Lost Intrepid

With just two days left in Seoul we had a chance to explore some of the main sights. First off the fantastic Chang Deok Gung temple and ‘secret garden’. The temple was established around the year 1400 but suffered many ailments over the years, particularly from the Japanese invasions in the early 20th century. Nevertheless, what remains is an impressive reminder of Korean royalty, and the colourful wooden temple buildings are a joy to explore.

The temple has a adjoining ‘secret garden’ that the royalty used at their leisure. Here there are small pagodas and temple buildings amongst the trees with small lakes in a secluded and peaceful setting.

Afterwards we returned to Insadong in search of more tea rooms. We found a gem of a place that was both an art gallery and tea room, where we relaxed over a quince tea in peaceful surroundings.

That evening we were invited out to a fantastic beef rib barbecue restaurant by Alex’s parents with the rest of the guests. Although seemingly not very vegetarian friendly, Allyson had a great bibimbap, and I really enjoyed the delicious food. There were some unusual but delicious side dishes, and the beef was served fajita style, to be wrapped in salad leaves. Many of the leaves were very unusual but had a brilliant flavour way beyond the humble lettuce leaf.

On our final day in Seoul we headed over to one of the city’s shrines – luckily we were here for the annual ceremony. We managed to squeeze through the crowds and get a great vantage point of the traditional customs, ceremonial chanting, and music. On the way out, at the stalls, as you do, a Korean guy started chatting to me, and it turned out that he was taking part in one of the processions later that day. He gave me some interesting stories and history on the annual celebrations. Although there were a lot of Seouleans there taking pictures, it’s clearly an important and solemn ceremony, the purpose being to pay respects to their ancestors.

That night Alex took us to an astounding pork belly barbecue restaurant where a huge selection of pork, mushrooms, and kimchi were laid out on a gas-fired hot plate. Delicious. We then headed out to a huge shopping mall, only open at night, where we took in some of the crazy South Korean fashion. I must say though that extra-short skinny turquoise chinos are not quite my thing.

That’s all of Seoul for now, at least until the final day or two of the trip when we will return before our flight home. We’ve really enjoyed exploring the city, and whilst it draws some obvious parallels with Tokyo, this really is a unique city with a seemingly endless selection of food, karaoke, shops, tea, coffee, and fun. It’s not an obviously touristy city, and it’s pretty easy to walk around for a full day without coming across a single westerner. Compared to Cusco a few weeks ago this was a breath of fresh air.

It’s also a very modern city, perhaps the most modern I’ve ever seen. The metro system is super high tech, with touch screens on the platforms to help plan your journey and find restaurants above ground. Everything has been surprisingly cheap too; the most expensive meal we had was no more than £7 per person, and that was for a feast. I’ll write more on Seoul when we return here in a week, but now we must say farewell to our friends and hop on a flight to Jeju island, off the south coast, where we hope to find some relaxation.

We decided to take our third day in Seoul a little slower, and headed to the shopping district of Insadong. The area is a long pedestrianised street full of shops, traditional tea houses and restaurants. We set out first exploring the surrounding park, with a colourful pavilion.

Drifting from ceramic shop to art gallery/shop was fun and relaxing, and there’s probably a few things here we’ll buy at the end of our trip. We found a great little place for lunch serving a fantastic Bibimbap. This is a traditional cheap Korean affair, often vegetarian, which is hard to come by in a country of meat eaters. A large bowl of rice is topped with a selection of vegetables and usually a fried egg too, served with side dishes such as Kimchi, pickled beansprouts and radishes. Super delicious.

A short walk further up the road we dived down a one of the many side streets, passing steaming dumpling stalls and tiny restaurants. We found a gem of a tea shop, a real treat and break from the busyness of the streets outside. I had an amazing chrysanthemum tea, sat back and took the place in. The walls are covered in writing and letters from previous guests. Birds chirping in the corner and quiet music playing. My idea of heaven.

In the evening a few more of the wedding guests arrived and we headed to the university district of town for more hotpot and a walk around the bright lights of the shopping district. It seems that the place comes alive at night.

The following evening was to be the wedding reception, but we had time before that to fit in a tour to the JSA, the hardest to see and most tense part of the DMZ. South Koreans themselves have to go through several months of vetting and background checks before being permitted to do this. Our hosts had brilliantly organised this before our arrival in the country. The Joint Security Area is a small circle of land spanning the border and controlled by the UN. Essentially there are a number of negotiation and meeting buildings that span the border, with tables inside that also span the border, so that meetings can take place whilst the officials are still technically in their own countries.

We again boarded the tour bus, not quite knowing what to expect. Upon reaching the militarised area a South Korean soldier boarded the bus and handed out visitor badges (so the North Korean soldiers know not to shoot – how kind). It was around this point that we felt as if we had stepped into a time machine and been transported back to the Cold War. We were shown a briefing of how to behave in the JSA, including walking in a line, not pointing, and not making any gestures to the North Korean guards. Still, there are some dumb tourists around, so this is pretty necessary.

We were marched onto a military bus and driven to the JSA. As we walked out of the large multi-storey building into the blinding sunlight we saw the three blue buildings before us. Many tourists don’t get this far, as on some days tensions are too high, meetings are taking place, or North Korean soldiers are occupying the meeting rooms. We were lucky – the tour the day before had to turn back but we were permitted in for just a couple of minutes.

As you can see I was able to get a picture or two of a North Korean guard through the window, and we were all permitted to stand on the North Korean side of the table.

