Korea: Day 4 - Busan

Korea: Day 4 - Busan

After a good night's sleep at the Marriott we took the interminable underground to the centre, this time ending up at Jalgachi fish market. Food markets are infinitely more fascinating than clothes markets. And fish markets are particularly interesting for the weird and wonderful sealife on offer. Massive mussels, semi-open with their fleshy parts poking out, looking bizarrely obscene. Octopi suckering against the glass walls of a tank. Strange dried sea animals. Dried silvery tiny fish in a range of tininess and silveriness (Fatt's fave). Colourful plastic tubs full of shellfish. Water sloshing everywhere as vendors push past in sensible wellies.





OK, don't read the next paragraph if you are at all squeamish. Eels, being of a seafood nature, were naturally present - alive and slithering about. Usually next to them would be a very fleshy pink variety. So fleshy and pink in fact that one had to conclude they were actually skinned eels. They were still wriggling around.

End of gross part. Outside the fish market were boats and trawlers proudly waving the Korean flag. It's great to be near the sea.


Inside on the second floor, we were hungry. Once more we partook of raw fish. It was nice! Though Fatt particularly liked the grilled mackeral side dish which was probably a tenth of the price of the sashimi.


Later, my mum wrote to me not to eat too much raw fish - there could be bacteria. Raw liver, raw fish - huh! one has to eat, you know!

In the evening we went back to Lotte Department Store, to the top floor. There are a range of restaurants there and so we picked one and ate bulgogi which was very tasty indeed. We had beef and vegetable soup which came with rice. It was a little spicy but in a good, sinus-clearing way. Yum.



Then we hit 'Youth Street' - parallel roads chock-a-block with neon lights, bars, internet gaming facilities, restaurants, food stalls...like Sinchon in Seoul but perhaps a little more organised. Anyhow, another Bladerunner-isque pic for you.

Korea: Day 3 Seoul to Busan

This is the day we experienced the new bullet train from Seoul to Busan in the south of the country. It has halved the journey times, so it only takes about two and a half hours to get there. Off we toddled to the super-sleek, uber-modern Seoul station - and here are the pictures I promised.


Also nice to see there were no delays forecasted. (Not like loverly England...)


When you hang around transport hubs, you get to see a lot of young, strapping guys in camoflage uniform strolling about - there's military service here. I wasn't about to go around taking pictures of them as:
a) they are built like bricks. Maybe their boots are very high or something but they're very tall and very broadly built. I can objectively say (after all, I am married), that they are among the best-looking Asian blokes I've ever seen. Perhaps I should have taken those photos after all; and
b) apparently they all learn 2 years worth of taekwondo as part of their military service. No messing about around these boys!

OK, here is a surreptitious picture taken on the sly. The main aim was to take the KFC restaurant, but you can see one of the boys here.


Just to move onto the topic of KFC though - I like the way it calls itself 'Chicken Expert'. At another branch it also had 'REAL FOOD' emblazoned on its front. On the way back to Seoul, yeah we stopped off and had a no. 1 meal - yum!

So, the bullet train then - we descended to the platform and scarpered to the front of the train to take some pics. It looked just like a Eurostar or a TGV train.


Indeed, inside the carriages there was the same layout, same types of seats, even the phishing air-lock doors between carriages was the same. Just a different colour. The journey went very smoothly. The countryside was green hills, valleys with towns and factories, some rice paddy fields... erm, not entirely that interesting. The station at the other end was just as impressive as Seoul.

Busan is a port city - a lot of fishing and container loading/unloading goes on here. There are a lot of hills with small houses packed on the slopes. It's also a very spread out city with an underground system of 2 lines. We decided to pamper ourselves and booked the Marriott Hotel at Haeundae Beach. This beach is supposed to be the busiest and most famous in Korea.


It was nice to stay at the Marriott, but we were right at the end of the tube line which meant very long journeys back and forth to see stuff. Anyhow, Haeundae Beach itself was fine, not busy at all. Fatt felt it had the air of out-of-season Blackpool - but I didn't think so. It still had a busy centre, markets, shops, lots of things were still open. And it is always nice to see and hear waves crashing on the beach. On the other hand, perhaps comparing Busan with Paris, London & New York as the below wall etching does may be a slight exaggeration.


We headed down the beach to Mipo boat pier which was also home to a 'raw fish town' - meaning a couple of stalls and restaurants. We were a bit nervous and embarrassed but we wanted to try the Korean equivalent of sashimi. We kept walking back and forth past this table with two old blokes enjoying their food. It was 4 o'clock - far too early for dinner. Sod it, we thought, and we sat by an outdoor stall, managed to ask a price and for about 15 quid ate a very interesting seafood meal for two.

Various garnishes and sauces came out, beer was provided and a range of seafood tidbits. I have no idea what the orange thing is below - scallop? The red flowery things were too chewy to eat.


And then came the piece-de-resistance: a whole plate full of thin-cut sashimi, accompanied by some quite lurid green and unsubtle tasting wasabi sauce. Verdict? Very nice. Not quite the texture or sublimity of Japanese sashimi but we still enjoyed it.


