The Last of Seoul - Random walks in the rain

(Note: OK, I've technically been in the Philippines for two days but really, do you really want to read about how I just spent the day as a lady of leisure, chilling by the infinity pool, reading a book, calmly waiting for my facial?? Exactly. My tale of random awkwardness in the rain in 7 degree weather is so much more amusing...)

My last full day in Seoul started out promising enough - I woke up. I didn't even have to set my alarm because I learned over the last few days that the when I heard the middle-aged Korean Guy careen down the alley on his bike/trolley thing, shouting "Annyeong hayeso + [Insert Korean for: 'something, something, for sale'], it was about 8am in the morning.

Because I was in Seoul for a short period of time, I crammed as much as I could during my time there. On the Sunday, I decided to hit up Gyeongbokgung Palace and a couple of the markets my trusty Lonely Planet book on Seoul recommended, the Insadong Market and the Little Manila market. Somewhere in between I was also going to find my requisite rice hat* souvenir and the sole Starbucks in all of Seoul that has its sign in Korean characters. Let's just say I made the Sunday into my own little Amazing Race.

As I was getting ready for my day, I met a fellow backpacker named Michelle who was also planning on hitting up Isadong so we decided to hang out for part of the day.

Parlayin' it to Palace

Our trek started out rainy. Fortunately it wasn't the torential downpour kind but the consistent light rain that really is only slightly less annoying. When we got to the subway stop that lead to the Palace, we immediately noticed that the straight pathway to the Palace was blocked by fences, cops and people. The bulk of the people seemed to converge upon the Sejong Centre for the Perfoming Arts so we trekked over to see what the hubub was about. Michelle decided to flag the first young people we saw - a pair of Korean girls under a green frog umbrella - and asked who was coming. As it turns out it was allegedly a movie star named Kim something-something but I didn't catch why s/he was coming. Seeing how of neither of us could figure out who Kim-something something was and how long the wait was, we decided to take a detour around the Centre and move towards the Palace.

When we finaly reached the Palace, it was still raining, we were still wet and the entire viewing space of the Palace was entirely outside. Needless to say, we viewed the Palace rather quickly and sought coverage in the National Palace Museum on the grounds.

The Museum was pretty cool - it had a really fabulous exhibit explaining the history of the hanbok and displayed a lot of variety of habok, from the traditional to the more "trendy". After drying ourselves at the Museum for a while and scoffing at the prices in the gift shop, we decided to venture to the nearby Isadong Market where the souvenirs were a fraction of the price.

Would you like rice (hat) with that?

Learning from my past trip to Tokyo and my visits to its markets, I was a lot more strategic in acquiring my souvenirs. I bucketed the souvenirs into categories (e.g. have to have, nice to have, will I ever actually use it?) and price ranges. For better or for worse, Korea's version of the rice hat made the "have to have" category.

(*- note on the rice hat obsession: I am just fascinated with the different shapes, sizes and colourings of the rice hats of Asian countries. They are all different yet they all more or less do the same thing - cover your face from the elements while you're in the rice fields. Taking the lead from a design book, I've arranged my small collection of rice hats over my head board in my room in lieu of a painting and it looks pretty cool in my opinion...but I digress...moving on...)

Halfway down the market I was beginning to get discouraged. Will I ever find my rice hat? Will my streak of finding rice hats end in Seoul of all places?? I was midway through a conversation with Michelle when a straw colouring across the street caught my eye. There at the end of a store, on the other side of the market, in the top right hand corner of the ceiling was the rice hat. I don't even remember what we were talking about but all I remember saying to her midway through out conversation was "Ohhh, RICE HAT!" and then proceeded to dart across the street before she could respond.

By the time Michelle caught up with me, I was already pointing at the hat on the ceiling and asking the woman in my broken Korean/sign language how much. While Michelle was impressed with my searching skills ("how did you even see that hat?"), I'm pretty sure that the Korean woman thought I was a bit crazy with my actions of demonstrating putting on the hat on my head. No matter - I got my hat and she got a sale.

After that big score, the rest of the trip to the Isadong market was gravy - we got all that we needed AND on the way back to the subway station, I noticed people come out of a store with some Starbucks cups. When I looked up, there was the elusive Starbucks-in-Korean-characters sign!!! And of course I took a picture (see, Lori it really DOES exist...Lonely Planet never lies...).

