I love Korea and Japan, but I couldn’t help but keep comparing them to each other and to Hong Kong when I was there. For example, as soon as I landed in Korea, I noticed a very strong distinct smell. One exchange student said he thought HK smelled like mold and sweat. (Well, it is pretty humid in Hong Kong.) But when I stepped into Incheon International Airport, all I could notice was it’s smell. And it wasn’t a very pleasant smell. I don’t mean to offend anyone, and I am really sorry to say it, but the first word that came to me to describe it was – “trash.”
My roommate and I stayed at IS@K Hostel in Itaewon during our entire day in Seoul. This was my first hostel experience and I am very happy to say that I really enjoyed it. I met so many new people and made a bunch of new friends. A British girl who studied at USC and trained for track in the Olympics but decided to quit because they told her she wouldn’t be able to eat carbs (“F*** that!”); A guy from Vancouver traveling Japan and Korea for the past three weeks; Iranian man working for the army and trying to find a job in Seoul; A German guy who interned for 4 weeks in Korea but decided to spend 1 week exploring Seoul; Another HKU student who I will mention later on. I’d stay up late watching some crappy television show with them, but mostly just chatting about random things – shows that we liked and watched, quirky males on the new Runway show, etc. Also, I didn’t know this until I arrived, but besides Gangnam, Itaewon is the place to go for nightlife. Very nice, hip area with fancy restaurants, bars, and clubs. You’ll notice that a lot of people speak English in Itaewon, compared to other districts in Seoul; it’s pretty English- and tourist-friendly
We stayed in Seoul for 5 days. Our first nigh was at an overnight spa at the airport.
DAY 1 (10/10/2014)
We visited the two big shopping market places on our first day. I really love Myeong-dong. Delicious street food, lots of shopping stores – it’s a mix of cultural and modern. They have big-name brand stores like Uniqlo, H&M, and Forever 21 and also more domestic brands like 8Seconds (which I am guessing is their “H&M”). I went back the next day just so I can really enjoy it (we breezed through everything on our first two days.)
DAY 2 (12 Oct 2014)
After a much-needed night of rest, we left for Gyeongbokgung Palace around 11:00am. The palace is massive. But what is most ironic about it is that as soon as you step outside the palace grounds, there is a city right in front of you. It’s a completely ironic and paradoxical contrast. The palace is a traditional landmark and right next door, you have a modern bustling city. I wish I could’ve captured it on camera somehow, but I would’ve needed to walk pretty far away to be able to take it. Again, we really breezed through it. If I were traveling alone, I would’ve walked through the entire museum (it’s free anyways) and paid the entrance fee to get in because the tickets include the National Folk Museum of Korea as well. I really like the Folk Museum (or at least as much of what I got to see anyway…) Outside the Folk Museum, they replicated what Seoul would have looked like in the 1800s.
Exhibit outside the National Folk Museum of Korea
Afterwards, we walked through Insadong and Gwangjang Market. While walking through the streets of Insadong, I kept seeing people eating this strange J-shaped ice-cream. I really wanted to get one and finally came across this small store that was selling it. CHECK IT OUT. The cone is made of some corn puff. I didn’t think the ice-cream was that good but I tried it solely for the experience.
Vanilla on one end, chocolate on the other.
I LOVE Gwangjang Market. It has the exact traditional and local feel of Korea that I was looking for – street stands, traditional clothing, endless stalls of food EVERYWHERE. It is near Jongno-5 ga. The thing I took away from this place was that Koreans really love their kimchi. There is kimchi EVERYWHERE.
Kimchi kimchi kimchi
Small crabs seasoned with kimchi.
Apparently these are silkworms….I though they were some sort of nuts or something.
Seafood pancake made from corn batter.
We bought one seafood pancake and shared it among ourselves. It was very different than the ones I’ve had at Korean restaurants in America. The ones I’ve in America are really salty and the dough is made from flour. But these were very soft and almost a bit crumbly (because they seemed to be made from cornmeal of some sort). Not an overwhelming amount of seafood inside, and although it was fried, the pancake was not very oily or salty. The ladies making it are so pro…they just pour the batter on top of the fryer and use their spatula to keep the batter from spreading into one big pizza. Then they just flip it – just like that.
Of course, we later went to Gangnam. This is apparently where all the young people go. It’s rich and wealthy. Compared to Hong Kong, Gangnam is a bit like Causeway Bay and Central mixed together. Myeongdong is more like Causeway Bay and Mongkok. We walked into Gangnam…and everyone was super well-dressed. I went on stalker-mode to try to take this picture because I just really wanted to capture the style of the people here.
