Starting out again

Seoul Station [Enlarge]

In our quest to minimise air travel on our round-the-world trip, we've found ferries to be one of the harder modes of transport to use. They always seem to be operated by ancient shipping lines out of pokey, smokey offices deep in warrenlike ports with very bad signage. They hardly ever have online booking, and if they do you can forget about it being available in English. When we tried to arrange our boat to Japan last week it turned out that the Korea to Japan ferries are no exception to the norm. We'd heard about the high speed JR Beetle ferry run by Japan Railways, and their website was available in English... but it says you can only book from within Japan. After a lot of internet searching, Isla stumbled upon Mirae Jet who run the Kobee high speed ferry. This appears to be the Korean Beetle. Naturally you can book from Korea, and the prices are cheaper, but unfortunately their site is only in Korean. And anyway, foreigners can't use their foreign credit cards to book even if they can understand the language. So we asked a Korean friend to book it for us on the phone, cost 95,000 Won per person one-way (GBP 47.48 / USD 92.82).

Incidentally, one thing we will not miss about Korea is the fact that as foreigners, we have been deprived of the chance to access basic financial services like credit cards and international ATM cards which would allow us to withdraw our legally earned, legally deposited Korean money when outside Korea. This means we're carrying a paranoia-inducing amount of cash with us to Japan.

Haeundae Beach, Busan [Enlarge]

With just two days remaining on our Korean visas we left Seoul for the last time (for now at least) on the high-speed KTX train to Busan. Located in the far south-eastern corner of the peninsula, Busan is Korea's second city, and its gateway to Japan. It is also proud of the fact that it was the only city on the mainland never to fall to the Commies during the Korean war. We decided to spend two nights there, enjoying the fresh seaside air away from the smog and yellow dust of Seoul. We found a great deal on the internet for a hotel next to Haeundae beach, with a huge bathtub and a sea view. Gradually we started to feel like ourselves again.

The atmosphere in Haeundae was a little strange, as it is in any seaside town in the off-season. In August there will be a gazillion holidaymakers from all over the country here (see this great picture and this one for an idea). But this was June, and Koreans don't vacation in June. The weather wasn't so great anyway, with torrential rain and thunderstorms a lot of the time, so we didn't do very much apart from relaxing. We spent the time drinking coffee in near-empty coffee shops, walking along the beach, and observing that there seem to be more love motels than people in Haeundae at this time of year.

Day 557
Seoul to Busan

This map shows the route we took in this post. Click it to see larger maps of our whole route at flickr.

Maps are taken from the CIA World Factbook.

And that, as they say, is that

Admiral Yi Sun-shin [Enlarge]

Waking up at 05:00 every day we sometimes thought we wouldn't make it to the end of the week, let alone the month, or the year. For the last three months, we've been trying to avoid counting down the time remaining to the end of our contracts, since as every school kid knows, counting down to the end of term just makes the time go slower.

And then suddenly it was all over! Now when we look back we can't believe how fast the last twelve months went.

We've learned a lot about Korea and about being Korean, we've also learned about our own culture by seeing it through the eyes of foreigners. We have a much better idea of how another country perceives Britain and the British—we have received both cutting insights and funny misconceptions from the people we've met. We've made friends with people from different corners of the world. We'll take so much away with us from Korea.

Review of our goals

• Experience living in a different culture...Check
• Save as much money as possible...GBP 26,000 / USD 52,000—Check!
• Glenn to overcome his fear of public speaking... Oh yes!

We'd say that is a result.

In all honesty, saving that much money has been one of the hardest things we've ever done. We literally didn't spend a penny all year on anything that wasn't essential. Around the half-way mark it became really painful but we were determined not to slip up, and we're proud to say we managed.

Now, our visas are expiring and it's time to go. Japan seems like as good a place as any to go next, so we've found someone to take over the apartment, sold all our stuff (for the second time in our lives!), packed our tiny bags and bought a ticket on the ferry. Tomorrow we're back on the road.

