Seoul, Korea | Flights from Osaka to Seoul are frequent, quick and relatively cheap so Amanda and I made a spur of the moment decision to visit Seoul. I was also eager to visit South Korea to experience the contrasts with the North.
Having only previously seen the South from an old, communist grey building on North side of the DMZ, I already knew the contrasts were bold. The South Korean DMZ headquarters are in a much larger, newer and fancier building.
Someone once told me that when Korea was split in half, all the good looking women got stuck in the North, and all the good looking men in the South. I, in no way, vouch for the accuracy of this statement and am not entirely sure what reason would cause such a thing to happen (perhaps a ‘Good Looking Ladies Convention’ was held on July 25, 1953 in Pyongyang?). I can say though that are plenty of good looking people on both sides of the gender divide in Seoul and the same goes for Pyongyang (from the very limited viewing of public places I had).
In addition to good-looking people, Seoul also has a great variety of restaurants and cheap places to eat. Just down the road from the very back-alley hotel we were staying in was a great cafe that served fresh sandwiches and coffee. A totally unexpected find as we weren’t staying anywhere near the major hotel chains/ tourist center of town. There were a lot of good quality places like this one all over Seoul. An added bonus was complimentary kimchi with your meal in almost every restaurant or cafe.
Our hotel was situated in a hilly area near the 24 hour Namdaemun Market, specifically the baby clothes part of the market. Amanda and I were both stumped as to why anyone would need to buy clothes for children 24 hours a day. Having said that, there were people shopping for baby clothes at 3am when we arrived in Seoul, although it was hardly packed.
As for things that are different between the two sides of Korea, well…the biggest difference I noticed is the general look of the cities. Pyongyang is dilapidated and dreary, whilst Seoul is a textbook fine, modern city: bustling streets, cute and modern cafés, buildings with superfluous adornments.
Fashion was also a stark contrast between the cities. North Korea men wear padded-shouldered, short-sleeved khaki suit jackets; very basic, very old style. Seoul is on the total opposite of the fashion spectrum, it has all the high end fashion labels and hip-hop outfit toting youngsters.