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Seoul Searching
Seoul, Korea Rep. |
Seoul, Korea Rep.
After weeks of relaxing, blogging and planning in Samui it was time to get back to some real travelling and this time Tim got to choose where we were going. He initially wanted to do a bus tour in North Korea but both the cost and the look on my face at this suggestion meant it was not going to happen so we agreed to settle on South Korea. With the memories of China and Japan flooding back I have to confess I really didn’t want to visit South Korea, I just had premonitions of expensive hostels, dinner at McDonalds, huge language barriers and being the only foreigners sticking out like sore thumbs. Needless to say I was not looking forward to this trip.
We had a bit of a stopover in KL airport before we headed to Seoul as the cheapest flights were with Air Asia and therefore we had to stay two nights in the airport as there were no earlier flights. Living in an airport is actually pretty fun, especially the brand new KLIA2 with its new restaurants, shopping mall and hotel linked by just a 2 minute walk. I did think it would be a long two days but they flew by and I was actually sad to leave. The day before our flight I woke up and had received the most exciting email ever. A message from Air Asia, to tell us that we had been successful with our Optiontown upgrade and we would be flying to Seoul in Business Class flat beds. That was so worth waiting 2 days in the airport.
The flight was absolute bliss, we had to get up at 5am, but getting on the plane and reclining back to sleep was just what we needed, just before landing we were woken up with our business class meal. Oh I could get so used to traveling like this. I really need to win a million as this is definitely a lifestyle that I could become accustomed to!
Upon our arrival in Seoul I was instantly relieved, the airport was huge and clean, the people were quiet and considerate, we bought train tickets from a lovely girl who spoke perfect English and before we knew it we were at our little hotel and wondering around the area and tucking into a delicious dinner of Kimchi rice. So far every preconception I had of South Korea had been banished. When anyone couldn’t speak English they used pointing and smiling to help us get whatever we needed and with our one word of Korean ‘Gam-sa-hap-ni-da’ (thankyou) we got a huge smile and look of glee that we were making an effort.
When we were in Samui Tim had sat very busily with the Lonely Planet and his laptop and confirmed that he had planned all of South Korea and I had nothing to worry about. It seems that this was not entirely true. What Tim had produced on his spreadsheet was a list of what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go, but with no real planning as to how to get to any of the said locations or the practicalities of how many we could fit in the day. A line drawn between locations served as the route with no details as to whether we needed a bus, train or plane to make the said journey. Needless to say Tim could no longer remember how we were meant to get anywhere so I started from scratch and put Tim in the naughty corner for doing such a poor job.
As we were now planning on my terms there was only one place for a crazy cat-less cat lady to visit in Seoul, oh yes, the Cat café! This place was amazing. Much more civilised than the strange ladies lounge in Japan. It had cats of every shape colour and size, some with hysterical short legs, some with the smallest ears and some gorgeous grumpy faced fur balls. These cats were pretty funny and would happily just jump up and make themselves comfortable in the middle of your table. I could have stayed here all day, but my schedule meant that we had to head off to the Trick Eye Museum. These seem to be taking off in Asia and consist of a series of rooms with pictures on the walls, floors, ceilings and a few props in which you stand to take pictures to make it look like you are in a 3D picture. It was pretty chaotic as everyone is pushing and shoving and walking in the way of each other’s pictures but we got a fair few good snaps and had a lot of fun lying on the floor and posing whilst every Korean took our photos as there were a distinct lack of foreigners around the place.
We had pre-booked one tour before we arrived and very nearly missed it as we forgot what day we booked but we managed to make it on our DMZ Tour. This tour was serious stuff and we needed our passports to go on it and had to have advance clearance to be allowed. There was also a really strict dress code of proper trainers, long trousers, no torn jeans, no t-shirts without collars, no shorts or skirts and generally you had to look respectable. We rummaged through our backpacks and got out our Sunday best especially. There were two parts to the this tour which drove about an hour north of Seoul to the village of Panmunjom the Joint Security Area (the ‘JSA’) also known as Truce Village. The JSA is the only portion of the Demilitarised Zone (‘DMZ’) where North and South Korea stand face to face. We were welcomed at the JSA by an American Soldier who has just finished his basic training, we were his second tour group ever and he made no secret of the fact that he really didn’t want to be here. He didn’t like the heat and he didn’t seem to like being a tour guide, I guess they never warned him about this in his basic training, ha ha. Whilst our soldier didn’t seem to be taking his responsibility too seriously we were all required to sign a disclaimer that if we were injured or killed due to enemy action it was our own fault, awesome hand me the pen??!!??
