Another Winter in Korea 한국 겨울 여행... JUST the TWO of us!
22 Dec 2022 - 10 Jan 2023
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| ... a painting on the wall of our hotel... |
... because to understand a people, we need to not only read, but also to interact.
22 Dec 2022
"Almost three weeks in Korea this time around... really 笑呀 you all！"
How crazy could we be? Every December the winter bug in us would start stirring in its sleep. Invariably it would rise from its deep slumber, and open its eyes in time to behold the sights of Daehan Minguk, so much that my sister Ah San, and some of our friends, mistakenly thought we have gotten permanent residency in the Land of Morning Calm.
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“Wah lau, first time I feel so cold!” exclaimed Singapore’s Ajumma.
A slow start
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Our budget hotel with no lift but needing me to carry our luggage up three floors was among the first few unexpected. What was another kind of unexpected-expected? That Lotte Mart and Seoul was full of Singaporeans. Every corner we turned we could pick up the familiar Singapore accent floating in the air. While buying Pack-soju and cans of Dawn 808 解酒茶, as I was taking photos of ourselves, two Singaporean men saw us and we highly recommended this alcohol section to them. Jiaklat!
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That night it went to minus 12 degrees. But our heat-generating Ajumma was starting to feel hot in the hotel room, so we turned off the heater and opened the windows. Of course, we knew who suffered that night. Hahaha…
23 Dec 2022
A Freezing Day
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What a lovely and freezing morning. Minus 13 it said. I satisfied 我的好奇的心情 by going downstairs to test out the layering at this level of coldness and I realised - alamak.. No gloves, cannot. No shawl, cannot. No hat, cannot. And surprisingly, no mask, also cannot!
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So here in Seoul, under such conditions, the mask is not only for protection against viruses but it was also important to keep the face warm! No wonder even though outdoor mask-wearing is no longer legally required, the locals are still putting them on. In spite of being so seasoned when it comes to sub-zero weather, I still find myself learning new things every winter.
“Dar what are we going to do today?” ah the same question. Again.
I was expecting this. Excitement was also the emotion I expected this question to stir whenever it hit me. The excitement from having to deal with the unknown, the excitement from having to weigh the uncertainty of making a decision (no big deal lah, we were on holiday), and the excitement from having to make that decision and then find the way to the destination.
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"Oh, let me show you, the scissors here is for you to cut your kimchi into smaller pieces," offered one of the Ajumma waitresses.
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| Seolleongtang 설렁탕 |
"Aigoo, Halabeoji (Grandfather), it's cold! Don't stand there, please come in," one of the Ajumma waitresses came out and ushered the old man in.
"Kwenchanayo. I will just stand here for a while to warm myself up," replied the old man, desperately needing to escape from the deep cold outside.
"Aniyo Aniyo, Halabeoji, Kwenchansidnida! It's ok. Please just come in and take a sit." and she gently held the old man by his arm and led him in.
Hongdae!
Before the trip, we met with Chi Loong and I was sharing with him my Hongdae Korean handphone case and the Korean i-Ring. I was not happy with the strength of the magnet, and I was planning to go back to Hongdae to the same shop to ask if there was any ring or case that allows a better magnetic suction. This decision sprung into my mind as we were enjoying the Seollongtang,
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This accessory shop was right across the main road once we walk into Hongdae. The cases were $20 - $35 per case, and the Magsafe stickers were going at $10 a piece. This young lovely SaJangNim was very cute - when we told her we always came here to buy to gave us a 5000W discount on our 90,000W purchase. Some people may ask - what’s so special about the Korean-made phone accessories that would make me spend money on them instead of buying China-made products from Taobao at a cheaper price? The qualities were definitely way better. And the Koreans pride themselves on their Made-in-Korea products.
Since it was another two hours before my eyebrow embroidery appointment in Gangnam. we just sat around in one of the Hongdae cafe with our hot Cappucino and relaxed. Korea was famous for the fact that one could simply just leave one's handphone, tablet, laptop purse, wallet handbag... anything... just lying on the table or chair and walk away to order food.
"No one would steal your stuff? Really?!" you may ask.
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| "Just leave your handphone on the table. No one will take it!" |
Nope. Not a single soul. The moral education of Korea was so good that no matter how poor a person was, he or she would not take what was rightfully not his/hers left by others. It manifested as this display of integrity on the social level, much to the disbelief of many who hailed from western countries like usa, Europe and some south-Asian countries.
Eyebrow embroidery
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Oh I simply loved doing my eyebrow embroidery Korea. Of course eyebrow embroidery is not unique to Korean beauticians. But my virgin embroidery was done years back here in Seoul, thus it would always be my go-to destination for my eyebrows. Like I told my relatives and friends, having well-defined eyebrows would allow one more confidence, and convey a more assuring image.
As Daehan Education Centre's Chairwoman 理事님 said to me during this trip: "Having clear and well-shaped eyebrows is indeed important in your job."
That evening I brought Serene to enjoy her favourite Hwe dinner in the Hwejib beside the hotel. This first visit so impressed Ah Hwa that we would return yet another time over the next three weeks.
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24 Dec 2022
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Majang Sijang
Majang Market (마장시장, 马场市场), the mere mention of this would bring to minds in those who are in the know, images of freezing cold stalls selling fresh Korean beef known as Hanwoo 한우 韩牛, quality of which is on par with its more famous cousin, the wagyu beef from Japan, but at a significantly cheaper price. Hanwoo is not exported out of Korea because the local demand for it is very high. Thus it's only when one is in Korea that one can really enjoy the best of Korean beef. And here in Majang market is precisely the place to be.
Thanks to our Cristie Sim, we decided to cheong Majang Sijang on this Christmas Eve as we had nothing much planned.
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"The history of Majang Meat Market dates back to 1963, when a major slaughterhouse in Sungin-dong, Jongno-gu moved to the area. The name Majang is associated with horses, and comes from a horse farm that was in the area in the early Joseon Kingdom (1392-1897).
In the ‘70s, when fresh meat was not readily available at department stores or supermarkets as it is now, the meat market drew shoppers from all across the city, who arrived via a now-defunct intercity bus terminal. At that time, the market offered slaughtering services as well.
The market is not just for wholesale buyers. It also draws retail shoppers as well as meat lovers who want to enjoy fresh meat at lower prices. Many restaurants here also offer freshly grilled meat.
Today, the blood-splattered floor is still a regular sight but improved drainage and hygiene means it no longer pools up.
The slaughterhouse in Majang permanently closed in 1998 due to complaints from neighbors over odor and noise." - The Korean Herald
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| Unbelievable marbling... |
The most delicious Hanwoo ever!
We didn't want to exaggerate, but the Hanwoo 韩牛 here is really the best we have ever had. We would definitely rate it on par with the best of Wagyu beef but at a fraction of the price. Majang Sijang is frequented by locals who want to enjoy a good meal of Korean beef at a lower price than when served in other restaurants elsewhere selling Korean beef. Tourists are also found roaming the alleys of Majang market and would be stumped by the friendly store owners calling out touting for business. Actually, every stall is almost the same, price-wise. The ground floor would house the individual butchery with their eye-boggling display of freshly packed beef, all properly price-labelled.
Hint: If really no idea what to order, just ask the SajangNim to give you a pack of Modeun Hanwoo (All types of Hanwoo) from various cuts and one pack of 400gm, enough for two person, or so would cost about 80,000-90,000W, and they would usually add in some extras. The SikTang (restaurants) are mostly housed on the second or third floor. Each butchery would have its links to several SikTang such that a customer who buys from the stall would be ushered to their ‘áffiliated’ restaurant. But again, the charges for the restaurants are very uniform - about 5000-6000W per head for the service of providing a table, charcoal barbecue pit, cold water, utensils, and a whole range of banchan (side dishes).
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So one really does not need to search too much. And really every stall is almost the same as the other stall, in terms of beef supply and prices. And importantly, any of the stalls would provide as good a service as the one beside. And it is a common practice for the stall owner to not only sell you the packed beef, but throw in extra Beef sashimi, and extra beef belly meat, all of which are totally delicious!
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Meeting brand new Korean friends, just like that…
“Excuse me, what is that bowl of soup that you all are eating?” was the innocent question that I posed to the three young Korean ladies on the next table.
“Oh it’s Duenjang jiggae,” came the reply. And fate was such that, this short exchange evolved into a cheers of soju+beer, and we all started chit-chatting.
My Korean, though conversational, was still only at most primary 3, primary 4 standards, and I was surprised that my limited command of Korean, coupled with the three 36 year old Korean ladies’ equally limited English, could allow us to strike up a very lively conversation. It was their first time here at Majang Market, as it was ours too. And these three young ladies were so tickled by an old Oppa and an old Eonni from Singapore and who seemed to know quite a lot about their country, that they started to ask us a lot of questions (about ourselves and about Singapore), and we of them. This first round ended up with a second round, where as hosts, they insisted on bringing us to a nearby Crsab restaurant within walking distance, and Serene and I had a most delicious steam flower crab 꽃게찜 and more soju and beer.
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Speaking a language that was foreign to ourselves was like…. One literally needed to be immersed in people who are constantly bombarding you with the language and giving you no chance. Add in careful listening, plus frantic digging from one’s memory of all the expressions and words that one learned over the years during lessons,, and trying not to panic while struggling to piece the sentences and finally gar-gar-lai just let the replies flow out of one’s mouth, correct or not. Being forced to speak Korean like this, was one of the most exciting things for both Serene and me whenever we were here.
