South Korea

We're so excited to tell you all about our trip to Seoul, South Korea! We arrived on October 31 and stayed for 4 days. Since our time was so short in Korea, we opted to go on tours 2 of the 4 days we were there. First of all, we have to begin by letting everyone know the joy we experienced when we walked into our hotel room and saw real beds! Melissa almost cried of happiness...sleeping on the floor for 2 months can be challenging. Our hotel, the JW Marriott, was beautiful. (We normally wouldn't be this excited about a hotel...but you have to remember how different our living conditions are in Japan!) We would probably not usually stay in such a nice hotel as well, but it was partially compensated for by our company. (The owners of the English school came and wanted a nice hotel). There were a total of 10 staff members from the English school that went to Seoul, but we spent most of our time with Steve and Zelie.

Here are some pictures of our hotel.



First Impressions
Seoul is HUGE! We had forgotten what it feels like to be surrounded by sky skrapers and sit in traffic for 2 hours. We were also surprised with how many people spoke English. Our hotel was mostly foreign businessmen and it was close to the army base, so the area was catered more towards Westerners. The picture on the left is of the Hangang River that runs through the middle of Seoul, on the right are the Trump Towers.

We were also surprised with how Western it felt. On every other corner, we saw Outback, Subway, Dunkin Doughnuts, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, and of course Starbucks!

Which one would you choose...the 3-story Starbucks or the "dirty" Starbutts? :)



The Markets
We went to many outdoor markets while in Korea. Most of them were catered towards tourists, selling a lot of souvenirs. We went to one market, though, that was more of a wholesale market for the locals. This was the Nam Dae Mun Market. This market was huge...miles and miles of street vendors. Our tour guide actually told us that after WWII children would often get lost at this market and never found, due to the fact that every corner and street look the same. She said that these children and their parents would wind up on the news looking for each other, saying that they got lost at the Nam Dae Mun Market and to please help them. These children often wound up in foster homes. Our guide wouldn't even let us out of her sight! The group picture below is of us with our tour group.



The markets sold everything from fake designer purses and clothing, to foods like silk worms and strange meats.




The Palaces
On our tour, we were also brought to see two of the six palaces in Seoul. First, at the Gyeongbokgung Palace, we were able to learn a lot about the Korean culture and history.


One interesting place we saw within the first palace was the Gyeonhoeru pavilion, which is a National Treasure. This is where banquets and parties were held during the 14oo's. This pavilion is pictured on the back of the Korean 10,000 won (which is almost equivalent to a $10 bill). One of the pictures below is of Melissa and Zelie with a group of Japanese high school boys visiting Korea. It's funny how people always want to take pictures with us! Don't you love their uniforms?!

The second palace we visited was the Changdeokgung Palace (which is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site). The best part of this palace was the huge "Secret Garden" in the back.

The Blue House

We also drove by the equivalent of the White House. In Korea it is known as the Blue House because of its blue tiled roof (the idea for the blue tile came from one of the palaces we visited, the old kings office was the only building in the palace with blue tiles instead of black). We were not allowed to stop, so the only picture we have is from the bus as we drove by (a little blurry).

Korean Spa Experience
We had heard many things about spas in Korea, so we decided we should experience it for ourselves. Our hotel was able to book us a morning appointment at a very traditional Korean spa. The spa had us picked up around 9am from our hotel and brought us to this building. Melissa and Zelie were brought to one floor and Frank and Steve were brought to another floor.

First, we undressed and were brought into the sauna. The guys had 3 different saunas to choose from: jade sauna, yellow earth sauna, and the elvan stone sauna. Each sauna is designed to cure or prevent different skin or medical problems. The girls had a much different experience. Melissa and Zelie were brought into an oven to roast! Actually it's called a sudatoriam, which is a place where physical therapy is made by infrared rays produced by pine tree burnings in a dome made of special stones and yellow earth. If this doesn't sound hot enough, they gave us burlap blankets to wrap around ourselves and we had to kneel on a burlap floor for 5 minutes in the "oven." We repeated this process another time after having a 5 minute break to cool down. This type of sauna is supposed to provide good blood circulation, prevent female disease, and prevent skin from aging. We were both feeling very sweaty and faintish after the sauna.



We were then led to the baths (the guys and girls have the same experience for this). There were three baths to choose from: the Green Tea bath which smelled like green tea and was very refreshing, the Ginseng bath which was very hot, bubbly, and had a distinct smell, and the cold water bath which was very cold. The baths (similar to Japanese onsens) were extremely relaxing.

Next, we were led to covered massage tables where we were motioned to lay down. The
masseuses were all dressed in their underwear. We assumed they dressed like this to make us feel more comfortable considering we were completely naked and to prevent their clothes from getting wet! They then used mittens and salt to scrub us from head to toe, which is called a skin scrub. This process took about 25 minutes. The amount of dead skin that came off was unbelievable!

We also had a cucumber face mask, a 30 minute oil massage, and our hair washed.

The spa was amazing and we all felt really relaxed afterwards. This experience was just so different than anything back home! Before leaving the spa, Melissa and Zelie had their hair done and got to try on traditional Korean dresses. Our entire spa experience was one of the highlights of our trip!

Korean Folk Village
Our next stop was the Korean Folk Village, which provided a realistic replica of what a common village looked like during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). We were a little disappointed with how touristy this was, but we still had a nice time. The weather was perfect and the leaves on the trees were beginning to change, which made for a beautiful day!




We also enjoyed some performances at the Korean Folk Village.

Here we are trying out some of the traditional games and tools.



Seoul Food


The food in Korea is much different than the food in Japan. Korean food is much spicier and has much more flavor than Japanese food. One of the most popular foods eaten with most meals in Korea is kimchi, which is pickled cabbage topped with spicy red pepper paste (the dish on the right). The other foods in the picture are pickled bean sprouts, pickled spinach, and pickled seaweed. The sauce in the middle is Kimchi sauce used to add to your dish if you like things really spicy.



Most of the meat we ate came in large pots that are cooked on the table. The beef we had was really flavorful and delicious. Rice is also served with veggies and kimchi sauce to add a lot of flavor, compared to plain Japanese white rice.






One of the best meals we had in Korea was duck. We went to a very nice restaurant near our hotel one night and everyone was eating duck. Unfortunately you have to make a reservation in order to have the duck, so we ordered a ham platter instead, which turned out to be delicious! We still wanted the duck, so we ended up making a reservation for the next day to have it for lunch. It was amazingly good! It came stuffed with brown beans and rice. Our meal was also served with several soups, salads, and of course, kimchi!

We really enjoyed our Korean experience. Seoul is a very nice city with a lot to offer. We'd recommend visiting it if you ever have the opportunity!