Seoul searching

Seoul, Autumn 2024, £1 = ₩1753

We arrived to Icheon Airport later than we expected. We had been planning to get in by 8pm, not the most convenient time, but the trains would be running and the cash machines on. When we arrived gone 10, that was not the case. Our airport admin (collecting phone sims, buying travel cards and booking the bus into Seoul) seemed all the more complicated at night after an 11 hour flight. Anticipating slightly foggy brains we had pre-ordered a sim card online, filling in all our details so all we had to do was pay for it - after a good ten minute walk to find the stand in the first place. The t-money card (SK’s version of an Oyster card) was slightly more complicated, the card itself we brought from a small airport convenience shop, but to top it up we needed cash… which we couldn’t get out.

That was a problem for another day, hoping we didn't need cash for the bus we headed to the ticket machines. We couldn’t find a bus that went all the way to where we were staying (they must reduce the stops after a certain time) but we could get one to Seoul Station. Surely, we thought, it would be easy to get an Uber from there. It wasn't. Three times our drivers canceled, and I don't know if the trip just wasn't worth it to them, or if we were in an awkward spot but it was frustrating! It was one o’clock in the morning and we weren’t having fun. 

Spotting a 7/11, I headed in to get out some cash - a new plan was needed. The area the bus dropped us off was a five minute walk to Seoul Station itself, and we thought we would have better luck just outside of it. We didn’t. We were in an area that had a taxi symbol but none of the taxis would take us - perhaps it was for pre-booked rides or just a drop off area. Eventually, a driver came to our rescue, and after confirming that we wanted to go to our hotel not back to the airport we hopped in his car. Ben, suspicious of how our luck had changed, thought we were about to get scammed. Luckily for us, he was just a helpful taxi driver who took the opportunity to grab us before we found the actual taxi rank (about 20 meters from where we were) and 11,000 won later we were at our Hotel. 

I didn’t know what to expect from Seoul. I had looked up places to visit and what food to eat, but I hadn’t really looked up the city itself, what the streets would look like. It was a surprisingly harmonious blend of modernity and tradition. The main streets were lined with towering skyscrapers and chain restaurants, but behind these streets, in small warren-like lanes, tiny restaurants and bars keep the Korean culture alive with recipes passed down through the ages. Like other Asian countries we’ve visited, there are streets filled with just chair shops, plumbing supplies, lightbulbs or printing works but here there are department stores too. It’s a well connected city, with a vast metro system that costs only 1,400 Won per trip, no matter if the journey is 5 minutes or fifty. And it’s green, theres parks, and trees, space to escape the bustle of the city and listen to birdsong instead. It wasn’t too busy either, a rush hour the metro and streets were packed but the rest of the time I didn’t feel hemmed in. 

Our first day in Seoul wasn’t too eventful, it was hot and we were exhausted after the day of travel so we relaxed the morning away. Our hotel room was far nicer than we were expecting, so we made the most of it, soaking away our aches and pain in the deep bathtub that we didn’t think we were getting. 

In the afternoon we decided it was time to venture out, walking the 20 minutes to a nearby market, Gwangjang. We, of course, managed to enter through the completely wrong gate and ended up in the aisle that seemed to only sell fabric and ornate Hanboks (traditional Korean garb).  After excusing our way down the narrow walk we made it to the food. Stall after stall after stall of street food, set up like the streets outside with all of the Bimbimbap stalls together, followed by stalls selling Nokdujeon, then Tteok-bokki, most of them lined with benches or seats to eat the food right there. 

There seemed to be endless choices, and all of the perfectly styled Korean Aunties manning the stalls would smile and gesture for us to sit as we passed. We decided on seafood nokdujeon, a savoury mung bean pancake that had a smattering of prawns and squid mixed into the batter. It came with a soy and pickled onion dipping sauce. It was crispy and chewy, with a earthy flavour lightened by the sweetness of the seafood within. It was also a bit heavy, I don’t know if I could have finished one by myself and was happy to split it with Ben. 

Then for something sweet. First we passed a hotteok stall and I’d been itching to try one ever since I saw then online, so we grabbed a “classic” for 2000 won. As we were heading to the exit, we saw Gwangjang’s famous twisted doughnut shop, a shop so popular that it not only had a queue but a man to manage it. Good thing too as we immediately stood in the wrong place. After being re-directed we joined the back of the line and waited. It wasn't a fast queue, with people grabbing twenty at a time there was a constant production line going on behind the counter, rolling, proofing, frying and most importantly, sugaring. We only brought one, setting us back a tiny 1000 won and took it along with the hotteok down to a nearby stream to enjoy. 

