office.

So notes for anyone losing stuff on planes, you have to present your flight ticket and passport and go directly to your airplanes office and bang on the door until someone pays attention to you, even if they say they’re not in service. It works!

1000won = about 55pence
On top of the yen being strong against the won, and everything being cheaper in Korea,
with all those zeros I felt like a millionare!

The night before we’d caught the free shuttle bus to a hostel near the airport, and Larry got his first taste of Korean culture: a drunken fight outside a pub while eating spicy toppokke and drinking beer.

Then we caught the bus, ferry and another bus to the island.

3000won round-trip ferry to the island (about £1.50)

Day 2: Muuido Island

...is close to the airport, a weekend getaway for people who live in the city and for us, just an opportunity to spend a night in a hut on a Korean beach and see the sea. We didn’t get to do any of the things we’d planned to do (see below for our copy and pasted do-be-dones-in-korea plan), but instead just walked out to the sea, walked around and chilled on the beach with snacks and a card game.

the beach is used for music videos and kdramas sometimes

little resturants leading up to the beach

chicken galbi and oyster soup

lots of resturants had tanks filled with fresh still-livin' sea food

huts 6ft by 6ft for three people with a heated floor, only 10,000won/night

Caroline exploring the rocks while I try to remember my lifeguard training

we brought some drinks and snacks from the store and played card games

Me and Larry, nice picture Caroline :)

Since it was a weekday noone was there but us and a small family in a tent, and because of a late start to the day from a lie-in and getting off at the wrong bus stop that morning we only got half the day spent there, and sand got EVERYWHERE…but the weather was hot and when it because cold we had heated floors in the huts.

So far so good :D

Day 3: Happy GuestHouse Hostel, Itaewon, Club Elluis
the hostel was a bit tricky to find but in a perfect location, 5 minutes from the subway and near the best places to shop or go clubbing or go hiking: Meong-dong, Itaewon and Namsan Park.

I highly recommend staying at that Guesthouse; it has everything you need and is deliciously cheap.

The hostel itself was literally a medium sized apartment with a kitchen, a bathroom and 3 bedrooms, with 4 beds in each room. The three sisters greeted us with broken English and on the last day one of them even did our laundry for us!

Caroline carrying the Dukes suitcase ><

Larry chillin' on top bunk

Itaewon is the district for foreingers so a lot of people speak English and sell souvenirs there. We went there to explore, had a Korean BBQ for lunch, walked around the shopping streets, considered a salsa bar, drank at a beer garden.

We wanted to go clubbing and using Matt’s list of clubs to see in Korea, we went to one reccomended to us by several people.

Club Ellui is the biggest night club in Seoul

I personally thought it overpriced, I hated the un-danceable electro music and though I like loud music, that place was so loud my teeth hurt. Still, we stayed for a good 4 hours, and got to observe Korean clubbing culture – same as ours, but people dance crazy by themselves, not just in pairs or groups.

Taxi back was dirt cheap, but really hard to catch. You have to literally walk into the road and speak your destination with clear Korean pronounciation - it took ages.

Needless to say, we slept in.

Day 4: Honggik Flea Market, Coffee Prince Café and Gay Pride Parade

A late start to the day meant we missed out on most of the parade, the highlight of the day, but the after party made up for it.

First off we stopped by the university for the flea market (tiny) and went crazy over our coffee and cake in the film set for the best Korean drama, Coffee Prince!

After that, we caught the last few performances of the gay parade, my favourate being the ‘gay genelation’, a boyband spoof of girls generation. Hilarious!

Gays Genelation danced to the popular Kpop band 'Girls Generation''s 'Girls Bring the Boys Out'
and was infinitly more entertaining

We walked along the stream a bit, then caught the free bus to Itaewon for a night of clubbing.

Cheonggyecheon Stream at night

Caroline got to ‘bust a move’ on the stage, and I got to have a nice conversation with my first drag queen, as dramatic as we looked in his tight white jeans and shiny black high heels that would have crippled me, but a really nice guy.

