The Heart and Seoul of South Korea

The evening flight to Korea was deceptively short, though the hour delay meant Chris was waiting for us on our arrival. A half hour subway line later, and we were at his family’s apartment in the up market district of Yongsan. He introduced us to Jason and Dustin, two Korean-American friends he met here, currently on a summer program. They lodge at his apartment, describing their student accommodation as crappy- Chris doesn’t seem to mind. Throughout our ten days there, random people just seemed to come and go and treat his place as theirs. Chris was all very relaxed about this. 

After a first night in which the four of us went for a few drinks, the second night was the night of one of Chris’s mates birthdays. Tom Emerton, a friend for home who is out here teaching for a year joined us. The birthday was in one of Seoul’s best (and therefore most expensive) nightclubs. His friend Catherine, also Korean American had reserved a table and bought several bottles of spirit, which people didn’t seem to drink and so we took full advantage. An hour long power outage allowed everyone to hit an off license and purchase Soju with poweraid (Chris and I actually got some beers). This national drink, made using rice wine, tastes exactly like watered down vodka, drunk in shots and at only $3 a bottle, the Koreans guzzle nearly two bottles a week per person.  Eventually the power resumed and the night turned messy and ended with Tom and I escorting a well oiled Robert home.

The first few days were spent in Chris apartment just relaxing, playing endless games of call of duty and FIFA whilst devouring pizzas from the nearby takeaway. It was great to get away from staying in hostels and endlessly seeing sights, after all this has been life for 6 months. Paradoxically, doing normal things was actually different.

Playstation with Rob- Dustin is in the background

On the 24^th July, our third full day we decided to head out and see some sights, heading to the historical district of Insadong. The area was a warren of small alleys containing historical buildings alongside the usual tourist shops (though it is known for its antique dealers and art galleries). After ambling around we headed off to Changdeokgung Palace. The palace was interesting, with vast gardens which one annoyingly had to take a tour round. The usual symbols of Confucian Asia were present, different doors for the Emperor as well as symbols for the Earth and Heaven(see picture). Following this we were starving so headed to a restaurant for our first Korean dish, Bibimbap, one of the many incredible meals we ate here. The dish consisted of raw beef with an egg and a variety of vegetables. As is typical in Korea all was served with rice and Kimchi- pickled and spiced Chinese cabbage.

The square outer lake represents heaven and the circular part represents earth

That evening we relaxed watching Harry Potter whilst eating Chris’ chicken soup, a taste of home. On the 25^th, we left the house around 2(we only left before 12 once), heading over to Myeongdong, Seoul’s main shopping district. Here we wondered about for a bit, eating some amazing dumplings (which were similar to the Chinese ones but with less meat) and noodle soup, before heading to a dog café, one of the strangest places I have ever been. It wasn’t a place where you could eat dog (that will come later) but a café where for a fiver you were given a coffee and allowed to interact with the many animals running around the place. The café had a whiff of antiseptic wash in the air and the dogs whilst nice weren’t particularly cute. It was incredibly strange, and as the picture below shows the staff were erm, dedicated. 

Myeongdong

Dumplings!

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In the afternoon we headed over to Bukchon Hanok, a reconstruction of a traditional Korean village. Where you could play traditional Korean games (one was where you had to throw a rod through hoops and another was a form of backgammon) and get a glimpse of how a traditional community lived.

On our middle day we visited the Korean War museum which was excellent explaining the horrors of a conflict which hasn’t technically ended (the north and south have been in a 60 year ceasefire). The rain that had been drenching the city for days continued here, forcing us to hide inside an APC- this is the first country where we have had it so unlucky with the weather, it rained constantly for several days. For dinner we experienced an all you can eat Korean Barbeque, which was my favourite meal of my time here. The best bits were the bulgogi and soy red bean sauce and blood sausage, all washed down with Soju- it was amazing, the best meal in Korea, possibly better than anything in China as well. 

Rain Escape-hiding in an APC

After stuffing ourselves, we met up with some more of Chris’ Korean-American friends, drinking in a few bars(in a shisha bar there were some really annoying Canadians) before heading for that other Korean tradition- Karaoke. They love Karaoke in Korea, though its not quite the same as at home. In Korea, a group of friends will hire a private room for a few dollars and sing the night away. It isn’t viewed with the sense of skepticism and hint of embarrassment as it is at home. It’s just another way to hang out with your mates.

 One dish I didn’t like was the ice cold noodle soup, Chris Rob, Dustin, Jason and I ate to cure our hangovers the next day. It was very different, though served with an excellent hot broth served in a mug, but not to my taste (the rest of the day was spent playing playstation 3).

