Travel Log: South Korea

In October I met up with Uncle Brian and another friend Matt in Korea and had an amazing time exploring several different cities. There are way too many experiences to share in one entry, but I will attempt to share the highlights here. To preface, I cannot recommend Korean Air enough. It’s the best airline I’ve traveled with thus far by a wide margin (except for perhaps Emirates). I departed in the evening from Seattle, slept surprisingly well on the plane and arrived in Incheon feeling pretty refreshed.

Seoul

The three of us shared a ride from Incheon into Seoul, beginning our stay in Dongdaemun. The first couple days were a mix of self exploration on foot, and a guided food tour with Mike from itseoulgood.

Mike’s tours are phenomenal. His knowledge of thousands of restaurants in the city is off the charts, and you get to experience different parts of Seoul and interesting history, beyond the delicious food. I highly encourage Seoul travelers to look him up: @itseoulgood on instagram, or the booking site itseoulgood.com.

The next few days in Seoul were spent doing some more exploring and eating on our own. I really enjoyed exploring Namsan park. Walking up the steep incline and ascending all the wooden steps was great cardio, and the panoramic views of Seoul from the top were worth the climb. The green, forested area also provided a nice reprieve from Seoul’s concrete jungle.

Matt and I also returned to Insadong, a favorite neighborhood previously visited with Mike. Great food and shopping for souvenirs. Something I noticed and appreciated about Seoul (and perhaps Asian cities more broadly), is specifically how some neighborhood blocks are organized. Most American big cities will have large multi-lane streets that divide big blocks, and inside those blocks there may be alleyways but there’d be no reason to enter them unless you lived there. In Insadong, there are all kinds of narrow alleyways and small passage ways that lead to different little shops, restaurants, or stores. Navigating these labrinths that exist outside of the drivable city streets was great fun.

Another highlight from Seoul was the Majang Meat Market. We bought some cuts of meat, took it to another venue and the hosts helped cook it for us at our table. Great experience.

Jeju Island

Jeju’s raw landscape provided a stark contrast to much of Seoul. It’s also well known for some specific foods that we enjoyed including black pork and tangerine drinks. We spent about 3 days there and covered a lot of ground. We ended up staying at Jeju Shinhwa World, a large Disneyland-esque amusement park with no shortage of shopping or attractions, though we mostly explored the surrounding island rather than the resort.

Something that really helped was hiring a driver. In addition to taking us to the main landmarks we wanted to see, he also made great suggestions for different places or restaurants to stop at that were close to our route. My favorite character trait about our driver, however, was his love for oldies American and English music. He did not really speak any English, save for the words to his oldies music playlist to which he (and I) would sing along in the car. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, to name a few. This laid the groundwork for some more language exchange and he taught me some useful Korean phrases:

• 배고파요   (bae-go pa-yo)   “I’m hungry”
• 빨리 가요!   (ppal-li ga-yo)   “C’mon, let’s go!”

Our first day we spent along the island’s southwestern beaches and coastline, and checked out the big shopping center in Shinhwa World’s lower levels. On day two we explored more of the southern coast - a large waterfall, a short hike along a mountainous trail with views of the water, and a relaxing afternoon at the Nuva beach club. On our last day we started out walking through a traditional Jeju folk village, and then hiked up to the top of the Seongsan Ilchulbong volcanic crater. The views from the top of the crater were spectacular, one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Busan

We stayed in Busan for about 4 days. Originally we had planned to leave earlier for Japan, but the travel days were wearing us down and we decided to forego the Japan leg of the trip. It turned out much better to have more time to enjoy Busan and relax.

We stayed near Haeundae beach, and on the first day we checked out some beaches and grabbed some food at Millac The Market, a huge warehouse space with lots of dining options and pop up stores with views of the water, fishing boats, and Gwangan bridge. Later that evening we tried the Michelin star restaurant Palate. I’m no food critic but I thought it was impressive, there were only a handful of tables and nice views of the water below.

We also took a ride on the coastal railcars, and ended with a trip up to the top of the Busan X The Sky observatory. The views were pretty amazing. Albiet a little more touristy these were still enjoyable experiences. Next time around I’ll opt to explore more parts of Busan and its surrounding areas such as Gamcheon Culture Village.

The Haeundae beach area and parts of the city with clear views of Gwangan bridge are really beautiful, both during the day and at night. I loved being here and wished I had more time to stay.

Hawaii

On the way home from Asia back to the states, Uncle Brian and I stopped in Honolulu for a couple days to rest, eat good food, and relax. Enough said.

Trip Takeaways

• Don’t underestimate how much energy it takes to travel longer distances and change accommodations. On this trip we squeezed a lot in and while it was a blast, next time I would bias towards longer periods of time in the same place.
• Korea feels strangely very safe compared to the big cities in the US. Especially being out late at night in random parts of Seoul.
• Making an effort to speak in a area’s native language even poorly or in very small doses, seems to go a long way — atleast in Korea. Perhaps this is not universally true though (France?).