Seoul

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The trip up from Busan was pleasantly short. It was only a four-hour hop from Busan's Central Station up to Seoul's Express Bus Terminal from where I jumped onto the excellent Metro system and made my way up to Hongik University station and from there it was just a short walk to my hostel - Seoulwise Guesthouse, which was to be my home for the following 9, yes 9, days staying from 14th of September until the 23rd. I had a total of two weeks in South Korea spending 5 days in Busan and 9 in Seoul. Some people might say that it's too much but throughout my travels I've always favoured quality over quantity. In other words, getting to know fewer places well rather than breezing through more and not experiencing anything! It turned out that this was a great area to be as there was a great choice of bars, nightlife options and restaurants, including a pizza place called "Pizza School" just around the corner that I became semi-obsessed with! There was just one teeny tiny problem that I was completely unaware of! I literally had no idea that just a couple of months prior to my visit, South Korea had suffered from quite a serious MERS outbreak which lead to the death of some 36 people with a total of 186 cases reported! Needless to say, this had put something of a dampener on South Korea's tourist trade and boy was it noticeable at the hostel. Either that, or the hostel where I stayed was just really really unpopular!! I stayed in an 8-bed dorm which I think I had to share with one other person ONCE during the whole 9 days I was in Seoul. It was actually slightly eerie waking up, going down for breakfast and literally being the only person in sight!



The evening I arrived I did my typical explore the neighbourhood routine to see what's what and ended up taking a stroll down to the Hangang River, crossing over Yanghwadaegyo bridge, walking back along the other side past the National Assembly building and then back across the river at Seogangdaegyo bridge. It turned out to be a slightly longer trek than it looked on the map but one thing was clear - I was starting to like Seoul already! The next day I was my 34th birthday. I've been pretty lucky with having birthday's while travelling having celebrated two birthdays on two separate trips to Argentina but on this occasion I felt my luck had run out a little. When all seemed lost however, I met a sound American guy (whose name I can't remember) and he was up for some drinks and celebration so we headed out to the tourist-ridden neighbourhood of Itaewon and I at least got to have a few drinks on my birthday!



First on the long list of sights to see was the impressive Gyeongbokgung Palace with its funky guards standing obediently outside. I took the metro over to City Hall Station and walked north up Sejong-daero Street taking in a couple of other landmarks on the way up, including Seoul Plaza, Seoul City Hall and the cute little Cheonggyechon Stream. I arrived to the imposing Gwanghwamun Gate on the south side of the palace and it all seemed to remind me a little of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Just like in Beijing, here you get a real sense of the old versus the new. Traditional verses modern. On one side of the street is the Palace, reconstructed in all its former glory and 100 metres away on the other shiny new office buildings line the street. It is unfortunate that over 90% of the palace isn't original due to fires and wars but the restoration process it seems has been meticulous and the grandeur and importance of the place seems to have been preserved. I must have spent at least a few hours strolling around the grounds passing through the King's Quarters, Throne Hall, Royal Banquet Hall and the cute Hyangwonjeong Pavilion.



Leaving the Palace and with just a couple of hours of sunlight left, I headed over to the Bukchon Hanok Village. Tourist trap? Damn right! Still worthwhile? Absolutely! The narrow alleys combined with the cute traditional Korean houses make for a very pleasant walk around and I timed it perfectly, making my way to a "lookout point" which it seemed was basically just some guy's living room that happened to be higher than the rest! I can't remember exactly but I think it only cost a couple of dollars to get up there and I sat with an ice cold refreshing lemonade and watched the sun drop down over Seoul with the mountains and Seoul Tower providing a great backdrop. After that short pit stop I continued the personal walking tour of the area and explored the extremely hipster-friendly neighbourhood of Samcheong-dong which sits just in between the Bukchon Hanok village and Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was a super swanky area with some very posh-looking art galleries and very very chic-looking bars and cafes. In other words, everything here was way too expensive for a poor backpacker like me so I didn't really stay long although there was some great street art that was worth admiring. I realised it was dinner time so I decided to make my way to the Insa-dong neighbourhood, which was only a short walk away, and get myself some decent local fare. I found a restaurant down a random back street that looked popular. I only ordered a couple of dishes and yet my table somehow filled up with about six smaller dishes before the dishes that I had ordered had even come out! There was kimchi, some sort of potato salad, onion, some kind of noodles and one or two other things for good measure. Then my plates came out. I tried my best but even I was defeated and ended up having to leave a couple of things despite it going against all my principles. But the best thing of all - the bill came and I smiled! Good quality local food at backpackers' prices. A short stroll past Bosingak Belfry and I was on the metro back to Hongik University.



