End of my first trip to Korea

Finally, its time to bid adieu to Seoul. My flight was at 11:00 AM and so I had to wake up early as I had to keep in mind the 'more than an hour' travel time from hotel to airport. Checked out from the hotel and was in the bus heading towards airport by 7:30 AM. Reached airport by 8:30 and was hoping that that I don't have any problems at the departure. The airport security was little too irritating in Incheon airport with every person getting into the flight having to show his boarding pass and passport every other corner. Added to this, I had to go through the discomfort of opening my checkin and cabin cabbage for the airport personnal for a thorough search. One of the Korean aiport security officers was a little too suspicious at my Ipod. I played one of my U2 songs and the officer seemed impressed. The trip back to minneapolis was eventless and so was the immigration.

Travelling to new and far off places where i've never been had always been my dream and i am extremely delighted that i got a chance to go to Korea and experience their way of living. My next trip would be to Bangkok, Thailand starting in a couple of weeks. I can hardly wait!!!

Insa-dong....

Today is the last sunday i would be spending in Seoul and so figured that i would buy a couple of souvneirs to take back home. Insa-dong is the place quite famous for its antique galleries, art houses and souvneir shops. After a quick lunch at KFC (where else??), I started going through the souvneir shops lined up in the street. A lot of them were pretty expensive by any standards but there were also few cheaper ones. I ended up buying traditional korean masks made of wood (which you would find practically in every Korean souvneir shop), some ginseng tea and few other wooden "things" that caught my eye. There was some kind of traditional drumbeat and dance going on at the end of the street. I stood there for a while and then headed back home.

One more museum and more wandering...

This being my last weekend in the city, i was hoping to see as many places I could and also buy a couple of souveneirs to take back home. Quickly checked the 'Rainbow' magazine for places to see and decided on the National museum of contemporary art located in Seoul grand park. I have never been to that part of the city before and was ready to do little bit of exploring. After a quick look at both the city map and the subway map, I walked down to Yeoksam subway station and was on my way to Seoul grand park.

Seoul grand park is a big open space dotted with theme parks, a zoo and the national museum of contemporary art. I was surprised to see that quite a few people were braving the bitter cold to go to theme parks which are primarily outdoor venues. Walking on the road from the station, I noticed a lot of street vendors selling 'boiling silkworm larvae' and would have to say that it isn't the most appetizing scene I've seen. More than the looks, it is the smell of the food that made me stop breathing for a while and walk a little faster than usual. It appears to be a favourite among little kids as I saw quite a few of them mucnhing them happily.





After a quick 15 min uphill walk to the museum, I was inside the huge building ready to check out some more art. Although I don't really understand most of it, I always thought I could appreciate good art and I definitely had a lot of oppurtunity to do that in Seoul. The building had three floors and had around 10 galleries. I went through all the galleries and have to say that some of the paintings were absolutely breathtaking and nothing like I've ever seen before. One of the attractions in the museum was the video art by a Korean artist displayed in 1024 TV sets arranged in the shape of big cone. There were a couple of special exhibitions going on in the museum at that time ( 'Currents in Contemparay Chinese art 2005' and 'Young artists from Korea, China and Japan' ), I checked out them as well and was overall pretty impressed by the paintings. I spent nearly 3-4 hrs in the museum and by now was getting pretty really hungry (inspite of the heavy breakfast i had in the morning). I quickly walked to the subway station and was on my way to Myeong-dong station hoping that i would get something to eat there and also to see the Myeong-dong cathedral.



I have to say that Myeong-dong took me by surprise as soon as I got down from the train. First of all, I haven't seen so many people at one place and more specifically in one street in all of Seoul. There were loud speakers right next to the station blaring out english pop music and I could see all kinds of fashion apparel retailers displaying their stuff at the stores. The crowd was overwhelmingly young and looked as if they cannot hold on to their money in their wallets anymore. I noticed that both Burger King and McDonalds outlets were present in the street but didn't dare to venture into them as they were completely packed and was sure that i would not have a place to sit. I walked through the street and finally found a Pizza hut near the end of the street. Finished my lunch and was back on the streets in no time. I walked around for some more time and did some window shopping but was not really in a mood to buy clothes at that time. To my delight, I found a PC bang (which literally means PC room or Cybercafe in korean) in the street and thought I would go in and do some surfing. After an hour of internet surfing, I decided that it is time to go home. Got back to my hotel room in an hour and took some time to indulge in the pleasure of lying in my bath tub after a long day of walking in the bitter cold.

Food court at COEX mall

This is the food court where we usually have our lunch....