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What was even more impressive was, these three 36, 37-year-old young ladies were very good friends for years, and though they were now working, they still got together regularly. The fact that they unconditionally accepted a couple of strangers as friends and treated us to a $200+ crab meal, was certainly a perfect display of Korean hospitality. We were deeply touched, and we continued to keep in touch even back home in Singapore.
韩国人的人情味，真的是没得顶！这三位韩国女孩子，姐姐是이현지（李泫池），比较叽喳的，比较会说一点英语的叫김소라 （金素羅），酒量最差的呢，叫지한솔（是一种树木的名称，没有汉字的韩国名字）。
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This day was so unforgettable, we went to bed with so much warmth in our hearts that we could not stop talking about the young Korean ladies, and of Majang market and the most delicious beef.
25 Dec 2022
“Today hor, let’s just walk and explore the neighbourhood behind Seoul Station,” I suggested, late in the morning on Christmas Day. “I heard it’s an interesting neighbourhood, and there should be a lot of things to see.”
The neighborhood of Cheongpa-ro led us through convenience stores and villas and Ban-Jiha (half underground) households with plenty of steep up-slopes and downslopes as this area was situated on a hill. Typical narrow walkways and concrete steps transacting alleys leading down to buildings further down the slopes, criss-crossing pavements so pathognomonic of an oldish Korean neighbourhood. In Korea, housing is separated into apartments, villas, office-tels, and detached solo-standing houses, of all the residential buildings, apartments (called Apa-teu in Korean) are the most plentiful, followed by villas. Villas are buildings with walk-up units very often seen in Korean dramas and are located all over the various dongs (neighbourhoods) as the cost of rental for these is affordable. As we walked, we feasted our eyes on the villas lining both sides of the alleyways with varying degrees of oldness.
Halfway through, we found ourselves at a quaint little cafe at a crossroad just behind the Lotte Car Rental office at the back of Seoul Station. It was run by a SajangNim and his blonde-haired wife. Serene fell in love with a hand-made strawberry bag made by his wife and bought it while we sipped cappuccino. A conversation got struck and we started discussing doing business in Singapore, rental cost, cost of living, and tax in both Korea and Singapore. My understanding of Korean was still very much limited, but we learned that in Korea, there is this thing called Gift tax 赠与税 증여세 that meant if parents want to gift their children even a simple casual gift of more than $50,000, in cash or gift, the government will tax this gift heavily (about 40%, crazy!).
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“Why is there such a tax?” Serene questioned me.
Neither did I know why, as this was the first time I was learning about this. We were both very surprised to hear of this type of tax. Perhaps it was to discourage young people from simply benefitting from parents instead of working hard.
This very inquisitive Cafe SajangNim asked me all about rental prices for a cafe the same size as his in Singapore and all the details of setting up businesses. Maybe it wasn’t every day that a pair of Singaporeans would come to his cafe and appear (pretend) to understand him in the local lingo.
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(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)👍Something about Korea...
I guess not many Singaporeans realise that. But Koreans ARE in general very inquisitive of Singapore and they have always seen Singapore very up. Like one of our many very good Korean friends said:
"Although Koreans may secretly look upon certain other nationals as a notch below themselves, Korean sincerely treat Singaporeans as equals - both stature as well as economically."
Everywhere we went, the men and women in the street, after realising that they can communicate with us a little, would ask very specific details about living in Singapore - cost, rental, GDP and such. One very friendly man, sitting across our table in the pig blood restaurant somewhere near Seodaemun Prison History Museum, waxed lyrics about the tax system, the GDP and the capabilities of Singapore citizens. Many harbour the intention to visit Singapore, though not many have done so, why? Because they all say that Singapore is a VERY EXPENSIVE city!
And we Singaporeans thought that Korea is a very expensive country!
서대문 형무소 西大門刑務所
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| Upon arriving, we saw a man standing quietly outside the prison gates, in absolute silence. |
“Where are we going to?” asked Serene.
“The Prison History Museum 서대문 형무소 西大門刑務所. Remember the Korean movie that we watched called “항거: 유관순 이야기. Resistance: The Yoo Kwan Soon story” where the Korean female pro-independent protestors where imprisoned by the Japanese colonial soldiers and were tortured? That’s the prison that I am bringing you to.”
Although the map said it was only about 5-6km, it turned out to be such a long walk, traversing through upslopes and downslopes. I was thrilled to be able to see with my own eyes, housing where people actually lived in, and passers-by going about on their own businesses. It was freezing. And icicles were formed on the window stills of the half-underground apartments housed in the villa buildings, and slippery ice lined the side of the alley. Serene nagged, scolded me, and rushed me to quickly arrive at the Prison History Museum because we needed to meet our Daehan Education Centre IsaNim and her husband that evening for a dinner appointment.
Seodaemun Prison was originally built in 1907 and opened in 1908 to imprison Korean independence fighters who resisted the Japanese colonization. Originally called Gyeongseong Prison, at its height held more than 2,000 prisoners when it was only meant to house 500. At the time, even the capability to house 500 inmates made this a huge prison as the entire capacity of all of the prisons across the country at the time only totaled 300. Inmates not only died from torture and starvation but because of the cramped space and lack of basic human necessities, died of heat stroke in the summers and froze to death in the winters. I’ve visited in both winter and summer and it’s easy to see how this would happen with the barren cells. Visit in the winter and you yourself will definitely feel the chill even as you walk through the interior spaces.
We didn't have too much time here. But in that short half an hour we spent browsing through the dark gloomy cells where mannequins depicted prisoners detained here during the Japanese Occupation days, we could feel the chills and the horror of those moments.
It was exactly like what was shown in that movie Resistance: The Yoo Kwan Soon story. This visit was enough to intrigue once again within me, the desire to read and find out more the history of Korea during the Japanese Occupation period.
Click this Video to watch the Prison History Museum in more detail, as we went a second time round with our parents, three months later in Spring.
Dinner with IsaNim and Mr Ku at Sejong Munhwa Hwegwan -설가온 (Seoulgaon) Restaurant
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신영분 이사님 recently moved house and these few days she and her husband Mr Ku were busy settling in. Yet they were so generous in taking time out to dinner at 설거운 restaurant in Sejong Munhwa Hweguan near Gwanghwamun. 真的好感动。
能够与申理事长与具代表在这个圣诞夜晚一起在世宗文化会馆里的有名餐馆一起进餐，真是荣幸。我们的韩语也真的是不够水准，但是申理事长和具代表两位的英语都很好，所以还好还可以沟通。我们真的是很欣慰，虽然是第一次与理事长和她先生在这般场合聚会，但是好像是无所不谈，我尽量真的是尽量用我能记得的，能说出来的韩语跟两位交谈。能够一面交谈，一面帮我改正我的韩语，真是一种难得的机会。理事长和具代表他们全家曾经在中国生活了两年，所以我心里知道他们两位，肯定在中文理解的领域上，比我们想象的还来的还好。所以，我本身经常即使在跟申理事长平时交谈的时候，就有一种因为自然心中知道她能明白中文而产生的一种内心的沟通。很有趣的，他们介绍我们和복분자 raspberry wine， 也与我们分享他们本身对事物，对人的想法。尤其是解释不同地方的朝鲜族人的心态与行为，在很大的程度上跟我对某些现象的看法很相像。正如申理事长说的：“伟豪씨는 중국어를 할 수 있지만 중국사람이 아니지요!”
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( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ) ❤❣ About Korean 人情...
具代表是一位超忙的建筑师，在韩国上下到处奔跑工作，忙得不可开交，但是非常的风趣。也教我们怎么用韩语来‘땡규!” 干杯。当然，吾里阿朱妈呢，还是一副可爱的老样子，在韩文教师面前，依然用她最熟悉的英语来交谈，笑死我了。
"Wee How 씨, this is a good time to buy properties in Korea," said 申理事长, to which I smiled politely.
Some of our friends have jokingly poked us, saying that we both travel in and out of Korea so often, we must have bought a property in Korea already. But no lah. - how can we possibly? Buying houses or real estate in Korea requires support of ultimate wisdom, any one single bit short in terms of this virtue would render it not possible, a situation which I find myself in.
As of May 2023, the Korean property market prices has seen a consecutive 11 months of decline, although this rate of decline has slowed down significantly. The decline was due to an increase in interest rates and inflation. In a discussion with Kim Man Jung in a subsequent trip in March 2023, we learned that in Seoul, perhaps near some of the more residential areas, the price of a 33 square metre (1064 square feet) apartment costs around S$1.5 million. It's quite similar in terms of prices with Singapore.
After some long soul searching, I finally realised that, and I finally came to the conclusion that in this current life of mine, I have reached the end of the road. Any further acquisition would have to be executed by the next generation. My job is done, and from this point onward I am just to keep myself as stress-free as possible. The moment I put my signature on the line, I have put a wisdom cap around myself. And I am happy living my simple life like this.
26 Dec 2022
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Christmas Dinner with the Ngs and the Kaans
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Kim Man Jung’s father 김용명代表님 strongly recommended Ouga restaurant instead, this time round, as the food is better and the price is reasonable, The wintry coldness was once again rendered so comfortable by warm hearts, happy chatters and a re-connection of ties that never changed over the years.
