Seoul - Reminders of War

Seoul was absolutely amazing, probably the best city I've ever visited so far. Crime is very low, public transit is dirt cheap and impeccable, everything tourism related is in 4 languages (Korean, English, Japanese and Mandarin), great food, and the nightlife kicks ass. I also mentioned in a post some of the weird quirky things that I had noticed while travelling. There was however one thing I noticed in particular, even more so after visiting the DMZ, that the city is ready for any attack!

I'm not gonna give you a full historical background on the Korean War as that's what textbooks and teachers are for, but to quickly sum it up, the two sides are technically at war. The North and South never actually signed a peace agreement, only an armistice. The DMZ border area is probably one of the most armed areas in the world. Interestingly enough, the long time North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il died which has sent the peninsula into a sort of red-alert status. I was quite privileged to have visited the DMZ when I did as for now visits are probably heavily restricted if not cancelled due to the heightened tensions.

Had the guide not said anything I'd never have noticed...

On the way to the DMZ was my first point of realization of how "ready" the city is. Our tour bus coming along the freeway was passing under this massive underpass which had a huge billboard on it. The underpass was under this massive block of cement (say 30ft high, 30 feet deep, and long enough to cover 4 freeway lanes). Our tour guide explained that this was no ordinary billboard/underpass but a tank trap to help delay the North's army from reaching Seoul. Our guide went on to explain (in a surprisingly non-chalant way) that there were 10 of these traps and that each trap would slow the North down by 9 minutes, giving them a 90min head start to evacuate the city. 

Sign pointing to shelter.

Another interesting reminder of Seoul's readiness for an attack lies in its subways and underground networks which also double as bomb shelters. The symbol above denotes that whatever building/station you're entering is an actual bomb shelter. There are quite a few of these as the city is still within range of a Northern mortar attack. Eight months out of the year, on the 15th of the month they hold drills where the air raid sirens go off and everyone needs to go to the nearest shelter. Thankfully a) I knew this before going and b) this didn't happen while I was there as I would have crapped myself!

Gas mask anyone?

Finally, the last and personally most disturbing reminder of the state of affairs on the peninsula, is the fact that there are boxes like the above in all subway stations. It’s a little disturbing looking over and seeing a gas mask dispenser while waiting for the subway. These are there in case of a similar attack as in the nerve gas attack in Tokyo, or a fire. These could be perpetrated by Northern infiltrators/spies. Even worse is you have videos while on the subway instructing you on how to wear the gas mask and escape. Not the sort of thing I want to think about while on my way sightseeing!

Seoul is an amazing place, fantastically fun, but sadly next to the most schizophrenic nation on the planet. You can’t help but sympathize with them for going to such lengths to ensure the security of their people. As an outsider looking in I can’t help but be made a little uneasy when seeng all this, but for the Koreans, this is everyday life. Seriously folks, don’t let this put you off, this city is an absolute treasure with so much to offer. I’d maybe just wait a bit until things cool off before going back!

Before you go...

You’d think planning for a long vacation is all fun and games, sadly it’s far from it. There’s plenty of stuff you need to look into before getting on that plane. Here are some examples from my experience:

Medical/Dental checkups:

I’m not a fan of doctors, and I try to avoid them at all costs. Dentists even more so! Well, after some arm-twisting from the family I buckled under pressure and got everything done. Folks let me tell you, go to your dentist regularly as after my 5 year hiatus I had over $1600 of work that needed to be done... That’s almost my airfare! Also good to go get a checkup, make sure you’re not dying before you leave.

Government red-tape:

If you’re Canadian and leaving your province for more than 7 months, you’ll need to look into making sure you don’t lose your provincial health coverage. Otherwise travel insurers here won’t touch you with a 10 foot pole. Ontario luckily has a special exemption that lets you leave for 2 years if you’ve met the residency requirements for the last 5 years (7 months out of 12). You’ll still need to go to the government office, line up and get a letter saying you’re good for 2 years. Otherwise, you can look into International Health Insurance, which is the stuff diplomats get, but at upwards of $3000/year the first option is definitely lighter on the wallet.

