To this day, I still distinctly remember the two times I exposed myself to the Korean Wave. The first time was in 2000 when I watched the classic Korean drama Autumn in My Heart. The second time was in 2004 when I started following the pre-debut of Super Junior, a formerly 13-member boy band. By that time, I was already in too deep with the 'wave' which ultimately became one of the main reasons of my wanting to visit South Korea for the last fourteen years.
This past January, I finally did, with three of my closest friends.
Seoul, South Korea was everything I imagined it to be; from the bustling city streets to the breath-taking night lights, I was so ecstatic to have finally set foot on Korean soil!
And here are several things I learned throughout my 2.5 week trip.
A good friend who lived in Korea advised us to download the Seoul Subway app before going to Seoul, and boy, did that app save our butts. I'm used to a one-line-north-to-south kind of subway system, so when I saw Seoul's Metro, I was astounded. Just take a look at it yourself! Transportation is so convenient because the metro literally goes everywhere, and there's a subway station literally on every street. Although some times it's worth it to just walk the couple of blocks to the next station instead of riding the subway because there's a lot to look at on ground level. It's also best to get a T-Money card which you use to pay for the subway and bus fares. And because there's so much walking to do...
2. Wear comfortable shoes, preferably sneakers.
I brought a pair of nice two inch heels, and never got the chance to wear them because every day was walking, walking, walking, and more walking. However, if I did wear those heels, it would probably only be for a couple of hours and then I'd have to buy a pair of sneakers from the street (for super cheap, like 15000 won, may I add). There are things to see, things to buy, and things to eat on almost every corner of Seoul, so it's easy to miss out on things because there's just too many streets to explore. You can easily spend an entire day plus another at Gangnam and still not be finished. And because there's so much to see, expect to be walking from morning until midnight! Unless you're like my friends and I who thought taxi was super cheap compared to where we're from and decided to just taxi to a couple of places. Which we then learned that...
3. Seoul drivers are insane.
I have come to the conclusion that while I'm a confident and able driver here at home, I would lose my bricks if I drove in Korea. Not only do drivers drive like there are no lane separations (hence no signaling on lane changes), they drive like there are no speed limits. The first taxi that my friends and I took went 120km/h on a max 60km/h. A bus we rode sped up on speed bumps like they didn't exist. Everybody on that bus was genuinely scared for their lives, and there were a few times a friend fell into the lap of a stranger because she flew off her seat. I feared crossing the streets because cars don't care for pedestrians; they care that people are in their way and they aren't afraid to show that by honking incessantly at them.
4. Food is readily available and mighty cheap.
Where I'm from, a meal typically averages at $12 for a full combo, so when I saw that a full meal in Korea for a person was ~6000 won, I thought I had hit the jackpot. 6000 won converts to ~$6.50, which is half the price for a meal! On top of that, they have unlimited servings of side dishes (there's usually a side dish bar where you grab everything yourself), and service is probably also twice as fast. The second you sit down at a table, side dishes are served. After you order from the menu, food is ready in two minutes. That's definitely one thing I miss most; the speed of service.
Never once did we have to worry about where to eat, because the streets were littered with small restaurants and food stalls. There could be ten restaurants on one street, and another fifteen on the next. The only thing we had trouble deciding was what to eat due to the vast amount of choices! One thing I noticed was that menus were very limited. If they advertise cheese and ribs, the menu was only cheese and ribs. If someone wanted soup instead of ribs, they'd have to go to another place. But that was never a big issue because the food was just so good, we just ate everything.
My friends and I were super excited to try out the street food in Korea because dramas always made it look so good. And I'm pretty sure none of us were disappointed! Though the style was more snack style than anything, so it wasn't enough to get a full stomach. There was one night that we decided to eat street food for dinner, but ended up going to a restaurant afterwards because it wasn't filling enough. And as much as it was relatively cheap (~1000 for a stick of fish cake), it started adding up by the end of the night because portions were small we had to get more than one.
Here's a quick guide, with no pictures sadly, to the most common Korean street snacks that I witnessed:
- Gimbap (김밥) - Korean sushi
- Tteokbokki (떡볶이) - Spicy rice cakes
- Odeng (오뎅) - Fish cakes
- Mandu (만두) - Korean dumplings
- Twigim (튀김) - Deep fried goods, mainly veggies and seafood
- Tornado potato - Potato cut into a spiral on a long stick, sprinkled with yummy cheesy powder
- French fry hot dog - Deep fried hot dog wrapped in french fries. Say whaaat?
- Soondae (순대) - Blood sausages
- Grilled squid, grilled octopus, and smoked cuttlefish
- Fish bread (붕어빵) - Baked batter shaped like a fish with sweet red bean filling
- Egg bread (계란빵) - A whole egg, yolk and white, baked on top of some waffle batter, I presume.
- And my all time favourite: Hotteok (호떡) - Dessert pancake filled with sweets and more sweets. Like brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon, and honey. I could not get enough of this stuff!!!
5. Myeongdong is taken over by Chinese tourists.
Myeongdong is renowned as the place to go for shopping, precisely cosmetics and fashion. We went several times to shop there because we could never finish in one day. Myeongdong is lined with cosmetic stores, and generally a lot more than one of each. I saw a handful of Etude House, Innisfree, Missha, Laneige, Natural Republic, It's Skin, Holika Holika, Espoir, VDL just to name a few. It was IMPOSSIBLE for me to go into a store and walk out empty handed. As much as I held myself back, it was a futile attempt.
