Sunday, September 09, 2007

Seoul




Juan and I went to Seoul a few weeks ago for a long weekend. Why Seoul? It's only a 2 hour flight, they have special weekend hotel rates, and, eh, why not? Some friends here tried to dissuade us -- "It's Tokyo's dull cousin." and "The only good thing there is the airport." I wouldn't listen.

Wow. What a dull place.

Some excellent restaurants, but mainly just a banal urban monotony punctuated by unfortunate attempts at contemporary architecture (at least the modern architecture in China is spectacularly bad -- kitsch is always better than bland.)

Upside: Korean BBQ, the Krispy Creme near the Lotte Hotel, good public transit.

Downside: Everything else. The drive from the airport lasts longer than The Exodus. Also the DMZ tour doesn't happen on Sunday so we didn't get a chance to see the only interesting bit.
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1 Comments:

At 1:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I visited the DMZ from the North--on a Sunday, coincidentally. I was with expats living in Seoul, who had visited the DMZ from the South. They said the South Koreans tell tourists that South Korean soldiers stand guard 24/7 at Panmunjon, staring eye to eye with the North Korean guards. Turns out the South Korean soldiers aren't there on Sundays, when there are no tourists from the South.

 

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