After a revitalising week in Hong Kong with KG’s folks it
was time for us to get back on the road and head to South Korea!
Our time in South Korea began in a bit of a blur. After our
4 hour flight to Busan we needed to immediately jump on a 5 hour bus to Seoul
to apply for our Russian visa after the friendly folk at the embassy in Hong
Kong refused to assist us. All was not lost though as Tom managed to tick off
his top bucket list item in Seoul on the first night - eat and drink his own
body weight in Korean fried chicken and beer!
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| Tom out the front of Sungnyemun Gate in Seoul |
The first proper stop of our trip in South Korea was
Jeon-ju, a small town a few hours south of Seoul. There were 2 main reasons
that we wanted to visit Korea: the food and the people. Jeon-ju delivered both
in spades. The major tourist attraction in Jeon-ju is the old village and the
palace complex, Gyeonggijeon. It just so happened to be a public holiday while
we were there so the complex was full of local students dressed up in
traditional Korean clothing taking hilarious photos of each other - we saw A
LOT of peace signs.
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| KG with some decked out locals |
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| South Korea's phone boxes are sooooo much cooler than London's |
Next up was Busan which meant taking our third bus trip in 4
days. It was all good though as Korea has this amazing concept that where a lot
of people spend time waiting for something (e.g. a bus stop) they put amazing
restaurants there - not some fat mole dishing out 6 day old Four n Twenty beef
pies and $7 bottles of Coke. So after an excellent lunch we reached Busan and
hit the streets.
Busan is a huge city perched right on a bay with some
surprisingly impressive beaches. On our first night we headed down to Gwangu
Beach and it was here that we crossed off our second culinary bucket list item
– Korean BBQ. Even better was that this one specialised in lamb. With zero
Korean to work with and no English menu we were lucky enough to be chaperoned
be a delightful Korean waitress/BBQ chef who took control of our meal and it
didn’t disappoint – the only major shock coming when we asked why the lamb tasted
so good and we were told that it was only 6 months old. Mmmm baby sheep. On the
way home, we stumbled across a street magician and stopped for a look. Naturally
being the only white people in attendance it wasn’t long before we were dragged
up on stage to assist. The pictures pretty much sum everything up.
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| Gwangu Beach in Busan |
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| KG devouring some 6 month old lamb |
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| Tom helping out a local magician |
We also learned a couple things about South Korea during our
time in Busan. Firstly, they are not fantastic judges of distance or time when
it comes to walking. We visited the Igidae walking track which we were told was
an easy walk along the coast. In fact, it turned into a 6km trek which we
wouldn’t recommend completing in thongs (flip flops for the non-Aussie readers).
Secondly, when they ask if you like your food spicy, be very careful with your
response because it’s going to come out mind-blowingly spicy – but still
incredibly delicious!
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| KG at the Haedong Yonggung Temple |
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| All smiles before the spicy chicken hot pot |
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| A touch too spicy perhaps? |
After Busan we caught an incredibly cheap and short flight
to Jeju Island, which thanks to an overwhelming number of Korean votes has just
become one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.
It was on Jeju that we encountered another gross
misrepresentation of the distance and time a walk should take. KG decided that
we would climb Halla-san, Korea’s highest peak. We had heard reports that it
was 9km and should only take 4 hours – it was actually a 20km uphill trek that
took us just under 9 hours! The views from the top were stunning though and
Katherine even managed to make some new friends. Her friends came to the
conclusion in a very short time that she was incredibly wealthy, barren, married
to a fictitious husband and needed a new pair of hiking boots. It was on this
death march that we discovered Korean’s love of “alpine fashion”. You must look
good when you are outdoors and some of the outfits were stunning; fluro colours
everywhere, unnecessary walking poles and some of the most inventive hats we
have ever seen!
