Back by Popular Demand - Scott's travel blog for 2008

Well, either by popular demand, or more likely because of a couple of posts on my Facebook wall, whichever way you look at it, it’s a good idea that I finally get my blog up and running again. Yes, I realise I have been away for a month already (so that means only 2 and a half months til I’m back for those who are counting…) so I have a lot to catch up on. So I will start from the start and hope that I can try and remember all the key details. So, here we go!

First stop: Seoul, Korea. Well, if you want to be technical, it was the second stop. Jetted off from Adelaide on June 8, spending one night in Sydney, where I still managed to head down to Circular Quay and enjoy the short time I had there. Early start the next day, leaving on the 9.10 to Seoul courtesy of my sponsor Asiana Airlines www.flyasiana.com. After a comfortable 10 hour flight I touched down at the sparkling Incheon Airport and made my way into downtown Seoul.

Was there for four nights and three complete days, during which time I managed to see a nice range of areas throughout the city, comfortably assisted by my own personal guide, a local friend Jemin who took good care of me. The first night we ventured out into the local area, stopping by a huge night marketplace where all sorts of clothing were being sold. I also had my first encounter with street food, and also stopped in at a small “restaurant” for some more local delicacies, including soju, a wine which is sort of like Japanese sake. Quite a nice introduction to the city.

For my first full day it was off sightseeing. After enjoying the hotel breakfast and practising my Korean with the waitress – she told me “You’re almost Korean!” – I took a taxi to the National Museum. A huge building, covering a long period of national and Asian history, including an interesting piece about how the Korean alphabet was formed (I managed to learn it myself during the week, not quite an expert yet though…). I also had fun interacting with the local kids in and around the museum, they would see me and say “Hello” and get quite excited when I responded back. Usually it was in English, but a couple of times I said hello in Korean and this caused large amounts of shrieks and laughter. I also got called “Handsome boy” a couple of times, so it seems English teachers in Korea are doing a good job! Later it was off to a cool restaurant/bar area to relax and enjoy some more local cuisine, this time Korean BBQ, chicken which we are cooking directly in front of us with a huge variety of side dishes. I quickly learnt that in Korea, it’s all about the side dishes!

The next day it was off for more sightseeing, first stop this time the national palace, Gyeongbokgung. Although not in use anymore as a residence, it has been preserved as a museum and is complete with live performances by finely dressed men and women – hard to describe, will post photos. Walked from here to the Insadong area, passing a large number of riot police along the way, since during the week I was there there were huge protests in regards to US beef imports. Was a bit confronting but I didn’t get caught in the middle of anything at least. Insadong was quite nice, enjoyed iced tea Korean-style and some noodles for dinner. During the evening I crossed the Han river and looked around the downtown area of Gangnam.

For my final full day, Jemin and I headed off on a DMZ tour. The DMZ, or Demilitarised Zone, is the area that separates North and South Korea. I’m not sure of the exact distance, but it’s at least a couple of kilometres wide. First we visited a park which is one of the closest points South Koreans can get to North Korea. We could see that many schoolchildren had been here and left messages on a wall to their northern counterparts, saying things like that they are looking forward to being able to see them one day. Not knowing much about the history of the situation before this day, it was fascinating to learn what caused the division of the once-unified Korea and what has happened since then. We were able to descend deep underground in a tunnel to get down to view the 2m x 2m tunnel that the North Koreans were building a couple of hundred metres underground towards South Korea. A defector informed South Korea of the tunnel, and when confronted, the North Koreans smeared some black stuff on the wall and told them it was a coal mine. What a coincidence. Anyway, there went that idea. Next stop was the lookout point, where we could see a little part of North Korea. No photos were allowed at this point (nor at many others along the tour) as we were closely watched by soldiers. There was a ‘photo-line’ some metres back from the wall which was the limit for taking photos, so at this point many tourists were frantically sticking their cameras up into the air to see if they could capture something from the other side. I tried as well. Not too successful. Finally we went to Dorasan train station, the link between the two Koreas. There is a little bit of train movement between the two countries, but use is limited. Some of the electronics companies have set up manufacturing facilities just over the border to take advantage of the cheap labour on offer, so the train line is also used for goods transportation. Soon enough the half-day tour was over and it was back to the hustle and bustle of Seoul, only 60km or so from the DMZ. Was really enlightening for me and a memorable experience.

For my final afternoon/evening in Seoul, I made sure to experience some more Korean cuisine, bibimbap for lunch and galbi for dinner, oh, and an iced green tea latte in between. Bibimbap is a dish with rice, meat and vegetables (I think that’s right…) put together in a hot ceramic dish where you mix it all together. Again, hard to describe, sorry! Galbi is aef BBQ dish where it’s all cooked on the table in front of you, then you wrap a small piece of beef in a lettuce leaf and some rice and away you go! Both dishes were delicious, both were served with about 10 side dishes, as per usual 

Between all this hectic sightseeing and eating, there was also a chance to enjoy the hotel facilities, a highlight of which was the traditional Korean baths. There were three spa-sized pools, one cold, one warm and one hot. Enjoyed hopping between them as well as the sauna/steam rooms, again at three different temperatures – was a nice and relaxing way to finish an exciting and interesting first visit to Korea!