Children of mixed race or those without fathers are not easily accepted in Korean society. A year after the end of the Korean war my grandmother didn’t look back as she left South Korea with my green-eyed 6-month-old mother, on a small boat, with hundreds of other Korean immigrants looking for a better life.
That was the last time my mom was in Korea…
Her recent trip to visit us in Hong Kong prompted a side trip to Seoul, South Korea along with my grandma and husband. Three generations were about to step foot into the country she left behind over 55 years before. The question lingered…was there going to be a connection or some sort of memory of her home country on this visit?
It was to be seen.
This trip to Korea was more than just another country to check off of my list, it was personal. It was a search for my heritage, a search for a picture of all the stories my grandmother had told me of Korea…a search for where my history began.
Booking the trip to Seoul was simple. However, I was deathly afraid of the language barrier. My grandmother was only going to be with us for a few days, so we would have to figure out how to navigate the city on our own.
I had heard horror stories of how difficult it would be to communicate in Seoul because apparently nobody spoke English….
That couldn’t have been further from the truth, actually the complete opposite.
Seoul was a breeze.
Every single popular tourist site in Seoul has a “Tourist Information” center, a small office stocked with area maps, walking directions, points of interest and above all with a helpful and friendly English speaking employee willing to go out of their way to help you! I honestly couldn’t believe how easy it was to navigate through the city.
We stayed in the heart of the city, right across the street from Myeong-Dong, the famous shopping district. Myeong-Dong is about 5 blocks in length and width, easy to walk. Myeong-Dong is a shopper’s paradise where you can buy everything from cosmetics, to clothes, to kimchee, to real and fake goods. Pretty much anything you are looking for will be in this area. Street food vendors line the alleyways so save your appetite for some light snacking while on your shopping adventures!
Since we are on the subject of food… Korean food has always been a favorite cuisine of mine… bulgogi, kal-bi, man-du, bibimbap, and of course…kimchee! All of these I had grown up on by the hand of my grandma, so I was doubly excited to try Korean food in Korea!
Our first meal was at a restaurant across the street from the Westin in Myeong-Dong named: Arirang. The service and the food were outstanding. All of the ingredients were fresh and I can’t say enough about the bibimbap, probably the best I’ve ever had. That night I had my first experience with Korean local beer-Hite! It was ok, but it was more about the “experience” then anything. Our waitress cooked the bulgogi over the table grill and asked us where we were from, how did we like Korea and was pleasantly surprised how spicy we liked our food. It always tickles the locals pink when we say we want it: SPICY! Overall, a great first meal indeed!
The next day involved meeting up with our Korean cousins and grandma in Suwon, a smaller town south of Seoul. A train ride down from the Seoul Station to Suwon Station couldn’t have been easier. Even the ticket agent spoke English! It took about 30 minutes to get to Suwon by train and only a few minutes drive to our first stop, the Korean Folk Village. This folk village gives you a first hand look at what life was like just 50 years ago. Walking around the village with my grandmother and mom took my grandmother back into time… pointing out the kind of house my mom was born in just after the Korean War. How her home had had the exact same kitchen, with a dirt floor and large cast iron pot for cooking.
Walking through this village really put into perspective how quickly South Korea has advanced in just a short amount of time. You could spend about two hours walking through the Folk Village. Take some time to enjoy the local food they serve, the man-du and the potato pancake was delicious. Be sure to buy a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts and save some room in your bag for handmade Korean trinkets. A lake lined with colorful trees divides the two sides of the village giving you plenty of beautiful photo opportunities. We came during the week, so prepare yourself for hoards of children walking the grounds with you on their field trip!
The next stop in Suwon was the Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. This
“walled city” and palace was built during the reign of the Joseon Dynasty. A three-mile wall surrounds the city and at the foot of the palace is Mt. Padal, where a brisk climb to the top gives you the best views of the city. You can wonder around the top and work your way back down to the palace grounds. You can also walk the distance around the 3-mile wall which will take you another couple of hours. Your walk is surrounded by many green trees and we were even lucky enough to get to see the end of the cherry blossoms in bloom, which provided gorgeous backdrops to our photos.
If you are looking to get outside of the city of Seoul for a day, then these two sites in Suwon are highly recommended and easily accessible.
That night our cousins (who spoke no English) took us to a typical Korean restaurant. Again, assorted meats and fish were barbecued before our eyes and many little Korean side dishes accompanied. More beer was poured and even though there wasn’t any conversation between us and our cousins, the food was enough to bring us together.
Our third day was supposed to be spent at the DMZ Zone however a huge storm had rolled in that morning and we decided against it. Instead we made our way through the local neighborhoods around our hotel, zig zagging through the streets where every corner we turned was something new and exciting. What I did notice was the plethora of local coffee shops. We had never seen so many coffee shops in one city. I had always thought that most Asian cultures revered tea, but not Seoul! The “Seoulies” prefer coffee! My kind of city…!
