Category: Travelogs

I went to the COEX Mall yesterday with my wife to do some shopping and to check out the aquarium there. Like many things in Korea the experience at the COEX was hampered by the enormous crowds.

Just to get in the aquarium you have to wait in a long line. This was familar theme all day at the COEX. By the end of the day we felt like we were at Six Flags instead of a shopping mall with all the line waiting we had to endure.

At the aquarium you have to push your way through the crowds just to see any fish. People just seem to stand in place forever gawking at fish with no regards for people behind them wanting to see them too. So I had to use my basketball skills and box out for position. I have never seen so many people excited and jockeying for position to see guppies before.

I really wanted to see the sharks that were being advertised all over the COEX. During the tour I saw plastic sharks, balloon sharks, paper sharks, video sharks, and lego sharks. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see any real sharks. I didn’t see any real sharks until the very end of the tour and had to fight through the crowd to see them. The sharks were pretty cool especially the hammer head shark but I was so tired and claustrophobic by then I just wanted to get out of that aquarium.

The final area you experience at the aquarium is the tunnel that runs through the aquarium that makes you feel like you are walking through the ocean which was pretty cool. In the tunnel they had a moving sidewalk to stop the crowds from congregating in one area. They needed this sidewalk for the entire aquarium to stop the free for all shoving and bumping you need to do to see the other fish in the aquarium.

Overall, the aquarium has a good variety of fish, is interesting to see, and is English friendly. However, the admission fee is a little expensive at 14,800 won compared to other tour spots in Seoul. It is probably much more pleasant to visit the aquarium on a weekday instead of a weekend like I did. I have lived in Korea quite a while and I expect big crowds on the weekends but I am still not comfortable moving through them. But that is life in a city with the population density of Seoul.

Outside the aquarium there was a pretty cool store that sold a wide variety of puzzles. I noticed puzzles of city sky lines of New York, London, Paris, etc. I went and asked the lady at the store if she had any puzzles of the skyline of Seoul. She looked at me with a look of, “Why would anyone want to buy a puzzle of the sky line of Seoul?”, before replying that the store had no such puzzle. This I found surprising since they even had a puzzle picturing Tokyo. I then asked her what puzzles she had of Korea. Of all the puzzles in the entire store the only one they had related to Korea was one lone puzzle that featured a classical Korean painting that I decided to buy. Of all the beautiful sights in Korea you would think they would have puzzles picturing these places.

We did some more shopping and looking around the COEX. The place is just such a massive complex with a huge amount of stores. A definite place for foreigners to check out is the huge bookstore at the COEX. I have never seen a bookstore that big before, plus it features many books in English.

Walking through the labryinth of stores can really wear you out. So we decided to go watch National Treasure at the movie theater at the COEX, so we can sit down and relax. However, we had to do some more standing before we could sit down. The line to get tickets was extremely long and we were apprehensive about standing in another line, but we decided to anyway. Surprisingly the line moved fairly quickly considering how long it was. We were able to buy our tickets after standing in line for only 30 minutes.

The movie was actually pretty good, though it got a little corny after a while with all the secret artifacts and hidden passages the treasure hunters had to find using American history and documents as clues to find the final hidden treasure.

When the movie ended, a couple of college aged girls asked my wife if they could have our ticket stubs because their history teacher said he would give them extra credit in their US History class if they watched the movie, but they had misplaced their ticket stubs. We gave them our stubs but I just hope they don’t take the fictionalized US history in the movie as being real. However, if their history teacher told them to go see the movie, they probably will take it as gospel.

After the movie we tried to get something to eat at the many popular western style restaurants like Bennigans, Uno’s, Outback, etc. they have at the COEX. Coming from 2ID eating in one of these restaraunts is a real treat. However, the wait to get into every one of these restaurants was over an hour. With the midnight curfew we didn’t want to take the chance of not having enough time make it back up to 2ID land. If you are late for curfew for any reason you receive a field grade article 15 which is severe punishment. It doesn’t matter if your bus broke down or the taxi driver got lost, you still get in trouble. So you have to budget extra time for unforeseen things that can happen.

I wouldn’t want to be out past curfew and kidnapped by all the terrorists roaming the Korean streets looking for American soldiers between the hours of midnight to 5:00 AM. Couldn’t the terrorist just kidnap me before midnight? Well, people smarter than me make these decisions, so we decided to get some Burger King instead and head back up to 2ID land before the terrorists come out. Obviously I avoided any terrorist ambushes and safely made it back to 2ID land with an hour and a half to spare. I guess the Army is right about the terrorists not coming out before midnight after all.

