I departed Tokyo on Thursday afternoon for a 2.5 hour flight to Seoul. It was kind of weird flying United between two non-American cities. I was surprised to see that the flight included a snack, and even a special vegetarian option for me. I guess the fact that it was an international flight trumped the fact that it was only a short flight. Yay for free food!
After lunch, I walked to the metro to travel to a different part of town. The metro is pretty easy to figure out, once you find a sign that has English translations.
Tip: If you purchase a single ride ticket (which is a thin orange plastic card), place the card into the refund machine after you arrive to get a ₩500 refund.
After a long walk past the US Embassy and some US military buildings, I arrived at the War Memorial of Korea. This is an indoor and outdoor museum with free entry. Outside, there are various military aircraft, tanks, rockets, and a war ship on display. It's a nice place to explore.
(FYI: Hours 9am to 6pm. It is closed on Mondays, except holidays.)
The walk back to the hotel was a straight shot that took about 20 minutes.
I had a few hours to explore on Saturday morning. I chose to visit Changdeokgung Palace. There is a fee to enter the palace grounds as well as a separate fee if you would like to tour "The Secret Garden." It is still relatively cheap, at about $10 or less. The place is very big, with some hills, so be ready for a workout. The buildings all start to blend together after a while, especially after seeing the shrine and village the day before, but they are pretty.
- I did not find salad anywhere. I was not happy about this.
- A lot of the public bathrooms have bar soap. I can't even remember the last time I saw bar soap in a public bathroom. This one was particularly odd - soap on a handle:
- Like Japan, I am not sure what percentage of South Koreans speak English. Though most will probably be able to understand/speak a few words, it does not seem like many speak English well outside of the hospitality and travel industry. (I went in not knowing any Korean words; shame, shame on me Tried looking some up online, but they all seemed to be spelled too odd and long to pronounce.)
- Shops in town seem to be broken down by specialties in certain districts, such as hoses, tools, printing/paper, etc.:
A pita filled with couscous and lettuce. (Never thought of doing that before.)
I arrived at Incheon Airport at about 8:30pm. Taxiing to the gate seemed to take forever! (Seriously though, it must have been at least 10-15 minutes.) The process of clearing immigration and customs was a lot more time consuming than in Tokyo. After a long walk, you need to ride an airport train to the next terminal. The train comes only every 5 minutes, so pretty much the whole flight packed onto the first train to come. After an obstacle course of escalators and more walking, you are finally at the immigration lines. They were all quite long. The customs lines each had a few people in queue, but they went fairly fast and hardly anyone was called aside for further questioning.
Tip: For immigration, go the Foreign Passport line that is nearest the Korean Passport line. When the Korean Passport lines are free, they will call people over from the last Foreign Passport line. Unfortunately, I was in the second to last Foreign Passport line, so I had to wait the full time and got to watch everyone fly though the other line.
I opted to take the airport express bus to get to the hotel. Finding and buying the ticket was very easy, as it is just outside the airport terminal. The bus had luggage storage on the bottom, so that made things much more convenient. The one-hour ride was VERY long and kind of sickening. I fell asleep and was completely out of it by the time I arrived at the hotel at about 10pm. The room seemed so big and luxurious compared to the room in Tokyo. (That feeling did not last for long though.)
$90 a night, including free breakfast.
Realized there's a reason they give these sandals. The floor ends up getting covered in water from the shower and AC drainage.
Fancy toilet buttons. (I did not try any of them. A simple flush was fine with me.)
Friday was my only full day of exploring in Seoul. My body was tired and sore from the first half of the trip, and I slept on and off after initially waking at 7:30am. I would have slept all day if I could. The morning's sightseeing began at Jongmyo Shrine, which was only a short walk from the hotel. Luck was on my side for once, as I happened to arrive just 5 minutes before the noon English tour began. The grounds can only be explored with a guide, except on Saturdays. The tour lasted one hour, and I thought the guide was a little difficult to understand. Overall though, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour of easy sight-seeing.