Legal stuff:

I wasn’t too big on getting a will done, in the big picture I’d be dead anyways so why would I care? Well in the BIGGER picture, if you make life difficult for your family and loved ones, it might make a difference in terms of whether they bury you in a nice plot at a cemetery, or toss you out to sea.

Tax stuff:

Make sure you’ve got all your papers in order at home. If you can, scan all the important stuff and put it up on a cloud server. Also make sure there’s someone at your address you can trust to open up your T4s, scan them and send them to you. That way you can do your taxes online rather than ship everything back and forth to an accountant overseas. Be sure to have everything in order and check your country’s tax agency about guidelines on filing taxes from overseas etc.

Travel Doctor:

Self explanatory. Pay money, get poked by sharp metal objects... Lots of fun!

Overall the 2 months before my trip were pretty hectic getting everything in order. My days off consisted of sitting in govt. waiting rooms or in a doctors/dentists office getting poked with needles. I swear I felt like a pin-cushion in the end! A trip like this involves a lot of planning and preparation, and the last thing you want is to get dinged for something you could have totally prevented.

Bon voyage!

Air Canada Business Class Experience

Recently, on my way to Seoul, I had the pleasure of sitting in business class (thanks to this) the whole way from Toronto to Seoul. This was definitely a step up from economy. Now regardless of where you are on the plane... you’re still ON THE PLANE for >12hrs. It is nice having a bigger seat, or one that fully extends to a bed, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re not going anywhere for lord knows how many hours. The biggest upgrade I would say would be the food. Nothing makes a long flight whizz by than be served multi-course meals complete with alcohol (except for breakfast!).

I hadn't had grapefruit in a while, forgotten how fantastic it is.

On my first flight from Toronto to Vancouver I was served breakfast starting with a first course of fresh fruit, a croissant (served after I took my photo) and yogurt with coffee. Later I was served nice hot pancakes with fruit and maple syrup topped off with more coffee. Breakfast was quite fantastic and certainly ate up a good chunk of the 5 hour flight from TO to Vancouver. Our flight finished off with some fresh chocolate-chip cookies baked on board the plane

Me and salmon don't normally mix, but this time it was great.

The next leg of my journey was from Vancouver to Seoul. This was the behemoth of all flights being about 11 hours. Since this flight was in the afternoon, I was served some champagne before takeoff and a beer shortly after. The airline crew then proceeded to serve us a 3-course lunch. The first course was smoked salmon with a dill mustard sauce pictured above accompanied by a fresh garden salad. Now those who know me well, know that I almost never eat seafood and that I’m very picky. Surprisingly enough this was magnificent! I guess I’ll have to put some more salmon in my diet.

Eww mushrooms...

Next up was the main course which was some spicy marinated beef, rice seasoned with sesame seeds and black mushrooms. While the dish wasn’t really spicy, it was pretty good. I can’t comment on the mushrooms as I’m not a fan. Personally I believe fungus belongs on your foot and not on your plate. 

Great way to end the meal...maybe the coffee was a bad idea though...

Last course of this meal was a mixed berry pie with was really good served with a top up of your wine glass and coffee or tea. This is a great way to finish up a large meal and put you off to sleep. After dessert lights on the plane are turned off and passengers are encouraged to shut their window flaps to keep the cabin dark. Time to sleep...

Now you’d think that that was it for food on the flight...well it is a very LONG one >10hrs. You can only do so much in 10-12hrs. Obviously I had exhausted everything watchable on the media system and sleeping didn’t really work out for me. Thankfully there’s one last light meal served 2hrs before. It was quite a pleasant surprise!

You call this light? 

I find it quite hard to describe this last meal as light. Here you have a serving of fresh fruit and bread to start off with. The main course is beef ribs served with mashed potatoes and veggies (asparagus and tomatoes). Finally for dessert you have a box of Lindor chocolates to help finish you off. For this meal I chose not to go for wine, as you don’t want to be tanked going through immigration and customs, ESPECIALLY when you marked UNEMPLOYED on your landing card.

There you have it folks, business class certainly ensures that you’re well fed. While the seating is certainly a step up from economy, the biggest seller I would say is the food. This ensures that you’re not dying of starvation by the time you land. Is it worth the full fare price? Maybe not. But it’s certainly worth the price I paid.