Take what you want from these pictures but I do find them quite interesting and I’m sure you will to.

I was playing a children’s game and an orgy broke out!

I have seen wrestlers do this before to make weight.

This picture doesn’t need a comment.

An unusual but worth seeing tourist destination if you happen to be traveling to Geoje Island is the Oedo Paradise Island.

The island is quite beautiful but small island this is part of the Hallyeo Haesang National Park in Southeastern South Korea:

This small island is easily spotted from Geoje Island due to the many small ferry boats transferring passengers to and from this scenic island:

This island may be small but it does have an interesting history.  In 1969, Lee Chang-Ho began to come to Oedo while fishing to avoid the wind and waves on stormy days. He and his wife began to cultivate the land on the island for 30 years to make it into the garden paradise it is today. The island covers 264 square kilometer and just about every meter of it has been touched by the gardening work of Lee Chang-ho and his wife.

The island has many camellias, palm trees, and other exotic plants. The Venus Garden on the island is designed after the French Versailles and displays twelve sculptures.

The island also has the Paradise Lounge, where you can order something small to eat and drink but beware it is pricey. It also has a small gift shop to buy souvenirs from the many famous dramas filmed here.

The most famous is the Winter Sonata drama.

The sites in the drama are well marked on the island an are swamped with female Japanese tourists. The Sculpture Amusement Park on the island just left me wondering what the heck is up with all the weird children sculptures that are supposed to be Korean children’s games.

I began to think this guy was a pedophile. I don’t know when sticking your head up someones rear end became a children’s game?

Overall the island is worth checking out especially if you traveled all the way to Geoje Island to begin with because it is so far out of the way in Southeastern Korea.

Oedo island is easily reached from Geoje by traveling to the Haegumgang Park entrance at the far southeastern side of the island. At the park you can buy a ticket to see Haegumgang and Oedo Island for 8,000 won at the dock. The boat is quite comfortable but times are subject to change depending on wave and weather conditions. The round trip time of the tour is 4 hours but worth it.

I was recently staying in the Friendly Hotel in Chungju. The hotel is the best hotel in Chungju. The hotel was costing me 80,000 won a night and offered an “American Breakfast” in the hotel’s restaurant downstairs. The room was great, good view of the adjacent lake, my own balcony, and the people were all friendly just like the hotel name but the “American Breakfast” has got to get some revising.

I was really looking forward to the breakfast when the menu said the meal consisted of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast for 10,000 won. Pricey but I was tired of eating Korean breakfasts for the past few days. So when I got my breakfast I ended up wanting to order a Korean breakfast again. The meal had one cooked egg that had a Korean taste to it, the hashbrowns were actually four french fries, the bacon was one half strip of bacon. For 10,000 won you would think I could at least get one full strip of bacon! At least the two pieces of toast I got was American style. I was still starving after that meal so the waitress just kept bringing me more toast for free.

So the lesson learned from this is to beware of any “American Breakfast” being offered in a hotel where they do not see many foreigners. This problem is actually pretty common throughout Korea because a real “American Style” breakfast is hard to come by here in Korea. Does anyone know where some good breakfasts are served in Korea besides on military bases?

One of the eight scenic wonders of Korea is Songnisan National Park. The park is located in the Chungcheongbuk-do province in the center of South Korea. The park is extremely beautiful with many attractions to see. The park is especially beautiful during the fall season.

The park also has some interesting history. Near the entrance to the park there is a tree named the Minister Pine which is a 600 year old pine tree that was given the rank of Imperial Minister by King Sejo in 1464. The King’s path while traveling to Songnisan was blocked by the tree’s branches and he commanded the tree to move it’s branches out of the way which it did. King was so happy with the tree’s obedience he granted him the rank of an Imperial Minister. The tree today is really showing its age and the snow storm from this past March really damaged the tree with the nearly 2 feet of snow that fell in the area. King Sejo also named the famous Munjeongdae peak of Songnisan (1033 meters) which means something similiar to a scholarly mountain because he and his officials read and composed poetry from it’s summit. King Sejo was carried up the mountain in a palequin chair. How his servants were able to carry him up such steep trails to the summit of Munjeongdae is beyond me. But kudos to them. Other sites where King Sejo visited are located throughout the park. King Sejo had an interesting time during his reign as the King of Korea. I plan to write more about him in the future. Stay tuned.