(FYI: The price is nearly free at ₩1000, which is about $1. English tours are at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm. It is closed Tuesdays.)
Do not walk on the center raised stones. Those are only for dead souls.
No fish in the pond because living creatures don't belong at a burial shrine.
Our guide.
That looks comfortable.
There are stone steps EVERYWHERE!
And wooden boards to step over too. (I'm surprised I didn't trip.)
And don't hit your head in the low doorways.
A big spider.
See!
After the shrine tour, it was time for lunch. Just like Tokyo, if you want a decent vegetarian meal, you will have to research restaurants in advance. After a few wrong turns in Insadong, one of the tourist districts, Oh Se Gae Hyang vegetarian restaurant was finally found down a maze of side alleys. I ordered a traditional Korean soup. I did not care for the flavor, and it was a bit spicy. My favorite item was the Sujeonggwa - a cold cinnamon punch with dried persimmon, traditionally drank as a dessert. It tasted like potpourri, but in a good way.
One of the streets with tourist shops. Visitors seemed to be from all over.
Entrance of the restaurant.
Make sure you wear socks!
Sitting on a pillow on the floor. I had a difficult time using the metal chopsticks.
All meals include the little bowls off to the side, which are kimchi, tofu, some kind of fake meat, steamed greens, seaweed soup, and some clear stuff (unknown what it was, probably made of rice, and it had no flavor.)
After lunch, I walked to the metro to travel to a different part of town. The metro is pretty easy to figure out, once you find a sign that has English translations.
Tip: If you purchase a single ride ticket (which is a thin orange plastic card), place the card into the refund machine after you arrive to get a ₩500 refund.
This city has giant screens everywhere! A lot of them are touch screens too. (I guess that's what happens when Samsung is headquartered in your town.)
After a long walk past the US Embassy and some US military buildings, I arrived at the War Memorial of Korea. This is an indoor and outdoor museum with free entry. Outside, there are various military aircraft, tanks, rockets, and a war ship on display. It's a nice place to explore.
(FYI: Hours 9am to 6pm. It is closed on Mondays, except holidays.)
Along the walk.
This statue was my favorite. It depicts a real scene of a South Korean officer hugging a North Korean soldier, who was his younger brother, when reunited on the battlefield. The crack in the dome represents the division of South and North Korea, and hope for reunification.
A mosaic mural inside the base of The Statue of Brothers.
View of the museum.
I could mistake this as a scene from the USAF Academy.
Plane flown into South Korea by a North Korean defector in the 1980's. (I believe that's correct.)
The "under construction" path to get to the restroom. Very safe.
Cool ship. (Too bad it's only a replica.)
Enjoying some quiet time. There were lots of benches around.
Afterward, I hopped back on the metro to try to fit in one more activity before it got too dark. I walked around Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a traditional Korean village that has been restored. Admittance is free here also. The walk leads to a park on a hill.
I came to the conclusion that young Korean couples come here dressed in traditional outfits for either engagement or wedding photos. Perhaps I am wrong though.
Another couple. (A photographer was taking their picture.)
Doing my best (or worst) at trying to fit in.
The walk back to the hotel was a straight shot that took about 20 minutes.
I couldn't resist stopping to take this photo.
Decided to stop for a snack at Dunkin Donuts also.
The donuts and pastries are self-service. (See tongs and trays to the left.)
If you order a sandwich, you will receive this while you wait. It lets you know when your order is ready, and also plays commercials.
This was actually really good!
After a couple hours of recharging at the hotel, I ventured back out to find something to eat for dinner. Being vegetarian, I wasn't brave enough to try eating something from one of the street vendors.
I couldn't tell what 95% of the stuff they were selling was.
Apparently, eating at an intimate street vendor "café" is the thing to do on a Friday night date.
I think this is the door to Munchkinland.
Our guide for The Secret Garden. She explained that since so many people were on the tour (about 150), anyone was welcome to walk around on their own instead, which normally is not allowed. The tour would have taken 1.5 hours after already walking around for 45 minutes, so I took option B and got done in half the time.