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"Let's go for second round!” I said, when Jaina expressed her desire to try live squid Sannakji,
And 240m down from Ouga, we found in a small alleyway a small skitang that served that and we all sat down, and drank and ate again! It was really quite an experience to see the young lady enjoy her very first Sannakji.
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27 Dec 2022
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Today finally we were moving off from Seoul northward to Paju. We decided to wake up again a little later, at 9:30am today, to check out of K-grand hotel and slowly take a one hour 3 minutes train from Seoul station to Paju-Si (Paju City).
The weather was turning warmer today. But was still cold to walk in the breezy Seoul morning to the old old historic Seoul station Gyeongui Jungang Line, the Korail train that was part of the Paju-Seoul train system. The train to Paju did not leave very regularly. Only about one train every 45minutes to an hour. So we waited quite a while and only managed to grab the 10:50am train. The fees was the usual cheap train fees - 1950₩ a person, arriving at Geumcheon station 금촌역.
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Our Hotel Picasso was located 10km away and at 9650₩ we easily Kakao-T (Kakao-taxi) a taxi. The old Ajussi SaJangNim was very animated, thrilled to see some foreigners and tickled to hear our accented, halting Korean. He spoke with such heavy Satuli (dialect accent) that I had trouble understanding him. But it was fun.
And wow!... the Picasso hotel roomed turned out to be soooooo good! It was huge and had a full jacuzzi (that I soaked in every single night when we were staying there) and I could not imagine.. they actually had a full-functioning desktop for their guests to use in every room! That was how trusting these Koreans were. Imagine this in any other countries.. the computers would have been damaged before long. It was so convenient to be able to search for locations and plan my routes on the desktop and look and the photos and do my records.a great huge plus-point.
Walking out to the nearby small hamlet brought us around to some restaurants, convenient shops and some other hotels.
Han Sang Mun SaJangNim told us we could walk to any of the restaurants around here and easily get food. And we could see the Odusan Unifixation Observatory from Hotel Picasso. He used to work in a hotel next to this Hotel Picasso for 10 years from 2002 to 2012 and knew the area well. In fact he lives in Paju-so and commutes between Paju and Seoul every single day for work. Thus, to many Koreans, this kind of distance.. is nothing and they gladly commute.
Kalbi Kalguksu for lunch and Seonji Haejangkuk were Serene and my lunch order respectively. At 14,000₩ and 8000₩ respectively it was not expensive compared to central Seoul. But it was just slightly more pricey than the 6500₩ Soenji Haejanguk we had at the foot of Naksan, run by two old Ajummas in winter 2021.
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I noticed that the Paju-sians seemed to have a little bit more shyness and reservation when communicating with foreigners, even the younger generations.. the girls in the convenient shops, some of the older Ajussis and Ajummas running the restaurants. There was an unmistakable coldness in their attitudes and the way they look at and speak to foreigners. I wasn’t sure if it was because, being right next to North Korea, the Paju-sians have developed a harder and harsher mentality, just like the weather here. There was not the ready friendliness, not the spontaneous ease of flow of speech with us two foreigners here, in our day to day contacts. Maybe.. maybe because they had difficulties understanding us.. or maybe they eyed us with some suspicion, why a couple of foreign people can speak a little of their language.. we’re we from the north? Hahahaha..
The Ajussi staff in our hotel Picasso, once he realized that I was a Singaporean, actually started speaking Mandarin to me. He was obviously a Korean. But he spoke passionless Mandarin albeit with a Korean accent. My guess was he must have fought in the war (not likely, he looked about 70-ish) or was working closely having to deal with Chinese.
[Edit: he works as a pastor. And he spent 19 years in Chengdu, China learning the Chinese language and spreading the gospel up till 2014 then he went to work for seven years in Thailand as a pastor. In between he travelled to Indonesia and so. But during this Covid years he was back in Korea. No wonder he spoke such beautiful Mandarin!]
How long have we been learning Korean? Really not long. We started from August 2019, so it has been over three years. Language is like... exercise. It needs a level of discipline, perseverance, and constant self-reminder to look at words, to listen to how they sound, to ruminate on the expression repeatedly, and to verbalise the final sentence.
These three and a half years have been a fantastic journey for Serene and I. Every day, every night, every waking moment becomes an adventure for me, in reading Korean news from the phone, listening to natives speak in inspirational speeches, and in reading passages from books. Korean is difficult as we are not familiar with its grammatical structure, and oh Korean is such a beautiful language of nuances!
Some older generations, especially Chinese like my parents), always love to think of the Korean language as an offshoot of the Chinese language. But after having self-taught a very little bit of Japanese, and after three and a half years of learning Korean, I beg to differ. My opinion is, the Korean language is of a different origin from Chinese. Korean belongs to the Altaic language, which shares the same origin as Turkish, Mongolian and Japanese. Sentence structures and grammars are different, and many original native Korean words are non-Chinese. The only thing is, for thousands of years, heavy influences from China has resulted in many borrowed words from Chinese, to such an extent that many words and idoms are Sino-originated. Thus for those of us fluent in Cantonese, Hokkien or Teochew, we could easily pick up several words in a Korean sentence., if spoken slowly.
But because in the medieval dynasties, only the royalties, nobilities, and scholars (those which were called Yangban 两班) were allowed to learn Hanja (Chinese characters and Chinese writings), the vast majority of the peasants could not read. Thus in 1446, King Sejong ordered the invention of a brand new system of Korean writing, called Hangeul, that closely related to the pronunciation and sounds of the native language. Like Japanese, up till the 70's and the 80's, the official news media in Korea still employed the use of both Hanja (Chinese characters) in the Hangeul sentences. However, with time, Hanja fell out of favour and the new generations of Koreans and currently only Hangeul is used in everyday media. Only in certain official documents and medical/legal documents would Hanja be still employed for the prevention of ambiguity.
So would I recommend learning the Korean language? Of course a big yes.
Why? Because it makes it easier for us to understand and makes it so much more fun to watch our favourite Korean dramas. And having a new language is like possessing a new instrument, and instrument with which we can go forth bravely and explore new worlds.
28 Dec 2022
Feeling tired is quite a common symptom on trips, especially when it comes to Day 7. Thus we dcided to wake up a little later at 9am. Today we needed to take a 9,600₩ taxi back to Geumcheon station to the SK rental car Paju office to get our rental car. It still felt like a dream, after totally not being able to secure a rental car, Han Sang Amun SaJangNim managed to call up the Paju SK Car Rentql office and found me a car!
10:30am. After having a tasty, crispy Mom’s touch chicken burger with coffee, coke and Chilsung cider served by a way less delicious SaJangNim in terms of mood, we made our way up to the second floor SK car rental and found.. no one. Shit.
“What if we don’t get to rent the car?” worried the Ajumma.
“Kwenchana,” my usual reassuring self. “Our trips have always been adventures. If we really suay suay don’t get a rental car, I'll change all my plans, our destinations and our mode of transport. In the first place, we already didn’t have a car, remember, had it not be for Kim Man Jung’s Uncle's help…”
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In the opened but staff-less office on the second floor of the building, my local Korean handphone number came in very useful. Calling the office phone connected to the lady staff:
“Sorry I was trying to contact the friend who helped you book the car, but he didn’t answer the phone. I had an urgent matter to attend to, and I can only be back in the SK rental office at 2pm.”
So that was why!
2pm! Shucks, that really skewed my plans for the day. No choice. Sigh... every day was an adventure and we just had to take and accept whatever that came.
So we walked around that small little town next to Geumcheon station and found nothing but an expensive massage on the second floor, which we ran away from despite the lady SaJangNim calling out to us, and finding a GS25 convenient shop where Serene bought a nail-scissors set and we spoke briefly with the female SaJangNim who told us her son spent 7 years studying in Singapore and was now working in Thailand, and who so kindly offered a couple of cups of coffee (which we didn't take up).
Lotte Premium Outlet in Paju was disappointing and Serene could not find any bags, nor the brands that we were searching for. We came back on bus 78 again, and after a lunch of 착한 王馒头 in a tiny SikTang pposite Geumcheon station, we finally found the female staff waiting patiently for us. 3:15pm. She explained everything and for 56,000₩ a day, and add to that 12,000₩ of maximum insurance premium a day, meaning that should there be an accident, I would only pay a maximum of 50,000₩, we took our Favourite smartest car in the world - the Hyundai Avante.
I was sooooo impressed.
“I searched all over the web but all the cars from all the companies including SK car rental were taken and reserved for these few days, but I really didn’t know how Han Sang Mun SaJangNim managed to find a car just by calling the local Paju office!” I was still amazed and impressed.
Paju Heyri Art Village
1652-239 Beopheung-ri, Tanhyeon-myeon, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do |경기 파주시 탄현면 법흥리
Armed with a car finally, we had the freedom to explore, and straight away we flew over to Heyri Art Village and discovered it to be almost deserted, leaving the huge park, modelled after an English town with all the City Halls, villas, antique shop houses, greenhouses, and cottages totally devoid of the campers that they were meant to hold, and the shops all but shuttered, except one clay museum shop house, out on its varanda its shop owner moodily sweeping the snow from the floor of the front pavement.
“This English village is so beautifully constructed, and look! The layer of snow so soft and fresh on all the lawns! We are the only people in this park!”
“Yah lor. I want to roll down the snowy slope… I want squat down in the snow… I want to lay face up in the snow and wave my arms and legs… I want to take a photo with the snowman, and I want to throw snowballs with you!”
