Seoul report

We arrived in Seoul on Thursday morning. Flying from Yeosu was a real treat, since we got a bird's eye view of the whole country. Korea is 70% mountains - and (it seems) 20% rice paddies and 10% tall apartment buildings - and that is so evident from the air.

Once we checked in to the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel at COEX (big shopping mall), we headed out to explore the city. The Seoul subway has approximately 172 different lines that all seem to cross each other at some point, and this subway is conveniently arranged so that similar sounding stops are at opposite ends of each other. Makes it just slightly confusing (note: sarcasm).

Thursday afternoon, we checked out Deoksugung, a smaller palace where you can also find an art museum. All of Seoul's palaces were, at one point or another, burned, attacked or razed by the numerous Japanese invasions on Korea, so they are always rebuilt. It was very different from other places I've seen in Korea- really neat.

Bright and early Friday morning, we headed off on our tour of the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone: a 4-kilometre swath that separates North and South Korea). With all the nuclear sabre-rattling on CNN, it was a bit daunting to know that we were going to be close to this, ahem, "Axis of Evil" member. We saw Freedom Bridge, the Dorasan Train Station (newly built, but as yet un-used) the 3rd Tunnel and the Dora Observatory. At it was Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), there were many Koreans (about 10 million South Koreans can claim North Korean ancestry) getting as close to North Korea as possible in order to pay their respects to their ancestors. After the DMZ, we were dropped off in the "Foreigner Area" of Itaewon in downtown Seoul. After a delicious Moroccan lunch (YUM!), we headed to What the Book, a foreign foods shop and Starbucks. Imagine our surprise when Lesley and Kirsten from Suncheon arrived in Starbucks. As we were leaving, we ran into Jessica (her blog is linked at the right). Proves the point that all foreigners in Korea know each other. Leaving Itaewon, we stopped at the Korean War Memorial, where I practiced taking all kinds of pictures with my new camera.


On Saturday, we dragged ourselves to another palace - said to have been on par with the Forbidden City (before being destroyed by Japan) in its heyday - Gyeongbokgung was really amazing. We sat in on 5 minutes of a "Traditional Animistic Shaman Ceremony" at the museum, but escaped when it became too strident for our ears. After a quick walk through Namdaemun Market and lunch, we headed back to our hotel to rest. That evening, we went to (eventually figured out how to get to) a Korean Drum Festival. We were expecting traditional drumming, but it was anything but! Teams from Italy, Singapore, Japan and Korea entertained the whole crowd with what could only be described as "Fusion Drumming" (Japanese geishas doing Cuban salsa in Spanish?). Really awesome.

Sunday, our last day, we ran over to Insadong for the best shopping in Korea ever that I have ever seen since I arrived and why didn't we come here sooner because look at all the pretty things and I have to buy everything! This is where I got quite a few of the gifts that are now packed in my mom's suitcase to go back to Canada. We flew back to Yeosu, exhausted after a rather packed trip to Seoul.