I just got back from vacation a few days ago. It was a short two week trip to Korea, sort of as a grad trip. Until now, I would go to Korea with my family every time. This time, I went solo because of schedule conflicts. This is therefore the first time I’ve gone on a flight alone, and an international one at that. The last time I visited Korea was in late July of 2019, so nearly 4 years ago. Because the country changes so rapidly, I was essentially walking in blind, despite that I’ve been there multiple times.
There’ll be a little Korean text scattered in the article. I have an article on how to read Korean if you’re interested.
Thanks Russia, very cool
A one-way trip from Toronto to Korea used to take about 13 hours. Now it’s about 15 hours thanks to Russia. Since the Russia-Ukraine War started, a lot of commercial flights no longer fly over Russian airspace. The Toronto-Incheon route used to fly over this area, but now takes a detour by flying over the Pacific Ocean and through Japan. The yellow line is the old, shorter flight path and the red is roughly the new one.
The new route might seem only slightly longer than the old one, but the difference between 13 and 15 hours is massive. If I were to travel again, I would do a layover.
Arrival
Heading to the mainland
The airport, Incheon International Airport, is located on an island. This picture was taken from the bridge that connects the mainland to the airport.
You can see the outline of Seoul in the background. My hotel is around Gangnam station, basically the center of the city. Traffic got congested as the bus approached Seoul.
First night
Once I got to Seoul and unpacked a little, it was almost 9 PM. All stores in Korea tend to close earlier than North American ones, so I went to a Lotteria, a domestic fast food restaurant chain. I ordered a Hanoo (한우) burger, which is kind of their flagship item. Hanoo is analogous to Wagyu; sourced from domestic cows that were treated better. I think Hanoo tastes pretty good but is a little overhyped. But that could just be me not trying the best beef.
If you can decypher the meaning of this, please contact me. Korea (and Asia) really likes using English. The language is in song lyrics, commercials and product names, and there are many loan-words derived from English; “the West” is generally idolized there. There’s a reason for the white man idolization stereotype. Grammatical, syntactical, and pragmatic correctness be damned, English is used everywhere. To someone who actually speaks the language natively, it’s baffling. Why not just use their native language? The West seems to love that stuff.
This sign was found in the very Lotteria that I went to eat at. There were two other signs that had equally meaningless phrases. I can only imagine what horrors a linguist would encounter while travelling here.
The next 11 days
The next week and a few days were very hectic. The primary objective of this vacation was to see my grandparents, whom I haven’t seen for almost 4 years. They’re old and have health problems, so I couldn’t go out and explore when I was with them. Instead, I got to try some good food. I’ll probably upload dedicated reviews, but here’s some pictures of what I had.
The biggest surprise to me was the price of food. If I wanted to feel full from a decent restaurant in Toronto, I would need to pay at least $25 CAD. If I did the same thing in Seoul, I would pay $20 CAD at most and the food would taste better. It seems paradoxical, considering Seoul is a much larger city than Toronto.
I also grew to dislike the pre-tax prices shown in North America. Korea, like the more logical places of the world, include tax in all price tags. There’s also no concept of tipping, what you see is what you pay. The North American system sucks.
This is 콩나물 해장국 (lit. kongnamul/beansprout hejangguk/hangover soup). I don’t drink, so I can’t verify whether it’s truly good for hangovers. However, it’s a good and light-tasting dish. It uses beef broth, vegetables, and has rice inside. It’s pretty filling and a good breakfast meal.
I got the chance to try omakase sushi, charcoal BBQ, and some unique fast food. These were all very memorable in their own right; the omakase invalidates all cheap sushi restaurants, the fast food is much better than North American chains, and the charcoal BBQ probably cut my lifespan by a few months but damn the meat was good.
The East Sea
I visited relatives along the east coast of Korea, so I got to see the East Sea (동해/Donghe) (Korea doesn’t call it the Sea of Japan) This was my first time seeing the ocean properly in a very long time, it must have been at least 7 years or so.
