Monday, August 29, 2005

South Korea (August 20, 2005 - August 27, 2005)

So after Taiwan, I entered the 3rd and last week of my vacation away from vacation to another oriental-pacific country, South Korea. My flights from Taiwan were interesting as they were during weird hours (arrived in Incheon at around 3 am in order to get cheaper prices) so I had to do a lot of sleeping at the Incheon International Airport (the intl airport 'near' Seoul). I strategically locked my suitcase to my backpack and used it as my pillow but from what I was told, like Japan, South Korea is supposedly really safe..... well not as safe as Japan, but safe enough. By this point I was already "travelled out" from two weeks in Taiwan, but I still had tons of fun in Seoul. This was my first trip that I travelled alone.


I stayed at this really ghetto youth hostel I booked online before I left Tottori. It was nothing like what it said it looked like on the website. It was called "Travellers 'A' Youth Hostel", yet when I arrived, all the ladies who ran the place didnt speak a word of English or any other language for that matter other than Korean. And the facilities were not really up to shape, however, it was extremely close to a subway station. I did meet A LOT of other youth in the hostel and made a bunch of new friends. And ALL of them had some relation to Japan. They were either foreign students, like myself, studying or teaching in Japan or were Japanese.

The youth I met at the hostel

This trip was quite an eye opener in terms of both finding culture differences and self-development. Like China, this is another country that has a questionable relationship with Japan due to World War II events. But yet, like in Taiwan, most of the older generations (baby boomer and older) spoke to me in Japanese when I arrived. Like the Taiwanese, the store keepers are very agressive in terms of trying to get you to buy their food/products/services. From growing up in Canada and after living in Japan for almost half a year, I not used to being harrassed by store owners to buy stuff... but the constant "in your face" agressive nagging from the shop-keepers in Korea as I "browsed" drove me absolutely insane. All I heard when I walked past the food stands was "兄さん美味しですよ" ("oni-san oishi desu yo" - "its delicious my brotha" in Japanese) from the Korean shop ladies. Speaking of Korean ladies, don't even think about messing with the senior citizens. Korean grannies are agressive.. you don't want to get in their way. I was in line buying a subway ticket in Seoul, and I felt something poking me in the back... it was a granny poking me with her umbrella, telling me to move over and hurry up. A girl from England in my hostel told me she was lining up for a buffet and a Korean granny was poking her with chopsticks also telling her to hurry up. I was cracking up when she told me this. Usually on the subway in Canada and Japan, someone will usually get up and give their seats to the the elderly without being told. In Seoul, I witnessed a granny literally telling some teenager to get their ass off the seat as soon as she walked into the train. It was quite humerous. You don't want to mess with them.

Streets of Seoul in the early morning

Korean lady selling food

So in the 7 days I was in Seoul, I went to see tons of places. I went to a bunch of palaces in downtown Seoul: Changdeokgung Palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and another one I don't remember the name of. I also went to see the "Blue House": the South Korean presidential palace, the Seoul Fifa World Cup soccer stadium, the massive COEX Mall, the "88 Olympic Park" (the park/area with all the stadiums and venues for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul), the Seoul Museum of Cotemporary Art, the Kimchi museum, and I went to a bunch of the famous districts in Seoul: Itaewon (foreigner area with all the nightclubs), Dongdaemon, Namdaemun, Jongno, Apgujeong-dong Street (the Rodeo drive of Seoul with the whole chain of overpriced name brand stores ... theres a funny story... I was walking down the street and I all of a sudden hear these school girls shreek and chasing after a car carrying posters.... it startled me with the high frequency squeeking of female voices after seeing a celebrity.. but as I walked down a street, I was given a whole box of KrispyKreme donuts for free... they were opening up the first store in S. Korea. I was like wooo hoooo free food!!! ), and I also went hiking in Bukanshan National Park. It was extremely crappy compared to Taroko in Taiwan and the parks in Japan so I didnt stay in the park as long as I had planned. One night after all the sightseeing places were closed, I decided to spend hours at a Jazz bar in Itaewon, I was soooo relaxed. I absolutely love jazz music, it actually makes me happier when Im down. And in terms of food, I attempted to try all the Korean delicacies... but sadly, I soon found out that my stomach doesnt handle Korean food too well. I believe its the fact that EVERYTHING is spicy and its Kimchi ALL the time: for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So near the latter days of the week, I had to go western style and have burgers and fries. But theres a Korean fast food chain called Lotte Burger. Their burgers are AMAZING.


Changdeokung Palace





Nam Dae Mun Market


My kimchi dinner... look how gas-inducing it is

Changing of the guards ceremony in front of Gyeoungbokgung Palace

Gyeoungbokgung Palace
National Folk Museum in the Gyeoungbukgung Palace grounds
Ancient Korean king and queen gowns



The "Blue House", the South Korean Presidential Palace
Seoul Tower

Myung Dong district
Rodeo Drive of Abgujeoung district (equivalent of Rodeo drive in the States and Ginza in Tokyo)
Its meeeee... King Kong
My free box of KrispyKreme donuts
Abgujeoung
Jazz club I went to the night after Panmunjum

Children playing at the fountain near Seoul City Hall

Food festival at Seoul City Hall

Seoul City Hall
One of the 3 ancient city gates located around the city

Olympic Park - venue for the 1988 Summer Olympic games in Seoul





Seoul Olympic Museum
Kimchi Field Museum in COEX mall


Hyundai Department Store
=Hiking at Bukhanshan National Park

Seoul World Cup Soccer Statdium



In Seoul, I took the subway EVERYWHERE. Its crazy how much time you waste on trasportation when travelling. The subway is very convenient in Seoul, but it took me a while to get used to it. So one day, I was walking up the stairs after getting off the train, and all of a sudden I see these Korean soliders in all camaflouged with face-paint pointing rifles down the stairs. It freaked me out half to death considering I've never been pointed at with guns before. I asked the conductor later and he told me they were doing "terrorist-handling training". And just my luck they point the guns at me. hahahaah.

