The Best Kept Secret in Asia
My hiatus is over. South Korea created a kind of break in the routine, but now I'm back and daily entries will hopefully be forthcoming.
South Korea. You know of it, right? Sure, it's the country that's south of North Korea. And Samsung and Hyundai come from there. Maybe if you're a little more interested in Asia you know that kimchi (spicy pickled radish) is South Korea's most famous food, the country is 25% Christian (one of the largest Christian populations in Asia), the capital Seoul had the Olympics in 1988, and they write using an alphabet called Hangul that is very different from Chinese and Japanese characters and looks like this: 조선글
But no one goes to South Korea; it's not high on anyone's list, and not much is known about it. Which is unfortunate, because after having been there I would have to say that it is the best kept secret in Asia, which is one of the Seoul's own taglines. My reasons for going are threefold:
1) China has over a week-long break known as National Week, so I had time off to go somewhere for a long time (although I heard they might soon discontinue this week off?)
2) I have four Korean friends who studied at my school in America in previous years and have since returned to South Korea, so I would like to see them again. Also one of my friends (Sal Ochoa) from America is studying in Korea
3) I already travelled around a lot of China in August, so I wanted to go somewhere outside of China
So on Thursday, September 27, Amanda and I were off by ferry from the Chinese port of Tianjin to the Korean port of Incheon. We chose a ferry because it's $600 cheaper round-trip than a plane, and who can argue with that? 27 hours later we arrived. Oh, and I'm going to try to put pictures on here that are different from the ones on Facebook.
1 Amanda inside the ferry
2 View behind us from the deck
We got there and were immediately lost, because we had to find the subway to Seoul but didn't know where it was. Enter Ari, the Korean girl who wandered up to us with one backpack on her back and one on her stomach, whistling and asking where we were from. It turns out she just returned home from travelling the world solo for 8 months. She led us on a long-winded route to the station (apparently forgetting where it was, as she had to ask a bunch of people), but we finally found it and made it to Seoul an hour later, parting ways with our unique new friend.
1 Amanda, me, and crazy-eyed Ari
2 Meehyun, me, Amanda, and Sal at dinner (see below)
I was staying at Sal's tiny apartment for three days and Amanda was staying at a Korean girl named Hyuein's house (Hyuein studied at NCC last year). But everyone was in class when we arrived, so Amanda and I ate at a Dunkin Donuts until 6:00 when we were finally able to call Sal from a payphone. He came and picked us up and took us to Sinchon, the crazy university area that he lives in. We met up with Meehyun (another Korean girl we know from NCC) and had a Korean dinner of bulgogi and meat that we cooked in front of us. So good. After that we wandered around Sinchon and went to a DVD bang, where you rent a movie and watch it in a room. We ended the night with Doctor Fish, a cafe where you put your feet in water and little fish suck all the dead skin off. It kind of felt like being electrocuted, and no. Just no. I didn't like it.
1 The Sinchon area
2 Doctor Fish. Never again
The next day started our real time in Seoul. We had 7 days, so we could take things nice and leisurely, doing what we wanted and meeting up with friends whenever we got the chance. On Saturday we met up with Meehyun, Hyuein, and Sal and went to Gyeongbokgung Palace (try pronouncing that one!), the main palace from ages ago. Then we walked around this really trendy area, had a lunch of North Korean cold noodles, a dessert of waffles (apparently the big fad in South Korea right now is waffles??), and at night we went to the main stream that's downtown. We ended the night in a traditional Korean bar, where we had kiwi-flavored soju (soju is the national drink of Korea, kind of like vodka) that tasted like a smoothie.
1 The changing of the guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace
2 The palace is in the middle of downtown
1 Downtown at night
2 The start of Cheongye Stream
The next day was Sunday and Amanda and I were alone for most of it. First we went to the largest church in the world (supposedly 800,000 members) called Yoido Full Gospel Church. It was a crazy service, and we were put on the third floor where the pews had little machines in front of them and we plugged headphones in to get an instantaneous English translation (well, technically an "interpretation") of the pastor's sermon. Truthfully the interpretation was kind of muddled, so I don't really know what he was talking about. Then we wandered the Yeouido area, which reminded me a lot of Odaiba. After some train confusion we made our way to the National Museum of Korea, and then to the Seoul Tower, which is on a mountain in the middle of the city I guess. After that we met up with Hyuein and Sal and went to a really cool bar where you had to take off your shoes and walk on these stones around a pond. We got a hookah (it was my first time and I was pretty terrible at it. Which is good, I guess) and a drink. Afther hanging out there for a while, we ended the night at crazy Korean karaoke, where the rooms looke like they're from 1908.
1 Inside the chruch. Note the choir and orchestra
2 Seoul Tower
1 The pond in the bar
2 Karaoke can trace it's roots to early 20th century London
I'll guess I'll leave it at that for now, before this becomes unbearably long.