A Regular Coffee - Is It That Complicated?

So I’ve made it here in Australia which is fantastic. It is nice being in a country where I understand everything around me. While in Korea for example I needed moisturizer BADLY for my hands (no gloves and winter cold dried them up to a nice red cracked color) I was scared away from going into the pharmacy as all the products were in Korean. That’s one of the wonders of being here in an English speaking country. But don’t be fooled, everything is not like it is back home! Simple things such as crossing the street were a struggle for me after arriving as cars here drive on the left. It took so much work just to make sure I look right first THEN left. It’s some of the small things like these that kind of get to you at first. You get frustrated when simple things such as crossing the road feel like university level calculus to get used to. I’m sure when I get behind the wheel it’ll probably be as bad as rocket science.

The biggest gripe I have right now here in Melbs is coffee. Honestly I just want a regular cup of joe like back home served double-double, is that too hard to ask? Ordering coffee here is a pain in the ass as whenever I get up to the counter and ask for a coffee it seems like we have to go through this complex mathematical equation just to get something remotely good.

My first experience here in Melbs was last Thursday. I was at my orientation meeting for my working holiday program which was fantastic, also got to do it in French as it was a Frenchman giving it to me and I was the only one (Francophonie en Australie? Moi je dit oui!). At break time I went downstairs to get myself a coffee as I was dying for one. I get down there and it’s a mildly fancy coffee shop. I go up to the counter and ask for a small coffee. “What kind of coffee?” Ok fine Americano. “You sure about that?” Yeah. “Milk or Cream?” I can’t do that myself? “We do it for you” 2 sugars too? (gives me a dirty look). “Takeaway or for here” Takeaway. 5min later I finally get my coffee, which to be honest wasn’t that great and for $4 this is ridiculous.

Fast forward to yesterday, I step into McD’s for breakfast and all I want with my hotcakes is a damn coffee double-double. My order was going fine up until coffee was mentionned... I want a Medium coffee with that. “Will that be a cappucino?” No just a regular coffee “A black coffee sir?” Yeah sure but could I get 2 creams and 2 sugars with that? “Sorry sir we don’t have cream here” Fine milk will do. My coffee comes back all full of froth on top, sigh...

My Medium flat white, which cost me AUD$3.70

I’ve made it over to another McD’s (Macca’s here - pronounced Mackers) and I’m having a cappucino as I didn’t feel like struggling again. People look at me like a mad man when I order my coffee. Honestly forget about regular North American coffee over here, even 7-Eleven has a F@!#ing barista in it. No joke there. My Canadian friends here have recommended that I go for a flat white, saying that it's as close as I'll get to what was back home. It's ok but there's still milk froth on the top which I hate! Hopefully at some point I’ll be able to get a regular cup of coffee, in the mean time I guess I’ll put up with all this pretentious coffee...

Seoul Food

If I were to have to choose just one of the many great aspects of Seoul, I would have to say that it's the food. The food here has simply been terrific and there's definitely something for everyone's taste. I thought I'd share with you a few of the dishes I've had while here in Seoul, both local and foreign.

One of the few dishes that made me throw in the towel.

This first dish is dakgalbi a chicken dish, but we took the extra spicy version. Now everyone who knows me well, know that I have a tongue of steel and can handle spicy food like it's child's play. Well folks, this dish got me! The dish is made of marinated chicken, jalapenos, bok choi (or some asian lettuce). The dish is cooked in a big pan that's on your table. Like most Korean food this was very inexpensive as we were able to get this for 8000 won per person ($8/person).

Now why would you cut a burger in half?

Next stop was Kraze Burger in the Dongdaemun district of Seoul, where I picked myself up a spicy mexican burger for lunch. Western food in Seoul is EXPENSIVE. This tends to give you more incentive to get out there and try some of the local stuff. The burger itself was nothing special. The only thing notable about it was that it was cut in half! Oh and that it cost me about 13-14k won! ($13-14).

