Yeah, I’ve been back in Xi’an for two weeks already and having written about Seoul, so I figured I should get around to that.

I never realized how hard it would be to meet up with people without having mobile phones. Upon arriving in Seoul I couldn’t contact anyone unless I found a wifi  hotspot. No phone service and no one to call. Fortunately, my travel buddies and I are rather tech savvy, and carry smartphones around with us, allowing us to email each other or leave messages on Google Voice. That made meeting up in the airport extremely easy.

After meeting up with Cody and Dan, we went looking for somewhere to eat. Dan, being pretty hungover needed to stop a few times to vomit, so in the meanwhile Cody and I could figure out where the hell we were trying to go. Upon arriving at our intended station (which we pretty much just picked because it was a big transfer station, and no other reason) we found a nice seafood shop just outside the subway entrance. It was something I’d never experienced before, they put our shoes in tiny little shoe lockers, we sat on the floor at foot-high tables, and then it hit me. How do I order? I know absolutely no Korean. At least in Chinese I can ask for a few things and read a few things on the menu. Here I’m screwed. Fortunately, world-traveler Dan took charge and pointed to something on the menu, guess we were eating whatever that was.

The brought us the food, it was octopus…. cold octopus….. cold, still moving octopus. The tentacles on the plate just squirmed like they were desperately trying to stick to anything they could find. The nice waitress, motioned to us to dip them in the Kimchi (spicy) sauce and vinegar mix and just eat them. We did, and honestly, they tasted pretty good! Though I did have strange thoughts going through my mind about this semi-alive creature inside my stomach. But I assured myself that my stomach acid would kill it pretty quickly, at least I hoped so.

Wandering around Seoul involved a lot of getting lost, eating random food of which we had no idea what it was, and buying booze from the 7-11. After spending most of the first day looking for a place to stay and then settling on a crappy hotel, we finally found a nice place to stay. The Open Guesthouse was run by some pretty cool guys, and they were more than willing to help us get around, and set up a DMZ tour for us. The three of us were happy to have found the place. There was always things going on around there; drinking on the back patio, korean barbecue in the evening, and a korean TV drama shooting on location during the day!

The first couple days involved mostly sight seeing, Namsam Park, the North Seoul Tower, and a half day at the Korean DMZ (the area between North and South Korea).

The DMZ was probably the most interesting part of the trip, it was the closest that I’ll probably ever be to North Korea unless I somehow manage to make a trip there, which I’ve heard can be a challenge. It was so close I could see it with my own unaided eyes, and with the help of binoculars I could see North Korean soldiers and vehicles on the border. Knowing how secretive the North Koreans are, it was very cool. During the trip it became pretty clear that South Koreans seem to think and hope that the two countries will be reunited sooner than later, they’ve built train stations, and border crossing stations all over, and they simply sit there, empty and unused except for tourists to visit. The tour also included a tunnel which was evidenced, by drill bit marks, to be dug by the North more than 20 years ago as a way to invade the south. The north of course denied them, and then says they were mining for coal. Too bad the area doesn’t contain any coal.

While the DMZ was very cool, it was a little more touristy than I had anticipated, but I shouldn’t complain, it seems that everyone I talked to about going to Korea asked me “are you going to go to the DMZ?” So apparently it’s a popular destination.

I will say there were some things I really enjoyed about Seoul:

• the bar and club district was pretty awesome, especially just chilling out and drinking beer in front of the 7-11, that’s entertaining in itself
• the bars and clubs were actually open all night, and the nightlife on the streets didn’t die out by 12:00AM like it seems to here in Xi’an
• it’s easier to find the western stuff one might miss, but that’s probably due to the presence of the US military base in Seoul
• Korean girls are beautiful (however, I don’t think they’re anymore beautiful than Chinese girls, they just dress sexier because Seoul is very westernized)

As great as the vacations are, I’m always happy to be back in Xi’an where I really feel at home. See more pictures of the trip here.

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