Seoul Searching

I'm slowly regaining my Seattle life back, judging by the number of friends that I will be meeting up with this week. Today, Ate Julie and I met up to have lunch at (drumroll, please) a Korean restaurant. It turns out that she's now hooked on Korean drama serials herself. I'm telling you, no one escapes hallyu.

And as a public service announcement (or maybe I just want to bring all of you back to reality with me), I have news to tell. To all those who are saving their pennies and dimes in hopes of making a pilgrimage to Seoul in the near future to spot a ____ (insert your oppa's name here) walking down the street, I say halt! Stop the madness. Sorry to break your hallyu bubble, but you won't be seeing those kind of guys in Seoul streets. I should know, I went there before going home to Seattle.

(Here's my promised Seoul post.)

My flight from Manila to Incheon left at midnight. I was looking forward to getting a few hours of shuteye during the flight so that I'll have all the energy in the world when I get to South Korea. Well, being the great airline that it is, As1ana served food at midnight (I didn't know exactly what the heck to call the meal. Dinner? Midnight dinner? Who the heck eats their dinner at midnight?!). Sleep? I was busy stuffing food in my mouth.

I got to Incheon International at the wee hours of 4:40AM.

Immigration Officer: You don't have an address in your form.
Me: Oh, I'm just going to Downtown Seoul for a few hours.
Immigration Officer: How long are you staying in Korea?
Me: I'm leaving at 5:30PM today. See? (Hands over boarding pass from Manila.)
Immigration Officer: Oh, transit.
Me: Yes! Transit!

After having traveled to so many countries, I have learned that to break down the language barrier, you just have to know keywords. Even if I utter a whole sentence, the other person will only understand one or two words from that sentence. For example, don't bother asking, "Where is the bathroom in this building?" Just ask, "Toilet?" and they'll know what you're talking about. In this case, "Transit" was the keyword that I should've said outloud in the beginning. Silly me to forget.

I found my way to the first level to buy a bus ticket, but the counter was closed. I found an airport map (I'm so resourceful, I tell you!) which told me that there were free storage lockers at the airport. Supposedly, they were located on the third level. After asking the information desk attendant (she understood me! Hallelujah!), I was told that I couldn't get a locker until 6AM. Poopy! I sat on my butt and watched the time tick away...while thinking up of different scenes from Korean TV dramas that included the airport. Thanks to 1.5 hours of just staring at the ceiling, the empty counters, the door, I'll know an Incheon scene when I see one next on TV.

At 6AM, I walked over to the supposed storage area and found out that it wasn't free. Oh no, no. I ended up paying W8000 to store my two handcarried luggage for 8 hours. Blasphemy! But it was either that or breaking my shoulder lugging them around Downtown Seoul. Uh huh, the former it is.

I went back down to the first level to finally buy my bus ticket. Keywords used? "Westin Chosun." I uttered the words at the counter and I was given a ticket. When I went over to the bus stand, the attendant asked me something in Korean (dammit, I'm not Korean!) and all I said was "Westin Chosun" and we got along well. The rain was still pouring heavily and I had second thoughts about my little city tour. But I just said "Aja!" (quietly) and hopped onto my bus.

There was only myself and this one other girl on the bus. After the bus driver closed the door, he bowed in front of us and said something. Possibly, "Welcome on board" in Korean or "My pleasure to serve you"...or "Go home, you won't find KimRaeWon out there!" I guess, I'll never know.

It was my second time in Incheon, but it was my first time to go outside of the airport, and the first time to venture out to Seoul. Since I hadn't slept in more than 24 hours, I had to fight off the yawns constantly. I was scared that I would doze off and miss my stop and would have to pay extra to go where I needed to go. Plus, I didn't want to miss the view. Though, Incheon is what I'd like to call the boonies. And since it was raining, I couldn't see much anyway. However, I did pay W13,000 for this busride so I must make it count by "experiencing it fully." As I watched the rain pour down from my first row window seat, I couldn't believe that I was actually on my way to Seoul. Just like on numerous ocassions during my S.E. Asia trip, I love that feeling you get when you realize that you're finally doing something that you've only thought about before. It's sort of a mixture of a kilig feeling and a natural high feeling. Someone define it, quick!

After 45 minutes, I started seeing store fronts and more cars on the roadway. I kept wanting to ask the driver, "Are we there yet?", but I stopped myself. HeHe. Then, he turned onto an eight-lane road and I almost peed my pants out of excitement. I've always seen those wide-ass roads on TV and now I get to see them in person! And the road was so clean, a huge contrast to Manila streets. Loved it!

