Seoul

It took somewhere between five and six hours and one collision between a city bus and jeep, but I made it to Seoul.

After going to bed at around 5 or 6 on Saturday morning, I woke up at 10 and gave Alain, who travelled with me, a call to meet at the bus station in a short while. Since my bike was in the shop getting some work done to it, I had to settle for public transportation. During my first six-weeks in Korea, I got quite familiar with the bus system here. Getting to the downtown bus station should've been seamless.

Fortunately, it wasn't.

I hopped onto bus number 714, paid my 900 won, and sat down. Before long, we were on the main road connecting the area of Mugeo-dong to Ok-dong. It's a pretty big multi-lane road, and was busy. The bus was travelling in the right lane and looking for a spot to change into the next lane, as this one was ending soon. Since the bus driver was looking for a good spot to change into the left lane, he failed to notice that the jeep-like vehicle in front of us was not moving. Some jackass parked his vehicle in the right lane, right before it came to an end. When the bus driver finally noticed the jeep, it was too late. SMASH!!! He tried to swerve out of the way, but that only served to lesson the impact. The bus caught the back-left side of the jeep, smashing the corner of it. A couple of kids in the back of the bus started to cry, the old ladies in the bus had shocked expressions on their faces, the bus driver had an "oh shit" look on his face, and I was trying to contain my laughter. For some reason, possibly due to my lack of sleep, I thought that this was the funniest thing ever. I tried not to look at anyone as my mouth had a rather large grin on it.

At this point, the driver called his company to get us a new bus. While he was doing this, a man started to knock on the bus door. It turned out to be the owner (I assume) of the jeep. He looked pretty pissed off. I was trying not to laugh at him, since he was the dumbass who parked his jeep on a busy road (that's assuming that it didn't break down there. Then it just sucks to be him). The bus driver got out and began to talk to the Mr. Dumbass. Mr. Dumbass decided that actions spoke more loudly than words, and grabbed the bus drivers shirt and make some silly motions; threatening to start beating the bus driver. It was then that the other bus arrived. We were all ushered onto the new bus, leaving the bus driver alone with Mr. Dumbass.

I wonder what happened to them...















Here's an arial view of the bus crash. You can see that the red jeep was parked in the right lane and that there was a large other traffic, written in blue, on the road. The bus, which seemed to be blue as well, tried to miss the jeep. It failed, and crashed into the jeep. A green mist followed, and the word "smash!" appeared, as a result.


Eventually, I arrived at the station and met Alain. After walking around like a couple of idiots, trying to decide if the bus or the train was a better deal, we got on the bus and began our trip to Seoul. In total, the bus trip took around six hours.

Korean buses are not equipped with toilets. Instead, they stop at giant mega bus rest stops along the way. These stops have massive amounts of toilets, parking for a hundred or so buses, restaurants and shops. They are like little cities. It's something to see.

After we arrived in Seoul, we found our way into the subway system. It was pretty big. At least I thought so. Alain kept saying how he thought that Tokyo's subway was larger. Could be, but this one was huge as far as I'm concerned. There are eight lines, and it took quite a while to figure out where we were going. In contrast, Busan has two lines.

We wound up in Itaewon, which is the well-known foreigner part of the city. I didn't like it. The hole place was filled with American GIs and their families. It was like I wasn't in Korea anymore, even though I was in the middle of Seoul. At this point, I decided to give Jessica a call.

I'd never actually met Jessica before, but we've both been talking on the internet for half a year or so. She just arrived in Korea a month and a bit ago; living in Suji, just south of Seoul. It turned out that she and her friends were also in Itaewon, so I met up with them while Alain was looking at leather jackets. When I found Alain again, we all went out for Mexican food. We followed that up with a subway ride out of Itaewon and into the Hongdae area.