The mountain also has a major cultural attraction with the Bopchusa Temple located in a beautiful valley on the mountain’s slopes. The temple is really an interesting and picturesque place to explore. I enjoyed this temple more than even Haeinsa. It’s most famous site is the gigantic golden Buddha located on its grounds. I plan to write a seperate posting on this great temple. Stay tuned.

The trails on the mountain are really well maintained and labeled relatively well in English. There are a number of sites to stop and rest at along the route that serve food. There is actually a resturaunt just below the summit of Munjeongdae that you can eat at. It has a number of Sky Life dishes and ajumma was watching her dramas while I was up there. I recommend walking the trail from the Songnisan village to the summit of Munjeongdae. If you have time take a side trail from the first rest hut on the unpaved portion of the trail to the summit of a nearby peak that offers a spectacular view of the entire valley. The trail is not marked so you will need to ask the extremely nice lady in the hut to point you towards the trail which she showed to me. I asked the woman how long she has lived on the mountain working in the hut and she said she has lived on the mountain for 35 years. Pretty amazing being able to live up on the mountain for that long. Her son lives up there with her and he walks water up to her everyday since they have no water line. She has power from a generator and her Sky Life dish is located on the nearby peak. She maintains the side trail to access her dish. Even an ajumma on the side of a mountain needs to see her dramas.

Leave early to reach Munjeongdae. I started hiking at 5AM and reached the top of the mountain at a leisurely pace in 5 hours including a side trip up another peak. The trail was over 6km long. I reached Munjeongdae before the mobs of people came. I was on the peak at 10AM with maybe 5 other people. By the time I finished lunch at the hut on the summit there must of been about 50 people up there. What I found really amazing from the view was that I could not see a city or a high rise apartment in any direction except for the Songnisan Village at the parks entrance. I was just surround as far as the eye could see by mountains.

The Songnisan village as many hotels and restaurants to choose from. The hotels are pretty standard hotels for Korea. Nothing fancy. If you want a really nice place to stay you need to go to the Lake Hills Resort. The hotel will set you back about 130,000 won a night though. The restaurants are primarily all Korean restaurants. You will find no fast food joints here.

Something I found interesting in the village was the red stones the hikers would walk on barefoot to massage their feet. According to the signs the stones had healing properties along with massaging abilities. I tried it out and it tickled more than anything else. I was laughing like crazy while the locals just looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t know how they were not laughing while walking on these stones. However, the stones really did make my feet feel good after walking over 15km that day.

To reach the park just travel to the city of Cheongju just off of highway 1 and a number of roads from the city head East to the park. A really scenic route to take is to travel to Chungju and from Chungju travel over a mountain pass on highway 3 to the city of Mungyeong. From Mungyeong continue to travel south on highway 3 to Sangju. From Sangju take 25 and then 37 to the park. The route is extremely beautiful and I highly recommend it. Make sure you bring your camera because you will be amazed by the abundance of great scenery.

Last weekend I took a hike up Pukhansan Mountain to the Northwest of Seoul. I entered this National Park from the western side. Entering the park from this side is really picturesque because the view of the peaks from here is really stunning. Parking at the park costs 1000 won an hour which is quite expensive if plan on spending a full day here. Mass transit may be a better option for you. Entrance to the park was only 2400 won.

Bordering the front gate of the park are many hiking stores, convenience stores, and restaurants. The first hiking store booth right next to the parking lot there is an old odashi that speaks English who will joke around with you. He is really funny and will give you a foreigner discount because he sees so few foreigners come to the park. In fact that day I saw only two other foreigners on the mountain. It is to bad because the park is such an easily accessible place that will give you a much different view of Korea besides high rise buildings and the traffic jams people are accustomed to in Seoul.

The park features numerous trails and you can buy a map from the funny odashi at his hiking booth. You have the choice to go up numerous peaks which all go from 700 to over 800 meters high. I chose to climbs the highest peak, Baekundae peak which is 834 meters high. Starting up the trail you will follow a beautiful creek that winds up the side of the mountain. The creek was filled with rushing water and small swimming holes that the locals were using to swim in. Also towards the bottom of the mountain the creek is packed with families having picnics. The further up the trail you go the less the people.