Finally, the driver pulled up to Westin Chosun. It turned out that I really needed to pee (I bet you liked that little bit of info!) so I had to decide whether I should go inside Westin or go straight to Starbucks where I needed to go anyway. Well, as expected from a Starbucks, they had a bathroom. So after paying for my mocha, bagel, and Seoul City Mug (whoo hoo!), I took advantage of their clean bathrooms. Go Corporate America! You just saved my bladder!

I picked up my order (yes, I washed my hands beforehand) and sat by the window as I waited for my lovely tourguide to come.

For a whole hour, I was just people-watching while the rain poured down on them. One observation I had made was that Seoul-ites, don't carry wimpy, foldable umbrellas. Nope. They bring the big, hard-c0re, wooden-handled ones; you know, the ones that can be lethal weapons.

A few minutes past 8AM, Double K arrived (aka My Lovely Tourguide) and asked, "Are you Mina?" Did the Seoul City Mug and the digital camera on my table give my identity away? HaHa! Shortly thereafter, it was all about firing questions one after the other. Double K epitomizes the adage, "Do what you love to do and you'll never have to work ever again." Aww. She's a role model to all of us who are stuck in crappy jobs one after the other. ;P

By 9AM, the rain stopped and Double K suggested that we head on out. Me? I was a bit apprehensive especially since the gray clouds didn't really go away. I had been caught in one too many torrential downpours in Asia and I was not planning in joining a w3t-t-shirt contest anytime soon. Afterall, my change of clothes was not at my disposal: it's in the airplane!

Shortly, I talked myself into walking out of the door. Afterall, I don't want to make K1m Ra3 W0n wait. That would be rude. ;P As we were walking to towards City Hall, I told Double K, "I'm definitely back in the First World. I'm not sweating!"

After the City Hall (there was nothing there since it was Saturday afterall), we went to Cheonggye Stream. It's quite similar to a river we have in my hometown in Seattle where you can walk alongside the river. So that's what a stream looks like. Face it, how many streams do you know? Uh huh.

Finally, I saw my first Korean palace: Gyeongbok Palace. It was indeed huge. And there were so many elementary school kids around! It was a Saturday and they were on a field trip! The heck? Anyway, I decided to forego the tour inside the palace: I was running low on funds and the banks were closed. I'll save the snooping around the palace for my next Seoul trip. By that time, I hoped to have already watched "Jewel in the Palace" or "Princess Hours" to "get the full effect." ;P

The next stop was Insa-dong or what I'd like to call "The place where there are a lot of cutesy-wutsy Korean souvenirs." Had I not spent most of my money roaming around S.E. Asia, I probably would've done a lot of damage in Insa-dong. Well, maybe not. I'm more into Japanese stuff. ;X

I had insisted on going to Insa-dong for one reason, and one reason alone: to see the Starbucks store with the store sign written in Hangul. That's the first time I've seen "Starbucks" not written as "Starbucks." Can you say, "photo-op"?

When our stomachs started growling, Double K asked me what I had wanted for lunch. I would've been fine checking out McDonalds to see if they have chicken-with-rice meals, but a lightbulb turned on: "You know those black noodles on TV? What do they taste like?"

It turned out that those can be found at Chinese restaurants so we headed over to one. First on the table was a little saucer of kimchi. Hmm, authentic kimchi. I put some in my mouth and didn't put anymore in after that. HaHa! Hot as heck. The black been noodles followed. The noodles and the sauce came separately. You would have to mix them together yourself. Just like Double K couldn't describe its taste to me prior to having some, I can't describe it to you now either. One thing is for sure though: it's greasy. The noodles kept on slipping from my chopsticks and the sauce does end up all over your face...at least it did for me. I kept grabbing a tissue after each bite. HeHe.

My last stop was Myeongdong, a shopping district. By this time, I told Double K, "I have not seen a cute boy at all." It was such a blasphemy, I tell you. Whatever gave me the idea that all Korean guys in Seoul look like W0n Bin?! LoL.

Anyway, Double K told me that there were no malls in Seoul, at least the malls that we've come to known. We entered one and she was right. The malls in Seoul were set up like tiangges. Think a more expensive version of Mall 168 in Divisoria and you get the picture. They did have a lot of cute stuff, but without a dressing room, I was not about to buy anything especially in this land where the average size is -6. I'm not even going to try. ;P

By 2PM, I had to catch the bus and head back to the airport. I had to bid goodbye to Double K. I almost didn't want to leave her, feeling like she won't be speaking Tagalog until the next Pinoy comes back to town. HeHe.

With the cloudy weather, Seoul looked a lot like Seattle. If you were to take all the Hangul store signs and replace them with English, you could very well think that you're in Sea-town. So Double K, if you ever quit your job, you know who to call, right? ;P