Korean fast food @ Lotteria

Now if you really want your fast-food, going local is the way to go. Here are two options that I was able to sample. First one is Lotteria, owned by the Lotte group which is one of the biggest companies in Korea. This is basically the Korean version of McDonalds (which is surprisingly absent from the landscape as I only saw 2 and one of those was just a McCafe at the airport!), and funny enough their menus look quite similar. The food itself is your standard fast food fare, but much cheaper than the western outlets such as BK or KFC.

Tteokbokki, a fish skewer and some fishy water

Pork and kimchi dumplings

  

Secondly there's the street meat which is surprisingly very good. Along busy streets in Seoul you're going to find plenty of stalls selling various different foods. I had the chance to sample the food at one of the stalls. Here I was served a cup with some sort of fishy water which was being used to cook some other stuff. I was also served some Tteokbokki which is a sort of pasta-ish (the stuff that looks like penne) kinda texture food and is very very good, next up got some dumplings, 4 pork and 4 kimchi dumplings. All of this food was incredibly cheap costing only 5500 won (or $5.50) and that served two of us!

Galbi, oh so delicious!

Lastly, one night a guest at the hostel invited me to join him for some galbi. This is a Korean delicacy which is marinated pork ribs which you cook on a grill at your table. You then place the meat on a leaf of lettuce and stuff it pretty much like a fajita. There's plenty of sauces and veggies you can stick in there with the pork. We had a table full of food and a bottle of soju and our bill was 14000 won per person ($14). This was probably one of my best meals in the country!

As you can see, there's definitely something for everyone when it comes to food. Just keep in mind that I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to the amazing food culture over here. The main lesson learned here is go local, it tastes great and goes very easy on the wallet.

Seoul - Quirky Things

Seoul is an amazing city with plenty to offer. Also, being my first time here in Asia there is a little bit of culture shock/weird things to get used to. For the most part these are little things, nothing like stray dogs. But here’s a few things that caught my eye while here:

Hear hear for beer!

People here (men for the most part) love to get rip roarin’ smashed, any night of the week! It’s quite normal on the subway to see a guy in a suit passed out. But what really got me was when I had the pleasure of taking the last train of the night. It was completely stainless steel inside, no upholstery and with good reason! The stench of booze was incredibly strong... Thankfully nobody got sick on the train, but there were a few puddles on the steps coming out of the subway, gross!

Also when it comes to nightlife, there are some really good deals to get YOU rip-roarin’ smashed. One of my nights I went clubbing, walking around I was bombarded by touts trying to get me into their club. The one who was successful was advertising 15,000won cover, admission to 3 clubs, free drinks from 11-12am. It was a fun night :)

This can't be good...

Foreigners tend to stick together

One of the interesting things I’ve experienced here while in Seoul is that it seems when walking down the street and seeing another white guy, there will almost always be a smile/nod/wave. While I’d say the culture shock rating for this country is pretty low, the one thing you’ll realize shortly after getting off your flight is that you’re the minority. If you feel homesick, you can always head over to Itaewon which is the foreigner district. While on the subway approaching Itaewon, you’ll notice more and more foreigners boarding the train. The best way to sum up the feeling of walking around the main street of Itaewon (the side streets are scuzzy, notably hooker hill and its gay counterpart) is that you’ll feel like you’re in a Chinatown in North America. You’re still outnumbered, but not as much as before.

Bad...bad...drivers

Yeah I said it... But to be perfectly honest it’s true. While here I’ve seem many close calls, luckily none of them involved me. It seems as though there are no rules against using your mobile device while driving and I’ve seen countless drivers yaking on their phone. The best example is while in Myeong-dong, a very busy shopping district, you have a street which is pretty much a pedestrian walkway as there are thousands of people walking on the street and there are drivers making their way through them...while talking on their damn phone! No wonder this country has a ridiculous traffic mortality rate... Always remember to look both ways before you cross the road! For some of the bigger roads in busy areas, look for underpasses as there are plenty of them as the main big roads have gates separating traffic.

A busy street in Myeong-dong.

Subway Merchants

One of the weirdest things that I noticed is that there seems to be no rules here in Seoul regarding soliciting passengers on the trains. At any point some guy might come on the train and start yelling about his products. He’ll then start walking around and showing off his trinkets to other passengers. I’ve never seen anything like this and am sure that they’d be kicked off if we were in North America.

