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Jul - Sep 2002: This is a continuation of my China trip, but includes travels to other countries in Asia.

Southeast Asia, month 3

Jennifer Radcliffe
2005-11-12 11:00:20

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at 8am on the 18th! We pass the international date line when we cross the Pacific.

Layover in South Korea

I only have about three hours to spend in Seoul, and it takes an hour to get from the airport to the city, and another hour back. That leaves an hour to actually explore, but I'm glad to have the chance! It's kind of like a freebie - a sampler, a little taste. I can't say I would have made a special trip to South Korea before seeing it, but now I know I'd like to come back.

Seoul is completely different than I thought it would be. I don't know what I thought of it really, but I heard some not-so-good things about it so I think I viewed it as some sort of cultural backwater or a wasteland. I'm surprised and pleased to find that my perception is completely off the mark - Seoul is a clean, modern, pretty city, and it's entirely likeable. Seoul is the capital city of South Korea, and it's so modern because everything was destroyed in the Korean war and had to be rebuilt.

I arrived at around 6am and the streets were fairly quiet, but the few people who were out were certainly friendly. People smile and nod, and one old man even stepped into my path as I rushed down the stairs, brought me to a halt, and with a big smile, proudly blurted out "hi!", as if he had just mastered the entire English language and was dying to share it with someone. I laughed because I know that feeling - I feel proud when I let a "nihao" or a "tre mikasi" slip out unselfconsciously. It takes some courage to walk up to a foreigner and speak their language to them, when it rolls off your own tongue clumsily.

One aspect of Asian culture that I find interesting is the popularity of cartoons and how prevalent cartoon characters are. Seoul strikes me as having a cartoony quality in some ways - the signs of buildings are bright and colorful, and have bubbles and other cute things on them. The signs provide an interesting contrast to the soberness of the highrise buildings around them.

Later, in a noodle shop at the airport, I looked up from busily capturing my squirming noodles with chopsticks and noticed everyone had an eye on me. Koreans seem to be especially interested in foreigners, from what I can tell. No one was even paying attention to guy sitting in the corner who was making annoying slurping sounds with his mouth, while he wasn't even eating or drinking anything. All eyes were on me. I think this aspect of traveling in Asia is the most unexpected for travelers. Westerners stand out because Asian countries are remarkably ethnically homogenous. In America we would never dream of approaching a girl who looks Japanese and asking her where she's from - for all we know, she was probably born in Cleveland! But as a westerner traveling in Asia I constantly get bombarded with the knowledge that I am different, other. "Where you from?" is a common prelude to conversation, inevitably followed by "are you student?".

I also had a layover in Tokyo but it was only for an hour, so I didn't get the chance to venture out. Next stop, Los Angeles!