Reconnecting with Korea

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Ah Korea, my old friend. As we approached the runway at Gimpo Airport, flying low over the Nakdong Estuary where I used to live in Busan, a wave of excitement hit. It's been a few years since I was last here - a holiday with Amy and some friends 4 years ago. Prior to that I lived here back in 2011, teaching English to elementary school kids. I loved my time there, so it's always exciting to come back and revisit some of the old haunts, and to see how the city and country have changed.

It was peak cherry blossom season in Busan, and much to Amy's delight every single road from the airport to our hotel in Nampo-dong was lined with cherry trees in full bloom. We'd gone from being showered by snow falling from the trees to pink and white petals. Nampo-dong was always one of my favourite areas of Busan - the streets are alive until late at night, full of food stalls and cool independent clothes shops. Amy and I dived straight in, heading for some delicious street snacks. My favourite, one which I crave often back in the UK, is hotteok. It's basically a fat, floury pancake filled with hot brown sugar and pecan nuts, and makes my mouth water just thinking about it. And Nampo-dong is one of the best places to get it in Korea. We walked through the bustling streets, Amy marvelling at all the cool clothes shops - the Koreans are always on top of the fashion game - and you can get some real bargains here. It felt good to be back. I had been curious to see how I felt about Korea after spending time in Japan. It had been a while since I'd last been back in Korea so this would be a more direct comparison. And maybe I'm biased, but coming back reiterated my love for the place. Japan is really great, but it misses the liveliness that Korea has - where the Japanese are super polite, quiet and reserved, the Koreans are a lot more outgoing and up for a bit of a laugh. I love the sassy old women who hustle and have a bit of attitude. Whereas Japan is orderly and easy to navigate, Korea is a bit more chaotic and has that ‘what the hell is going on here?’ feel about it, which I love. But anyway, I'm not going to bang on comparing the two too much - let's just say I'm a big Korea fan!

The weather was noticeably warmer than Japan, so for our first morning we set out in t-shirts, for the first time in ages, to the Igidae Peninsula. Busan has a beautiful coastline and it's very easy to catch a bus within the city in order to hike along the coast somewhere. A new glass walkway has been cantilevered off the cliff at the start of the walk, with the waves crashing into the rocks hundreds of feet below. We continued our hike along the cliff hugging path, through the pine trees with views out to the clear blue ocean and surrounding islands. Hiking is a Korean national pastime, and on any hike you will meet many enthusiastic hikers, dressed head to toe in colourful technical gear, usually with a shout of a friendly ‘annyonghaseyo!’, or an encouraging ‘fighting!’. Picnics are another national pastime, and along all the trails you will find groups of older Koreans, sitting somewhere with a great view with a spread of food and usually some soju or makgeolli to drink. And if they see you they will almost always beckon you to come and join them, or give you some food for your trip. Today was no exception as we made our way along the coast, chatting with locals as we went along. The path ends a few kilometres later close to Gwangalli Beach, another favourite old haunt of mine. The huge golden beach is hemmed in by skyscrapers behind, and a long suspension bridge out to sea in front. As urban beaches go it's a good one. After spending some time reminiscing we headed back into Nampo for some afternoon shopping.

