Driving into central Seoul from the airport, I heard a pop song being belted out on the road beside us. One of those famous K-pop bands? No. One of the political candidates for the election. There are eight candidates and each one writes and sings a song about their policies and performs it with backing singers and dancers. This was a revelation. Koreans know how to make everything fun. I think if Keir Starmer or Kemi Badenoch had to perform a tightly choreographed routine and find rhymes for their policies (Starmer: “I’m just a guy who believes in Rachel Reeves”), we could really begin to sort out what was best for our country. This was only the first of many surprises that South Korea had to offer.
I was there to tour the country by train using the expanded KTX line, which as of this year travels the length of the east coast. KTX (Korea Train Express) is South Korea’s high-speed rail system, much like Japan’s bullet trains, and travels alongside stunning beaches for much of the journey.
Starting in Seoul, I was shown round the capital by Meggie Yu, an American. She had been a political science student in North Carolina and after taking a class in democratisation in east Asia fell so in love with what she believes to be the purest form of democracy in the world, that she immediately wanted to live there. She switched her studies to Korea University and never looked back. That was 12 years ago.
Georgia’s adventure began in the country’s capital, Seoul
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South Korea is a country brimming with history. Literally. In many places it is illegal to dig, because the earth is so full of 5th, 6th and 7th-century artefacts. There are fastidiously kept records of the daily life of the kings since the 1300s, which tell a fascinating story. Called the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, they started in 1392 and are extremely detailed records of everything from the state of the government, the King’s decisions and directives, diplomatic and military relations, ceremonies, astronomical observations, weather, natural disasters, laws, and civilian trends, to all the stuff we really want to know, such as how often he pooped. They kept these records until 1910 — except there is a 15-day gap during the reign of King Gwanghae in the early 1600s where all that is written is “secrets should not be recorded”. What happened? I feel a Netflix series coming on.
Trying strange and delicious food
After walking down the tree-lined Cheonggyecheon River and snacking on a delicious treat called salt bread from one of the many bakeries, Yu gave us some options for lunch. There was a famous place that was excellent for pork and also a place that was excellent for hot pot. Yu and my partner wanted pork, but I insisted we should have hot pot. My understanding of democracy is perhaps not as good as that of the Koreans’. However, in my defence, the hot pot was sensational. Damsot is on Supyo-ro 28-gil in the Ikseon-dong Hanok village area, where tiny alleyways teem with shops and other delicious food spots (you’ll be hearing the word “delicious” a lot). For dessert, we went a few doors down to another café, Oyatt Kkot, and had a dessert that is taking South Korea by storm called mango bingsu. You can get other flavours but this is considered the best — a heavenly concoction of shaved ice, fruit and condensed milk. Incredible.
Georgia, right, with her partner enjoying a Korean spread
Amazing cultural sites
We walked past one of several outdoor libraries, set up in parks, where you can lounge around on bean bags or in tents and read books while listening to music. In all the time these have been running, not a single book has gone missing. South Korea is very safe.
After lunch we went to the excellent Museum of History and Yu told us about how the Korean people have always kept their governments in check. One man, Jeon Tae-il, stood on a bridge to protest about workers’ rights in 1970 shouting “We are not machines!” and “Let us rest on Sundays!” before setting himself on fire. In recent years the people have kept their leaders in check with well-organised and highly effective protests. Democracy is precious to them and worth fighting for.
Next we went to an area of traditional 19th and 20th-century Hanok housing winding up a hill — this style of temple-like architecture dates to the 14th century. Here, Bukchon Hanok Village has been turned into spaces for artists to practise traditional Korean crafts and we were offered the chance to decorate a music box or a hand mirror, choosing to make bracelets instead.
The narrow alleyways of Ikseon-dong Hanok village area
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We returned to the Ryse Autograph hotel via some photo-booth shops (they are everywhere) and claw-machine shops. I got a bit addicted and spent £27 trying and failing to win a a small squashed cat plushie carrying a handbag saying “You’ll be fine”, which is the kind of underpowered motivational thinking I like. We cheered ourselves up with the most delicious ramen I have ever eaten, at Oreno Ramen in Mapo-gu.
