A Crazy Week in Seoul

Mid March we flew to Seoul to meet five friends that we had lived with in Niseko. Alex had organised a large studio apartment for us all to stay in. The apartment consisted of four large double beds and one single bed, so it's fair to say that it was pretty cosy, and quickly became rather messy. However, the apartment was brand new and everything was finished to a high standard so our stay there was far more favourable than the hostel alternative. It also boasted panoramic views of Seoul city, providing a stunning backdrop to a number of silly drinking games, humorously played in both English and Japanese, and plenty of beer pong.

On our first day we visited the War Memorial Museum. The museum was outstanding, featuring multiple interactive sections, such as 4D cinemas where they showed short twenty-minute clips and documentaries.

The following day Hyeon, our Korean friend who we lived with in Niseko, took us on a walk through Seoul to visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace. The Palace was built in 1395 and served as the home to various Kings during the Joseon dynasty. It was destroyed by Japan during WW2 and has since been restored. 

After walking around the Palace in the glorious sunshine Hyeon took us to a famous chicken soup restaurant. We were a little surprised when a whole chicken arrived in a huge bowl, and were even more surprised to find that it was really delicious. 

The next day we went to a crazy theme park called Everland. Everland is home to the world's biggest wooden rollercoaster. This was an awesome ride and, as expected, very bumpy. We repeatedly went on the dodgems alongside families and their 'Rugrats'. They dodged one another and drove politely round in circles, whilst we made it our joint mission to crash into every one of them. After a long, fun-filled day we somehow found the energy to party in Gangnam that evening. 

After spending the next morning in bed recovering, we visited Seoul's dog cafe that afternoon. Think fifty dogs, all different breeds, personalities and sizes, some lounging about and others running around playing, whilst you try not to spill your cup of coffee amongst the chaos. It was great fun. 

On Wednesday we embarked on our much-awaited tour of the demilitarised zone, the DMZ. Despite numerous tours visiting the DMZ daily, the time spent at each stop is very restricted, ranging between 10- 40 minutes only. Our first stop was the Dorasan station. This station once operated between Seoul in the South and Pyeongyang in the North. Today it still operates, primarily for tourists, yet only goes back and fourth to Seoul. 

Next we visited a lookout point; on a clear day it is possible to see both South Korean and North Korean flags sitting either sides of the border and also to see a statue of Kim-Il Sung.  Unfortunately it was a fairly cloudy day, yet through binoculars it was still possible to make out the opposing flags in the distance and to note that North Korea have made theirs considerably taller. 

Our third stop was a visit to the 3rd Tunnel. The 3rd Tunnel was discovered in 1978 by South Korea forces and is located 52km from Seoul. When the Tunnel was discovered North Korea claimed that it was made by the South to invade the North. However tests proved that the explosions used to create the tunnel face southwards, hence showing that it was North Korea who made the tunnel with the presumed objective of invading Seoul once again. Four tunnels have been found all pointing towards Seoul from North Korea, although they expect that more are yet to be discovered. 

The 3rd Tunnel is approximately 1600m in length and apparently it is estimated that 30,000 soldiers could move through the tunnel per hour. Our conclusion was that these soldiers would have to be extremely short as we all crouched our away through the tunnel with difficulty. At the end of the tunnel is a small window; through this window you can see a window on the North Korean side of the tunnel merely 10 metres away. Despite it being forbidden, we smuggled a camera down into the tunnel to take some photos. We very relieved to find that there wasn't a soldier waiting for us or the camera when we exited the tunnel. 

Our final stop was a souvenir shop. Here Alex bought a hideous bottle of wine made in North Korea; we have been carrying the leaking bottle around with us ever since. 

After another big night in Gangnam we decided to sweat out our hangovers by hiking up to the current presidential palace grounds. This is armed with soldiers and our passports were taken and screened at a checkpoint; this security is put in place to prohibit North Korean spies and/or assassins. On our last evening we feasted on a typical Korean BBQ, where the meat is wrapped in giant salad leaves.

After a hectic and thoroughly interesting week in Seoul we said 'see ya later' to our friends and got on a plane to Manila. 

Firework and Lantern festivities in Taiwan

At the start of our trip, on a diving boat on the Great Barrier Reef, we met a guy from Taipei. He was a bit weird and didn't speak much English and was the first Taiwanese person we had ever met. From that moment, Alex decided he wanted to go to Taiwan and find out what went on there. 

So when we met more Taiwanese people in Niseko, who were incredibly friendly, fun and keen to show us around their country, we didn't take much persuading. What really sweetened the deal was that we coincided our trip with the Taiwanese Lantern Festival, a famous celebration on this side of the world of the end of Chinese New Year. A man called Sky, who worked alongside us in the restaurant, showed us pictures of gigantic lanterns and videos of people being shot with fireworks . The whole thing seemed so bizarre and different to anything that we had ever done. So we packed our bags a fortnight earlier than planned and flew to the second largest city in Taiwan - Kaohsiung. 