A year in Korea (in one month)

Bbali bbali! [Enlarge]

As we've already mentioned, one of our goals for our year in Seoul was to make as much money as possible to fund the rest of our trip. Things are looking good on this front, but with a month to go we were really flagging. The split shift (working from 06:45 to 11:15 and then from 16:30 to 21:00) was bad enough, but we had also been taking all the overtime we could get in the time in the middle of the day. We were exhausted. Also, we were in danger of spending a year in Korea and not seeing any of the sights apart from a brief trip to Gyeongju. So for our last month here we decided to fix that by cramming everything into one month. This would be Korean-style bbali bbali (quickly quickly) tourism, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances. There was nothing we could do about the split shift, but we could refuse overtime during the middle of the day. Overtime is paid at a higher rate, and we didn't want to lose too much income so we compromised and opted out of mid-day work just three days a week.

Honestly, Seoul is not yet a world-class tourist city. There's not a huge number of must-see sights, which is why most westerners bypass Korea in favour of China or Japan. This is a shame, because there is a lot to see here, it's just not in your face.

Assorted shellfish [Enlarge]

For our first outing we headed out of town to Seoul's closest port city, Incheon. This was our second time here, because we first hit land at Incheon when we arrived into Korea from China on the overnight ferry. At the time however, we hadn't been in a sightseeing frame of mind and we'd simply caught the first possible subway train into Seoul. This time we went with Misun, and had the whole day free. It was Buddha's Birthday, which in Korea means a holiday. We caught the express subway train from Yongsan station, using our Seoul T-Money card, and were surprised to find that the Seoul card is also valid on Incheon's bus network. We bbali bbalied around taking in sights like the fish market where friendly women seemed more interested in posing for our camera than selling their wares, and taking a ride on the viking ship at the fairground just after eating a huge Chinese lunch and an ice cream. Really bad idea.

These ajummas were friendly [Enlarge]

Approximately half way between our two offices is one of Seoul's five royal palaces, Deoksugung. It isn't the biggest palace or the most interesting, but it does offer a cheap escape from the noise of downtown Seoul. For 1,000 won (GBP 0.50 / USD 0.98) you can get some respite from the traffic and crowds.

There's one thing you never escape in Seoul though. Korean middle-aged women. These fearsome creatures are known in Korean as ajummas. The name just means "auntie", but that friendly name hides a formidable secret—these are aunties with attitude. Our students joke "there are three genders in Korea: men, women and ajummas". They have wickedly sharp elbows and wield a shopping trolley as a deadly weapon. They also have the world's most bizarre sense of style. Often an ajumma will be seen wearing a combination of surgical face-mask and huge black UV-proof sun visor pulled down over her face, which together with her standard-issue black perm, must mean that even her own family can't recognise her. To get around this she will differentiate herself from other ajummas with cunning use of mismatched sequin and diamante encrusted clothing in a variety of bright, sometimes luminous hues. Never, never, ever get in the way of an ajumma near the door of a bus or subway carriage. You will be barged, bashed and trampled into the dirt. An ajumma shows no mercy.

We have a theory that ajummas are, in fact, cloned at Seoul National University and are South Korea's response to the nuclear threat from the North. Honestly, if you marched an army of ajummas north from Seoul at 07:00 they'd be drinking soju in Kim Il-sung Square by 14:00 having knee-capped any KPA soldier who tried to stop them.

Deoksugung ceremony [Enlarge]

Ajummas aside, Deoksugung does have one must-see attraction: the changing of the guard ceremony. Forty or so blokes in bright Joseon dynasty uniforms march through the side streets of Seoul and up to the main gate of Deoksugung, with assistants hurriedly shooing the passers-by out of the way on the pavement. Then they parade around, blowing conch shell horns and banging gongs. After a while they march through the gate into the palace grounds, and wait while the commanders do some ceremonial handing over of keys. Then the guards march back out of Deoksugung and disappear back up the street, while Seoul's hungover office workers do their best not to even notice them.

Tangsuyuk and jajjangmyeon seteu [Enlarge]

We've loved the food this year. Korean food is tasty and cheap. The family-run restaurants tend to specialise in a particular style of food however. If you're with someone and can't decide what style to go for, one tip is to try a food court. These are typically found in the basement of office blocks and they consist of a collection of small restaurants around the edge of a large seating area. On a board, near the entrance, is a huge menu. It's organised by restaurant, and you look down the list and place your order and pay at a central till. They give you a numbered ticket. You help yourself to water, napkins, etc, and find a seat, then watch the restaurant you've ordered from for your number to flash up on the laser display. Service is efficient, but basic. You collect your own food and return your tray when you've finished. Many of the supermarkets also have a food court, usually with very realistic-looking, conveniently numbered, plastic models of the dishes. Don't think of a food court back home—bad food which is badly overpriced, badly cooked and badly presented—the Korean version is very different.