Wah this Ajumma became a child out of a sudden!
And we did just all that.. why? Because there was not a single soul in the whole big park! We roamed freely (and entry was also free, I guess with no visitors it made no sense to station a worker there to collect ticket money from just two foreigners in a whole day).
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Here was what my research from internet spoke about Heyri Art Village:
"Located just 1 hour away from Seoul, Paju is a heaven for any art and book lover. The Hyeri Art Village (파주 헤이리 마을) is home to filmmakers, publishers, book writers, and artists. Expect quirky museums & architectures, beautiful cafes, enormous book store and book cafes, interesting studios and art spaces in this village. Paju is the nearest South Korean city to North Korea. And the north’s winter is known to be harsher than the south, so you can imagine Paju to be a winter wonderland after a heavy snowfall." - review from internet.
... which, was a whole heap of rubbish. This Heyri Art Village thingy was really a waste of time and petrol.
Paju Premium Outlet
Next came Paju Premium outlet, 10km away. Compared to Lotte Premium outlet further down south, this Paju Premium Outlet was much larger, housed many more brands and more fashion and boutiques of famous labels, and was so much more livelier, with quite a lot of shoppers on this Wednesday late afternoon. Yet, Serene couldn’t find her favourite brands and her bags.
Such a shame. We planned way beforehand to make our way here to see if we could procure a late birthday gift actually.
These premium outlets that used to be swarmed by bus loads of Chinese and Japanese tourists here to sweep their shelves clean, now stood quietly catering to local Koreans as well as the occasional foreigners like ourselves.
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We ate at 59年王十里牛肠 Sikdang, a 7km away from Paju Premium outlets.
I loved it, these cow intestine - 牛 Gonchang, 牛末肠 （小肠），牛大肠. . But Serene personally felt that, compared to the pork GobChang we had in Chungmuro market she liked those better.
During the meal, we overheard a group of young Busan men speaking on a table behind us and Serene was so tickled by their dialects (Satuli) that she secretly and naughtily called them ‘the abnormal Koreans’ with their Busan accent, and a group of northern Koreans on another table who spoke standard Seoul Korean, ‘the normal Koreans’. Hahaha… this Ajumma really ah….
On our way back to the hotel, Serene said:
“Wah luckily we have a car here in Paju. Otherwise how are we to go here and there looking at this premium outlet and that premium outlet and visiting this Heyri Arts Village and exploring eating spots?”
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| Beef Gobchang |
“Yah that is very true. That was why I was so glad Han Sang Mun SaJangNim managed to get us an SK rental car right here. Otherwise from point to point the distance is around 10km, 11km… not within walking distance but also quite a distance to travel if you were to take bus, or even taxi. No wonder he said that if we take taxi to go from places to places here in Paju, it would really add up!”
29 Dec 2022
Woke up 8:30am. Today we had a long day lined up, with the car I could finally cheong all over. Since one of my main aims of coming to Paju was to tour the popular bridges around Paju, and also to pop next door to Pocheon-si 포천시 抱川市 to see some of the popular destinations, after a good rest the day before today was the day to stretch all the way. It was a cold day with the mercury sitting at minus 16 here in Paju.
We left our hotel at 9am, and our windscreen was coated with a thin layer of snow crystal and the hotel SaJangNim very kindly helped us use a bottle of warm water to melt away the ice and got the windscreen wiper to wipe off the rest.
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Precisely because we were on our own, we simply took all the time we wanted and had no one to rush us along from one point to another as would be in a guided tour. That made us streeeetch our stay in every location. Bad was, we would end up late for some other parts.
Gamaksan Chulreong Bridge
감악산 绀岳山 출렁 다리
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I wanted to walk up some more along some further flight of steps but got a scolding from the Ajumma because there was snow covering the stairs and it would have been very slippery. Wise, wise. I didn’t think of that. But of course, being women, the way they are, once the machine gun started firing, it would never stop.
Pocheon HanTang River Sky bridge
한탄강 漢灘江 하늘 다리
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And the machine gun was still firing when we drove that one hour to this HanTanGang Sky Bridge, a very lovely set up.
The long bridge even had glass floor panels for visitors to look through and down at the frozen HanTanGang (HanTan river).
A review from an internet search:
“Located at the northern end of Pocheon is Hantan River Sky Bridge, a 200m long bridge that can allow 1,500 adults to cross at the same time. From the carpark, you might think that the bridge isn’t actually too high up, but once you approach it, you’d realize that it’s 50m above a river!"
Bidulginang Waterfall
비둘기낭 폭포
An Internet review:
"The name Bidulginang means ‘dove cliff’ in Korean and is derived from the fact that the area is a habitat for many wild pigeons nesting in the caves around the waterfall. Some also say that the waterfall got its name due to the shape of the area, resembling a pigeon."
Just a short 5 minutes drive away stood this Bidulginang Waterfall. Funnily, I was struggling to find my way with the GPS, while the unabating release of ammunition continued, especially when I made a wrong turn up a slopey, hilly, deserted road, made the U-turn and drove back to the correct car park...
A short walk down some wooden steps opened up our views to a gorge with a natural cave and turquoise green waters, ice stalactites and stalagmites (maybe should not even call them that but merely icicles) anchored to the floor and the roof of the cave. This was precisely where Gong Hyo Jin shot the scene with her psychotic boyfriend in the drama “It’s Okay it’s Love!” both soaked through as they waddled in the transparent green waters here.
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“I’m hungry, and I am feeling sick,” indeed the Ajumma was sick. She really caught some bugs from me, who caught it the day before. Runny nose and cough and such. Must have been the weather and the particulate matters in the air. These few days the air quality in Korea was not the best.
“Some more every day the cold wind blows onto my face and into my nose,” continued the onslaught of artilleries. “No wonder I fell sick.”
Lunch at the SikTang next to Bidulginang waterfall
Fortunately, for the famished cave-people from Singapore, a lightning-struck forest-fire burnt piece of carcass was found next to the waterfall, in the form of a beautifully delicious SikTang that served lovely Hanwoo Kalguksu. HAHAHA!
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After the hearty late lunch, the ammunition store-woman went into food coma. And finally the driver had some respite from the vehicular commander for another one hour in the drive to this Pocheon Art Valley.
Pocheon Art Valley
포천시아트밸리
3:50pm. Thinking back, I really wasn't sure at all what we were going to see on this day. I only had a vague idea that I wanted to tour this place called Pocheon. The destinations were sceneries of nature, or nature enhanced by man-made structures. Like Pocheon Art Valley - this was an abandoned old quarry that was redeveloped into a tour site (as a filming site too).
This abandoned quarry was in real service from the 60’s to the 90’s and contributed greatly to Korea’s economy during those periods. When it finally shut down, the water gathered and the formations rendered it a mysterious aura that made converting it into an Art Valley feasible. And the Korean drama “The Legen of the Blue Lagoon” where the mermaid was saved and shipped off in a sampan was filmed here.
I was very thrilled to find myself stumbling upon two important shooting locations of some my Korean dramas within one day.
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It was almost sunset when we finally walked out of Pocheon Art Valley. The sun set earlier in winter and it was already getting dark. But I still had one more destination not covered yet - Majang Lake.
By this time, Ajumma was tired.
“Huh so late already, you still want to drive to the last destination?”
“Well, since we have the car, no harm right? As long as I arrive there.. even if it’s dark and I don’t get to see the bridge over Majang Lake, I would be satisfied, knowing that I have been there but only just that the elements prevented me from successfully catching a glimpse of the scene.”
And what a loooooong drive it was, through uphill roads and quiet dark, eerie little single carriage ways.. through small little kampongs and towns..
“This is almost like that time when we watched that Korean drama ‘Hello, my Twenties Season 2’ where the girls drove through an eerily quiet long road and ended up renting a room in a huge old pension whose real owners were held in captivity by the bad guy, who in turned pretended to be the boss of the pension and rented the rooms to the girls and even fed them bulgogi!”
Man, this was just so Korean drama, this drive to Majang lake.
Indeed we ended up catching not even a single glimpse of the lake nor the bridge because at 6:30pm Korea was pitch-black during winter. And Ajumma began to experience blocked nose and phlegm and tiredness.
Lake Majang’s Bridge
6:38pm. Our GPD led us to where it was supposed to be Majang Lake.
What Majang Lake? At 6:38pm Korea ‘hath no Majang Lake’. Period.
Satisfied? Yes. Finally, I was satisfied.
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An attempt in trying to buy bread from one of the haunted small little bakeries along the dark road was not really fruitful, not from the fact that the 5000₩, 6000₩ pastries were still beautifully displayed.. but from that there was no presence of any recognizable physical, natural human beings there manning the shop from whom we could verbalize our desire to procure the food.
Eosa Chul Tto Hwetjib
But at that moment, I was none the wiser, but I simply ushered foul-mood and hunger-stricken Ajumma back into the car and set the Navigation back towards the City Hall area of Paju-Si, when the night before we had Gobchang in 59年王十里牛肠店 , and on this evening, walked across to the Hwe restaurant opposite. 7:45pm. Dinner, finally.
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And true to herself, the first order of a Modeun Mul-Hwe (Long-zong Hwe/sashimi mixed in a big bowl like bibimbap with sauce) was liked but not satisfying. Glancing across the table, she said:
“Look look look at the boys next table. I want like that one!”
