Goals
As usual, I wanted to spend a few days by myself without responsibilities and to have no bigger decisions than choosing a place to eat. I also wanted a change to break up the monotony of doing chores every day, every week, every month.
On this trip, I wanted to do lots of writing. Poetry, fiction, and a travel diary. I was also hoping to do some photography in the early mornings before the sun became too hot.
Reservations
There are many buses to Seoul and back every day, but there are also a lot of people on those buses, so I reserved my return tickets two weeks in advance. That way, I could get a front seat in the single-seat side of the bus. Premium buses in Korea have only three seats per row - two on the left and one on the right. I always go for the single side because on the two-seat side the chances of being sat with a lovely young lady are very low and the chances of being sat with some old guy who loves talking on his phone are high. And, as an old guy myself, I would hate to ruin the trip for some lovely young lady.
The hotel reservations were more difficult. The IBIS Ambassador hotel I usually go to was renovated earlier in the year and instead of wooden furniture, warm-coloured carpet, and a nice long desk along the window wall, they now have almost no furniture, several shades of beige, and just a tiny table and a chair in the corner. So I looked around and found the MnLucky Hotel not far from IBIS. The room wasn't anything special and didn't look cosy, but I saw two tables in the website pictures and the price was about 60% of IBIS.
Packing
Socks, shirts, underwear, and a comfortable pair of boxers and a colourful t-shirt for wearing in the hotel room. No electronic devices except for my phone. A small notebook for quickly making notes when out and about, a larger notebook for writing up those notes in a narrative form, an exercise book for creative writing, and a folder with lots of writing that needs to be edited. My Nikon F6 camera with six rolls of black and white film. Such ambition!
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| And spare batteries |
Bus Ride
I arrived half an hour early for my 7:30 bus to Seoul. It gives me enough time to have a tin of coffee and wake up a bit.
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| A Jesus Lady handing out church pamphlets |
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| Boarding the bus |
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| Gapyeong Services Area |
The bus ride to Seoul officially takes two hours and twenty minutes, but it's usually closer to three hours because traffic is heavy once you get to Seoul. The bus stops halfway to Seoul for fifteen minutes. Enough time to run to the convenience store and the bathroom if you don't dawdle. There is a large good court, but only those who are travelling in their own cars have the time to have a meal there.
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| Not a good day for eating or drinking outside. |
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| The services area seen from the side of my bus |
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| The outskirts of Seoul |
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| Approaching the Express Bus Terminal. Traffic has thinned out. |
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| Everyone out |
The trip back to Sokcho three days looked more or less the same but in reverse.
Photography
When I got off the bus, I immediately started making pictures with my film camera. Bang, bang, bang, I got halfway through a roll of film before taking a taxi to the bookstore. But the heavy camera in the heat and humidity nearly did me in. I was questioning the wisdom of my camera choice for the trip.
So after dinner I showed the address of Digigate, an authorised Nikon dealer, to a taxi driver and away I went.
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| Digigate |
I more or less knew what camera I wanted, but I spent a bit of time
fondling handling different camera bodies. I decided on the Nikon Z50II, a small and compact camera that comes with a small zoom. It also has a built-in flash, which is great for fill-flash or taking pictures inside. The shop owner gave me a small discount for paying cash and off I went.
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| In a café after my purchase |
I was tempted to open up the box and start using the camera right away but waited until I got back to my hotel room so I could do everything carefully.
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| Nikon F6 on left, new camera on right |
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| The first photo made with my new camera |
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| Second picture made with the new camera |
I liked the new camera right away. It fit perfectly into my hand, pictures look good straight out of the camera, and I could hardly feel the weight whether it was in my shoulder bag or around my neck. Perfect for travel or for walking around with no special subject in mind.
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| Around the corner from my hotel |
I thought that I was going to spend morning and evenings taking pictures like the one above - scenes of the streets of Seoul, etc. But because of the miserably hot and humid weather, I ended up taking mostly snapshots. But that was fine, because I wasn't on a photo trip, I was on a trip to relax.
I meant to visit lots of interesting restaurants, but see above about hot and miserable weather. The first thing I had in Seoul was a serving of chips and a Coke in the bus terminal Burger King. I used to like Burger King a lot, but it's now worse than McDonald's.
