Blackzilla Takes Taiwan: A week in Seoul, South Korea

I had a break from school for a few days so I decided to take a trip to South Korea. This was also right before North Korea vowed to preemptively strike the United States with a nuclear weapon. Although the western media was all over this issue, no one in South Korea seemed to be the least bit concerned so I didn't let this issue stop me from going.

I took off from Taipei and landed in Seoul 2.5 hours later. The metro in Seoul was a bit more complicated than the metro in Taipei but I figured it out and made it from the airport to the Grape Garden House where I would be staying for the next week. This place was run by some great people but definitely had some interesting characters staying there. The first one I met was a guy from Finland who had a Mohawk and introduced himself as Lunatic. He later went on a rant about how he was going to throw Molotov Cocktails through the window because the owner told him not to turn off the lights in the living room at night. I think the nickname was appropriate.

While venturing around the Hongdae area where I was staying I came across a number restaurants that had murals of various artists and historical figures. Two of the most common figures were Michael Jackson and Hitler. Why those two you might ask. I asked the same thing but have no idea. Among other things, one thing that I liked about Seoul over Taipei is that everything stays open very late. Many places seem to never close. My first night there people were just starting to go out to the bars and clubs at 1:30am and it was a Tuesday night. In Taipei, it is a ghost town at 12am unless you're inside one of the clubs on a Wednesday night (ladies night) or on the weekend.

The first few days were spent visiting many of the historical sites and trying to learn what there was to do in Seoul. With the help of a friend I was able to get a sim card for my phone so I could use Google maps and I guess make an emergency phone call if I needed to. Seoul, like I expected, was much colder than Taipei so I was glad that I brought some cold weather cloths with me even though I haven't had much opportunity to wear them in Taiwan. The city is pretty easy to get around, clean and the people didn't seem to be as willing to hit you with an elbow in order to get in front of you in line as they are in Taipei. Also, you can cross the street in the crosswalk without worrying that a car or scooter will run you over like you have to worry about in Taipei.

The areas that I spent the most time in were Myeongdong, Hongdae, and around city hall. It is a fun city that is very developed and has a lot to do. Good food is easy to find, the people are nice and you can get by with some basic korean phrases or even the point and grunt method of communication. Not as many people speak English as I expected but that gave me the opportunity to learn some korean phrases. Most of the time I pronounced the phrases so poorly that I had to pull out my phone and use my Korean Phrases app and my Learn Korean app. Both have a list of words and phrases categorized by situation and you can click on the word or phrase to hear it spoken. I often found myself turning the volume up on my phone and pressing play, :-P.

Of course I had to check out a number of Korean BBQ places and kill multiple bottles of soju. The place above was recommended by a friend and was really good. I have to say, even though many people told me that all the Korean BBQ places are about the same, I would have to disagree. I went to some crappy BBQ places that I would never go back to and some great places that I want to move into.

I haven't experienced this in Korean BBQ places in the States but in Seoul most places will give you a plastic bag to place your coat into so it doesn't absorb the BBQ smell. That's all well and good but since the rest of your cloths will absorbed it, I don't know that saving your coat is doing much good.

Aside from the awesome BBQ to be found, I as enjoyed the food at Myeongdong Gyoja. This place is in the center of the Myeongdong shopping district and is much smaller than I expected. I went with a guy that I met at my hostel who is from Japan but is in Korea studying Korean. His English was very limited and my Japanese and Korea were non-existant but we both understood good food. Also, he could order the food with much more human like qualities than I could given the fact that he had been studying Korean for few years, so I let him work his magic.

I checked out the Korean War Memorial and went to a few museums about the war. It is pretty amazing to see how far South Korea has come in the 50 years or so since the war. I went to a few night markets but they weren't much different from the ones in Taiwan so I just grabbed some food and bounced.

I think riding the metro and bus in a city is always an interesting experience. I still remember all the people who would get on the trains in Mexico City with modified backpacks, which had a stereo system or dvd monitor in them and these people would play music or a movie from the backpack and try to get everyone to buy a copy. This wasn't on one or two trains but on every train. In Seoul I didn't see any modified backpacks but they have the same hustler spirit. People are constantly trying to sell you things but most of them are pretty polite about it if you tell them that you aren't interested. There are few things more annoying than a pushy salesperson. Although most rides on the metro were uneventful, I did have two occasions of entertainment. The first was when I entered the station and noticed a man lying on the floor talking on his cell phone. At first I couldn't tell if he was injured and needed help or not. An attendant from the metro station came over to help the man only to realize that he was not injured but rather just too drunk to stand up. After this realization the attendant's compassion disappeared and he stood the guy up and pushed him onto the next train. I don't know how that guy will get off the train but I guess the attendant figured now it's someone else's problem.

The next entertaining bit came when I was on the train and a different drunk guy got onto the train carrying two large, empty jugs of water. The man had a portable radio with him that he was blasting music from at full volume. One of the other patrons on the train started talking to the drunk man. Although this was all in Korean, based on the situation it appeared that the other patron asked the drunk guy to turn his radio down. The drunk guy responded with "go f$%k yourself". They got into an argument to the point that I thought they were going to throw down right there on the train. Finally the drunk guy stood up and tried to pick up his water bottle. He was so drunk that he was unable to pick it up so he punted one of the jugs across the train car into a group of women standing on the other end of the train car. He sat back down for a bit and then he finally reached his stop. Before leaving he stood up, looked around, and yelled what I can only assume was the Korean equivalent to "f#@k all you'll" and bounced.

While I was in Seoul I knew I had to take a trip to the DMZ so I booked a tour for my last day in the city. When I was booking the tour every review I read said that the Joint Security Area at Panmunjon was the highlight of the tour. Unfortunately, I didn't know that those tours fill up fast and have to be booked five days in advance. All in all the tour was still interesting. Photography wasn't allowed in most places so I don't have many pictures but I was able to see one of the tunnels North Korea dug underneath South Korea to prepare for an invasion, a museum about the war and was able to see parts of North Korea from the train station that leads to Pyonyang. Interesting experience.