Korea Again and Again (Part 1): Pope Chases, Border Controls, and Royal Evenings

Prologue:

- After the horror of visa spelling errors and going back and forth to the Korean embassy, I was finally able to set foot again in South Korea for the fourth time. I never expected to be back in Korea so soon, and this time, it was for another official matter. I was selected by the National Council of Youth Organizations in Korea (NCYOK) to be one of my country's delegates to the 25th International Youth Forum, with the theme of  "Youth and World Peace." I shall reserve a lengthier and a more detailed introduction about this on my next post, where I'll be writing about the youth forum itself. For now, I'll just be writing about my first two days alone in Seoul - and boy, were those first two days tiring (for me and my wallet.)




The trip:

- August 18-19, 2014, Monday-Tuesday

- I arrived in Seoul early in the morning, which was weird for Cebu Pacific since they usually had late-afternoon flights to Seoul. I also noticed that Seoul's late summer weather was weird, since one day can be hot and dry, cold and wet, AND dry and cold, making it difficult to find the right clothes for the day. Thinking positively, it gave me more time to go around. I also received word before flying to Seoul that my arrival date was Pope Francis' last day in South Korea, and would be doing a mass around noon-ish in Myeongdong Cathedral before going to Rome. Needless to say, I had to rush to my hostel (Insadong Hostel once more,) and brave the light drizzle to Myeongdong Cathedral.

- With barely any sleep, I reached Myeongdong and found myself in the wrong church; most churches in Korea look like each other - gothic with plain colors. I realized it was the wrong church since there was no one there; Myeongdong Cathedral was around 3 minutes away by walking. Upon beholding the Myeongdong Cathedral, I wanted to kneel in despair and cry to the skies when I found out that I just missed the pope by a good 15-20 minutes or so. I only saw a priest blessing some devotees, some protesters from other anti-pope Christian sects, and media people covering the event.

People leaving. The pope has left. I cry.

I thought he was the pope. Apparently not.

Oh cooly, from KBS News!!

- Feeling sad about not seeing the pope, I decided to go back to the hostel, have lunch in Lotteria, and visit Go Guan within Insadong. Go Guan is a hanbok-themed photo studio, where people pay an entrance fee of 20,000 won, choose their costume, and go around the studio to take their own photos (additional 10,000 won for those who want an official photo taken by the resident photographer, with the hard copy of course.) The studio had replicas of gisaeng rooms, or offices of palace officials. I chose a yangban (aristocrat) costume, and I shelled out an extra 10,000 for my official photo.

My yangban costume.

She's from mainland China. Haha.

My (scanned) official photo.

- Go Guan's third floor also served free tea, and had an area where visitors can try their hand at calligraphy. The highly-fibrous traditional paper was highly sensitive to water, and can easily absorb water. Since the brushes were mostly placed in the rinsing glass full of water, it was quite difficult to squeeze all the water out before dipping it in the black ink before writing. Needless to say, it was hard to control the brush, and made my calligraphy a bit blotted. I seemed to have done a pretty decent job - I did mandatory calligraphy homework for around 7 years (during the latter half of grade school and my whole high school life.)

My Chinese name (or Korean in hanja.)

My Korean name (translated from Chinese.)

Go Guan.

- I had a good walk around Insadong, my home away from home in Seoul, before going to Potala Restaurant for some Tibetan food. I've always loved Potala Restaurant, and I've frequented the place enough for my friend and waiter Kelsang to recognize me in a snap. Apart from my usual conversation with Kelsang, he also gave me a Tibetan mantra book written in both Korean and Tibetan, so I can practice reading in both languages, he said; the book was supposedly for sale at the small Tibetan souvenir shop located at the back of the restaurant.

Insadong, my Insadong.

Street performer making giant bubbles.

Tibetan dinner.

Hello my momos.

With my friend Kelsang.

OMG MY FAVORITE KOREAN DRAMA ON TV!!!!

Dae Jang Geum.

- I woke up very early the following rainy morning because I had to go to Lotte Hotel for my whole-day DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) combination tour (Panmunjeom + 3rd Infiltration Tunnet.) I had to make a reservation beforehand, around 2 weeks prior, and I had to pay around 130 dollars for the whole tour (lunch included.) It was quite expensive, but I knew that it would be worth the money especially since it was the closest to North Korea I could get, unless I fly to North Korea; I do not know if that will happen in this lifetime though, but it would surely be interesting to see the other Korea.

- I had to show up at the travel agency around 7 in the morning, where I was made to join other English-speaking tourists. During our hour-long trip to the DMZ, we were told that photography was only allowed in very specific areas, and other rules that should be strictly followed. We arrived at the DMZ visitor's hall for a more detailed orientation about our day trip, sign a waiver form, change our bus (we had to use the military shuttle,) and off we went to the famous blue conference rooms of Panmunjeom (aka "Joint Security Area" or "JSA.") These conference rooms (three of them) are located on the separation of the two Koreas. Each conference room has two doors - one for the South and one for the North. Tourists cannot enter these rooms if they are being used for official purposes, or when it is being used by the other Korea (ex. tourists entering from the South-Korean side may not enter if there are North-Korean tourists inside the room.) For security, guards will lock the side of the other Korea to make sure no one from the other side can enter (so when I was there, the South-Korean guards had to lock and heavily guard the North Korean door.)

