SOUTH KOREA: Sweet Pringles, Gangnam, K-Pop and Protests in Seoul, Daegu and Busan.
South Korea. It’s mainly cute teddy bears. I don’t think I went more than five minutes without seeing one.
It got a bit tiresome, if I’m honest. Luckily, South Korea offered a whole lot more, and having visited North Korea a few weeks previously, it was interesting to see things on the other side. The first thing I noticed was the staggering presence of CCTV. On. Every. Single. Street. I’m convinced it would be an impossibility to commit a crime in a Korean city, but it still didn’t inspire confidence in the country- it just felt a bit creepy.
My first stop was Seoul, a place I’d long dreamt of visiting. The country was in the midst of huge political scandal, with a majority of citizens calling for the head of President Park. More on that later. First, food. I sampled all of the authentic local cuisine with joy. Such as this:
They were surprisingly good.
I also tried a local speciality named the ‘Zinger Double Down Burger’.
Forgoing a bun in favour of two Zinger breasts, and adding a hash brown, bacon and cheese to the middle, the Zinger Double Down was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten.
Not all Koreans are happy with the US occupation of the country. Nor was I, as the city streets were filled with boisterous young American army types at night, and it felt a little intimidating at times. Partly because they seemed to be looking for trouble, and mostly because I’m a wimp.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve never seen a statue commemorating the moment that four schoolboys were turned into a human centipede, with the one at the front giving a blowjob to another schoolboy. But now you have.
With a trip to Japan on the horizon, I was already pumped to see some Pokemans, but I didn’t have to wait that long as South Korea was full of them. Here’s a shot of popular pocket monsters Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, Snorlax, Charmander, Garfield, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Marill and Pikachu. What a cute bunch.
Japanese culture was everywhere, as evidenced by the Hello Kitty Cafe, and the Studio Ghibli shop, where I proudly sat on the Cat Bus and secured geek bragging rights for the rest of my life.
I also visited the Brit Style Shop, to find out whether it was a shop in the style of a British shop, or a shop selling British clothes. Sadly, it was the latter.
A walk around the Hongdae area saw a fun but awkward and therefore brief trip to Condomania, the home of thousands upon thousand of condoms, including this biggun:
AND I also found two restaurants which summed up my feelings entirely:
…and one that should probably rethink their branding. I would not buy a coffee from this place:
Of course, I went to Gangnam. As a big fan of PSY (and I do NOT mean ironically) and other K-Pop legends, I had to go and have a look around.
The next day I went to the North Seoul Tower, one of the tallest structures in the world, and enjoyed some pretty incredible views of the city.
Sadly, the bottom of the tower was covered in those bloody ‘lovelocks’- padlocks that couples had attached to the tower in order to… I don’t know? Give them… good luck? I’m not really sure why they do it, but I do know that this looks very silly:
And rather poetically/symbolically, plenty of the locks were rusting and rotting away.
I’d highly recommend the tower. I enjoyed the stickers on the windows showing the directions of other cities, such as this one featuring North Korean capital Pyongyang:
I didn’t enjoy the following sticker though, as it ruined what would otherwise have been the most enjoyable piss I’d ever taken:
As mentioned previously, South Korea was (and still is) going through a period of political turmoil, with huge rallies and protests being organised multiple times a week.
I stumbled upon a protest site by accident, and got speaking to some organisers. They told me a protest would be happening the next day, so I returned hoping for an interesting experience.
I definitely got one. Before reaching the site I’d been at the previous day, I found a group of pro-President Park demonstrators, and then a huge group of bible-hawking folk.
When I got to the site I realised that it wasn’t a typical anti-President Park rally that day. Instead it was a protest against the government’s reaction to the Suwol Ferry Disaster of 1,000 days previous.
The entirely avoidable disaster claimed the lives of hundreds of school children, and both the captain of the boat and the government made the wrong decisions in virtually every way possible during and after the sinking. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol
Lifejackets were laid out on the ground to represent each of the victims of the disaster.
It was a truly sobering thing to see. I walked around the site and found that most people volunteering there were parents or family of the children that died. Nine of the children’s bodies still remain underwater.
After Seoul I moved onto the city of Daegu, which I was promised was the fashion capital of the country.
It wasn’t. It was the textiles capital of the country.
Four days in the textiles capital of the country led to a lot of trips to the cinema, where I:
- enjoyed cheese and caramel popcorn for the first time.
- Went to the shoes hospital
- Saw some oh so tiny doggies
- Saw a very creepy bear
- and finally, found a building that was advertising the fact that Kylie Minogue awaited on the second floor
I thought the zoo would be a fun distraction from… well, not much, so off I went. As it turns out, the zoo wasn’t too far ahead of Pyongyang’s zoo in terms of animal welfare.
Sad bear made me sad.
Fish markets are a big thing in Asia, so I thought I’d take the chance to visit one in Daegu. It was… interesting. I saw what I think are skinned dog’s heads. I’ll put that at the very end of the blog, so if you don’t want to be exposed to them, don’t scroll down to the end. It’s pretty grim.
My final city in South Korea turned out to be my favourite. Busan is a FUN place. It felt really cool without turning to pretension like a lot of Seoul neighbourhoods did, and it had everything you’d want from a city whilst throwing in some awesome scenery and beautiful beaches.
Not sure on Jam & Cheese toast, mind.
The two places that elevated Busan were Taejongdae and Gamcheon Culture Village. Both are musts if you visit Busan.
Taejongdae:
Gamcheon Culture Village:
On my last night I went to see a film at the Busan Cinema Centre, home of the Busan International Film Festival. Or, BIFF. Biff.
The centre boasts that it has ‘the biggest ceiling in the world’. Bit weird. Not only was it big, it had a constantly changing colourful display, which was Quite Nice.
Right. That’s your lot.
Below is the photo of what I think are severed and skinned dog’s heads. So you know, don’t scroll down if you aren’t into that.
Honestly, it’s pretty grisly.
Fine.