At the end of the day, Yu was still raring to go and offering to take us to all kinds of places but I screamed “We are not machines” and “Let us rest” and she got the message. I was really getting the hang of democracy.
To Gangneung by train
The next day we travelled by ourselves on the KTX train to Gangneung (two hours east). The train is quiet, luxurious and extremely fast, and the scenery as you glide between the mountains and the sea is beautiful. Gangneung’s station is right on the coast, surrounded by sandy beaches, and nearby is Sunrise Park, the perfect place to watch the sun come up over the ocean.
We headed up into the hills with a new guide, Seungik Lee, to Ojukheon, a house built in the 1400s and the home of one of Korea’s greatest Confucian scholars and poets. The guide then announced we were going to have lunch on Tofu Street where every restaurant served only tofu. This is the kind of sentence uttered to me in my nightmares and the less said about it the better, because neither I nor the tofu come out of it looking good. For coffee connoisseurs, there is also a Coffee Street but actually almost every street in South Korea is coffee street so caffeine addicts are well catered for.
We went to Arte, a mesmerising digital art museum where you can immerse yourself in waterfalls, jungles, waves and stars, and we stayed in a hotel on the beach, which had a vending machine for everything, from flip-flops and underwear to bouquets of flowers, even for gold bars.
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Another heavenly train ride (3 hours 25 minutes) took us south to Gyeongju, one of the country’s most important historic cities (and once the capital). There are 150 tombs from the Silla period (57BC to AD935) there — grass mounds containing the bodies of kings, and often their wives and horses, or sometimes just their horses — along with 25,000 to 50,000 artefacts in each tomb. The Koreans are admirably restrained and have excavated only a handful of these tombs, preferring to leave the rest intact.
Locals dressed in Hanbok outside a tomb in Gyeongju
AMELIA BRAYSHAW
Our guide Yeri Lee took us up to the top of Mount Toham to Bulguksa Temple, which is set in lovely shaded woods. The temple, originally built in 528, is a masterpiece of the golden age of Buddhist art and is a Unesco world heritage site.
Chipmunk mysteries
As we walked back down the mountain through the trees, I spotted several strange covered circular objects — were they places to make an offering, or a donation? No. They were bins. In fact, they were the answer to a recent mystery that had surrounded the temple. A dozen or more chipmunks were found lying unconscious in the grounds, stricken by some invisible force. They could not be woken from their slumber, so a vet took them to chipmunk hospital where they ran a series of tests and discovered they were all in diabetic comas. It seems they had been stealing the ice creams and sweet snacks that people had left in the bins (which are now covered). The chipmunks are still in hospital but will be out soon, though they may be a little outraged about some of the changes that have happened in their absence. Perhaps a protest is in order?
The Haedong Yonggungsa Temple in Busan
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That evening we walked down the wonderful Hwangnidan Street, full of appealing cafés and restaurants. We sampled bungeoppang (fish-shaped bread filled with red bean paste), hotteok (a syrup-filled pancake), shipwonbbang (cheese-filled bread shaped like a ten-won coin), gyeranbbang (sweet and salty, moist bread with egg baked inside) and dalgona (a honeycomb toffee made of melted sugar and baking soda, as featured on Squid Game). I felt myself coming over a bit chipmunky and had to go and lie down. Luckily we were staying in a traditional Korean Hanok-style hotel, called Heritage Yuwa, which had rooms surrounding peaceful gardens that were wonderfully relaxing.
To Busan in the south
A 34-minute ride on the KTX took us to Busan in the southeast corner of the country. There are stunning beaches here and we visited the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple on the water’s edge, wandering round the grounds, listening to monks chanting and watching the waves crash against the rocks.
