interesting sites

The COEX Mall is actually the largest mall that I’ve been to in South Korea. Since bigger is always better, that makes it the best mall that I’ve ever been to in South Korea IN MY LIFE!!!

On the COEX Mall website, they list 11 themed streets which can be found inside the mall. They are:

1. Millenium Plaza
2. Summit Walk
3. Forest Walk
4. Lake Walk
5. Riverside Walk
6. Event Court
7. Waterfall Walk
8. Canyon Walk
9. Tropic Walk
10. Ocean Walk
11. ASEM Plaza

I don’t know why I listed all of those when I could’ve linked to the theme website instead.

(sidebar: I didn’t notice these “themes” until I read about them. Then I realized some weird things were going on in different parts of this ridiculously huge mall.)

I found a ridiculous amount of restaurants that reminded me of home in the COEX Mall. They include: Pizzeria Uno, Marche, Sbarro, Bennigan’s, T.G.I. Friday’s, Häagen-Dazs, and Baskin Robbins, and more.

If all of that didn’t convince you to go, there’s also an aquarium!!! For 15,500 won per adult, go see fish!!!

But seriously folks, COEX Mall has a few stores you’ll recognize and that has clothes and shoes that will actually fit your non-korean body.

I found a ridiculously tall tower on an insanely tall mountain in South Korea (see pictures below the video!). The Koreans call it N Seoul Tower. The N stands for Namsun which is the mountain which the tower sits on.

I’ve been there twice in my life and I think since you’re reading this, you should go at least once.

Here’s how to get there:
1) Take the subway to Myeongdong (Line 4, stop 424)
2) Watch this video (also below) for directions once you get there.
3) Or if you think my videos suck…
a) Take exit 3 and go up the hill for about 10 minutes then up the stairs.
b) Or take exit 4, go to the big intersection straight out of the subway, go left towards the Namsun tunnel, and take the stairs or elevator up to the tower.

Geojedo (Geoje Island) is located way at the bottom of the South Korean peninsula. Jermil heard about Geojedo through some friends, and we decided to check it out. It’s not the most foreigner-friendly city in Korea though. So if you’re up for a bit of a challenge, which is well worth it in the end, Geojedo is the place to visit.

How to get there (since the latest Lonely Planet doesn’t help)

Geojedo is the second largest island in Korea, next to Jeju. There was no information in our 7th edition Lonely Planet Korea about this destination, and so began our confusing trip. The ticket agent at the Daejeon Dong Bu Intercity Bus Terminal presented us with several options. Of course, we had no idea what she was saying, nor any idea of where we really wanted to go, so we took the tickets that cost 16 800 won she gave us, and considered it an adventure.

After about 3.5 hours on the bus, we ended up in downtown Geoje at the “Gohyeon Intercity Bus Terminal”. We asked inside the bus station for maps of the island, but there weren’t any in English or Korean. Jermil took a picture of a large tourist map outside the bus terminal to show taxi drivers where we wanted to go.

Our first stop: Geoje Tourist Hotel

We managed to find the Geojedo Tourist Hotel, so we checked in and at the front desk there was an attendant who could speak English relatively well, and he gave us some maps (in Korean). We recommend bringing a phrase book to Geoje, and get ready to make gestures, English is not widely understood.

We ventured out of the hotel and ran into some fellow expat English teachers at “Angel-in-us Coffee Shop”, and asked them which sites they would recommend for visitors to the island. They were quite welcoming and wrote down a few spots for us: Hakdong Pebble Beach, The Korean War Diorama, and Oedo Botanical Island. They suggested we head back to the bus station and take local buses to each of the sites.

Our taxing trek around Geojedo begins here!

Geoje city buses are not easy to use. We did not find the ticket agents to be very helpful, and bus numbers had little significance, so we had to rely on people waiting at the station. We found the younger bus riders to be quite resourceful. Do not be afraid to ask for help or you will never get out of the downtown core. After about a 45 minute ride, we made it to Hakdong pebble beach, you’ll see the water and the pebbles from the bus stop. The beach was pretty and since we were by the sea, we did as the Koreans, and indulged in some raw fish (sashimi) for about 60 000 won for the two of us.

By the time we left, it was dark, so we returned to the bus stop; however, no buses came. We decided a taxi might be a better option, but those were scarce too. We finally got one, and it cost us about 15 000 won to get back downtown.

Geojedo Nightlife

We spent the evening wandering around the main part of the island and found what seemed to be where the foreigners hang out: the “Jazz Bar” directly behind Geoje Tourist Hotel. The bar housed out-going locals, decent music, darts as well as pricey food and drinks.

The next day we followed the street signs and walked about 45 minutes to the Diorama, which according to Geoje, is the largest in the world! It costs about 3 000 won each to enter.

Oedo Botanical Island

When we were finished walking through this mountainous 3-D wondrous pictorial representation of the Korean War, we took a quick taxi ride back to the bus terminal in search of Oedo Botanical Island. A young girl at the bus station helped us get to the Coastal Ferry Terminal that would take us to Oedo Island. She kindly told people on the bus our final destination, so a gentleman on the bus told us when to get off. The ferry was quite close to the bus stop, but the ferries only run once an hour on the :20. Ferry tickets cost 19 000 won and after the 30 minute ferry ride we had to pay an island entrance fee of 8 000 won. Tourists can only come to this island for about an hour, so it’s important to ask what time the ferry will be departing. Oedo was absolutely beautiful and definitely one of my favourite places I have been in Korea; I’d highly recommend it.