After a short presentation, and having signed away our lives we were transferred onto our special bus where we were only allowed our cameras and only allowed to take photos as and when we were told. We were taken to the UN Conference room which is a small blue building which stands on the line of demarcation with the North Korean JSA towering over it behind. The South Korean soldiers stand on duty looking towards North Korea and some of them are half hidden behind the wall so they are less of a target and also so that they can give hand signals to the soldiers behind if anything is happening. We were allowed into the conference room and were allowed to take photos, but we were warned not to get too close to the soldiers in the room as they were likely to Tae Kwon Do smack you, we kept our distance. We didn’t get our passports stamped but we stood in North Korea and therefore I consider this another country to add to our list, it was certainly a tense and stressful visit albeit for only 10 minutes.
It was a pretty foggy day when we were at the DMZ so the view over into North Korea was not the best, but we could just see the village of Kijŏngdong in the North which was also known as Propaganda Village because until 2004 it had huge speakers which broadcast propaganda into South Korea. It is home to the third largest flagpole in the world which stands at 160 meters with a flag weighing 270kg, which is so heavy it pretty much takes hurricane force winds to get it flying.
We visited two other sites at the JSA of historical significance, the Bridge of no Return which was so named because at the end of the Korean war in 1953 prisoners were taken to the bridge and were allowed to cross back into their country of choice. However once they crossed they would never be allowed to return. This bridge was the location of an infamous incident at the JSA in 1976 when 2 American officers were killed in the ‘Axe Murder Incident’. A simple duty of cutting the branches of a tree at the bridge resulted in North Korean soldiers attacking. Subsequently in the following days the tree was cut down after Operation Paul Bunyan was planned at the White House as a show of force by the US and South Korea with every soldier, helicopter, plane, tank and weapon available were used and resulted in the most expensive tree cutting operation ever.
We also visited the sunken garden which was the site of a firefight in 1984 aft
er a soviet citizen on a communist led tour made a dash to run into South Korea. Since this incident all tourists are asked whether they have any plans to dash across the border??!!
Safely out of the JSA in one piece we were back on our normal tour bus and moved onto the next destination; Dorasan Station. This proudly displays the trains destination as Pyeongyang in North Korea, however these trains operated for just one year between 2007 and 2008. They were mainly freight trains moving materials to a large factory in the North but were also used by South Koreans who were permitted to travel on tours to the North to climb Mount Kumgang. Unfortunately a 53 year old South Korean tourist wondered into a restricted zone and was shot dead. The tours and the train were immediately stopped. This station is advertising that it will soon be extended to join the Transiberian railway, I don’t think I will be holding my breath for that to open.
The final stop on the tour was the DMZ itself, I would have been very disappointed if I had only gone on this part of the tour as many tourists do. The JSA was much more interesting to visit.
The viewpoint over the DMZ into the North was so foggy we couldn’t really see much and to add to that there was a big yellow line on the floor that you had to stand behind to take any photos. So the only view of North Korea you are going to get from here is the back of some other tourists looking into the fog through binoculars.
Just like in Vietnam, Korea has some scars from the war in the form of tunnels which the North dug in preparation for invasions into the South. We visited the Third infiltration tunnel. The South have currently discovered 4 tunnels but it is thought that there are more still to find. This tunnel sucked. I would suggest anyone visiting South Korea to do themselves a favour and skip the tunnel tour. You are sent down a slope which is 350 meters long at a decline of 10%, when you get to the bottom there is another 200 meters of tunnel which is only about 5 foot 6 tall so you then spend the next 15 minutes knocking your *********** the ceiling watching your feet until you are greeted by a concrete wall which is the border to North Korea. You then turn around bang you head numerous times and have a hot breathless arduous uphill climb back to where you started. The only bonus for us partaking in this tour was that there was a 6 foot 7″ tall American man in front of us who banged his head on every single part of the cave he could and was getting increasingly angry at all the little South Koreans who were laughing at the big tall foreigner banging his head. Take my word for it, if you ever find yourself at the South Korean DMZ infiltration tunnel 3, go to the gift shop and have a cup of coffee and a cake!
