Korea: A Week In Seoul

We had planned for this trip a long while back way before we headed for Vietnam. When we were still 3 months away from this trip, I had put together a trip to Korea in great detail.

Knowing there were plenty of young Vietnamese students attending colleges or working here in Seoul, I hoped to find one to be our amateur but fun private tour guide. I joined a few forums of Vietnamese workers and students in Seoul.

After a few days placing an ad for a non-professional tour guide with one of the forums here, I received a few responses. It was time to contact and to start some interviews.



We spent almost 2 weeks to interview a Vietnamese college student in Seoul only to find out that she lived about 2.5 hours away from Seoul. She told me that she planned to come to our hotel early in the morning and to get home late at night every day we were there. I didn't think this would work. I dropped her.






Back to interview the next person, I found a young guy who had graduated from a college here a few years earlier, and currently holding a full time job for an import-export company. He indicated that if I gave him a confirmed and exact dates, he would take a week vacation to fulfill this fun and exciting job even though he had never organized one.





 He also guaranteed me that he spoke Korean fluently, knew Seoul inside out, and understood the culture, and custom well, due to spending almost 10 years in this country. We communicated via emails and forum chats for a couple of weeks. He seemed to be pretty legitimate and energetic.




My final test was giving him my draft schedule of the trip, the where to go and what to do kinda thing. I picked up these tips from Dr. Google on what to do in a week in Seoul.


After a few days, he came back with a very nice and tightly run schedule in good detail. It sounded very organize and well plan. It was time to give him a call. We finally talked on the phone for about 20 minutes. It was a go.







 After my schedule was finalized, I gave him the exact dates. We exchanged our final information before we left for Vietnam. I kept my fingers crossed.


When I was in Vietnam, I contacted him again with our latest information which included our cell numbers and flights information. He promised to pick us up at the airport on our arrival.








 Dai, his name came to the airport to pick us up on time. We took the train to our hotel about 45 minutes from the airport. This train is fast, nice, clean, a bit luxury and fully equipped, included super fast WiFi.

We checked in on the train before getting to the hotel using our tablet and free WiFi.

We got to the hotel about 7 in the evening without hiccup with Dai's help. He was nice and well dress better than our expectation. His Korean seemed to be very fluent without the ooh and aah.

Since it was a short flight, we were still fresh. Dai invited us for a short tour of Seoul at night. Our hotel was right in the center of Myeong-dong shopping mecca.

Learning the lesson when we were in China, this time we packed a lot of heavy clothes for the cold, but boy, it was so cold again.

By 7:30 that evening, the whole area was packed with young people.

Myeong-dong is one of the busiest places in Seoul and is among Korea’s premier shopping destinations. There were so many people milling about even though today was Tuesday. It's hard to estimate but it could be hundreds of thousands. Located in the heart of Seoul, Myeong-dong market has been a witness to Korea’s tumultuous modern-day history as a center of city politics, economy, and culture.



To us, international visitors, Myeong-dong is a stunning shopping district with countless shops and restaurants. Its wild popularity has led to similar shopping districts springing up all across the country but Myeong-dong is still the best.

Again due to high latitude, Seoul, however, is very cold. In fact the previous 3 months of the previous winter was so cold even though we got there in the late February, the temperature was hovering around -10C.


We found a number of large shopping malls lie along the streets of Myeong-dong. Shops for clothing or cosmetics could be seen at every corner, and street stalls dotted the spaces in between, offering tasty snacks, inexpensive clothes, or sparkling accessories. 

The cooking aromas were swirling and trapped in the low, cold air made snacking irresistible. Most of the snacks offered here were deep fried. They were a bit greasy, and most were cheap enough to all around a dollar a piece. 

The traffic patterns in the area were very easy to follow without problem. They divided this huge market into straight blocks like the chess board. 

 
We also found a Burger King, a KFC, and the no-surprise Starbucks in the area. Plenty of American and well-known brand were here as well. The North Face, Lacoste, Polo Ralph Lauren, Forever 21, Bulgari and Louis Vuitton shops were right in the center of it.







 


It was shocking to find out that the prices at the shops here were 20 to 40% higher for the same items in the U.S. We had learned years ago that there was no where else on earth that could offer lower prices than in the U.S, except duty-free high price items.  





 
The air was abuzz with the mix of foreign languages as shopkeepers and international tourists haggle in English, Japanese, and more, but the majority of shop keepers were young people fluent in English. The area’s well-developed transportation grid makes it the ideal place for visitors who may not yet be familiar with the city. This market is the center hubs for all major public transportation from bus to taxi, and subways. All were within walking distance.

 
 Every few paces, there was a food cart surrounded with customers waiting for the next fresh out of the cooking pots batch of snack. Some skillful chefs showed off their cooking, chopping, skewing, kneading techniques that drew a large crowd. You don't jut enjoy the food, but viewing the shows for free as well.

The hot food and the cold weather made a good mix that one can not say no to them.

The Korean are well known for eating dogs, but here there were a few kiosks offered to international travelers dishes that imitated dog meat. We gave one a try, but to our disappointment, the ingredients they used were veggies and tofu-based that were pretty bland, insipid and tasteless.  

Our first night here was full of excitement with great enthusiasm. Time went so fast that few hours went by without much notice. Fortunately, a few steps to the right direction, brought us back to our hotel. We needed some rest and sleep for tomorrow adventure.