Feeling bad about our lazy start in Seoul, the next day we were determined to get stuck into the sightseeing. Seoul boasts many palaces and we decided on Changgyeonggung Palace as the first we would explore. Originally built in 1418, the palace had been home to a royal family, destroyed, re-built, set on fire, re-built again, made into a zoo by the Japanese, before finally being restored for the last time in 1983. Entry cost us 1000 Won each and the ticket office was right outside of the impressive entry gate.

We spent around 30 minutes exploring the palace, taking in the decorative roofs and peering into the ornate wooden buildings we couldn’t enter. The palace was simply laid out, with a large imposing courtyard surrounded by shaded walkways and smaller more residential buildings behind. It was also pretty empty, not just the buildings but in terms of tourists. There were a few people wandering round in Hanboks (wearing one will grant you free entry) and a few tourists but there wasn’t the crowds I was expecting. 

Once we’d had our fill we moved on to Changdeokgung Palace, the neighbouring palace that was home to the last Korean Royals and their government. It is another palace with a rocky history, with destruction due to Japanese invasions and fire. The restoration undertaken in 1990 had done a thorough job without making the buildings appear too new or seamless. We entered through a gate in the back of Changgyeonggung Palace’s grounds (purchasing a ticket for 3000 Won) and immediately got lost within the maze of buildings. Unlike Changgyeonggung with it’s spacious grounds and free standing structures, Changdeokgung was seemingly built at random with courtyard leading to courtyard, some roofs overlapping then wide open space in-between.

The most impressive building, Injeongjeon Hall, is the focal point of the palace complex and compared to the residential areas, packed (although really not that busy). Groups in Hanboks posed prettily, having their photo taken from the main gate. People peered through windows and doors trying to take in the majesty of the throne room itself, or wandered round the large courtyard in the sweltering heat soaking in the ambience. I’m glad we visited both Palaces and I’m glad we did them in the order we did too, it was nice to have something to compare with. It was also nice having the first palace relatively to ourselves before we joined in the hustle and bustle of the second. 

Pretty worn out, we popped into a cafe across the road from the main entrance for a well deserved sit in the air conditioning and a lovely iced drink. We had tried to shade hop where we could, but in 32 degree heat with 70% humidity that only got us so far.  The cafe was cute, the drinks were delicious and once we felt refreshed, we were on our way. 

Korea, from what I’ve seen, designates areas of cities and towns as “villages”, these come in two categories. Culture villages, which seems to be areas that have been restored and purposefully made “instagram-able” and hanok villages, which are areas filled traditional houses. Ikseon-dong Hanok Village seemed to be a combination of the two, beautifully restored traditional wooden houses that had been taken over by tastefully gimmicky and expensive cafes, full of people taking photos. While tempted by the cheese-centric “Cheese Industry” and their cheese flavoured soft-serve ice cream, we wanted something a little more traditional instead. We decided on Changwadang, a small restaurant with a queue outside and a machine we had to order from as soon as we entered. I ordered a Kimchi fried rice that didn’t end up being as vegetarian as I thought and Ben had a big brothy bowl of noodles and beef. 

Hoping that Namsangol Hanok Village would be a little more traditional and a little less heavy on the capitalism, we made our way to one of the many metro entrances and got to working out how Seouls underground functioned. It’s pretty simple, the signs all have the next station along the route and the end station - easy to use once we figured this out. Namsangol village, nestled to the side of Namsangol park was far more serene. Not a true village, all the houses within had been moved from different areas of the city, in an attempt to show a real representation of what a Korean village would have looked like.

Although we couldn’t explore within the wooden Hanok themselves, the way the buildings were built was interesting enough, with bedrooms and communal rooms all facing interior courtyards; we enjoyed walking around taking photos and soaking in the peaceful atmosphere. The park that surrounds it was also a little oasis of calm, with man made waterfalls providing a soothing backing track to bird song, the sounds of the city traffic outside barely audible. 

