520: Seoul tips, a peek into North Korea, and K-pop nursery rhymes
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En route to Guatemala after a week in lovely yet sub-freezing Seoul. I should be more online in the coming weeks as the pace of travel will be slower.
Seoul tips!
I stayed in Myeongdong, which is central and has most of the sights. I journeyed out to Itaewon and Hongdae for the impressive nightlife, and Gangnam for the upscale retail Psy sings about. I got techno from Faust, Run Club, and Volnost.
The Gyeongbokgung palace was worthy, and walking through the traditional Hanok village streets nearby. Insadong street too.
I watched a live esports video game match in the LoL Park stadium, if that’s your thing. And even if KPOP is not your thing, check out the HiKR Ground building to see an impressive alignment between pop culture and government interests.
I enjoyed the Cookin Nanta stage show, best described as if Benihana was on stage at Vegas.
The daytrip to the DMZ including an interview with a North Korea refugee was an eye opening brush with living history straight from the textbooks, although there is not a lot to actually see there other than fences and defense works.
You used to be able to visit the actual Joint Security Area where inter Korea negotiations take place, but right now it’s closed because a US veteran defected on a tour in 2022, sprinting to the North Korean side!
As well as a trip to Hwacheon ice festival, a small town near the border where soldiers outnumber residents but they go hard every winter with ice sculptures, ice fishing, and more fun winter activities this Cali boy had never done before.
Trazy is a good resource, and here are more reccs from my friends: one two.
Technology
It’s worth noting that Google Maps doesn’t offer walking directions in Korea, nor does it show the yellow outlines of retail areas, which materially affected my travel experience there! Download Naver or KakaoMap to bridge the gap.
Turns out this is because Korea requires all such sensitive mapping data to be stored on Korean servers exclusively, which Google refuses to do.
Ideologies
Speaking with the North Korean refugee on the tour was eye opening. She didn’t even mean to defect - just tried to get more money for her family, ended up getting smuggled into China for sex trafficking, then had a son and thus a passport which let her get to the South.
We asked what her first impression of South Korea was: “If there is a heaven and hell on earth, they are surely south and north korea.”
I asked for an anecdote that conveys what life in the north was like: “Constant hunger. Always starving a little bit. And walking 30 minutes to the well to draw water - here you just turn on the tap and it works!”
This Youtuber went on an official North Korean tour and filmed the experience, which peeks behind the curtain slightly. See how alert those traffic guards are!
Like Taiwan, I learned a lot more about the Korean War on this visit, which put things into perspective. Folks like to quip that WW2 was America’s last just war - but after seeing the vibrancy of South Korea juxtaposed with the dead North, I disagree.
Did you know that the 38th parallel dividing line was chosen unilaterally by two American soldiers solely because it gave the south Seoul? Unbeknownst to them, this was the same line the Soviets had agreed to divide Korea with Japan on!
Stalin underwrote the entire Northern invasion and gave them the date to do it. They took the South by surprise and pushed them all the way to the tip of the peninsula, until a risky yet successful beach landing at Incheon cut off the North’s supplies and let the South push all the way to China’s border, until China joined the war and pushed them back to the 38th parallel. When else in history has a war gone entirely one way, then the other, then reverted to status quo?!
President Truman also relieved WW2 hero Douglas MacArthur during this war, causing the lowest presidential approval ratings to date due to the latter’s popularity. Seems that MacArthur was complaining to the media that Truman wouldn’t let him use nukes, which contravened the order of command. Seems like the right call - he explicitly wanted to use dozens of nukes to create an irradiated DMZ on the Chinese border!
Memes
Of course K pop music steals the day here, with catchy melodies and impressive choreography. Got any playlists to share with me?
I’m enjoying this guy remixing the nursery rhyme Red Rover, these guys rapping about their baggy jeans, and the cute costumes of this pop couple.
The Ocho subreddit is full of made up sports with impressive skill on display that made me laugh out loud several times and gave me ideas for the next backyard game.