KR&JP 2013 Travelogue Day 2: Baekje, Joseon, and Jongno nightlife

Korea is also known as the "Land of the Morning Calm". The next morning was, in fact, fairly calm. Until I woke up.

My rather late night, combined with my exhaustion from the flight and first day of touring, meant I slept in a couple of hours later than intended. On the other hand, the view from the terrace of the hostel was well worth it.

I flew out of bed, and scrambled for the nearest metro station, although I had to stop for a bit to watch a traditional samulnori parade that happened to be in the neighborhood -- a little silver lining to my late start.

Clever Seoul logo (L) and mass transit map (R)

I decided that the highest priority was the eastern area. Did I mention how much I love the mass transit in Seoul? It's punctual, clean, technologically advanced, and economically priced -- truly deserving its reputation as the best in the world.

My first eastern destination was the ancient fortified city of Pungnaptoseong, south of the Han river. The earthern ramparts have a trapezoid cross-section, and, apart from some broken segments, stretch a few kilometres to encircle a fairly large area within. The ramparts cut through several neighborhoods, although all of the segments of rampart are marked and protected. The walk around the walls also gave me a good look at life in the outer parts of the city.

This site, however, is no ordinary Iron Age settlement. Pungaptoseong is believed to be part of the original site of Hanam Wiryeseong, the first capital of the kingdom of Baekje. It was during the Wirye era that Baekje reached its zenith -- dominating the Yellow Sea, establishing outposts in coastal China, and even soundly defeating Goguryeo. Indeed, this could be the very place at which Lady Soseono and the future king Onjo ended their self-imposed exile, and ought to be a pilgrimage spot for anyone interested in the Three Kingdoms period.

Not far from Pungnaptoseong and the 1988 Olympic Park is the Bangidong Tombs Park. It's a lovely little hilly park that gave me a little preview of the kind of mound tombs that dominated that ancient Korean tomb-building culture, and of which I would see plenty (from different kingdoms, though) in the next few days. Incidentally, these tombs date from the Unified Silla Period (the era following Silla's conquest of the other kingdoms), a period of which I would see little by way of monuments on this tour.

I now had to make my way back to Jongno, to try and see as many Joseon sites as I could before sundown. Unfortunately, I got caught in a traffic bottleneck. At least I got some good views of the city from the south of the river.

The first Joseon site I visited this day was the Jongmyo shrine, which was the Confucian royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon dynasty, and was originally commissioned by its founder, King Taejo, himself. It's a beautiful place, at which I learnt much about the shrine art and rituals of the Joseon nobility.

My first proper Joseon palace on this tour was Changdeokgung, which was first built by King Taejong. The palace is vast and scenic, with large halls and gates, and many fine carvings.

I also toured the palace Changgyeonggung, which located in the same park as Changdeokgung, and built by Taejong's son, King Sejong the Great (who also created Korea's indigenous featural writing system). It too is quite large, and has a huge courtyard and a nice garden area. The exquisite painting of the structures is worth stopping to examine; there are so many different motifs employed for this purpose.

I hurried to the main palace Gyeongbokgung, which was not too far away. Unfortunately, I arrived a little too late to enter the palace buildings, although I could look around the outer grounds.

(left to right, top to bottom) Ceremonial royal robes, accessories for regular royal robes, royal seal, animal carving, phoenix and dragon from ceiling, royal feast.

Good thing the palace museum was open, allowing me a good look at Joseon royal attire, objects, rituals and art.

One palace was open late, which is why I left it for the day's end. This was Deoksugung, a small but beautiful palace complex in the heart of downtown Seoul, looking amazing lit up at night. It has a beautiful pavilion, a semi-Western-style building for the reception of Western guests, and a nice pond at the back. One of the other Western-style buildings at he back houses the National Museum of Modern Art. I toured this museum too; it's really worth a visit if you like modern art.

Outside the main gate, Ssangyong workers were having a layoff protest cum Catholic mass, which I found intriguing.

Especially intriguing because there was an EDM concert going on right across the street, and a pretty good one too. After listening a while, I went over to Itaewon for the Global Village Festival. There were some good DJs there too, but once it became evident that I would not see any K-pop concerts, I quickly left the very tourist-populated booth-lined street. I am really not interested in traveling halfway around the world to eat something from halfway elsewhere around the world.

