South Korea Trip - Travel Log

Friday 12/26/2003

My sister and I arrived in South Korea late last night after about 20 hours in transit. We were able to catch a bus to hapjeong station fairly easily, but got a little lost trying to find the hostel, so we had to stop in at an internet cafe and print out a map.. :p There were lots of kids there playing games and such. We're going to sort of explore the area today..

We met two japanese women who are also staying here at kim's guesthouse last night. Their names were naomi and haruka. They both look to be in their early 30's.

Well today we walked around the hapjeong area for a while, then headed over to itaewon via the subway. We looked around a lot of shops, ate at a korean restaurant, then shopped some more before heading back to the hostel. It was interesting trying to find our way around the place, but we're adapting fairly well. I'm getting better at reading signs, a bit faster as well. I had dolsot bibimbap, beef and vegetables over rice in a hot pot. Tracy had never eaten korean food before, so I told her about the numerous side dishes that are served with every meal. I've taken probably about 15 pictures so far. I'll be taking a lot more once we start seeing the palaces and museums, etc..

It was much easier to find the guesthouse the 2nd time, but we still had to consult the map once. We're going to take a small rest and then head out to experience the nightlife in a bit.

It was very cold tonight, so we didn't go too far.. We ended up at a small hof (bar) that was sort of downtempo, not very crowded. It was a collection of nice comfy chairs around small tables.. We had a few drinks, but we weren't really up for much more since it was so damn cold.. probably at or just below 0°C.

Saturday 12/27/2003

We headed out sort of early this morning to go check out the COEX Mall. We stopped briefly at a small convenience store and grabbed a bite to eat on the way there.. We took the #2 subway line over to the Samseong stop. I listened to some korean music on the way there with my cd player and headphones.

We got to the mall and I took a few pictures, then we went inside. We met some other Americans in a SK Telecom store that was also selling lots of umbrellas, some of them insanely cute. They were there due to Army positions, but at least two of them were from Philadelphia. Tracy ended up getting a penguin duck umbrella before we left. We walked through the Hyundai department store and got to the food court they had there. There was too much to pick from, so we ate at Schlotzsky's Deli. After that we went into the mall proper and I bought some k-pop cd's and dvds at a record store, plus I got two korean PC games real cheap at Bandi & Luni's, a large book store. We looked around more and ran into this guy who turned out to be a coin collector.. He asked us if we had any of the new state quarters on us, but we weren't really carrying any US money, so we had to tell him no. We wanted to see a movie at the cinema there, Megabox. Unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to use the kiosks to purchase a ticket. maybe they're just there to pick up tickets bought online. We went upstairs and saw that there was a Ragnarok Online festival going on, so we checked it out. I was used to it from various animation cons, but Tracy said it was quite scary.. :P I bought a little angel poring doll and got a free bag with RO designs on it..

It was getting into the afternoon and we wanted to see a korean basketball game in the evening, so we headed over to the nearby Jamsil Sports Complex. It was lucky that we left when we did, as the game had started at 3pm, and we got to our seats around 3:15. It was the Seoul Samsung Thunders versus the Incheon ET Land Black Slamers (don't ask me about the names.. they're quite odd). Compared to the NBA, both teams weren't that great.. The cheerleaders were really hot though, so I got lots of pictures.. :D

After that, we went to the Dongdaemun Market area and checked out the Freya mall & Cinema. We saw a film called "Happy Ero Christmas" and while it was in korean with no subtitles it was funny nonetheless.. We also learned that due to the smaller theatre sizes, you get assigned seats and can't just pick the ones you want. I suppose that this is to utilize the space better, as when people are left to their own devices, there are empty seats scattered here and there.. and that sucks when the showing is sold out and you want to sit by your friends. We were feeling pretty tired by that point, so we took the subway back to Hapjeong station and walked to the hostel.

Sunday 12/28/2003

We got up a bit later than normal, got ready and went to Deoksu-gung (-gung = palace). It was interesting, and we saw the museum on the grounds as well. I bought these strange little doughy things, they were quite odd.. I tried one of each, and Tracy tried one after I confirmed that they weren't in the slightest shrimpy.. After that we stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch. The food had sort of a German influence, not really what we were expecting. We walked through the Euljiro underground arcade for a while, but most of the shops were closed because it was a Sunday. This is in the downtown area, so i'm sure it's really busy during the weekdays. We headed towards Jongmyo and Changyeong-gung. It was quite a walk, and we walked through this park on the way there that seemed to be a gathering point for older people.. there were tons of them there. The museums and palaces are great places to check out, and they're inexpensive as well. (1000-3000 Won) I was getting pretty tired of walking around at this point, so we rode the subway back to the City Hall stop and went to the Chongdong Theatre, where we saw a very impressive traditional korean performing arts show. They had some subtitles set up on a screen to the right of the stage explaining what each particular performance was. The show was sold out when we got there, but we were able to get in anyway by sitting in the aisle.. (it was still 15000 Won for those seats but I think it was worth it) They went outside and did another minor show afterwards, so I took some pictures.

The korean restaurant we stopped at on the way back to the hostel was really strange. They only had two main choices on the menu, and one of them involved shellfish, so Tracy couldn't eat that one. She had to really be vigilant about this in korea, since it seems they put shrimp or crab in practically everything. It wasn't a problem in Dallas or Atlanta, since places don't sneak shrimp or shellfish into dishes.. They make you pay for it. This was probably the strangest korean dish that we ate while we were there.. Tracy got a picture of it. The restaurant did have a nice heated raised floor though.. We're turning in early tonight as our trip to Pusan is tomorrow.

