korea recap pt1

Hey everyone!

I just had lunch after my second last lecture at hku, and I've got nothing to do for an hour or so.  I don't exactly have much work (or not that I know of) so I thought I might as well create a new blog post.

As you probably already know, I went with four good friends to Korea about a week ago.  We went for four days, and what a good four days it was!  We left Hong Kong on Thursday evening, and got to Incheon International Airport that night.  It was quite similar to Hong Kong International Airport in the sense that it was very clean and modern:

  They had a rent-a-phone service there which was quite brilliant- much easier than buying a sim card and all that!  From there we took an "airport limousine", which was actually just a bus, into the city centre and near where our hotel was.

From what I could see from my seat, Seoul was pretty much what you would expect- clean, modern and high tech, with people for the most part being impeccably fashionable.  This feeling would persist for the entire trip; indeed I can't recall seeing a single badly dressed Korean!  At a bus stop there was a hilarious scene where there was a young couple.  The guy was being very nice, getting on his knees to adjust the woman's scarf while she was sitting.  However, she was unhappy about something and was hitting him on the shoulder, albeit not very hard.  The whole scene looked like something from a TV drama!

We got off the bus and eventually found our bearings.  Having google mapped where the location was we were fairly confident of locating the hotel.  After making our way towards the place indicated on the map, we found nothing at all- it was all a small residential area!  The place was dark (it was around 1am) and incredibly sketchy looking.  When walking into the alleyway where the hotel was meant to be, I was very nervous and on edge- I had my fist clenched ready to punch anyone who might think about jumping me.  When I heard a bicycle rolling in and I was scared out of my wits!

We eventually took a taxi to the hotel after a nice young couple helped us locate where the hotel actually was (never trust google maps too much, folks).  The plan was to sleep in two rooms, 3 people in one and 2 in the other, but the other room smelt strongly of cigarette smoke.  The solution? Take a mattress from the room, drag it into the tiny lift, go down two floors to the other room and dump it on the ground :D  The triple room could actually sleep four people so that meant that now we could all sleep in the same room which was nice.

The next day, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which in some respects was similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, but smaller and with a less ridiculous amount of rooms.  It was a really nice place, more so because they seemed to spend a lot of effort into creating a good experience.  The paint detail looked incredibly sharp and fresh, and at the main gate they had authentic looking guards, in complete attire and various weapons and flags.  The palace gardens were very beautiful, with a mix of green, yellow and red trees.

We got chicken soup at what was reportedly the best place in Seoul.  One of my friends knew a local, who recommended us the place.  The soup was full of goodies, like chicken (obviously), rice, ginseng and various herbs.  I also got my first taste of kimchi, the fermented cabbage.  Having heard others in Hong Kong talk about kimchi, I had some trepidation about it, but I was pleasantly surprised!  The taste is quite difficult to describe- it was sour, but also sweet and spicy too.

Afterwards we met up with my friend's Korean friend, who took us around the Hongdae area, which is popular with the youth of Seoul for its entertainment, clubs and karaoke.  There was plenty of street food around, but we ate only a little.  This was because we knew there was a Korean barbecue around the corner!  We went to a pretty famous place, where numerous celebrities have eaten; among the names were Park Ji Sung, Patrice Evra (Manchester United players) and Jason Mraz.


The food itself was great- juicy pork belly combined with vege leaves and various sauces, as well as korean style egg, which is very light and fluffy.  After wandering around the streets and listening to a very good busker (who smoked, like a lot of Korean youth), we decided to head to a Karaoke.  It was my first time at a proper karaoke place, but the combination of good friends and good music put me not only at ease but made me a keen, off key participant.  

The Cheonggyecheon stream which runs through Seoul is quite unique in that it is about 5 metres below street level.  There was a Lantern festival at the stream, which despite the rain was a nice spectacle.  After this we split up: those who wanted to go clubbing and those that didn't.  I was in the latter group, thus maintaining my no-club record, but it is one I slightly regret after hearing about how fun it was!

Alright, its time to go and you're all probably sick of listening to me ramble on.  I'll try to fill in the rest of the Korea trip in another post!