S(e)oul of Korea
S(e)oul of Korea
Intro to Seoul / South Korea There's always something unexpected
Every city offers some surprises that you never really see coming. They may not be big, but they're still there and usually keeps you wondering why they do a certain thing that way. In Seoul it was the complete lack of trash cans. During the week I spent there I hardly saw a single trash can, my guess was that there was some heavy taxation on it, and surely enough there was a very strickt recycling regime in Korea. In addition to that they buy the garbagebags from the garbagemen. Anyway, if you're there and have an empty bottle of water or something you want to get rid of, just hand it to someone in a kiosk and they'll usually take care of it. And this isn't a problem of a size that should keep you from visiting the country.
Exchange rates and subway
For exchange rates it's quite easy, 1000 KRW is about 1 USD, most prices are fixed, but there may be some markets where you should haggle a bit. They are however not as fierce hagglers as some other asian countries or not to say arabics - which i found quite pleasant. The general knowledge of english is not very high, there are programs in place to help them learn, but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes at least a generation before they are at a level where most are comfortable with english. On the positive side of the language barrier you can see that all signs and tons of commercials are highly influenced by america.
The subway is excellent and eventhough many travel guides recommend buying a single fare ticket if you stay in Seoul for a shorter time, I'm stil happy we choose to buy the travel card. The card itself costs 3000 KRW and can be filled up with whatever amount you choose. When you leave you can get everything except 500 back from what you have on your card. That means unless you actually finish your card completely on the last day you end up paying 3500 ($3,5 / €3) for the convenience of just swiping your card whenever you use public transport. It was also possible to use this on our way to Suwon, so it's not solely restricted to Seoul.
Very handy and saved us a lot of time.
The people are friendly and most will try to help you if you ask them, there are however as written above a lot who are not amazing in english. I'd read they would rather give an incorrect reply rather than admitting they did not know the answer some times, but we never experienced this, mostly when asking for directions which would be an easy thing to just point somewhere without really knowing or understanding what we asked about.
Day 1
Tailored shirts
On our first day we were, as expected a bit troubled by the jetlag. About 13 flight time from Oslo including a short stop in Helsinki meant that we arrived in at the hotel at about 11 in the morning Korea-time, but with very little sleep on the plane and our heads still connected to Oslo-time which is then in the middle of the night (4am).
Our first goal was to get to the shirt store at Itaewon, my research had recommended Hamilton Shirts and with a printed map from the subway to the store it was easy to find it. The store itself was very narrow, but with fabrics lined up on all walls it was still all that was needed. Shirts are about 35.000 - 53.000 based on the quality of the fabric. We made our choices, got measured and ordered a fair share of tailored shirts. We were able to get them done by friday night after a short conversation. This was a good thing as they were a bit wide when we got there to pick them up, but they had quarrel sewing them in and deliver them to our hotel the next night. The shirts arrived as they promised the next day, with a much better fit. When we first were in the area we did walk a bit around Itaewon and sat down for some food at a random place. Our choice was some chicken resturant which was dissapointing and expensive (for Korea), we were however dropped off in the same area after an excursion on friday, at a resturant the guide recommended and got a much better culinary experience. Not really surprising, but there is as always much to gain from knowing where to go.
Gyeongbokgung palace
Moving on from Itaewon we went to the largest palace in Korea, Gyeoungbokgung which is a fairly short ride with the subway. Many of Seouls attractions are closed on mondays, but this palace has tuesday closed istead. All subways has multiple exits, and all are marked in english with what you should expect to find which usually is very helpfull. We were thus able to exit directly to the palace. The complex is in many ways similar to the forbidden city in Beijing, but at a much smaller, but more colorful scale. After spending some time there our sleepdeprevation really started to make a number on us, so we got back to the subway and just barely made it home without falling asleep on the subway. Another thing about the subway is that I'd read that there were wifi available on them, this is probably true, but it is not free. However EVERY korean has a smartphone, and all of them are using it on the subway. It was a strange sight the first days where everyone just stares at their phone and noone notices anything going on around them. Most scandinavians are also stuck in their phone most of the day, but I think the koreans were actually just a little more in love with their phones than us.
Day 2
Sk T'um and Myeondong shopping district
There is a lot to see and do in Seoul, but there are also several attractions that would need a pre-booking T'um (Telecom Museum) is one of them, booking can be done online at their site and the tour is free. T'um shows mostly how they see telecom being developed in the future, how it can affect different aspects of peoples lifes like daily work, driving, shopping (online), health etc. There is also an excibition of their newest gadgets which is already for sale, but many may be unaware of. Worth a look if this is something that you are interested in.T'um is located very close to Myeongdong area, where we also dropped by the trickart museum.. Myeondong is what I would call the very city center, a nice shopping area with lots of stores and nearby there were also a "cultural cuisine walkway for tourists" or something like that. This actually just meant that there were flags strapped over the streets to show where there could be genuine korean food, but still a good thing and we did find a place to have our first korean barbeque. Not knowing how to eat the korean way we did however miss out on some of the experience, but we were shown this the next day by or driver at Jeju. Below is a short timelapse from the shoppingstreet in Myeondong.
Nanta
I'd also booked tickets for Nanta which is a food show that they have ran since 1997 in Seoul and now performs at 3 special Nanta-theatres that all have 2-3 viewings every day. It is supposedly listed as one of the top 10 tourist attractions in Asia, and I would have no problem recommending it to anyone traveling there myself. Tickets should be bought online in advance and I think we paid about 50.000 for very good tickets. The show is (mostly) non-verbal, and the very few words that are actually spoken are just as often in english as in korean, and you don't really need the words to understand the story either. There is a chance of being pulled up on the scene, and there is a chance you may get a slice of rogue lettuce or other vegetable thrown your way. The show lasted for about 1,5 hours and after this we were ready to go home. The next day we had to get up early for the bus to Gimpo Airport for our flight to Jeju Island. No cameras allowed during the show, but if you are intrigued you can easily search for it on youtube and find plenty there.
