KOREA! WHOOOOHOOOO!

This is gonna be a long blog…apologies! But there’s lots to say about my long weekend in Korea.

FRIDAY

On Friday morning Alex, Rosie, Dan, and I caught the fast ferry (like a hydrofoil thingy!) from Fukuoka to Pusan in South Korea. The boat was really nice and quick. Unfortunately it also made me sick!! For the first time ever, I was sea-sick! Only for a little while though, and then I felt fine again. The boat took about 3 hrs, and we arrived in Pusan (also called Busan…very confusing!) just after 1pm. We changed our money into Won (which btw, is the worst currency I have ever encountered, as they have too many notes, not enough coins, and too many noughts on the end of their numbers!) at the port, and then were met by our travel company lady, who took us in a people-carrier to our hotel.

The Hotel Commodore was amazing. It is a huge hotel, in the shape of a huge pagoda! Everything, from the exterior walls, to the ornate lobby lighting, and vibrant ceiling, was incredible. A real Korean feast for the eyes! It felt like it was way too posh for us! We quickly checked out our rooms, and were happy with what we found. Comfy beds, a nice bath-robe, and a normal western bath! You see, the simplest of things make me happy these days! We then set out to explore a bit of Pusan/Busan for the rest of the afternoon. Dan soon became the Lonely Planet reader/researcher/worker-outer (!), and kept this role for the rest of the trip. Thanks Dan! Alex and Rosie were also key in working out the subway lines, the streets, and our general direction in the city. As for me….well, anyone who knows me really well, knows that I have no sense of direction whatsoever. I was therefore happy to let the others lead the way, and I followed behind, trusting their directions implicitly because I certainly would not have known where to even begin! The Lonely Planet was mine though, and I had circled a few places before the trip, so that was my contribution towards any kind of planning!

I wasn’t sure how different Korea would be to Japan, but in that first afternoon, I certainly found out. First of all, certain places seemed to harbour some unpleasant smells! There was often a small whiff of sewage in the air, and we all agreed that Pusan/Busan definitely needs to look at its drains a bit! Poooooo! When we walked down small streets and alleys, there was also sometimes a smell of kimchi, perhaps from the nearby restaurants. The city definitely had distinctive smells that’s for sure! The noise of the city was also memorable. Maybe it’s because I haven’t lived in a big city for a while now, maybe I have become too used to the relative peace of my small city, Yanai. But, I’m sure that there was more than a normal amount of car beeping in Pusan/Busan. I thought that Japanese drivers were pretty crazy, but Korean drivers beat them hands down! They sure loved that car-horn! They also drive on the other side of the road, which left us (2 Brits, and 2 New Zealanders), pretty confused when crossing the busy streets. The other major difference we quickly noticed that afternoon, was the attitude and temperament of the Korean people. I think Lonely Planet describe it quite well when they say that the people in Pusan/Busan have “a quirky custom of banging into strangers in public places.” That is sooooo true! In the street, on the subway, in shops, in the station, people just bang into you, in order to get past! At first I thought they were just doing it to us, because we were foreigners. But we soon realised that they did it to each other as well. For example, on the subway, a Korean person would literally move another person physically out of the way, in order to get through. Not just a nudge, or an “excuse me”…but an actual push, shove, or bang…whatever you want to call it. We were really quite shocked at first. Again, maybe we are used to life in Japan, with it politeness (most of the time anyway!), the bowing, the general lack of physical contact. However, I realise that it’s just the way that life moves in Korea. We see it as rude and impolite, but they just see it as the norm. Who am I to say that their way is wrong. It’s just one of those great quirks that make us all so different, and that we travel to other countries to witness and understand. I still prefer the polite way of Japan, however!

That afternoon we explored downtown Pusan/Busan, got to grips with the subway, and even managed to book our train tickets for our trip to Seoul on the Sunday. We got a real bargain with the tickets, because it was the 4 of us, and we wanted 4 seats facing each other. For some reason Korean people don’t like the seats around a table, facing one another, and so those seats are a lot cheaper. Which was great news for us! At the station we also discovered that we got our very own queue! There was a separate queue for foreign tourists!! Yey for us! Cheap and quick service! We also discovered an actual “shopping area for foreigners”…there was a huge sign for it! I’ve never experienced tourist segregation before! We were quite excited though, because we thought, maybe there would be cool souvenir shops. However, the shops seemed to be aimed at foreigners purely because they accepted the dollar and yen, and not because they were selling wonderful mementoes of your time in Korea! They really did look a bit dodgy! The dodginess of the shops was soon accompanied by the dodginess of the whole area we were in, as we realised we had stumbled into Russian whore land! Lots of little bars, cafes, shops (maybe some were brothels..who knows!), that had Russian-looking ladies sat outside, waiting for…..erm…..erm…..’custom’! We walked very quickly through that area, eager to get back to actual good shops, and laughing at ourselves for where we had ended up!

