It's a trap!

I know I have mentioned this before, but I want to expand on something...

Coffee

  I was told that the coffee in Korea wasn't great, and at the time I honestly didn't really give a shit as I wasn't much of a coffee drinker. For starters, I think the coffee is pretty good. For someone who arrived in Korea as a non-coffee drinker, I now have at least 2 cups a day. The coffee in Korea has lead me into a trap. 

I also drink various teas, but that is another tale.

  I have 2 different types of coffee that I keep in my house. One is just the normal, run-of-the-mill instant coffee from Emart or something. The other is a box of coffee sticks. My previous brand of choice was French Cafe, but actually they are a little sweet so the next box I buy will be Maxim sticks. These coffee sticks are hardly any coffee, all sugar and instant milk. They must be SO bad for me but I can't help but love how convenient they are. 

  Basically, you rip the end off the stick and tip the contents into a cup and add hot water. Amaze. And they also have an iced coffee stick for the warmer days... These are also the type of thing they have at school in the tea room, which is where I first discovered their sugary goodness. I used to LOVE the sugar, because I wasn't a massive fan of coffee but drank it to be social. Now, however, I tend to make my coffee at home with less than half what has got to be in these things. Still, they are tasty and easy. AND MAKING ME FAT I HATE YOU.

  The other coffee, the best coffee, is what they make at the cafe's. You can get any flavour you can think of, from lattes to caramel macchiattos, to sweet potato lattes. Whatever you want! My fave is just a regular vanilla latte, and I will have one pretty much every time I go out to meet people. Which is almost every day :s so that leads me to realise I am also spending a fair bit of money on coffee. 

  Your average cup of coffee in Korea will cost between 2400 - 5000 won depending on how fancy you wanna go. You can get to go coffee at all cafes.

  Another stupid phenomena that is the norm here is drinking your coffee (or whatever hot drink you are sipping) out of the stirring straw. If you look at this pic here, you can see the stupid stirring straw is sticking out of the drinking part. Yes, that is what I sip my boiling hot coffee through. and often I forget that the liquid is hot, and I will suck on the freaking thing and send a stream of scalding coffee down my throat and giving my tongue third degree burns. I do it every time, and yet I still get the stirring straw and use it to drink. Why? Because thats what everyone else does and we know I am all about conforming (awkward...).

  There are coffee shops absolutely everywhere near me, and only once you get into more rural areas do they start to drop off. In Seoul you can hardly walk 10 steps without finding another one (or a Paris Baguette which also have coffee), and each is about as good as the next. They have all the big brand coffee places, so if you are craving your soy milk skinny frappe from Starbucks then you can find it here too. I have seen Tom and Toms, Gloria Jean's and The Coffee Bean just to name a few. Dunkin' Donuts is huge here also, and they actually have pretty good coffee and its cheap. And they sell hash browns for like, $1.50 for 6. 

  My big beef with the non-chain coffee stores, therefore basically all of them near my place, is that they don't open until around 10am. So if you are a morning coffee person you would like to hope that there is a Starbucks around, or a McDonalds or something. Even some of the name chains don't open until a bit later, so wanting to stop and grab a coffee on your way to school is out of the question. 

  Another thing that is kinda annoying is that the coffee places usually have a pretty shit food selection. They don't really do sandwiches here, and the cakes are, well, Korean. So don't expect awesome snacks with your coffee. 

  This is all just my opinion, so if you find or know of something that goes against this please tell me! I am always excited to hear of a decent place to find coffee :) So you can see how I fell into the coffee trap, huh?

Till next time, citizens

xoxoxo

Gyeongbokgung Palace in Spring

Today was the third time I have been to this beautiful place in Seoul - I have now visited in Autumn, Winter and now Spring. And it was so beautiful today I have decided to write a proper review for anyone else wishing to visit this amazing palace.

Gyeongbokgung Palace 경복궁

  Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395, but the site was abandoned and rebuilt in 1867 by the Joseon Emperors over a few generations. Joseon Dynasties ruled here for years and years until the Japanese trashed the place in the early 20th Century (and they steadily trashed most of Korea over the next however many years). I honestly think this is one of the worst things about war and occupation, particularly with Korea... They had so much of their history erased. The Japanese administration pretty much levelled the entire site and used the grounds and extensive gardens for their own government offices. Anyway, the place is still undergoing reconstruction today, and I think that they are at about 50% reconstruction level. Wikipedia tells me that they were at 40% in 2009, and there seems to be a fair bit of it made pretty now. A few of the buildings are originals, but basically the whole place has been redone. It never ceases to amaze me how much national pride Korean people have - they love their national treasures and the majority of people who visit this palace (and others) are people who live in Seoul and surrounding areas. 

  The palace complex itself is huge, and when you take into account the gardens as well you can easily spend hours wandering around. There are free tours in different languages, you just need to rock up at the right time. They run every few hours though, so if you miss it you can always pop back later. 