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| Almost at the top of Halla-san |
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| A small sample of Korean alpine fashion |
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| At the top with one of KG's new friends |
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| A husk of a man contemplating his decisions |
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| Throwing up the peace sign at Jeongbang Waterfull on Jeju Island |
Next up was Gyeongju, another smallish town with a
traditional old town and some amazing Korean temples. The temples would have to
wait however as Tom squeezed in a live viewing of Game 6 of the NBA Finals -
priorities! We did manage to fit in some sightseeing and headed out to the
Bulguk-sa Buddhist complex. As if we hadn’t done enough walking over the past
few days we went on a 4km uphill stroll to Seokgatap, a huge grotto with a
Buddha statue inside. Despite Tom’s incredible display of complaining it was
well worth the hike.
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| KG at the Bulgok-sa Buddhist Temple |
The sleepy little town of Sokcho was our next stop which we
used as a base to visit the Seoraksan National Park. We made the decision that
this would be the last piece of hiking we would do for a long time! So we
scaled the 8km round trip to Ullsan Bawi. There was minimal complaining but
continual commentary on some more “alpine fashion”, a wave of high fives from
local hikers and the occasional photo request. We came to the conclusion that
it is horribly demoralising when you are battling your ass off to get up a
mountain and some snotty little 7 year old wearing Crocs cruises past you with
a wave… wankers. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to an all you can eat
BBQ place – we ate what we thought was an immense amount of food until we saw
two local blokes (who had a combined weight of less than Tom) demolish a
mountain of seafood. It was incredibly impressive.
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| The entrance to Seoroksan National Park |
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| Katherine making friends atop Ulsan Bawi |
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| Katherine new friend savouring his prize! |
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| Atop Ulsan Bawi - was a touch squinty without sunnies! |
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| KG showing off her supreme strength... no, it did not move. |
Our final stop in South Korea saw us return to Seoul for a
few days. As it turns out there is an insane amount of stuff to do in Seoul so
we hit the streets as soon as we arrived and headed out to Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Turns out we visited on the only day of the week when it was closed, winning!
We headed back the next day though and it was absolutely massive, almost too
massive as after visiting we both decided that it was time for a nap.
Our second night in Seoul saw us catch up with Simon from
Brisbane and see what the famous nightlife area of Hongdae had to offer. We
headed out for dinner and a couple of sojus (flavoured rice wine) and then
found a bar for a few more sojus and somehow ended up in Korea’s premier hip
hop club where Tom had to borrow a pair of shoes at the door (it’s a thing at
night clubs in Korea). We eventually staggered home at 3am. In what could be
the biggest piss-take ever we were awoken the following morning at 8am by some
demolition work going on downstairs. It really took us back to the day when Mum
would fire up the vacuum cleaner right outside the bedroom door after a large
night at the ‘Shed, so as you can understand that day was a total write off!
But as has become tradition on this trip, whenever we are both brutally
hungover we have something important to do - on this particular day it was a
trip to pick up our Russian visas, which after 2 attempts and $400 we finally
got!
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| Tom giving his feet a rinse at Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul |
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| A bit short on photos from Seoul... Katherine at the same stream |
Our final day in Seoul was a big one. We visited the amazing
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, which is one of the best art museums we have ever
seen. We then headed down to the Korean War Memorial & Museum which was a
complete history of Korean warfare. The Koreans certainly know how to put
together a museum! Shame Katherine was being a sook and demanded we return home
after only seeing two-thirds of the Museum because her feet were tired. On our
trip back home we stopped by the Australian Embassy to cast our vote to choose
the next incompetent fuckstick to run our country. Our final night was spent in
the most Korean way possible - eating plate loads of fried chicken while
destroying shots of soju at a table with 4 Australians, 2 Frenchman and 1 Irishwoman
– with an early start the following day Katherine foresaw the writing on the
wall and hit the hay around midnight. Tom’s foresight was not so clear and
rolled in to bed at 4am.
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| Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul |
We had an incredible 2 weeks in South Korea which definitely
lived up our expectations! Next stop – Mongolia!
Yeah/Nah Index
Seoul - yeah defs
Jeonju - yeah but only for a night or two
Busan - yeah
Gyeongju - nah
Jeju Island and Sokcho - yeah (but only if you like hiking)
