Morning calm---A lesson learnt

Every new country you see offers you a new dimension of how the world is. Certainly there’s a lot to learn from this little country called Korea. The attitude of the people towards tourists is so great. A few incidents left me shocked as to what extend people can help you.

On day one, we were searching for our Hotel address, and there were hardly any people on street. So we walked to a dress store and asked the lady there about the address. She dialed the number of Hotel from her cell, talked to the manager for about a minute, took a piece of paper, drew a neat map that guided us to our Hotel.

Also on one of the very chilly evenings at a Busan Subway station, when I was a bit tired, took off my winter cap in the bag and began to eat chocolates that I had. Dad was in a store nearby. An old couple was watching me for a while. After some time they approached me thinking that I didn’t have any winter cap and offered me 10000 won(around 400 rs) note to buy one. I declined saying that I had a cap, and thanked them for offering one. Now who would do that to a stranger.

In general, it’s a very tourism friendly. I-counter is set at every major tourist spot. In remote areas, where people knew little English, we would go to the I-counter, ask the person to write the name of the place we want to visit in Korean Language on a piece of paper. We would show that piece of paper to the Cab- driver to reach the place we want.

Many cabs had free translator service. That is, the cab driver would call a translator, who could speak English and Korean and then a 3-way communication started. If you would rent a mobile, you can call 1330 and use the free translator service to interact with anyone. Infact, that was how we interacted with the Jeju hotel manager.

This country has braved many things. Japan invaded it till 1945, North Korea destroyed entire Seoul city in 1952. 1 US dollar is 1300 WON (Korean currency). Worse ratio than the war hit Japan had to face. But still, it has started fresh and build everything from scratch. Slowly and steadily making itself known to the world.

Infrastructure is great. Incheon airport is the world’s 3rd best Airport. Korean air has been voted Asia’s best airline for third year running. Seoul stadium is Asia’s biggest football stadium. Seoul Metro is so well designed to meet city requirements. Everything is automatic. There’s no chance you travel without a ticket and there’s no chance the machine will let you travel for more than the ticket you brought. Seoul subway image below.

When I look back at Bombay, I see no I-counter, I see the prepaid Taxi counter man offering me rates that are twice the actual. I also see that if I take a private cab, the first question the driver asks me is “Bombay mein naye Ho” and takes me on the longest path if yes is the answer. It really makes me sad. Comparison is bad, but I don’t remember being cheated for a single penny in Korea.

Not only the country has advanced technologically, but also kept it’s traditional culture intact. They have the system of Ondol floor, i.e. underneath the floor, there are heating water tubes spread. This way the floor remains warm and you can lay a bed on it called Ondol Bed or Korean style bed. Many Korean restaurants serve food sitting on the floor. Some of them also offer a cooking stove for keeping the food heated.

People there brave extreme cold climate to set out to work. Yet everyone’s so perfectly dressed. Right colour combination. All the men with proper coats of black colour. Women very smartly dressed. People always bearing a smile. Not shy to strike a conversation with unknown. Always ready to help. Even in heavy rushtime, nobody touches each other in train. The one who has to get down just puts his hands up indicating he has to get down. The others make way for him.

Discipline is so high that cabs stop at the pedestrian crossing at 7 in the morning when no-one’s on the street. Never heard anyone honk a horn in 9 days of my stay. Didn’t see a plastic wrapper on the streets. Saw the government encouraging local companies to make it big in the International market. Like Daewoo, Hyundai, Kia motors, LG, Samsung etc. There aign’t any Vodafone, no T-mobile, only one local operator, SK telecom.

Just can say that I saw a great country in Korea and somewhere my heart says, one-day my country will be better. For that first I’ll have to learn. Learn to be a more helpful individual from now.

Morning Calm

Kidhar janewala Hai vacation mein?
South.
Aacha tho IV nahi aayega?
Nahi re. But you people have fun.

I was in two minds when Dad asked me whether I was coming for Korea. One view was I might not see such a different country again. I may not get a chance to go to around -7º C temperatures. Other was saying, I rather go with my friends to the IV. It would be more fun. Korea mein kya hai? Rajasthan mein sab saath mein enjoy karenge.

I choose the former one, and am glad to say that I don’t regret it now. Surely I missed my friends. With them it would have been great. But at the same time, I got to see an incredible country. An adventure to remember for the rest of my life.

This country is called as “Land of Morning Calm”. At sub-zero temperatures, mornings are Surely calm. On arrival day, temperatures were -3º to -7º. From past experience at Leh, I had learnt that it was important to rest first day, so that you can adjust to temperature well. Otherwise, 10 days trip is reduced to 2 days, next day you cant bear the cold, return back. Or stay confined to your hotel room.

