My Adventures in Seoul

My Adventures in Seoul
On the City of Diligence

In the Geun jeong jeon, the mail hall of the Gyeongbokgung palace, there is a wooden placard with words “a diligent king can govern the world while an idle king cannot”. If I have to use one word to describe Seoul, the diligence is the word I would use. I reach Seoul in the unholy hour of April 24th. As my flight to Vancouver was leaving in the evening, I felt it is my duty to get the most out the twelve-hour break between the flights.

Luckily, having Canadian passport frees the holder of the visa requirement. Korean immigration officials obviously felt that I am not planning to disappear in Korea and allowed me in without any questions. The information tourist office armed me with the map, explanation on where to get a government-run bus tour of Seoul, and a suggestion that 50 thousand won would be sufficient for a day.

Short stopover at a cash machine and I had the mentioned amount in my wallet. Few minutes later I was sitting in a company with two other people in a bus speeding towards Seoul. One hour of flying via raised in the air highway brought me in the middle of the city.

One day is not sufficient time to give a conclusive opinion on any city. But those six or seven hours wondering the streets of Seoul could only place the city under the heading: “decent place, looks grey; conclusion - pending further research, first impression – inconclusive”. After first 6 hours in Bangkok it got elevated up to the ranks of “city where I would like to live” in the company of Mumbai, London and Paris. (Don’t forget that my definition of “live” is “stay in one place for two-three years”).

After hot and sunny Bangkok, the drizzling rain with temperature in its low teens did not help to improve the greyness of downtown Seoul. Another, after weather, disappointment came with language. After being able to easily find fluent English speakers in India and Thailand (whatever the accent) it was difficult to accept that in some countries people still speak their native language. With all my adaptability to other cultures English-language chauvinism kicked in no time.

In addition, regardless of absence of SARS in Korea, the tourist numbers have dropped dramatically. I was the only person to take a City Tour. The number of guides was cut and English-language guides suffered the most, as with absence of English-speaking tourists they were not needed. The only guide available spoke Mandarin to the obvious enjoyment of elderly Chinese couple that joined the bus later. After I made the most of audio guide I elected to do the hop in hop off bit, and left the bus at the Gyeongbokgung palace. Inside the palace was swamped by hundreds of giggling, squealing girls on their official school trips to the palace. I don’t know why they all chose that particular day to visit the palace, but hordes of Korean girls in their ‘sailor moon’ outfits were very excited to see a non-Asian person. Even in India I have never received so much attention.

Unfortunately, it looked like every retirement home for women in Korea picked that day to visit the palace. Being surrounded by hundreds of little Korean grandmas asking “You – OK?” did not add to my being OK. I did not sleep for more than two days before coming to Seoul. I was tired, sleepy, hungry, wet, and cold. I certainly did not feel ok. I guess I did not look ok either. Escaping the grandmas was easy, but any response towards school children, especially boys who appeared soon after, provoked cheerful happiness of their part, and I guess, on mine. With all their lack of English, Korean people happened to be friendlier that I could handle at that moment.

The Palaces in Seoul are also different from Bangkok. Instead of fury of brightness, there is a solemn sobriety of straight lines and monotonous colours. The Gyeongbokgung palace is, in particular, a maze of walls and courtyards. There are no (or very few) rooms. It is even more open than the temples or ancient family houses in Kerala. Wondering around under the drizzling rain I could not help wondering what did the ancient Koreans do in winter? Seoul is not in tropics. I saw very little covered space in that palace (a bit more in others). Was it a summer palace? I still don’t know, but if it was not – I sympathize.

After getting out from one of the Palaces, I decided not to wait for the next tour bus, but walk to the next bus stop. It looked so close on a map – just across the road. Well, if I thought it would be easy, I was so wrong! I have never been in a situation when I was in a middle of the city and I could not cross the street. I would definitely not recommend a jaywalking in Seoul to anyone. In front of me there was an 18-lane highway somehow marked on my map as a street. After spending good thirty minutes running back and forth trying to find just how to cross the ‘street’ I gave up and went to wait for my bus. There were hardly any people. Throughout the whole day, I haven’t met anyone who spoke even passable English (including a tour guide and people in the tourist information office) with the exception of the girl at the tourist information desk at the airport. I have to say that to me it looked like all Koreans move only by car. I hardly saw any pedestrians. Most of the roads I saw were wider and more congested than highways around Toronto. Of course, I saw only a very little part of Seoul, but it did not feel like home.

What can I say about Seoul? I can’t say I liked it. It was OK, but it is definitely not on the list of top twenty places I would like to go. The experience of being there had nothing in common with overwhelmed excitement of being in Bangkok.