The Cold Noodle Soup with a side of dumplings

On our final few days we took a trip to Seoul’s most popular attraction, Gyeongbokgung Palace (built in 1395), which was similar to Changdeokgung. In addition we went on our only trip outside of the city, to the heavily fortified DMZ.

Chris, Tom, Rob and I ended up on a coach full of Chinese people which left the border town of Imjinkak and took us into the 2km wide DMZ. Things were very strict here, Soldiers wouldn’t let you take photos, especially not of the North which was annoying(apparently the north Koreans take pictures of you with your camera and use it for propaganda). In the DMZ we went several hundred meters down to the site of a North Korean infiltration tunnel as well as visiting a museum and freedom bridge to which messages for piece are attached. Interestingly the South Koreans have built a brand new train station in the DMZ for when reunification occurs.  Once we returned to Seoul, Chris cousin met us and took us all for dinner (tradition means the eldest pays). Dinner was dog. Robert seemed a bit apprehensive about it, due to emotional attachments to his family pet Coco, however I didn’t have any qualms. Once it arrived we all tucked in. It had the colour of beef though was fatty like pork, not a particularly nice meat, though in S Korea it is a delicacy.

No Photos!

At the station by the border

Looking over the border, the flag pole is North Koreas and one of the largest in the world

Freedom Bridge

Dog

Enjoying dog whilst sitting on the floor as is tradition(whats also tradition is Chris'' cousin Alex generously paid for the whole meal as the eldest!)

The penultimate day was light, after a heavy night before, Chris, Rob, Dustin and I headed to the hill on which lies the Seoul Tower, a modest structure. From here we were able to get good views over this massive city.

Seoul Tower

A farewell night out following another Korean BBQ at the same place as before symbolized the end to Korea as we took a flight to Japan.  

Chris was extremely generous to us during our time in Korea, being a fantastic host. It was great to be in a truly advanced country again, having come from the second world and just relaxing was a great tonic from the intense few months. Now home doesn’t feel far away, I defiantly feel mixed emotions at this point.

Beijing!

Nearly a quarter of our time in China was devoted to the capital. Yet at no point did we lack something to do there, in we were constantly busy. We arrived on a bullet train and from our hostel, located in the traditional narrow streets called Hutongs, explored the city. We wandered round the sites, having our photos taken by Chinese people at the expansive Tiananmen Square, in the centre of which was a giant red memorial of the 90^th anniversary of the communist party. While here we guffawed at the ridiculous kilometer long queues to sea Mao's Mausoleum, and climbed atop the gate of heavenly peace. The end of the day too us to Behai park, a pretty example of classical Chinese scenery, but we have seen better in places gone.

Beijing had a different feel to most of China. Our area round the Hutongs had far more symbols of creativity than seen before, numerous guitar shops, private retailers selling colourful clothing(some of which was fake) and shops selling videogames(we haven’t seen it yet). There was an appearance and sense of true freedom. I had presupposed that China would have eeriness about it, that there would be a feeling of being on edge or perhaps a sense of caution among the people. Yet things were so normal, throughout the whole time there. Police looked like police anywhere in the world, whereas I imagined them to look more militaristic. Mcdonalds was everywhere, alongside comical T-shirts of Barack Obama dressed all communist (I never thought such imagery would be allowed and barrack would be a bit of a no go- having said that there was no premier Hu holding an American flag!).On the streets, vehicles and restaurants ranged from top high end brands to cheap local imitations(a Mercedes contrasted by a cart packed with boxes, the same beer costing ten times more in one restaurant than another on the next street). I didn’t imagine such a wealth gap to exist in China, that such obvious capitalism would be shown. The worst example was having to pay to enter Beihai park, even in the west we arn’t so ruthless. The only noticeable signs of suppression were the inability to access certain websites, and the sometimes strange reporting of events (yet I wonder if I noticed this because I was looking for it?).  The media is clever here, it doesn’t blatantly slate the west as a bunch of greedy money loving capitalists and tell the people that they are all part of some glorious revolution. Instead, the state news CCTV discusses democratic systems (including press freedom), in contrast to the one party system, but gently promotes advantages of the Chinese way of doing things(“the west believes that having two parties arguing over a point solves problems but in China we think that being rational within a party is the best way forward”). In fairness their media have it easy with all the prosperity as proof that their way is best.

Our second and  third days in Beijing were spent at temple sites-took us to the Lama temple and a Confucian temple on day two and the temple of heaven on day three.