If temperatures change from 25 to -6 slowly, degree by degree, then you can adjust. But for sudden change, precaution is needed. You cant afford to eat too much otherwise heat needed to digest it is large and begin to feel weak. You need food which consumed in small amount gives large amount of calories. Choclates and Ice-creams are the best. Ice-creams in such cold? Crazy? Nope, it’s the best.

Third day of stay, Seoul temperature was -9º C to -17ºC. Even the localites were shivering badly. Water dropped from the bottle would freeze in around 10 seconds. If you put your hand in the river for even some seconds, water would stick to hand and form solid mass. Every word you utter comes of with a thick fog of air. Sunlight hardly gives any warmth. In most of cold places I’ve been, even if it’s freezing during evenings, however the day sunshine brings you warmth. But here,Sun changed nothing. Fierce winds that prevent you to keep your camera steady for a pic. Only one of the days temperatures went above freezing mark. Busan was 1º to -3º.

The minute when you come out of the shower, and you dress yourself is probably the worst minute of your life. The winter coat I had was Made in USA and was a huge plus, but the gloves which were brought from a shopkeeper saying “Kitni bhi thandi mein leke jao, chal jayenge” proved to be useless. It was better to get a new one there.

Morning 9 to night 7-30 was the only time it was worth roaming on the street. I still recollect how difficult it was to take Seoul streets for the 8.55 am flight to Jeju Island. Infact, all I had to do was to catch a cab, which wasn’t even a 1 minute walk. Life’s fun, enjoy, you may never experience this again. But when you think about it that way, think about the localites. It’s a 10 day fun trip for us, but it aign’t exiting when it’s 3 months of every year of your life.

Not many Indian travelers visit this country. Infact out of the 200 odd people on Korean Air flight, only 10 were Seoul bound, others were mostly NRI’s or the software guys on their way to America. Indians mostly go to places where there’s business. Hongkong, Singapore, London, Dubai, South-Africa you name it and we are there. However, during entire trip, didn’t see any Indian over there. Not even Indian and Pakistani restaurants. It has never happened to me before.

But, braving the climate, this country has something great to offer. Some great people and great memories that I’ll always cherish.

Morning Calm-Places to See

Large part of Korea is either a Mountainous region or seashore. Capital city Seoul is surrounded by hills on all sides, a river in the southern side and Mt. Namsan, a beautiful mountain at the centre. The 2 hr trek to the top of Namsan is a wonderful one. There are also stairs, or the ropeway to get to the top, but nothing beats a trek.

At the top lies Seoul tower. Not as famous as the Tokyo tower or Eiffel tower, but a great place to see. The observatory at the top presents a breathtaking view at night. The river flowing through the south, football stadium, Hyundai, LG and Samsung buildings, Huge towers, the seven mountains surrounding the city.The tower keeps changing its colors and looks great from a distance. There’s a huge teddy bear museum at the entrance.

There's also a famous fence at the top where young couples tie locks to it, they believe that it will make them inseperable forever.

Mt. Achasan and Mt. Umyosan were the other mountains we trekked. Cold is unbearable, but the joy you get from the view at the top is just what keeps you driving.

Two major Sporting events have changed the face of the city. The 1988 Seoul Olympics and 2002 Korea-Japan FIFA world cup have led to great development. The World cup stadium is the biggest in Asia with 65000 capacity, which also has 2 malls, a museum, gymnasium, swimming pool and a multiplex theatre inside it. The stadium tour is great. World cup has brought in great funds. 5 wonderful parks are created near the stadium, and in the snow, the trees, well arranged give a spectacular view.

Area around the Olympic stadium is also similarly well developed. Skating arenas with snow are throughout the city where you can see kids from the age of 5 ice-skating. It’s so cute to see the little ones skate, but sadly we can’t for the fear that if we fell in that cold, certainly one of our body parts would go numb. Seoul metro is a great way to travel. It’s a bit crowded as it’s the common man’s transport over there, just like our locals. But take a day pass, and travel unlimited. However your chances of seeing more than 4 places a day are bleak in this weather.

Cheonggyecheon is a very famous stream of water flowing through downtown Seoul. It was previously a stream of waste water, but the government has put in so much money for it’s development to transform it into a wonderful landmark. Trees lit with light around it. Several small bridges with various themes, small time artists putting up laser show on the walls, cool breeze and the sound of flowing water. One of the most romantic places I’ve ever seen. I so wish to make a walk on this stream again with someone I love. This 6 km walk surely rocks. Thank you Korea.


