X-mas at the Kimchiland

The winner of the X-mas destination lottery was South Korea. It was said to be an easy destination, developed country with no extra hassle and direct flights from Helsinki to Seoul. It's also in the northern hemisphere with cold weather at winter time, so the mental disorientation from Finnish weather wouldn't be too dramatic. The plan was to stay there 9 nights and visit Seoul, a mystery destination and a local ski resort. Mystery destination was later reveiled to be Jeonju, an average sized (600-700,000 citizens) city with a historical Hanok -village as the key attraction. 

Our first accommodation in Seoul was Itaewonland Spa-Hotel. First it seemed like a normal cheap hotel, but soon we discovered it was a home for some type of Korean cult. We noticed it, when we were given mandatory house-pyjamas to wear. They also had sophisticated surveillance system, where guests were enforced to lock their shoes in a locker everytime they entered the facility. Without shoes, there is no chance to escape.

Next to the hotel was a nice alley to do a nightly stroll. The place was called "Hooker Hill" and it had a lot of friendly women with not enough clothes for the winter weather. 

When you go clubbin' in cold countries, you'll see how differently cloakroom can be organized. In this case, it was time to squeeze clothes in a bag. Many times a small locker was also implemented. I prefer the bag, it's funnier and more practical. 

Synchronized pass outs by couples are quite rare in my experience, so we were lucky to witness it in the nightlife of Itaewon.

If I'd have to name one constant, that never changes no matter where you travel, it's a nice cold beer.

You pay approximately 17,500 wons per person to get to the N Seoul Tower’s observation deck and once you’re there you can’t actually take decent pictures without getting the reflection of the glass in every photo. A solution for this is to buy brutally photoshopped picture with totally fictive surroundings. At least there is the N Seoul Tower at the picture.

Korea has a lot of this temple and pagoda stuff all around the country. I guess visiting these buildings is more or less comparable to visiting churches while you're travelling in Finland. Very nice attractions.

One of the best attractions in Seoul was these stones in the middle of this river. Supposed to be romantic or something.  

 

A typical photo of taking a photo of taking a photo. This one in a street in Jeonju's historical Hanok-village.

 Amazing cauliflower plantation in the middle of the winter in Jeonju. Korea having obviously a highly developed society, it's refreshing to see there also some horticultural intelligence as a balancing factor.
 

Eating traditional Bibimpap in an authentic Korean restaurant in Jeonju. Bibimpap is a revolutionary Korean invention, that ravishes the laws of thermodynamics. Instead of the food the plate is warmed up to over +100 C.

 

One of the most time consuming tasks in travelling is map reading. Especially in a country like Korea, were navigating tends to be rather hard. Here is a pic as an example on how to do it properly.

 

In South Korea you’ll witness some top class infrastructural achievements. This magnificent concrete masterpiece was on the way from Jeonju to Muju in central part of the country.

We spent X-mas eve at Muju Ski Resort. There we witnessed one the most absurd X-mas eve celebrations ever. Apparently Korean X-mas traditions include a short K-Pop performance and a neverending rock-paper-scissor –contest.

Hotel Tirol was the luxorious jewel of Muju Ski Resort. It had the most expensive cars in the parking lot and the best service. Still the staff spoke english only few words. Actually, the most of Korean people can't speak, but only giggle and get confused in english. 

 

Muju Ski Resort is Korea's largest ski resort with over 10 slopes and one of them over 6 km long. The top of the resort lies in over 1,500 meters above see level. 

 

Sign says it all, and more. This jibber-jabber was spotted back in Seoul.

 

Few words about Korean cuisine. It’s not for the faint hearted. I don’t know if it was our luck or what, but Korean kitchen really left a mark. First of all, Kimchi, a rotten cabbage in a hot sauce, is basically the main ingredient in every meal. It’s designed for alienating people from vegetarianism. Second of all, pork with rice in a chili-inferno, is an innocent looking dish, but when you put it in your mouth it ignites and turns you into a drooling burn victim.

The only reason we visited Seoul's Gangnam neighbourhood was to get a picture in front of a Gangnam Style -sign. Check!

Sanitation is a serious issue in Korea. An example of this is a high-tech control panel next to the toilet seat. Common sight in Korea (and Japan as well) and surely a necessity for a lot of people.

There are basically two types of people travelling in Seoul's subway lines: hardcore mobile gamers and people with narcolepsy.

I present this urban photography excellence to remind my readers, that Seoul is a huge metropol with over 10 million people. This means, that everywhere you go, you'll face an army of Asian people marching in an orderly fashion. When navigating in Seoul forget about city maps, you'll never find big enough map for the whole city to fit in it. The most important map you need is the subway map and if you loose the sight of the nearest subway station while strolling in the city, you're in trouble. Almost none speak english, street signage is too difficult to comprehend and every little street looks the same. Good luck!  

The last attraction of the trip was respectively the Lotte World. It's said to be the largest indoor amusement park in the world. I don't know about that, but it certainly was one of the most deranged amusement parks in the world.

Accommodation was problematic due to few discomforting reasons. One of them was excessive floor heating, which in some cases was fixed in an unhumane temperature. Other reason was, that you’d have to sleep in the heated floor. Third reason was, that you’d have no blanket, because the blanket had to be placed under you as a mattress.

I took this picture to show to my readers, that our X-mas journey wasn't all just about fun and games. The picture is a symbolic reminder, how the rest of the world backs Korean people up to peacefully reunify the two Korean nations.