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As a tourist one is not easily upset in South Korea, “the Land of Morning Calm”. Except when you walk into a café to find an abandoned mobile phone, laptop or jacket on the table you would like to sit at.
(This is how South Koreans indicate: This is my table; I have gone to order food, or to wander through the shops.)
If it were not for one’s child working on this southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, in a country that can fit into South Africa 12 times over, a first-hand experience of this efficient country might never have happened.
In addition, South Korea is largely covered under a blanket of snow in December. Getting on the plane in a South African summer and disembarking after about 19 hours in the air (and after one layover) in a South Korean winter holds its own little challenges.
Regardless of the 52 million inhabitants fitting into this country slightly smaller than the North West and slightly larger than KwaZulu-Natal (compared to South Africa’s total population of almost 60 million), you do not have to rub shoulders or grind your teeth.
South Koreans, it seems, live subdued; from the volume of their voices, their favourite colours (gray and black), to their body sizes, which can rarely be described as chubby and very seldom obese.
They do not invade your personal space; do not litter; keep schedules on track; and assume that everyone is as honest as they are.
Say Samsung, say South Korea
On day two in the enormous capital Seoul (with its pronunciation being closer to “Soul” than “See-ool”, and its latest marketing slogan “Seoul, my Soul”), one realises that even the streets are quieter despite the never-ending stream of buses, sedan vehicles, and scooters.
This is due to the substantial number of electric vehicles, including buses, that are used in this technologically advanced country.
Since the 1960s, marked economic development has taken place in South Korea. The country continues to rise, regardless of the annexation by Japan (1910-1945), which was followed by the three-year war between North and South Korea (1950-1953).
After the Korean War, according to the international Centre for Economics and Business Research, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. In 1953 it was worse off than Somalia and Haiti, which are still among the poorest.
According to numerous sources, including forbesindia.com, South Korea today operates the 13th largest economy in the world. Its largest industries include electronics, as well as vehicle and ship building, with the products exported to 58 countries.
Samsung, Kia, Hyundai and LG Electronics are four of South Korea’s well-known brand names, also available in South Africa.
Archive photos of South Korea in the 1960s are in stark contrast with the skyscrapers, highways, gigantic shopping and business centres with colorful lighting at night, city parks with extensive walking trails and thousands of agricultural tunnels that fill the mountainous country.
Speak softly, go far
As part of a courtesy custom in South Korea, one refrains from speaking loudly, or at all, on a bus or train. On the KTX express train that runs between Seoul Station and the Incheon International Airport, an announcement specifically states: “Please refrain from talking” – this includes talking on a mobile phone.
Just as unusual are the honesty shops that are open and unmanned 24 hours a day. You select, scan, and pay for your shopping with no supervision.
Also, it is common to find a container with banknotes in the fridge of the communal kitchen of a guesthouse. After determining the price of the item from the list against the fridge door, you place your money in the container and count out your own change.
Furthermore, couriers deliver parcels and leave these at the locked doors of businesses at night; or in front of apartment doors during the day – even though no one will be home to receive it until several hours later, after work.
Charging points, where mobile phones are left unattended, are common at train stations, airports and in shopping centres or restaurants.
Grab a (hot) sweet potato
On a “fresh” morning with an outside temperature of -11 °C, our exploration begins in a part of Seoul, at the Donhwamun Gate that provides access to the Changdeokgung Palace and grounds. The gate was originally built in 1412 and has been sporadically damaged and rebuilt over the centuries.
After an hour or three of gasping and gaping at building styles, artistic woodwork, decor, and efficient simplicity – and because time is running out – we head out onto the street.
Cold and hunger are gnawing, and every coffee house – or café, as it is known here – seems inviting. One soon agrees with the notion that you will find a café every 50 m in Seoul.
In a café, apart from the cosiness and curiosity about the menu, the other overwhelming feeling is: It is hot in here! Off with the jacket, away with the scarf. It is common for indoor spaces to be heated to 30 °C in winter.
