Seoul, Korea

Upon Arrival

I arrived in Incheon without incident. I love it when things go smoothly. It's such a novelty for me. I could definitely get used to this. After breezing through customs, I strolled up to the first cash machine I saw and stuck my card in, but it spit it back out at me. Tried my credit card next, with the same result. A small blip in the lucky streak.

Eventually, I gave up trying to get money (thank goodness my father had helped me exchange some Won before I left Canada), so I had enough money to rent a mobile phone and call James to let him know I had arrived and had only enough money left for the bus fare to meet him. Got my instructions from him and soon, I was on the highway, watching some Korean variety show. I swear, all Asian variety shows look the same. I've seen them in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. I hate them all.

James met me at Coex Mall (City Air Terminal) in Samseoung and we hopped a cab back to his place, in nearby Guangnam.

The streets reminded me of the small side streets in Tokyo, densely packed, a convenience store on every block and narrow little roads where there's only enough room for one car. I actually saw a guy get clipped by a car while walking around the area with James. Nothing serious, but still looked like it hurt.

After dropping off all my stuff at James' place, we went in search of an open restaurant - no small task, considering it was smack dab in the middle of Chusok. As we walked around from closed restaurant to closed restaurant, it felt like I was back in Toronto. James' family lives a block away from where I grew up, so we used to spend a lot of time in the summer walking around the neighbourhood with slushies from the local gas station in our hands. It really goes to show that home isn't about the physical location, rather, it's in the company you keep.

We finally found a restaurant where we had some kick-ass food and a huge bottle of Hite. The experience was almost exactly the same as the Korean places we used to frequent back home. One thing I'll say for Toronto - for those who are sticklers for "authenticity" of any particular food, Toronto's really a great place. Apart from everything costing more in Toronto, the incredible number of immigrants in the city make dining an incredible experience. Things may cost a little more back home, but it's the real deal...or at least as close as you can reasonably get.

Tin Pan Alley

In the evening, we met up with Chris (another guy I knew from back home) and his coworker Ji Min for a few drinks in Hongik. We walked around for a bit before settling on an American style bar called Tin Pan Alley. It was in the basement of the building, kinda dank and just rammed full of non-Koreans. Not quite what I was expecting, but again, it's all in the company you keep, right?

The beer here comes with little kerchiefs tied around the neck. Never had metrosexual beer before. Chris (in the orange shirt) seemed rather repulsed by it, but I didn't mind. I'm socially liberal.

I had to play the part of the party pooper again and call it an early evening. I hadn't slept well for the past few days and it was beginning to catch up with me.

Love Hotels

On the way home, I noticed something that I didn't catch before...there were an inordinately large number of love hotels in this area. James told me that the first day he arrived, he saw an young girl, obviously drunk, stumbling about on the street. An older man walked up to her, steadied her, then lead her into one of the hotels. He (James) went away, touched by the kindness of the people in Seoul.

Later, upon recounting this story to some locals, he found out what a love hotel was, which undoubtedly, ruined the experience for him.