That day was also Alex’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Alex!), and so we wanted to make sure we had a nice evening out with a nice meal of yakiniku. Mmmmmm..we thought…..authentic yakiniku…we’ve come to the home of our favourite food! That dream soon became a nightmare!!!!!!!! Well…that’s an exaggeration, cos actually the whole evening (in hindsight) was quite comical! We let our travel-company lady book us somewhere for that first evening, because we thought it would save us time and energy trailing around a new city looking for something, when we could be picked up and taken to somewhere already booked! It seemed like such a good idea. Our first clue that this was not going to be great, was when we arrived at the ‘restaurant’ and there was only one other small group there (who left soon after we arrived). Very soon we were the only ones there in a large Korean style room, sitting on the floor at low tables, waiting hopefully for a wonderful feast of authentic yakiniku. We ordered, the meat arrived, and that’s where it all went wrong!! The woman serving us, stood over us, and cooked the meat for us (in Japan you do it all yourself…see my early post about what yakiniku is!). Half of the fun is cooking it yourself, and certainly Dan did not look happy! She stood and watched us use the different sauces, watched us wrap the meat up in large salad leaves, and generally made us all feel like we were under inspection. That kind of scrutiny definitely does not make for a happy enjoyable meal. When the last plate of meat arrived, we were still all trying to see the good points of our first Korean meal, desperately trying to help the food live up to our expectations! Our politeness and optimism soon went down the toilet, when the last meat came, and we really weren’t sure what it was! As Korea is a country that has traditionally eaten dog in the past (and still does, though definitely not as much), we were all a little scared! I’m sure it was some cut of beef that we just weren’t familiar with, but still we started with the dog jokes, the dog noises, the dog puns, and for the rest of the trip we wondered what it actually was! Our mood definitely dropped when the bill came, and it was huge! They’d obviously mucked up our order, or just tried to con us. But, as we couldn’t speak Korean, we just paid, and left. We wanted to leave so much, that I think we would’ve paid anything just to get out of that soul-less, god-awful place! We were quite angry that we’d had to pay so much for a rubbish meal, and also I think we were hugely disappointed in our first Korean food experience. Thank god we all had a sense of humour, and later in the hotel bar, drinking wine, we could all joke about the meal, and the suspicious meat!

I’ve just realised that I’ve made it sound like Friday was rubbish, and we all hated Korea! But actually, we were all warming to the place, and were excited to see the differences, and a brand new culture and way of life. Some of the shops looked great too!! One of my favourite moments was when I heard an old beggar woman say “whassup” as we walked past, obviously assuming we were American! Hey, at least she knew some English! All in all, our first day in Korea had been a real eye-opener. Good points and bad points, and already some comical anecdotes tucked under our belts!

SATURDAY

After a lovely breakfast of croissants and muffins in Starbucks (how Korean are we!), we set out for our day of exploration and fun in Pusan/Busan. First stop was a purikura place we spotted close to our beloved Starbucks. Of course we had to do Korean Purikura, it would have been rude not to! Our poses in the photo-booth inevitably went from the normal smiles, and happy faces, to a genius idea of pretending to be dogs (yes, the meat the night before really had left a great impression and fear on us!). The photos are very cute, and will be added to my hefty collection of Japanese purikura in my notebook!

Whilst in Starbucks, a really lovely Korean woman had come over to speak to us, to offer us suggestions of places to visit and things to do. She was really nice, and her English was excellent, but we decided to stick to our original plan. Temple, lunch, fortress, onsen, shopping! So off we went to Beomeosa Temple, a Buddhist temple, set high up in the hills, looking over Pusan/Busan. The temple was really quite big ; a collection of rooms, hallways, and gateways, all with absolutely magnificent colours and patterns. We wandered around, in awe of the decoration, and I realised how different it felt to temples in Japan. I just loved the colours. Japanese temples, on the whole, are so much more muted, and natural, and whilst I love them, I loved the vibrant colours of Korea even more. That’s the one thing that I will always remember about Korea…the colours…in the streets, in the fashion, and especially in the temples and palaces ; strong, bright, blue, yellow, red, green, and purple.