Namsan Cable Car [Enlarge]

We couldn't leave Seoul without going up Namsan Tower. It's been as much a part of our daily landscape as Namdaemun was. Perched on top of Namsan (South Mountain), the tower is visible from all over Seoul and is only a few hundred metres from our apartment. After months of waiting we finally achieved a rare combination: enough free time and a clear day without Seoul's usual haze. We decided take the expensive way up to the base of the tower, the cable car from Myeongdong.

We got a great view from the top of the tower. Having been in Seoul for a year, we could spot all the places we knew, and seeing them from above made it possible to put together all the pieces of the city into one big picture. We had a beer on a terrace looking out over downtown Seoul before it was time to go back to work.

Korean musicians [Enlarge]

One of Glenn's colleagues has been learning to play the Janggu—a kind of drum. On our final Saturday in Korea she took part in a concert along with lots of other foreigners. We went along to lend our support, to her and the other groups, which ranged from beginners to advanced levels. There were also some Korean professionals playing (see picture). It was great, but very strange to see so many Westerners dressed in hanbok.

Other places seen in May: Olympic park (good place for a picnic), Seodaemun prison (not really worthwhile to be honest), a traditional tea shop in the country (courtesy of one of Glenn's students), Lotte Department Store (a disturbing experience in so many ways), a long walk along Cheonggyechon (a little strip of nature in Seoul), lots of bus rides to nowhere in particular, lots of new restaurants, a few museums. We feel more cultured and less exhausted, and ready to start our round the world trip again.

Korean War Museums of the world: part 3

Bronze statue [Enlarge]

Although we've been in Seoul for the past twelve months we haven't really done much in the way of tourist attractions, so we resolved to remedy this by doing all the ones we fancy seeing in one go. So for our final month in Seoul we have refused overtime three days a week. Our sightseeing starts today.

You may recall that in April 2007 we visited the DPRK, a strange land more commonly known as North Korea. In Pyongyang we were taken to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum where they told us the story of the Korean war. Then on our way out of the DPRK we stopped off at Dandong on the Chinese border and visited the museum of the War to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, where China's part in the conflict was documented and exhibited. So today we thought we'd go for the hat trick and check out South Korea's version of events in the much less emotively named War Memorial of Korea.

The three versions of reality are essentially as follows:

• According to North Korea, the US started the war with a completely unprovoked incursion across the 38th parallel. And they have evidence to prove it.
• According to South Korea, the North started the war with a completely unprovoked incursion across the 38th parallel. And they have evidence to prove it.
• According to China, it doesn't matter who started the war—China finished it with a heroic push across the Yalu river to repel the UN forces who were threatening Chinese territory. And yes, they too have evidence to prove it.

So in our third Korean War museum, right next to the main US Army base in the Yongsan district in the heart of Seoul, we played our own little game of spot-the-difference. There was lots of military hardware—some friendly, and some captured from the enemy. There were flags and uniforms, some with bullet holes. There was propaganda, and historical documents, photographs, video footage. All the same so far. Yet of course the story had a completely different spin on it.

In short, the South Korean museum was a lot sparklier, more hi-tech and warmer than the one in Pyongyang (advantages). But it also had noisy school tours, and lacked the stern Rosa Klebb-esque museum guide (disadvantages).

As a museum the War Memorial of Korea is very thorough, and well worth a visit. The entrance fee of 3,000 Won (GBP 1.49 / USD 2.91) is good value. Finding the place is easy, but finding the ticket office is not (even if you can read the Korean signs). It is bizarrely tucked away down a little alleyway outside the museum entrance. The museum has an English language website with all the details you need.

Gate of Exalted Ceremonies

Before [Enlarge]

Namdaemun (Great South Gate), also known as Sungnyemun (Gate of Exalted Ceremonies), is one of the four original gates that protected Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. It stands at the heart of the modern downtown district and has served as the city's ceremonial gateway since it was built in 1398. It also happens to be our favourite building in Seoul.

