The final stop in the vessel tour was South Korea. Korea has always been a distant land, literally and figuratively. I did know much of Korea, its history, its culture, its pastimes, current affairs and trivia associated with it, as I would know of US or Japan or Singapore for that matter. The Seoul Olympics, the 2002 world cup, the Hyundais and Samsungs was all that I knew of Korea. This lack of knowledge made me look forward to spending 2 days at Seoul and Busan.
After 8 days on the vessel it was time to say good bye and disembark at Busan.The first thing that struck me as we got out of the port and onto the streets of Busan was the non usage of English as a medium of communication. And the other aspect was the devalued currency. Everything was in ten thousands. One USD buys about 900 Korean won. I had the shock of my life when the guy at the hotel said that the charge per night was 45000 Korean won. Sense prevailed on me when I realized that meant 50 USD and that the guy was not selling me a presidential suite in the grandest hotel of Busan. These were two aspects which would come back again and again to trouble us.
We took an early morning flight from Busan to Seoul Incheon airport. Spanking new, Incheon airport was built on reclaimed land on an island about 60 kilometers away from Seoul city. We took a limousine bus from the airport to our hostel in downtown Seoul. The ride took an hour and more, and we could see that Seoul was as modern as it could get. High rise buildings, huge shopping malls, American fast food outlets on every corner, excellent roads and what not. Our hostel was located just opposite the cheongdung palace, one of the many palaces around which Seoul is built. The Palace was huge, spread over quite an area and obviously held a pride of place going by the tour guides description. The king’s quarters and the palace buildings looked quite Spartan and simple, compared to the opulence and grandeur of the palaces and forts of the Kings here in India.
Perhaps the funniest moment of the entire trip happened in Seoul when I ventured out to a pop and mom store to buy a bathing soap. Obviously the guy at the shop could not understand what I was asking for and I also could not figure out where the heck were the soaps stacked in that shop. So I had to recall all my dumb charades skills and enact a scene of taking bath. Perhaps I over did it and from the shopkeepers turn of expression I realized with a fear that he had read that as me suffering from rashes and that at any moment he may hand me the nearest antiseptic. Quickly changing my act from crude to finesse I was successful in getting the message across that all I wanted was a bathing soap. And I thought my troubles were over. It took another 5 minutes for him to get me to understand that the cost was 5000 won. He had to type 5000 on a calculator for me to understand, and that is what every shopkeeper in Korea did to me.
Equally traumatic was Sara s experience of searching for a resturant that serves Halal food. Many of them assumed that Halal was a type of delicacy that this sub continent girl was craving for and were very sorry that they didnt have that in their menu. I thought Sara was asking for too much , since at most of the hotels we had trouble in finding out what type of meat was being served, leave alone investigating if the meat was halal or not !! Because of this reason, we gave a go by to the Korean restaurants and went to the trusted MacDonalds and the Pizza Huts of the world.
After the palace trip, I and Sara walked to the dongengeum tourists market. A specially demarcated tourist’s zone, it consisted of rows of roadside shops as well as huge malls. The Doota mall with ten floors of only shops was like a dream come true for Sara and a nightmare of sorts for me. We spent the first day mostly walking in and around Downtown Seoul and drinking in the city's ambience and getting a feel of this fast paced city.
Day 2 in Seoul. We started by walking to the nearest Starbucks (there seemed to one every 100 meters) and having a quick breakfast. Then we walked to the Tapgol Park, the birthplace of the Korean freedom movement. Located in downtown Seoul, the place was packed with old timers and to me it seemed were the only ones under the age of 70 in that park. Perhaps a reflection of the fact that freedom and its history no longer appeals to youngsters.
We then got into one of the Seoul city tour buses, which takes us on a trip around the city and stops at the importa
nt tourist places. After walking, the best way to see any city is through one of these buses. With English commentary and a good lot of places being covered, the tour bus was a good decision. It took us to a few more palaces, past the ‘ Blue House’ – home of the Korean President, to the Itaewon tourist zone, the Korean war memorial, the Seoul station to name a few. The ride atop Mount Namsan was also unforgettable. As the bus made its way up the hill, the view of the brightly lit city stretching across endlessly was a sight to behold.
Seoul is a city which feels that it need not know English to survive. Well, if Hyundai, LG, Samsung and Kia are any indication then that belief looks vindicated. More so when you see Starbucks, Pizza hut, KFC and many more American outlets manned by people with minimal English skills. All of them were koreanised.
2 days were not at all enough to cover Seoul. It was with a sense of having missed the woods for the trees that we left Korea the next day morning. We both were flying back to Karachi and Chennai via Singapore. It was curtains for the 2 week long vessel tour and time to get back to the harsh realities of the world. Sara had a connecting flight within an hour after landing while I had six hours to kill in Changi. And that is when I had the time to put down the first blog about the vessel tour.
