한국여행 리비유

After several years of anticipation, my dream to travel South Korea has finally come true. And in a blink of an eye, 14 days flew and reality dawned. Next thing, here I am, writing my review.

To sum up my personal reflection of Korea in one sentence: I was not in love with Korea as much as I imagined I was.

Personally, I must say that Korea as a country, has been so overly exaggerated from the almost guerilla-like advertising that it hardly gives people any accurate imagery of the Korean way of life. Years of longing to visit Korea has fueled in me a high expectation. Imagine how I felt when I reached the airport at 11pm with almost 90% of the shops and restaurants closed, and the entire departure floor has no one but the stillness of the air. Of course, my first thought was to immediately correct my assumption that all airports in the world operate 24 hours all year round.

The Korean living condition is one of the first few things that caught my attention. Simply because they were the exact opposite of the mental image I have of a first world country. I guess this is one of the many defects from staying in Singapore - You start to expect all first world countries to have proper walking pavements and clean roads, which, as proven, is not always the case when a country is many times bigger than our little red dot. This is also one of the reasons why I prefer local apartments to hotels while traveling, you're immediately immersed into their culture without even trying to. :)

This is the apartment building that we stayed in Seoul. Excellent apartment, excellent facilities, excellent location, excellent host. I would highly recommend this place to anyone planning to visit Seoul. Click on the image for more pictures of the apartment.

Despite all the spiciness and broody red chili sauce oozing from the plate, I really love Korean food.
One thing with their food is the overdose of 김치 (Kim Chi) as a side dish for every meal. Typical foreigners would have gotten sick and tired of 김치 by the end of the trip. But I only craved for more after returning to Singapore. I don't, however, crave for all kinds of 김치. There is this particular type that was served by our host on our last home stay. It was awfully sweet and sour, so strong was the sourness that I almost had to force it down my throat. Out of manners, we had them for our first two days, but on the third day, we decided to just leave it locked in a glass.

Compared to Singapore, food in Korea is slightly pricer, but bigger in portion, with the company of different types of side dish. Almost everyday, we would leave the restaurant with bloated stomachs. So huge were their servings that we only had one meal each day, survived with the abundance of street food around the tourist sites.

It was a pity that we did not explore the Hallasan Mountain while on our 3 days quest in Jeju island. Nevertheless, we were able to make full use of the days with many exciting activities like taking submarines, riding on Jeju Jet and visiting the Jeju Folk Village (Inspired after watching Tamna, The Island!)

One of the most exhilarating activities we did in Jeju island, Seogwipo City. It could have been a perfect day had I not lost my camera here. :(  

Transport in Jeju island isn't very convenient for tourists, as they only offer two modes of transport - bus or taxi. Good for us that the taxi rate isn't as high as in Singapore, since we took taxi to almost all the places.

The one wild animal that you will probably not see in Jeju Island is dog. They are either caged, or cooked into meals. Yes, Jeju Island...or more specifically, the Seogwipo city, actually sells dog-meat based soup. From another point of view, Jeju island may be the heaven for tourists, but is definitely a place of hell for our cute little tail-waggers. Even when we get to see the dogs caged, they possess this direct gaze that tells you very strongly how unhappy they are in the island. They could be dogs half of our size, but a gut twice as small as ours. We could only imagine the kind of indescribably hard life they are leading.

In Seoul, the most convenient transport for tourists is no doubt, the subway! Despite the messy looking subway map, once you identify where you are, where you are heading to, it is actually quite an easy feat to plan your journey. We tried taking the buses, but each time we did, we had to consult the locals first before proceeding. There are bus maps at the bus stops, but there is just always a chance that something might go wrong and we would end up in some dark, unexplored alleys of Seoul.

Shopping in Seoul is truly a heavenly experience. Not only can you get a t-shirt at $5, there is just so much varieties of that Korean fashion street has to offer that you probably won't be able to find two stores selling the same design of clothes. I am not even exaggerating.

Dongdaemun may not be as cheap as other shopping streets, but I still agree that it is a shopping paradise. There are 7 levels in the building we went into, and neither of these levels sell the same item twice. Every level has something different to sell. We find ourselves stopping at every floors looking at things from left to right, from top to bottom. Basically the entire building is bombarded with things, things, and more things. Shopping can easily become an addiction and honestly, it can turn a little difficult to control your spending.

The one and only of department that we went in Dongdaemun, is a waste, but we actually spent a great deal of money here. Imagine that!

Despite the slightly extreme weather disparity, I love Seoul's weather than Singapore's. The afternoon sun is not the least bit my favourite, but the evening breeze is to my absolute liking. There is just this one recurring thought that kept popping up in my head whenever the temperature dips, "We would be thanking all gods of the world if the temperature goes 27 degree in Singapore, but look, it's easily a 20 degree here!"

Very unfortunately (and surprisingly), the Incheon airport was the worst experience. I had such unbearable memory of the place that seeing their advertisement about Incheon airport being the world's best airport actually aggravated me to an extent that even I can't imagine. I wouldn't know about their service, since most of the shops and restaurants close around 10pm. But I can quite guess that theirs is definitely many levels better than Singapore's, or even any other countries. I mean, if their service is crappy, then I have really no idea what is that important factor that made them the "best airport".

The thing that really bothered me is, what kind of airport has their shops close at 10pm, and by 12am, lights off at the entire departure floor? Could it be just me living in Singapore for too long that I'm starting to have the impression that all airports are opened 24 hours? In any case, the next time I visit Korea, which I definitely will, I wouldn't even bother spending another minute walking around the airport, unless absolutely necessary, or to visit their duty-free stores.