A sketchy account of LKL’s recent trip to the land of morning calm.
Thursday night: arrive at Incheon, sail through immigration and customs, no wait for baggage or mobile phone rental, and buy a 14,000 Won ticket for the shuttle bus to a hotel in the City Hall area. Someone makes sure I’m queuing in the right place, and before I know it I’m at the Lotte Hotel. Get into a taxi. The driver doesn’t know where my hotel is, and can’t understand the map I have carefully printed off. We improvise our way to the Insadong Fraser Suites.
Friday morning: as I have made absolutely no arrangements for the weekend other than organising a hotel and sending tentative emails to a couple of people to say that I might be in Korea sometime in February, it’s time to start fixing things. One arrangement which I made on the flight from Hong Kong, which I shared with a colleague from our Seoul office, was a lunch date. Jin-a was worried that being a foreigner I might not be able to cope with “spicy” food. But on convincing her that I should be treated just like a Korean we go to a tiny street cafe behind the Deoksugung: Namwon Chuotang. A foreigner would not really know it was a restaurant, and would be puzzled by a lack of menu. The clue is in the name of the establishment: we are soon seated and the ajumma brings us the speaciality of the house: steaming Chuotang (mudfish soup - above right)
Friday afternoon: stroll down to Seoul Station to check out the lie of the land and buy a ticket for the KTX to Busan. Am entertained by the fervent singing of evangelical Christians in the station forecourt, who seem to be holding an open-air service. The spirit of brotherly love does not seem to have reached one particular ajoshi, who approaches a pair of twenty-year old girls (complete strangers) emerging from the subway and slaps one of them in the face before wandering off. The girl looks understandably puzzled. 
Walk back to the City Hall area via Namdaemun to view the devastation. Lots of people milling around. A little van plays a funeral dirge over some loudspeakers as a man tolls a handbell (above left, and right. Can anyone provide a translation of what was on the van?). A quick visit to say hello to a few people in our Seoul office, and I’m at the Deoksugung just as they put on the changing of the guard display (below left). I elect not to join the queue to have my photo taken with the chief guard (below centre), and instead buy a ticket to wander around the grounds and visit the art gallery where they have an interesting exhibition of two twentieth century Japanese and Korean artists. I’m there at just the right time, as the winter sun gets low in the sky and is able to illuminate some of the underside of the palace rooves (below right). Then back to Insadong to recuperate in preparation for the evening.
Friday evening: meet with Paul for the LKL / Kimchi for Breakfast meetup. Some food to line the stomach somewhere in the Seoul Station area: seafood and belly of pork barbecue. The side dish of South Jeolla stinky fish with the ammonia kicker is best avoided. Off to see the bars of Itaewon. First up, the Bungalow Bar where a few cocktails are downed in a bar with a beach feel: pleasantly warm sand covers the floor. Then off to Bar Bliss to meet Seoul’s friendliest barman, Ted Park (left), after which it all becomes a bit of a blur.
Saturday morning: I had somehow managed to get back to the hotel from Itaewon but the morning is a write-off. I am not best company for lunch with Justina of the Korean Cultural Promotion Agency. She’s in Seoul trying to drum up support (read: money) for the Dano Festival in Trafalgar Square this year (8 June). I have a soothing galbi-tang in one of the restaurants under the Seoul Financial Center, but I eat it without much enthusiasm.
Saturday afternoon: since I was disappointed last time I tried to see the Secret Garden, I turn up for the 3:30 guided tour of the Changdeokgung (above). Last time I visited the garden was closed for “reconstruction”. Alas, this time I fare no better: “health and safety” prevents the stroll. Apparently there is some ice on the path, so we have to be content with looking at the frozen pond before turning back. Then, off to Seoul Selection for a browse and a coffee, which makes me begin to feel a bit more human and gets rid of the last of the hangover fog still remaining after the chilly palace walk. I’d been told that Hank is usually around at 5pm on Saturdays, but unfortunately not so on this occasion. Still, it’s rude to visit without buying a book or two, so the latest KOFIC film director book (Tony Rayns on Jang Sun-woo) ends up in my bag.
Saturday evening: the LKL / Expat Arts Korea meetup with Pete. We meet in the Baekam Art Hall near Samseong subway stop for the concert by Sweetpea (thanks to Anna for finding out about this). Pete and I are the only foreigners there. Probably all the other music-oriented foreigners are at the Bjork gig not too far away in the Olympic stadium. A very pleasant evening of mellow music, though somehow the concert seemed rather passive, without much connection between performer and audience. Then off to a Hongdae bar (BricX) for a beer and a kebab of dried leather smeared with pepper sauce. The culinary low point of the weekend.