And her wish was as usual, a command that was granted with no hesitation for anything to the contrary would incur wrath that would detonate WWIII.
But that was a good choice. And we really hum-tumed both the sauced-Hwe in a huge bowl, the Sannakji (for yours truly of course), all the delicious and special banchan and her fresh Daneo Hwe served on ice.
“Oh I am so full! The rest of the food are yours!” The command was shot across the table, and dutifully obeyed.
Less than ??? minutes later, the lips that uttered these words were munching on ice creams and what-not snacks purchased from a GS25 convenience store two shops away from the Hwetjib restaurant, with two bottles of sugared fruit drinks, three bottles of artisan ice coffees, several more packets of snacks, 6 bars of chocolates and three ice-creams all in tow.
There lies the fury of a hyper-stimulated hypothalamus.
But all the fire thawed when we slept and woke up the next day.
30 Dec 2022
Don’t say Ajumma. Today when I woke up I was also feeling a little seh already. The mercury registered minus 8 degrees. Our plan today was simple, in theory. Drive up to Imjingak to attempt to see the third tunnel, and then go Odusan Unification observatory, followed by Paju Book City.
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| Imjingak Station |
In truth, only one of the above three got fulfilled.
The 20km up north to Imjingak Peace Playground brought us there at 11:30m. So leisurely that the day’s ticket for the tour to the third tunnel has been sold out. The very nice lady at the counter suggested that we could come back tomorrow morning again at 7:30am or 8am to queue for tomorrow’s ticket. The three-hour tour starts at 9:20qm the earliest. So all the locals were correct. The difficulty was not registering with our passport, but physically being there to queue and to buy the limited number of tickets.
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“Ok, let us do this instead. Since we cannot go to The Third Tunnel, let’s do the Gondola ride that brings us to the civilian control access area in a small part of the demilitarised zone.." So we did.. oh and it was no less meaningful.
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烏頭山統一展望台
From internet:
"The observatory is situated in the northernmost ceasefire line of the western front where the Hangang River and Imjingang River meet. It offers a wide view of Songaksan Mountain in Gaeseong to the north and 63 Building in Seoul to the south. Also, it is a valuable unification security tourist attraction related to Imjingak, the 3rd Tunnel, and Panmunjeom (Joint Security Area) stretching along Jayu-ro Road in the northeast. Since its opening, almost 1,900,000 people have visited the observatory to feel the reality of the division, making this area the best national unification education site."
Another visit to another part of DMZ that we have not seen before. That was quite an experience. Still not satisfied, I decided to drive another 20km (but because I made a wrong turn up to the highway, it became a 35km drive) to Odusan Unification Observatory 烏頭山統一展望台 오두산 통일 전망대. This quaint but meaningful little observatory was situated on top of a hill 2.3km from our Hotel Picasso.
It displayed simple exhibitions of notes, writings, and drawings, hundreds and thousands of these in small square tiles lining the walls of this exhibition hall, with the sole title of ‘reminiscence of our home town’… some were sketches of their house back in the hometown. Some were photos of newly weds just before they were torn apart, some were writings of love, or missing for loved ones back home, of stories back home.
the whole exhibition was dedicated to those whose lives were torn apart because of the Korean War and the ensuing separation. The unanimous wish was for unification, though personally, I was not sure how many of the younger generations actually longed for this move.
Here where Odusan was, was the confluence of three rivers: the Jo Gang, the Han Gang (Hangang), and the Imjin Gang.
“You know, over there in North Korea, the people walking the streets are very poor, and many are still living very simple and thrifty lives.. wearing instead of cashmere or warm sheep’s wool, they are wearing cotton wool. Cotton wool is cheap and easily available but cannot get wet because once it gets wet, it becomes frozen. That’s how bad the farmers in the deep parts of North Korea are.” I told the innocent Ajumma.
“Really ah? Like that how?”
“Do you think one day we will be over there stepping on the soil on the other side?” I asked her.
“Yea I think so.”
Although we didn’t manage to visit the Third Tunnel, the Gondola ride and the Odusan Observatory made up for it. Very new and very meaningful to us.
This reunification thing between North and South Korea will forever be a matter of huge contentions, not only between the true inhabitants of the Korean Peninsular - the North and the South Koreans (hcck, in the first place, the Koreans should not even have be segregated by this terminology - North and South, but also between the pro-Chinese and the pro-usa, between NATO and the Communists, between Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese, between Russians and americans, and even among the ever-watchful Japanese at the side.
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"Even if an ethnic Korean from China can speak Korean, he is, maybe, different from us. Well. we cannot completely trust his heart that much. Their hearts are not really the same as ours." Koreans are like this. They don't usually express extremes in opinions, even though they may feel very strongly towards something, during a friendly discussion. So if a Korean uses those words, then the feeling must be really acute.
"그래요? 그런 줄 몰랐어요." [Is that so? I didn't know it was like that.]
"Jinjja-yo. Look, like yourselves. You are Singaporeans and you can speak Chinese. But does that make you a China Chinese?" And I smiled a broad grin upon hearing that.
So how would North and South Korea end up...?
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I am not a political analyst. It's just my own view. North's leader Kim Jung Eun is still very young, and if his health holds up, and if his followers do not stage a mutiny, then he has a long way to go. Unless there is a drastic regime change, failing which, there can only be one possibility - that is there will occur gradual osmosis of atoms through the semi-permeable DMZ membrane. And eventually when the exchanges take place in large enough an extent, the membrane breaks down partially and osmosis becomes diffusion.
So eventually South Korea will remain Daehan Minguk, and North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but the people will collaborate in industries, in events, in intiatives... very similar to those years when South Korean opened up the Kaesong Industrial Park in Kaesong in 2002, North Korea, across the DMZ, which operated until President Park Geun Hye closed it in 2016.
Travelling like the locals...
“Let’s go eat something nice hot hot soupy soupy,” suggested Ajumma. So we just drove slowly to near the hotel and that small little sigh our hood where we slowly one SikTang by one SikTang explored. Sitting down tucking into a nice warm Tofu mushroom soup, I felt..
“Wah.. you know something, Dar.. it feels really interesting here up in this northern small town, with building sparsely scattered and the scenery as in the small little 东北市镇 of China, we both drove up to this restaurant and enjoying our dinner, not really knowing exactly where we were and how we ended up here.. it’s the perfect kind of travel for us. Travel like the locals, eat like the locals, take in the sights like the locals.”
Like what Kim Man Jung said: “오 이제 완전 한국사람처럼 여행다니시네요!”
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| Soaking in the personal jacuzzi in our very own hotel room - every night for 4 nights! |
That evening as Ajumma and I tried to recover from our flu, I kena a brand new bout of febrile E.coli infection which sent me running to and fro the toilet the whole night. Of course, we were always prepared for multiple infections and usually, we would be able to tackle these. Come to think of it, had we been on a guided tour instead of on our own, we would have had to get up early the next day 5-6am to continue the gruelling group tour, rather than having the pleasure of resting till 10:30am.
31 Dec 2022
Hotel Picasso was really memorably lovely. So was Paju. Having a car made it possible for us to visit Paju Book City before we return the vehicle.
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Paju Book City
...was about 10km away, near the Lotte Premium Outlets.
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“Paju, South Korea is known for being the publishing location that includes planning, printing, and distribution for Korean books. It is also known for filming and modeling locations as well. Paju Book City is one of the most popular places to visit and one of the most well-known things to do in Paju. In the area you will find book cafes, used bookstores, galleries, and restaurants, hosting diverse exhibitions, and Tan Tan Story House. Some stores are closed over the weekend so be sure to check what is open prior to visiting. “ - from the internet.
"Paju Book City, located in Gyoha-eup, is a cultural complex entirely devoted to the creation, publication, merchandising and sales of Korean books. The "city" belongs to Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Paju Book City is home to 250 publishers with over 10,000 workers. It covers the entire process of publishing from planning to printing and distribution and is home to a large number of book cafes and bookstores.’"
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This Paju Book City was soooo sleepy on a Saturday morning. It was more like an industrial area back home in Singapore with scattered buildings and warehouses.
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My wish was to be able to see Paju Book City and that famous bookstore called the Forest of Wisdom 지혜의 숲. The number of bookstores books on sale was mind-blowing and I was so excited to see families with little children roaming the gigantic bookstore and people sitting in the cafe right in the center of the bookstore browsing and having a leisurely sip.
I read about a used book shop and wanting to visit that, I asked and was so pleasantly directed up to the second floor. Again there were quite a number of browsers here. I was do myself no favor if I don’t get a second hand book here for just 4000₩.
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Reading culture must be very rich right here in this northern city.
However, I ended up totally curbing all my purchasing fire and just bought one nice little Korean book written by a female writer about… Singapore! Yes. After browsing through so many books I decided the easiest way for me to read through and be able to understand and resonate with the words, would be to read something about Singapore. Wasn’t that so strange… came aaaaallll the way to so close to the north, just to buy a book that described Singapore.
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| I must be crazy! |
Koreans really love to read. Although in 2018, a national survery studied found that reading has hit a new low among Koreans in early 2020 a study found that 12.5% pf respondents were eager to put in more money and more effort to increase their reading. I am encouraged by the reading culture of parents bringing their children to bookshops and libraries. Personally I hold the st4rong opinion that through reading can one really acquire a broad foundation of knowledge that can be further applied in the practical sense.
Like what my mother always says:
"人每天都一定得要长一点知识!😍"
[Human beings have to grow a little bit of knowledge daily!]