Oppa gangnam style
Our last stop was….Korean BBQ. We headed back to Itaewon and found a small place up the street in a small alley. I didn’t have any of course. I ordered kimchi fried rice (for only $2000 WON…aka $2 USD!!!). The KBBQ is cooked right in front of you on the grill and apparently it’s very good. My friends ordered 3 dishes of meat and the total came out to be $35000 WON in total.
DAY 3 (12 October 2014)
I also went to the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) with a friend I met at the hostel. He also happened to be an exchange student at HKU! We chose the DMZ half-day tour and it was not what I expected. From this trip, I realized something about myself. I am a spontaneous and sauntering traveling. Sauntering in the sense that I am not someone who likes to breeze through anything or anywhere that I am. I bought a really nice camera. I like to take pictures. I like to walk through every stall and exhibit and store to see everything. I absolutely hate cramming my schedule and hitting every location like we’re on a time crunch. Anyway, the DMZ tour felt really rushed for me. 20 minutes to walk inside the tunnel and I didn’t even half time to take pictures afterwards because I spent a lot of time in the gift store trying to decide if I wanted to buy anything. Then another 15 minutes to look at North Korea. That sounds like enough time but it’s NOT when you’re on the tour with at least 100 other people all trying to cram into the balcony to look at the same view.
View of North Korea on our 2nd stop of DMZ tour.
North Korea looks like a dystopia, even from the outside. Our tour guide told us that if we looked through the binoculars ($1 WON for 2 minutes I think), you’ll see a city. That city is fake. The North Korean gov’t built that city to make people think that North Korea is very nice and rich and wealthy. But in reality, the people live in the village nearby. NK looked so peaceful but it also looked so fake. Not even because the tour guide told us it was fake but because that is how it actually looked like. Tall silver buildings in the middle of plains land…seemed too surreal. The last stop of the tour was the train station that connects SK to NK. My friend and I JUST missed the opportunity to take a picture through the turnstile but the place definitely looked newly built.
We went to city hall and Myeong-dong for lunch after the tour. My friend had heard of this restaurant supposedly very famous for it’s dumplings and noodle soup. So we went and when we got there, it was full of people. Good sign. And guess what? The menu only featured FOUR items. That’s saying a lot. For a restaurant offering only four items and seating so many people, then they’re food MUST be good. Unfortunately, both dishes we ordered had meat but my friend offered me a taste of his noodle soup. The noodles are really fantastic – handmade, soft, and fresh. No wonder people want to go there to eat. It was relatively cheap too. Each dish is $8000 WON (or $8 USD) and the serving sizes are HUGE. My friend finished both dishes but luckily he is a stick. (Sorry if you’re reading this but I mean it in the nicest way! I WISH I could be as skinny as you.)
Beef noodle soup and Spicy green noodles
I met up with a friend of my friend from Intervarsity later in the day and he showed me around Bukchon Village (we met at Anguk Station). One thing you will realize about Seoul is the huge number of cafe’s. There are cafe’s EVERYWHERE, literally two on every single block. And I love it. They’re all small, boutique cafe’s and coffee shops. Starbucks in Seoul must be a joke. I was both really surprised AND not surprised to see so many “Paris Baguette’s” and “Cafe Bene’s” in Korea. Surprised, because I was used to seeing so many in New York City, I thought it was a Korean-owned but American chain. Not surprised, because both places are owned by Koreans….so I guess it makes sense that these places are in Korea. The one store that REALLY took me by surprise? Lady M. There was this HUGE-@#$ “Lady M” bakery at the train station we stayed at. It was the first picture I took on my camera during our entire trip. (I took it on the second day because I remembered to bring my camera with me on our first day but forgot the battery…so most of our first day in Seoul is documented on my crappy iPhone4.)
Lady M in Itaewon, Seoul
Paris Baguette in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
I accidentally ended up exploring Insadong twice. But it’s a really lovely area – I went during the day my first time, and then at night my second time. There are a lot of street food stands and small craft shops tabled outside, as well as a lot of fancy cafe’s and restaurants located on the streets.
Hidden market in alley. Insadong, Seoul at night.
DAY 4 (13 Oct 2014):
We went to Olympic Park in the morning. Again, had it just been me, I would’ve spent more time here. I love strolling and exploring big parks because there can be so much to do! This is possibly one of the biggest “parks” I’ve ever been to (and no, national state parks do not count as “parks”) and I loved it. It’s beautiful and spacious and there are SO MANY things to do and see.
LOL
One of the guys who I met at the Hostel told me he was going to watch the world tournament for League of Legends…and I happened to come across this sign (pictured below). I guess this is where the tournament took place…LOL (pun intended).
