Aesthetics of Everywhere

A couple more observations I noted on my recent trip to South Korea:

Catch a cab at a cab stand. I saw cab stands (similar to bus stops, sometimes with a shelter covering them) along the busier streets in Seoul. Cabs will come by and pick up any passengers waiting at the stop, or even wait in a line of cabs in popular areas near train stations. I’ve seen cab stands at big transit hubs in the States like Union Station in DC, but I spotted more of them in Korea in a few weeks than I have in all my time in U.S. cities.

Stairs and mountains and… moving walkways. Korea is, more so than not, mountainous. It makes for great hiking. This also means navigating the subway stations involves lots of stair-climbing. And in some of the transfer stations, the different subway lines are so far apart that there are moving walkways to help you get to your destination.

Hotel vs. hostel. We stayed in a hotel in Daegu, but it was worse in every way than any of the hostels we stayed in during our trip. It was a really old building that seemed like it hadn’t been updated since at least the 60s, the shower would only give you hot water for about a minute at a time, and it was completely empty. I think we were the only ones staying on the entire floor, and possibly in the entire hotel. To be fair, Daegu’s not a city that draws in tourists, which is also the reason it doesn’t have any hostels. When we could, we stayed in hostels – they’re cheaper and much more social.

Kimchi! If you’re a fan of spicy food, the food in Korea is so, so good. Kimchi, a fermented Korean side dish with lots of red pepper, is the accompaniment to any proper meal in Korea and essentially the national food. Koreans take a lot of pride in their kimchi, often touting its health benefits and cooking with it in a huge variety of ways.

T-money transportation cards combine a number of important uses for getting around in Seoul, Korea. Not only can these cards be used to pay for the bus, the subway, and taxis, they also work for paying for calls on pay phones and for subway locker rentals. You can buy the T-money cards for 2500 KRW (about $2.50 USD) at any convenience store such as FamilyMart and add value to your card at a machine in any subway station. It’s worth the minimal cost, which you earn back quickly with the 10% fare discount on every subway ride with your T-money card.

Speaking of the Seoul subway… check out how extensive this transit system is. It looks like pure chaos at first, but it’s the complete opposite: easy to understand where you are and where you need to go, with platforms well-marked and maps everywhere. Some of the subway stations even have digital touch screen tourist guides so you can see a map of the local area and browse interesting places nearby. We spotted a cell phone charging machine in the Dongnimmun subway station – important for Koreans who have cell service and wifi almost everywhere throughout the subway – and these free recharging stations are at every subway stop on lines 1 through 4.

One of our Korean friends even has a Visa card that is T-money enabled. This means he can automatically add value to the card from his bank account, and it’s one less thing to carry in his wallet.

Having taken a few trains in Korea, I’ve had the chance to note some differences between the different lines. The newest, the KTX high-speed train, moves passengers between Seoul in the north to Busan on the southern coast on the Gyeongbu line in only 2.5 hours. In contrast, the Mugunghwa lines takes 5 hours to cross South Korea on that route. The local trains have more stops, which also accounts for some the difference in time.

Other ways that the KTX differs from the local/standard trains in Korea:

• It’s more expensive, of course.
• The seats are wider, but the leg room seems about the same.
• There’s a seat-back table on the KTX, meaning it’s easier to bring a meal on board.

It’s possible to buy standing tickets on the standard (non-KTX) trains, without assigned seats. We saw a few folks standing around and at first my brother and I thought they were trying to hitch a ride for free, as we had never been asked for our tickets either in the stations nor on the trains. But most of them had likely purchased standing tickets and were looking for other passengers to alight so they could take the empty seats.

Overall, I think the Korail system operates very much on the honor system – your tickets aren’t checked (maybe it happens, but we’ve taken three different trains without having been asked once for our tickets). There’s a sign at the entrance to the boarding area that says “We trust that only ticketed passengers will enter this area.”