01 Jan 2023
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The trip to Paju and Pocheon and the bit of flu and E.coli must have weakened us a little bit. The night before, we just returned to our hotel and refused to go out. Slept in until late on New Year’s Day morning. From a tourist point of view, it was a waste of precious time. But from a traveller’s point of view, it was perfectly acceptable.
A search on the internet found most museums and theatres and even hiking routes to be closed on New Year’s Day… except for Seoul City Wall Museum 漢陽都城博物館.
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Ah Hwa’s 中华料理炸酱面 two blocks away was still on New Year holiday. Shucks, wasted. We so wanted to have Jjajangmyeon for breakfast.
“Kwenchana! Let’s just walk slowly through the neighbourhood and get to Seoul City Wall Museum ok?”
“You sure got open?”
“Yes confirmed and chopped one. I checked and checked the internet already. Many museums are closed but this one got open.”
The traveller in us, despite Oori Ajumma’s constant kao-beh-ing, actually enjoyed physically walking the neighbourhood streets and taking in the sights. The leisurely walk in such a wonderful cool (not cold on this day) finally allow us to get on top of that long bridge that connected the various neighbourhoods around Seoul and Myeongdong - Seollo 7017 - and walked easily from our hotel to Nandaemun.
The distance to the museum didn’t look far. It was a 5.1km easy walk.
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It was a new feeling walking the streets of Seoul on New Year’s Day morning. There were still people, but not as many, and surprisingly in Namdaemun area there were many shops, stores, and stalls opened. These Koreans were hard-working people!
Strawberries 6000₩ a box (cheap this winter season compared to last year), Eomuk sticks at 1000₩, and honey Hotteok at 1000₩ (with a long queue) fortified our bodies and livened up the experience.
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We ended up really walking all the way to Dongdaemun where the museum was just beside the city fortress, and..
“Dar, IT’S CLOSED!” cried Ah Hwa.
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Well, when you were a traveller you would never be able to tell, right? We all have to expect the unexpected. However, the view from the city walls at Dongdaemun was lovely and we basked in the warm sun on a cool morning.
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“SaJangNim, it’s 6000₩ isn’t it 🤯?”
“Er no it is 7000₩😒.”
“No I saw it is 6000₩ 😕.”
“Ah yeah yeah you are right it’s 6000₩😔.”
Ah this SaJangNim really was really quite opportunistic, probably not realising that I was a Korean-speaking Korean-reading traveller.
All the boxes of strawberries outside were labelled 6000₩. The only couple of boxes labelled as 7000₩ were very different in packing. I was quite upset. Not because of the 1000₩. But because my impression of true, honest, integrity-honouring Koreans up till this stage, got smashed.
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Majang SiJang
This Majang Sijang was really quite addictive. We jio-ed the Ngs and the Kaans (and 심원보) for a New Year dinner. I was so impressed by that the SaJangNim at 自然畜產 stall that sells fresh meat could even recognize Ah Hwa by her hair colour, after only seeing her once.
And the gang spent a most unforgettable New Year’s Day dinner here in Majang Sijang. We were so touched to have such sincere company even far far out here in the cold cold north, for a warm dinner.
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| 2023 Post(end)-Covid days |
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| 2019 - Pre-Covid days |
02 Jan 2023
Another late-rising morning, waking up blur blur… where shall we go today?
People said if you want to live in Korea you have to shop and buy your groceries from the local markets like the locals. Apparently Gongdeok market was just one such local entity. I would always quietly but willingly bear the risk of Oori Ah Hwa kao-beh kao-boo-ing while I bring her on a walk to explore the neighbourhoods. Today was simply another one.
The underpriveledged
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These were obviously the underprivileged class in a rapidly polarising society. Their torn and tethered clothes, no matter how they layered, could hardly protect them from the freezing winter, and holes lining the fabrics let in the wind. I looked at our brand new Nepa Korean long down layer and I felt a slight tinge of shame- a young couple like us, warmed to our hilt, while they were freezing to their bones.
Near our hotel there was a long queue of these underprivileged (perhaps some homeless old folks) lining up outside some shops at the side of the road, waiting for a warm cup of tea and some food, run by charitable organisations. The workers would be there every single day, public holidays or not, to serve the needy.
“You know something,” I told Ah Hwa. “A society needs to have organizations to take care of the underprivileged group of their population. The government would always take initiative. But often the social enterprises, the religious organisations are the ones who are so hard-working in ensuring that the people get taken care of. And these charitable organisaitons are real in hearts.”
~ Video ~
I am impressed by these people.
Society needs to be not only government-driven but also sufficiently citizen-driven when it comes to charity. As foreigners, we have always thought of South Korea as a highly developed affluent country but sadly many Korean dramas failed to show many of the people living on or below the poverty line. There is a blogger who once wrote in her blog:
"If you see a cardboard Halmeoni, please just go forward and offer her a little help in pushing her cart-full of cardboard up the slope."
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“It’s a short 1.9km walk to Gongdeok market.” I thought.
My thoughts were partially correct because a good part of this route was going up some really strep humanly walkable slopes, and motorbikes rideable roads. There was one part that was so steep that there was a sign on the road that indicates only allowable for cars and bikes to drive up but not down for fear of losing control.
“It would be interesting to stay here for say, one month or so just to experience how it feels to live in such a neighbourhood,” again my imagination ran wild. “But hor… I don’t think I would like to live here lah.”
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Gongdeok Sijang은 well, really like the Chai Chee market like that, said Serene. While it was a local market and famous for the pajeon there, we were surprised that the prices of foodstuff there were not cheaper than we we would get from around Dongdaemun or Namdaemun. Strange… strawberries were more expensive here, dried persimmons were definitely dearer here.. only the Nurungji price was the same. And I bought one pack. Man, we were really hoping for some places with really down-to-earth price to live in. Maybe we haven’t explored this place sufficiently.
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Hikari massage, Myeongdong, again!
Oh what a lot of difference a year there between the winter or 2022-2023 and the winter of 2021-2022 made! That last winter when Korea first opened up to Singaporeans, the massage had hardly anyone. But now it was full of Japanese and the SaJangNim was busy uttering Japanese away to her many customers from the land of the rising sun. The price remained the same, and the quality of massage no changed. Just that it was obviously a much busier and bustling setting now. A happy thing.
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We were very happy to meet again, Kim Man Jung’s father Mr Kim Yong Myeong 김용명 대표님, who is one year older than Serene.
This time round we saw much more of him as he was in the cafe and the optical shop. So kind was he to say down at length and share with me the developments around here in Myeongdong and as well as advised me on my plans for cherry blossom season.
“My father speaks mostly Pyojunmal, the standard Seoul Korean, with little Saturi (dialect). That’s because he lived in Seoul for so many years, although he came from Dajeon.” said Kim Man Jung a few days later we we had dinner together. “But he doesn’t speak much English nor Chinese.”
“Oh wah now I understand,” I finally realized. “This time round your father conversed so much more with us!”
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| Kim Man Jung, Kim Yeong Myeong CEO, and Kim Hak Jung |
Rewards, rewards, and rewards
This Serene hor she is like a child like that. Each time I make her suffer a bit, I need to dangle some carrot in front of her. Hahahaha.. so today was just another one of those reward days.
So we window shopped Seoul Shinsegae Store, and Lotte Department Store.
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(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)👍Something about properties in Korea...
03 Jan 2023
A Day of Museums and Theatre
I really had to have my revenge today. The past couple of times being totally unsuccessful in attempting to visit the museums meant that I simply had to make up for lost time today.
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The War and Women’s
After our usual Jjajangmyeon and Jampoong, we took a bus right to Mapo Gu, and walked up the slopes (again!) to The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, a unique small museum dedicated to the ‘comfort women’, known respectfully in Korea as ‘Halmeoni’ who were sex slaves abducted by the Japanese military during the Second World War.
With the accompanying audio guide, we really took our time and went through every single exhibit, listening carefully to each description and feeling the heaviness of hearts learning about this unfortunate event, which to this day, was still not admitted officially by the Japanese government, despite multiple witnesses accounts and evidence. Each photo of a Halmeoni told of a heartbreaking story. And each one of their accounts revealed a life of torture and indescribable pain under multiple violent rapes by the Japanese soldiers.
I was reprimanded, surprisingly, by Ah Hwa, when we came to a corridor commemorating those who have passed on, for not taking a minute to pay our respect. It was the first time I saw her so serious. At the last part both of us actually shed tears when we completed the tour. So touched were we that a small donation was in order.
“You know something, Dar.” I said. “Now I finally understand why the Koreans were so violently against war, such that their reactions to the Russian-Ukraine war was so heated. Imagine if 300,000 of your country’s young women were taken as sex slaves. You would bear life-long grudges against the aggressor.”
My only worry was that, should all the Halmeoni eventually pass on, would the newer generation still continue their fight for their causes?
This museum was worth every single minute spent, every single step of climb up the steep slope. And I would highly recommend this museum for anyone who wanted to learn more.
