I went to Korea for the futuristic, high-tech world of Seoul, the glitz and glamour of K-Pop and K-Drama, and to see what everyone tells me is the "new Japan" - the cool-kid country of Asia. I would agree it is the new cool-kid country of Asia, but it was so much more than anything I could have imagined.
It is my absolute favourite country I have ever visited. There were so many things I fell in love with, and I've come to the conclusion that if Europe implemented my four favourite things about Korea then we would be a much better place.
1. 24-hour saunas are literally the best thing ever, and we need them (Scandinavians excused because they already have an awesome sauna culture). 'Jimjilbangs' as they are everywhere, especially in Seoul, and are often large multi-story spas offering everything from themed restaurants and hairdressers to karaoke rooms, game arcades and a PC room to play League of Legends. It may sound like a strange place to relax, but it's incredibly popular for couples, friends and families to stay overnight in a jimjilbang on the weekend (especially when it costs less than a tenner).
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| Games arcade at Dragonhill Spa |
The ground floor will have nude, gender-segregated baths such as jade, charcoal, mugwort, and massage baths at around 40c, as well as a cold bath. There was also a sauna, with a big bucket of salt in the middle you use to rub on your skin - and you normally help each other to rub salt on each other's backs where you can't reach yourself. Something a little odd, but you get used to quickly.
Next to the baths was where I made the brave decision to have an infamous 'Korean Scrub'. Lying completely naked on a plastic bed, a lady using what I can only describe as 'sandpaper mitts' will vigorously scrub almost every inch of your skin to get rid of all the dead skin. It was incredibly awkward and although not painful, certainly uncomfortable. I was skeptical of how soft it could make my skin, but it turned out to be COMPLETELY worth it and I would recommend it to anyone. I don't think I have ever felt that squeaky clean and my skin turned out as soft as a baby's bottom, as the saying goes.
When you're done in the baths, you throw on your t-shirt and shorts given by the sauna and head on upstairs to the mixed areas. As well as singing karaoke or watching some Korean drama on TV, there are more clothed, mixed-gender treatment rooms available - including ice, oxygen, charcoal, jade, yellow soil and salt rooms. The latter being my favourite, where you get to bury yourself in layers of hot salt crystals. When you're done for the night, you can either crash out in the large common areas, or head to the sleeping rooms, where you can conk out in one of the many bunk beds.
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| The salt room at Siloam Spa |
The most popular snacks from the restaurant I found to be surprising good - Sikhye, a sweet icy drink with grains of rice floating in it, and tea-boiled eggs with a sprinkling of salt. No idea why one is black, but it was good so can't complain.
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| Sauna snacks |
NB - I'm hoping this blog has reached a wealthy investor in Britain by now, and I will come home to a chain of jimjilbangs around the country ready and waiting for me to enjoy....don't tell me you don't want jimjilbangs Europe, I won't believe you.
2. Talking to strangers is not a bad thing (Londoners, I'm looking at you). I never once felt alone or shunned by the Koreans during my trip. My favourite experience was probably when I got adopted by a family in Seoraksan National Park, when they saw I was alone and let me join their hike, and insisted on feeding me a lunch of ramen and homemade kimchi at the top of the mountain. Old ladies gave me sweets when I rested at the mountain viewpoints, everybody greeted me, and people were always offering to take photos for me. In Busan, I had a shop owner come out and join me as I rested to look at my map. After explaining that the UK was "England" and not short for Ukraine, we ended up having a broken conversation about how he thought countries like Scotland and the rest of the UK, or North and South Korea were better off together and his hopes for the future of Korea.
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| My adoptive hiking family |
Even on the metro in Seoul (population: over 9 million), I had somebody sitting next to me who started up a conversation in very broken english just to try and chat, even if we had to resort to google translate to understand each other. I have never felt so welcomed in a country before, and to top that - I never once had any unwanted attention, nor was I ever hassled or ripped off.
So dear Londoners, I implore you to reach out and use your GCSE French and German to chat to a tourist instead of fiddling with your phone on the tube. Go forth and make a tourist's day.
3. The food can be spicy and difficult to eat with their flat chopsticks, but is above all else, fun. Admittedly I knew little about Korean food when I arrived, and was surprised when I ordered ice-cold noodles in a spicy sauce, to have my dish presented with a pair of large scissors to cut the really-really long noodles tightly wrapped together. The only difficulty is sitting cross-legged on the floor for the whole meal.
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| Traditional Korean restaurant in the lively Hongik Uni area |
Next, I moved onto a new favourite dish - bibimbap. A large, sizzling-hot stone pot filled with rice, veggies, a spicy sauce and an egg in the middle is brought to your table for you to 'cook' and quickly stir around before the rice sticks and burns to the bottom. When you can finally start eating, it's fantastic. Here's to hoping Korean the next big food thing back in Blighty.
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| A delicious £3.50 bibimbap with all it's side dishes |
4. Making mountains. Ok, this isn't something we could necessarily learn, but I had to find a way of squeezing in how beautiful Seoraksan National Park is - it was the highlight of my trip. I don't know where to begin - the crystal clear waterfalls, colourfully painted buddhist temples, the sharp craggy mountains, or the amber forests of Autumn. It was all so beautiful, and it is one of those places where photos can never do it justice - but it's the closest you're going to get. Unless you listen to my succinct advice and get on the next plane to Seoul.
Too many beautiful pictures to choose from:
And the 1 thing we shouldn't learn from Korea?
Beauty standards. The western world has got nothing on Korea. Within a day of visiting Seoul, you instantly pick up that this is a glamorous city, a city to be beautiful and fashionable in. It's only when you discover statistics like a reported 20% of women in Seoul age 19-49 have had cosmetic surgery that you see the darker side of Korea's beauty. Then it's everywhere - there are surgery clinics on every block (even opposite the late-night bars in Gangnam!) and if you can't see one, then there will be an advert somewhere telling you how you could be even more beautiful.
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| Surprise! You had plastic surgery. |
Vanity comes with this too, and it was normal for the only sound on a train to be the shutter sound from a phone, or to see a woman standing on a busy shopping street, or the centre of a metro station with her hand held high in selfie-pride as she undergoes her own photoshoot. And don't think that they would rather somebody take a photo of them and their friends instead, they will politely decline and choose the selfie-stick above a real person. For me, the vanity and beauty standards is something I really hope Europe doesn't learn.