Lily pads in the front pool, other plants with big leaves in the back pool.
I am a sucker for any place called "The Secret Garden," especially when stuff is covered in moss.
After another nauseating bus ride back to the airport, I was more than ready to head home. I was on yet another Boeing 747 with few amenities. (I did not have a view of Business Class this time, as I was stuck in the back of Economy.) The first movie shown was "Blended," which I did not watch. Afterward though, I was pleasantly surprised that they showed an episode of "Friends" (The One with the Memorial Service.) I tried to sleep a lot, and during breakfast I watched "Million Dollar Arm" until the plane landed midway through.
Special vegan dinner. It was actually really good! Balsamic veggies with pesto, a roll (in the white package at the bottom), mashed sweet potatoes, and some sort of vegan meatloaf?
Breakfast was decent too. Fake (tofu) eggs, veggies, and potatoes. I'm not quite sure what the little jar of maple syrup was for, but I kept it.
The flight landed about 1/2 hour early, which became pointless because no crews were available yet to retrieve the baggage. So after a very long wait (perhaps 30-45 minutes), the bags finally arrived. There was a long line at immigration, but I was able to zip past that with Global Entry.
Tip: At SFO, the Global Entry line for immigration is to the left. At customs, there is a special entrance to the right of the regular entrance. (If you see a mob of people, walk ahead and enter on the right. You get to bypass the crowd.)
In SFO, after clearing customs. Had to put that little jar of maple syrup into my checked bag. (I was so sick of traveling by this point, if you can't tell.)
Everything was going smooth as could be. I arrived in SFO with plenty of time to make the connection to Phoenix. The plane boarded and we left the gate on time, at about 1:40pm. We were on the tarmac for a bit, in line for take-off. And I had already fallen asleep. As we were the next in line, the pilot announced that due to severe weather that rolled into Phoenix, air traffic control would not let us take off. So back to the gate we went. An estimated 55 minute wait became a 2+ hour wait, but finally our flight took off, for real this time.
This was the scene arriving in PHX after the massive thunder storms. (There are never clouds sitting on the mountains!)
Seoul Tidbits and Oddities:
- The city has a lot more trash lying around and just an overall grungier feel than Tokyo, by far:
- I did not find salad anywhere. I was not happy about this.
- A lot of the public bathrooms have bar soap. I can't even remember the last time I saw bar soap in a public bathroom. This one was particularly odd - soap on a handle:
- Like Japan, I am not sure what percentage of South Koreans speak English. Though most will probably be able to understand/speak a few words, it does not seem like many speak English well outside of the hospitality and travel industry. (I went in not knowing any Korean words; shame, shame on me Tried looking some up online, but they all seemed to be spelled too odd and long to pronounce.)
- Shops in town seem to be broken down by specialties in certain districts, such as hoses, tools, printing/paper, etc.:
As if you couldn't guess, these were the lighting shops.
And I suppose this was the drum district.
- There are coffee shops all over town. If you see one, that means there are at least three more at the same intersection.
- Koreans drink corn tea. Yes, it is tea made from corn, and it's disgusting. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/01/korean_corn_tea_as_bad_as_it_s.php
- Koreans drink corn tea. Yes, it is tea made from corn, and it's disgusting. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/01/korean_corn_tea_as_bad_as_it_s.php
- I was convinced that almost every actress on TV was Yunjin Kim (Sun from Lost.)
- In Tokyo and Seoul, some condiments (salad dressing, jam) were in containers that you squeeze. Push the two sides together and the stuff comes out of a slit on the front. Pretty nifty:
- In Tokyo and Seoul, some condiments (salad dressing, jam) were in containers that you squeeze. Push the two sides together and the stuff comes out of a slit on the front. Pretty nifty:
- I would guess that 45% of the cars were Hyundai and 20% were Kia.
- An Olivia Newton-John look-alike hosting the Australian news:
- An Olivia Newton-John look-alike hosting the Australian news:
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