Seoul, South Korea
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Tue 8 Apr 2025 06:40
Back in February 2023 we came across another yacht made by the same shipbuilder as Casamara, Discovery Yachts of Southampton. ‘Berlinetta’ is a Discovery 58 and she arrived in St Lucia at about the time we were preparing to leave to cross the Pacific. Unusually, she was flying the Korean flag. You don’t see many Korean flagged boats on the ocean! Berlinetta’s owner/captain was Mr Sung. He and his colleague, Mr Kim, had flown to the UK, bought Berlinetta and, after only a couple of days training, had sailed across the Atlantic from the UK to the Caribbean direct. Berlinetta was joined in St Lucia by Mr Sung’s wife Miky and we enjoyed some great times with the three of them sailing across the Pacific as far as Fiji. From there they sailed Berlinetta to Korea where she would be a bit of a novelty. There are very few private yachts in Korea, and even fewer large ocean-going ones. That’s a roundabout way of explaining why we included Seoul in the itinerary for our Asian land travels. We were keen to see Mr Sung and Miky in their home country. Sadly Miky was unwell and Mr Kim elsewhere so we didn’t see them, but we had a lovely day catching up with Mr Sung. With Mr Sung at the top of Seoul Tower Seoul is home to 10 million people and covers an area of 240 square miles, so it is huge, but the downtown area was small enough to walk everywhere and we took a taxi over to the Gangnam district to see a bit more of the city. It’s a high-tech and highly organised place with the most amazing giant animated billboards on the sides of the buildings. Pedestrian crossings have red or green lights built into the pavements as well as the usual ‘green man’ lights. No-one crosses the red light line even when the road is clear! Seoul is also a mix of ancient and modern with grand palaces, old city gates, narrow trading streets and historic village areas nestled amongst the skyscrapers.  Cheonggyecheon Stream - a tranquil pedestrian area running through the heart of Seoul city  Gangnam district - The Gangnam style dance includes hands held like this. We visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was originally constructed in 1395. I say originally because it was burned down during a Japanese invasion in 1592, rebuilt and demolished again during Japanese occupation 1910-1945. A restoration project is under way and about 90 buildings have been reconstructed to date, with more to come. We had an interesting debate about whether it’s better to preserve ruins or restore historic buildings. With so much of the palace’s construction being wooden, restoration was probably the only option here and it works well. Entry fees are waived for people who arrived in traditional costume, known as hanbok, and it’s a popular photo opportunity. The combination of spring sunshine, cherry blossom, colourful hanbok and beautiful buildings was spectacular.  John with a guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace  Two ladies wearing hanbok  Inside the palace the cherry blossom was just starting to open Korean mobile phones are programmed to receive emergency alerts and public announcements. The Korean e-sims we bought for our iPhones had the feature enabled too, so as soon as we were in Korea we started to receive alerts about wild fires in the south of the country and about protests that were happening around the Seoul law courts where the President’s impeachment trial was taking place. On the one hand this is a great feature, but on the other hand the alerts were frequent and a bit irritating. We also started to notice how many video surveillance cameras there are. However, it wasn’t until we visited the DMZ (de-militarised zone) between North and South Korea and our guide started to talk about the best (deepest) subway stations to aim for should there be an alert about imminent attack from North Korea that we realised how important that alert system might be. The DMZ was an odd place, part military area and part tourist theme park. Somehow it felt a bit inappropriate to be there, but also necessary as a reminder of how political dogma can impact on human life. We were shocked to learn that North Korea was once the more prosperous country but that after 50 years of division South Korean’s economy is now 60 times that of North Korea. It was also sad to learn about Korean families split by the division of the country after WWII; reminiscent of East/West Berlin, but with no signs of reunification any time soon.  The ‘freedom bridge’ at Imjingak Park in the DMZ. So called because South Korean prisoners released from captivity in North Korea came across the bridge chanting ‘freedom!’ South Korea is a popular destination for beauty tourism and we were amazed, not just by the variety of treatments on offer, but also the volume of sales. Korean ladies are very protective of their facial skin and use masks, big floppy hats or umbrellas in the sunshine. ‘Glass skin’ is the aim - a very clear, pale and unblemished complexion. I’m afraid that after several years on the boat in the tropical sunshine John and I don’t have much hope of achieving that! I did avail myself of the great optical offers though, and bought two pairs of prescription reading glasses at £30 a pair and ready the same day. Seoul was a fascinating introduction to South Korea in so many ways and our time there passed all too quickly, but after a week it was time to move on. Next stop Japan. |