I couldn't tell you why exactly I felt the need to travel to Korea. Korea is just one of those countries that you know exists, but you couldn't really tell it aprart from any other asain nation, nor name a city other than Seoul generally... While I was in the Tokyo Orientation way back a girl was talking about all the places in Asia that she had visited... South Korea came up in the list... It seemed beautiful, and the cost of living looked low, and you didn't need a visa to go, and for some reason, I was instantly interested in going...
It didn't take much to get a plan formed... Andy is always up for travelling... we got back to Japan about 3 days ago, and he is already planning his next trip... and before you know it, we had 2 tickets booked. When else are you gonna be able to fly to Korea for 300 bucks? We took 3 days of nenkyu (paid vacation) and we were off...
The trip began with D and I runing to make the epress train to Tokyo from Itakura... we slightly underestimated the distance from the parking to the station and ended up powerwalking to make the train...
but we made it, and 3 or so hours and 2 trains later we were at Tokyo Narita Airport. We were extactic to find a big boy in the airport and made a quick lunch there. That might sound strange to you all back home, but trust me, when you live here, the big boy is a real treat...
D and his buddy, the Big Boy
The flight boarded smoothly and the whole flight was only 2 hours. It was really the first flight I had taken that wasnt a gaint 12+ hour flight... quite pleasant to fly... Once we arrived we caught a bus (last one for the night... we made it with 5 mins to spare...) and headed into Seoul. They misuderstood our destination and kicked us off the bus at the wrong place, but we managed to make it by subway easy enough... we took the subway to City hall station and navigated by eye to the hotel, which is in the central downtown area...
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| As you can see, the hotel room was clean and nice. Not the nicest place I had ever stayed, but the area can be beat. Furthur evidence that I am far from home, here is the hotel bible, in English and Korean (Hangul). | |
We took a few minutes to settle in and change quckly. We were both really hungry, and I had read that some of the markets were open at night and that you could "sample the local food from small vendors..." That sounded like just the way to satisfy our hunger, so we headed off. I figured it would be about a 10 minute walk, and it was probably a few mins less... The two major markets in Seoul are called Namdeamun (south gate) and Dongdeamun (east gate). They are built around the remaining 2 gates from the old city wall. The south gate, (closest to our hotel) is actually national treasure #1. When we arrived, some locals were getting out of a cab, one of them stopped to yell, "WELCOME TO KOREA" in really good English. It certainly left a good impression.
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There it is, Namdeamun, the greatest single national treasure of Korea, or course it is under construction, and that stupid tent is blocking the main passage. It sits in a main area traffic circle, surrounded by 4 lanes of traffic, unapproachable on foot...Thank goodness for the zoom lense and the night shot... |
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We then headed into the market to sample the local fare at one of the many "resturants". By resturants I mean small stalls made of beach umbreallas and Duct tape barely able to support the weight of their own walls. By walls I mean Plastic sheeting. There are dozens of these all around the market area, and they are popular, delicious and cheap. Armed with no real ability to speak, we had to default to the universal language of pointing and grunting... Worked well enough though, and before long we were old hats at the filthy stall game... |
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Mmmm... fish, squids, meat on a stick, piles of unidentifiable foods... all having been out in open air all day... we'll take 2! We sampled quite a few stalls during our stay, and our favorite picked up and moved eventually, making this one, and this particular stall lady our fav... Trust me, when she smiles, she is actually really nice... |
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| Standard Filthy stall fare... Steamed mussels and coke... we dont know what this pizza like thingy was, but it was really gritty and good, and you dip it in some unknown sauce... The mussles are so fresh you can smell the ocean in em... | |
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| Me and D stop for a beer, and to enjoy the plastic ambiance... | |
| Namdeamun Market proper... tons of twisting alleys and roads filled with cheap fashion, food, leather goods, hats, umbrellas, and just about anything else you want... People pack and swarm around the only trafic being the heavily burdened motorcycles that zip precariously through the crowds with helmetless riders... |  |