Wanting to make sure I could actually eat dinner, I searched for a restaurant with vegetarian options - coming across a small place that only sold Bibimbap. A dish that does what i says on the tin, mixing (bibim) and cooked rice (bap) - cooked rice which is mixed with various toppings. It was delicious and as the menu specified that the option I chose was vegetarian I didn’t have to worry about what I was eating. Feeling like something sweet to round off the day, we headed back to Gwangjang Market. We grabbed another hotteok (they’re just too good!) and decided to try some bungeoppang to go with it.  The bungeoppang - a fried rice-flour based dough filled with custard or red-bean paste - were a bit hit and miss but I was glad to have tried something new. 

The next day was scorching hot, but that didn’t alter our plans to ride the Namsam Cable car and visit Seoul Tower. As the cable car didn’t being service till 10am, we decided to walk, and although it was only a thirty minute journey this was probably a bit of a mistake - we were more than a bit overheated by the time we arrived. The car was a lot hotter than I expected too, but as the ride was also a lot shorter it wasn’t too unbearable. We didn’t go up Seoul Tower, there was no need to as the mountain top where it was built had amazing enough views as it was.

Feeling thirsty and not a little hungry we headed to the 7/11 which was also on the mountain top, grabbed some refreshments and found a shady spot to enjoy our feast. Refreshed and revitalised, we left Seoul Tower behind and wandered our way back down to the city, getting lost on the many paths through the trees on the mountains south side. Eventually, after finding a particularly shaded wooden area full of sun-loungers, we made it to the bottom and found ourselves in Itaewon. Supposedly a multi-cultural neighbourhood, know for it’s vibrancy and art scene, Itaewon was very subdued when we visited and to be completely fair it was also 35 degrees. 

After a quick lunch of Kimbap and mackerel stew at one of its more traditional looking restaurants, we made our way to the near-by-ish National Museum of Korea - ready for some history, culture and air-conditioning. The museum is housed in a purpose-built gargantuan modern building which, according to their website, is “A Contemporary reinterpretation of traditional Korean architecture.” It was certainly an imposing building with their “safe and peaceful fortress” concept shining through. Entry to the museum was completely free, and although not every museum label had English translations, there was enough for us to follow the basics of the history told. We were enjoying the museum, but as we wandered round it started to feel more like a chore than an exploration. Our day of walking through the high heat and higher humidity had caught up to us and we were exhausted. Time to head home. 

After a palace-less day the day before, we thought why not start our day by heading to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The day was drizzly and overcast, the perfect time to wander around a vast outdoor tourist site with our cheap new umbrellas. Built in the 14th century, it is the largest and most popular of Seouls five palaces. Comprised of a mix of large parade grounds, impressive halls, and more intimate but no less decorative buildings that would have been the royal residences. Like every palace in Seoul it had been burnt down and rebuilt, however this palace was unique in that entire buildings had been stolen by the Japanese during their many conflicts - how I don’t really understand. I enjoyed Gyeongbokgung, despite the hoards of tourists making their way round, the many doorways leading to many courtyards often cut us off from being near anyone at all, allowing us to explore at our own pace. 

Leaving the royal life behind, we headed to Tongin Market: a compact local market that is trying to bring more tourists its way with a quirky new idea. From the lunchbox cafe in the market, 5000 won is exchanged for a lunchbox tray and 10 Yeopjeong (traditional Joseon Dynasty brass coins). From there, all that’s needed is to wander the market and trade the coins (at participating stalls) for different snacks until all the coins are spent. It sounded fun but as my options would be fairly limited (Koreans sure do enjoy meat) we decided to go for a sit down meal instead. 

I went for a chive pancake, it was simple and delicious. Ben went for the far more involved Beef bone hot pot. It was a multi step process which started with the Auntie placing the hot pot on the induction stove on our table, the reappearing every few minutes to tell us the next step in the process. As she spoke very little English and we spoke even less Korean, it was a guessing game at best and my voice to text translator didn’t really know what was going on either.  It was turned up, it was turned down, noodles were added, the noodles then needed to be eaten, more things were thrown in. I honestly don’t know how anyone is supposed to finish as the hot pot seemed to grow the longer Ben was eating it.

Thoroughly full we made our way back to our hotel and packed our bags, ready for our train journey across the country the next morning. Our four days in Seoul were over and we had loved our time there, we didn’t know what to expect but it certainly wasn’t the chilled out city we had found. Besides, our hotel room came with a robot toilet, anything after that was a bonus really. 

Trip date : September 2024