In the fourth of our series of stories from Irish men sharing the craic with the rest of the world, we join intrepid travellers Simon and Tom as they leave Japan and head to South Korea.
Diary by Simon McKnight
Days 13: Seoul, South Korea
Kimchi Soup High: I’ve had loads of Kimchi before, but I’ve never had Kimchi Soup….and certainly not gotten high off the stuff. I liken it to the runner’s high that some people get, the brain hooking itself up with some sweet endorphins to counteract pain. But man, this soup was f*cking spicy. My head felt like a balloon and my body felt like I was swimming. I’ll never repeat the topic of conversation I started with Tom, but we both nearly killed ourselves laughing out of it. I’ll be forever grateful that the restaurant owners couldn’t understand English or we would have been kicked out for being obscene. I cleaned out that whole bowl and it was delicious, and a little post-soup Soju helped me to come back from the clouds, and out from the water.
After the soup high, I got my eyebrow pierced. I found a place near our hostel and boom…got it done. I’m not going to rhyme any bullshit about expressing myself to explain why I got it done (what are you actually expressing by doing it?), I just wanted to do it, so I did. It was only €6 all in, and only hurt for the first day.
Days 14-15: From Seoul to Kyongu
Now this is some stuff right out of a movie. So much random stuff happened around this situation, it was decided to just simply call it Random Night. Here’s how it went down:
First the background: Tom and I met two girls in Japan that we hung out with, Helen and Pinky. They, for some reason, liked hanging out with us and we had spoken about meeting up in South Korea as we were all going to be there around the same time. No specific plans had been made, but we exchanged email addresses for down the road.
Fast forward to South Korea. Tom and I had been in Seoul for a while and starting to get itchy feet to see more of the country. We decided to go to Kyongu to see the sights there, Buddhist temples and more touristy crap. There were only two choices on Hostelworld.com to try, Han Jin Hostel and Gyeong-ju Park Tourist Hotel. Obviously the hostel is cheaper then the hotel so we decided to go there.
We arrived at the bus station in Seoul and missed our bus. As we had time to kill I decided that it would be a great idea to find out how to get to our hostel and tried to memorise the map. Look, I thought I had it pretty down pat, but the map was pretty shitty to begin with.
We get into Kyongu at night try to find the hostel. We pass by the other hotel while looking for the hostel…it’s right by the bus station. 45 minutes of walking with our backpacks and no hostel… we are defo lost and my map memory skills are obviously not where they should be. Executive decision time, lets just go to the hotel. We go back to the hotel and go to the reception desk and check in.
“SIMON?” someone exclaims from behind me.
I turn around and there, completely out of the blue… is Pinky!! I needed a few seconds to process the situation and then it all came crashing in… there’s Pinky all the way from Japan! Absolutely crazy stuff.
Later, we meet up with Helen and Pinky and go find a bar to have a celebratory drink. After the bar we’re walking around and lo and behold, there’ s the hostel we’re looking for! Seriously, after seeing Helen and Pinky then finding the hostel we spent an hour looking for was way out there in the Twilight Zone. So for me, the universe was telling us that we needed to go out and mark the occasion by getting shitfaced…. Soju time!!
I think Soju is a f*cking great but dangerous drink. It’s really light on the palette and you don’t really know that you’re drinking alcohol. Not in the way you know when you’re drinking something like whiskey. I ended up getting to my goal of getting shit faced, and missed out on all the sightseeing the next day. But I did end up watching movies on TV all day…. and I spent a good bit of time on the 2 channels dedicated to Starcraft as well.
Randomness Summary:
- Decide to go to Kyongu
- We miss our bus
- We get lost and can’t find our hostel, go to the hotel as the alternative
- No plans whatsoever to meet up with Helen and Pinky
- Pinky decides to go down to reception and use the internet just as we’re checking in
- We end up finding our original hostel because we went out with Pinky and Helen to commemorate the night
That is some random, small-world, inexplicable shit.
Helen and Pinky, you girls are awesome! I had a great time hanging out. It would not have been the same trip without the both of you by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully we can meet up in ‘Old Europe’ sometime. That was a hell of a night at Ho! Bar and Cocoon. Those $1 tequilas hit the spot… many times over.
Day 16: The Demilitarised Zone
After Kyongu, we decided to take a trip to the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea. It was quite the eye opener. South Korea has turned it into a tourist destination, with interpretation centres, cafés and all the other touristy trap stuff. The DMZ itself is just a field, like any other one you’d find out in the country. The viewpoint is in an actual military base that has been tourist-ised, with souvenir shops and an interpretation centre. At the actual lookout point on the base, you’re not allowed to take photos beyond a certain line, which means unless you’re really tall your pictures don’t include the main field itself. We also got to walk through one of the tunnels the North dug to secretly invade the South. I had a mental fight with my claustrophobia and made it in and out incident free.
What I found pretty cool about the whole thing was Dorasan train station. South Korea already has a brand spanking new train station for passengers ready and waiting for the day it has peace with the North. It could start running tomorrow if the situation called for it. All that’s missing is the people… and peace. They already have the passport stamps ready to go. And DO NOT stamp your passport with them.
I also met Nina, an American/Korean girl living in LA. She is one of those people with a great smile and mischief in her eyes. As soon as we started talking on the bus, I could tell she was going to be good laugh. She had the best ideas for creative poses in photos. I tried but couldn’t keep up with her, my creativity being snuffed out by nights of Soju and Kimchi Soup. And she has a kick ass tattoo on her back. Nina, you are super cool.
That’s it for SK. We say our goodbyes to South Korea and fly to China. Let the games begin!
If you’re an Irishman abroad (travelling the globe, on a year out or resettled in some far off land) and you’re interested in sharing your Backpacker Diary write to [email protected]
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