League of Legends World Tournament…LOL
Later we headed over to the Hangang River Ferry E-land Cruise. We bumped into a man who had booked the wrong times for the ferry so he gave us his instead. A ferry ticket was $12000 won but because he gave us his ticket, we only had to buy two more, and we split the cost three-ways and ended up paying only $4000 won per person. AHHH. The ferry ride was a bit windy and very short. Only 40 minutes in total – 20 minutes each way. The “tour” really only passes by the National Assembly building but other than that, there was nothing else to see except bridge, after bridge, after bridge. I would not recommend getting the ferry ticket and definitely would not have gone if it weren’t for the man who gave us his ticket.
We went to Namsang Market and Myeongdong for dinner and then we rushed to see the Bridge Show on the river. PLEASE TAKE NOTE. If you are going to Korea, do NOT plan for Monday because Monday is apparently like Sunday in America. Everything is CLOSED. No museums, no stores, no bridge show — no NOTHING. What a waste of a day. We should’ve left for Tokyo that day….if only we had known! After that, I headed home and ate my sorrows away and planned my Tokyo trip (More about it in my next post!)
Just a few takeaways before I finish up with this post. There were several differences between Korea and Hong Kong that I couldn’t help but take notice. For one, the food and diet. Two things I noticed about Korean diet: Korean food is cheaper than Hong Kong and they also give MUCH larger portions. I personally think that Hong Kong food is lighter and I say this with two observations. Hong Kong girls are very skinny compared to Korean girls. Not saying that Korean girls are fat but relatively speaking, Hong Kong girls just have a much smaller frame. Korean diet also consists of much more meat (especially beef) but Hong Kong people eat a lot of rice. Secondly, the cultural undertone: After seeing all the cafe’s in Seoul, I noticed thta Hong Kong has a more British influence while Korea takes on a more French aura. I say this because if you look at the names in Seoul, they often say “Patissiere” or even the word “Cafe” itself, with an accent above the “e”. A lot of clothing and jewelry takes on French styles in Korea. On the other hand, I suppose that because Hong Kong used to be a British province, it has a more British cultural undertone. For example, high tea and egg tarts come from the British “tea time” and egg-tart pastries.
There were also a few similarities that I noticed, such as language. Korean numbers sounded a bit similar to Cantonese. For example, “Jongno-3 sam” means “Jongno District 3” in English. “-sam” in Korean AND Cantonese is 3. What I did NOT know (until I talked with my friend’s friend) was that Korean has different dialects. I always thought Korean was just one universal language, but apparently different areas in Korea have different dialects, just like Chinese people have different dialects. People who learn Korean, however, often learn the one spoken in Seoul. That is the most commonly known and taught dialect. However, people in Jeju have a completely distinct dialect, one that he says he cannot even speak or understand.
I got really confused sometimes as to whether as I was in Korea or Japan because there were a lot of tourists in Korea. Korea is not as English-friendly as Hong Kong. When I first came to Hong Kong, I was actually frustrated that the policemen at the airport could not understand me (I believe I mention this in an earlier post). However, in Korea, there are very few people who speak and understand English. In Hong Kong, English is one of the three required languages taught in grade school (the other two being Cantonese and Mandarin). I remember on the first day in Seoul, we were trying to catch a bus from Myeongdong to Namsang but none of the bus station signs had English and we asked around 5-6 people for directions. Several could understand us but almost all could not converse back to us. Because Itaewon is a very notorious tourist location, most of the people there can understand and speak English. However, at most other locations, unless you specifically ask an Information Desk at a museum or tourist hotspot, then English is not a very form of communication. Fortunately, I found out that many restaurants will have at least one person who speaks Mandarin and another who speaks Japanese and I had to translate the menu at several places for us (in my embarrassingly deteriorating Mandarin…how I regret quitting Chinese school in third grade). The menu is also often written in just Korean, sometimes with a Chinese and Japanese translation below it. But other than that, you will have to search the streets for a restaurant that provides an English-translated menu…or just do what we did and point to the pictures in the menu and guess. We played a lot of charades that day. Actually no. The whole week.
Anyway, I also learned a few ONE Korean phrases during my trip there: Annyeonghaseyo – hello!
Why just one?
Because it is the most commonly-used phrase there. You use it to say hello and goodbye and welcome. In Japan, I learned a lot more phrases (but I will save that for another post).
Places where I want to visit (or again):
- Bukchon Hanok Village
- Building 63
- War Memorial of Korea
- Olympic Park
- Trick Eye Museum
- Namsang Village + Namsan Tower
- Coex Mall (we went while it was closed under renovation)
- Lotte World
- Jeju Island
A Guillible's Travels 