Dongdaemun Stadium Subway Station

The highlights of the trip dealt with the history and politics of the region. I took the "Panmunjum DMZ (De-Militarized Zone)tour" which takes foreign tourists (no natives allowed)from Seoul to the border between South and North Korea. 8/9 of my bus contained Japanese tourists and there were 6 of us who were English speakers. It was such a strict tour: you could point at soliders, take pictures at certain areas, and there was specific dress code. The area is heavily guarded with South Korean soliders (called the ROK soldiers - Republic of Korea soliders), and US soliders. I got to see so many neat areas such as the "Bridge of No-Return" (which is a bridge that connects from South to North korea, but the other side in the north supposedly contains a shit load of landmines and is supposed guarded with North Korean soliders... you dont want to be trapped in that communist state), "The worlds most dangerous golf course" (once upon a time contained landmines... which is in the South Korea territory... our bus passed by it but werent allowed to take photos), and the "North Korea propaganda village" (an uninhabited town built by North Korea for the use of propaganda and to broadcast communist propaganda messages to the South). There is also a village that is built by South Korea, but its not used for propaganda, and its actually inhabited by farmers (its a dangerous area to live in, and they are only allowed to farm 2 hours a day.. so supposedly these farmers dont have to pay taxes). It was super strict... when we were at the tower looking over the Freedom House and looking over to North Korea, we werent allowed to point to not cause any conflicts with the North. It was quite the interesting tour. It defintely was the highlight of my trip. (Click here for a small video clip of Panmunjum)


My tour group having lunch: Korean BBQ before heading off to Panmunjum


Memorial area before entering the high security area of Panmunjum

My visitors pass into the high secuirty area


In infamous Panmunjum DMZ area (the S. Korean Freedom House on the right)

North Korean building (the white posts is the official border between North and South Korea)

ROK (South Korean) soliders on guiard

North Korean building... you can see a North Korean solider standing out front
North Korean propaganda village

The South Korean building which the border runs through where the North and South have their meetings

The negotiation table

Me with a US solider and two ROK soliders
South Korean soliders standing on guard behind the aqua-coloured South Korean buildings facing the grey North Korean building ( I took this shot from the bus... I'm surprised how well it turned out)
"The Bridge of No-Return"

So the next day I made a trip the Korea War Memorial Museum. There I actually learned the details about and got to see many artefacts from the Korean War. And I also learned how the Panmunjum transitioned from just being the 38 degree parallel to the DMZ that it is in now. It was quite educational and political. I loved it. It also brought in the involvement of the other Asian-pacific countries that I have some connection with: Japan and China. But underneath it all, it emphasised an underlying problem that continues to haunt a race of people seperated by a history of complicated politics and war.

The Korean War Memorial Museum

The Korean War Armistance Agreement
The Korean War communist surrender document
The desk on which the armistance agreement was signed

On the 4th day, I took a trip to a small town called Pyeongtaek (about 40 minutes south of Seoul) which contains one of the largest military bases in Japan. I was there to visit my friend Christopher whos in the US army. He showed me around the base. It was like a small town in the US. They had everything from movie theatres, US fast food chains, rec centres, etc... In his room, he even had American cable TV and a phoneline that dials locally to his home town in Maryland. It was nuts. It was a completely different world. He also told me about the social-interaction (or the lack of) between the Korean ROK soliders have with the US soliders. Chris is a president of the main organization that organizes events for soliders, so he had special access to many areas. But stupidly, I completely forgot to take pictures. I was still in the Panmunjum DMZ mindset of the no-photo-high-security areas.
My train ticket to Pyeongtaek to visit my friend Christopher at his U.S. army base

In one of the last nights, I went with a friend I met at the hostel, Cathii from Australia, to go watch a musical called "Nanta". It was spectacular!!! It was all actions with no dialogue. Basically what it was, was they told a comedic story out of facial expressions and music from cooking utensils. It was amazing. The next night after the musical Cathii draggged me out clubbing with one of her friends she met at her new hostel (she moved hostels cause of the ghettoness of the one I was staying at... I didnt bother moving).
NANTA, the musical

Cathii and I after the show
Cathii and I posing with the cast of NANTA

The South Korea trip was quite an experience. It was very lonely at first from sight-seeing all by myself. Being alone gave me too much time to think about my life and I started to get all anal about myself. But as I met more people as the days went by, it became tons of fun.

The three week vacation was defintely one of self-actualization and development. I look back at the distance that I travelled and the amount of places Ive been to, I cant believe how much more independent I have become. And through interacting with people from other cultures and going through a lot of the crazy obstacles brought on by travelling, I got to learn a lot about myself, my stengths and weaknesses, and my own personality. But most significantly, I got to travel to the two major countries on top of Japan and got to experience the different cultures.

A lot of people ask me why I didnt go to Thailand and or some South-east asian country. Well for one... Im not really a "lets lie on the beach and sun tan" type of guy.. Im more of the lets go move about, sightsee, and explore relics, museums, etc... Secondly, I was already in the Asia-pacific region so I might as well visit the countries nearby. And lastly, if I were to go to Thailand, I would extend trip to other southeast asian countries as well. Ill concentrate on one region at a time.

I was kinda glad to go back Japan. When I landed in Osaka, I sighed to myself, "Home Sweet Home!!!". It startled me when I realized I had said that.