Monday 12/29/2003

We woke up way too early this morning. (5:30) and took the subway to Seoul Station. We barely got there in time to catch the train to Pusan. We were riding one of the Saemaul Express trains, so it was very nice. On the way there, I watched this talk show with Lee Hyori (famous, and really fine popstar/singer) and there were these four guys sitting next to her.. They would get ejected out of their seats and into a pool behind them whenever Hyori said a certain phrase.. It was pretty funny, particularly when she learned which words triggered it and dumped all of them into the pool at once.. :D

We arrived in Pusan around 11:30 and found a place to have lunch. We had Seollotang, a beef and noodle soup. After that we went to the Seomyeon area and looked around. They had an underground mall with literally thousancs of different shops. Some of them were really tiny. We found some good deals at a place called MiniMall. I bought three sweaters for just over 20000 Won (~$17). We went to Yongdu-san park after that and visited Pusan Tower. We got plenty of pictures from the observatory, and they turned out really well since it was a clear day. I also briefly met a british guy there who was living in Pusan. He was showing some of his visiting friends around. Afterwards, we stopped at a neat coffee shop for a bit then made our way back to the train station, stopping to eat before boarding the train back to Seoul at 6:00. I got some really interesting pictures from the moving train on the way back of some blurred lights and scenery due to the slower shutter speed of my camera.

Tuesday 12/30/2003

Another long day: We went out to catch the subway to mapo station to go to the Holiday Inn Seoul where we had made an online reservation to go snowboarding. I know, you think Holiday Inn and aren't that impressed, right? Well this was the only one in Seoul, and had to be at least a 4 star place.. pretty impressive. The concierge helped us out by calling the travel agency, but they said they had no reservation.. That was the second time online reservations had failed us, so we'll email or call directly next time. We were able to go anyway with another tour company, and we got out to Yangji Pine Resort about 11:30. Our guide was named Brian, and there was another guy too, he was from Thailand. We got some basic snowboarding lessons, and practiced for a while, then had lunch inside. We went back out and tried again for an hour or two. We didn't need to buy any lift tickets, since we didn't get off the beginner hill, but it was a good experience. We weren't concerned about how good we got since both of us live pretty far away from any places where we could go again. The return bus ride took longer due to traffic, so we talked with Brian and Ek.. We ate at what looked like a german pub from the outside, but wasn't anything like that on the inside. We had some really tasty fried chicken, then walked the rest of the way back to the hostel. Our schedule is pretty open for the next two days, so we'll take it easy.

Wednesday 12/31/2003

My sister wasn't feeling well today, so I went out alone. I wandered around the area where we are staying for a while, found a small shrine with a good view of the hangang river.. I stopped by a PC room to catch up on my friends LJ entries and try to update my journal, but livejournal.com was blocked for some reason.. I messed around on the computer for a bit and even played a quick game of starcraft.. ;) I took the subway to Gyeongbok-gung where I stopped in at the national museum of korea. They had quite a lot of old artifacts, from prehistoric times, plus relics from Koguryo, Paekche, Silla & Koryo kingdoms. After that I walked to the nearby Insa-dong area and stopped at a small deli to get a sandwich and a drink. The Insa-dong area had a lot of art galleries and older teashops, and I read that it's being made traffic free, so that will add to its rustic charm.

It was about 1 or 2pm by then, so I headed back to the hostel. We rested for a bit, then went out around 8 and met some other english speaking people at the guesthouse. We went back to the house they were staying at and talked for a while, then went out to the nearby sinchon area for a late dinner. We had a spicy chicken and vegetable dish that was cooked at our table. It was very tasty. After dinner, the group tried to find a bar to celebrate the new year's countdown in.. It took a while, as most of the places were sit down, and I suppose a group of ~10 foreigners can be somewhat intimidating. We ended up in a "western bar" called Dream On. We sat around this large table filled with beer, so we could just get one without going to the bar or getting a waiter.. It was pretty expensive to drink there, so we didn't stay too long. Some of the group split off to go clubbing, but the subway was only running until about 2am, so we headed back to hapjeong station. We caught what was probably the last train at about 1:30 and boy was it packed. We got a few beers at a small convenience store (which were much cheaper by the way) and headed back to the house to chill for a bit. We turned in around 3am or so.

Thursday 1/1/2004

We didn't really do much today except see Seoul Tower on Mt. Namsan. That involved quite a bit of hiking, but we took a cable car part of the way and back from the top. It was quite foggy, so it wasn't worth going up to the observation deck. My right knee started hurting a bit, so I took it slow back to the subway station. We eventually got back to the hostel and crashed. The nonstop exertion had caught up to us I guess.. We'll rest tonight, pack and head back to the States tomorrow.

Friday 1/2/2004

My sister and I slept in as long as we could, got everything ready then got a ride to the bus stop, where we waited for a few minutes in the freezing weather.. The bus ride was uneventful, about 40 minutes to the airport. We picked up the tickets, ate lunch at a place called cafeteria terrace, then tried to spend most of our leftover won before going through security to the gates. We got to our gate a bit early so we waited.. and we lucked out somehow and were upgraded to business class for free! That was so very nice for the 9 1/2 hour flight back to San Francisco. We actually got there early, but had to stay on the plane until customs opened at 8:00.. ¬_¬ Getting through customs was pretty easy, so we had another several hour wait for the planes back to Dallas and Atlanta. My sister's gate for her flight was changed at the last minute and she would have missed the flight if i hadn't been paying attention. It was sort of cramped on the flight back to dallas, but they showed "Under the Tuscan Sun" which is really a beautiful movie.. You should definitely see it if you haven't already.

The baggage contraption took forever to spit out my checked suitcase, and Tony picked me up from the airport, so we went to Quiznos afterwards, then came home. I unpacked, then sort of collapsed on the bed and slept for who knows how long.. ;)