Facing North Korea.

There's a North-Korean soldier. 

The mircrophones, wires, and where the guard is standing signifies the actual border between the 2 Koreas.

Literally between the 2 Koreas.

The door to North Korea.

The bridge of no return, used as a prisoner-exchange bridge before.

Prisoners were allowed to stay in their country of captivity or cross over to the other side; they can't return to the other side of the bridge.

- Apart from the Panmunjeom, the most interesting part of the tour was passing by Kijongdong. Kijongdong is North Korea's propaganda village, and has seemingly impressive but empty buildings just to show how "progressive" the North is. The village also houses one of the largest flagpoles in the world (if not the largest,) with, of course, the North-Korean flag.

The largest flagpole.

- Our group went to Injingak afterwards, a park located by the banks of the Imjin River (Imjingang,) where some more information on the Korean War, an amusement park, and some restaurants can be located. Historically, it served as a crucial point for North-South locomotive transport via the Freedom Bridge.

Freedom Bridge.

Old locomotive.

View of the river, and the railway bridge.

Saw this at the back.

- After having a bulgogi lunch, we went to the Dorasan Station, a modern train station that transports people and goods from Dorasan to Pyongyang, North Korea. The station is currently not in use due some recent conflict between the two Koreas. The train station was a bit empty, and people would need to pay 500 won if they want to see the platform.

Train tracks.

- From the train station, we rode the bus again, and had a brief visit to the Dorasan Observatory, and due to the foggy weather, it was highly difficult to see or take photos of Kijongdong. Too bad, it would've been the perfect place to get photos of the propaganda village.

Foggy photo of Kijongdong with the flagpole from Dorasan Observatory.

- The last part of my DMZ tour was a visit to the third infiltration tunnel. There are actually four discovered infiltration tunnels, but the third one was the closest to the other locations, and no one knows how many other infiltration tunnels there are. This particular tunnel was discovered in the 70s, years after the two Koreas signed a peace agreement. While the North denies that they were the ones responsible for the tunnel, the latter end of the tunnel was closer to the South Korean surface, hinting North-Korean plans of attacking South Korea. The North also used charcoal to color the tunnel, so they can say that the tunnel was a coal mine as an excuse; the mountain was made of granite, and there is no way for coal to be present there.

- We all got to go down the tunnel until the barricade. Beyond the barricade, there are two to three more walls around 170 meters apart, and beyond that was supposed to be the North Korean side of the tunnel. However, North Korea has since closed their end of the tunnel while "South Korea uses the tunnel to earn money -- you guys!! For tourism," our tour guide said. Beside the tunnel entrance, there was a small museum about the infiltration tunnels.

Inside the museum.

- The tour ended a few minutes earlier than expected, so we had some more time to buy souvenirs, and change back to our original bus. Because traffic wasn't too heavy that day, we got back to Seoul around half an hour earlier than our ETA (estimated time of arrival.) I maximized my extra time by reserving my play ticket and janggu (traditional Korean drum) class in Jeongdong Theater behind Deoksugung (Deoksu Palace.)

- I later rode the train to Chungmuro to go to Korea House to have dinner and watch a cultural performance. Opened in 1981, Korea House offers visitors various traditional experiences from learning musical instruments or learning Korean etiquette. However, Korea House is also famous for its royal dining experience; visitors who sign up can experience multi-course meals that feature dishes that were served to the royal family in the Joseon Dynasty (the more the number of courses, the more expensive it is - I only went for the cheapest set since I was only one person, and dinner+show already cost me around 100USD. Tsk tsk.)

- I made my reservation for Korea House weeks before going, and while they allow a minimum of one person for the show, they usually have a necessary minimum-of-2 for the dinner. Since it was low season, Korea House allowed me to have my dinner-for-one. My goodness. I understood why they didn't usually allow dinner for one - there was just too many meticulously-prepared food!! I couldn't pick a favorite because everything suited my taste. The fish and meat could literally melt in one's mouth, the soup was heated at just the right temperature, and every bite was a merrymaking of flavors.

"Hanguk Eui Chib" (Korea House.)

My palace lady.

This is not the end of it.

More food!!

MORE!!!!

Fruits and fruit tea for dessert.

- The traditional performance allowed photography with no flash, although one should not be too engrossed with taking too many photos, because the performances were best seen directly with one's eyes (I think this goes for any performance anyway.) I may have taken a lot of photos, but trust me, I've seen a lot more with my own eyes. Korea House also gives the opportunity let the audience take photos with some of the performers afterwards.

"Love;" she compares her love to the moon.

"Reign of Peace and Prosperity."

Seoljanggo.

"Beauty of Incense."

Pansori. 

Ogommu (5 Drum Dance.)

Arirang.

Buchaechum.

Pungmul-nori.

Hallyangmu (dance of people who failed to get be employed as a military official.)

Curtain call.

With the buchaechum dancers.

- I went back to Insadong to rest and prepare my things for my official agenda the following day. I was both nervous and excited, especially since I knew I'd get to meet people from around the world who are as passionate as me about the issues of the world, especially world peace.