We also got denied entry to the main party, because even though the drinking age is 20 in South Korea we had to be 21 in our own countries to get into just that one party, which is ridiculous on so many levels – first off, by Korean standards, we WERE 21 (they count the year in your mothers stomach to your age), and Koreans the same age as us were being let in. Secondly, why were they going by Americas age of consent of all things? We were in Korea! It was perfectly legal to go in, the police wouldn’t have anything to say against it. It was weird for me too since you can drink from 18 in the UK…

So Caroline and Larry made a fuss about it and eventually we got let in. The bodyguards were actually really nice guys, we found out later that basically the military police force had young Americans who caused trouble there in the past who weren’t of drinking age in their own countries so went wild in Itaewon instead, and the boss took that extra security measure. 

We went back to our hostel in the morning, Itaewon by then was like a battle field, rubbish everywhere, people sleeping all over the place. Larry couldn’t stop complaining about it and comparing it to Japan, a mistake since Japan is ridiculously pristine.

Itaewon on Sunday at 5AM was like a battlefield, bodies strewn everywhere.
Here's some people passed out scattered around KFC

Day 5: MeongdongSlept in 'till 3pm.
Did a bit of shopping in Meongdong and Dongdaemon.
Were thinking of going to the cinemas but we missed the last showing at 8.30pm.
Came back and watched Americas Got Talent and the Cobert Report instead.

Day 6: Shaman Mountain and Temple, Namsan Park and Seoul Tower.
After the wasteful Sunday we got up early and climbed Inwangsan– got to see the Seoul Fortress Wall, some interesting paintings on the temples and some glorious views, and got to catch a glimpse of Buddhists and Shamanists practicing their faith on the same mountain. We also got led up the hill by a pair of genki grannies, and played a bit on the excersize machines on the side of the mountain, just like the ones on the beach. What’s with that?

Gate to the Inwangsan Shrine

Seoul Fortress Wall

Excersize equiptment halfway up the mountain.
There's a fresh water pipe you can drink from here too, to refill your water bottle.

The two huge rocks at the top look like praying monks

Then Caroline went to find the World Taekwondo Headquarters with Larry while I went to try my hand at haggling in Insadong. Came back with a nice little horde of souvenirs.

We met up (an hour later than our designated time, dangerous without phones to message each other), and went to the Korean village and then walked to Seoul Tower.

The view was worth it, it felt like I was on top of the Empire State Building

Caroline to Larry, "take the shot! Take the pretty shot!"

We got the cable cart up for the night views, then came down and Larry went off to meet another Korean from his app. We reminded him to not stay out late since we had a busy day tomorrow and an early appointment with the DMZ tour.

…He stayed out all night.

Day 7: DMZ, Nanta Performance, Korean Grill and Café Bean

The De-Militarized Zone is the line between North and South Korea, since although they have signed a cease fire agreement the two countries are still threatened by the prospect of war.

In fact, even after that treaty was signed, North Korea has dug tunnels to try to infiltrate South Korea since, the 3rd one of which reached only 44km away from the capital city!

Currently the No-Mans land between the two countries is a haven for wild life and plants, since no one has stepped there for a few years now.

De-Militarized Zone

The tour we were going on was called the Good Morning Tour, cost about £30 each and could only be done on the Tuesday. Larry made the booking with his credit card.

So without him there in the morning, we panicked

Luckily Larry had downloaded his friend-finding app onto both mine and Carolines i-pods (because we had better wi-fi than him around the city), so Caroline messaged the person Larry was with through the app to get his ass back asap. By some miracle it worked!
Caroline went ahead and me and Larry got there just in time, only to hit another snag: the tour we were on didn’t exist. :-S.

Even now I’m wondering were we scammed? We had the confirmation email though, and luckily I’d written down the contact info too, so everyone was phoning them and checking the website but no one had heard of it..We resorted to asking the coaches directly, as they were leaving at our designated leaving time, "are you the good morning tour to the DMZ"? We ask the Koreans in English.