A subway merchant doing his thing.

As I said earlier, the culture shock rating for this country is low. Everyone speaks a basic form of English, and most info is available to you in English as well. Most stuff that we have in the west is available here. There’s gonna be plenty of things you’ll notice that are different, but for the most part nothing major. Have you been here? I’d love to hear your observations.

Prepping for a trip to Korea

A few years back while travelling Greece, I learned that travelling while ill-equipped/prepared is a really stupid thing to do. I had travelled to the northern part of the country with no map, grasp of the language, and while I knew which sites I wanted to see...I had no idea where they were... smart eh? I have no idea what I was thinking as barely anyone spoke English, I got lost frequently, and got the worst bout of homesickness.

First stop!

The first leg of my journey is South Korea, but more specifically Seoul. While this wasn’t necessarily the first place on my list due to the winter weather, Bangkok got flooded. As I didn’t want a repeat of Greece, here are a few recommendations in terms of prep and packing:

Cellphone (in this case, a smartphone):

First things first, your foreign cellphone will be useless here. Korea uses CDMA networks and so it’s not as simple as popping in a SIM card. Depending on how long you’re staying, you can actually rent a phone (even a smartphone) at Incheon International Airport. For a short stay there’s no point. Your smartphone will still come in handy though. If you have either an Android or Iphone you can pick up a great app called Jibigo. It’s a translation app that is fantastic compared to Google Translate, and the best thing is that it requires no internet connection! As of now the Korean language pack is going for 4.95 on the Android Market which is an amazing deal.

Learning Hangul Writing:

Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It’s surprisingly simple to learn. Learning this alphabet will help you immensely when trying to orient yourself as well as finding stores or services. Now you don’t need to actually understand the language, but being able to decipher Hangul will help you read street names, or recognize different meats on a menu. Give yourself maybe a week to digest it and you’ll become an expert! I found the following site to have a good breakdown of the alphabet. Keep in mind you just need the basics, you don’t need to learn grammar or what the words mean (for the most part).

Volunteer Tour Guides:

Surprisingly enough, through the Korea Tourism Organization, they have a service where you can sign up for your very own personal FREE tour guide. There’s no catch, but obviously you’re expected to pay their transportation, admission, food etc. This is a pretty cool service which is easy to sign up for: Just visit www.visitkorea.or.kr and sign up for an account. You can then submit your application for a guide from 10-30 days in advance of your trip. The volunteer guides come from all walks of life: students, housewives, businessmen, retirees.

Sadly my request for a volunteer tour guide was rejected. Key thing here is don’t expect to get one even if you book way in advance. Nevertheless it’s still a fantastic service. Apart from that there’s always couchsurfing!

Mapping/scheduling which sites you want to see:

While I’m no fan of micromanaging my days down to the minute, I’ve learned that playing it by ear is really never a good idea. Build a basic structure for your days by looking at a map and grouping different sites you want to see by day. This will add basic structure to your day. For example, I know that for Panmunjeom (DMZ) I’ll need a good portion of the day, also the tours start very early in the morning so I know not to schedule it after a big night out.

These 4 tips for preparation/packing are things I came up with to help avoid my trip to Korea a disaster like Greece was. If you follow this you’ll have a wonderful pocket translator, be able to orient yourself, have a free tour guide, and not waste your days trying to figure out what you’re gonna do. By following these tips you’ll definitely be travelling smart.

Tips On Saving Up For A LONG Trip

For a LONG trip you need a LOT of money. This involves sacrifice... you won’t make it anytime soon without any. Trust me -- I had to get my shit together to make sure this trip happens. Here are six examples of sacrifices I’ve made to make this trip possible.

Let me start off by saying, if you don’t currently have a job...get one, you can’t save money if you’re not making money.

1) Move back in with your parents: It ain’t glamorous, and not a hit with the ladies. But you save on rent (and potentially food), and who said you had to bring that chick from the club back to your place? Do you want this potentially crazy person knowing where YOU live? Probably not... and even though you’re on your way out, you don’t want her stalking your parents now do you...

