Seoul Again

Well, I made another trip to Seoul. This time it was to go on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone. My friend Ashleigh suggested it, and Leon and three of Ashleigh's friends went, as well. We spent Saturday in Seoul and Sunday was the tour. The whole thing was pretty exhausting, and frankly, I regret going. But whatever.

We took the bus to Daegu, a city a bit inland, then took the high-speed rail, the KTX, to Seoul. Ashleigh and her friends were told a couple outrageous things about the train, like the cars have norae-bangs (karaoke rooms) in them, but it was nothing as exciting as that. The train did break 300 kph at times, though. It didn't seem all that fast, but doing it that way saved us about an hour and a half.

We stayed for cheap in a six-bed dorm room at the Golden Pond Guesthouse (nice name). Quarters were cramped, but we got a bed, a bathroom, use of the kitchen, living room, and computer with internet. Here's our tiny room, or as much of it as I could get in the frame:


Outside in the neighborhood was a small strip of shops, restaurants, bars, and theatres. Gandalf was stationed outside the CGV theatre:


There was also this guy wandering around:



After substandard Italian food for lunch, we all went shopping at Insadong, an area to buy traditional Korean stuff. I had a few final gifts to pick up, and I think none of the girls had been to Seoul yet, so that's a good place to hit on a first trip. Leon and I went to a tea house after I did my twenty minutes of shopping and the others were still looking around. The setup was pretty schnazzy:


You get your own teapot, heated with a tealight (now I know why they're called that), plus a thermos of extra water and a little vial with more tea for refills. Also some rice-cakey snacks that taste like air.

On the way back to the guesthouse to put on warmer (and for the girls, nicer) clothes for the evening, we saw these big piles of colorful shit:

It's possible they're supposed to be ice cream, but the execution seems a bit off.

We went to TGI Friday's for supper because no one wanted Korean food (we can get that anywhere) and it was sadly overpriced. Then the others went out to some bars in a couple foreigner-popular places while I retired to the guesthouse to rest my broken body (knees, neck, back) and my brain from all the physical and social activity. We had to get up at o'dark thirty to get to the meeting point for the tour at 9:30 the next morning and make sure everyone was up and showered and fed. Leon and one of the girls got home at like 2:30, and the rest got home at maybe 4:00, and everyone was planning to get up at 7:30 or so. Jeez. Ironically, they all probably got more sleep than I did, being able to pass out on the bed in their respective drunken stupors, while I, who can't sleep off my own turf, tossed and turned for eight hours. Booooo-urns.

I'll continue with details of the DMZ tour in my next post.