After Beomeosa we went in search of somewhere for lunch. We were hungry, needed some energy, and something quick…so….we went to Maccy Ds!!!! I know I know, a little pathetic! But it was sooooo good, and it was still Korean food….Korean Maccy Ds! After nuggets and fries, we went off in search of a cable car that would take us up to Geumjeongsan, where there is a fortress. We eventually found the cable car, and enjoyed the spectacular ride up the hill-side. However, once off the cable car, we quickly realised that there was no fortress in sight, and the abundance of people in hiking gear up there, made it pretty obvious that if we wanted to see this fortress, we were going to have to walk further up! Now, none of us are hikers, nor were we wearing hiking-type attire, nor were we that desperate to see a fortress that might have ended up being a bit rubbish anyway! So we had a little walk around, and then headed back down in the cable car, taking photos of the view over Pusan/Busan as we descended. In the cable car we met an American guy, who is an English teacher in Seoul, so we chatted to him for a little while about life in Korea. When we asked him for recommendations for places to visit on our day trip to Seoul the next day, he looked positively aghast that we were only going to spend 1 day there! However, we assured him that we would make the most of our time there, and that we were quickly becoming pros at squeezing lots of stuff into a short time. He was actually quite cute! Alex and Rosie said I should’ve given him my e-mail address, and invited him to Japan…oh well…I’ll be quicker off the mark next time!

Next stop was a hot spa break! Hot spas (or ‘onsens’ as they are called in Japan), are very popular in Asia, and especially Japan. Up until this holiday, I had not braved them, mainly due to 2 factors ; 1. I don’t like HOT baths….I really hate really hot water, and I had heard that hot spa baths are often ridiculously hot! And 2. You have to be NAKED! For folks at home who are not familiar with onsens, you basically strip off, wash yourself completely in the shower/washing area, and then get into one of the hot, steaming baths. They are really good for relaxation, and as the Japanese workforce seems to be so stressed most of the time, I can understand why they are so popular. You have a small towel, that you can use to hide your modesty as you walk around, but you can’t take the towel into the bath with you. Heosimcheong Spa was in my Korea Lonely Planet, so I decided that it was about time, I gave it a go! Somehow, it seemed less daunting going for the first time, away from home (i.e Japan). This spa was part of a very luxurious hotel complex, and was really huge (room in the spa for 2000 people). Hot spas are normally not mixed-sex, so Dan went off to his bath area, and Alex, Rosie and I, scurried off to ours. In the locker-room, we were starting to get a bit nervous, and giggly, and that soon turned to shrieking when we realised that we weren’t even allowed to take towels into the bath area. We were allowed these small pink cloths (about as big as a duster)…we grabbed about 3 each, and made our way into the bathing area. We washed, and then spent a relaxing time in a really nice warm, bubbly (Jacuzzi-type) bath. I soon got used to the nakedness thing. It felt weird, walking between baths, completely in the nuddie…but also strangely liberating! After all, everyone else was in the same situation, and only glanced over at our western bodies for a moment, and then went back to their bathing. We decided to go for a body scrub, which was great, if a little….erm…thorough! The women sure know how to wield a loofah! We showered, changed, and then went to meet Dan. The whole experience was one of my highlights of the trip. I’m not saying that I’m going to start going to onsens all the time, but I will probably go again in the future, and I feel like I overcame a small fear, and embarrassment, in that couple of hours. Plus…my skin has never been smoother!!!!

We all felt very sleepy after our time at the spa, and decided to hit the shops to wake us up! We headed to Pusan/Busan’s main department store, Lotte, where we explored the food section, looking at cool Korean stuff, and gazed at all the nice clothes, bags, and make-up, that even our JET wage couldn’t afford! After that, it was definitely time for some dinner. We found a cute, small-street yakiniku place that we thought we would brave. After all, it couldn’t have been any worse than the night before! It was actually a really nice meal. They let us cook the meat ourselves, the sauces were better, and we finally got bibimbap (rice, veggies, seaweed, egg, and …stuff, all mixed up in a stone pot) that we had been longing for. The only blip came, when they forgot to bring one of our dishes at the end of the meal, which led to a comical moment of Dan waving furiously at any of the staff, trying out his Korean with “sillye hamnida” (excuse me), only to be ignored by everyone! They finally realised that they had forgotten to bring the end of our meal, and looked very embarrassed as they hurried over.

We headed back to the hotel, and were ready to try out it’s karaoke bar! I was so excited that our hotel actually had a karaoke place in it…we wouldn’t have to go anywhere…the karaoke was right on our doorstep! I LOVE karaoke..so I was a happy-chappy. However, it seems that our Korean luck ran out at about 7pm everyday, and all of our night-time activities were doomed to failure! The karaoke bar, was just a bar where you could sing a bit of karaoke, and there was already a group of Japanese business men there, belting out some god-awful song! We could’ve put up with that, and I definitely was ready to grab the song book off them, and fight my way into the limelight! However, the manager guy (who could speak Japanese, so spoke to Alex), told us that the only drinks that were available were beer or whisky…and you had to buy some kind of set..i.e. a lot of drinks…i.e a lot of money! We just wanted to sing! Dan wanted a beer, but us girls only wanted OJ. Manager-guy told us those 4 drinks would cost 8000 yen (about £40)…and we promptly left!! What the heck!! £10 a drink…where are we, the Ritz or some hip celebrity bar in London?…no…we’re in the Rainbow Bar in Pusan/Busan, South Korea!!!