I'd organised to meet up with an old Korean friend of mine, Suyong, later that evening for dinner. I always used to ask Suyong to take me out to places that served (what we would consider) weird food. Things like live octopus, pig trotters, stuffed intestines, chicken sphincter… you get the picture. As Amy was with me this time we opted for slightly more normal cuisine, but another favourite, Korean BBQ. There's nothing quite like choosing your favourite cuts of meat and then barbecuing it yourself on a grill in front of you. It was always one of my favourite things to eat, and still is. Unfortunately I've never found a good Korean BBQ place in the UK, so it was good to top up! One thing I'd forgotten was how much the Koreans like to drink. Suyong poured us somaek after somaek (a shot of the Korean rice wine, soju, topped up with beer, maekju), with the idea that you drink them in one go. And of course you're never allowed an empty glass! We went for some more drinks afterwards, but usually in Korea you have to eat something when you go for a drink. Already stuffed, we headed to a pajeon (Korean pancake) restaurant. This place was great - it was the first real indication of how things had changed since I had last been in Korea. Generally speaking you used to only be able to get traditional Korean food. International food was limited, and not great even if you could find it. Well all that has changed. Not only is there much more international food on offer, but there's been a lot of innovation and creativity with the more traditional food too. This place was a good example - the pajeon we ordered had bulgogi (marinated beef) all over the top, something that would never have been on the menu before. And there were twists on the makgeolli too - normally this is just plain white rice wine served from a kettle into a bowl, but here they had several different fruit flavoured ice makgeolli. We had strawberry flavour and it was absolutely delicious, kind of a Korean style cocktail! The Koreans have always been good at having their own take on things, and doing things Korean style. For example, instead of Google they have their own version - Naver. Instead of WhatsApp they have KakaoTalk. But it's not like China where the other apps are blocked - they've made their own so good and aimed at the specific Korean market so that they choose these over what would normally be the standard providers. But I digress.

The following morning we headed to Jagalchi fish market, which has to be one of the best fish markets around. Very much a working market, the downstairs is full of tanks of every fish and sea creature you can imagine, and a lot more you can't. Sea squirts (which disconcertingly look a lot like something else that you definitely wouldn't want to see on a menu…) wriggle around their buckets; women skinning eels alive; huge flat fish being chucked onto the floor by fishermen and subsequently butchered by women wielding huge knives. During the war women took over a lot of the men's jobs, and after showing how good they were at them ended up keeping them on once the war had ended. Hence why all these jobs at the market are done mostly by women. We were lured in by one sassy ajumma, who convinced us to buy some oysters and scallops for breakfast. She scooped them into a bucket, called a restaurant upstairs, the owner of which came down to collect us and the shellfish, and steamed it all for our breakfast. Simple, fresh, delicious. In the afternoon we headed up to the PNU area - a student area with loads more shops and restaurants, and quite a fun place to explore. After smashing a few baseballs in the batting cages (only a few coins but loads of fun) we set off to find all the nice independent shops that are hidden down the crooked alleyways, only to find that unfortunately the vast majority of them had closed down, which was a bit of a shame. Instead we tried to search out a restaurant that we had eaten in with our friends when we were last here on holiday. The restaurant is a spicy chicken stew place, and you can choose the percentage of spice you want. The recommendation is 30%, which seems safe enough, however we found ourselves in a spot of trouble last time and downing cartons and cartons of the cooling ‘Juicy Cool’ drink that they sell to quell burning mouths. We eventually found the place, and reminiscing on old times we instead ordered only 10% spicy. As it happens that still blew our heads off!

To cool ourselves down we headed to Spa Land in the huge Shinsegae Department Store. I'd never been to this spa before, but the great thing about it is that the spa area isn't segregated, so Amy and I could go in together. Dressed in the cult-like pyjamas supplied, we tested out all the different saunas. Each one has a different theme, with some dubious health benefits that can be attained from being inside each one. For example, a room shaped like the inside of a pyramid, which due to the angles of the ceiling had some health benefit or other. Hmm. Essentially, lots of hot rooms with different decor - but nice and relaxing nonetheless. There's also hot spring baths too (which are segregated) which we enjoyed, as we had become so used to them in Japan.

In the evening Suyong took us to an area of the city that had been redeveloped since I had left - Oncheoncheon. What was once a slightly dirty and smelly river has been cleaned up, with a long walking and cycling path installed with cherry trees lining either side, and lots of trendy cafés, bars and restaurants with roof terraces looking out over it all. We walked along the river beneath the lit up cherry trees at this popular spot, before sharing some chicken, pizza and beer at one of the cafés. Korea is now fully into the craft beer scene - when I was living here there was a very limited range of three fairly poor lagers, Hite, Cass and Max, but I saw far far less of these in the bars and a much wider variety of interesting beers available - finally! We finished it all off at a dessert cafe with another favourite - pabingsu. This is shaved frozen milk with toppings of your choice, normally chocolatey stuff or fruit, all served in a huge bowl to share, and it's so good.