Hanseongdoseong Museum
Oh what a museum this was! I spent literally hours just slowly reading every single exhibit and description here. It told of the history of the city walls that were constructed starting from Taejo’s time 1392, and constantly rebuilt through Sejong’s dynasty, and finally how this important defence wall fell into disuse and was torn down during the Japanese colonial period, and finally how after Gwangbuk, and after the Korean War, the government started the initiatives to rebuilt and repair the remaining walls and gates. The detailed accounts gave me an understanding of the importance of each and every one of the gates, how they were meant for visiting envoys, and for passing corpses and funerals, for waterways to pass out of Hanyang (the old name for Seoul) city. I was so glad that Serene spent the two hours plus just Guai-Guai seated on a bench on the second floor and played her Pokémon while waiting for me.
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The visual exhibits especially the 3-D models with special light effects (of Dongdaemun, also known as Heunginjimun 興仁之門) were so realistic, I watched the replay twice. The permanent and special exhibits gave me a more concrete understanding of the Seoul City Wall and the impetus to explore the walls further on our future trips. I could feel the pride of the Koreans for their history, and the pride for their heritage. I would too if I were them.
This Hanyangdoseong Museum gave me such a good introduction to the walls of Seoul that my mind suddenly was able to grasp the bigger picture. In the exhibition, it was said that in the good old days of Joseon dynasty, the Hanyang residents would do a round city walk along the Hanyang City Wall that would take a full whole day, but they enjoyed it as part of a leisure activity. And this got my brain juices fired up again, thinking of my next adventure…
(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)👍Something about Korea...
In Korean culture, there is an unstated but prevalent undercurrent of 한 (Han, 恨), a very palpable feeling of sorrow, a bit of resentment, not to the extent of hate, but enough to be felt in many of their folk songs, most representative of which, is Arirang. Whenever the national folk song Arirang is played or sung, many of the older generations would shed tears, because it brings back so much memory of toil and pain, though the lyrics mentioned nothing much except for the worry the female singer has for her man who may get leg pain before he even walked 10 li (miles).
Thus one cannot visit Korea, without experiencing, at least seeing and understanding a little more about the painful histories of Korea, through the eyes of Comfort Women in the 'Comfort Women Museum' and through the Seodaemun Prison History Museum.
Nanta theatre
No wonder why so many people flocked to watch this famous Nanta Theatre in Myeongdong. The five actors and actresses were not only fantastic stage actors but they were accomplished percussionists. We enjoyed the comedic stage drama and for me, even more so, the percussion performances on literally kinda of percussion-able materials, buckets, sink, pail, wooden boards.. literally anything.
The spontaneous audience added to the fun. Good deal. Through Klook, a second-floor ticket at S$32.50 was a great deal.
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04 Jan 2022
Inwangsan
仁王山 인왕산
We didn’t really know how this Inwangsan would turn out to be. Merely looking at the altitude of 338.2m, it shouldn’t be too bad. Studying photos of Inwangsan on the internet showed us a climb that was mostly steps and stairs, though it was all uphill climb and not one of ups and downs, thus making the route more straightforward.
Again thanks to this site… I was able to find a good starting point at the 7-Eleven beside Seoul Social Science Library 한국사회과학도서관. The entrance to Inwangsan Gongwon (仁王山公园) was just outside the 7-Eleven across the road. This 7-Eleven was also such a wonderful place to buy a couple of Gimbap and a nice sausage to munch on before the climb. The SaJangNim was so nice to help us microwave these hot so that we could eat them right there. I was glad we managed to fill our stomachs before we start the walk.
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(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)👍Something about Korea...
Was Inwangsan difficult? Actually not. Of course it was a constant climb. But at one’s own comfortable pace so as not to bust our lactate threshold, everyone would end up at the top. The last part had some huge boulders but nothing difficult, as most of these boulders had steps carved into them and there was steel poles with ropes securely anchored into the rocks.
Inwangsan was permissible for night trekking too, and some of the locals can do their feelings in the early hours of the morning to arrive at the top at sunrise. This alone was a testimony to how safe it was climbing up Inwangsan. Compared to Manisan (of Ganghwado) and Bukhansan, I would say Inwangsan was much easier than Bukhansan and definitely easier by at least half, compared to Manisan. Many of the older folks literally come up to Inwangsan for a nice morning stroll.
I was glad we did the Hanyangdoseong Seoul City Wall museum the day before as it prepared me, knowledge-wise, for the climb. At least we did the climb from Donuimun all the way up to the top of Inwangsan and then down the other side to Changuimun. That was precisely what I wanted.
Is climbing up the 388m Inwangsan worth it? Without a doubt. I would strongly recommend anyone to go. It's really not difficult, for a mild to moderately-physically-abled teenager, young adult, and elderly person. The great thing is - it is not high. 388m is one of the very mild hills in Korea. And 99% are all properly built steps and stairs that are well-lined and protected under all sorts of weather. The view from top is spectacular for such an easy climb and one can see the whole of Seoul. some say one can even see up till Suwon which is another city down south of Seoul.
Our own Bukit Timah Hill is around 164m. And summiting Bukit Timah rewards us with less than a quarter of the sights, though the height is about half.
Just give ourselves about 2 hours from 7Eleven all the way to the top and then all the way down the other side to Changuimun, then your job is completed.
Hwetjib again!
“I knew you would reward me after Inwangsan!” said Serene.
Die lah… this Ajumma is beginning to expect rewards after rewards for every step of exertional climb. Hahaha.. And of course we went back to the ‘most delicious Hwe restaurant’ next to our hotel, as declared by Serene. Even the waitresses could recognise us, and she remarked that it was obvious that we really enjoy our Hwe.
A Mandarin-speaking young hotel counter staff...
And on this day we found that our hotel staff 노현 씨, a 25 year old young lady, had been studying Chinese for ten years and hoped to eventually work in a commerce company dealing with China. I told her that was a great plan. She was able to speak Mandarin very fluently and truly it was so much more a joy to converse with her in Korean and Mandarin.
05 Jan
Itaewon
“After the 압사 참사 (壓死慘事), Itaewon has become much quieter. It is the clubbing and pubing and party-ing center but people nowadays feel sad just thinking of the 154 death cases on that Halloween night of Dec 2022, that really not many people come to party here any more.” Explained Kim Man Jung, when we told him Itaewon was eerily quiet.
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| The fateful 4m wide death-trap side lane. |
Perhaps that was why we had the chance to cheon-cheon-hi walked up the World Foot Street and down that fateful 4m wide, 40m long little narrow pavement beside Hamilton Hotel, and Serene and I observed a moment of somber reflection. My thoughts at this point were, of those who perished, many were young people with futures, visions, and plans for their lives, but would never be able to materialise their dreams.
“Itaewon is where many foreigners live and play because it’s here where the US military base is located. And historically the westerners would live here, entertain here, get themselves entertained and intoxicated here, and find fun here.” I told Serene.
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| One minute silence... |
Insadong
Insadong is not a huge neighbourhood. Oft when we were here we would simply walk straight down the main thoroughfare and that was it. We decided on a slightly different approach this round and would start from the periphery and slowly infiltrate Insadong from the side and try to weave through the smaller lanes. That was a much more delightful way to tackle Insadong, in the process finding some antique shops, some little hand-carved display boards..
~ Video ~
Oh not to mention I bought my Olive Young Kahi UV Balm stick from Insadong! Now I can finally be like my Kim Go Eun, applying the balm stick on my face whenever I needed some moisturiser and UV protection! This Kahi UV Balm sells at 26,300₩ here at Olive Young but we could get it at S$21.50 some even as cheap as S$15 from Shopee and Lazada.
“Nah I don’t trust those,” explained Serene. “Many of those are fake ones. Better just buy one from Olive Young and you can use it for a long time happily.”
True. I will definitely. Even back home in Singapore, I will just use my Kim Go Eun stick. Until our next Korea trip then I will top up a new stick.
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On this day, Insadong was still quiet, though definitely livelier than when we were there in Winter 2021 (December 2021), and Spring 2022 (May 2022), but just as bustling as our Autumn 2022 (October 2022) and Spring 2023 (March 2023) trips. But 'twas alright, as Insadong must be explored in such a peaceful atmosphere, especially if we are trying to find the smaller parts of it.
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The Chinese have finally landed
The past three days we have started to hear melodious Hong Kong Cantonese floating in the air in Seoul as more Hong Kongers started to add their numbers to the already numerous Japanese, Phillipinos and Indonesians, of course not to mention Singaporeans and Malaysians. It was a hapy feeling to have the Hong Kongers back in korea once again.
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“와 드디어 중국사람은 왔어..“ I uttered to Ah Hwa.
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“There you go. You wanted to open? Ok, take this sudden surge in the number of cases ba!”
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Dinner with Kim Man Jung
As we were having dinner, the news broke out that the escaped 40 year old PRC Chinese man Mr A had been apprehended and cuffed and donned PPE and the works and sent to the quarantine hotel for the needed seven days before they would pass sentence on him. Click here for the news..
“Actually from the standpoint of business, it’s good to have the streets of Myeongdong flooded with tourists,” said Kim Man Jung. “Although you both find that more shops seem to be empty, but it’s really not so. The situation is much much better now.”
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Indeed businesses have enjoyed tremendous improvement. But from speaking to the local Koreans I gathered that in order for things to go back to pre-Covid days, the PRC Chinese and the Japanese will have to return in swarms like they used to.
So far from the early days of VTL when only Singapore and Korea (and Solomon Islands) opened their doors to each other and being among the first to step foot on Korean soils, until our latest trip in autumn with Kat and Gina in October 2022, we have enjoyed blissful and uncluttered Korean streets, and shopping and travelling experiences. More than a few times we secretly counted our blessings for having such a peaceful environment to travel in. But we knew things would have to change. From a political, economical standpoint, it HAS to go back to where it was, and move on from there.