Seoul is the world’s third largest metropolis (behind Tokyo and Jakarta) with 25.6 million people. Funnily enough, whilst Tokyo and Beijing (the fourth largest) felt huge and bustling Seoul felt very relaxed, it was easy to get around on the metro which never seemed to take more than 3 minutes to arrive on the clean and orderly platforms and were never full to bursting point like in the other cities. We liked the metro and with tickets costing just 75p it was by far the easiest way to get around. The screens had a little picture showing when the train was two stops away and a fanfare was played as it pulled into the station, the biggest danger on the metro was getting in the way of an old man or lady. There were 6 seats at either end of the carried set aside for old, disabled or pregnant people. But heaven help anyone that comes between supergran and these seats. We were both knocked out of the way as the oldies squeeze through the crowds taking no prisoners to make it to their special seats. Honestly you have to see it to believe it, no other seat will do!
To have a break from the underground we decided to take an over ground tour on the Hop on Hop Off Bus. We did our research and found the company which had the open top double decker and as we turned up to buy our tickets the heavens opened and we were directed onto the closed top double decker. We opted to just cruise around the city and didn’t bother getting off at any of the stops which somewhat confused the ticket lady.
Back on our feet and with the rain coming down we made our way to Bongeun-sa temple which is a Buddhist temple at the base of a mountain overlooking the city. It is quite a sight to stand behind the huge Buddha statue which stands looking out over the city, it was a nice break before we headed into the madness that is Gangnam.
Following in Psy’s footsteps we were off to do it Gangnam Style. Whilst I am all too familiar with the horsey dance and the song I don’t know what Gangnam Style is but for us this meant visiting a dog café. Yup, just like the cat café, this was a café filled with dogs. Small dogs, big dogs, huge dogs, dogs that can dance, dogs that can drive cars and dogs that can ride skateboards. It was not quite as relaxing as the cat café as the dogs (whilst clearly not underfed) are desperate for treats and when they see a new person there are 10 of them all dancing, grabbing the skateboard or just pawing and dribbling on you for a treat. There were a few doggie fights, a few accidents on the floor and there was a demonstration with Mickey the super dog who is so well trained he can follow any command given. Covered in dribble and fur it was time to explore the bright lights of Gangnam with its on street dining tents and numerous fortune teller tents. Oopna Gangnam Style!
From the scraps of paper that accompanied Tim’s ‘useful’ planning of Seoul was a note that Insadong Street was ‘not to be missed’. When I queried Tim as to why he just shrugged. Oh well, we figured we would just head there and see what we couldn’t miss. It turns out it was a bustling shopping street with a few market stalls, some restaurants and a few antique shops. It had a lovely feel to it and we had a laugh when we were cornered by some students who wanted to show us how to play some games. It turns out their English teacher had brought them here to interact with tourists and they could practice their English by explaining how to play their games, such a great idea. We also discovered a delicious treat here at Insadong, called Yong Su Yeom, also known as Dragon Beard candy. These delicious treats start out as a block of ********ey and it is stretched and looped until it looks like white hair. They then tear off a piece fill it with nuts and roll it into a delicious little oblong of honey nutty delightfulness. They were so good that Tim even let me buy a box, you have no idea what a feat that is!
Through the centre of Seoul is a stream than runs for around 11km, it was originally covered by a road and an elevated highway, but as part of the urban redevelopment of Seoul it was decided that the stream should be restored. The project cost $900million and whilst it initially attracted much criticism when it was opened in 2005 it has become hugely popular with both locals and tourists. It also had the positive impact of increasing bird, fish and insect life in the city, it has reduced traffic and increased the number of people using the buses and metro and it also reduces the temperature in the area by 3.6 degrees! It is a real bustling place to see with every one of all ages sat with their feet dangling in both at day and night.
With time to spare before our show at a local theatre, amazingly I managed to convince Tim to let me go to another Dog café, this one was a slightly higher class café than the one in Gangnam and the dogs were much calmer and definitely older and fatter. It was divided into Big and Small dog sections, but the small dogs seemed to go exactly where they fancied. I literally love cat and dog cafes!!
There are quite a few famous shows in Seoul, we had planned to see Bimbap, which is a comedy cooking show but sadly the theatr
e was being renovated so we settled on Kung festival, a B-Boy Show. Not quite sure how you can make a show out of B-Boys we were intrigued and within minutes of the show starting we were amazed. The dancers in the show were amazing and somehow managed to dance and act their way through a story of a high school geek that was bullied and subsequently was accepted by his classmates after competing in the school dancing festival. It was totally cheesy, but the dancing was amazing. We had front row seats and were so close to the action that if we didn’t sit back we were likely to get kicked I the face by a rogue leg and if we didn’t keep out feet in we would trip up a dancer running onto the stage in front of us. The highlight of the show was an encore which started with an amazing battle and ended with the whole cast performing Gangnam Style. AMAZING! Our hands hurt from clapping and we were crying from laughing. I am so glad that Bimbaps theatre was being renovated.
