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Published: March 8th 2008
Admiral Yi Sun-si Statue
I can't remember who this guy is exactly, but his sword is big. Like, almost as big as he is.Kamsa hamnida! It was an arduous battle, but I reached Seoul. It feels nice to be in my motherland. Nobody stares @ me like I'm sticking out like a sore thumb, even though I do look quite different than most Koreans (dress and face-wise). I've learned that most people think I am at least somewhat Japanese. This is blowing my mind. Seoul is on par, for me at least, with Rome. It's a huge city, but very well connected, clean, and despite there being the most people per square foot in an Asian metropolis, it doesn't feel overly crowded most of the time. Korean, as far as languages go, is a bit difficult for me, but much easier than any of the other languages I've tried (except for Italian...b/c of my Spanish background) b/c it has
letters. Crazy concept, I know. Koreans also have much different social practices than China. Their social going-ons are based highly on Confuscism. This makes them
much more polite. Some people don't think so, but coming from Beijing, this is heaven.
Enough of this bricker bracker...let's begin.
Irritated Enroute to Incheon
---The day that my 1:00pm train left to Yantai (
we're back in China here, Gyeonghuigung Seoul Museum of Art
It makes no sense to me. Must be some kind of "modern" art. people) some Chinese guy woke up @ 6am in my room, turned on all the lights, and rummaged through his luggage (
loudly) for 2 hours. Good thing I naturally don't need beauty rest.
---Got to the train station, and got confused with all the 1000s of human obstacles lining the way to the terminals. Sat with about a million Chinese people until they called us to board. When they did...it was like
all hell broke loose. Instantly a 1000 Chinese people formulated a semi-line.
Chinese people push a lot. You would have thought nuclear war was breaking out and they were all trying to get away at one time. I was not in the best of spirits.
---Got to my train, and it left late (as usual).
---The trip was long and boring, but I got some much needed sleep. I also was bunked with a Chinese guy who was really full of himself. He kept smirking at me to show off to some girl he was with. They both thought it was hilarious. I thought it was so funny that I wanted to wipe the windows with his face. Then he kept waking up a shy girl who was
sleeping just to annoy her.
Someone teach me how to say asshole in Mandarin.
---I should also note that I saw a lot of poverty on the way to Yantai. It was pretty intense. Entire towns abandoned, nothing but green foam in the place of what used to be water, and the only time I saw people was when they were covered in coal. It made me understand the Chinese mindframe a lot better.
---Arrived 2 hours later than I expected in Yantai. I was nervous b/c I didn't even know when the ferry left. I got mixed reports of it leaving @ 3:30pm (it was already 2:30) all the way to 6:00pm. Considering there is only a ferry every 2 days, I didn't want to miss that friggin ferry. The train took a total of
25 hours. Oh joyous day.
---Tried to find my way to the International Ferry Port with Lonely Planet as my guide. Now I haven't been too disappointed with Lonely Planet in the past,
but, its map of Yantai was terrible. I got lost immediately b/c it doesn't include very many street names,
and "minor streets are ommited". What is that crap? Every street in
American tourist spies on unsuspecting Korean
Nobody will even know I'm here taking pictures. China looks huge to me. One day Lonely Planet and I will meet in a dark alleyway. It'll get what it's got coming to it.
---B/c I didn't have any extra money (I only had enough for the port fees and a ticket), I couldn't call a cab. After having a girl run away from me when I tried flagging her down for help, I
finally got some directions (all by hand waving, of course) from a doorman @ a hotel.
---Got to where he waved me to go. Wrong ticket office. And they didn't speak English, and had never heard the term "South Korea" before. Luckily my phrasebook (a Lonely Planet phrasebook, to its credit...I guess we're even) had a translation for South Korea. 20 minutes after I started @ the ticket office, I was told to go to the International Ticket Office. WTF, mate. I thought this was the Int'l Office.
Keep trekking, Kam.
---Got to the Int'l Office, got my tickets, and headed for the terminal. Got confused @ the terminal.
I'm unfamiliar with Chinese port Customs, apparently. After a rather large debacle of "go here"/"go there" I somehow got onto a bus with all my stuff
Gyeonghuigung Palace
Old school meets new school. that took me to a boat.
