Seoul: Of side dishes and side streets

There is a charming place this side of Seoul called Insadong which is the traditional street of Korea.The whole street is lined with shophouses that sells souvenirs and antiques, quaint tea houses and restaurants and posh and modern art galleries. 

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Seoul: Before The Enemy Line

Contrary to the title of this post is the term "Beyond the enemy line" which means that you are in the enemy's territory, there is a particular experience that you have to include when you visit Seoul which is basically (in my own words) - is 'Before the enemy line'. No need to be alarmed and think that this is a highly specialized tour because it is actually one of the "must do" when paying a visit in South Korea. This is more popularly known as the DMZ tour. 

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Seoul: Changing of the Guards - Asian Style

When you hear the phrase “Changing of the Guards”, what comes to mind are guards in red military shirts marching in front of the Buckingham Palace. Now let’s change that picture and go nearer into a country in Northeast of Asia where you can find chinky-eyed men in traditional garb doing the “Changing of the Guards” ceremony in the land of Samsung appliances – South Korea!

Be transported into the Korea of the Joseon Dynasty as you watch a re-enactment of the ceremony of the Royal Guard Changing Ceremony in front of the ground of Seoul’s famous palace which is the Gyeongbokgung Palace. There are two ceremony that lasts for 20 minutes and additional four more ceremony that lasts for 7 minutes. Men wearing colorful traditional Korean clothing will come marching into the front of the palace grounds accompanied with the beat of the drum. The men will parade and conduct the ceremony of changing the sentry duty.  As a tourist most of the time one can get preoccupied snapping the souvenir photos here and there, my advice snap some few shots of the actual ceremony and just observe and soak in the experience since after the ceremony you will have a lot of time to get up close with the “guards” for you take your souvenir photos.Once the ceremony is finished the new sentries will stay for quite some time and they can be approached (but I think you cannot touch them – I’m not sure though because I never dared to touch them) and photographed.

If you are pressed for time or you just want to explore one palace in Seoul, Gyeongbokgung will be your best bet.

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Place: Gyeongbokgung Palace

How to get There: Take the Metro to Gyeongbokgung Station – take Exit 5

Special note: Gyeongbokgung station is like a metro station/mini museum as there are small exhibits displayed within the station.

Operating Hours: 9am – 6pm : Wed to Mon,   9am – 7pm: Sat to Sun

Schedule of Changing of the Guards: 10 am and 3 pm (20 mins. ceremony), 11am,12nn,1pm,2pm (7 mins.ceremony)

Fees: Watching of the Changing of the Guards – none

Palace entrance – 3000 KRW

Disclaimer: Fees and schedule as of March 2010

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Seoul: Fusion Of Modernity and Antiquity

One of the remarkable thing I noticed about Seoul is the fusion of the old and new. Seoul being a bustling metropolitan is teeming with high rise buildings and remarkable architectural contructions but it still retains the richness of its heritage as several palaces are located beside these modern structures. There is no need to go out of Seoul to have a cultural experience, there are already several grandiose palaces that you can visit within the city.

Blast from Past

Right after we deposited our bags and settled our arrangements with the hostel, we headed to Changdeokgung Palace to catch the morning schedule for the palace tour.This palace can only be visited via a guided tour. We are just in time for the first English tour of the day which is at 11:30 am. The tour ran for roughly an hour and 30 minutes. Changdeokgung Palace is the second palace of the Joseon dynasty after the more popular and grander Gyeongbukgong Palace.

Palace Roof

We were ushered into the huge and sprawling courtyards and intricate palace rooms.One special feature of this palace is the Secret Garden but too bad with all this weather anomalies,spring has not yet caught up during the last week of March.So it was just bare trees and dried grass but I’m imagining that it will be very beautiful and colorful during autumn as the color of the foliage changes.

Changdeokgung Palace

CHANGDEOKGUNG PALACE

How to get there: Take Line 3 to An-guk Station – Exit 3
Tour Schedule: 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Admission Fee: 3,000 KRW (Adults)
Note: Can only be visited via guided tour
Closed Every Monday

Back to the Future

If Singapore got Orchard Road, Manila got Ayala/Greenbelt, New York got Fifth Avenue and Japan got Shibuya well Seoul got Myeongdong from brands to local bazaars they got it all just like SM. Myeongdong is one of the shopping district in Seoul and it is teeming with locals and tourists. Shopping centres and boutiques lined the whole street and makeshift mobile carts littered the streets selling optical glass frames (at dirt cheap prices and funky style), korean made shoes, bags and accessories, every conceivable styles and colors of socks (I just can’t understand the fascination with the socks) and of course street foods ranging from dried squid to chicken wraps – one can indeed shop til you drop.

