the land of the morning calm (south korea)

March 26, 2025

We’ve arrived in South Korea, and boy is it cold. We’ve decided to start it off by staying in the Hongdae area of Seoul due to its proximity to nightlife.

This may or may not have been a mistake.

seoul #

Seoul is an interesting city. It’s quite busy and the nightlife is pretty bonkers, especially on the main bar streets. Our choice of staying at a party hostel was perhaps a misguided one, as we spent multiple nights getting blind and wasting the following day in bed. However, it was very social and we had made multiple friends to spend time with.

bukchon hanok village #

I visited Bukchon Hanok Village, which is a residential area in Seoul with multiple traditional Korean houses. Most of these houses are used by actual residents. I can’t imagine having my house be a tourist attraction.

horse figuring — A little horse figurine that looks rather possessed.

bukchon house — I like the mixture of wood panelling and stone foundation.

bukchon side street — A little side-street.

bukchon outskirts — On the outskirts of the village.

bukchon passageway — Little passageways lead you through the area.

constitutional court protest #

After visiting Bukchon Hanok Village, I was walking back to the train station and accidentally wound up in a protest outside the constitutional court. Turns out these protesters were pro the president who tried to stage a coup. I did not want to stick around long, but found the contrast of the protest and tourists wearing traditional clothing to be interesting.

south korean flags — There were also a lot of US flags, interestingly.

constitutional court — Outside the Constitutional Court.

protest — A woman wearing traditional clothes makes her way through the crowd.

gyeongbokgung palace #

I didn’t take many photos inside of the palace, but this is considered the main tourist attraction of the city. It’s also the birthplace of hangul, the lettering system of the Korean language.

korean bbq #

Would a trip to South Korea be complete without some Korean BBQ?

dmz #

I took a trip outside Seoul to visit the DMZ like a lot of tourists do. It was a bit eerie being able to see across the landscape to see the hermit kingdom, but the tour I went on was a little dull. We did get to go underground into one of North Korea’s infamous tunnels they built in the 70s, which was something.

DMZ posing — Myself and Ophelia, a friend I made on the tour.

statue dmz — The DMZ park had many outdoor statue-like art pieces.

statue of peace — The Statue of Peace, a symbol of the 'comfort women' enslaved by the Japanese during WWII.

suwon #

Jade and I took a day trip to Suwon to check out the Suwon Hwaesong Fortress.

suwon hwaseong fortress #

You could see the entire skyline of Suwon from above.

fortress wall path — The path alongside the fortress wall.

jade looking over the wall — Jade looking over the wall.

fortress wall gate — One of the gates along the path.

fortress structure — A structure at the top of the hill.

gyeongju #

After experiencing Seoul for a little while, we travelled down to Gyeongju to visit some historical sights.

daereungwon burial mounds #

We visited these burial mounds, which are tumulus mounds that function as tombs. Many of them contain various artifacts, including plenty of ancient jewellery.

dry land — Pretty dry and arid during the cold winter months.

jade checking his phone — Instagram beckons.

astronomical observatory — This is the Cheomseongdae Astronomical Observatory, one of the oldest observatories in the world.

woljeonggyo #

This bridge was originally built in 760 CE, but was only reopened back in 2018. It also looks pretty at night.

bridge at night — You could walk across stones placed in the water in front of the bridge.

yangdong folk village #

We also visited a Korean folk village which was founded in the 15th century during the Joseon period. It features a lot of thatched-roof houses and the residents here attempt to preserve their local customs.

yangdong house — It's unclear which houses are lived in or not.

yangdong garden — Many of the residents have gardens that we saw them attending to.

We were not a part of the tour group, but we did follow them a little bit.

busan #

We visited Busan, our final stop before heading back to Seoul, which is the second largest city in South Korea.

elvis impersonator — An Elvis impersonator on Haeundae Beach was not on my bingo card.

gamcheon culture village #

We spent a day visiting Gamcheon Culture Village, which is a maze of coloured buildings, with many having a focus on arts and culture.

gamcheon buildings — I liked how the buildings appeared to curve in on themselves.

gamcheon rooftops — Who is in charge of painting the rooftops?

blue rooftop — In case you were wondering, the words on the roof mean 'Gamcheon Culture Village'. Thrilling, I know.

wall decorations — The streets are adorned with cute decorations like these.

odd shrine — An interesting shrine, complete with a squeezable chicken.

steep street — It was quite a steep part of town.

duf coffee #

My favourite part of Gamcheon! And one of the highlights of South Korea in general. DUF Coffee is the most bonkers and unique cafe I have ever been to.

korean guide — Some helpful guides on how to order a coffee in Korean.

duf coffee room — One of the many rooms to explore.

crocodile party game — A stressful party game where you have to press in the crocodile's teeth and hope it doesn't bite down.

After the copious amounts of pocari sweat we had in Japan, it was only time before we started turning into one ourself.

The outdoor backyard had ducks which you could feed.

haedong yonggungsa #

I spent half a day visiting Busan’s most famous temple.

train view — The ocean view from the train.

temple by the ocean — Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.

doltap stones — A series of stacked stones, or 'doltap'. They help ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.

drone light show #

One evening, we checked out the Busan drone light show, which was pretty impressive. Whilst the following is just a picture, the figures that were made in the sky were moving.

alt — South Korea loves a bit of baseball.

That’s it for Busan.

After looping back to Seoul and spending a few more days there, we decided to move onto our next country, Taiwan.