Victory me.
---Boarded the "boat," which was rather like a cruise ship, and got to my room. Thought for a moment I'd have it to myself, and I could have used to alone time, but undoubtedly, a man appeared some time later. He ended up speaking some English. He also came bearing gifts, lukewarm: prawns, potstickers, hard boiled eggs, and some other random stuff. He made me eat all of it. I was pretty sure I was gonna be sick later, but I humored him anyway (you
never turn food down from a Korean). He also had a bunch of alcohol. Beer and souju (Korean 24%!a(MISSING)lcohol Vodka). He made me drink that too.
So much for studying my Korean.
---Arrived in Incheon the next day and the dude was still drinking.
Easy, fella. He told me to wait an hour to get off the boat b/c there would be too many people. He was wrong about this. In fact, he was wrong about a lot of things: he told me the boat took 24 hours - it took 16, he told me there would be a lot of people - there was only
1 bus worth, and he told me there was only one bus from the Incheon port to a subway station - there were 3.
Thanks a lot, drunk dude. ---Took forever to get through Korean customs. But I persevered.
---Needed Korean money (won), but I didn't have any to even catch a bus somewhere. There was one ATM, but my card didn't work. Luckily, I had 10$ US stored away which I exchanged for won.
Phew. Jumped on a bus to the subway.
---Needed
more $ for the subway. Didn't have any. Went to 5 different banks, and each one told me I couldn't use my card there. Korea is
not debit card friendly.
Finally found a CITI Bank and thought for a moment that it wouldn't work there either, but then found out they had a glabal ATM. Good thing too, I'd be up shit's creek if I couldn't get money here. Also b/c I would have gone postal after all that I'd gone through in the past 48 hours.
---Seoul's subway system rocks. I actually had space, as compared to China where it's like a vacuum sealed container of people. 1st sat in the senior/disabled section without knowing
Gyeonghuigung Palace
Korean kids! I was that cute one day. it.
Big no-no in Korea. Then sat next to a man with obvious mental issues on the way to Seoul from Incheon. He ripped up bits of junk mail in an obvious strategy that only he knew. Everyone looked @ me like I was crazy for sitting next to him, but he left me alone.
We're homies.
I'm Home...
---The subway took about an hour to get to Central Seoul. There are some 400+ stops in the city, so I got to where I needed to be just fine.
---Arrived @ my hostel and met Song Mi Jung, the owner. She's a very nice lady who was very happy to have me hear. I also met her sister, Gaia (easier to remember and pronounce than her Korean name). Both speak quite a bit of English.
---Also met a myriad of travellers here: 2 german girls, an Aussie, an American who stays here for free in exchange for English lessons to Mi Jung, a girl from Jersey, a girl from Tennessee, and a British guy (
very shrewd fellow if you ask me).
---Fell asleep easily.
Palace Hopping
---Woke the next day, helped myself to some green tea (real green
tea, not in a bag - yeah that's right
I'm hella Asian) and hit the town. Went to Gyonghuigung Palace and a Seoul National Art Museum Annex right next to it. The annex was being closed down. There was only one exhibit left, and that was all Korean scrolls with Hongeul on them. I don't know why I didn't get much from the exhibit, maybe I'm just not an art buff. The woman there did greet me with a smile and some tea.
Score one for the Koreans.
---The palace was rather plain, but practically deserted, so I got some much needed alone time. Also bumped into some preschool kids on some kind of field trip and got to take some pictures of them. They were
very happy munchkins.
---Left for Gwanghwamun Palace. It was HUGE. Biggest 1 of the 5 they have in Seoul. It was used for the Royalty. It was destroyed in 1865 by Koreans b/c the Japanese had invaded and the Joseon Royalty escaped to the South. This pissed the people off, so they totally wrecked shop on the royal house. The grounds had 2 huge artificial lakes with islands, koi, and
all that other nice Gwanghwamun Palace
Must suck having a flag blow in your face all day and not be able to move it. stuff. It also had a Folk Museum, where they depicted typical Joseon (the last official Korean family dynasty) life, and was equipped with state of the art technology and video bricker bracker. Shweet.