Glaring signage (L), and hey, is that Junsu promoting Cass beer? (R)

I headed back to the hostel, and explored the surrounding area until early morning. Said surrounding area, Jongno, is well-known for the nightlife, and I ambled around the food streets, bar streets and entertainment streets for many hours. I noticed a lot of private DVD theaters line the entertainment streets; these seem to be a uniquely Korean form of entertainment. Karaoke abounds, naturally. Also, these places, along with the bars/pubs and other entertainment venues, are usually at the end of a narrow staircase that goes down almost as often as it goes up; there's a lot of basement-level entertainment here, apparently.

Signage is very vivid, and often vertical, as attention is to be attracted from a browser at a distance, taking a cursory glance down a narrow street. Inflatable finger signage is also common, and so are cute mascots (this is East Asia, after all).

(top left) Every train station is well-equipped for a possible gas attack
(top right) Note than the only non-East-Asian, non-English language on this "24 hour" massage place's board is Arabic
(bottom left) A kinky "Bat Signal" hotel room
(bottom right) Many cafes in Seoul are open 24/7 and have free WiFi; from what I saw, I'm guessing that party-goers nap and relax there overnight until the subway starts operating again

It seems that when foreign words are translated into Hangul, extra syllables are added -- perhaps to differentiate them from possible Korean homonyms? I also noticed a very uniquely Korean style of clothing and hair styling. I don't know to what extent it has influenced or been influenced by TV dramas, but there is definitely a correlation. Speaking of fashion, I saw that lot of Koreans wore a sort of long-sleeved, body-hugging sport shirt; I've never seen this anywhere else.

(top left) A rice ball. Note the separate wrapping for the seaweed, which would have been soggy without it.
(top right) A light vegetable and meat bibimbap. My first proper meal in Korea.

(middle left) Cutesy muffin. There's a lot of cutesy food here.
(middle right) Common on the street, rice cake in sweetish spicy sauce, called tteokbokki.

(bottom left) A stuffed bread from one of many gourmet bakeries in the city.
(bottom right) Fried chicken, which is way too common for such a simple preparation. I mean, it's just fried chicken. Like many simple fried meals, it is served with a side of shredded cabbage that HAS to be dressed, even with ketchup.

Restaurants here make frequent use of tabletop buzzers, which I think are a much more dignified, quick and efficient way of getting staff attention than waving them down, or keeping an eye out for them. They also have you pay at the door when you leave, which is, again, far more efficient than the annoyance of requesting a bill, getting your bill, paying, and getting change, each step of which requires a trip by staff to your table. And there's no tipping culture; this is perfect, because the system is based on efficient execution of the process of getting food to your table and taking payment from you.

In the wee hours of the morning, I bid Seoul farewell, grabbing my already-packed luggage from the hostel, and making my way to the KTX high-speed rail station. There, I awaited my Daejeon-bounde high-speed train, washing down the day's experiences with two juices from one bottle (yes, it actually has a partition down the middle).

KR&JP 2013 Travelogue Day 1: Wandering Seoul

Obligatory flying wing shot

That will let you know I was traveling. Destination: Korea. Why? The endless reruns of Korea tourism promotion programs on City 7 TV, of course.

Okay, not really. It has long been on my list of places of historical interest, and my travel plans are pretty much driven by historical interest. East Asia, in particular, has been my domain of amateur expertise, and Korea is pretty much at the top of that list now that China is sort of done with. And since I could get two weeks off, I tacked on a week of Japan, another place I have long wanted to visit. Oh, I am also a huge fan of Korean film, TV series and music, and can read the Korean script (which came much in handy).

So, I made plans to fit my usual blitz-style, lone wolf, semi-backpacking tour format, and I have to say that this was my most meticulously planned tour yet. I committed most of my free time pre-holiday to research: locating, mapping, and programming in the GPS coordinates of each place (OsmAnd for Android is a brilliant app for this, and free!); prioritizing based on location, accessibility and hours; planning transportation and plotting optimal paths. Of course, rarely does everything go exactly according to a packed plan, but having a detailed and flexible one helped tremendously. I was also aided greatly by the tourism website of Korea, visitkorea.or.kr, which was very informative and comprehensive.

I noticed a lot of interesting things the moment I landed. People in general are very polite, but more so if they're in service; the attendants on the train from Incheon airport to the city, for example, bowed each time they entered or left a compartment. Then there were some oddities, like the bar of soap (above left) that screws onto a metal arm in public washrooms. It's a smart idea, really, since it does not rest on any surface. Also, there were these public water fountains with really flimsy, thin paper packets for cups (above right) that don't last past a couple of sips. Makes sense, since you usually don't need them for more than that. Conservation measures are likewise common, and often simple. For example, a simple magnet mounted on a bathroom stall door closes the lighting circuit in the stall when the door is closed, and opens it again when the door is opened. Also, I notice a lot of recyclable material sorting bins, even at the self-disposal points of fast food restaurants.