The Lama temple is one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist temples in the world. Built in 1694, it managed to survive Mao’s cultural revolution due to personal intervention from a minister. It is extremely ornate,  with the hall of Harmony containing three bhudda statues, representing the past present and future. The Pavillion of Ten Thousand Happinesses holds a giant 26m tallstatue of Bhudda. It really was exquisite.

The Confucian temple was also impressive(Confucianism isn’t a religion, it’s a set of rules, a moral code of guidance created by Confucius, with aspects being central to Chinese culture).

Lama Temple

One of Beijing’s top destinations is the Temple of Heaven which we took a trip too. Again it was extremely impressive. All of these temples in china really were, far better than most in Thailand and elsewhere.

The ornately coloured building was spectacular, the main temple with its four pillars, one for each season, was fantastic although unfortunately smothered in tourists. 

One evening we visited the Olympic park, where we went inside the famous birds nest stadium. Going up close, the birds nest wasn’t as graceful as the images suggest, and the inside was a generic, however it was spectacular when lit up at night. After taking some pictures, the thunder and rain, a part of every evening we were in Beijing, rolled in. We ended up waiting around in a shopping centre at the end of the Olympic Park where I surrendered to hunger and cold and gorged on a McDonalds. The streets around our subway station were ankle deep in water, having suffered from a flash flood, so we headed straight to the nearest restaurant Here, Robs patience was rewarded, as he ordered one of the best dishes we ate in Beijing-Kung Phao chicken. The dish, labeled politically incorrect during the cultural revolution and consists of lightly spiced chicken, served in a rich red sauce. We ate this for several of our meals. For £1.40 it was an absolute bargain.

Kung Phao Chicken

Through our hostel we booked our trip to see the great wall. We carefully planned this, so  as to try and avoid tourists, yet not only see but get a great experience of seeing the wall. We booked a trip which took us to the Simitai part of the wall from which we walked 10km along the wall to Jinshaling. Our choice was excellent, the wall being the most spectacular thing seen in Asia, and quite possibly the entire trip. After a cable car up to the wall, our unguided walk took us from the watchtowers, guardposts and battlements restored to their original grandeur at Simitai up and down to the original unrestored half towers and semi collapsed section of wall of Jingshaling. Everything was as fantastic as expected, the mountain scenery alone was worthy of national park status. The wall extended up, down and around the hills as far as the eye could see. It was one of those places where anybody could get a photo and it would look fantastic, you couldn’t get a bad picture if you tried.

We went to Beijing’s most visited attraction the next day, and the world’s largest palace complex, the Forbidden City. Just off Tiananmen square, this walled behemoth contained grand ornately decorated wooden halls used for various functions from resting areas exclusively for the emperor to areas for civil servants to be to take imperial examinations.

There were gardens for the emperor printing houses and places for weddings.

Unfortunately the forbidden city was ridiculously crowded. It was so bad that I actually felt the experience was affected by it and would like to return one day when things are less crowded.

 

That evening we went on one of one of my most anticipated culinary experiences, heading to King of Duck for Peking’s famous dish. For a tenner each we got a whole duck with pancakes, Hoisin sauce and the usual strips of cucumber. The chef was swish, carving the duck up for us at the table. It was defiantly the best duck we have ever eaten, extremely tender, with juicy fat and some excellent full flavoured Hoisin sauce. Unfortunately the meal just didn’t fill a hole, there just wasn’t enough of it(we even asked them for the carcass which we stripped bare in the fine dining restaurant- they didn’t look impressed!) so we ended up filling up on fast food.

The last full day in China gave us some blue skies and sunshine, something not seen for weeks and took us to our third UNISCO world heritage site in as many days, the summer palace. I think we were suffering from sensory overload form the preceding few weeks, and so didn’t really take it’s lakes and palaces in. That night we purchased some gifts in Danedong market, where you have to barter the price down  to at least a twentieth of what they are asking. We left China the next day, looking forward to having a bit of a break from touristy stuff in South Korea.

 The country defiantly turned traveling around for me from South East Asia, with it being a strong competitor for country of the trip. For sure it had its oddities, the teenage policemen and soldiers everywhere, the odd person following us, the coughing and spitting (what does it take to offend them?), the lack of a concept of personal space, they just stand ridiculously close and of course the limitless fake brands and lack of shame in wearing them. However they were on the whole, despite sounding very aggressive when speaking to each other(none of the saving face of south east asia here- emotions aren’t hidden at all) were incredibly friendly to us. Your really felt a guest in their country. In addition, culturally its far and away the country of the trip at the moment.