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| Fresh from the fryer, but managed to taste stale and half-cooked at the same time. At least the Coke was decent. |
I had Burger King as soon as I arrived because I wanted to spend a lot of time in a bookstore and then have a late dinner. I wanted a late dinner to avoid the office worker rush from 12 to 1. I found a basement Indian restaurant near the bookstore. A lucky find. I almost ended up in Outback.
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| Minus points for using tablet ordering. |
Despite the awful tablet menu and ordering system a lot of restaurants are using these days, I had a very good meal and the service was good.
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| Chicken Tikka and Naan. Some shockin' good! |
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| My meal was blessed |
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| The tail end of the lunch crowd |
Supper on my first day was my usual takeaway from Pelicana Chicken. I'm not sure why a chicken restaurant is named after a pelican.
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| Waiting for a table |
This is the branch I go to every time I visit Seoul. I wonder if the owners recognise me. There are only three tables inside the restaurant and I've only ever seen one of them occupied at a time. Until this trip when all the seats were taken and people were waiting outside or leaving to find another place. The owner gave me a chair up against the drinks cooler so I could have air-conditioning while I waited. I had to turn sideways every time he brought something to a customer's table. When the chicken was ready I went back to my hotel to eat it, as per my Seoul Trip tradition. I didn't enjoy it as much this time, however. Maybe it was too much? Maybe the cook was tired from all the business and was a bit off? Maybe I'll try somewhere different next time.
The next morning I went into a traditional tea shop to wait for restaurants to open and to have a cool drink.
The old man working there was unfriendly. To me, anyway. A little after I arrived, a young man came by and they chatted amicably at a table about the weather. The old man's wife showed up later and she also gave me unfriendly looks. Until their POS computer stopped working and I paid in exact change so they didn't need to break open the till. Then she was all smiles. Despite that, I liked the interior of the shop (wood, not plastic) and the iced Japanese plum tea was refreshing. I wish I could find a tea shop like that in Sokcho.
When 11:00 rolled around, I walked a block to the Bukchon Mandu restaurant. Since 1953, says the sign.
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| I was the first customer |
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| The restaurant seen from the other corner |
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| Bibim Naengmyeon - 'Cold Mixed Noodles' and stuffed dumplings. 'Mandu' in Korean. Delicious. |
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| A big dumpling requires a big dish for the soy sauce |
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| At least some of the cooking is done in the alley. You can see the cook waiting behind the window for me to finish. I wanted to take a photo once she came out, but she stayed put. |
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Samgyeopsal - Pork Belly
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A nice part of my trip was seeing a friend I haven't met for nine years, though we text each other now and then. She's a flight attendant and it turned out she was going to be in Seoul the same time as me. So on my second evening in Seoul we met up at a grilled meat restaurant for pork belly. We ordered two servings. One serving is 150 grammes. When the small pieces of meat came out we looked at each other and my friend said to the server, 'Is that two servings?' Maybe grammes are smaller in expensive restaurants . . . The meal was good. I forgot to make a picture, but I had sesame oil cold noodles and my friend had cold noodles in broth. Again, no picture, but after the meal we went to have ice-cream at another fancy place. It was good to see her again.
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| On my third day, I went to a Japanese-style Hamburg steak restaurant for dinner. The restaurant's name is Aiso and is just around the corner from the hotel I stayed in. |
Japanese-style seating, which is great for people who come in to dine alone.
The side dishes and sauces are on a small shelf in front of each place. Very convenient.
Under this small metal plate was a place mat giving instructions on how food is meant to be eaten. You are supposed to get an egg from the self-service area and put it through an egg separator you bring to your place. Then you mix it with the rice when it comes out. Along with soy sauce. I don't like raw egg mixed into my rice so I passed on the whole thing.
The rice and the demi-glace sauce. The sauce had bits of ground beef in it and was very, very good. The best sauce for cutlets I've ever had.
The hamburg steaks were a bit small, but they are made with 100% beef and cooked to perfection. Just a little smidge under well-done. I like that the warming plate is heated with a candle. I will definitely go to this restaurant again the next time I visit Seoul.
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| Yoghourt Chicken Steak |
My final meal in Seoul was at the Kervan Turkish Restaurant in the Itaewon Neighbourhood. I often go there on my trips. I try to get there early before the crowds or tour groups show up.