After this, we made our way to some of the famous fish markets of Busan — Jagalchi market and Gukje market. There are some pretty terrifying creatures here — penis fish (also known as fat innkeeper worm), anyone? You can eat live octopus if you want, but I was warned to chew quickly as the suckers on the tentacles could really grip hard. I declined as that sounded less like a meal and more like a fight — one I wasn’t sure I’d win.
Later we visited the rather more refined Shinsegae Centum City, the biggest department store in the world. It has a food hall I would like to live in permanently, and something called Spa Land, which I was told was “a must”.
A fish stall at Jagalchi market
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Normal healthy people with normal healthy attitudes towards the human body will find the sight of dozens of naked women of all different shapes, ages and sizes wandering around without shame or embarrassment rather moving and inspiring. But I’m British and repressed so I felt horrified.
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Trying brutal spa treatments
Having watched me flit with speed in a sort of crouched sprint between a few of the different thermal pools, my partner suggested I would be happier in a small room off to the side. I scuttled in to find it was designed like a pink morgue. Five pink slabs with four naked women on them. “Lie down, lady!” barked a very grumpy old woman, wearing a bra and some kind of frilled mini skirt. I really didn’t want to but I didn’t want to anger the woman. So I lay down. She proceeded to scrub me to within an inch of my life. Occasionally she would interrupt proceedings to bark “On your face, lady” or “Move, lady”, or she would throw a bucket of water over me when I was least expecting it. She scrubbed nooks I didn’t know I had and crannies that had never seen the light of day before. I would have confessed to any crime to make it stop. But just as I was thinking I would die there, the magical words “Leave, lady” were barked in my ear. I staggered out of the spa to discover I was now significantly smaller. Clearly I had been a pile of walking dead skin before. Now I was tiny, pink and very shiny.
The rest of the day passed in something of a blur with occasional PTSD flashbacks if I heard the word “lady”. Only an enormous mango bingsu eventually helped to settle my nerves.
A local placing an order in a food hall
AMELIA BRAYSHAW
Another food tour
On my final day, I was taken on a food tour by Chris Tharp of Inside Asia. Chris is another American who visited South Korea and never went back, arriving 30 years ago and falling in love with the food and the lifestyle. He took me to the Mipo area of Haeundae in Busan for lunch. Well, actually we had two lunches. And then a dessert. The first was at Big Mackerel in Busan where we had, yes, a big mackerel as well as spicy pork, kelp soup and an enormous array of delicious sides and salads. All for about £16. An amount you can spend on a claw machine in no time at all. The mackerel was cooked to perfection and the pork was tangy and rich. I am pretty good with chopsticks but the Koreans eat their rice with a spoon, which makes it easier for greedy impatient people like me.
Our second lunch was Bong Janae Silbi Jib in the Haeundae Traditional Market, where Chris suggested we try something a little more adventurous. I agreed. I wanted to impress him with my culinary daring. Did I like fish, he asked. Yes. Did I like fermented fish? Maybe. Did I like fish fermented in its own urine? Possibly not.
The colourful Gamcheon village near Mipo
AMELIA BRAYSHAW
We rolled out of the second lunch and though I failed to impress Chris with my daring, I did manage to impress him with my greed, by insisting we stop to pick up a few hotteok on the way back. My inner chipmunk still wanted more.
I don’t know if it’s possible to go to a country with no expectations and then have all your expectations defied, but I feel as though that’s what happened.
South Korea is one of the most surprising, fun, beautiful and exciting countries I have been to. The people are relaxed and friendly, the coast, mountains and forests are stunning, the cities are buzzing and the food is, well, delicious. I feel as though the most appropriate way to express my feelings would be in the form of a song or dance. I just need to find some singers, some dancers and something that rhymes with chipmunk.
Georgia Pritchett was a guest of Inside Asia, which has 12 nights’ B&B from £3,005pp, including transport, guiding and cultural experiences (insideasiatours.com), and of Visit Korea (english.visitkorea.or.kr). Fly to Seoul