---The front of the palace had a bunch of guards in traditional uniform standing guard. They don't move their whole shift. It was very entertaining.
I blasted them with my camera. I even caught their changing of the guard ceremony.
---Went to look for the WWOOF Korea office. Got lost. Finally found them. Hopefully everything will be OK, but they haven't gotten back to me since. Sigh.
So difficult to travel for free these days.
---Wandered through Insadong-gil, an old fashioned neighborhood of markets. It was like a bunch of shots. I could hardly contain myself.
---Went back to the hostel and made nice with Mi Jung.
---Headed out for Dongdaemun night market. It was very alive. Tons of people taking up 3 blocks. Nothing but food stalls and vendors. Also caught a very cool river with a fountain in the center of it. Take that, Dan.
---Couldn't sleep well, had a great epiphany of an art project I want to do. It was like an explosion
Gwanghwamun Palace
Those are big spears. of creativity in my head.
But it's a secret, so buzz off.
Getting Lost in Translation
---Woke up early. Headed for Inwang Mountain. Did a Lonely Planet self guided tour around a neighborhood. It was really more of a hike. I was tired. It was, however interesting, I saw shamanistic temples, zen rocks (large, erroded rocks that were destroyed by the Japanese, but later erected on Inwang Mountain), and
a lot of old people. There was even an old people workout station with hoolahoops and stair steppers half way up the mountain.
Apparently hiking is really only big with the older crowd in Korea. Arf?
---I didn't take too many pictures b/c there were a lot of people worshiping to rocks and candles along the way, and I felt like it would be rude for me to snap away.
---Ended the rather winding tour and headed for Soedaemun Prison. It was used by the Japanese during their occupation/colonization of Korea. There is big beef regarding places like Soedaemun Prison b/c certain Korean and Japanese leaders don't like to acknowledge the existance of war horror museums in Korea, and war "hero" monuments in Japan.
---The prison was rather disappointing for
Gwanghwamun Palace
So sue me if I took a million pictures of the guards. me. However, there were a few highlights. I got to see the execution room (that's not weird, is it?), where they had prisoners sit on a chair with a noose, and then a trap door opened beneath them. Then there was a passage way leading to the body downstairs.
Creepy. Also, the Japanese were very cruel to the prisoners, the women, in fact, were kept in
underground cells without enough room to stand up. Crazy. Many of the prisoners developed leprosy and other diseases.
---I headed for a company called INKAS, which does nonprofit birth family reunification services for adoptees. I looked for a long time in fact. Finding things in Korea is rather impossible if you only have street names and addresses, as
no one uses them.
I walked over many a paved hill, and never even found the place. In fact, Korea is almost 75%!m(MISSING)ountain. I'm tired.
---I headed for Changdaegung Palace. Unfortunately, you can only go in with a tour. Anyone who knows me, knows how impatient and disgruntled I get on tours. It was worth it though, as we headed to the palace's secret garden, which is actually several miles in area, but we only
Gwanghwamun Palace
Asian Architecture got to scratch the surface of it. In fact, the garden is so nice, it's a World Heritage site. But it's winter here, and nothing is alive. Despite this, it was incredibly peaceful. I just tried to imagine that the other 49 people with me weren't really there.
It didn't work.
---Headed for dinner. Bimbibop (a rice bowl with mushrooms, lettuce, bean sprouts, a semi cooked egg, and etc. which you add a hot paste too and mix it all up and eat it) and kimbap (Korean sushi w/ SPAM...which isn't bad in it...sweet eggs, radish, and other good stuff). All for 4000 won. (about 4.25$ US).
---I'm pooped.
So Far So Good
I'm loving Seoul so far. Check back for more to come (zoo's, mountains, and more museums).
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dneal
Daniel Neal
Intense travels
Wow, it sounds like you have been through a lot to get to Korea. I applaud your ability to survive on your arduous journey. I´m pretty sure I wouldn´t have made it in China. Nice pics of the guards, especially the one from behind with the flags obscuring their bodies. And I am looking for my face after the pic with the street and the lights. I mean, whatever. It sounds like you are enjoying Korea a little more than China so far. Keep up the good work on your travels. And what is this secret project you are cooking up in your head?!?