The Hongdae area of Seoul is where a lot of nightclubs are. Well, so is Itaewon, but there are less foreigners in Hongdae it seems. The signs outside many of the clubs confirmed this, with sayings like "due to American GIs acting like assholes, they are no longer permitted into this nightclub". I had a pretty good laugh at that. Ironically, I had an interesting talk with a GI outside of a club there. We talked about "The Real American Hero", G.I. Joe. That was pretty cool.

Jessica and her pals were intent on going to a hip-hop club. I don't really like hip-hop, and Alain despises it, so we opted to split up from the group for a while and check things out for ourselves. We found ourselves in an 80's bar, that played as much 90s music as 80s music, and then went into a rave/techno bar. We ended up having a pretty good time. I was easily amussed, as my gin and tonic was glowing a fluorescent green/yellow/blue colour. I mostly just danced with my drink in front of me; lost in it's transient glow.

Following a couple of hours of that, we found ourselves outside and within sight of Jessica and co. After eating a chili dog, we piled into a cab and took a ride to Suji.

Jessica was very generous here, letting both Alain and I stay in her apartment. She stayed in her friend D'Arcy's place (I think). Thanks Jessica!

The next morning, maybe at around 10 o'clock, we were knocking on D'Arcy's(?) door. A groggy Jess opened up and told us that she wasn't interested in exploring Seoul with us. I think that she was planning to get into a game of ultimate frisbee.

So, the two of us were on our way on a city bus back to Seoul. After eating some octopus at a Japanese restaurant, we found ourselves at Gyeongbokgung Palace. It's a really huge complex. Very impressive. We spend a couple of hours there I think. I took quite a few pictures that you can see below.
















Gyeongbokgung Palace.


Next, we walked down the street and ended up at Changdeokgung Palace. That too, was very impressive. Lot's of nice buildings and gardens and all that. For this palace, it's only possible to enter the complex as part of a guided tour. Since all of the English tours for the day were over, we joined a Japanese one. I thought that it was pretty funny to be on a Japanese tour in Korea. We even met a couple of Japanese girls to talk to while we checked the place out. There were also a couple of other white guys on the Japanese tour, both from France. We talked to them for a while too.
















Some goldfish, at Changdeokgung Palace.


Upon leaving Changdeokgung, we went looking for something to do. It didn't take up long before we saw a sign that said "Traveller's Lodge". I suspected that this might be some cheesy traveller place. I was wrong. This place was awesome! It was called "Yeon" and is owned by a cool guy named Nathan (his English name). The menu and drink selection wasn't huge, but the atmosphere and easily made up for it. It was just so friendly and relaxed. The other two people that were hanging out there, as well as Nathan and his friend/employee, spoke excellent English and we made fast friends. After eating a delicious egg role (read: omlette), Nathan invited us to go out clubbing with him and his friends. The other two people at Yeon came as well.
















Relaxing and having a couple of beer in Yeon.


Back to Hongdae we went. This time, we had a "guide". Nathan took us to a crowded little bar (he was friends with half of the patrons), which had a huge selection of beer at an excellent price.

At this point, I became a salesman.

I'm joking.

A bottle of domestic beer set us back 1,900 won. Awesome. After many beer, we headed out to club that I cannot remember the name of. It was on the second story of a building and played a mix of classic rock, modern rock and disco. It was superfun and I got to act like a superfreak. A few Koreans and I ended up starting a small mosh pit. I'd never moshed to disco before, so this was a first time experience for me. I really don't know how much time we spent there. A few hours anyway. I had so much fun that I lost track of time. I think it was around 4am when we left. We hailed a cab and told him to take us to a Jim-jill-bang (sauna house). Jim-jill-bangs are awesome. When you go in, you get a locker and you are provided with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. This one had a computer room, a TV area, a co-ed sauna, men's sauna, multiple baths (cold, warm, hot, etc.), a cafeteria, a small bar, and BEDS! Yes! For a cost of 5,000 won ($5), we got access to all of this. A had a shower, soaked in the hot tubs for a while, spend a bit of time in a sauna, and then went to bed. Other than in the co-ed area, you are naked for all of the baths and saunas. That took a bit of getting used to, but it's no big deal. The beds were all bunk beds in a dark room. I was pretty happy to crawl into a bunk and go to sleep.