2) Bring your own lunch to work: I spent on average $6-7 on fast food for lunch every day at work. That’s $30-35/week and well over $100/month. You’ll save money and have better food. (And potentially lose weight!)

3) Make your own coffee: On a normal day I order about 2 large coffees which is almost $4/day. By using an old coffee maker, I managed to scratch that out of my daily expenses.

4) Quit smoking...cold turkey: Yeah this one sucks! But if you can do it, it will pay off in many ways. I managed to save $80/month. I say cold turkey too because those quit smoking aids are more expensive than smoking itself... Also, none of this “smoke when I drink” bullshit either, save that mistake for when you’re on vacation.

5) Cut down on your partying: Host parties at your place, go to house parties, chill with friends. Avoid clubs and lounges like the plague! Clubs and bars tend to tack on expenses to your night where you’re essentially paying for nothing. Cover charges and bartender tips tend to fall into that category (then again I wish I could get paid to bend over and get a beer out of a fridge!). Go on student nights, find the happy hours. Trust me, this tip right here cut down a huge chunk of my expenses!

6) Save your pocket-change: We use our pocket change for the most frivolous expenses. My tip is to not spend anything under a $2 coin. Those quarters and loonies add up fast. In 3 months I’ve gathered almost $200 in coin... save those pennies!

$193.50 in coin...it was heavy...

Overall, by following these tips you’ll be smarter with your money and you’ll be able to save up big time! Also, the skills you learn to save your money for your trip will help you manage your money while on your trip.

How to book a flight...like a boss

Flying... some love it, some hate it. Personally I’m not a fan. But I’m sure we can all agree that we hate being stuck next to annoying passengers:

Be it the bitch who stole my aisle seat (which I specifically chose on check-in) because she didn’t want to sit next to her husband, then claims MY ticket is wrong. I had downed quite a few drinks to make my takeoff easy so making a scene or getting the flight crew’s attention with my booze breath wasn’t an option. Her and her husband proceeded to yell at each other most of the 9 hr flight.

The oversized man with the oversized suitcase both of which shouldn’t have made it on the flight.

The breastfeeding mother who was placed next to me making it so that I couldn't look to my left the whole flight. Awkward...

We all have stories like these to share, and the one thing they all have in common is that they all took place in the economy class cabin.

Time for an upgrade!

Recently I became aware of a special sale on US Airways Dividend Miles. These are US Airways’ frequent flyer miles which to our benefit are also valid for any Star Alliance flight. The special is for every 10 000 you buy, you get 10 000 free, up to 50 000. So basically if you buy 50k, you get 50k totalling 100k which gives you enough to go almost anywhere in the world economy, and many places business class. 50k miles at the time would set you back $1325 plus a 7% tax recovery fee, plus 13% HST for Canadians like me.

My flight required 110k miles for business class, so add another $400-some to my total.

Now booking a star alliance flight with US Airways is a little tricky. You’re forced to call in to book it, which means that you’re at the mercy of your call-centre agent’s intelligence. You can make the whole process much easier if you do all your research before hand. You can then call in with all your flight segments.

For this you can use the ANA award flight search tool. ANA has tried to curb people from abusing this tool this by restricting Star Alliance searches to people with a certain minimum miles. To get around this, make an initial ANA International Flight Awards search with any two cities, then on the results screen at the bottom you’ll see a button  “Use Star Alliance Member Airlines.” YOU’RE IN! Now you can search throughout Star Alliance. Search longer flight segments first, as those are usually the toughest ones to get.

Gather all your flight segments, with a few alternates and phone in. I called at 2am, worked out well for me. Now I’m booking a flight from North America to the South Pacific so the total cost should be 110k miles (There’s no difference in cost for one way or round trip). The way I routed my flight, I would have a 5-day stopover in Korea which is considered the “North Asia” zone. My delightful phone agent put this in as a round trip to North Asia. North Asia - North America is 90k miles, North Asia - South Pacific is 90k miles. So counted as a round trip I save 20k miles which I can use for a round trip flight to Fiji :)

All in all, the flights cost me about $2300. Did I save money? Last I checked, economy class lowest fare one-way was $3261. Hell yeah!

Like a boss!