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After our last trip to the DMZ was cancelled, Angelos booked us on another one. To be honest, what with Recent Events, I was hoping that it would be cancelled again so I could have a lie in. But it was not to be. On our final full day in South Korea, we checked in with the tour company at a hotel near City Hall and got on a coach that headed north. The barbed wire coastal defences intensified as we got closer and closer. Along the journey, our tour guide gave us the historical context to the DMZ and the current situation. It only took around an hour to reach our destination, showing just how close Seoul is to the Danger Zone.
We passed through one checkpoint, then another, our passports inspected on both occasions. North Korea was now visible across the other side of the river, including the “propaganda village” built on its banks. Our time in the JSA (Joint Security Area) was understandably brief. There were only two occasions we were allowed to take photos. One was outside the meeting rooms, and there was a sole NK soldier visible on the other side of the area. There were around a dozen soldiers on “our” side, mostly facing north. We were told that the NK soldiers usually travel in pairs, each facing the other to ensure they do not defect. The other photo opp was inside one of the meeting rooms, where if you walked to the far side of the room, you were technically across the border and in NK. “Come back to the safety of the South!” joked our guide as we queued up to leave. One of our party asked the guide/soldier if they were on high alert at the moment. His response was perfect - “we’re always on high alert, that’s the whole point of this area”. We were joined throughout our visit by a second group of tourists from Japan. Amongst them, one party of men were laughing and joking their way around the whole area, which felt really inappropriate.
Back on the bus, past the security checkpoints and a stop at the inevitable gift shop (you’ve seen the war zone! NOW BUY THE T-SHIRT!!) we were driven to lunch in a nearby cafe, and ate a perfectly acceptable bulgogi. From there we were taken to Imjingak park, built for families to gather and remember relatives that they have been separated from after the border was put in place. I could understand the memorials, but the fairground? Not so much. There was the “freedom bridge” in amongst a park that included hundreds of prayers and flags woven into a barbed wire fence, plus the remains of an old steam engine. The railway bridge actually makes it’s way into North Korea, one of the few physical links between the two countries. On the bus back to Seoul, I caught up with some sleep. It was strange to be travelling with other Non Korean people and hearing so much English again.
Arriving back at City Hall, a huge protest was taking place, the relatively small area transformed into a sea of people and flags. I never did find out what it was about, but I’ll guess it was to do with the upcoming election. We were on a tight schedule, as we had booked ourselves on a tour of the Secret Garden at Changdeokgung Palace - a secluded area that is only open a few times a year. It was a dash, but we made it, and I’m so glad we did as it was one of the highlights of the trip. As the gardens are so rarely open, there was a huge crowd to get in, but this gradually spread out into the massive grounds, home to ponds, pavilions and thousands of trees, many over 300 years old. We took in the whole area with an English language tour guide, adding some historical context to this unspoilt paradise. After the tour ended we had a little time to continue exploring before the gardens closed. It was incredibly relaxing.
One of the dishes I had yet to try was Chimaek, literally “chicken and beer”. Heading back to Noksapyeong, we found the perfect place to take this in, dining on cheese fried chicken with cheesy chips. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was delicious, a perfect final-night meal. We sat in an open front restaurant, taking in the evening. The street was packed with restaurants and bars, alive with people beginning their night out. I suddenly realised it was Saturday, and that I hadn’t paid much attention to the days of the week on this trip. Wanting to revisit past glories, we went for final beers at The Booth, on a street where each bar and shop was spilling on to the street, with dogs of various sizes and English voices shouting the loudest. A final drink was had at Made in Pongdang. I was feeling reflective and was trying to coax Angelos into talking about the highlights of the past two weeks. On the way back we got off the metro a stop early to walk to our hotel a different way, seeing our neighbourhood in the other direction.
Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon, so we had plenty of time. The final day began with a leisurely stroll around our hotel’s neighbourhood, seeing shops and markets coming to life. Then it was on to the Airport Railroad, with a little trip on the Maglev train when we got there. Magnets are the future apparently. Incheon airport was naturally enormous, so we killed time walking around the stores before settling on some fishcakes for lunch. I was pretty relaxed about going home, perhaps not about going back to work, but definitely back to a country where I could understand people and that also contained my cat. The journey back was long, our Sunday lasted six extra hours than normal, but my entertainment screen worked without a glitch, a first! We finally got home to York at around 4am, this whole adventure starting to feel like a crazy jetlagged dream.
