We have been away from home around 7 weeks or so and are currently in Auckland. New Zealand Baby! So how about South Korea? It was awesome and a bit crazy, which is not a problem for us ;-). Here is a list of things that we think make Korea so unique!
1) You're supposed to bow at everyone when you say hello or goodbye. Koreans also occasionally bow when they're on the phone...You get used to it quite fast and it's also a hard habit to get rid of when you enter a country where it's not normal anymore. Result: the two of us bowing at the border security personnel when we arrived in NZ.
2) In Seoul they have several Cat (or Dog) cafe's where you can have a nice coffee while surrounded by 20 cat's or so. This made Willemien very happy and she was smiling the rest of the day. Roger liked it too! Our stay would not have been complete without small-front-paw-cat and squished-face-square-eyed-cat.
3) It's perfectly normal that you get a pair of scissors with your meal. You can use these to cut your noodles, a large piece of beef/meat or your pizza. Perfectly fine with us.
4) Hiking is THE No.1 sport of Korea. Therefore you can find an outdoor shop in every small town, or even an entire street. Popular brands are Black Yak, Discovery Explorer, Salomon, The Red Face, The North Face, Eider and Kolon Sports. Most Koreans are dressed up in the most colorful and matching hiking outfits. Hiking is for every age, but elderly women in the age category of 60-80 (a.k.a. ajumma's) love hiking the most! It's also a sort of group sport since Koreans will come by the busload (literally!) to go 'hiking' in the weekends. This 'hiking' mostly included drinking soju (a sort of rice wine, read: Korean Vodka) and listening to very loud Korean Pop music. For a taste of K-pop click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAbokV76tkU And no this is not an exception. We could actually hear the buses arrive, because of their deep bass.
5) When it's weekend it's not only hike time, it's also party time! This party can take place at any place and point of the day. We figured this out when we took a nice ferry boat at 10AM in the weekend. After being loaded with food (see point 6) all the Koreans that were on the upper outside deck disappeared to the lower deck of the ferry. The familiar sounds of K-pop beats came to our ears and then we knew something was up. This was not a normal ferry boat, this was a secret party boat including disco lights, DJ and Korean karaoke. We couldn't let this opportunity slip by and made some nice moves (and pictures) together with our new Korean friends. Unfortunately we couldn't do the Polonaise (Sorry Floor Punselie!), because it is really rude to put your hands on someone's shoulders which is older than you...
6) Korean's are very friendly to foreigners. With their limited English they will always try to make a small conversation asking 1) Where are you from?; 2) How old are you?; 3) Do you like Korea? The response to Nederland is mostly: "aaah beautiful Flower!!" or " Hiddinku!". Korean's like to know your age because your age clarifies where you stand on the hierarchical ladder of society. But most important when meeting Korean's: they give you food! And if one Korean gives you something the rest will follow. Several times we didn't have enough hands to hold all the food they gave us. So nice! If you can say hello (annyeong haseyo) or thank you (gamsa hamnida) in Korean they will throw in another tangerine ;-) It was like Sint Maarten but then Korean style ;D.
7) Korean's like it Hot! Not only is (almost all) their food spicy they also like to heat their rooms. Traditional Korean houses used hot coals to heat their floors. Now everything is electric, resulting in a significant decrease of fires (you don't say!). A heated floor is called an Ondol floor and is used for sleeping, with only a hand full of blankets separating you and the heated floor. Also during hiking Koreans like it hot. All of them were wearing long hiking pants, long sleeve shirts, big backpacks and synthetic jackets while it was 20+ degrees. And they were asking us if we weren't cold in our short sleeve t-shirts...
8) Fermentation is the Key! Korean's preserve their food through fermenting it, which results in their famous Kimchi and other dishes. Kimchi are fermented vegetables which are actually really nice (and hot)! But you can also also use this technique on fish or anything really...not all to our taste.
9) Most Korean popular songs are performed by either boybands or girlbands, with the boys looking like girls as well. We have only seen one song performed by a single singer, the rest are groups. And every music video is full of group dances!
10) Hot Springs/Spa's are found in several spots around the country. They are a place to relax after a long hike. Filled with sauna's, cold and hot baths it is a great place to put your feet up and wash the sweat off. They are full of Koreans scrubbing away with water and soap.
11) Random outside fitness area's are everywhere, even hidden in forests and mountains. Who would not want to do a nice workout after climbing a mountain?
Our trip in short consisted mostly of hiking around the many beautifull national parks. We started our journey in Seoul were we stayed in a very cozy hostel called Crossroad Backpackers. Our hostel was located in the Hongdae area, which is the student area of town packed with small and super cute coffee shops and clothing boutiques. After the Big city we went down to the city of Suwon where we met up with Taekyun Nam, which is the brother of one of Roger's former colleagues in Rochester. Taekun was so kind to show us around town for 2 days, where we visited the large fortress and of course the World Cup Museum of 2002 in the World Cup Stadium. We also got a look inside of the stadium and saw some nice pictures of our Dutch pride: Guus Hiddink ;). Taekyun also let us taste some really nice Korean food! Best of which was the Galbi, consisting of big chunks of marinated steak that you had to cut with a scissor and then roast on your own private table barbecue. Thanks Taekyun for an awesome time!
After Suwon we went to Woraksan National park where we climbed Woraksan Mountain (1097m)! A tough climb but so worth it! We decided to go down to Danyang with the ferry (see point 5) and visited one of the largest monasteries in Korea and went down some very nice caves. Next stop was Gyeongju where we had the chance to bike around and see a lot of Korean history including huge green grassy hump's which are old kingly grave sites. The second largest city of Korea is Busan where we went hiking around a large fortress again. Made it just in time for the last cable car to get down back safe and sound before total darkness swallowed us....oops. After all this Korean history we went to Yeosu where there was some Dutch history in the form of the Hendrick Hamel museum. One of the first Dutchmen to get stranded in Korea as a VOC clerk. He was a "guest" for ~13 years before he escaped to Japan. Afterwards he published his diary, hereby introducing the country of Korea to Europe for the first time! From Yeosu we took a ferry (not party style :( but food present style :D) up to a small island where we had a nice hike along the coast line and stayed for the night. Before we went back up to Seoul we went to another very crowded national park with a lot of: 1) partying Koreans in neon matching hiking outfits, 2) K-pop music which you could hear on top op every mountain coming from the valley below and 3) beautiful red maple trees! And to finalize our Korea trip we went to set foot in North Korea for about 2 minutes at the Joint Security Area (JSA). Unfortunately we didn't get another stamp in our passports :(. We also met up with Willy which is an old high school friend of Rogier's mother who we want to thank for all the information we got from her before we started our travels and the great evening we had with her! We loved South Korea and recommend it to everyone of you. It's a great country with a lot of history, great people and very nice food!
And now we are in Auckland on a Campervan Hunt!
Cheers and love Rogier and Mien
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