Trip to the DMZ

Had to wake up early in the morning as I had planned to go to DMZ on a half day tour today.The tour operator was supposed to come to the hotel by 7:30 AM. Although it was a little tooearly for me, I woke up by 6.00 AM and was able to get out of the hotel room by 7 o clock. Quickly finished my breakfast and by the time i reached the concierge's desk, the tour operator was waiting for me. He introduced himself as charlie and told me that we would have to take a quick cab ride to Itaewon to meet up with the rest of the group. It was a cold morning and since it was a weekend, we were able to reach Itaewon in 5 minutes. Itaewon is famous for the presence of the american military base. One would notice the difference the minute you land in the place. All the shops would have english signs and you would typically see a lot of americans and the local shops and restaurants typically tend to cater to their needs. We waited for the mini-bus to arrive and at abt 8:10 I was in the mini-bus heading towards DMZ. There were abt a dozen other people in the bus and, except me, everyone else were either with their families or friends.

I was pretty excited abt the trip as I've already heard a lot about the DMZ. DMZ is a short form for de-militarized zone. It is basically a 4 km stretch of land (2 km from both the sides of the border) that has been "de-militarized". No human has set foot on this land for the past 50 years. There is barbed fencing across the 150 mile border between north and south koreas and various checkposts and bunkers all throughout the border.

Our first stop was the DMZ ticket office at Inkinjim where we were supposed to transfer to a tour bus. We got a glimpse of the "freedom bridge" through which more than 10,000 prisoners walked free from north korean prisons. Public is prohibited from taking pictures at most of the areas, so I was kind of careful with my camera. Walking through the area and looking at the different memorials, one would get a feeling that koreans suffered a lot of pain during seperation and they genuinely would like to be one country.

Our second stop was the third infiltration tunnel. This is basically a tunnel built by north koreans in the 1970's to infiltrate into south korea. It lies more than 70 m under land and is more than 2 km long. We took a short ride in a tram into the tunnel for about 1000 m and then walked the rest of 400m. Our tour guide went to great lengths to explain various facts to prove that the tunnel was infact built by north koreans (Apparently, the north claims that it was built by south and deliberately exposed just to malign them!!)




Our next stop was the Dorasan station which is the closest railway station to North Korea. It was built as a gesture towards re-unification of both the koreas and as of now only serves as a tourist spot. The station has makeshift schedules of trains going to Pyongyang. We spent about 15 mins in the station and were on our way back to Seoul.

Star bucks, Dunkin donuts, Baskin Robbins....

I have seen quite a few cities in the US but never have i seen a city with so many starbucks, dunkin donuts and baskin robbins outlets..Its actually the concentration of them rather than the sheer number that took me by surprise. One cannot walk for more than a 200 meters before finding the next starbucks outlet. .I guess the koreans really love their coffee..which for some strange reason I could never make a habit of..Although, I do occasionally try the Tazo chai latte which i personally like (may be due to its subtle elaichi taste). Starbucks is typically crowded all the time with customers lined up waiting for their morning/afternoon/evening dose of caffeine.

On the other hand, Baskin robbins is typically filled with college girls trying hard to figure out if they should eat the pink coloured 'Love me' flavour yet again!!!

Stumbling into Ganga

It has become a recurring problem for us to decide where to eat every afternoon..Today we decided we would take a walk and explore some of the nearby buildings..After reaching Yeoksam subway station, we went into the nearby building hoping to find something..We were pleasantly surprised at the list of the places to eat in that building..It had Mcdonalds, it had Quiznos..and it had 'Ganga - Authentic Indian restaurant'!!! I was in cloud nine just by the sight of it..I always knew there were indian restaurants in Seoul..but the problem was in getting to one of them..and most of them were in a certain part of the city..None of our Korean colleagues were of any help as they had never been to one of them..Having found it, we did not have any second thoughts on where we would be having our lunch.

The food was amazing and the service excellent..This is one of the things i noticed since i came here..There is always that pleasant smile that invites you when you walk into any place and you can always make out that its not a fake or plastic smile..I rarely saw anyone frowning or irritated while they serve. And almost everyone seemed to be happy whatever they were doing..Having had a great lunch, we walked back satisfied.

KFC in Apgujeong

I woke up so late today that it was too late to plan a detailed outing..The only thing in my mind being food at the time of the day, I went out in search of something to eat..After going through the map, I settled on a place named Apgujeong. From the map, it looked like there was a lot going on there..Reached the place in about half an hour..Walked around aimlessly for a while hoping to find burger king or KFC..After a while, I found the colonel in all his glory staring at me inviting into his humble home..Well, I really don't want to get into the grisly details of how i ate my chicken..I guess I would rather leave that to anyone's imagination ;-)

Having finished my lunch, I tried hopelessly to find something to do in such a cold afternoon..All I could see were some shops selling latest brand clothes and stuff..
Its time to go back!!!