One of my favorite parts of the day is when we arrived into the Deoksu Palace, the smallest of all the
palaces, but closest to the city center. The rain was coming down in waves, and at times it would all of a sudden get pitch black (at 2pm in the afternoon) with only the wind moving the clouds for brisk moments of light, then the heavy sheets of rain would come and the sky would brighten up again. This went on for a few hours as we worked our way through the palace. Towards the end of our meandering we ended up in a portion of the palace called Jeonggwanheon, located in the rear garden where the King often enjoyed his coffee (now I see where the love for coffee came from!). In the Jeonggwanheon there were some tables and chairs for visitors to take a load off and also our shoes off, to enjoy the sites and sounds of the passing rainstorm. We sat here for about an hour as the sky would turn black and white and the sound of the hard rain hitting the rooftops of the palace was the backdrop of our conversation.
Our fourth and final full day in Seoul was going to be busy.
Starting off at 9am on foot we left the hotel on a crisp and sunny day…the sky was clear with a slight haze and the perfect amount of chill and crispness was in the air.
First stop was Gwanghwammun Gate, the gate and pathway that leads you into the Gyeongbok Palace. We slowly made our way through the pathway and arrived just in time to witness the changing of the guards, which happens every hour on the hour. Choreographed and performed by hundreds of local volunteers all sporting traditional Korean royal garb, the changing of the guard is an event not to be missed!
I will say that one disappointment of visiting Seoul that can’t be helped, is the lack of any real “original” building. Since most of its historic sites were bombed either by the Japanese or the North Koreans, all of these sites have been rebuilt to look like the originals. They are all very beautiful, but it still just isn’t the same as visiting something that is original.
The grounds at Gyeongbok Palace were very nice; the highlights of this palace are The Rear Garden where two pavilions stand on islands in lotus ponds, the Gyeonghoe-ru and the Hyangwon-jeong. We slowly strolled through the rest of the palace grounds before heading just a short distance our next destination, Insadong.
Insadong is a long street of local art shops and galleries. This is the place you want to buy all of your artwork or gifts to take back to your loved ones that are somewhat unique. The streets are lined with food vendors selling everything from little Korean muffins to rice candies to ice cream (again trying all of these!). Come here hungry because there are tons of places to snack on, or tea shops to stop in and rest and plenty of great places to eat.
I had read of a restaurant in Insadong that was known for having the best Doenjang Bibimbap in all of Korea. It’s called Ttoetmaru. It’s located in an obscure alleyway within Insadong. You get there From Insadong Street, take the left side alley from the Doekwon Gallery alley. Look for this restaurant: 
You can either go down to the basement or up to the 2nd floor. We headed upstairs where we were basically sitting in this lady’s kitchen as she cooked for us. “Bibimbap” I said to her as I held up three fingers. She understood. Through sign language, charades and laughing she managed to show us how to eat her bibimbap. I wouldn’t say it was the best bibimbap I’ve ever had, but it was fresh and the experience of being served in her traditional Korean kitchen was priceless.
Heading to next destination was again very easy. I headed over the tourist office to get directions on
how to get to the Bukchon Hanok Village which was only a short walking distance away. Bukchon was once a village of aristocrats, its luxury tile-roofed houses called “giwas” have been preserved since the Joseon Dynasty.
We weaved our way through the village and hit all of the scenic stops on the map. In the far distance across town we could see our final destination, the North Seoul Tower sitting atop Mt. Namsan.
After a lot of walking we were ready to sit for a while. Since I was still apprehensive about hopping into a taxi and pointing to a map of our destination I found yet another Tourist Office and asked her to write down our destination for us Korean. A few minutes later were sitting in an air-conditioned taxi on our way to the Namsan Cable Car.
The Namsan Cable car will get you to the top of Namsan Mountain in just a matter of minutes. You can also choose to hike up the mountain, but we were really tired at this point so we opted for the Cable Car. They packed us into that cable car good! Standing room only, about 40 of us were pulled up to the top by one lonely cable. This is not for anyone who gets claustrophobic easily or is afraid of heights!
Amazing but hazy views of Seoul surrounded us. From the top we could see the vast city span across the horizon as far as the eye could see. We opted not to go up into the tower as I’ve read that this is overrated and overpriced. The views were just as good from the top of the mountain. We ordered a few hotdogs for snack…terrible. Probably the worst hotdogs I’ve had in my life. I’d go for the cotton candy or churros (yes…churros!) they were selling from carts. Don’t eat in any of the restaurants up there, way overpriced for terrible food.
This was our final stop in Seoul. We hung out for about an hour to take it all in and gave the city a proper goodbye.
That night, I asked my mom if she had felt a connection with Korea…and with a slight disappointment in her voice she said: Not Really… She explained that it was probably because she had left this country at 6 months old and hadn’t returned until now… I think she was expecting something. Heck, I was expecting something! In the end all she could say was that while this trip was a glimpse into her past, her cultures, traditions and values are a melting pot of what her mother brought from Korea, mixed with life growing up in the US. She was elated that she had the opportunity to come here to see the place where she was born, with her mother, who had left so many years ago to provide her with a better life.
For me, coming to Korea provided a picture of a place in my history that I can now see through my own photos and think back upon in my memories.
Even if there wasn’t a connection to her Korean heritage, or even if she feels that Seoul is not a part of her… there is no doubt that she will always be a part of Seoul.
Tuktuk!? Tuk tuk!? Tuk tuk!?