In conclusion, if you hadn’t guessed, we had the time of our lives and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone. We didn’t speak much Korean, but people were more or less happy to provide us with whatever we were trying to point at. It was interesting to see, for the most part, people hung out with their own gender. I didn’t see many mixed groups, outside of family outings. The most common non-Korean language I heard was German by far. I kept comparing this trip to our Japan holiday, but there are several differences - I wouldn’t say Koreans were rude by any means, but Japanese people seemed to be more falling over themselves to please and serve.
Looking back through what I’ve written, and the 1,800 photos I took, I can’t quite believe we did all this. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
Korea Blogs: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
On the following day it was time to move on, this time by plane. The flight wasn’t until the early afternoon, so we had a slow start to the day before taking the light rail to the airport. I was still unable to withdraw money and getting more and more frustrated. Ahead of us was a mere 40 minute flight to the island of Jeju - South Korea’s most popular domestic holiday destination. After we landed I was greeted by a cash machine that finally put out, so that made me happy right away. A wrong bus then a right bus took us to our hotel, which had no TV in the room. Never heard of such a thing.
Walking around windswept streets, we eventually found the local market which was vibrantly coloured with the local speciality - oranges. Everywhere you looked the volcanic nature of the island was evident - black paving slabs and rock walls bubbled with air from aeons ago. We walked along an empty seafront, planes going over our heads every five minutes. There was a ridiculous number of flights landing, possibly a result of the ferry disaster a few years ago. We arrived at Yongduam rock, which is shaped like a dragon. The sun was beginning to set so we caught that magical golden hour. Our long walk home took us through tree lined neighbourhoods with quaint little stores. We dined just round the corner from our hotel, eating fried squid with a ridiculous amount of garlic.
We had two nights on Jeju, and a better sleep made me feel more human again. We hopped on a bus to the east of the island to get on a boat to Udo, a tiny island just off the coast. We ended up walking around the entire thing, which felt like an achievement even if it was only around 5km. The island’s port offered hundreds of bikes, mopeds and electric buggies to hire. The locals must hate them, they were a menace. The walk was beautiful though, taking in a lighthouse, a black sand beach and some crystal blue waters. I ended up deceptively sunburnt.
Back on Jeju, we headed towards Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak. From a distance it loomed over you like something from prehistory. So with the Jurassic Park theme in my head, we moved closer to then find the inevitable car park with coach loads of screaming school children and selfie stick tourists. As far as peaks go, this was far easier to climb than the heights we had conquered recently, so we happily overtook wheezing locals and got a good view from the top, especially of little Udo that we had just circled. On the bus back I saw a monk with a smartphone, which was interesting. Dinner was near the hotel again, this time at a swish chain version of the BBQ-it-yourself restaurant. Not feeling too dead, we explored for a drink. The first place was a dive karaoke bar that was thankfully silent, and then we went to an Irish bar that was playing hip hop and basketball.
Up until the next day, the embedded calendar app on my phone had just listed the days containing Holiday, Holiday, Holiday. Then, for the first time, our flight home appeared on the horizon. This was the beginning of the end. It began with aching sunburn (when will I learn?) and a bus to the airport. I consumed some “crisps” that was more like eating a bag of honey nut cornflakes, not that I was complaining. It was was possibly the shortest flight I’ve been on - 30 minutes after takeoff we landed in Gwangju and went to the airport subway, which was completely devoid of life. Heading for the station, we took a KTX train (older than SRT but still better than anything in the UK) to Iksan, and local train to our destination of Jeonju. Like the roads, the railways seemed to be mostly bridges and tunnels.
Jeonju is an UNESCO city of gastronomy - basically it’s right good at food, like. Unfortunately it was also starting to rain. We saw several prominent and touching tributes to the 2015 ferry disaster, not realising that it was the second anniversary the previous week. Rain persisting, we walked around another recreated Hanok village. It was very nice, but perhaps it was the persistent drizzle adding to my fatigue and making me feel that we’d seen this kind of thing already. Giving up, it was back to the hotel to dry out.
An hour or so later, we more or less retraced our steps in the dry, making our way to Hankookjib which has a Michelin recommendation for its bibimbap (a bowl full of rice, meat and vegetables). Ordering the heated bowl version, I was informed by one of the staff that scraping the dried rice off the bottom of the bowl at the end is a delicacy and also “the best bit”. It was washed down with a local take on makgeolli which is brewed with cinnamon and other spices and was delicious beyond description. Wandering around the Hanok village at night, we found a dessert cafe and finally got to order Sulbing, another speciality - ice cream, shaved ice, biscuit and cocoa. We had eaten well that day, incredibly satisfying. We finished the night by visiting the beautiful light displays at the traditional arts centre. What started as an average, tired and grumpy day turned into something spectacular.
