02 - A Little Bit Of Seoul
Trip Start
Dec 17, 2007
1
2
9
Trip End
Jan 08, 2008
Seoul, South Korea,
Korea Rep.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Explored the war museum, which was spectacular but extremely sad - viewed all the Korean war exhibits; officially, Korea is still at war and smaller cities still have monthly air-raid tests. They had an interesting fountain in one of their main memory rooms - a small prism in the domed ceiling allowed daylight to shine directly on the centre of the bowl.
It is currently Thursday morning and I have been out shopping for a small backpack; found one for $5
00-Hi Seoul
. The food is inexpensive here and restaurants are everywhere (also no tipping, which is an insult). A Starbucks' coffee is more expensive than a full multi-course local meal; in general, it is as cheap to eat out as buying and cooking your own meals.Explored Deoksugung Palace which has neat buildings with traditional Asian construction. Also toured the National Museum of Art featuring Po Kim's paintings (exhibit named "With Agonies, With Joys") which was pretty interesting viewing the influence of western painters on his creations -- I did not like his later stuff as much (more like Picasso's late life crisis for money).
Joined prayers at Jogyesa temple (visited both the main and side "chapels"?) - a friendly worshiper even brought me a prayer mat. Did a two hour spin around city on a bus -- Seoul is huge with ten plus million people, double that if you include the immediate suburbs. Their Metro is fabulous with 10 lines (about a five hundred stations) and it is extremely cheap to use (about a dollar a ride).
The spicy stew dinners over past couple of days have been scrumptious; cooking them on your table is even more fun. Also, I have utilized a BBQ on the table to grill meat and veggies - you use lettuce and sesame leaves (yum) to make little sandwiches
01-First Seoul view
. After drinking until close to three in the morning (the kids kept on going), I had a leisurely day strolling along their scenic mid-city stream and shopping in huge markets where one can buy almost anything - say turtles for soup and all sorts of artisan wares. Tidbits:
- Cellphones are phenominal in Korea; they even work while on their subway trains and in the middle of nowhere (e.g. on top of mountains and in the valleys) -- their service is far superior to what we have in Canada and much cheaper as well.
- Everyone has a mobile phone and text messaging seems to be their favourite pastime when riding the Metro.
- Small displacement (100-250cc) mopeds and motorbikes are everywhere; riders even use sidewalks, pedestrian crosswalks and it's legal to white-line.
- Public transportation is a bargain -- a dollar (equivalent) for the bus/metro and usually less than five dollars to get to anywhere in the city by cab. Long haul trains and buses are also bargain priced (test them out starting tomorrow).
- Nearly everyone works for themselves here; they also seem to put in very long hours.
- Shopping for consumers is simple here since like stores are next to each other.