I continued racking up the kilometres over the next few days starting with a stroll around Namdaemun Market, the oldest and largest in Korea, just to the south of City Hall where I tried some more local fare such as freshly made sweet hotteoks (filled pancakes) followed later by some awesome spicy steamed dumplings at Gamekol Son Wangmandu. They were some of the best dumplings I think I've ever tried and they're certainly popular with locals and tourists alike as I had to wait a good 15 minutes in the queue. This was followed by a walk down the nearby Myeongdong Shopping Street before making my way south to Seoul Tower. I decided to be lazy and take the cable car up and down for around 7 USD. The tower is itself perched on top of a hill so the views of the city were great even from the base of the tower. I decided not to go up the tower mainly for this reason and also because I didn't feel like paying another 10 USD on top of what I'd already paid. I'm sure the view from the tower is amazing, but at the end of the day, a city view is a city view and I was happy with the one from the park! I stayed until dark before making my way back to the hostel.



The next day I had my second Seoul palace experience, this time visiting the impressive Changdeokgung Palace which lies just to the east of the Gyeongbokgung Palace that I visited on the first day. In all honesty, the experience was pretty much the same. The only real difference is that at Changdeokgung you can visit the "Huwon" (Back Garden!) and the Jade Stream. It's a beautiful 78-acre area that really makes the hustle and bustle of the city disappear. Annoyingly, in order to see the gardens you have to pay extra and go as part of a tour. Even more annoyingly, I didn't know this prior to my visit and when I tried to enter the area they told me I had to go all the way back to the main gate and buy a ticket for the tour. And just to add a cherry on the top, the last tour of the day was in Korean. So I absolutely bolted it back to the gate to get my ticket, made it just in time to the garden entrance, and then had the pleasure of an hour and a half of Korean practice. If only I were learning Korean!



After another "interesting" jjimjilbang experience at Dragon Hill Spa followed by one of the best meals I had on my trip at Phillies Pub in Itaewon, followed by some drunkenness on a Hongdae pub crawl party, along came the main event and one of the things I'd been mostly looking forward to - a day trip to the DMZ. Unfortunately, I was unable to book the JSA (Joint Security Area) tour which truth be told was the thing that I really had my heart set on. Usually I would blame my own lameness for not pulling my finger out in time but on this occasion I actually tried to organise it as soon as I got into town but despite mailing various places - Adventure Korea, Cosmojin Tours, DMZ Tours & Seoul City Tours - I couldn't find anywhere offering slots for the JSA tour, in the end opting for the 38,000 KRW (34 USD) Cosmojin morning tour of just the DMZ. The next available JSA tour was on the 25th but had to leave on the 23rd. I was obviously disappointed and had I known it was going to be so difficult I really could've easily booked it up when I was down in Busan. I would recommend to other travellers to get it booked as soon as you're sure of the dates! The tour started at the ungodly hour of 07:20 but at least the pick-up was around the corner at Hongik Uni station. From what I saw, the tours are ALL the same - starting at Imjingak Park then the Unification Bridge, DMZ Exhibition Hall, the 3rd Tunnel, Dora Observatory, Dorasan Station followed lastly by the obligatory and always cringe-worthy stop at a random stone/jewel centre before being dropped off back at Itaewon around 14:30. All in all it was a very worthwhile tour with the highlights probably being the tunnel and the observatory where you could at least get a peek into North Korea!



Getting dropped off at Itaewon was perfect as it meant I could stroll along to quite possibly the best museum I've ever been to in my life, and rarely do I get excited about museums! I spent the rest of the afternoon admiring the beautifully put together exhibits inside the War Memorial of Korea and it was clear why this place is number 1 on Trip Advisor's things to do in Seoul! I stayed until they threw me out! The expositions really are superbly arranged and the selection of army vehicles outside, which includes tanks, planes, guns and a war ship are well worth exploring too. After leaving, I had just about enough energy left in the tank to get down to Banpo Hangang Park for a stroll around the floating islands before taking a very well-deserved rest at the base of Banpo Bridge for the pretty, if slightly underwhelming, rainbow show.



And that was that! A great way to end a great stay in a great city! I will be back! I made my way over to Incheon International Airport on Wednesday 23rd for my 11:10am AirAsia flight.



My destination - Kuala Lumpur.



Suerte

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