Sunday morning: an early start for the 9:05 KTX to Busan. Am met at the other end by Nam-hee and Min, who have taken it upon themselves to show me round. First, a foaming Samgyetang in Seoul Samgyetang in the Nampodong area. I reckognise the environs from a previous stay and demand to be taken to a CD shop. The one I remembered from three years ago had closed, but another one nearby had good stock. The sheet music of the Wonder Girls’ Tell me was available for 1,000 Won, but I was more interested in Nam-hee’s recommendation of a live concert by Yang Hee-eun, which hasn’t left my CD player since. There’s a rousing performance of Morning Dew, with audience participation, and a very moving song called 사랑 — 당신을 위한 기도. What an amazing voice [1].
Sunday afternoon: off to Taejongdae park on Yeong-do, the island closest to the centre of old Busan, for a 40-minute boat trip from Pebble Beach. The sun is warm, but the sea breeze is chilly. The tour operators hand out anoraks for those inadequately dressed. The guide highlights all the landmarks on the way, including a lighthouse and clifftop building which could easily be the lair of a James Bond villain (below), but it’s just good to be out on the water. Soon the guide shuts up and puts on a Ppongtchak medley instead which lifts everyone’s mood. Soon we are all dancing as we head back to the quay. We cross back to the mainland for a very fine restorative cup of green tea in a teashop behind the Lotte department store, then at my request I am taken on a guided tour of Busan’s finest beauty academy (Michae Beauty. Chairman and CEO: Kim Nam-hee - with sister Min (right) inside the academy). A very stylish and well-appointed place it is too. Finally we head off to Saha-gu where we stuff our faces at the Centrum all-you-can-eat buffet (below right). When I think of Korean buffet I’m afraid the Young Bean Kwan in London’s Barbican comes to mind. The Centrum is different: superbly fresh and well-cooked dishes on display or cooked to order. It’s a place where people go to celebrate their child’s first birthday and other family occasions. Very functional and spacious: a very public place. You could not conduct a clandestine affair there. The day is at an end, and I am taken back to Nampodong where the rather down-at-heel Phoenix Hotel awaits. It’s not luxury, but when it’s only 55,000 a night I’m not fussed.
Monday morning: a quick stroll around the Jagalchi fish market before I catch the subway to Busan Station and buy a ticket for the KTX back to Seoul. As we pass through Milyang, setting for Secret Sunshine, I feel compelled to take a photo (left). On arriving in Seoul, a quick bag drop in Insadong before heading off to Hongdae for the LKL / Korea Pop Wars meetup with Mark. After a pork katsu cutlet and a tour round the coffee shops, we find ourselves in a rather fine CD shop where Mark loads me up with all sorts of recommended listening. But I still can’t find Shinparam Yi Paksa!, the seminal work of disco ppongtchak.
Monday afternoon: subway back to Insadong. My fellow passengers and I are amused when a tiny ajumma starts pummelling a twenty-year-old stranger for some imagined slight. A stroll round Insadong (for the first time, I managed not to spend anything there during a trip to Seoul) and it’s soon time for the LKL / FT meetup with Anna at a western-branded coffee shop near the Sejong Arts Center. Back to Insadong for dinner with Chris, the kind Korean lady who had managed to get me a good deal at the Fraser Suites. The food at the renowned vegetarian restaurant Sanchon was superb; the strange entertainment including a kisaeng dance rather spoiled the atmosphere.
Tuesday: a final browse in Insadong before catching the shuttle bus to the Whanki Museum. After which a quick browse around Bukchon and Samcheong-dong and it was time to head for the aiport. I pick up the shuttle bus at the Koreana hotel and pretty soon I’m in Incheon, where the tourist agencies have laid on some features for those who don’t want to leave: at the inappropriately named Korean Wave Cultural Center (below) you can stock up on duty-free cigarettes before you get your photo taken dressed as a character from Dae Jang Geum. There are Jumong and King & the Clown themed gifts for sale. Or you can try your hand making Korean knots in the slightly more refined Experience Korean Culture center run by Korea House (below right). But my flight awaited. I ignore the opportunity for a make-over at the Laneige counter (above right), put my bags on a trolley decorated with a nice picture of Jeon Ji-hyun, and head for the gates.
Thanks to all those people who set aside time to meet up with me and entertain me. I only met half of the people I wanted to meet, and saw fewer than half of the sights. But as I only get to visit Seoul for a quick weekend only very rarely, that’s the way it goes.
- You can find a version of Yang Hee-Eun singing Morning Dew on YouTube here [back]
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