Korean heritage

Today is my first day out in Korea and I was thrilled by the prospect of finally getting to see some of the city's hotspots..Since Harvey has already been in Seoul before and it is bitter cold outside, he said he would rather stay in. I quickly checked the local tourist magazine for places to see and settled on Gyongbokkung palace which is the no.1 cultural spot in town..It took me a full 1 hr to reach the place by subway (especially since this was my first time on the subway in Seoul and i had to transfer to a different line after a few stops..But surprisingly the subway system was extremely easy to use...there were english signs on all the stations almost everywhere and each and every compartment had a full map of the subway system..whats more..an english announcer lets you know that a station is arriving and if you have to get down right or left..). As soon as I walked out of the exit in the subway station, I got a complete view of the palace and it was a beautiful sight...Actually I would've felt happy even if there was a small room instead of a big palace..at that moment the feeling of being in a totally new country mattered to me the most..and not really the beauty of the building.



I could see that there were few visitors like me on such a bitter cold day...The place itself cannot be called a palace but a palace complex..It is a group of buildings. pretty much all of them made of wood, distributed across a vast area. I roamed around most of the buildings..All of them had a story to tell about ancient korean kingdoms and dynasties..and how it was rebuilt after being burnt down during japanese invasion of the 16th century. The buildings itself were pretty simple without a lot of decoration. After about an hour of walking around, I couldn't take the cold anymore..I looked around to see if there is anyway i could go into any of the buildings nearby...Luckily i found that the national folk museum is right next to palace complex...I just went in without a second thought.



The folk museum was a pagoda shaped building and had a spire on the top of it..The museum had numerous exhibits of various periods of korean heritage..Most notable was the Korean Kimchi making exhibition. There were dozens of varieties of kimchi (Korean version of pickle) on display..After about an hour of going through most of the exhibits, I walked out completely satisfied!!

First day at work

Today is my first day at work in Korea. I had only slept for about 2 or 3 hrs and had to wake up by 7 am in order to be ready by 8 am. I met Harvey for breakfast in the lobby. (He will be the working with me on the project). The buffet breakfast at the hotel was simply amazing. It had everything that anyone can think of. (I am just comparing it with a continental breakfast...so they don't really have the Indian dosas, idli and vada!!!). I stuffed myself with danish pastries and fruits and walked out pretty satisfied thinking that all the worries I had about finding food in Korea were baseless!!

Harvey mentioned that the building where we would be working is right next to the hotel. So all we had to do was walk right across the street into the multi-storeyed building. After a little bit of confusion, we were able to find the colleagues we would be working with. After a round of introductions, it was time to start doing some serious work!!!

Off to Korea, the land of morning calm

It was about three weeks ago that my boss had called me to find out if i am interested ingoing to Seoul,South korea on a month long assignment. Over the past few years, I have been adding various countries to the list of places i would want to see but never did i think of going to Korea. So, I was kind of completely taken by surprise by the request. I told my boss that i would get back to him by that day evening. I always knew that I was going to say 'yes'.

From then on, I was on internet pretty much everyday looking up details about the country, things to do and places to eat. Days rolled by with me applying for a business visa and making other travel arrangements. And finally the day arrived. I departed from minneapolis airport yesterday. After a brief layover at the Narita Airport in Tokyo, I was on my way to Incheon, Seoul. It was 10.00 PM by the time i reached Incheon airport. I found the airport extremely well maintained and without doubt, could be compared to the best in the world (Just my assumption!! I don't really know about all the best airports in the world). Immigration was a breeze, especially since all I had to do was hand my passport and stand still for a few minutes. I walked out of the airport to catch the airport Limousine bus that would take me to the Hotel. These buses typically take passengers from the airport to various Hotels in the city for a charge of 12,000 Won (about $12). That day, due to some reason, I was the only passenger in the bus. After an hour of bus ride, I finally reached the hotel. Found the hotel staff to be extremely courteous and was able to check into my room within no time.

So, Here I am finally, in a completely new country and am absoultely thrilled about the days that lay ahead of me. Looking back, it almost seems such a strange turn of events over the last few months, me quitting a very safe and secure job, going through various hardships to get my visa stamped in India and finally getting a chance to visit a different country within one month of joining the new company. As Paulo Coelho puts it 'When you want something with all your heart, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it'.

Welcome to my blog...

After months of lazing around and postponing, I finally am ready to publish my blog..I guess I might be one of the last ones to do it..but here it goes anyways..there are a couple of things I want to mention before anyone starts reading this (thats assuming that someone is going to read this nonsense sometime)...Most of the earlier posts have been added to the blog recently based on some notes that i took a while back..so the times on the blog does not reflect the actual times that i wrote it..Secondly, the title of the blog is grossly misleading..there is no adventure whatsoever in anything that i did...i did not jump of cliffs nor did I swim across seas...most of it is a compilation of what i ate and when i slept :-)..with occasional walks around the town..And I should also admit that officialy I do not qualify as a 'globetrotter'..It's just one more ploy to make myself happy...

Having said that, you are free to forward my blog address, copy the contents, distort it, or do whatever you want with it...Do post your comments if you find anything interesting...and send your really personal comments ;-) to vijay.konduru@gmail.com