After a really lazy morning in the jim-jill-bang, we were off. I had a quick lunch at Subway (the sandwich artist place) and got on the subway (the underground train place) and went to the train stations. We bought tickets for the KTX, which is the Korean bullet train. That thing is fast; hitting speeds of around 300 km/h.

We arrived in Busan a few hours later. We spend an hour or two wondering around in the Russian district, and then took the city bus back home.

Awesome little trip.

















The mountainous Korean countryside.

















A rice infested Korean countryside, under the shaddow of some mountains. Both rice-paddy and mountain infestations are common in the Korean countryside.

















There even seems to be an infestation of Korean-made cars here. They should spray.
















Near the city of Suwan, just south of Seoul. Cranes seem to have taken over the skyline here.

















This area has been hit hard with the apartment complex syndrome.

















I know that this says IGA, but trust me, this is not an actual IGA. I'm pretty sure that the Korean writting on the sign says, "honestly, we thought of the word "IGA" ourselves!".

















Here's a reddish-blurrish picture of Jessica and friends.

















Now this is an interesting bit of graffiti...

















No comment...

















Canadian live lobster? Serious?
I don't know what is more interesting. The Canadian lobster in Korea, or the cartoon octopus with EYELASHES.

















No comment needed...
















That pretty much sums up my opinion on the subject.

















This is starting to make me laugh.

















The Seoul subway; Gyeongbokgung station.

















A wall surrounding Gyeongbokgung Palace. I think it is supposed to keep the foreigners out. It didn't work very well.

















It seems that they left the gate open...

















The classic "ancient meets modern" photo.

















There is some really beautiful scenery here.

















Part of the palace.

















Who wants to go mountain climbing?

















Part of the Seoul skyline. Seoul tower is in the background.

















Same same, but different.

















The enterence to Gyeongbukgung Palace.

















A pretty view of the same.

















The Palace gate.

















I'm starting to get tired of writing captions for all of these pictures.



































































A throne for a king, I guess...

































A pretty sweet view.

















This ceiling is amazing!




































What a cool painting!


















































































































































This is the last of the pictures that I took of Gyeongbukgung.

















Here's Changdeokgung Palace! It was made into a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.

















Our Japanese tour group.

















Alain and our new Japanese girlfriends.

















Me and our new Japanese girlfriends. Peacesigns for everybody!

















































I'll just place this woopie cushion here.
































Everything was starting to look the same, so I added some angles for variety.

































The nice Korean lady who was giving the Japanese tour. Her Japanese was very clear and easy to understand. Well, at least it was for the half-dozen or so words that I was able to understand.


































































































I wonder how many Korean armies were made on this couch?
































Konichiwa!






















This is one of those things where a person of importance sits inside, while this thing is carried by their servants. I can't remember the name of it.






































































































































































This tree is said to be a few hundred years old.

















Inside Nathan's Yeon restaurant.

















Looking outside Yeon, down the stairs, and onto the road below.

















The courtyard of Yeon. The rooms surrounding the courtyard include a few dining rooms, a washroom, a kitchen, and a bedroom. This is essentially a really cool house.

















Here is a sideways picture of Alain and myself ourside of Yeon.

















The enterance to Yeon.

















Here's a nice view.

















Seoul station.

















Look at the amazing variety!!! You can have a McDonald's burger, fries and a Coca-cola, or a Lotteria burger, fries and a Coca-cola. On the next floor, you can choose from a Burgerking and a KFC. What a selection.

Lotteria is a Korean fast food place, which isn't much different from McDonald's.

















Look at all the trains!

















This is the current highest building in Korea; the DLI 63 building.

















Wow, I rice field. Who would've thought that I'd see on of these in Korea?

















Back in Busan. A Christian band is playing in the background.


















An enterence to the foreign (ie. mostly Russian) shopping area of Busan.

















A woman's undergarment store. I love what they wrote here.