After coming to the end of our Trans-Siberian journey, our next stop was the amazing city of Seoul, capital of Korea, sorry South Korea :-). Having roughed it a little for the past two weeks or so, it was nice to visit a bustling vibrant city, with all the mod cons and luxurious of home, even the flight from Vladivostok with Korean Air, had plenty of leg room and even stainless steel knives and forks, in economy!
From the airport there’s a high speed train linking to the city which travels at almost 300 Km per hour, amazing. On arrival, an interesting site down in the underground was that it’s not just an underground for the metro and trains, it’s also a huge underground bunker. Actually there are loads of cabinets with gas masks, first aid kits, blankets and the like, after all, the south and the north of the country, are actually still at war.
It took several flights of escalator to reach street level so we wasted no time and grabbed a cab to bring us to our hotel, which was bang in the middle of the city. In a city this size of course there are in fact, several centres. We were staying at the small boutique hotel Metro and on arrival the door man opened the door of our cab, grabbed our bags and brought us to reception. The staff were so friendly and helpful and this was just as we arrived. Our room was small but spotlessly clean and as always, we dropped the bags and hit the town, but not before asking the concierge to recommend a cool cocktail bar – which he did.
Outside our hotel, the atmosphere was amazing, it was like a festival was on, but this was just a normal, weekday evening in Seoul. Loads of shops, restaurants, bars, street vendors and 100’s of people soaking it all up. With map in hand we found the cocktail bar which was on the 7th floor of one of the many building. The staff were impeccably well dressed and wasted no time in helping us pick a cocktail to our likening. After our arrival drink/s we hit the streets again. It was nice to just wander and enjoy the atmosphere. For a bite to eat, we tried a cake from one of the street venders, which had a fried egg in the middle of it, it was interesting to say the least. After, we hit a restaurant bar and ordered some Korean chicken, which was delicious.
The next day we visited one of the many temples that abound throughout the city, which was really enjoyable. We were fortunate enough to catch the changing of the guards. For lunch we went to a bakery, just down the road from the temple, in Korea, they love pastries and cakes, they also love coffee and it was pretty good too. For the reminder of the evening we wandered the streets and for our evening meal we visited a Korean bbq restaurant, it was fantastic.
The following morning, we went on a tour to the DMZ. We were picked up in a minivan along with several other tourists. Our guide, “Angie” was very informative and friendly. On arrival at the DMZ parking lot, it was clear, that this was not as sinister as I was hoping for. There were dozens of tour buses and loads of cars, it’s basically just a tourist attraction, no different than a theme park. We spend a couple of hours here, it was very interesting hearing all about the war, visiting the underground tunnels that the North dug, trying to get into the South, although the North claim it was the South trying to get into the North…….
There’s also a viewing platform with telescopes, where you can peer over the border to the North. I could just about make out a large flag pole and a gold coloured statue of “the leader”. Before heading back to Seoul, we did what you always do before leaving a theme park, visit the gift shop, which we did and picked ourselves up a DMZ mug 🙂
Later that evening on returning to Seoul, we took a trip up to the top of the Seoul Tower, which offered amazing views of the city lit up at night time.
For our last day in Seoul we visited the war museum which was huge, it takes a couple of hours to see everything. We also did a little window shopping and later that evening, we had got tickets to see the stage show, Cookin’ Nanta. This was, as the name suggests, a show about food, even though there’s no actual cooking involved. It’s basically a comedy with singing and dancing, which just happens to be set in a kitchen in a restaurant, it was fantastic.
We had an amazing time in Seoul, it’s a wonderful, friendly and modern city, well worth a visit, we’ll certainly return at a later date.
Bye for now,
C&J
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