Once we hit the main road that lead to the subway station, Michelle and I parted ways. She was on her way back to the town where she teaches English and I was on the hunt for the Jogye Temple.

The Temple was relatively easy to find - as it turned out it was a 5 minute walk from the main road where I parted ways with Michelle. It is supposed to be the largest Buddhist Shrines in Seoul with three large golden Buddha statues. Unfortunately there was a service going on so I couldn't see the statues up close so I looked through the window like a little pauper and moved on to my next destination - the Little Manila Market.

Uh, I came here to get Puto, not a boyfriend...
I have to say I LOVE THE SEOUL TRANSIT SYSTEM. By Sunday, I felt like a pro darting around the city on the subway and had no problem finding the station that lead to the Little Manila Market. All for the equivalent price of $1 CAD with a $0.50 deposit you get back at the end of your trip for the card. $1!!

Anyhow, after a bit of roaming, I did eventually find the market above ground - I just followed the sounds of people speaking Tagalog and not Korean. The market is set up by Filipino overseas workers that live in Korea who buy and sell the comforts of the motherland. According to my trusty Lonely Planet, the market is only set up on Sundays (after church, no less) and has everything from long distance phone cards to fresh fish.

I went up and down the market once, trying to decide what to buy for a snack. I settled upon a stall that had puto, a spongy pastry from the motherland. There were a couple of vendors at the stall who were really animated. They looked up and automatically said "Annyeong Hasseyo" then did I double take when they saw me. They then reverted to Tagalog and then got confused when I answered them in English without a Filipino accent. One guy when as far as to ask me if I was Filipino on both sides of my family because I didn't look really "that Filipino" (Sidebar: Am I really that ambiguous??).

I bought my puto and chatted with them for a bit. They were really friendly; they mentioned how they had some relatives in Toronto. Then one of the guys asked me where my husband was (i.e. was he back in Toronto). Without even thinking of the implications of my answers, I automatically answered truthfully that I wasn't married. That's when it got really awkward, REALLY quickly. The guys starting yammering away in speed Tagalog and started asking if I had Friendster and what my cell phone was in Toronto because they wanted this one guy to have it. I had a "Oh f**k moment" and quickly flashed them a smile and said that my cell phone number was from my work and I wasn't allowed to use it for personal use...then quickly back away from market and into the arms of some Korean comedians. Sort of.

Korean comedians...kind of cute but mostly funny
What I like about large cities in general, Seoul included, is the ability to get lost but still find a lot of things to do/see. In my hasty retreat away from Little Manila, I found myself in another shopping district. Damned if I know what it was called but it was nearby Little Manila and it had shoe stores.

At the foot of one of the shopping alleys, there was a crowd gathering at what I think was a square. When I went closer to investigate, it was a group of about six Korean guys in different costumes working the crowd. I approached one of the guys that was relegated to flyer duty to ask what was going on. From what I could understand of his broken English that the guys were comedians and their show was "very funny". When I asked if I would understand the jokes, he mentioned "uh, slapstick" and "funny" (which means in my head, "uh, no"). At this point one of the comedians came over and gave the whole spiel in a more animated fashion. The entire time I tried to keep a straight face because he had a gigantic black beauty mole painted onto his face (it was either that or a really failed attempt at putting on the KISS make up) and making a lot of hand gestures as he was talking. I'm not sure how it came up but I wound up asking to take a picture with him and we brought his buddy with the pimpin' white suit into the mix.

After the photo, I decided to head back to the hostel as I had to get packing for my flight to Manila the next evening. The rain finally subsided and I didn't want to get caught in another long spell of rain.

Annyeong-hi gaseyo Seoul!*
My last hours in Seoul certainly were not as eventful or action packed as Sunday. Whereas the other days were rather frenetic, Monday was more relaxed. Other than visiting the financial district of Seoul (because I'm a nerd and like pretty buildings), I didn't visit any more new places. I just returned to a couple of spots I liked to pick up some stuff for myself (read: shoes) and headed back to the hostel to pick up my backpack and the massive luggage my mom put all the Christmas gifts in to bring to the motherland.

So ends my first ever experience in Korea...and the long-winded blog entry about it. In all, it was an awesome section of my trip and I'm really glad I did it, even the hostel part. In the next update it'll be all Philippines, all the time - starting with brush with customs.

xoxo

C

*- Annyeong-hi gaseyo Seoul! = Bye Seoul!