The following day we headed on a day trip out to Jinhae, a city not too far west of Busan, and home of one of Korea’s most famous cherry blossom festivals. Pretty much every tree in this town is a cherry tree, and it was literally snowing pink petals down every road we walked. We headed to the well known ‘Romance Bridge’ - a location from a popular Korean drama - a small stream lined on either side by cherry trees, and a pretty sight. Here we met up with one of my former teacher colleagues, and her cute young son who we met for the first time. She gave us a tour round the city, her son Seo Woo running round with boundless energy shouting his favourite sea animal names in English wherever we went. As with every Korean festival, it was complete with a stage and live music and performances. This is normally accompanied by slightly drunk old men and women wildly dancing at the front, and today didn't disappoint. When we arrived at the stage it appeared to be some kind of local talent show, involving a lot of crooning and wailing. Our favourite was a woman that came on with a cymbal and drum who would alternate between crazily smashing them around with flailing arms and then wailing into the microphone. We decided to call it a day after this!

We caught the KTX up to Seoul the next day - a high speed train that travels at 300 kph and makes the journey from the bottom to the top of Korea in around two and a half hours for just £40, putting the UK rail network to shame. We had decided to stay nearby to Insa-dong for its central location and because it is a nice area to hang out. But as it happens we were staying closer to Ikseon-dong, and I'm so glad we were. This area used to be an old hanok area of old houses and with not a great deal going on. But recently the area has been converted into lots of cool bars, bakeries, cafés, restaurants and craft breweries. It has been done so well, keeping the old style houses with their beautiful courtyards, tiled roofs and timber beams, but modified with modern touches to bring them up to date whilst keeping their traditional feel. I think it is one of the coolest areas I've ever been to - a bold claim!

We met up with another old friend of mine, Cheolwoo, and his sister for our favourite - BBQ again - and hit up one of the sleek cafés nearby afterwards. It's been great to come back here and catch up with old friends like this. He also took us to see a baseball game at the Sajik Stadium. These are always a lot of fun, and are just as much about drinking and eating with your friends and getting involved with all the chanting and antics as much as watching the actual baseball. We loaded up on beers and fried chicken and settled in. Each team has an accompanying MC and cheerleaders that are on a stage in front of the respective stands. They jump around, dance and get all the songs going - each player has their own particular song or anthem that the crowd sings and shouts when they step up to the plate. It's a lot of fun. Afterwards we headed to one of his friend's bars in Gangnam that he had just opened, for some more food and beer.

The rest of our time in Seoul was spent shopping in the huge number of clothes stores in Dongdaemun and in the bright lights of Myeongdong, also with a hike up to Inwangsan - a small mountain within the city. Being such a mountainous country (70% mountains), it is so easy to go for a hike even within big cities. You can pretty much just get off any subway station and hike up the nearest mountain you can see and head down the other side to another subway station. You get such great views of the city, some nice peace and quiet, with the dull roar of traffic far below you. It's cool that you can be shopping in a crazy district full of noise and neon lights in the morning, and an hour later be surrounded by pine trees and complete tranquillity.

So a short and sweet trip, but it was really great to reconnect with Korea and old friends again, and so interesting to see how it has been changing over the years. Korea has changed a lot since I first lived there - and for the better. It still retains its personality but has modernised so much. All the cool cafés and bars that we used to yearn for when we lived there have materialised, but have their own stamp and style different to anywhere else. I'm sure we'll be back again soon!

Next - Hong Kong and China.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Serenity
What a beautiful setting. Wow.