Our penultimate day in Seoul we realised that we hadn’t yet made it to any tall buildings, usually one of our first stops in any major city, so we headed off to get the Cable car to N Seoul Tower. We made one small mistake in our planning and ended up doing this at the weekend, but with the Pope in the city we hoped that most of the population would be off to see him. Here is a random factoid for you: In South Korea 46% of the population are Irreligious (choose to have no religious affinity), 23% are Buddhist, 18% are Protestant, 11% are Catholic and the remaining 2% are made up of various other religions. We had no idea that Pope Francis was going to be coinciding his visit with us as we would have made an effort to see him in his Pope Mobile, but as it was there were about a million other people and an equal number of police so we kept out of the way.
Anyway, back to Seoul Tower. Our lack of planning resulted in us heading to the Cable Car station that takes you up through Namsan Park to Seoul Tower. We joined the queue and were faced with a sign advising we had a 70 minute wait. This was a really long 70 minutes as there was a seriously annoying hyerperactive 4 year old in front of us who spent the entire wait attacking his sister and throwing a wheelie case around and slamming us in the legs. We eventually made it to the cable car and with 50 people slammed in a glass case for a 3 minute ascent, it was less than perfect. Thankfully at the top we bought our tickets and headed straight to the elevators and up to the top of the tower without a queue or annoying child in sight. Another useful hint for anyone going to Seoul; Just get the bus to the tower and save yourself a lot of queuing for a cable car. We did the loop, had a good look to see if we could see the pope and his masses, but alas all we could see was buildings as far as the eye could see (through the fog). We treated ourselves to a packet of jellybeans at the top and set off back down, stopping for a toilet break in the bathroom with the best views in Seoul of course.
Our feet just had enough left in them for one more walk so we headed to the Bukchon Hanok Village. A Hanok is a traditional Korean House and there are very few Hanok villages left in Korea and especially Seoul so we felt we had to visit. These houses are just adorable, built along narrow alleys with beautiful decorative wooden roofs and lovely big wooden doors. People do still live here in the Hanok so it is not all accessible but many of them have been opened as craft centres and museums so you can go inside.
Our penultimate night we opted to explore the area that we were staying in,with the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. Tim discovered ice cream served in canes rather than cones, we visited the stream by night and found a real life Night Market which was just being set up at 10pm….. It has long been tradition that the night markets run from 10pm to 6am. Who feels the need to shop for fake handbags at 4am, seriously??
Our last day in Seoul and we had booked a different accommodation, a tent in the city. Yup you heard right, House Camping is a hostel which has the usual dorm rooms and also tents on the roof in amongst the sky scrapers. We left the comfort of our little hostel and turned up at the new one. We were kind of hoping that we had turned up at the wrong place as the dark, dirty slum like lounge with hungover Koreans draped across sofas was nothing like the bright clean airy pictures that were on Booking.com. Eventually a random Russian girl came and asked us what we wanted and we showed her our booking to which we were told to come back at 2. This was fine but with no luggage storage and shrugged shoulders when I asked her where the metro was, this was not the best reception we could have received and we were very quickly checking our booking to see if we could cancel and run. Sadly there was no getting out of this, we were stuck at the slum.
We left our backpacks and hoped for the best that they would still be there when we returned and were very happy to stumble upon Seoul Folk Flea market when we were hunting for the metro. This was just a giant mess of antiques and tat, but it was a perfect place to wonder around and pass some time.
When we returned to the hostel, thankfully our bags were still where we left them and they had not been sold by any crack *****s. After another awkward wait for the manager, eventually we were welcomed and shown to our tent. Up a staircase and a rickety ladder we were on the roof and luckily had been upgraded to a 4 man tent so we had plenty of room for our bags and our stay instantly improved. The drunken Koreans and random useless Russian remained permanent fixtures in the crack den but we had a perfect little sanctuary up on the roof. After days of not really seeing any foreigners we were initially thankful to meet Mary from Ireland, but she soon became ‘Scary Spaghetti Mary’ after she spent a good 8 hours just lurking in the hostel kitchen cooking spaghetti and entrapping any poor sole that passed through with hours of chit chat. We got lucky and made our escape and slept like babies in the pouring rain listing to the city.
What a start to our travels. Seoul is absolutely the opposite of what I thought it would be and far from being desperate to leave, I could happily spend another week here. Fingers crossed the rest of South Korea follows suit. Next stop Samcheok on the East Coast.
Beans Around The World 