PHASE 2: SEOUL
We took off to Seoul appreciating that Erik knew enough Chinese to get around Shanghai, and equally dreading our complete lack of Korean. Did we have any prayer of actually getting around competently?
For those without enough time to read the details, we will sum up our journey to Seoul in three key points:
1) Tragic, repeated shaming of our ancestors and the Korean culture through gaffes, klutziness, and complete incompetence
2) This video, which more or less defines the nightlife, music, and youthly vigor of the city in a single spectacular burst--many of you have surely already seen it (no, really, everyone was doing it)
3) Basically nothing of note in Seoul has not been burned down at least three times, either by the Japanese or by disgruntled servants
So for those still wondering the answer to the first question, the answer was "no, there was no hope of getting around competently." We frustrated quite a few cab drivers, waitresses, shop owners, etc, with our utter lack of language or cultural knowledge. Korea is where we decided we needed to start keeping track of the number of ancestors that we were shaming by the day. We'll be keeping track throughout the rest of the adventure.
So what is Seoul? It's a significant megalopolis, but cozy in its own way (including this grist mill on a main street); polite despite being busy. We heard a total of six or seven honks in the entire city during our stay, despite absolutely crippling traffic. Trees were more-or-less everywhere; parks and mountains dotted the cityscape. It was more organized and less "grey market" than China. It was cleaner, better-smelling, quieter. In some ways, many parts of it were more tame than one would prefer.
Nonetheless, it was quite enjoyable as a whole.
FOOD: Shanghai food was spectacular, and a tough act to follow. Luckily, Seoul was up to the challenge. Mark and Erik made sure to have bibimbap and Korean Barbeque, but also branched out to other stuff that was 95% delicious and the other 5%, at least, interesting.
Our first night in Seoul we decided (against Erik's sudden spell of shyness) to enter a small tent near our fairly lavish and eccentric hotel where an old Korean lady was making food in a little iron cookstove. No menu--simply a box in the middle of the table with unlabeled compartments full of food. We were warmly invited despite our lack of language, but we mastered the pointing/grunting international language, and were capable of saying "I don't know what that is but if you set it on fire I'll try it," and "really, I haven't yet had enough of this beer." In this tent we found a buff dude named Tuan and his girlfriend (we forget her name, but in our defense, she spoke a total of 8 words in the 4 hours we were there), who was a Vietnamese-Norwegian travel maniac, and spoke great English (as his... 4th language). Tuan gave us an idea of what we were eating, most of which ended up being assorted chicken gizzards and tofu soup (the former makes up most of the "interesting" category, though the latter was quite yummy). Tuan was sufficiently fun that we ended up rounding out that night with him, getting quite tanked on Korean beer--we lost the morning the next day and decided not to do that again.
Our other particularly wonderful experiences were our two Korean Barbecue jaunts. The first was an outdoor, plastic-chair kind of establishment in one of the open markets (see below for more on the markets). Lots of middle-aged Korean guys there for what as probably an after-dinner bite, and for us, way too much stuff for the table, but absolutely delicious. We were able to communicate to the waitress that we wanted something with beef, and she seemed to decide that she'd just take care of it and we could figure out whether we were happy (she did fine). Like most restaurants, the waitress here made time to show us how to eat the food, putting 0% trust in our ability to eat it appropriately and not screw up (we were fine with this). The second was inside, and rated very well by Fodor's (we found it very good but not necessarily mind-blowing in relation to the joint outside). Here, we struggled massively to get food, but eventually figured it out. The biggest boon came when we figured out the waitress spoke Chinese, and we were able to communicate poorly in that. Sadly, she was very excited about this and really wanted to probe deeper, and Erik was just unable to keep up with her Chinese. Erik shamed his ancestors when he put some fresh bok choy on the grill and burnt it, sending up some smoke and causing the waitresses to start yelling and fussing.
We made sure to have good kimchee (which was actually quite ubiquitous), bibimbap, and some other good spicy stuff as we toured, the best highlight being a place nearby our hotel in Itaewon.
Ancestors were similarly shamed as we wandered into restaurants (between palaces) and kept trying to make clear that we wanted meat without pork, and we kept not understanding that they were saying "no, we don't have it." At one point, a hostess/owner (after setting our table), mustered up her best English to look us in the eye and say, "please leave." It was fairly humiliating.
PALACES: Seoul has five major palaces built during their one major dynasty (Jeson) which lasted from the 1300s until the Japanese takeover of the penninsula in 1910. We saw the two biggest and the prettiest (the latter of which had major Western influence), according to Mr. Fodor. The primary feature of the palaces worth sharing is that each of them has buildings that have burned down no fewer than three times, and sometimes more. Primarily, this has been due to Japanese invasions (the Japanese also built or changed many features of the palaces during occupation), but they were occasionally burnt down by servants (hoping to erase records of their status and start life anew) or frustrated citizens during financial crises.
