August | 2012 | trying to travel light

View from the hotel

Well, a work trip with a bit of holiday tagged on the end has given me the perfect excuse for another blog entry. I have various bits and pieces of posts on the go as drafts but I wanted to get something out there more quickly, and my trip to Seoul seemed like a good excuse!

I’m lucky enough to travel for work but after my career break to go travelling, I didn’t think I would be let out of the office for a while. Luckily we’re busy at work and short of people for courier trips so I’m here at the moment overseeing the installation of Owen Jones: Islamic Design, Discovery and Vision at Goyang Nuri Aram Arts Center on the outskirts of Seoul.

I won’t bore you all with work stuff as the city of Seoul is much more interesting. I got here after a 7 hour delay that including getting on and off the plane a couple of times, watching a couple of films, having a nap, and eating a meal without actually getting off the runway or going anywhere. I got the bus to the hotel and immediately a friendly Korean teenager (keen to practice his English, no doubt) saw me with my map and helped point me in the right direction of the hotel (well, it’s more like a mini-apartment). The people are as friendly as I remember on my last visit, which I think was January 2004 0r 2005, when it was minus 10 and freezing. This time it is about 35 and super boiling hot! I am following the locals by walking around using my umbrella as portable shade, seeing as I’m not yet old enough for the perm and large sun visor look sported by the ladies over 50.

Town centre near where I am staying

For me, Korea is like a mixture of Japan and Hong Kong. It’s super sleek and efficient like Japan but a bit rough around the edges like Hong Kong. If you’ve been to these places, you’ll know what I mean. Because its Asia, there are plenty of mad things here, such as full length mirrors at the underground stations, the underground plays music when a train is approaching as you wait on the platform or when you are on the train and reach an interchange station, everyone has giant mobile phones/tables that they are permanently connected to (even in their cars), the old ladies hang around in gangs wearing floral shirts and giant sun visors, people stop you to practice their English, and you can still smoke indoors. The list of weird and wonderful things is endless and I’ll add more in my next post.

So far I have managed to embarrass myself a couple of times while eating. First time I went to a restaurant by myself, ordered the set meal (the only thing on offer) and it was enough to feed about four people, seriously! The food was delicious and vegetarian though, and set in a traditional restaurant that looked like a temple with lots of traditional Korean decorations. The meal also included a traditional Korean dancing show (I didn’t realise and was trying to leave but they kept insisting I stay and I didn’t know why). The second time I was eating lunch in a Japanese restaurant with Victor (my courier colleague from the V&A) and after the chef saw me decanting the fish from my plate, a lady was sent over to show me how to mix my rice with the salad and chili sauce. Just as well I like spicy food! She was about to put the fish in too and then I think she realised she had a weird foreigner on her hands and just made do with mixing what was left in my bowl. This was after I was offered wooden chopsticks (easier to use than metal ones) and a fork, even though I am very proficient with chopsticks thank you very much! I really had to try not to laugh as the lady rattled away to me in Korean explaining how to mix everything and eat it. She managed to stop just short of feeding me herself, bless her.

Part 2 of gigantic meal

So this week is all work and then at the weekend I’m off to stay in a Buddhist temple for one night as part of the Temple Stay tourism program (I’m very concerned about getting up at 3.30am but very excited about the vegetarian food) and hopefully a bit of sightseeing around Seoul and the DMZ (demilitarised zone) on the border with North Korea.