Our bus drives past Namdaemun once every morning and twice every evening, so we see it a lot. We don't usually pay much attention to it, but as we hurtled down the hill 'Seoul-style' on the morning of Monday 11th February at 06:15, something was clearly wrong. The streets were full of firetrucks, their flashing lights lighting up the pre-dawn cityscape. As the bus picked its way through the parked trucks, we could see in the darkness that the entire wooden structure on top of the gate had collapsed, blackened beams and ancient tiles were strewn down the sloping sides of the base and onto the road. We couldn't believe it. Our favourite landmark in Seoul had burnt down.

After [Enlarge]

We both had to teach until 08:15, but had some free time after that. As soon as class was finished, we met up at the site of the former National Treasure Number 1. It had basically gone. The entire upper storey was now a pile of rubble on the ground around the base, and little remained of the lower storey. The huge timbers had even caused part of the stone base to collapse as they came down. In places, the ruins were still smoking a little.

A small crowd had started to gather, but at this stage the onlookers were outnumbered by the journalists. As the only foreigners there at that stage, we were hot property for the journos who wanted the foreigner angle. Isla was interviewed by a TV station and Glenn by a news agency reporter with a pencil and notebook. We felt a bit like tourists at a funeral, but we were both really sad about the Koreans' loss. They have so little of their history left in Seoul after the city was flattened in the Korean War, but this was one piece of the old Seoul which was left. We loved it because it was slapped right in the middle of the Seoul financial district, surrounded by modern tower blocks, the traffic flowing around it in a constant stream.

Even as we were watching workers had already begun to build a temporary scaffolding fence, hung with blankets to screen the ruins. By the end of the day they had put up a more permanent screen. Within a week or so, a solid metal wall, almost as high as the gate itself, had hidden the gate completely. This is not going to be a quick restoration—they are talking about four to five years.

Now they guard it [Enlarge]

Of course it turned out to be arson. The guy responsible, a crazy old bastard who had a gripe against the government, was quickly found (he set fire to an old palace a few years ago, apparently). He confessed and is expected to get ten years. Personally, we would have him chained to the gate restoring it single handedly with a toothpick, but luckily for him we're not in charge.

We were left questioning the unbelievable naivety of the Koreans in matters like this. The problem is, they just don't have crime here, certainly not mindless vandalism like this. They seem to have no concept of guarding things. The gate's CCTV was inadequate, and because of the ancient design it had been deemed impossible to install a sprinkler system. The gate was guarded, but only during office hours! The guards had ended their shift and gone home at something like 20:00 on Sunday night, as they did every night. In any other city in the world that is precisely the time when the guards would have been coming on duty!

In the days that followed there was all sorts of strange navel gazing going on in Korea, including resorting to bizarre feng shui arguments about how the original architects had always intended for the gate to burn down eventually: it had been deliberately sited at a point of 'high energy' so that it would act as a fire break for the rest of the city. That may indeed have been their fourteenth-century intention, but it doesn't excuse such fatalism now. There has been a massive backlash and most Koreans now support putting a fence around the thing when it reopens so that nobody can get near it. To us this seems completely ridiculous. The people must be able to enjoy their historical architecture—you can't spoil it for everyone because of a few loonies. The answer is not to lock it away, just guard it properly!

For 49 days candles were kept burning on an altar in front of the wall, but now these too are gone. Namdaemun will be rebuilt, as it has been many times before. And as in previous reconstructions and renovations some of the original timbers will go back into the structure. City planners will take this opportunity to remodel the area. Lessons will, of course, be learned—about security, safety, firefighting, and archaeology. A catalogue of mistakes were made, ranging from ministry officials preventing the firefighters from removing part of the roof, in case they damaged it (!), to government workers throwing away some of the damaged timbers and tiles as waste! Heads will roll, and they should.

All our photos of the gate before and after the fire are here.

A couple of great videos from storycubic are below. The first is a still movie from shortly after the gate was reopened to the public in 2006 (it was closed off in the middle of a traffic island for many decades).

The second video is called "다시 되돌릴 수 있다면" (Dasi doe-dollil su iss-damyeon / If only we could go back in time).