Random Things
One morning I saw a confrontation between an old man and two police officers next to a newsagent's stand on Jongno Avenue. From what I could tell as I passed by, the old man had maybe stolen something, damaged the stand, or harassed the female owner in some way. I walked about twenty metres away and watched from the corner of my eye. I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to be attacked by the old guy or reprimanded by the police. The old man looked like a homeless person, and though his head was bowed, he glared at the female police officer who was 'tearing him a new one'. The male police officer stood by with a notebook and said nothing. He probably didn't interrupt her because he didn't want that wrath directed at him. Two more police officers showed up while I was hanging about and pictures were made of the kiosk. I left after a while. I wonder what happened to the old man. I didn't feel sorry for him because there are a lot of rotten old bastards on that stretch of road.
Seeing as I was in the Big City, I looked up some cultural events. I saw notices for musicals (why so many musicals?), modern art exhibitions and so on, but about the only thing that caught my attention was an exhibition called "From Monet to Warhol" at the Sejong Cultural Centre. It's an exhibition on loan from South Africa.
The Cultural Centre is massive so I had to photograph it in two goes. It's possible my new camera has a panorama mode but I'm not familiar with all its features yet.
At the entrance to the exhibition hall is a public piano that anyone is allowed to play. When I arrived, this man was playing something rather fancy very well. The children on the left in the first photo were looking at me as I made the picture and the boy seemed like he was giving me a dirty look. When I passed the piano later there was a little girl playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I think a public piano is a fabulous idea.
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| Some lady painted by some painter. |
The exhibition was good, but I wasn't much interested in the modern art section. Most of it just seemed a reaction against good art. But what do I know? There was a nice section that showed a progression of Picasso's work from standard portraits to the abstract portraits he did later.
I'm not sure if it's visible in the picture I've posted, but some of the pieces had a camera icon next to the description. This meant, obviously, that they could be photographed. But people didn't just photograph the paintings. They had to get their friends to take a picture of them standing next to the pictures palm up gesturing to the art as though they were docents. And then that person had to do the same for their friends. Ugh. It really held up the line.
I got in a spot of 'trouble' at the exhibition hall. About halfway through was a room that had no art but terraced seating where people could take a rest. I sat down on a bench and took out my pen and notebook to write down some of my thoughts about the exhibition. I only jotted down a few sentences before a docent came over and told me that pens are not allowed in the exhibition hall. I apologised and put my pen and notebook back in my bag. Notices about where you could and couldn't make photographs were posted everywhere and very clear, but I saw no notices about pens. I used to see school children with pen and paper making notes all the time for school assignments, but I guess that's a thing of the past?
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| 3, F, 5 |
Just as there are no row 13s in some aeroplanes, older elevators in Korea don't have a 4 on the elevator buildings. That's because the pronunciation of the Sino-Korean word for 4 is the same as the Sino-Korean word for death. Elevators in newer buildings don't do this anymore.
Following is a selection of photos I made while walking around along with brief descriptions.
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| The Nagwon Musical Instrument Market. The big building on the left has been painted since I was last in Seoul. |
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| The alley next to the instrument market. Lots of restaurants. |
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| A side alley. Long ago this sort of side alley was used by lower class people to avoid aristocrats on the main avenues. Bowing to rich arseholes takes a lot of time and lower class people had work to do. |
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| Advertising for a Chinese restaurant and a calligraphy supply store. |
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| A nice collection of potted plants outside a building. |
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| I was making a picture of this mural(?) when these workers showed up. Which made a better picture. |
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| A seller of antiques in an alley. |
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| Statues of scholars. I wish I had more room on the left, but there was an ugly wall I didn't want to include. |
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| This is the alley next to my hotel. Pinky seems to be a bar with mirrored windows. Pretty dodgy. And, judging by the dust on the window, gone out of business. |
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| Nothing special about an air-condition unit, but I liked the colour of the wall. |
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| Fortune teller stalls. I walked around mostly in the mornings, so most business were not yet open. |
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| Another business not yet open in the morning. I made this photo because I liked the colours and because I wanted to see how those colours would look in my new camera. Very good! |
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| Another plant in front of another shop. So strange to see painted walls. Most everything in Sokcho is grey. And most of Korea, really. These buildings are in a tourist area. |
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| A nice side street |
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| More advertising signs. Mostly for restaurants. |
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| The hotel I stayed in was at the centre of a maze of alleys and was hard to find. But I realised that this curved building pointed me towards the alley leading me to the front gate of the property. |
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| Protesting lay-offs at Korea Telecom. I think this guy was here the last time I was in Seoul. |
You are probably protesting the length of this travelogue so I will stop here. I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed my trip to Seoul, but I'm looking forward to going back when the weather is better for photography.