So technically speaking I have been to the North, albeit in a UN-controlled disputed territory. Here is photo proof…

Soon we were out of the building and back on the terrace, with an unnervingly large number of North Koreans in khaki peering down at us from their high view point. I must admit they looked a lot more relaxed than us. There were also a few tourists up there taking pictures, as you can actually take guided tours of the North if entering from Russia or China.

We were then taken to the obligatory gift shop full of some wonderful trash tourist products, which were going down very well with the Japanese tourists. After re-boarding our bus we were taken to he bridge of no return, where prisoners of war and others have been exchanged across the border in the past. There’s also a rail bridge spanning the river flats heading into the North. Here there is a shared industrial area in the North where South Korean companies have been permitted to hire cheap North Korean labour, and the train line is used to ferry the permitted South Korean businesspeople back and forth. It all feels a very unlikely relationship.

That evening after a very quick change of clothing we headed to Seoul’s Park Hyatt for the wedding reception. We were treated to a slap up meal, and it was great to celebrate Kathryn and Alex’s marriage since they held their small ceremony in the US at the tail end of last year. The hotel commanded a high view point over the town, and as darkness set in I was able to to get some great shots over the city.

Last week we hopped on another short flight to Amsterdam Schipol from Edinburgh, but this time headed east instead of west. We have 17 days away this time in South Korea. Our friends Kathryn and Alex were having their wedding reception in the capital Seoul, and we decided to make a slightly longer trip of the small country.

South Korea is one of the lesser-traveled countries in Asia, but having visited Japan six years ago it has been high on my list for some time, and a wedding is a good excuse to make the 11-hour trip east. At the time of getting on the flight we were both exhausted. Having returned from Peru two weeks prior, we had since gone back to a hectic work schedule, moved house, and both shaken off bugs that we had picked up in Peru.

We were met at Seoul’s very impressive Incheon airport by our friends who took us to their family’s apartment where we would be staying for the next week. We arrived early in the day, and after an early meet up for dumpling soup we both crashed for a nap, reemerging for an outing with the other six to one of the most bizarre eating experiences I have come across: a live squid restaurant.

We arrived at a street of fish restaurants, each with sets of fish tanks outside their front doors. Some contained fish, but most were full of fist sized grey octopus or squid. The restaurant is a sit on the floor affair like many to come, shoes left at the door. Luckily we have Alex with us to order… Or perhaps not so lucky, as the first dish to arrive was a plate of finely chopped raw squid, its tentacles still squirming. A few of the guys tried it, but I decided to give it a miss. However, I did try the next dish to arrive, a live squid soup. The waitress headed outside, plucked a handsome fellow from the tank and dunked it into a cold soup, that was then placed on the table in front of us on a burner, where we watched it slowly give up, and was then chopped up. It was pretty tasty alongside the broth.

The following day we were up early to take a guided tour of the DMZ, the tense border region between North and South Korea. This was to be the first of two trips to the area, this one covering three sites. As we entered the DMZ the chatter on the bus died down, even the nattering of the Japanese tourists up front. There is a definite uneasiness about entering a military area. In case you hadn’t guessed, the demilitarised zone is in fact very highly militarised. South Korea has watchmen all down the border, and the main roads leading back to Seoul are equipped with tank barriers that can be moved into place at very short notice should the North invade.

Bizarrely, our first stop was a brand new modern train station, in the middle of the DMZ. This station was built in 2002 by the South Koreans in the hope that one day the countries may be unified and one could take the train from Seoul all the way to London. It might be wishful thinking, but I for one would love to make that journey. The station is deserted and serves as nothing more than a very expensively built tourist site. You can pay 50p for a fake ticket to go down to the platform, but I passed. The departures board has trains up, all marked as delayed, and the station sports a fantastic bathroom and waiting room. Whether this is propaganda or genuine hope is anyone’s guess, but the station serves as an eerie introduction.

Next we moved on to a viewpoint, also used by the military. From here we could see far down across the demarcation line and into North Korea. Here, there are a couple of uninhabited propaganda villages built by the North, along with the world’s largest flag on the world’s largest flagpole. It is HUGE, and at a distance of two or three miles, the North Korean colours are clearly visible. Unfortunately I don’t have much in the way of photos here, as we were restricted to taking photos some 15-20 feet away from the wall. We did have a peek through the binoculars, though; the land is barren after much of the tree life has been used for firewood or simply removed.

Our third stop was to ‘the third tunnel’, not an Orson Wells thriller, but something much more sinister. During the seventies the South Koreans discovered four tunnels that the North were digging to spring a surprise invasion. The third of these now has a funicular railway to the bottom, some seventy metres beneath the granite bedrock. Again, we were not permitted to take any photos here, but after the claustrophobic journey down we were able to walk within several metres of the border underneath the closed-off land mine areas of the DMZ. The tunnels are now blocked off, but they serve as a reminder of how sinister the relationship is between these neighbours.

Finally we stopped off at a tourist area just outside of the DMZ with shops, restaurants etc. Here there are thousands of prayer ribbons tied to the barbed wire fences by South Koreans, most wishing for reunification.

There’s also a fantastic old steam train that has fallen way beyond disrepair. This was used around the time of the Korean war to transfer prisoners and others between the two sides. At the time the countries were split many families were left torn between the two sides, and unfortunately for many people in both countries this means they never got to see their parents or children again.

After our long day we hit the town with the now large group of globetrotting wedding guests. First a huge spread of pork and chicken hot pots, cooked on the table, with a typical Korean affair of tonnes of kimchi and other side dishes. Karaoke followed, where I made a terrible hash of Tenacious D, and a crazy gay bar after. We headed back exhausted from the day’s endeavours and jet lag.