Taiwan is a very small island, especially compared to Japan. On the west coast are the major cities and ports. A high speed rail connects the North and the South, to get from top to bottom takes just a couple of hours. Dividing the west coast from the east is a line of mountain ranges and national parks, famous for great walking trails and stunning scenery. The east is less developed and more scenic.

Kaohsiung is the major city in the South.  We weren’t really sure what to expect yet were very pleasantly surprised on our arrival. Kaohsiung is full of busy night markets serving an enormous variety of Taiwanese food, bubble tea shops are found on every corner, everything is very cheap, the trains are cleaner and more comfortable than in London and compared to the streets of Japan, it was relatively quiet and peaceful. There were nice parks to walk around and hardly any tourists. The people were very friendly if not a little surprised to see us. 

There is a myth that Taiwanese people eat in once a month. Having now been there, we can see why. Everywhere you look people are selling fresh food from a street stall. The night markets in particular are packed with groups of people enjoying food ranging from hot pots to dumplings to duck wraps. Tofu is extremely popular, fresh fruit is everywhere and a variety of tasty vegetables are easy to come by. One market even had a teppanyaki stall where the chef cooked our meal on a hot plate in front of us. Wash this down with a large cup of papaya milk or another bubble tea, all for roughly £2 per person. 

A menu for the more adventurous is also available at the night markets. Every other stall sells fried chicken feet. The smell of 'stinky tofu' haunts the air and cooked duck necks are strangely popular. If these don't appeal, you could always opt for offal soup, intestine sausages or a squid on a stick. 

Kaohsiung were hosting their own Taiwan Lantern Festival festivities with  nightly firework displays and a small range of bright colourful lanterns. The fireworks were great and an exciting start to our Lantern Festival experience.

Next we moved north to Tainan, a smaller and quieter city. Here we rented bicycles and explored parts of the city by road and alongside hundreds of crazy scooters. The locals seemed quite surprised to see two tall, blond, white people cycling around but it was a fun experience.

It was now time to meet a group of our friends from Niseko. We were lucky enough to be shown around by our Taiwanese guide Sky. Sky is from a city called Taichung, which happened to be the host city of this year's festival, so we planned to eventually make our way there and stay at his apartment.

Before heading there, we all took a trip east to a famous mountain range resort called Alishan. This is a hotspot for Chinese tourists who visit Taiwan and it was easy to see why. Just a few hours drive from the major cities was a green, mountain paradise. We drove through Oolong tea plantations and saw the cherry blossom trees before arriving at the resort. There were 7 of us in the group and we all shared one big room with 4 double beds. Cosy.

After sampling the local tea, walking through the resort and getting up at 5am the next day to see the sunrise over the mountain range, we got back in the car and drove back to Tainan for what would turn out to be one of the most surreal, scary and exhilarating nights of our lives.

Tainan has an annual festival which coincides with the Lantern Festival. It is called the Yenshui Firework Festival. The idea is this: small statues of gods are brought out from the temples and paraded through the streets on carts. At intervals during the procession, the gods are placed in front of very large fireworks. These are then set off, showering the gods in sparks and rockets. If you aren't Taiwanese it is certainly a terrifying sight. As if that wasn't enough, the locals decide to arm themselves with helmets and homemade protective clothing and join the gods in getting showered, or perhaps more accurately, directly shot at, with fireworks. Egged on by Sky, we joined them.

It was painful, scary and chaotic. It was also phenomenal.

The next day we travelled to Sky's apartment for the opening of the official Lantern Festival in Taichung. This was another display of fireworks and large themed lanterns, but on a much much bigger scale to what we had already seen. Pictures speak better than words here:

After the lantern festival, we said goodbye to our friends and took the train to the east coast and a city called Taitung. We were expecting some calm and peace after a fairly loud and busy few days. Yet when we arrived in Taitung we found ourselves in the middle of another bizarre festival, entitled The Bombing of Master Handan Festival, we were more than a little surprised. A similar evening of fireworks, gods and madness ensued.

The next day was much calmer; we rented bikes and took a 25km ride around the outside of Taitung. We were met with great views of the mountains and the sea.

A train north took us to Tarako National Park, our penultimate stop in this crazy country. Taroko boasts a large and impressive gorge, full of great walking trails and stunning temples set into the side of mountains. The weather was slightly against us and the hostel we stayed in was very strange, nevertheless it was another nice break from the cities and fireworks.

We ended our Taiwanese whistle-stop tour in the capital, Taipei. Alex usually organises the accommodation so when Hostelworld.com offered him two beds at 'Space Inn', I was informed that the secret astronaught wannabe inside of him clicked Book Now.

We were not disappointed, it was by far the best hostel we have ever stayed in. The space theme was flawless, right down to the astronaught uniforms of the staff. However after a manic two weeks running around the country, eating strange food and being shot at with fireworks, a rainy and cold Taipei was a bit disappointing.

We spent our last few days enjoying 'cinema street', warming ourselves up in the natural hot springs and preparing for the next adventure: South Korea.