Tripping With Toby: Seoul Delights

October 21,2019-Seoul Delights

A representative of the Road Scholar tour company was at the lecture yesterday afternoon. Duncan, a woman in our group, spoke to her about our guide, Jinny. Today, Jinny spoke more slowly, but was still hard to understand most of the time. She’s also impatient. I asked about what looked like a memorial as we hustled past a tent with photos and an English sign, “they starved to death.” She was visibly annoyed and curtly said they were N. Koreans. We continued walking to the Museum of Contemporary History and came upon what looked like a panel discussion with an audience and media coverage. We spoke to a man who explained they agreed with the USA and S. Korea working together, but the present government did not. Pretty soon tv cameras came over. I think we’ll be on the news tonight. Jinny said that such debates should be in the legislature. The pro USA man told us she was for the other side.

We finally got to the museum and were turned loose with audio guides. Frankly, contemporary history was about the war. Most displays were of documents. We found it tedious and redundant. The museum visit was a last minute replacement for the cancelled trip to the DMZ. There was one “diorama” of our troops evacuating N. Koreans to the South in 1950. A cargo ship made 7600 trips to rescue as many families as possible.

We stopped at a lovely Buddhist temple to “chill” and take photos of the stunning and colorful mum displays. We wandered about enjoying the site, however, it was anything but tranquil. Visitors posed and accidentally photo bombed each other in the melee. Just across the street was our lunch stop. Food prepared by monks was served in artfully presented yet simple arrangements. The monks prefer bland food and that’s what we ate. Some of it was more flavorful than others. I added kim chee water to the tasteless pumpkin soup, but nothing could save the eggplant jelly.

David and I weren’t satisfied. When we were taken around the corner to a shopping-street we found an ice cream stand and indulged. Koreans make good ice cream even though cows and dairy products were late coming here. The area was a blend of gift shops and fashionable clothing stores. Still no hama (hippo).

Jinny asked us not to tell her company that she was taking us up to the “tall tower.” David corrected me and said it’s the Seoul tower. He’s right. Another example of her English-speaking ability. Tomorrow we’ll take a survey to see what others heard. Jinny said it was too dangerous for elderly travelers and they were afraid of someone falling. She then went into an explanation of how her mother-in-law broke her hip. I understood most of it. In any case, we had to climb a steep though paved incline to the mountain top. The distance wasn’t far, but a few of us were slow. Jinny got behind a couple of them and leaned on their backs in order to push them along and help support them. I thought it was dangerous and one woman said she almost fell backwards when Jinny let go without warning. When she approached David, I told her not to touch him. He was doing just fine with his hiking poles. When we finally topped the crest, the views of Seoul and the Han River were worth it.

Our lecture this afternoon was on Korean Buddhism. I learned two things. Dim sum means “to lightly touch your heart between lunch and dinner.” Also, Korean families pray for up to 100 days for their child to do well on the SAT test. The woman who spoke read us the power point word for word. Even Jinny found it tedious and uninformative. Afterwards she asked us if she should recommend the company drop that talk. We voted that they should. Worse than walking through one temple after another is seeing 68 slides of them. Yes, I counted.

We were on our own for dinner. Jinny had no specific restaurant suggestions so we winged it. Any street here has oodles of places to eat. We started walking, found a place crowded with young folks, and hoped for the best. We ended up in a simple Japanese place where the “English” menu consisted of post-it notes on the Korean language menu explaining the dishes. I had fried chicken soup and David had fried chicken. My meal was basically David’s chicken dumped in a broth. Good but salty. There was a strange but tasty sauce for the shredded cabbage and rice sides. No one had enough English to tell us what it was. No Korean food yet.

We leave Seoul tomorrow by high speed rail. It will be two hours to Gyeongju. Our luggage will take four hours to arrive since it will go by truck.

Toby