A Visitor's View of Sparkling South Korea (that's actually one of the country's slogans)
After two very smooth flights, including a short and sweet reunion at the SFO airport, I arrived in Seoul! In true comedic form, Darren was waiting for me with a big welcome sign at the wrong gate entry. Luckily I sat next to a very friendly Korean (Mr. Park #1) who let me use his cell phone to find Darren! Needless to say, it was a good first impression of the Korean personality: warm, generous and helpful.
We spent the next four days exploring Seoul. We hit a lot of the major tourist attractions:
1. Gyeongbokgung Palace: Full of ornate, traditional Korean color and architecture. We checked out the National Museum within it and saw the colorful changing of the guards-like ceremony. I took way too many pictures of these guys, but I thought it was awesome to figuratively take a step back in time (like 700 years ago). This palace was part of the Joseon Dynasty and thanks to these folks Seoul became the capital city.
2. Namdaemun Market: We loved walking around this bustling, traditional market. They sold everything from Laver (dried seaweed) to fake designer bags. Hot foods, clothing for all, houseware, shoeware, knickknacks, stuff you don't even know you need or want, and so on and so forth. I loved just watching the people and taking in what seemed like a very average day in the lives of the hustling locals.
3. Myeong-Dong: We stayed at Mr. Park's Guest House (yes, that's Mr. Park #2) where I was introduced to the Korean customs of removing shoes before entering rooms, drinking lots of green tea from convenient hot water dispensers (everyone has one, even hotel rooms and saunas have them) and taking showers in plastic slippers.
4. Seoul Tower: Darren and I took a very late night stroll up to the tower, knowing we wouldn't make it on time. It turned out to be one of my favorite moments. Nothing like a midnight hike up a long hill... We actually encountered a few ambitious Koreans, doing what I assume were intense training regimens. Who knows, they impressed me, though, especially the midnight runners. The next night, we actually made it to the Tower and enjoyed the spectacular views. Apparently, on a really clear night, you can see as far north as North Korea.
5. Korean War Museum: I was a little sick by this point, but Darren was stoked about this museum. His great enthusiasm propelled the day. We spent most of the visit learning about the Korean War, watching interesting video footage and listening to our audio guide. There were also other sections dedicated to dynastic wars and such. I was a bit embarrassed to have known so little about the Korean war. We could have spent more time there, but we stayed until it closed.
6. Itaewon: We stayed at another guest house, motel-ish. This is a slightly seedier, more western, more club-ish part of Seoul. We ate at a nice Thai restaurant where the manager bought us dessert. He was impressed that Darren was teaching me the Korean alphabet. Darren was fearless at asking questions about the pronunciation and definition of certain words.
7. Our traditional Korean home stay! Sleeping on heated floors was actually comfy. We stayed here after my first night at a Jim Jil Bang. It's like an over night sauna, bath-house. Hard to describe, really, but so cheap and relaxing. I joined the other Korean women and just relaxed, enjoying the different pools. Going from hot to cold and then jumping in the steam room or the sauna. I loved watching the women preen each other. It was so communal. Westerners have managed to make spa treatments very private and very expensive. I really enjoyed the Korean sensibility that taking care of your skin and your stress is part of a healthy well-being. And it wasn't expensive at all. We've gone backwards in the arena of health and well-being in the States. Enough said. And after my relaxing, I was given a set of shorts and a tee and I would go to the communal sauna area to meet Darren. Here we could sleep on the floor, or buy some food, or enjoy some massage chairs, or go on the internet, or read, or even watch TV, if it wasn't too late. We took advantage of the saunas.
We took the train back to Darren's home in Miryang. Here we visited many Buddhist temples. This proved to be wonderful because every temple was on a hill, so a nice trek was always part of the plan. We actually went on a three hour hike in Pychungsa, a nearby mountain. Here I met a lot of Darren's international teacher-friends. But even more impressively, I met his Korean buds, who exercised their hospitality and generosity by taking us out to dinner on many occasions, cheering us with soju and coca-cola to future reunions and Darren (very handsome boy, as they liked to call him. They wanted me to be sure I knew about these qualities before I left!) Even though both parties couldn't speak either enough English or Korean to be fully understood, we communicated beautifully. Eating dinner with them always proved endearing and entertaining! A lot of guessing, a lot of physical expression goes a long way.
On to Busan! We spent a couple days in bustling Busan. One night at a cheap love motel (which sounds like it might be sketchy, but was actually very nice and accommodating) and one night at a very high end hotel, the Westin Chosun. Darren treated me big time here. We went out dancing, dinner, played a little blackjack at a casino in a shopping mall! It was a very high end shopping mall! I just watched Darren win $175...his winnings were enough excitement for me! We went on to the aquarium, we got our picture taken by some very eager Jehovah's Witnesses, we strolled Haeundae beach... We had a lot of fun.
Alright, some quick highlights:
On Korean food:
It was all excellent, in my opinion. Kimbap, kimchi, bulgogi, korean pizza, cold noodle soup, galbi and on and on. I loved all the veggies and the BBQs. The sesame leaves, and sesame paste and hot peppers and fresh garlic and quail eggs... It was always interesting and tasty to me, but as Darren says: "sometimes you just have a craving for pasta and burgers". I was only there for 15 days, after all...
On Korean compliments:
"So beautiful", all of the elementary school kids liked to say this to me. Ego boosting as this may have been the first 30 times, it lost its meaning after a while.
"Best couple", cute teenaged girls told us this at a bus stop.
"You look alike", apparently looking alike is a good thing because we heard this a lot.
On Korean logic:
"She has big eyes. Good vision", seriously, someone said this about my eyes.
On the Korean alphabet:
Konglish. Many words I read on store fronts were actually English words spelled out with the Korean alphabet. My favorite ah-ha moment was deciphering Ma-ra-ton Luh-ning = Marathon Running. I must have looked like a western fool, jumping for joy that I read this out loud and got it with Darren. Konglish, indeed. I called Darren a master in Konglish!
On Korean pastimes:
Bowling, tea-time, volleyball, saunas, hiking, karaoke rooms, dvd rooms... We did them all. Like I said, fun, fun and more fun. It was a great vacation.
Darren was a great traveling partner. He navigated us through all the metro stops and train stops. He had his trusty and true Lonely Planet guide handy and ready for our many adventures. We managed to plan our days as they came and more often than not our days became jammed-packed with activity. His students were very polite, very respectful. They even called me teach-ah, even though I was merely visiting. All in all, a bunch of very welcoming, warm Koreans. It was a great traveling experience, while also being a bit of a home stay in the smaller city of Miryang. A fruitful combination, to say the least.
I know I am leaving stuff out, but this gives a good overview of our fun two weeks together. I highly recommend checking South Korea out. Darren would love the visit and now you have an idea on how well you'll be treated by the natives!