First let me say that Busan is completely worth a trip if you’re in Korea at least a week. Stay near Haundae beach (Chan’s Guesthouse has the best possible location), spend all day at the beach and all night at the club.

And visit Spa Land in Centum City mall. It’s a nice Korean bath house and sauna (jjimjilbang) – a friend who’s been in Korea the past 10 months has said he thinks it’s the best one he’s been to. At 14,000 KRW a person (about $13 each), it’s one of the priciest because they limit your stay to 4 hours. Most jjimjilbangs have no time limit and stay open 24/7. Spa Land is only open 6am-12am.

Here there are shared outdoor areas with foot baths and paths with massaging stones, a female-only outdoor area, hot sauna rooms, an ice room, free wifi (what I’m using now), gender-segregated baths of varying temperatures from cool to scalding hot, napping areas (you have to use the wooden pillows which Koreans believe are good for your head), sun beds, paid scrubbing rooms, a restaurant, and a cafe that serves bingsoo, a Korean shaved-ice dessert. All the sauna room signs claim a range of health benefits – all your ailments would be cured if you believed what they said.

Even if you can’t get to Busan, jjimjilbangs are everywhere and it’s worth experiencing for a glimpse into Korean social life. Less upscale bathhouses are used regularly by many Koreans – Spa Land is more of a visit to experience luxury.

I leave for Korea this Thursday! My brother and I are taking a trip to South Korea for a few weeks, and my boyfriend will join us for part of the trip as well.

Our plan is to go first to Busan by train. We’re spending a little time on Haundae beach, letting the 13-hour time difference catch up with us. Busan is on the southern coast and the urban primacy of Seoul is notable – though Busan is the 2nd-largest metropolitan area, its population is only about a third of Seoul’s population. Over 20% of South Korea’s more than 48 million people resides in Seoul. To contrast, the NYC metro area is home to just over 6% of the USA’s population.

We’ll make a quick stop in Daegu, meet up with a friend of a friend who is teaching there, then head all the way north to Seoul. While in Seoul, we’re going to make a day trip to hike Seoraksan mountain. Korea is known for its gorgeous (and plentiful) mountains, and Koreans love to hike. I’ve heard that Korean is 75% mountain, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true. It’s a very social pasttime, often done in groups and followed with plenty of consumption of makkoli (a milky Korean rice wine) afterwards. My grandmother and my mother both used to spend a lot of time hiking with friends when they lived in Korea. Hiking is always fun, and even better in a completely new setting.

Besides hiking, we’ll of course do some sightseeing, museum-hopping, and shopping. We’ll eat tons of delicious Korean food – but probably not any live octopus, unless we gain some foodie fortitude points there. When my boyfriend joins us in Korea, we’re staying in a hanok (traditional Korean house) for 2 nights so he can get a feel for old Korean-style living, even amidst the modern bustle of Seoul. It’s his first time in South Korea. My brother and I have been once before – we took a family trip in 2006 to Seoul and Jeju island, but most of our time was spent visiting family, which was exhausting.

On our list of things to do around Seoul:

• Temples, at least Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung Palaces, and more if we have extra time and energy
• Korean bathhouses/saunas (jjimjilbang)
• Karaoke, cheap drinking, street food… What combination could be more Korean?
• Seodaemun Prison
• Bike along the Han River, maybe a river cruise
• Noryangjin fish market
• Performances such as Nanta
• Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park, designed by Zaha Hadid

Useful tip:

KakaoTalk is the best way to keep in touch with people in Korea! My brother turned me onto this a couple days ago. KakaoTalk is an app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android phones that allows you to communicate lightning-fast with one or multiple friends at a time.

It uses your normal data plan or a wifi network if it’s available (and I’m told Seoul even has wifi in its subways).

Add your own suggestions in the comments! My next blog post will be direct from South Korea, the country that clocks probably the fastest Internet speeds in the entire world.