We took the subway into town - crumbs, it must have taken an hour. Even so, we couldn't justify stuffing our faces again so soon. We decided to meander around Lotte Department Store instead. This is quite an upscale department store but I wanted to see the food section. Indeed, it didn't disappoint. A zillion varieties of kimchi, seaweed, fish, ginseng, fish balls, whatever was on display. Excellent fun whizzing around from counter to counter checking out what they had. Like the crabs below were ginormous!


I'm sure the below seaweed tastes better than it looks:


If you don't fancy the large crab - what about some kimchi mini-crabs?


Ginseng is supposed to very good in Korea, but what do I know? to me they look like some bizarre voodoo vegetables shaped like mini-human beings, ready to be pin-pricked ferociously in some black magic voodoo rite. The fridge vapours add to the effect don't you think?


Gift boxes of food are quite a big thing here as well. Olive oil for example. And, ahem, Spam seems to be a big hit for some reason!


All the food-gazing made us hungry so we first headed for a quick beer at a micro-brewery. We nursed our measly half-litre mugs while the office girls on the next table ordered a massive jug of beer and downed their drinks in a blink of an eye! Gee, these girls know how to drink! Full respect for a nation who likes their after-office tipple. Or barrell. It's probably the only Asian country I've been to where it's completely acceptable for girls to be out necking back their booze.

At last, dinner time. We headed for a place known for 'the quality of its meat' and ordered beef ribs. Here they are below sizzzzzling away. There being two of us, the restaurant insisted we ordered 2 portions of ribs - I don't know why. We couldn't even order 1 beef ribs, 1 bulgogi. Strange. Still, I rate this dinner as being on of my faves of the trip.

Korea: Day 2 - Seoul

All the excitement of the first day, the overnight flight plus having to work until 2.30 a.m. a few nights back: all of this started to catch up on the Fatt who wished to take it easy. Unfortunately bkkmei was raring to go - wanting more sights, more experiences and more Korean food.

We went to Seoul Station to get onward tickets. What a beautiful building - all glass and light. I'll post pics up later. Then we headed for Gyeongbokgung - a former palace. My dad had said "Make sure you go to the palace, it is very pretty. But it is just like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. Everything was modelled on the Chinese palaces." Well I hate to say it, but it was indeed rather like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. With a slightly different colour scheme. It had been rebuilt after having been destroyed by the Japanese first in the 16th century and then later during colonial times last century. That would be a recurring theme at the various temples / palaces we visited or read about. Of course, I'd have been mighty impressed had I not already seen the Forbidden Palace. It anyhow has its own charms - I liked the way if you looked in one direction there were modern buildings, if you looked in another, there were green mountains.



With our energy sapping by the second, we took a taxi to a big market called Dongdaemun. We stopped off at a shopping mall for some food at a food court. They're very funky these food courts. You take a good gander at the picture menus or see what other people are scoffing. Then you place your order at a common till and get given a number. There is a big screen where all the numbers come up and then you go and fetch your food. Unfortunately, argh, the food was not great. Matt had bibimbap (rice, veg, red pepper sauce all mixed round in a very large bowl) and did not take to it. I thought I'd ordered dakgalbi - spicy chicken. I had no idea what it looked like but came back with what looked like a hamburger with more red pepper sauce dolloped liberally on top. It wasn't very nice - and I was too shy to question whether it was really dakgalbi or if I'd picked up the wrong tray by mistake. I'm such a wimp.

We wandered around the market which is next to a stadium (now converted to a car park). Maybe it was one of the stadiums used during the Olympics? Anyhow, there was a good range of toffer on display - shoes, clothes, antiques. Actually nothing I would want to purchase personally and therefore... I lost interest quite quickly. I mean... it's hard for a market to compare to Chatachuk! The most interesting parts were the food stalls selling boiled or grilled skewers etc. Oh, and one stall selling sexual aids. Fatt had a good look (out of curiosity of course!) and declared them 'small' - a fairly typical white male reaction methinks.


Rather tired, we rested back at the hotel. I wanted a Korean banquet for dinner. Fatt was nonplussed. We taxied over to Insadong. The cabbies here are usually middle aged men. They probably won't understand foreign pronunciation of Korean words. It should be In -SSSSSSSAAAA- dong for example, not just Insadong. It must be Harrr-meal- TTONN, not just Hamilton. And because they'll usually be long-sighted and need their specs (and probably won't have them), you can't just show them the Korean characters in the guidebook. Best to write it out in ungainly childish Korean script. Anyhow, it's fun practicing Korean words with them.

We were looking for a restaurant - we couldn't find it. Fatt then pronounced that his stomach felt 'funny'. He wanted western food and did not want to traipse around InSSSAAAAAdong looking for Korean food. We went to a posh western place nearby - sooooo expensive. We walked out. We went back to scummy Itaewon as we knew there would be a lot of western joints there. Walked into a pizza place where it was about 10 squid for a pizza. Lucky they were full. We ended up at a sandwich cafe. Fatt tucked in (you see, his stomach was 'funny' but he was still ravenous). In the spirit of Korean food, I went for a bulgogi sandwich. Gerrrr-rose! And so after, I had a Twister meal at the KFC on the ground floor of our hotel. I can justify this - we always aim to check out KFCs around the world. It was actually pretty good! Probably the best I've had in Asia. Heh heh.