I headed straight for the National Museum of History. As with many national museums, their permanent exhibitions are free to enter. I also found Korean museums and historical sites to have generally budget-friendly entrance prices, which made the whole trip excellent value (especially considering the aforementioned style of touring that has me hopping from one place to another every couple of hours).

(clockwise from top left) Stone daggers, Star and Moon maces, mandolin daggers of bronze, horse belt

The museum is extensive, and very well-organized. The permanent exhibition covers the entire history and prehistory of the Korean peninsula, and includes many artifacts I have never seen even in pictures, such as the stone daggers, and many I have,such as the mandolin daggers. It was also arranged chronologically, making it east to navigate. Actually, I have always been very impressed by the effort and technology put into East Asian museums, and Korea is exemplary in this regard.

(clockwise from top left) Crowns of Baekje, Goguryeo (including the famous stylized samjokoh, or three-footed crow), Silla, and Gaya

I was also ecstatic to see artifacts from the Sam Guk (Three Kingdoms) era, a period I have studied as a hobby for a long time. I paid special attention to the Goguryeo section, as much of what was then Goguryeo is now in North Korea, and it would not be covered as extensively, if at all, by the regional museums I would visit during the rest of my trip.

(clockwise from top left) A king's cleated shoe soles, ornaments including the comma shaped beads (common in Japan as well), spoon and chopsticks, sam saeg-ui taegeuk motif on a drum (the colors represent the three ceremonial offerings)

I saw a lot of other periods' artifacts, including ones from the later Goryeo and Joseon eras. You could see how a lot of these were culturally both unique and shared with surrounding countries' cultures, and evolved over time.

My big historical destination was Unhyeongung, a relatively minor Joseon-era royal residence that now serves as an historical royal fashion museum. It is a small, densely-built compound that is home to life-like mannequins wearing traditional historical Joseon clothing, sometimes reenacting scenes from royal life in each of the rooms.

My little cultural nightlife activity that day was a staging of Miso -- a Korean musical play -- at Chongdong Theater. It uses the modern musical format to tell a traditional Korean romance tale, Chunhyangjeon, and incorporates traditional performance arts of pansori and samulnori. It's a bit tourist-oriented (there's even a "fan service" parody of Gangnam Style at one point), but a great way to see some of the aforementioned traditional arts of Korea in one go. Excellent show with excellent production value. I found out that they also have a Silla-era musical play called Miso II, which now means I have to go back to Seoul. Because ... Silla.

South great gate Namdaemun (top), and East great gate Dongdaemun (bottom)

Towards the end of the night, I visited the southern and eastern great gates, reconstructed remains of the time when Seoul was a walled city. The southern gate, Namdaemun, was recently almost wholly reconstructed, after an arson attack in 2008 (ironically, it was constructed to incorporate charms that would ward off fires). It reopened just a few months before, after restoration work had been completed. Dongdaemun, the eastern gate, has a very large and active market area nearby. By the way, Seoul's transit system is amazing, and very easy to use.

I usually book my accommodation for the stays immediately preceding or following flights, so I was prepared for my stay at Yellow Brick. I have to say that this is one of the best hostels at which I have ever stayed. Clean and comfortable, well-equipped, and with tons of amenities, not to mention the very helpful staff and central location.

(clockwise from top left) Jumukbap, bulgogi burger, sundae with soju, samgyeopsal with Cass beer

I was only able to fit snacks into my hectic schedule. The Korean rice ball, jumukbap, is vastly superior to any I have tasted elsewhere in Asia; it has amazing savory fillings, and (very importantly) comes with a separately-wrapped seaweed wrapper. McDonalds' also had a bulgogi burger, which I think is one of the better items to come out a McD's. In the night, after most of my visits were done with, I went through a downtown street with food carts, near Namdaemun, mingling with socializing salarypersons in various stages of (still polite) intoxication. There, I had two essential Korean street foods for the carnivorous: samgyeopsal, or pork belly strips, and sundae, or blood sausage. Not for the faint of heart, but very tasty for those who get past the, um, exotic ingredients.

I leave you now with a picture of Jumong promoting some kind of financial product.