The Han-gang river offers many ferries and boats for tourists. There is a bird sanctuary at a small islet in the river bed and lot of tourists opt for ferries to see that. But it was so damn chilly to stay 5 minutes at the dock that we thought better opt out of this. Birds hamare yahan bhi dikhte hai!!

Several Museums, art galleries and Palaces are famous in Seoul. I don’t really like to go to these places, usually thinking all Palaces are the same. So are the museums. But seeing one or two is okay. I met a Manchester fan over there and went to one of the palaces with him. Throughout the palace, we were discussing football. I had a great time. Herd many stories about England and how they don’t get to see the Saturday 3 pm fixtures over there and stuff. Picture of wonderful Changdeokgung palace is below.

European travelers are great to talk with, anywhere in this world. They go to a city, stay there for a month and tell you everything worth seeing about the city. Many Europeans are English teachers in Korea and they guided us in places where hardly any English was spoken. I can go on and on about Seoul, but I guess this much is enough to give an overview.

Jeju –do is a small Island south of Korea, about an Hour flight from Seoul. Size similar to that of Mauritius. Not as famous as Mauritius, but I feel it’s equally wonderful as Mauritius. Infact this small Island has 7 UNESCO heritage sites that are amazing and amazingly well preserved. I still doubt entire India might not have so many UNESCO protected and preserved heritage sites.

There’s everything to this Island. Great clean beaches, Mountains, caves, waterfalls, rivers, golf courses, everything. Mount Halla lies in the centre of the Island. It’s a four hour trek to the top. We were determined to do it, but due to heavy snow, the mountain was closed for trekking. There are massive orange plantations around this mountain full of big oranges, clad with snow.

Jeju is scientifically valuable for its extensive system of lava tubes (also known as lateral volcanoes or in Korean as Oreum). These natural conduits through which magma once flowed are now empty caves that are some of the largest in the world. The caves provide opportunities for scientific research and are also popular tourist destinations. Manjagul caves is a very famous lava tube cave we visited. Very well preserved site. Picture aside shows a frozen lava column, 7.6 metres, largest in the world.

The beaches are very clean here with extremely cool wind waves flowing near that it drifts you along with it. Very difficult to capture an image of it, but surely it presents a wonderful sight. We saw the Hamduk beach where after putting my feet in water made me numb for 5 minutes. In summers, many water sports can be done on the beaches, but winter, we were the only 3 people on the beach.

Cheonjiyeon waterfall was a nice place for a walk deep inside the woods, really enjoyed the place and there’s another waterfall which directly falls in the ocean which is a nice spot. So many places to see on this beautiful island, so little time. Green tea plantations are famous on this Island. There’s also the migratory bird sanctuary, World cup stadium, Sunrise peak which apparently is a cool 20 minutes trek to see the sunrise from a mountain. But coming on the streets at 6 in morning isn’t such a great idea.

Yongduam is a famous rock near the airport beach. It has the shape of Dragon Head and also called Dragon head rock. Naturally formed, great view at sunset.

Next, we took a flight to Busan, a coastal city in the East of Korea, very close to Japan. This city contains some of the best buddhist temples in the world. Beomeosa temple is very famous for tourists who come for Temple stay in Korea. Temple stay is a nice concept wherein you can stay a weekend in the temple, and live a lifestyle the traditional way. People from far-off places come for temple-stay booking around an month in advance. There’s one more famous temple touching the beach which is a wonderful sight to view.

UN war memorial in Busan pays tribute to 200 UN soldiers who sacrifised their lives when North korea attacked South Korea in 1952. Each died soldier has a plant planted against his name. Such a nice way to pay a tribute. Silent and nice place to visit.

Haeundai Beach is a fantastic place where all the famous Hotels are located. We opted for apartment Stay in Busan. Busan Aquarium is a very different aquarium than you have ever seen. It has great protected rare aquatic species, plus it has also 3d animation theatre movies as showing the thrilling ocean life. It's nice. Our rented apartment was on the 24th floor and presented a spectacular view of city. Yongdusan is a nice garden for young people to trek to. Close to it is the Busan tower.

Gwangan Bridge presents a great view from the beach with more than a billion lights constantly changing colors. Such a nice view it presented, totally worth the money you spend…..Great Country…Surely like to visit again. The image below is a wonderful picture of Gwangan Bridge. It took almost 15 retakes in the freezing cold to getthat right. The moon and it's shadow looks brilliant in this picture i feel. One of the best pic i've taken. Also it's zoomed view below.