On the other side of the window, gloved people in puffy coats walk on snow-white sidewalks while exhaling cold clouds.
Replenished (and heated) we walk further up the street; just to occasionally wander down a side street; or quietly speculate why there are street blocks lined with only jewelry shops shoulder to shoulder; or hardware stores; or Korean barbecue restaurants.
“Welcome to Korea!” an elderly man greets us from next to a shelf of pipe clamps and other plumbing supplies. This shelf is covered with a tarpaulin at night, and not behind lock and bolt.
Should you still want to eat something, buy a hot, baked sweet potato. This popular treat is baked in small ovens that are set up all along the sidewalks.
This street ends at Namsangol Hanok Village, where a few more hours are spent. Amongst other attractions here, the Seoul Millennium Time Capsule contains 600 items that were considered to have best represented Seoul when sealed up during its 600th anniversary celebrations in 1994. If all goes as planned, the time capsule will be opened on 29 November 2394 during Seoul’s 1 000th anniversary.
By late afternoon, while walking back, we realise that an entire day was spent in a single street and that we barely walked more than 5 km. The realisation that this street and the nearby historical landmarks still hold a lot to discover, continues to gnaw.
About Harry Potter, 50 cats, and wriggling eels
Think of any theme, and it is probably used in a trendy, cute or unique café.
Upon entering the Greem Café, you seemingly step into a black and white cartoon. In the Aqua Garden Café, fish swim around you in the aquarium-like walls while you sip on your flavoured coffee (hot or with ice, like all drinks on the menus). In the Thanks Nature Café you share the space with two (living) white, woolly sheep.
In the Cat’s Playground you enjoy your refreshments in the presence of more than 50 cats, whom you can pamper. At the Dog Café you can mingle with the café dogs or take your own dressed-up dog in a brand-name handbag (a popular combination of two “fashion items”).
The Harry Potter Café needs no further elaboration, neither does Hello Kitty nor the Poop Café, where pastries and decor reflect the theme.
A visit to a tea house offers a distinct experience, as well as the more traditional pastries.
However, no-one can survive on perfectly baked pastries alone.
Visit a Korean barbecue restaurant where the meat is cooked right in front of you; served with amongst others kimchi (fermented, flavoured cabbage), mushrooms, traditional noodles, flavoured rice, and bowls full of pickled seaweed, radishes and peppers. Tackle these delights with chopsticks.
When a restaurant staff member lifts the seat of your chair as you walk in and points to the open drum underneath it – a space that resembles a black trash bin – rest assured that it is not what it looks like. This is to store your coat, jacket, scarf or handbag and protect it against splatters from the barbecue. After that you also receive a bib long enough to reach your lap.
Do you have a desire to delve deeper into South Korean cuisine? Then stroll through one of the many street food markets where you can find the most delicious and the most “challenging” offerings, such as fresh strawberries on a stick, covered in a hard layer of sugar syrup, or wriggling eels and swimming octopuses that are cooked before your eyes.
Should you only have enough energy left to prepare something quick and easy at your place of stay, visit a GS25 or a Seven Eleven store (available on every street block, no doubt) where you can buy prepared dishes and other food products.
Hanok, hanbok show culture
- Visit Hanok villages that are spread all over the country, also in cities. Hanok is an architectural style of traditional Korean houses. Some of the villages contain the original houses of years gone by, while others were later set up in a specific space to reflect the traditional way of life, and social and political history. For a visit to these villages, handbok can be rented, which is traditional Korean clothing.
- Learn more in a museum – offering a range of themes, from cultural history or art, to those with themes such as toilets, kimchi, erotica, owls, chickens, herbs, and more.
- Discover nature in urban areas, follow the extensive hiking trails in the parks, or make use of free exercise equipment under the trees.
- Join a tour group and pick strawberries grown in tunnels, which is still an option in winter. Visit adventurekorea.com or trazy.com for tours for foreigners.