Homigot (호미곳)
This is a popular domestic tourist attraction place. It’s the easternmost part of mainland Korea, so people come here to see the new year sunrise (but it’s usually foggy). There are two hand statues, one on land and the other in water.
The view along the path here is very nice, the roads along the peninsula change in elevation. You can see clear views of the sea if the weather is nice.
Lotte Tower
Lotte Tower is a misleading name, because it’s a building and not a tower. A tower refers to a structure that people don’t live in, such as the CN Tower. A building is a structure that people live in, or at least can live in. And the Lotte “Tower” certainly appears like a structure that people can live in.
This is a monster building over 500 meters and over 120 floors tall, supposedly capable of surviving 80 m/s winds and a Richter magnitude 9 earthquake. It stands out so much because of its height and the surrounding environment. There are boutique stores in every direction, a giant man-made lake right next to the “Tower”, and Lotte World (an amusement park) across the street. It’s basically Lotte claiming its own Vatican.
Last 2 days
My schedule cleared up in the last two days, so I was able to move around on my own. I was active enough to get sore feet, but it was definitely worth it.
Namsan (남산)
Namsan (lit. South Mountain) is a very popular tourist attraction; there were more foreigners than locals when I reached the top. The mountain is on the north side of the Han River and is about 300 meters tall. There are stores and a viewing spot at the top, as well as the famous love locks. You can get to the top by bus, cable car, or trails. I used a trail, as the other options seemed too boring. The trail was about 1 km long.
You’ll notice that the picture above on the right has a hazy background. That’s from the pollution. Korea has pretty bad pollution because of the urban density and winds that blow from China, and it shows clearly.
I used the biggest and likely easiest of the trails, but there are multiple unpaved ones for people who want more. Although, you shouldn’t climb Namsan if you’re into mountain climbing. There are much taller and harder mountains everywhere in the country.
Yongsan (용산)
Yongsan (lit. Dragon Mountain) is an older and fading tourist attraction spot. This place is basically a giant electronics store that covers a small town. I used to visit here to see computer parts and rare keyboards. Despite aging and being left behind, there are still lots of smaller stores that fill niches. It’s a fun place to walk through.
Han River (한강)
During my final full day, I visited the Han River (Hangang). There are trails, bike lanes, and some parks along the river. I found a bike rental store, and paid $3 for one hour.
The bike trail is really fun to travel along. It stretches on for several tens of kilometers and is good enough that lots of cyclists use the paths. The path is flat and beginner friendly, and the view is nice. You pass underneath lots of massive bridges, and I felt a sense of marvel at the engineering that went into building them. In total, I covered about 13 km in the one hour period.
The rental bike itself was pretty crappy. The seat was hard and I could not change gears. When I got off, my legs and butt felt super numb and I walked like a cripple for a bit. I went to a convenience store and drank Pocari Sweat for the first time after, which tasted very good. All of this led to a super memorable day.
A memorable vacation
Because this was the first trip I acted independently, I was able to get a lot more out of it. Solo travelling is fun, and I should do it more often.
I used to think Korea (and Asia in general) was very cramped, polluted, hellish in the summer, and had a cutthroat culture (still true). I thought that Canada was a generally better place to live in. Parts of my perception of Asia are still the same (it’s very cramped and polluted and hot), but now I think I’ve seen more.
Korea feels like a more developed nation than Canada. I can take a train for less than $30 and travel across the country. Basic parcel delivery is faster than Amazon Prime. Signal reception is available on every subway station, the 10th basement level, and literally inside mountains. The country moves fast; there is always something new every time I visit. Prices are also cheaper for basically everything; food, services, and products. The country just seems more advanced in many ways.
My only regret from this trip is that I hardly had time to go exploring. Next time, I’m hoping to visit other cities and the rural areas in between. Maybe even go hiking properly. I hope I get the chance to go again soon.