South Korea. You know of it, right? Sure, it's the country that's south of North Korea. And Samsung and Hyundai come from there. Maybe if you're a little more interested in Asia you know that kimchi (spicy pickled radish) is South Korea's most famous food, the country is 25% Christian (one of the largest Christian populations in Asia), the capital Seoul had the Olympics in 1988, and they write using an alphabet called Hangul that is very different from Chinese and Japanese characters and looks like this: 조선글
But no one goes to South Korea; it's not high on anyone's list, and not much is known about it. Which is unfortunate, because after having been there I would have to say that it is the best kept secret in Asia, which is one of the Seoul's own taglines. My reasons for going are threefold:
1) China has over a week-long break known as National Week, so I had time off to go somewhere for a long time (although I heard they might soon discontinue this week off?)
2) I have four Korean friends who studied at my school in America in previous years and have since returned to South Korea, so I would like to see them again. Also one of my friends (Sal Ochoa) from America is studying in Korea
3) I already travelled around a lot of China in August, so I wanted to go somewhere outside of China
So on Thursday, September 27, Amanda and I were off by ferry from the Chinese port of Tianjin to the Korean port of Incheon. We chose a ferry because it's $600 cheaper round-trip than a plane, and who can argue with that? 27 hours later we arrived. Oh, and I'm going to try to put pictures on here that are different from the ones on Facebook.
1 Amanda inside the ferry
2 View behind us from the deck
We got there and were immediately lost, because we had to find the subway to Seoul but didn't know where it was. Enter Ari, the Korean girl who wandered up to us with one backpack on her back and one on her stomach, whistling and asking where we were from. It turns out she just returned home from travelling the world solo for 8 months. She led us on a long-winded route to the station (apparently forgetting where it was, as she had to ask a bunch of people), but we finally found it and made it to Seoul an hour later, parting ways with our unique new friend.
1 Amanda, me, and crazy-eyed Ari
2 Meehyun, me, Amanda, and Sal at dinner (see below)
I was staying at Sal's tiny apartment for three days and Amanda was staying at a Korean girl named Hyuein's house (Hyuein studied at NCC last year). But everyone was in class when we arrived, so Amanda and I ate at a Dunkin Donuts until 6:00 when we were finally able to call Sal from a payphone. He came and picked us up and took us to Sinchon, the crazy university area that he lives in. We met up with Meehyun (another Korean girl we know from NCC) and had a Korean dinner of bulgogi and meat that we cooked in front of us. So good. After that we wandered around Sinchon and went to a DVD bang, where you rent a movie and watch it in a room. We ended the night with Doctor Fish, a cafe where you put your feet in water and little fish suck all the dead skin off. It kind of felt like being electrocuted, and no. Just no. I didn't like it.
1 The Sinchon area
2 Doctor Fish. Never again
The next day started our real time in Seoul. We had 7 days, so we could take things nice and leisurely, doing what we wanted and meeting up with friends whenever we got the chance. On Saturday we met up with Meehyun, Hyuein, and Sal and went to Gyeongbokgung Palace (try pronouncing that one!), the main palace from ages ago. Then we walked around this really trendy area, had a lunch of North Korean cold noodles, a dessert of waffles (apparently the big fad in South Korea right now is waffles??), and at night we went to the main stream that's downtown. We ended the night in a traditional Korean bar, where we had kiwi-flavored soju (soju is the national drink of Korea, kind of like vodka) that tasted like a smoothie.
1 The changing of the guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace
2 The palace is in the middle of downtown
1 Downtown at night
2 The start of Cheongye Stream
The next day was Sunday and Amanda and I were alone for most of it. First we went to the largest church in the world (supposedly 800,000 members) called Yoido Full Gospel Church. It was a crazy service, and we were put on the third floor where the pews had little machines in front of them and we plugged headphones in to get an instantaneous English translation (well, technically an "interpretation") of the pastor's sermon. Truthfully the interpretation was kind of muddled, so I don't really know what he was talking about. Then we wandered the Yeouido area, which reminded me a lot of Odaiba. After some train confusion we made our way to the National Museum of Korea, and then to the Seoul Tower, which is on a mountain in the middle of the city I guess. After that we met up with Hyuein and Sal and went to a really cool bar where you had to take off your shoes and walk on these stones around a pond. We got a hookah (it was my first time and I was pretty terrible at it. Which is good, I guess) and a drink. Afther hanging out there for a while, we ended the night at crazy Korean karaoke, where the rooms looke like they're from 1908.
1 Inside the chruch. Note the choir and orchestra
2 Seoul Tower
1 The pond in the bar
2 Karaoke can trace it's roots to early 20th century London
I'll guess I'll leave it at that for now, before this becomes unbearably long.