We discovered that there is another intercity bus terminal in Geoje that’s just a short taxi ride from the ferry terminal, called Jangseunpo. It’s small station and buses don’t run frequently to or from it, so check the schedules, but if you are looking to do a day trip to Geoje/Oedo from your respective cities, take an intercity bus to that stop. I suppose the ticket agent in Daejeon at the beginning of our confusing journey was trying to ask which terminal we wanted to get off at in Geoje do…

I went to Gyeongju with a few friends of mine. It’s one of the most amazing places that I’ve been to in my 10 months Korea. I was getting sick of going to different cities in Korea and seeing temples and other cultural mish-mash that looks just like the ones a few blocks away from me in Daejeon. Gyeongju was a welcome change from all of that.

We left from the express bus station in Daejeon bright and early at 7am and made it to Gyeongju at 9:45 with one pit stop just past Gumi (halfway between Daejeon and Gyeongju).

The four of us took the “excellent bus” for 17,700 won. I checked online beforehand and read that we could pay 11,400 won for the express bus so I was quite shocked to hear the price we had to pay. I found that the excellent bus is way more comfortable than the express bus. But, depending on the length of the trip, the extra money most likely isn’t worth it.

Take The Tour.

Once we landed in Gyeongju, I spotted the Tourist Information Booth and scurried right over to it. It’s right next to the bus station which was amazing and convenient!

I talked to the people in there and asked them where the tours were. They told me that we could sign up for a tour in the building behind their booth.

Tours in Gyeongju left at 8:40am, 10:00am, and 11:00am for 15,000 won.

The 15,000 won doesn’t include admission to the temples and such (an additional 4,000 won) plus lunch for 10,000 won for Sashimi Bibimbap (sashimi link | bibimbap link) or 54,000 won divided by everyone in your group for a raw fish fiesta. I got the bibimbap. It’s good if you don’t mind raw fish or bibimbap.

We took the 10am tour since we arrived around that time. The tour was amazing because it was one price and they took us to way more places than I could ever imagine to go to in Gyeongju. Plus, they gave us plenty of time at each stop to wander around and do everything you want to do when you get there.

The tour guide gives information about the places in Korean (which didn’t help us much) but luckily the signs are in Korean and English in case you actually want to know what you’re looking at.

I HIGHLY recommend the tour so you don’t have to take a taxi everywhere and you can see a lot more of the city than you probably originally planned to see.

Downtown Gyeongju Is Dead As Disco!

I found out that there’s no nightlife in Downtown Gyeongju (near the bus and train stations) and barely any restaurants are open around midnight and later. I did find the McDonald’s, which is 24 hours, in the heart of Downtown Gyeongju. KFC, Pizza Hut, and a movie theater are also near the McDonald’s but they aren’t 24 hours .

EXPO Park in Gyeongju is a good place to spend half a day.

On Sunday, I went with a friend to EXPO Park (Expo Worlduh to the taxi drivers). The taxi fare is about 10,000 won from near the bus station. The Gyeongju map lists the admission fee as 5,000 won. But, at least on Sunday, it’s 6,000 won for adults.

We stumbled upon a Tea Experience in the EXPO Culture Center (second floor). It was … something. My friend loved it and it saved us from the rain.

While in the Culture Center, we stumbled upon a Hip-Hop/Bboy show in the same building.

Gyeongju Tower

We also got to go to the top of the building that we saw while on our tour the day before. It’s called Gyeongju Tower and it looks like another building smashed into it at some point. We got an awesome view of the area from the inside.

Gyeongju is a really amazing place to visit on a fall/summer/spring/and probably winter weekend and soak up what I’d say is the most authentic Korean experience out of all of the “authentic Korean experiences”.

Haesindang Gongwon (Haesindang Park) is known as the Penis Forest in South Korea. It’s either because the real name is way too long and complicated or because you can find totem poles shaped like different penises with faces all over them.

It’s way on the east coast of South Korea in a ridiculously small town called Sinnam. It’s a dreadfully long 5 hour bus ride from Seoul to Samcheok. Then a local bus ride for about 50 minutes to Sinnam. We asked the nice lady in the Tourist Information Booth at the bus station how to get to Haesindang Park and she showed us where it was on a map and also told us exactly which bus to take. We took bus 90. But I’d suggest you ask the human in the Tourist Information Booth as well instead of going by the exact bus numbers that may be changed on the exact day that you decide to check out the penis forest.

We got there in the late afternoon and decided to eat before we headed out even further away from civilization. By the time we caught a local bus to the park, it was twilight.

We told the bus driver where we wanted to get off because we knew we wouldn’t know it when we got there. He told us but it was pitch black by that time. We didn’t see any place around with light or any other signs of life so we stayed on the bus until the very last stop.

We hopped in a taxi there and asked the driver to take us to a motel (by saying “motel motel” over and over until he started driving).

He took us about two blocks and wanted us to pay the minimum fare. My friend stormed out in anger! I gave him 1,000 won so he wouldn’t call the police or who knows what else. It’s quite country out there.

We got the crappiest motel I’ve ever stayed in which tried to rip us of on prices. Good thing my friend heard them tell the couple before us the real price and she demanded that price.

Besides all that, once you make it to Haesindang (penis) Park, it’s well worth it. Besides all of the amazingly weird and awesome penis totem poles, it’s located right off the East Sea. You can walk along an almost unnatural beach with rocks galore that you can walk along into the East Sea if that’s your thing.

When we got there the next day, we realized that if we got off at the stop and went down the hill, we would’ve found plenty of minbaks to stay in right outside of the penis forest. But it’s pitch black and looks like no one lives anywhere near that place. So if you get there at night, feel free to hop off the bus at the correct stop and find a minbak. Or do like we did and go to the end of the bus route and walk a few blocks to the nearest motel.

Here’s a few pictures from our time at Haesindang Gongwon aka Haesindang Park aka The Penis Forest.