Without a doubt, they were pretty. Though as venerable experts on palaces of the far east (Erik and Mark have both explored them rather extensively in China and Japan), the Korean versions somewhat pale in comparison. For the most part, palace grounds were empty sand, and the palace halls were relatively small.
That said, there were some definite highlights. We went on a great tour of the largest palace's "Hidden Garden," whose grounds were significantly larger than that of the palace itself. From our great tour guide, we learned some details about the intricacies of dynastic construction (including how stone floors and underground fires were used to keep bedchambers warm, and how different gates were built for the Emperor and his officers), some history, and some of the finer points on dynastic garden design and what it symbolized. The gardens were beautiful, and focused primarily on trees and rocks, rather than flowers or exotic plants. Such construction gave the gardens a serious sense of unchanging permanence (especially "back in the day" when they were largely evergreens), which the Emperors seemed to enjoy as they toured back to write poetry, think, speak with officers, or (as we like to think) impress the ladies.
SHOPPING: Shopping was a bit different in Seoul than in Shanghai. Seoul's street markets existed in a very big and real way. They were, as it turns out, primarily shops in which Koreans frequented to get food, clothing, perfume, other day-to-day stuff. They were still fun, for sure, but didn't have a whole lot of what we were looking for. Primary exceptions to this include some great Korean barbeque, street vendors with great fried foods, and some weird "Korean Tea Biscuit" stuff that was ultimately some nutty pasty stuff wrapped in some powdered, stringy cocoon (I would be shocked if it was meant to look anything other than a cocoon). Lots of young folks at one of them and old folks at the other.
THEATRE: Always the spotlight hog, this was Erik's favorite part (Mark enjoyed, too). We went to see "Nanta Cookin'," which is apparently the most popular stage performance in Korea of all time. It takes fairly traditional drumming techniques and applies them in a modern, word-less (but not noise-less) comedy about a group of chefs that need to quickly cook a meal for a wedding. It was silly, tons of fun, and the music was excellent. To boot, Erik got brought up onto stage to taste their soup and help the cast determine whether the recipe was good enough (Fogg approved). It was a ton of fun and Erik's penchant for theatrics worked well (where the other person up there, a young Korean girl, as a bit too shy for the stage). [Pictures of this still coming.]
THE FISH MARKET: Erik and Mark woke up at 4am to get to the Fish Market by 5am to see the catch come in. By the time we got there, the market was already deep into its daily activities, with individual merchants killing, bleeding, and filleting fish in front of our eyes, octopi both swimming and lying out flat and dying. The coolest part was seeing the intense auctioning of (likely) massive catches of fish, with a few dozen folks in hats (likely indicating the company they represented, likely a grocery retailer or major restaurant group, etc) bidding across from a screen (indicating what's up and what's been bought) with a microphone-armed and enthusiastic auctioneer.
KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL: One of the major highlights of the city was the Korean War Memorial. Situated next to the US Army Base (which was so poorly marked and clearly somewhat hidden as to be suspicious... the US base there is not the most popular of locations), the Memorial had a gorgeous outside full of heavy war equipment and an inside filled with a tear-jerking, very real account of the war. The inner account was shameless about laying blame on the USSR and PRC, and spared no lavishness in its gratitude to (primarily) the United States (but also other members of the UN security force). It showed the depth of the intensity of the war for both soldiers and the "home front," and we found it very compelling (there are no photos).
Outside were a few key highlights. The first was the collection of US, Korean, and North Korean / Russian equipment in the field, which is always a bit of a military fanboy's wet dream. The second was the outdoor memorial sculpture (and sculptures of soldiers), which was fairly powerful in its own right. Finally, we saw ancient warrior reenactors, who participated in a theatrical dance-fight of some sort [video forthcoming]. On our way out, we saw a group of soldiers, but we weren't sure what they were up to.
GUNGAM STYLE: We did indeed rock it Gungam Style and headed out to the ritzy district. While putzing around, we enjoyed the lights and glamour, and stopped up in an 11th-story bar for an overpriced beer.
MORE ANCESTOR SHAMING: We shamed our ancestors in the cabs, as well, trying desperately to communicate where we were going. Somehow, the card given to us by the hotel was insufficient for the cabbies, who understood neither the address nor the phone number listed, which we found a bit absurd, but we allowed this to repeat rather than preparing to fix it next time.
Mark and I started quietly communicating to each other that we were aware of active ancestor shaming by tattooing an ancestor onto our forearms (much like a fighter jet might paint other jets onto its side after a kill)...
Ancestor shame count: 7
PHOTOS:
Photo albums here:
Soul Gardens & Temples
Seoul Life
Seoul Food
Soul Fish Market
Soul Nanta Cookin'
Korean War Memorial
Seoul Travel
Seoul ended in Seoul fashion, with a nice, orderly trip via rail to the (smaller) Gimpo airport, on the way to Tokyo's Haneda. Stay tuned as life gets a whole lot wackier and Erik/Mark fly to Tokyo...
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