Korea: Day 1 - Seoul

Wow, we've just come back from a week in Korea. What can I say? The food is great, the people are friendly (they certainly know how to knock back their booze!), the scenery is gorgeous, the cities are alive - it reminds me simultaneously of China, Japan and Hong Kong, yet is very much a unique culture... of which the Koreans are justifiably proud.

I have to admit, I worked with some oddball Koreans in the past - both colleagues and clients. I found them very hard to figure out and was not that keen on going for a holiday there. But I've been thoroughly converted and found it a fascinating place. I took a fair few pics and as always, we did have a mission to eat our way round the country. So let's start with Day 1...

We had an overnight flight and landed very early, rather shattered. Took the airport bus into town past misty marshes and then entering the city proper - modern skyscrapers, smooth roads... and bunches of apartment blocks with their numbers proudly emblazoned on their sides, bringing to mind both Hong Kong e.g. huge new town apartment blocks closely built together, and China e.g. numbers and numbers.

We stayed in Itaewon (Hamilton hotel) - Seoul's answer to Leicester Square. A truely horrid, yukky, area full of American fastfood joints, crappy tourist shops, dirt, litter and US army soldiers on leave. Our first impression of Korean service? Utter crap as the hotel desk guy unhelpfully asked us to come back in 3 hours time when a room would be ready cos apparently it takes 2 hours to clean a room (and despite my early checkin request). Thankfully somebody else took over and so we walked around the tatty area and then lay down in their lobby. Not good behaviour I know, but we did get our room. Which was actually very nice. Even if the hotel did come with its resident prostitute touting for business outside...

Well, we slept and slept. Then in the afternoon, awoke for food. We headed to Insadong on the underground - very easy, very efficient to use, though people don't really wait for you to exit before they enter.



Just those stairs! How do old people or mums with prams cope when there are so many stairs everywhere? I'm still so unfit.

Insadong was pretty, quaint, very touristic, but sweet. It has a lot of shops and galleries and cute teashops around the back streets. You can get some quite unusual teas like quince tea - sweet.




It also has a very good dumpling restaurant called Sadongmyeonok.



The dumplings are about three times the size of a Chinese equivalent 'jiaozi' dumpling. Packed full of very earthy tasting meat (sorry - it's better than it sounds) in a delicious soup. We also ate a seafood omelette - it was good. The squid was delicious.




The whole meal came to about £7.50 for the 2 of us. And it still rates as one of the best we had in Korea.

After Insadong, we decided to hit the university areas near Sinchon. This area is buzzing with life: cheap trendy clothes stalls, young people...

and as the evening fell, we stumbled upon a blazing criss cross of streets with bar after bar (hof?), pub after pub, restaurant after restaurant...it was fabulous. The vertical lights with the strange Korean script reminded us of Tokyo and of course, Blade Runner! (Sorry for fuzzy pic below - I was mid-beer)

Of course we had to eat there and whilst looking for a restaurant called Zenzen, we came across 'Zanzan' instead. The guy running the place spoke great English and seeing us looking lost, explained that they specialised in 'intestines and other organs - I'm not sure what they're called'. Well, it was packed with people on stools hovering around hot plates, sizzling smells and bottles of soju copiously being gulped down. We asked him to fix us something up for about 20,000 won (10 quid). Back came a BBQ plate filled with, some rolled fatty meat, mushrooms, onions, cabbage which all quickly started emitting stomach-rumbling aromas.

Again, a lot better than it sounds - it was delicious, but very rich. It was also accompanied by various side orders, including a raw organ which - we were advised - should be dipped in one of the sauces and eaten (no cooking involved). Huh! As if we'd try raw unidentified meat on our first night in Korea.
Well, the raw organ was melt-in-the-mouth fantastic. Still have no idea what it was though. (And oops, no picture).
Anyhow, we tried unsuccessfully to get another drink elsewhere, but failed - maybe there is an obligatory food order or something. We stumbled back to the ugly Itaewon area very satisfied with our first experiences of Seoul.

Japan Town

The great thing about living in Bangkok is stumbling onto areas which you never knew about, showing yet another face to this amazing city. The other day we decided to go to what was rather mysteriously labelled as "Japan Food" at Sukhumvit Soi 49/4 (or Thonglor 13) on our Nancy Chandler map. In fact the whole road is full of karaoke joints and Japanese restaurants.

One bit is even called Japan Town - a little complex full of restaurants. Needless to say, we tucked in...

here

I knew that Sukhumvit had its fair share of Japanese expats but thought that the area in Silom (Little Tokyo?) pretty much had that covered. I should have known they'd be a dedicated area right next to the residents!