The volcanic under floor heating and some fucking noisy neighbours meant not much sleep. To add to the first world frustrations, this hotel tapped into a public wifi network as opposed to having its own dedicated service. We all know that slow wifi is somehow worse than no wifi. It was good to leave that behind, we attempted an early start again to make the most of our day ahead. I somehow managed to have a currywurst at the train station. Our first destination was Suwon, a city further north almost swallowed up by Seoul. It had its own ancient walls and temples, but the fatigued “seen this already” feeling was continuing to drag me down. So a visit to Mr Toilet House was in order - literally a house shaped like a toilet, founded by a man acclaimed for promoting sanitation in public conveniences. It was definitely something different.
We were then back on the familiar Seoul metro, heading for the same hotel we stayed in at the start of the trip. They remembered us! But they can’t get that many Swedish guys with their ginger giraffe companions through the doors. A rammed rush hour metro took us back out to Incheon, this time visiting the place rather than the airport. We walked through Chinatown and found a restaurant recommended in one of the guides. We stood silently and politely in the foyer while no one came to seat us. Eventually we just went ahead and sat down. Finally we were experiencing the shoes off low table thing. The room was surrounded by a fish tank and fountains, occasionally the fish gathered in gangs to stare at you. After translating the menu with a phone app, we ordered the “soy sauce set menu” that gave us at least a dozen dishes to get through. A short walk through a park lit up cherry blossoms put us back on the metro into the city, as we had an early start tomorrow.
Korea Blogs: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Finally it was time to go on our honeymoon. We hadn’t had a two week trip anywhere since Japan in 2012, and this was the first time we were attempting to go away for this long with just hand luggage. With five years of adventures under my belt, I felt much more clued up on what to bring and what would just weigh me down. So packing as light as possible, we flew Lufthansa from Manchester to Frankfurt, then on to Seoul. The flights went as well as they could, although I got cursed with a dodgy entertainment screen yet again. We were placed immediately behind the Economy Plus seats, a little bit “see what you could have had” although that seemed to be just a bit more space, a better screen and a chocolate bar. Wasn’t too envious.
With hardly any sleep we landed at around 11am, spaced out in Seoul Incheon airport. There we purchased the TMoney travel cards which worked on suburban railways and buses across the country - an absolute lifesaver and such a fantastic system. Denmark has something similar in operation. One card to get you everywhere...why don’t we have that here yet?? It was also easy to pick up a sim card and top it up so that we could utilise maps and travel schedules on the go. It was weird to see Google Maps not work very well out there - it would give you directions using transport, but refused to give you walking routes.
Like Japan, Korean subway and metro stations are all numbered as well as named, with all signs giving names in English, and station signs tell you the proceeding and following stops, so it’s easy to work out where you are. We got on the slower (cheaper) train and headed for our accommodation near Sinchon station on the inner city loop. We had a simple, functional hotel in a neighbourhood of convenience stores. It was reassuring to see our old travel buddy 7-11 on hand again to satisfy our snacking needs. And snack we did. Hello Butter Caramel Pringles!
Our first bleary eyed destination was Anguk to walk up a hill full of recently built Hanok houses. A trend across the country, whole neighbourhoods are encouraged to rebuild or renovate their homes to match the traditional style of the Hanok, and this brings many tourists their way, selfie sticks at the ready. There were plenty of notices around asking people to be quiet and respect that these are people’s actual homes. It sounds like hell to live there. The hill leading up to the houses was lined with street food stalls, but I wasn’t feeling awake enough to sample anything yet. The houses looked nice, and far better than an ugly high rise tower, but they all looked so new and pristine, something didn’t quite sit right. Perhaps when they’re more weathered and worn in, this will pass. One building courtyard was filled with blooming cherry blossom trees, so again we had to navigate ourselves around the many, many people taking photos of themselves next to the blossom.
Starting to feel hungry, we set off in search of a good meal, walking past the Portuguese embassy which appeared to have a bowling alley in the basement. Walking through empty streets, I was convinced we were going the wrong way, until we found our destination and I realised where everyone was: Kwangjang (Gwangjang) Market. This palace of food was packed with every stall imaginable - each with a small area to seat around a dozen people. It was divided up into different styles and tastes, so all you had to do was walk to the area of food you wanted and pull up a chair. We went for a platter of savoury pancakes and a beer. It was amazing. This was early Sunday evening and it was heaving. Some places busier than others - locals clearly have their favourite spots, other less busy stalls practically want to drag you to a seat as you pass by.