When my friend told me Koreans don't like going to Myeongdong, I was a little skeptical. How could anyone not like Myeongdong? It's shoppers' heaven! Then I understood why; I felt like I was in Chinatown. As I walked down the main street, sales associates called out to me in Chinese, and then Japanese, and then broken English. It was rare to hear someone speak in Korean. I mean, I knew Myeongdong was a tourist attraction, but never to that extent. Everywhere I looked there were Chinese people hauling around their big luggage. There were quite a few times my toes got rolled over once or twice. I stopped into a really busy Innisfree, and everybody in there, except the workers, were on some Chinese tour. I learned that if I wanted to shop peacefully around Myeongdong, I had better go in the morning, because once the afternoon hits, the rush starts and it's never pretty.
6. Don't be greedy with the itinerary.
Before we left for Korea, my friends and I got together and planned out every day what we were going to do. Of course we were flexible with our itinerary, but we had the basic blueprint down. Even though we had almost three weeks in Seoul, it still felt like we didn't have enough time. That aside, we were a little ambitious and jam-packed our schedule like no tomorrow. By the end of the trip, I was pretty much burnt out and ready to go home. Now I know I must pace myself if I do this trip again. That means spread out the activities, and don't plan four activities/destinations in one day. It's totally understandable that you want to squeeze as much as possible in the agenda, but for a healthier mind and body, it's safer not to. And as much as it's a vacation, the 8-hour sleep cycle still applies. Like I said, there's a lot to do, a lot of walking takes place, so your body is going to need ALL the energy it can get.
Quick tip: Schedule an entire day for theme parks like Lotte World or Everland. They aren't as big as Disney World (which needs a whole three weeks), but those parks are just as much a handful to discover. It would be smart have an early start to the parks, say 8 AM, because lines start to get long at 10 AM, so the night before, it's best to leave out the night shopping.
7. WiFi is free in most places in Seoul.
I did a little research on how to get WiFi, and one suggestion was to get a WiFi egg, a personal and portable hot spot small enough to fit in my pocket. That was originally the plan, but when we got to Korea, it was clear that WiFi was free in almost every place we went to. From coffee shops to restaurants, from the subway to the malls, one click to connect was all I needed to get WiFi. However, most restaurants and shops were password protected, so all I needed to do was ask the staff for the password, and they were more than happy to share that with me. If you ever need WiFi in Seoul, keep an eye out for 'iptime'.
8. The Grand Plastic Hotel is a real hotel.
Since South Korea is known for their plastic surgery, it was my great interest to see just how prevalent it really is. I think it's safe for me to say that Canada isn't big on plastic, whereas south of the border they are, so when I saw how common PS was, I was floored. Girls walked around the streets with their face covered in bandages... like a mummy! Not only that, but faces were bruised (not from physical abuse I hope), girls looked identical, and 1/3 advertisements were about plastic surgery. I even lived near a hotel called The Grand Plastic Hotel in Gangnam where people had their procedures done at the clinic next door, and afterwards they were welcomed to stay in their hotel until their bodies were healed. And walking by it every day for the first week and a half, it was always bustling with people in the clinic. Of course it makes girls look pretty, but seeing how PS is everywhere, I'm now unsure of what's real, and what's not. Which in retrospect makes me kind of sad because personally I thought all the girls looked pretty in their before pictures.
9. If you're dressed in a Hanbok at Gyeongbukgong Palace (경복궁), people will take pictures with you.
One tourist-y thing I desperately wanted to do was take pictures in traditional Hanboks (한복) because they are stunningly and jaw-dropping beautiful. Online I was able to find a few places that allowed us to try on Hanboks for free, but reviews said the free ones were usually not as nice and clean, and then there were quite a few studios that offered professional services.
But it was my luck that I found Oneday Hanbok which is a Hanbok rental service in the Euljiro underground mall directly connected to the Euljiro 4(sa)-ga station on line 4. For four hours, we each paid 13 000 won which included the price of the Hanbok. Head accessories and such were free, and a deposit of 30 000 won per Hanbok and a piece of ID was required, which we got back at the end of the session. We were allowed to go anywhere in the city as long as we came back within time limit, and we didn't destroy the Hanbok along the way. We wanted to take pictures at Geyongbukgong Palace, and conveniently for us, it was only four stations away from where the rental place was. However my friend was a little shy and wanted to take a taxi there instead.
So I learned that entry to the Palace was free if we were in Hanboks. Bingo. And that people, especially tourists, were adamant on taking pictures with us because we were dressed oh-so differently than they were. Celebrity status? Check.
10. There is no place like home.
I'm going to sound a little spoiled here, but one thing I don't miss about Korea was the small living spaces. We didn't have a hotel the first night we got there so we had to spend it at my friend's one room apartment meant for one person, obviously. That night we fit four people into her tiny room and never again would I want to do that. Nonetheless, that's how their culture is, and I respect that. Oh, and their washrooms. I enjoy taking a shower in a separate shower stall because it keeps everything outside nice and dry. But in Korea, a lot of their washrooms don't have a separate shower area, and by the time I finished my shower, everything was wet! It took me several days to get used to that, and knowing how to position my clothes so they wouldn't get drenched (I shared a hotel room so I couldn't surprise her in my birthday suit). Thankfully our second hotel had a shower stall, so I didn't have to worry then.
I'm definitely going back to Korea sooner or later, and hopefully during Fall this time and not Winter. Though it wasn't as cold as it would get in Canada, a lot of places were still closed and some times being outdoors wasn't as fun as it would be in summer. Obviously. For example, I wanted to ride a bike along the Han River and spend a day camping there, but I couldn't do that because it was Winter. I also wanted to go on the DMZ tour but none of my friends were interested because they were scared. The DMZ is basically the De-militarized zone which serves as a buffer zone between the North and the South to prevent direct military collision. But in this zone, civilian access is allowed!
So South Korea, until next time, until next time.
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