Seoul Stopover

by Maxine Bates

Having decided to visit Hong Kong over Christmas 2013, we discovered it was as cheap to fly via Seoul than direct and having never visited South Korea previously booked that option. The BA sale at the time of booking also meant it was cheaper to fly World Traveller Plus rather than World Traveller. So a win win situation! We had two nights outbound and one night inbound in the Korean capital and these were our highlights….

We stayed at the Noble Hotel in the Jongno-Gu district. Having arrived in temperatures of minus 6C the underfloor heating in the bedrooms was much appreciated. In fact it was so warm we had to open the windows at times! The hotel was good value considering the handy location for the airport bus and metro and although they do not serve breakfast there was an adjacent shop where we could purchase hot drinks, pastries and snacks.

Our first destination was the Namsan cable car which took us to the North Seoul Tower for fantastic views over the city. Although cold temperatures there was blue sky and glorious sunshine. We arrived at the end of some sort of dance demonstration, but just in time to have my photograph with a guy in traditional Korean costume. There were Christmas trees adorned with hundreds of padlocks. We could only assume this was some romantic gesture as we had seen the same in Kiev where newlyweds chained padlocks to a certain bridge. The observation deck atop the tower had city names on the windows with distances. We were amused to see that London was 8,954.45 km away. Very precise! The view included the River Han winding its way through the city, the stadium used for the 1988 summer Olympics and the mountains circling the capital. We tried our first street food of a sausage on a stick with potato spiralling round it. Very artistic! We also had something that looked like sponge cake off a griddle but when bitten contained a fried egg inside. No idea what that was called as the vendor did not speak English and we did not speak Korean. But all part of the randomness of travel!       

We then headed over to the infamous Gangnam district where we watched skaters on the rink in the shopping mall, considered entering the Lotte World indoor theme park, but decided against it and went exploring the shops lining the underground metro pass instead. We saw moving statues of the Korean singer Psy. So although his infamous ‘Gangnam Style’ song was actually written to poke fun at the residents of Gangnam (equivalent of London’s Soho) they are obviously cashing in on it!

There are five palaces in Seoul and due to limited time we opted to visit the largest so next morning walked to Gyeonghuigung Palace. We arrived just in time to watch the hourly changing of the guard which was an elaborate affair with musicians (including one playing some sort of large shell) and flag carriers. I can only assume they had lots of layers under their dresses as despite the bright sunshine there was still ice on the ground. We joined a free English speaking guided tour though dropped out halfway as it was too cold to be standing around outdoors and you could not enter any of the buildings. The layout reminded me of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The palace grounds contains the National Folk Museum Of Korea. Even better it was free and heated! So we passed an interesting hour learning about the country’s dress, cuisine, industry, farming and culture.

Travel was mostly quite easy with a ‘beep’ card similar to the London Oyster card so we didn’t have to worry about keep purchasing metro tickets. The metro system was clean and efficient although somewhat pungent at times. I think everyone ate the national dish of kimchi for breakfast because as the doors closed there was an overpowering smell of garlic and as they opened the fresh air was welcome!

On our return we only had an evening stopover between flights and stayed at the Hotel Biz where we experienced the quickest check-in ever and wallpaper depicting London scenes in our room! We were delighted to find the nearby Myeong-dong night market in full swing despite the freezing temperatures. So more random street food, more singing/dancing Psy statues and a beauty shop selling ‘snail solution’. Apparently it’s good for your skin.       

Unfortunately our only full day in the city fell on a Monday; the only day the hop on/off bus and tours to the demilitarized zone do not operate. A shame as we would have liked to do those. Nevertheless we enjoyed our brief glimpse of Korea.

First published in VISA 114 (April 2014)