- Visit a ski resort and enjoy the snow on skis or snowboard.
- Get on an express train, or a slower train, and explore the towns, other cities, and provinces of the country. Through the train window the landscapes flashing by will prove that every open piece of land is agriculturally cultivated, and new bridges, highways and skyscrapers are still under construction.
Hangul brings literacy to all
King Sejong (1397-1450) created Hangul (also Hangeul), and this Korean script is the only writing system in the world that was created with intent. This was Sejong’s successful attempt to promote literacy among all Koreans, regardless of social status.
Since 1989, Unesco has been awarding the King Sejong Literacy Prize to institutions, organisations, or individuals who actively seek to reduce illiteracy around the world.
Korean is the only official language here, with a dialect for the south and one for the north.
Other facts about South Korea:
- the general unemployment rate is 3,53% (2021);
- the youth unemployment rate (15 to 24 years) is 7,8% (2021);
- a total of 3 400 islands are part of its territory, with only 473 inhabited, as the others are too small;
- the life expectancy is 83,6 years;
- the population growth is negative, with approximately 0,78 children per woman;
- in the 19 to 34 year age group there are approximately 800 000 fewer women than men;
- in 2021, 1,3 murders per 100 000 were committed, compared to the 45 per 100 000 in South Africa;
- violence is censored on television channels; and
- the mobility of the elderly and the use of exercise equipment in parks is noteworthy.
Worth knowing
- For tourism purposes, South Africans need an electronic travel authorisation, a K-ETA. Apply online at k-eta.go.kr, pay your fee, and within a day or two the authorisation will be in your email inbox. Print it out and keep it with your passport.
- Buy a data card and data for your mobile phone at the Incheon International Airport. Free WiFi is available everywhere; but on sidewalks and other outdoor spaces, the signal can let you down, which is exactly when you want to confirm the bus schedule or “call” a taxi on an app.
- Purchase a T-money card from a Seven Eleven store and deposit money into it. With this you can use most buses, taxis, underground trains and battery-powered bicycles. Electronic kick bikes are also available for rent, for which you need an app.
- Useful apps to download are Naver Maps or Kakao Maps (Google is not that accurate here). Naver offers a search engine; and Kakao, among other things, Kakao T – for taxi services – which is more in use here than Uber. Also, Kakao T offers translations, which Uber does not.
- Use the Naver Papago app, which can help with translation during a conversation, or Hangul on packaging or information boards.
- Activate your South African debit and credit card for use in South Korea through a setting on your banking app. Card transactions are much cheaper than cash withdrawals. Do keep a few Korean Won banknotes in your wallet, though.
- Visit South Korea during its winter for snow; in the spring for blossoms; and in autumn for colourful leaves. In the summer, usually in June to August, South Korea gets its “jangma” or “long rain”. After the heavy rains, the humidity is extremely high.
- Take off your shoes before entering your room or a private house. Rather than some obscure ritual, it is merely a means of keeping the floors as clean as possible.
- When you pay for something, present your bank card or money with both hands, or with one hand under the other; it shows respect.
- Be ready to see cute pictures, characters or teddy bears in the strangest places; and couples who dress identically.
- In our case, the most affordable option for plane tickets was with Ethiopian Airlines, with a stopover at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.
- Accommodation in South Korea is easily available and affordable on numerous accommodation websites, including Airbnb. Find accommodation as close as possible to what you want to visit. Commuting takes time, although it is part of the experience.
Perhaps living in South Africa has gradually led to one’s desensitisation; where efficiency either does not exist or is very uncommon; where aesthetics are not considered; where one constantly has to watch one’s back; or where it is impossible to find one sidewalk or neighbourhood without run-over poles, broken sidewalks, piles of trash, and neglected parks and open spaces. Because when the first step aboard is taken at Incheon, the experience of artful efficiency rushes through you. Yet you feel dejected: You would have rather preferred to remain in South Korea and absorb more of its calmness.