  One of the cool things about where the Palace is located is that it is right next to the Palace Museum, and also the National Folk Museum. The Folk Museum has a Children's Museum attached to it, so if you have young kids with you they can go and have a play and learn in a more interactive setting. And yes, there is plenty of English for us foreign folk ;)

Folk Museum literally right outside.

Oh, and the entry to the museums are free... Did I mention that?

  Today was a ripper day, because May 5th is Children's Day in Korea! A day when those little bundles of joy are celebrated. So there was plenty of activities happening around the museum just outside the palace grounds. We had a wander outside, but make sure you keep your ticket with you so you can get back into the Palace grounds. The gardens around the Palace are a perfect spot for a picnic - you are allowed to bring food and drink into the Palace grounds and there are actually bins dotted around the area to get rid of your trash. There is a cafe/food place on the grounds but it is a bit pricey. 

Children's Day festivities

Getting there - 

  We caught the train from Pyeongtaek station to Seoul station, which was around 4000 won or something close. We then jumped on the subway and made our way to the Orange Line 3 (there was a transfer involved) and got off at Gyeongbokgung Station, exit 5. Its a great station, you come out right at the palace you literally cannot miss it. But because of the annoyance transferring lines I actually would recommend doing it a slightly different way (and if you don't mind walking a little bit - its a nice walk).

At Seoul Station, jump onto Blue Line 1 and head to City Hall Station. It is the next stop on the Blue Line after Seoul Station... 

Head upstairs at I think Exit 1 (where City Hall is) and when you walk up head in teh direction of the Arts Centre and all that stuff. If you are standing facing City Hall (a giant glass space-age building) then you wanna head left. Keep walking down that street - it is a really beautiful street and as you get closer to the Palace the centre of the road widens and there is a big grassy strip. There is also a station down there, not sure which one... Purple line I think?? Anyway every time I have been there I have seen some sort of free cultural event. Today was some sort of flea market, street food, and some people protesting something. They were singing to the new Psy song and dancing. Was hilarious actually. 

But if you keep walking down this street you will eventually get the the palace at the end. I love walking past the Arts Centre and it was beautiful today in the sunshine. The streets are really wide and clean here. 

Market Stalls and street food

You can see the Palace in the distance, and Mt Bugaksan in the background

Beautiful green strip

Free concert for the good citizens of Seoul

Cost?

  Just the train, there and back was under 10,000 won. And the subway is cheap, I have a t-money pass so I have no idea what I spend to be honest. The entry to the Palace is 3000 won for adults, I think it was 2,500 for kids and children under 6 are free. All the museum entries are free. There is cheap food nearby, but if you are looking for something a bit more palatable then there are a heap of nice restaurants near the Arts Centre. Have a wander down the back streets too, there are hidden gems of culinary delight... And a bubble tea place that has delish bubble tea^^

Totally go visit. Seoul is so beautiful, and Spring is proving to be my favourite season yet!!!

Till next time 

xoxo

Mum in Korea - Day 1

Mum arrived in Korea on Thursday, and spent Friday exploring around the hotel by herself until I arrived after school on the Friday night.

Here is what we have done so far...

DMZ Tour

Thats right, folks, I have seem North Korea. I have seen North Korean soldiers and their flag - the whole thing. Well, not quite.

Mum booked the tour through the hotel, we are staying at the P&J Hotel which I am pretty sure is in Myeongdong. The hotel is nice, the staff are trying to be helpful but are failing at it. 

We wanted to do a tour that went to the JSA area in Panmunjeom, which is the area in the DMZ where soldiers form both Koreas and also from the UN are in the one place and have meetings. It was where peace talks are held and I think its where the cease fire agreement was made. I was under the impression that we would see all this but when we got there it turned out we were only on the half day tour and it did't go there. So that was disappointing.

We did however go to the Peace Park, the 3rd Tunnel and also to the Observatory. If you ever come to Korea I totally recommend doing some sort of tour to the DMZ.

The Demilitarised Zone 

Just a quick side note for those who have not been reading my blog (in that case welcome, and I hope you enjoy) and those who have not been paying attention I will give a brief run down on the DMZ.

The Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ, is the strip of land separating North and South Korea. The DMZ is 250km long and around 4km wide and is the most heavily militarised boarder in the world. Technically the Koreas are still at war, and the tension between them can totally be felt in this area. It has been this way since 1953 when the Armistice Agreement was signed, and its not changing any time soon.

Anyway, so we started at the Peace Park, which you can see North Korea from but not well. They have a blown up train there and lots of monuments talking about peace. Then we headed off to the 3rd tunnel. These tunnels are both amazing and ridiculous. 

There are 4 tunnels all up that the South have found, which are tunnels dug out by the North to infiltrate and invade the South. They run under the DMZ from the North to South, and were found in different circumstances. 