Myeongdong

If you are looking for Korean facial product shops, Myeongdong is your one stop place. It seems like this particular place has a very high concentration of these facial product shops.An almost permanent fixture in the entrance of these facial shops are young Korean women waving product samples, handling small shopping baskets and urging you to go into their shops with their high pitched singsong voice

If you are a koreanovela fanatic and wishes to copy their ‘fasyon’ (fashion) statement, head to Migliore which is several floors of uniquely Korean apparel at an affordable price.It is very similar to our 168 in Divisoria but the prices are higher but the merchandise are of better quality and style. Don’t be afraid to haggle even if you are a tourist but do so in a nice manner, I was personally able to get a discount for my purchases by flashing my charming smile and saying the few korean phrases I know courtesy of Lonely Planet’s chapter on korean phrases.But if you are a brand-whore and would want to get some stuff from these high class stores, you can head to Lotte department store.

Looking to have a shopping fix of an authentic South Korean brands – the answer is  SPAO which has floors and floors of retail galore. SPAO is like South Korea’s answer to Japan’s Uniqlo. Clothes are of high quality and affordable price. Check out the Sale items because you might just get that elusive tailored white shirt at 50% discount. And if your a K-Pop fan, they have merchandise for two famous K-Pop singing group sensations which are the Girls Generation and Superstar Junior.Other stores you can checkout are Uniqlo and H&M. Though during the time we went there, H&M has just opened so there is queue to get in during the weekend but weekday should be less crowded.

Free Hugs, Anyone?

MYEONGDONG
How to get there: take the subway there is a Myeongdong station

Our first day has been a full-packed day from getting lost in translation to a cultural experience in the Changdeokgung Palace and finally capping it with a retail therapy at Myeongdong.

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Seoul: Getting In and Around Seoul

Visiting non-English speaking countries is usually done by getting package tours so as not to bother with the communication.But being a non-fan of the package tour travel type, I have opted to do a DIY for South Korea because of one key reason and that is the extensive subway system that they have. I have this personal belief that if there’s a good public transport system, one can definitely do a DIY travel.And what better way to immerse yourself in the country but in these public trains and buses instead of being confined inside a tourist bus and herded left and right by the tourist guide.

You can get a copy of the Seoul Metro map or you can also print it from their website (http://www.smrt.co.kr/Eng/index.jsp) .Most travel guide books like Lonely Planet and Frommer’s have a pullout section for the metro map.

There are two options for your fare ticket: Single trip or a Reloadable Transport Card. The single trip card can purchased in the ticketing machines in the station before you ride the train. Single trip ticket charges more compared to the reloadable card since there is a 100 KRW discount given for reloadable/prepaid cards.

I encountered two types of Relodable Transport card in Seoul – the T-Money and U-Pass.You can use both of them for riding the subway and buses. But the T-Money can also be used to pay for taxi fares, convenience store and other establishments that accepts T-Money.Basically, T-Money is a cashless debit card that a Seoulite can use for transport and other purchases.Both have a card fee that is not refundable. You can purchase T-Money in the subways stations it’s like a vendo type ticket machine. Purchasing direction has an English translation so again no need to worry over that language barrier. On another note, if you will go to the Incheon airport terminal (which connects to Gimpo airport) – this terminal only sells U-Pass (as of March 2010).You can only  use the U-Pass for train and bus rides.You need to tap the transport card into the card reader above the entry gates so you can go inside the station.

U Pass

T Money

Subway map, Transport card, good sense of direction and an attitude of adventure is your definite key to doing a DIY tour in South Korea even if you don’t know any smattering of korean language.

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Seoul: Almost Getting Lost In Translation

The hostel that we booked gave us a very comprehensive (when I say comprehensive it is literally a step by step guide) of transportation mode that we can take from Incheon International Airport to Seoul. We were given three options: By Subway, By Bus (Airport bus service), By Taxi. Taxi is definitely out of the option because Seoul’s taxi fare doesn’t come cheap and the airport is about an hour drive to Seoul which translates to expensive. Subway is also a good option but we need to transfer stations but this means lugging our suitcase during train transfers. Among the three taking the Airport Bus service is the best option to take: fare is reasonable at a flat rate of 9,000 KRW, No carrying of luggages and No transferring of trains. There is not much difference in travel time since this is an airport service the stops is fewer than the usual city bus routes.