Feeling not bad for no sleep, we ended the day with a walk along a stream / storm drain that runs next to the market exit, which was also busy with families strolling and joggers making us all feel unfit. Back at the hotel, we made the most of the Chromecast - one of the best things we brought with us, it plugged into the TV everywhere we stayed. This meant we could continue working our way through Star Trek TNG with Patrick Stewart’s pleasing baritone telling the universe to ruddy well get on with it.
Our hotel offered a free self service breakfast, so as full up on Frosties and jam on toast as it is possible to be, we set off for Gyeongbokgung palace. This was the main palace of the most influential ruling dynasty Korea had, and one of the many destroyed during Japanese occupation. We arrived just in time for an English language tour to start, which added some context to the surroundings and managed to tell a real narrative as we went around. I saw the first of many ridiculously beautiful buildings and gardens, which felt frozen in time despite that fact that they were all (fairly) modern rebuilds and surrounded by swarms of tourists. We also caught a changing of the guard ceremony before heading off.
Seoul has several famous streets that each specialise in a different dish. I can’t remember which dish street we set out to find, but we failed, instead stumbling across a small restaurant whose owners looked bemused as we stared blankly at the Korean menu. They pointed at something, we nodded, and within minutes we were eating a perfectly fine meal of something in a bowl with rice and stuff. It was around this time I realised I was never going to get along with kimchi, which was a shame because it was severed with every meal everywhere.
Later In the afternoon we took a look at the main Seoul station - the original building now an art gallery, sitting next to its giant modern successor. Then we walked to the city wall in Naksan park. We climbed the hundreds of stairs ascending Mount Naksan at sunset, getting spectacular views of Seoul at dusk, with lights starting to come on across the city. At the top is a deceptively short viewing tower - a benefit of being built at the top of a mountain I guess - with all the usual tourist traps. It’s fascinating what tat some people which chuck money at. Walking down the other side of the mountain, we then went to check out the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain. One of the many bridges crossing the mighty Han river, this gives a water cannon show day and night, with lights added in the evening. Finally we made it to the food court of a nearby mall just before it closed. One owner seemed keen to shoo us away, whereas his two companions told us to ignore him and order what we liked. A delicious bulgogi and stir-fry was enjoyed. If I thought that was exhausting, I was not prepared for the next day…
We were booked to go on a visit to the DMZ that morning, which would have meant getting up at 5am. I wasn’t really looking forward to either prospect, so was quite relieved when it was cancelled. Before we left, I got several comments about this being an “interesting time” to visit Korea, if you just read the news you would think that this was a country on red alert in every sense. However, being there while all this was going on, you go the impression people just got on with their lives, ignoring their noisy neighbour. Later we would pass through a bus station that had a TV showing coverage of the North Korean military procession, but people were far more interested in the TV that was showing a US baseball match.
As a replacement activity, Angelos suggested that we “go for a walk in a park”. Sounds good, I thought. We got the metro to the outskirts of Bukhansan National Park. An entrance was next to the station, and within minutes the city sounds had vanished and you were in the middle of nature. Entering the park itself and dining on some quality snacks including honey crisps and cappuccino Twixes, we passed a map detailing the various walks and peaks you could take one. It was at that point I realised he wanted us to climb the highest mountain in the park, and in the Seoul area in general. Baegundae stood proud at 836 metres, and I’d never climbed a mountain in my life. Willing to at least try, we set off through streams, trees and rock formations, gradually getting steeper as the journey progressed.
We passed and were overtook by various hiking parties, all kitted out to the nines in multicoloured walking gear, sticks, gloves and visors. I was left to feel very unprepared in my jeans and tshirt. It was a baking hot day and luckily I sourced some suncream from the convenience store we lunched at. The heat brought a haze that didn’t give the clearest views as we reached higher ground, but the natural beauty of our surroundings could not be faulted. The final section was labelled “expert”, and a little way into this I had to bail. The rock became more vertical and all you had was a thin metal cable to cling to, at a height where the slightest breeze felt like a gale force wind. I had no problem recovering in the shade for a while, leaving Angelos and the other experts to it. The view from where I got to was still pretty stunning. Angelos reported that there were some cats at the summit, acting like they owned the place.
Making our way down the other side of the mountain, naturally a lot easier, we made it back into the edge of Seoul. A bus and a train took us to Noksapyeong, where all the best bars were gathered. Mountain climbers deserve good beer! We sampled three pubs recommended by one of the guide books, each serving up delicious beers brewed in house. Highlights were Made in Pongdang and The Booth, the latter full of young people enjoying enormous pizzas. Maybe it was the bar scene or the US Army base situated the next street over, but this area had the most non-Korean people we’d seen so far.
Korea Blogs: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
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