Suddenly out of nowhere a nice Korean tour guide said she had 5 extra places that we could go on, but we’d have to pay again up front.

the angel tour guide who let us tag on to their tour since ours turned out to be a scam

They had five places, and there were five of us.  Lucky right?

The tour was hurried, but consisted of the train the Chinese blew up, freedom bridge where prisoners of war were exchanged, the observatory deck where we could see into North Korea. We went into the 3^rd Tunnel and looked through the window into the blockage to North Korea, and the abandoned train station to North Korea. The tour also included lunch.

Symbolizing the hope for unification of North and South Korea

A railway that connected the South to a factory in North Korea, but which was cancelled by a new leader
 in the North Korean city, after only a year of operation

The hope for unification was halted. Again.

It was very educational…it felt strange going to such a place when the country is still technically at war. Only recently the leader of the North threatened to bomb Seoul to the ground and launched a dud rocket, even against Americas request not to.  Really cool.

After the stress of all that, it was a huge relief to get into the Nanta performance so easily!

A brilliant performance, one of the best I’ve ever seen and certainly the most talented – I will defiantely go and see it again, there was so much going on on the stage, it was so much fun.

And then we met up with Nikki and Meong-gil, had spicy food which Meonggil claimed to be not spicey at all (I would out it at a 6/10 on spicy level, whereas she didn’t hesistae to give it a 1!)
and then we had icecream and waffles at a café with Nikki while Larry went out again with another kroean from his app.

Day 8: Shopping in Dongdaemon, AirPeach back to Kansai and Internet Cafe

Went shopping,

Caught train to the airport ,

Spent (a sleepless) night in an internet café in Kansai watching Game of Thrones and choosing my electives at Leeds this year, while Larry went off with his Japanese friend.

That night didn’t sleep at the café, and went home!

Some more Seoul Culture Observations from an outsider who doesn't know what she's on about: - wifi – it’s everywhere.
- couples wearing matching outfits and cute public displays of affection
- facial injuries from plastic surgery around nose, jaw line and eye area.
People take a lot of pride in their looks – nice clothes, fit bodies and beauty stores EVERYWHERE.
-Celebrity worship is big there, with giant cut outs and shops dedicated to kpop and kdrama actors and singers lining the streets.

At the top of Seoul Tower! What's Jang Geug Suk doing up there?

Lots of shops dedicated to beautiful celebrities

- a lot more yelling and affectionate hitting (like the kids on the train, and me!)
- road safety awareness – pedestrians and drivers alike – they have none. Bus drivers in particular are crazy!
- toilets attached to showers – the antithesis of convenience.
- very pushy sellers haggling like crazy.
- the military presence. It’s everywhere around Seoul, and it’s so strange to see reminders everywhere of the constant threat of war with the North, and yet everyone was so rowdy and funny and free. Korea is a really interesting place to go.

In case of Gas attacks...o_0

- a dirty city, the price you pay for being able to eat in the street and be more yourself in public (in comparison Japan is very self-repressing.)
- some discrimination against us foreigners, the likes of which I have never experienced anywhere before – taxi’s were the main problem, and shopping places told us no shopping, or wouldn’t let you try on clothes, or gave you cold service.
- BAD service, or maybe I’m just too used to Japan’s over-attentiveness now…
- more foreign products rather than korean goods, like Japanese sweets and American beauty products – I don’t think that’s very good for their economy but it’s nice to see familier brands to choose from.

I saw all this, but I've only been there a week and only to the main city, so none of it is by any stretch a representation of the people of Korea as a whole. I say this just as some things I noticed and that I'm not used to.
Some sites I used to help plan the trip:
The Vagablond's Travel Blog

The Visit Korea Official Website

Your Korean Adventure Website (Muuido)

this photo pretty much sums up our time in Korea:
lost, Larry on his iphone, Caroline asking for directions



Thanks for reading!