seoul
Korea has been lovely so far. I'm completely beat at the moment, but it's a rare opportunity to use the internet for a period longer than five minutes, so I'm taking advantage of it.
After a couple of very long flights and a layover in Dubai (which is not really 'on the way' to Korea, but Emirates had the cheapest fare by far), we made it here. The drunk across the isle from me on the first leg was almost the cause of a wee riot just before landing. He'd been gone most of the flight, apparently throwing back every ounce of alcohol he could get his hands on, because by the time he'd come back to his seat for landing he'd pissed off a good number of people with his cursing and, evidently, name-calling. Accusations were tossed back and forth across the cabin, with the stewardess finally pleading for everyone to just sit down so we could land. I was really hoping for an exciting arrest when we landed, but no dice.
Friday we visited one of the many palaces in the city (I will edit this and name them another time) and spent a bit of time discovering the subway and other things. While, of course, most signs are in Korean, the subway is very user-friendly for international users. All important signs have their Korean words spelled out in their Latin characters as well, and stops are also marked with numbers in case you need further assistance. The floors on the platforms are marked where the doors will open (and little signs put to each side to show where you should queue), and each station also has a map of all of the stations for the line you're on, indicating the number of minutes away each station is. (okay, I'd never have figured out what those numbers were for on my own. I admit I had help from a local there!)
In fact, locals have been amazingly helpful here. Before our first subway ride, I knew I wanted to purchase a T-money card, similar to the Oyster card in London, which allows the rider to put money on the card and just wave it over the turnstile when entering and exiting the stations. In addition, it makes transferring to the bus seamless, and free (assuming you get to the bus within 30 minutes of your subway ride.)
Anyway, all of the ticket machines were in Korean characters and within a minute of my staring at the signs and machines, a man from the ticket counter came over to help. It took a while to convey what we wanted (he assumed we would just want single-journey tickets) but once we got it through he showed us where to get the cards, and how to charge them. yay!
We've had many other moments when random Koreans have stopped to make sure we were okay, usually within 20 seconds of my having the slightest hint of a confused look on my face. What I have really appreciated about this is that the people don't always speak amazing English.. they just seem to want to help, and of course, they can see we aren't from around here. Even if they can't say exactly what they want to say, they have always been able to get the point across with a few words and sign language.
On Saturday we had a local guide for the day which I'd signed up for via the Goodwill Guides program. It's organized through the official Korean tourism agency, and features volunteers who will show you around the city, to whichever bits you're interested in. You don't pay them as such, just pay for their travel expenses, entrance fees, and lunch. This turned out to be a really great idea.
We visited a few sites (another palace, a park) and when it came time for lunch, he suggested a local place which he said was very popular. There is no way we would have eaten at this place without him, as there were no signs even indicating there was a restaurant through the door we ducked into off of a busy market street. The signs were all in Korean characters, and the staff spoke no English. We took off our shoes, sat on the floor, and ordered... food. The staff were really pleased to have us there, and brought out some special dried laver leaves (sorry I'll leave you to google it) in addition to the usual selection of kimchis and condiments. I have pictures, but just one or two. We were quite popular there. The food was lovely.
Speaking of food, we walked through a few of the outdoor markets with the guide, and there was an exciting array of roasted pig parts (snout? on a stick or without? okay I'm making up the stick part..) piled around as well as more exotic items which I can't remember and honestly probably couldn't name properly even if I did.
Oh we did try some chewy salt water taffy-like candy which was made with pumpkin. I will try to get some more before we leave.
Most of these experiences have taken place with one of cookieman's co-workers, J, and her friend S. Our rooms are also beside each other at the hotel, so that's been handy for meeting up for dinner, when we want to.
Speaking of going out for dinner, though: we spent an hour looking for a stupid place I'd found in the Lonely Planet book. The area turned out to be rather trendy, densely-packed, and VERY crowded. There were many small side streets beside one another, and the dot on the map put us on.. one of them. Unfortunately, we've yet to find street signs here (and there was no address in the book even if we knew the streets we were on!) so we just gave up after a while. Crankiness had set in, and we really just wanted to eat, already. Thankfully, the place we ended up at was very good.
Today S and I visited the Olympic park while J and cookieman had their first conference day. This evening we went to an amazing Korean BBQ place. For about 7 dollars apiece, 3 of us has about the exact same meal the other 4 in the group had for 25 dollars apiece. Theirs was labeled 'set menu' and came with a beer as well. I think I'm getting the hang of the menus here.
One pervasive issue here: the air is just disgusting. When I first saw an advert on the metro for face masks, I thought, "oh, probably for germophobes or something" (I still remember planeloads of Japanese tourists putting them on during the SARS problem) but now I know better. The air was literally brown today. brown. It's been hazy since we've been here, but I was willing to dismiss it as I don't know, fog or something, since the city is stiflingly humid (for those of us exploring it on foot, anyway!) Today the brownness was obvious, though, and I wasn't the only one who noticed. ugh.
Well as usual, I've gone into too much detail on some things, and left whole sections out. Hopefully I'll get a bit more time to write another day.