“以前在明洞买化妆平时，那些服务员忙着招呼中国人都还来不及了。我们新加坡人是一瓶一瓶这样买的。而中国人呢，是几箱几箱地横扫。所以你可以想象，那些化妆品商店里的服务员，招待大陆客人是招待得不亦乐乎！” I remember some time back, Kat was sharing her previous experience in 2018.
I asked Kim Man Jung about the demography of his customers.
“For our spectacle shop, actually interestingly we have a high percentage of Singaporean customers. Right now our top customers are Singaporeans, who constitute the highest number,” said Kim Man Jung after thinking for a while. “During pre-Covid days there were many Japanese, followed by Singaporeans and Hong Kongers. In our shop we don’t really have as many Phillipinos, or Indonesians. Even Chinese customers also not as many. I think the reason why is the Chinese when they come, the mostly will buy luxury goods like branded bags and watches and cosmetics.”
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Even the upper three floors of Gana Building was recently taken up by K-Nine hotel in preparation for the huge surge of visitors. But strangely as we discussed further, I was surprised to learn from Kim Man Jung that the mortgage for purchase of a building like Gana Building could never be fully repaid and one would simply for paying for the interest and a small part of the loan amount. And most people would aim to eventually divest the building in order to retire. After some introspection, I could understand… paying for the monthly mortgage for the purchase of such a building in a bustling premium location like Myeongdong would be almost like paying rental. And perhaps because the monthly payment is super high due to the price, one could only hope to reduce the loan amount a little by a little.
“There is no 30 years, 40 years payment tenure for such a loan,” continued Kim Man Jung. “You would continue to pay for your whole lifetime. That is why we have to sell the building in order to enjoy the profits and perhaps to retire. This only applies to commercial buildings, not to apartments and residential properties of course.”
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“아 괜찬아요. 이제부터 중국사람이 더 많을 것같아요. 더 바빠질 걸예요.”
“I don’t have time to rest and to visit Singapore,” complained Ah Kim Man Jung.
“Kwenchana,” said Serene. “You have to work hard what.. work hard first lah. Then when you are older and get married and have your own children then you can start to take life easier like your father.”
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(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)👍Something about Korea...
On fanciful hair colours…
The answer that came back from Kim Man Jung was lovely. When Koreans start work in the companies, although there are no written rules, they are expected to dress and behave more 보수적이다 (保守的이다) conservatively. Thus when they were still studying or still in universities some (not many but some) of the undergraduates could wear their hairs in various hues of colours, more would just choose to bleach their hairs and dye them blond. However when they become 회사원 (會社員) company employees, they totally change their images and take on much more toned-down colours.
06 Jan 2023
When it reached Day 16 of a holiday. Most energy we have stored in our circulation and in our liver would have been used up. What's left would be the fats under our skin. So today we were going to try and live off the energy converted from the fat beneath our skin to continue our exploration.
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“How come that young waiter knew that we were foreigners?” I asked, after we got seated, indignant that my improved Korean didn't mask our foreign-ess.
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Gwanghwamun Gwangjang
光化门广场
Time and time again, over our previous visits, we have been to Gwanghwamun Gwangjang - Gwanghwamun Square and have seen how it has been boarded up over the past 2-3 years during Covid, when the government rushed to revamp the site, after they have excavated recently, more precious archeological artefacts dating back to the Joseon period.
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And it snowed. And snowed.
(❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛) Something about Korea...
07 Jan 2023
Wah.. We have lost track of time already. By this day we just woke up when we woke up and walked out when we walked out, not giving much thought to where we would be going to, and simply letting our feet and eyes do the job for us.
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A recent article has indicated that Myeongdong and Nadaemun have become largely tourist attractions, drawing tourists rather than locals. So where have the locals all gone to? Many are now living, working, playing, and eating in Gangnam area. But because they are so conveniently locaed from where most tourists stay, we cannot escape setting foot on Myeongdong and Namdaemun and the likes of these around. Both of us have, certainly over time, tried to peel ourselves away from these tried-and-tested tourist strips, but somehow we will always return to them.
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"Coming back to Myeongdong is so comfortable!" Just one simple sentence sums it all - the vibes of Myeongdong that draws people from all over the world, Myeongdong being the beacon of Korean fashion, representing so many aspects that people from all over identify Korea with.
Even having they hair styled in Myeongdong's representative Juno Hair Salon has become a kind of 'must-do' for many of the Singaporean ladies with whom I have had conversations.
Now, our Ajumma is a happy woman.
08 Jan 2023
Our 妹妹 and our niece have always been huge Korean fans, and they both took and passed with flying colours, the TOPIK I Korean language exam the year before, while I was left in the dust. It came as a surprise to hear that they landed on the Land of K-Drama and K-Pop... just a couple of days ago. They must have planned this ambush on us a long time ago!"哥, let us bring you to Ikseondong to drink coffee."said San.
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So on this nice and warm morning, (-2 degrees hahaha!) we walked to Insadong to look for them for a nice walk around, brother and sister and sister-in-law, and niece!
I find hor.. often, meeting loved ones outside of Singapore has such a different feel, out of the comfort zone of homeland, we all become equally lost in a land unfamiliar to us. And times like these I can start to sense the different likes and dislikes of each of them, and how they go about finding their places.
Walking Ikseondong was the first time for us, this quaint little oldish neighbourhood that has over time, become a little hamlet of shopper’s and diner’s paradise, selling little trinkets of artistic items.
Hsin Hui was really clever in negotiating the nooks and crannies in finding the places that she wanted to go. Literally Ah San and us we were led by her to the little shops, the little alley fortune teller 签菩萨…
We ended up walking in Bukchon Hanok Village just across Insadong.
“Ah San, let me bring you all over to the right side of Bukchon along 계동길 there,” I suggested.
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For the upcoming spring trip for Papa and Mama, I actually pre-booked a Hanok right here at the upslope along 창덕궁길. Simply wanting to recce the ground since we were already here, I brought both of them walking up the gradual slope. But after arriving at the Hanok, both Serene and Ah San were adamant that this slopey road was not suitable a walk for Papa Mama. Hahahaha… I loved their reactions. And gladly I cancelled and re-booked another hotel instead, though it was a shame - I really wanted to try out this Hanok here in Bukchon.
It was so sweet, Ah San and Hsin Hui, just the two of them simply flying to Korea for an at-the-drop-of-a-pin kind of short holiday. Mother and daughter can really go as crazy as they wanted here, or as chill as they desired. Like what Ah San and Hsin Hui said, the night before they even spent the whole evening watching the last two episodes of The Alchemy of Soul Season 2, in the hotel!
“舅舅，舅母 there is this very popular cafe in Bukchon called Onion, that is converted from an old Hanok,” said Hsin Hui. “I bring you all there.”
“Ok let’s go!”
The ambiance was terrific, it our first time eating and having coffee outdoors on a cold wintry afternoon. Imagine seeing young Korean ladies walking around in Hanbok looking for tables and seats!
09 Jan 2023
On this last evening in Seoul, we decided to try out another crab restaurant, this time one somewhere in Mapo-gu. I searched it via KakoMap - one of the better-reviewed ones, and the map again showed it to be around 1.9km walk. So we took a short bus trip, dropped off and started walking, through dark neighhourhood, through estates of condominiums.
"Wah, why go to eat crab must also walk so far one ah?" asked Serene.
"No choice mah... KakaoMap recommended this very nice restaurant and we just follow lor."
Along the way there were men and women walking back hom after finishing work, students walking back home after school. And it was only Zero degrees on this night, but the howling wind was so cold that we even saw a young lady in her one piece dress and visibly trembling in the cold!
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A few days before, on the 3rd January 2022 the PRC Chinese finally returned to Korea. As I followed the Korean news, there were about 1052 PRC Chinese who landed on the night of 2nd January and out of these 300+ tested positive for Covid and had to be sent to the government-designated quarantine hotels for their 7 days quarantine. One 40-year-old Chinese man Mr A, while on his way to the quarantine hotel, dashed out of the bus and escaped. He disappeared into a large market 300m away in Incheon and the police conducted a mad search for him. And the saga continued even as we finished our Hwe dinner that evening after our Inwangsan climb, and walked back to the hotel.
10 Jan 2023
Yah, it was the end of this almost three weeks of 다녀오구 있다 in Korea. Seen a lot of things, eaten a lot, walked so much, and also had a lot of opportunities to practise our Korean language. It was fruitful, no question about it. And it allowed us many new angles through which we could stand back and view Korea, the Korean people, and their behaviours. Korea, being such a huge county, such huge hinterland, if we were to live here, wah I can really imagine the abundance of opportunities for us to explore every corner, eat every stall, walk every slope and climb every mountain. Of course, for me; I will have endless chances of reading as many books as I like to.
Ajumma 는, she will kao beh as often as she wants to, but she will still tag along.
“Do we really know a lot about Korea?” At the end of the day, we asked ourselves.
Actually, no matter how much we would like to think so, we really still don’t know enough. Enough to get by as a pair of travellers, but to live and to blend in, it's 아직 멀었어요 (it's still far from... that's what we will always say in Korean). Korea's 人 and 情 still has plenty for us to discover. That is why Korea will always be such a fantastic playground for us two Korea-crazy people.
Till our next Korea trip.
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