We spent another evening drinking wine in the hotel bar, listening to the same song-murdering duo that were there the night before. This time, we took cards though, and spent a lovely hour or 2, playing whatever card games we could remember between us! Was actually really fun! We were so into the cards, we didn’t realise that the bar was closing, and one of the bar-girls had to come over and ask us to leave! Time for bed, and a good night’s sleep before our mammoth day in Seoul!

SUNDAY

We got up quite early, went to Starbucks to pick up some breakfast for the train, and then to find our train bound for Seoul. The journey took around 3 hrs, which we spent looking out at the South Korean countryside, mountains, and occasional city, eating our breaky, dozing, playing cards, and being told to “turn our voices down” by a member of the train staff! We were honestly not THAT loud, it’s just that the rest of the carriage was deathly quiet!

We arrived in Seoul around midday, and immediately navigated the subway system, and made our way to Gyeongbokgung palace, one of the must-sees in Korea’s capital. The palace was vast. A huge complex of identical looking buildings, all with the same coloured arches and ceilings that we had seen at Beomeosa on Saturday. It was a really beautiful place, and had a wonderful backdrop of the mountains. We walked around for a while, admiring the setting and the scale, and then we started to get hungry! We were going to go for lunch, but we stumbled across the Korean National Folk Museum, which our entry into the palace gave us free admission to. We went in for a little look. It was actually a really nice museum, and I wish we could’ve spent longer there, looking at the costumes, the crafts etc…but we were all flagging a bit, and needed some food! We quickly made a few purchases in the gift shop, and went then went in search of a nearby café listed in Lonely Planet. The café was soooo nice…proper bread, proper sandwiches, bagels….just proper! Not Japanese-pretend they’re normal western sandwiches-sandwiches! I had a lovely beef panini, and a slice of pecan pie….YUM!

Our plan was then to hit the markets, and do a spot of cheapo shopping. It was soooo busy down the stall-lined streets though, so it was hard to stop and look in some areas. We didn’t really find the type of market area we expected…I think perhaps there was some good shopping somewhere…we just couldn’t really find it! I did find some very pretty, reasonably-priced shoes in one shop though! Green, pretty, with bows at the front! They look better than they sound! We managed to find a souvenir shop as well, and we stocked up with prezzies for people, and of course…for ourselves!

Thanks to someone’s brilliant idea (I think it might have been Dan’s)…our next activity was one of my favourites on our whole holiday. We went up Seoul Tower in the evening, and looked out over the whole of the city, and admired the incredible lights from the buildings, roads and bridges. It really was beautiful and amazing. It was great to get an impression of just how big the city was, and to see it at night, all lit up, was incredible. It reminded me of looking at the lights of Hong Kong Island in my Christmas hols, and I felt very content up there, looking out on the world.

We caught a taxi to Seoul station, grabbed a bite to eat (and a little bit more at Dunkin’ Donuts!), and got on our train back to Pusan/Busan at about 10pm. We were all knackered, but had had a really nice day. I really liked Seoul. I could definitely visit there again, as there is loads to see and do. We really did scratch the mere surface of a city that would probably be quite cool to live in, as an English teacher, or a student! Maybe, one day, I’ll try and do a stopover there on the way to somewhere else. I slept a bit on the train, and we arrived back at our hotel at 1am. After a quick Happy Birthday phone call to Paul in England, it was finally time for much-needed sleep!

MONDAY

We allowed ourselves a little lie-in on Monday, checked out of the hotel, stored our bags, and headed into the city for a last shop and general look around, before going home. After a lovely breakfast at ‘Paris Baguette’ (god I love breakfast!), we split up for an hour. Dan and Rosie went shopping for omiyage (souvenirs) for their school, and Alex and I hit the clothes shops, and then Jagalchi Fish Market. Apparently it’s one of the biggest fish markets in Asia, and I’m glad we had a quick visit there, for the gross-factor, if nothing else! There were some weird looking fish in that place! It was smelly, skiddy, and often quite disgusting to look at, but it was a really cool half hour we spent looking around at the different stalls. It was quite a comical sight ; a street lined with stalls of fish, seaweed, and other sea-things (!), scooters and cars whizzing along now and again, women carrying things on their heads, men pushing carts full of thousands of little silver fish, and Alex and I, trying to take photos of the gross-but-wonderful stuff, and trying to dodge the traffic, and the icky stuff on the floor!

We met Dan and Rosie, caught a taxi back to the hotel, and then were taken off to the port, all ready to catch our little Beetle ferry back to Japan! After the 3 hrs on the ferry, 20 minutes on a bus to Hakata station, and another hour and a half on the train, I arrived back in my lil ole city of Yanai. Completely knackered, but completely happy after a wonderful weekend of new experiences, new places, wonderful sights, and great friends! Thanks for a great holiday Team Korea!