I'll pre-apologize for any spelling mistakes, etc. I can't be bothered to edit this right now!
After a couple of very long flights and a layover in Dubai (which is not really 'on the way' to Korea, but Emirates had the cheapest fare by far), we made it here. The drunk across the isle from me on the first leg was almost the cause of a wee riot just before landing. He'd been gone most of the flight, apparently throwing back every ounce of alcohol he could get his hands on, because by the time he'd come back to his seat for landing he'd pissed off a good number of people with his cursing and, evidently, name-calling. Accusations were tossed back and forth across the cabin, with the stewardess finally pleading for everyone to just sit down so we could land. I was really hoping for an exciting arrest when we landed, but no dice.
Friday we visited one of the many palaces in the city (I will edit this and name them another time) and spent a bit of time discovering the subway and other things. While, of course, most signs are in Korean, the subway is very user-friendly for international users. All important signs have their Korean words spelled out in their Latin characters as well, and stops are also marked with numbers in case you need further assistance. The floors on the platforms are marked where the doors will open (and little signs put to each side to show where you should queue), and each station also has a map of all of the stations for the line you're on, indicating the number of minutes away each station is. (okay, I'd never have figured out what those numbers were for on my own. I admit I had help from a local there!)
In fact, locals have been amazingly helpful here. Before our first subway ride, I knew I wanted to purchase a T-money card, similar to the Oyster card in London, which allows the rider to put money on the card and just wave it over the turnstile when entering and exiting the stations. In addition, it makes transferring to the bus seamless, and free (assuming you get to the bus within 30 minutes of your subway ride.)
Anyway, all of the ticket machines were in Korean characters and within a minute of my staring at the signs and machines, a man from the ticket counter came over to help. It took a while to convey what we wanted (he assumed we would just want single-journey tickets) but once we got it through he showed us where to get the cards, and how to charge them. yay!
We've had many other moments when random Koreans have stopped to make sure we were okay, usually within 20 seconds of my having the slightest hint of a confused look on my face. What I have really appreciated about this is that the people don't always speak amazing English.. they just seem to want to help, and of course, they can see we aren't from around here. Even if they can't say exactly what they want to say, they have always been able to get the point across with a few words and sign language.
On Saturday we had a local guide for the day which I'd signed up for via the Goodwill Guides program. It's organized through the official Korean tourism agency, and features volunteers who will show you around the city, to whichever bits you're interested in. You don't pay them as such, just pay for their travel expenses, entrance fees, and lunch. This turned out to be a really great idea.
We visited a few sites (another palace, a park) and when it came time for lunch, he suggested a local place which he said was very popular. There is no way we would have eaten at this place without him, as there were no signs even indicating there was a restaurant through the door we ducked into off of a busy market street. The signs were all in Korean characters, and the staff spoke no English. We took off our shoes, sat on the floor, and ordered... food. The staff were really pleased to have us there, and brought out some special dried laver leaves (sorry I'll leave you to google it) in addition to the usual selection of kimchis and condiments. I have pictures, but just one or two. We were quite popular there. The food was lovely.
Speaking of food, we walked through a few of the outdoor markets with the guide, and there was an exciting array of roasted pig parts (snout? on a stick or without? okay I'm making up the stick part..) piled around as well as more exotic items which I can't remember and honestly probably couldn't name properly even if I did.
Oh we did try some chewy salt water taffy-like candy which was made with pumpkin. I will try to get some more before we leave.
Most of these experiences have taken place with one of cookieman's co-workers, J, and her friend S. Our rooms are also beside each other at the hotel, so that's been handy for meeting up for dinner, when we want to.
Speaking of going out for dinner, though: we spent an hour looking for a stupid place I'd found in the Lonely Planet book. The area turned out to be rather trendy, densely-packed, and VERY crowded. There were many small side streets beside one another, and the dot on the map put us on.. one of them. Unfortunately, we've yet to find street signs here (and there was no address in the book even if we knew the streets we were on!) so we just gave up after a while. Crankiness had set in, and we really just wanted to eat, already. Thankfully, the place we ended up at was very good.
Today S and I visited the Olympic park while J and cookieman had their first conference day. This evening we went to an amazing Korean BBQ place. For about 7 dollars apiece, 3 of us has about the exact same meal the other 4 in the group had for 25 dollars apiece. Theirs was labeled 'set menu' and came with a beer as well. I think I'm getting the hang of the menus here.
One pervasive issue here: the air is just disgusting. When I first saw an advert on the metro for face masks, I thought, "oh, probably for germophobes or something" (I still remember planeloads of Japanese tourists putting them on during the SARS problem) but now I know better. The air was literally brown today. brown. It's been hazy since we've been here, but I was willing to dismiss it as I don't know, fog or something, since the city is stiflingly humid (for those of us exploring it on foot, anyway!) Today the brownness was obvious, though, and I wasn't the only one who noticed. ugh.
Well as usual, I've gone into too much detail on some things, and left whole sections out. Hopefully I'll get a bit more time to write another day.
I'll pre-apologize for any spelling mistakes, etc. I can't be bothered to edit this right now!