Around Seoul

Today Bo and I went around Seoul for the day. Originally my plan was to go to Expo today and tomorrow, but I decided to cancel those plans and stay here in Seoul instead. Good decision! (I probably would have been standing in a lineup, in the sun, all day at Expo anyway).

Today we saw so much that Seoul has to offer. Here's a quick summary of the places we visited:


Insadong ("-dong" means town or neighbourhood) - This place is a trendy shopping street. Lots of little boutique shops and handmade stuff. Lots of Korean ware too (i.e. "I love Korea" shirts, Korean flags, Korean stage masks, Korean fans, Celadon pottery, chopsticks, etc.)

Insadong

Bo and I living it up Korean royalty style

Myeongdong (Mee-yong- dong) - This place is Robson street in high gear. Loads of brand name shops and food carts (Bo made me try some dumplings (like Japanese gyoza) and another fish-on-a-stick type thing). Also lots of people and tourists (and I don't mean white tourists, I mean Chinese or Japanese). There are hawkers who will try and pull you in to their shop with flashy coupons and sales pitches. Bo said some of the salespeople can speak Japanese or Chinese but not even Korean :)

Myeongdong

Seoul Metro - This thing is quite something. First of all, it's as long as a Canadian coal train and carries a million people. The ride is smooth and surprisingly fast. Then again, it's all underground. In order to get on, you take the stairs underground and then you tap your passcard (reloadable at convenience stores) on the turnstile, which lets you into the fare paid zone. Then, you can go anywhere you want, and tap your card on the turnstile on your way out. In other words, you pay by distance, instead of by time. The subway system is incredibly inexpensive too, it costs less than two dollars to go from one end of a line to the other (i.e. the length of the Expo or Millenium line). The system is not driverless, but there is a wall of doors separating people from the train track (My guess is to prevent suicides).

Jongno-gu (I think that's the name...) - We were looking for the KT Olleh store (a Korean wireless provider) in this area so I could buy a SIM card for my phone and get hooked up to service in Korea. Unfortunately, when we got to the store, the agent said they don't do activations on weekends.

We had Posam here, sitting on the floor, Korean style

So exotic

Gwanghwamun (I'm not sure what "gwanghwa" means, but "mun" means door. It must be talking about a gate, because "Dongdaemun" means: east ("dong" (pronounce the "o" as in ocean)), big "dae", door "mun".
Either way, this place is close to the "blue house" (take on the White House), which is the residence of the president, Lee Myung Bak, and some sort of large museum. There were some people protesting today, so the police were keeping them under control with white gloves. There's also two statues in the plaza. One is of King Sejong, who was the inventor of the Korean script, Hangul, and the other is of I-Sun-Shin, a Korean soldier.

King Sejong in front of Dongdaemun

Mr. Donut - Korea has TONS of coffee shops and donut shops. Nothing as homey or traditional as Tim Horton's though, but a lot of shiny, glossy, modern establishments like Mr. Donut, Krispy Kreme, and Dunkin Donuts.

Cheonggyecheon Stream (sounds like chung-ee-chun) - When president Lee Myung Bak was mayor of Seoul, he wanted to make a legacy project, so he made it his goal to restore this stream that used to flow through Seoul. Since it was covered up by building and roads, he made it possible to carve a new path for the stream through the city. Now, they filter water from the Han river into downtown Seoul and have this awesome semi-river that you can wade in. In fact, there were loads of people there tonight, sitting on the banks and cooling their feet in the water. It really adds to the nightlife here.

Very likely my most favourite place in Seoul

I took this photo for Amanda

Bo looks pensive

I'm transfixed by the sight of a waterfall in downtown Seoul

Now, some cultural observations:

Koreans love to shop. I'm getting the impression that Korea has a bit of a disposable mentality towards consumption. Almost everything is inexpensive here, but it seems like it's either of low-quality, or you would buy it, only to throw it away later on. I mean, people are selling stuff every time you turn around. The hallways of the subway stations are lined with shops selling baubles and novelties (lots of t-shirts, stockings, and cell-phone cases) and there are ajummas (old women) and ajoshii (old men) peddling their wares on towels laid out on the floor. It actually reminded me of Ukraine a little bit, what with the rampant smoking and tired-faced people manning their booths.

Korea is brand-crazy. These are some of the foreign brands that have set up shop in Korea: Subway, Kinko's, KFC, McDonalds (for some reason they call it "bekdonald" here), Dunkin Donuts, Outback Steakhouse, Lush, American Apparel, Pizza Hut, Burger King, French supermarket chain Carrefour, Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, IBM, Forever 21, H&M, and of course, Apple.

Korea is obsessed with cosmetics. Almost every 3rd shop you see here is a cosmetics store.

The way Koreans build shops and things reminds me of castle-city planning. The reason so many of England's streets are so narrow and weirdly-angled is because of the number of castles. You could only build so far within a castle wall, and they didn't have civic planners like they do now. In Korea, not a single nook or cranny is left to empty space. Today we walked by several incredibly narrow shops (one shop was only wide enough for two chairs to be placed side-by-side), and several narrow staircases leading to restaurants or clubs.

Korean businesses aren't as regulated as Canadian businesses. Not once did I see a licence to serve food displayed on any food cart, and there are several businesses around that rip off trademarks. The "CNN Cafe" was a blatant one, as well as "YMCA" (office building), and "YBM" (same styling as IBM).

Jetlag is getting to me. Good night :)