The first tunnel was found I think by a scout who felt vibrations or something. it is more shallow than the other tunnels. When it was discovered there was a bit of a shoot out and both Korean and American troops were killed. 

Now the guide told us today that the rest of the tunnels were found with the help of spies in North Korea, but Wikipedia has said that the 3rd and 4th ones were found with the help of North Korean defectors... Who knows? Either way the other tunnels were found. They discovered them by pumping water down pipes and when the water flowed through the pipe they knew they found a tunnel. The 3rd tunnel is especially amazing as if it had been completed it would have allowed something like 30,000 troops though per hour plus heavy artillery. Scary though! And here is the ridiculous part - the North deny that they built the tunnels - they say it is propaganda from the South. Yet, all evidence in the tunnels says they were made from the Northern side. So THEN they said that the tunnels were disused coal mines. They even slopped coal all over the inside of the tunnel to prove their point. Yet the whole area is granite and there is no geological way that coal would be present there. 

We were able to go into the 3rd tunnel and look around, but we were not allowed to take photos. Even bags are not permitted down in the tunnel. It was a wide tunnel, 2 people could walk side by side but even I had to bend over at some points (I am about 156 centimetres tall - barely 5'2) so it was a squeeze if you were tall. 

Then we went to the observatory and looked at the North through binoculars. I saw the guard tower and it had North Korean troops walking around. they looked like they were just chatting to be honest, and some of the South Korean guys on the gate were joking and fooling around. I hear they are waaaay more alert and focused at the JSA. Looks like I will never know.

We also went to the station. They have built a station that can take passengers all the way to Pyeongyang (capital of North Korea) but it doesn't go anywhere. I found that quite sad. 

Was it worth it? Yes, and this particular tour only cost 46,000won. And the tour guide was pretty good, he was funny and spoke English really well and was pretty cute - very tall for a Korean bloke. The company was VIP Travel. Look them up. But ask to do the JSA tour, it costs more but I think it would be worth seeing the extra area. I did smell a fair bit of propaganda on this tour, I wonder how much is true and all that. But I am unlikely to ever visit the North, especially since I am working here. I'm pretty tight with South Korea.

Another funny thing - South Korea make a heap of money out of these tours, especially the 3rd tunnel visit. North Korea caught wind of the whole thing, and know that tours are run and all that, and said they should get money from the tours too. Apparently the South said "Sure, admit you built the tunnels and you can have a slice of the pie". Lol, sif they will ever do that...

Kinda creepy to think that there are probably a heap of other tunnels out there. And the DMZ is littered with mines, so its hard to go searching.

Anti-Aircraft missile, and some mines

There are live mines still littered through the DMZ

North Korea! Somewhere out there... 

Train to Pyeongyang... Hopefully someday in the future a train will actually come

Gyeongbokgung Palace

I will need to consult a guide book or some of my pamphlets to get the real download on this place, but to sum it up its a palace that was used in Joseon Period but built earlier in the Chosun Period. I think. It has been used on and off since something like 1394 so its pretty old but I think it was in really good condition. In saying that the Korean Government really love their National Treasures so they are preserved really well and are fixed up all the time. 

I really liked this palace - the grounds were huge and the whole place was open to guests. Some of the building you were not able to enter but you could look in from the outside and get a really good look. The old kitchen area was closed off but it is being restored. 

Entrance to this palace cost a whopping 3000won. Basically $3 AUD. 

And right outside the gate is the Korean Folk Museum which is free entry. We wandered in to that, not really knowing what is was, and because of the holiday they had all these cool stalls set up and lots of cultural things going on. There was heaps to see, and it was all FREE! And busy! But Seoul itself is quite... I expected sooo many more people and a heap of traffic. I guess its all because of Chuseok. Suits me!

The palace grounds are huge, there is a wall around the whole thing but a lot of the outside is gardens and lakes. The main buildings are set up like the Forbidden City in China, which seems to be a common trend in Asian palaces. The one I visited in Vietnam was set up the same way but on a much smaller scale. 

This palace had a heap of inner and outer walls and heaps of inner buildings. There were guide books in English and they ran guided tours in English every few hours. They also had tours and books in Chinese and Japanese. It was a really awesome afternoon, made even better by the fact it was so cheap. We then caught the subway back to the hotel and now we are chilling out here waiting to go to dinner. (Note - at the time of writing, we were chilling. As I am waiting to post this until I put pics up too, by the time you read I will be chilling back in Songtan.)

Throne room

This spot was beautiful!

So we have had a great day. Mum was super impressed at me getting her a ticket for the subway and figuring out which line to get on and all that. So maybe I am getting the hang of Korea :)

I have no idea what we are going to eat tonight but I will start taking photos of my food again so you can see some food stuff. And I will add that too. Tomorrow we will head off to Busan on the KTX which is the super fast train... I will be the judge of super fast...

I love being a tourist!

Till later,

xoxoxoxoxo