Welcome back to Tumbleweed! I had put this blog post on ice for the last six months as we weren't traveling much and therefore there wasn't much to report on. But Ginny and I just returned from a 3+ week visit to Taiwan and South Korea so it seems like a good time to get the blog going again!
We were visiting Ginny's parents in Taipei (yes, they and all of Ginny's family are fine after the recent earthquake...thanks for the many messages!) and decided to add a side trip to South Korea since it's a fairly short flight from Taipei. We know Taipei pretty well as Ginny's parents have lived there for more than twenty years and we've visited many times during that period. Nevertheless, we always discover new things as it's such a vibrant and bustling city. One of the things that we really love about Taipei is how easy it is to get around. The city is very walkable and when we have to travel longer distances we take the subway which is very clean, affordable, frequent, fast and a pleasure to ride! The average fare is less than a dollar and we rarely wait more than three minutes for the train to arrive. Everyone on the subway is very courteous and it has to be one of the best subways in the world.
Heading out to Yingge Ceramics district on YouBikes
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in central Taipei
Cutest mail truck ever?
We've ridden Taipei's shared bike system (YouBikes) before but they've made a major upgrade to the system since then and it's so much better now. YouBikes uses the same fare card (EasyPass) as the subway so you just tap your fare card at the docking station and check out a bike. There are thousands of bikes located at hundreds of docks located throughout the city. The bikes are really comfortable to ride with seats that are easily adjustable. And the bikes are also super affordable - some rides were free and I think the most we paid for a ride was fifty cents! Taipei's roads have been dominated by scooters for decades but on this trip we noticed an increasing number of electric scooters around the city. Most of them were by Gogoro, which is a Taiwanese company that makes electric scooters that have a swap & go battery system which allows users to quickly replace a depleted battery with a fully charged one (see photo of battery station below). It's a great system as unlike with an electric car, you don't have to sit and wait for it to charge up.
YouBikes docking station in central Taipei
Gogoro swap & go battery station in Banqiao District (notice the dog!)
After two weeks in Taiwan, we flew to Seoul and immediately took the bullet train down to Busan at the southern tip. It would take about five hours to drive between the two cities but it only took 2 hours and 45 minutes on the train with maximum speeds of 190 mph. Ginny was unfortunately sick for our first two days in Busan so we laid low until she recovered. My favorite thing in Busan was the spas and hot springs which were absolutely incredible. The first one that I went to consisted mostly of saunas with some hot springs and it was largely co-ed. Everyone wore these matching baggy shorts and t-shirts that were given out when you enter the facilities. The second hot springs that I went to was a more traditional Korean bathhouse facility and it was gender separated as you're not allowed to wear clothes into any of the pools or saunas. It took a little getting used to the 'no clothes' policy but the hot pools and saunas were super hot and so relaxing.
Fish market in Busan was impressive!
After four days in Busan, we took the KTX high speed train up to Gyeongju where we spent one day exploring the historic city and stayed at a traditional Hanok, where you sleep on mats on the floor. We got caricature drawings done of us which they do in a matter of minutes...so talented! We had a really delicious vegetarian meal in Gyeongju which was not always easy to come by in South Korea. After our whirlwind 24 hour visit, we caught the KTX train up to Seoul where we spent the rest of our trip.
Our caricatures from Gyeongju...not bad, eh?
Professional footballer Son Heung-min is on billboards all over South Korea
Mail delivery bicycle outside Hanok in Gyeongju
Wow, look at those banchan (side dishes)!
The last segment of our trip was a five day stay in Seoul, a city of ten million people and unlimited number of things to do! We knew that we had to go see a Korean Baseball League game as we had read about them being very boisterous, fan-crazed events. We went to see the Samsung Lions take on the LG Twins at Jamsil stadium and it was quite the cultural experience. The cheering culture is totally different than in the US. Each team has a dedicated cheering section led by cheerleaders and an MC. Each team has its own fight song that is enthusiastically sung as the team come up to bat each inning. Furthermore, every single player has their own dedicated song that the fans belt out when the player comes up to bat. Unlike in the US where cheering typically fades as the pitch is delivered, KBL fans continuously cheer until the at bat is over. Most of the players are Korean but each team is allowed three foreigners who also get their own individual fight songs (of course!). We wouldn't have been able to tell, but it didn't seem like there was any heckling - all very positive. It was a really unique experience that I highly recommend if you ever visit South Korea.
It was great catching up with old family friend Jim Heyes and his family in Seoul from South Africa!
Clasping hands sculpture in Seoul Forest Park
Women dressed up in traditional Hanbok clothing in Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul
Ginny getting blasted out in Seoul Forest Park
Yes, please!
24-hour self serve ramen bar in Seoul!
Cartoon dumplings are hard to resist
Best train station meal ever!
Cheonggyecheon Stream Park in Seoul - used to be an elevated freeway
We spent the rest of our time walking, eating and exploring our way through the city. It was a great first visit to Seoul but we'll have to return as we just didn't have enough time to see everything. A few final impressions of South Korea:
- Skin care is the real deal here!
- Koreans are very fashionable and love to dress in monochromatic tones
- At least in Seoul, Koreans mostly drive later model, fairly fancy cars
- Seoul is an extremely homogenous city with more than 95% of the city being Koreans
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