There are also numerous Buddhist temples to be explored on the mountain. One particular temple you can see from the trail is one that has a stunning huge rock carved buddha that must be 30 feet tall. Well up the trail I was hiking on I passed by a Buddhist temple. What was amusing about this temple was that it had a satellite TV dish in front of it. It appears that the modern world is now even changing the way the Buddhists monks live. What was also funny was that their was a pay telephone outside of the temple also. Soon enough I will probably see the monks carrying cell phones with Hello Kitty stickers on them.

Once the trail broke away from the creek it became really steep and many areas had installed cables to help climb up the rocks with. In these areas with the installed cables the trail becomes bottle necked with hikers who are going up and down trying to use the same cable. So it will take some time to work your way up these areas.

As I traveled along the route I over heard some hikers talking about somebody who was threatening to jump off the mountain. Further up the trail I saw a crowd of hikers standing around looking down the side of a cliff. Apparently the guy decided to jump off the cliff. The park rescue personnel were already down there trying to treat the guy and apparently he was barely alive and they brought a stretcher down and tied ropes to it to get it pulled up the cliff. The rescue personnel recruited me to help pull the stretcher up the cliff. By the time we had pulled the strecher up the cliff the person had died. When we got him pulled up he was really messed up so it wasn’t suprising that he had died. What I found interesting was that nobody seemed to be really shocked about this guy killing himself. Everyone was real nonchalant about it. In Korea suicide is an accepted practice for business, financial, and personal failures that disgrace you and your family. In Korea many government officials including the Pusan mayor have taken their own lives. Many businessmen have jumped from buildings or from bridges over the Han River to kill themselves. Students even kill themselves for failing college entrance exams. In my unit one year ago before I got here my unit’s senior KATUSA killed himself because he got dumped by his girlfriend because he had been away from home so long serving his military commitment. These are definitely some stressed out people over here. Don’t kill yourself, if you have to move to the other side of the peninsula or something.

After leaving that scene I continued up the mountain. After some very steep hiking I finally reached the bottom granite face of Baekundae peak. Here the trail was extremely bottle necked with hikers. It took some time to work my way through all the hikers. It was extremely crowded. At the summit of the mountain there is a Korean flag in place at the observation point.

Standing on the summit provides a great view of Seoul and the entire Kimpo peninsula. This day was a bit hazy so I couldn’t see North Korea. But on a clear day you could definitely see North Korea from here. On the summit I got talking to some ajushis who were amazed I can speak some Korean. It is bad enough I was getting treated like a zoo animal up there because I was the only foreigner on the mountain but the zoo animal could also speak some Korean. It was like they had just had a horse speak to them. Now I know how Mr. Ed felt.

The ajushis commented that they could not believe I was so tall and not fat. I guess every tall foreigner in Korea is supposed to be fat. I better work on my beer gut. The ajushi than asked me if I was an English teacher and where I was from. When I told him I was an American soldier you could visibly tell he and his friends were amazed. I guess I didn’t live up to the stereotype that many Koreans have of us being drunk all the time, getting in fights, and looking for prostitutes. This stereotype actually fits Korean males better than it does American soldiers.

However this stereotype helps ajushi not feel so bad about his own misbehavior when he can say the Americans are doing the same thing. The real stereotype of an American soldier in Korea is one who works his ass off all day, on vehicles, sweeping the motorpool, and mowing grass when he isn’t in the field. The times he has off, he is sitting in his room playing his Playstation for endless hours and drinking beer with his friends in the barracks.  People fail to realize how few soldiers actually spend all their time in the ville getting drunk and being stupid.

The many American soldiers here are barracks rats just counting down their days. But every year the handful of soldiers that do get in trouble in Korea always get made up by the media to represent all 37,000 soldiers here. However after telling them I was a soldier the ajushis quit talking with me and left. I told a friend of mine about this and he told me I should just say I am an English teacher here from Canada. I will never do that because I’m sure Canadian English teachers wouldn’t appreciate that but why should I not be proud of what I represent? The American Army has freed more people and done more good than any other Army in world history. Name one army that has done more good for the world than the American military. If ajushi has a problem with it, it is his problem not mine.

Anyway I proceeded back down the mountain. Going down the mountain was really quick. I got up the mountain in 4 hours at a leisurely pace and made it down in 2 hours at a leisurely pace. I was definitely tired afterwards but it was a really good day. Great weather, beautiful scenery, and some weirdness with the guy killing himself. Just another typical day in Korea.