Obviously we have made a choice – Bus service is it, anyway according to our hostel owner the bus announces the stop names in English so there will be no problem in the possibility of missing our stop. What could possibly go wrong. We just need to make sure that we boarded the correct bus number, hand our luggages to the driver and take our seats and doze off for 30-45 minutes…and that is what we thought.

We did get on to the correct bus but we should have taken the error in reading of our u-pass card as an omen of things to come. Prior to queing in the bus stops outside the airport’s arrival area we purchase the u-pass card in the airport’s train station and loaded it up with enough money value since we will be using it for paying the airport bus. Actually all this time we thought the u-pass card is the t-money because according to my research, Seoul’s transport system used this “smart money” device for paying the fare. Since we cannot find reloadable cards except for the u-pass we thought that this is already the t-money card(more on this on a future post).Once we boarded the bus, we tapped the u-pass card into the card reader and we got an error. I tried tapping three times but to no avail, by this time the driver is already frustrated and he was saying something in Korean which of course I didn’t understand even a single word.With panic written all over my face, I rummaged through my bag to just pay in cash but I was having trouble finding my purse and the driver was now getting more frustrated. My friend noticed this and she was able to hand me a 10,000 KRW note that I hurriedly slipped into the cash slot. Wheew, definitely not a good start.

With almost 45 minutes travel time and coming from a red eye flight, I dozed off after the bus pulled out from the airport. I awoke when I heard the stops announcement, after about two stops – we noticed  that the bus will onlystop when someone presses the stop button. So we were very alert to make sure we won’t miss it when our stop is announced.Until it is just us and a group Korean women were the ones left in the bus  when we had this doubt that there is a big possibility that we missed our stop.My friend asked the driver by saying our stop which is “Sungkyunkwan” – the driver took out our luggage and said just one word “taxi”. It might be the lack of proper sleep, the coldness of the air or the utter shock of forcing us out of the bus and telling us to take a taxi – that the only thing I was able to do was to stand in the sidewalk and look helpless as the bus sped down the street. I still cannot comprehend how we can miss our stop when we were definitely listening to the stop announcements – I just had this feeling that the driver cannot understand us  and just wants us off his back so he dropped us in this place that we don’t even know the street name.

Now the great dilemma, where do we walk? to the right,left or straight? As we scanned around the area we noticed that there is a staircase heading towards the Metro just in the corner of the street. Hope at last! but there is no elevator or escalator just this glorious gray staircase which means literally carrying and lugging our suitcase up and down through the subway. We checked the station where we are and it was just the same line as the nearest metro station of our hostel. Finally, after 2900 miles of air travel, one hour bus ride, half an hour of aimless wandering in looking for a metro line, half an hour of figuring out the Metro and actual train ride and half an hour of walking and getting lost along Hyewhadong – we have arrived in our home away from home and are ready to start off our Seoul Searching.

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Seoul: Seoul Searching

The Challenge is to do a DIY in a non English speaking East Asian country.  Three choices arose – Japan, South Korea and China.  I was finally won over by the spiciness of the kimchi and the allure of the koreanovelas – so it was off to South Korea. But before hitting all those Lonely Planet guides and internet forums, I was off to the South Korean Embassy to apply for my travel visa. I collated all the required documents and submitted it to the consulate. All documents and visa application guidelines can be found in the website of the Korean embassy (http://embassy_philippines.mofat.go.kr/eng/as/embassy_philippines/main/index.jsp).

There is a 3 working days wait period before they can release the result (approved or denied) but as a Philippine passport holder, Korean visa is considered as Gratis meaning we don’t have to pay for the visa application for a stay of until 59 days.

Once I got my visa approval, I scoured the internet forums, travel blogs and Lonely Planet guide.I would recommend Lonely Planet’s Korea guide – which was of great help in preparing our itinerary and it also has a good list of recommended places to eat and hostels to stay. Additionally, Lonely Planet has an extensive list of Korean phrases that you can use when the communication gets though. Pinoyexchange’s forum on South Korea is also a treasure throve of recommendations and tips but you got to backread through the hundred plus pages. Buhaykorea.com which is a blog of a Filipina Seoulite also has some travel related posts regarding Seoul but what I appreciate more are the stories on how a Pinay is living and raising a family in Seoul. On another note, Buhaykorea also has a very extensive blogposts on the cosmetic market of Korea which you women can hoard during your trip. If you want to couch-travel and see Seoul virtually, www.lasnoches.multiply.com has ‘takes your breath away’ travel photos.

One thing I learned, an extensive research and a good subway/train system are your tickets for survival in a Non English speaking DIY tour.

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