Well, two days into my South Korean visit and I’m quite impressed! It has a bit of a cold, dark, dank Tokyo feel to it, but that’s probably largely due to the season. It seems much easier to travel around than Tokyo because so many people seem to at least know some English. Those speaking fluent English have not been afraid to come out and help me when I’ve appeared dazed or confused trying to find my hotel or navigate the subway system.
My hotel room is TINY, but I knew that when I signed up. It’s only $50 a night and it had rave Trip Advisor reviews, so I jumped on the deal. It has everything you need (private shower right over toilet, big HD color TV, tea pot, fridge, bed). I’m very happy with the place, in hip Sinchon, which is full of funky shops, bars, restaurants, and right on the excellent subway system. A bit of a university neighborhood, which is always nice. The people who run it are very nice, speak fluent English, and are very good at offering suggestions on what to see and do.
Seoul is very safe and I’ve found most people to be very friendly and patient with a foreign language speaker like myself. I always feel obligated to ask how safe the area is for me to be walking around with a camera – and I often get laughed at like it was a stupid question because it IS so safe.
I headed out towards the 1395 Gyeongbokgung Palace to check it out and a few other things in it’s neighborhood this afternoon. An amazing and huge place that borders the South Korean President’s house in the back. Sadly, the Japanese destroyed the place TWICE over the years, burning it to the ground in 1592 and tearing down a previously restored version during WWII so they could plop their own HQ in its place. Now restored again, we’ll see how long it lasts this time!
There were a few free excellent museums adjacent to the palace, one on the palace and another on Korean folk art. After getting palaced-out I strolled into a few busy historic neighborhood nearby that was full of homes and shops preserved in traditional Korean architectural styles and very wealthy owners. After that, I kept walking south into the center of town through countless pedestrian malls closed to traffic to find a canal that ran next to public walkways. Too bad they had a few too many foot crossing stones permanently affixed – it would have made a great little whitewater paddling circuit!
