Instead of a travel logue (Seoul, Busan, Gyeongju)

Some more or less random observations and ruminations on our 10-day trip (August 8–17) to (South) Korea … .

The basic idea was to spend a week in Korea because the partner’s daughter liked the time she spent there last year. Important caveat: Partner’s daughter is polyglot — she speaks English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean to the extent that she can explain Korean Apple customers in Sydney how the i- phone works. In Korean.

Based on the advice of a Korean colleague, we decided to spend three days (and nights) in Seoul, one of them near the airport upon arrival, then three days (and nights) in Busan, with an all-day guided tour to Gyeongju (Gyeongju UNESCO World Heritage Guided Day Tour from Busan) thrown in for good measure, then back for a couple of days to Seoul. Made the trip to and fro Busan with the high-speed train. Less than three hours each way. Right after we arrived from Sydney, we did a Drinking & Eating guided tour through the Alleys of Seoul. And then the following day an all-day guided tour of Seoul. We also did an all-day guided tour of Gyeongju, a historically important city.

The all-day guided tours were well curated and reasonably well timed. The tour guides (two young Korean women) did a good job in herding their respective cats. About 35+ of them in each case. The Drinking & Eating tour (of four) was more spotty. A couple of good stops were had but also a couple that were less impressive. We ultimately decided to quit at the pen-ultimate stop.

Partner loves markets — fish markets in particular — and so that is what we explored both in Busan and Seoul once we were back there.

The Busan exploration was a memorable one: It had been raining when we arrived in the afternoon and ever since, so we just explored the neighborhood near the hotel, had a quick dinner in a neighborhood joint, and some good German wheat beer in the hotel lounge on the 21st floor.

Rain continued the next day unabated. At some point — close to noon — we decided that enuff was enuff and took an Uber to the Busan Cooperative Fish Market. Which turns out to be a veritable wholesale fish market so when we arrived, they had wrapped up business for the day. We ended up in the canteen and took our chance on the daily menu, having no idea what we ordered. It turned out pretty good, however, and well worth the AU$$$ (~30).

We went back to the hotel via the Busan metro, after a detour through the Haen Mkt @ Chungmudong.

Later in the day we took another Uber to a retail fish market (at 52 Jagalchihaean-ro, Jung-gu) and ended up with some Abalone sash (because the partner really wanted it) and some raw sash of three fish, all for about 125 AUD.

Back at the hotel (again via Busan metro), we finished the day with some kiwi soju that I had procured the day before. A bottle of it was about 2 AUD. (In general, soju is very inexpensive in Korea — 2 AUD is about what you pay for your basic fix of 360 ml. That’s a fraction of what you pay in Sydney where the same stuff typically costs about 14–15 dollars.)

Back in Seoul — we explored a huge wholesale and retail fish market (the somewhat misleadingly called Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. Went there by taxi and made our way back via metro. And then did the same the following day. Had huge plates of various kinds of sashimi on both days plus the obligatory soju. And on the repeat trip added a couple of huge oysters and snails, prepared on location.

The Noryangjin Fisheries market is a huge multi-story place. You buy the fish and then have it prepared (where needed) in one of the many places that function as restaurants. It was quite an interesting experience.

In the evening of that second trip to the fish market we explored the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (designed by Zaha Hadid) that was conveniently written up in the July — August issue of the airline’s Morning Calm magazine which called it “Seoul’s Soul”. Be that as it may, it is an imposing and massive structure with a curving metallic skin. En route we took another look at the Cheonggyecheon urban renewal project, a stream of more than 10km flowing from the west to the east through downtown Seoul. All of this via metro which at that point we had managed to navigate just fine.

It is not initially easy to navigate the public transportation because English-language signs are far and few between. But once you understand the color scheme of the different lines and manage to distinguish them from the numbers of exits that each station comes with (typically about 10–15), you are all good. Even traffic disruptions like the National Liberation Day of Korea events, at Bosingak in Jongno, the heart of Seoul (and near Central Station) were no challenge in the end. Nor were separate “ONLY YOON” demonstrations apparently in favor of Yoon Suk Yeol, the 13th President of South Korea, who attempted the December 2024 coup which was dramatically derailed. The attempted coup — late night declaration of martial law and all — was derailed because legislators rushed to the National Assembly and passed an emergency motion nullifying the declaration a few hours later. Yoon was successfully impeached and suspended from his presidential powers ten days later, with 204 voting in favor, including 12 members of his own party. He has been under detention since January 2025. In April, Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon’s impeachment by the National Assembly, officially terminating his presidency. According to wikipedia, Yoon is currently being investigated for heading an insurrection, and may face either life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted. In July 2025, Yoon was again detained and indicted on additional criminal charges, and remains in custody at this time.

As coincidence has it, while we were in Busan and Seoul pictures of a relatively young woman, dressed elegantly in black, and seemingly headed to some court proceedings were all over Korean tv. It took me a bit to figure out who it was but I finally succeeded: The lady in black is Korea’s former first lady, the wife of Yoon. A local court had issued an arrest warrant for Kim Keon Hee on stock price manipulation and other charges. It’s an interesting situation in which Korea finds itself currently — a former first couple in detention — last but not least because Yoon (who is something of a Trumpian kinda politician) has some visibly public support.

Some absurd statements are being made on social media including that Lee Jae-myung (the duly elected new prime minister) wants to sell out South Korea to North Korea. Apparently, he made the mistake to try to defuse tension between South and North, an overture that Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, quickly dismissed.

It was hot during our stay, and not just politically. Apparently we chose, due to various external constraints, the worst possible time to visit Korea temperature wise.

Did I mention that English-language signs are far and few between? It is quite remarkable. Not the way to jump-start tourism. Also remarkable is how very few Koreans have a working knowledge of English. Korea is of course a rapidly aging society. In fact, it is becoming a “‘super-aged’ society” and very visibly so on the streets of downtown Seoul or Busan. But even the younger folks’ English is often rather broken or not existing which, given that Korea has given the world K-pop, comes as a surprise. Well at least it came to me.

Korean society is under duress along many dimensions — aging, birth rate, military enrollment, a toxic political landscape, political uncertainty, and an anemic economy, etc.— but for the time being at least the level of trust (and trustworthiness) seems extra-ordinarily high. Crime of all kinds is law and as a foreigner you do not have to worry that you rightfully have in many other places. At some point I forgot my back-bag with plenty of money, documents, and my laptop in it at some station entrance — don’t ask! — and realized it only minutes later. I rushed back in a panic only to find the station assistant that helped us before to understand where the train departed, having secured it safely. Phew. Likewise, you don’t have to worry about taxi drivers overcharging you (Taxis are rather inexpensive relative to Sydney and cost at best half of what you would pay in Sydney!), and even those sashimi plates that we ordered by way of some exemplar seemed to be about what we paid for. Another example: Around Seoul Station there is literally dozens of folks sleeping rough but many leave their neatly packaged belongings unattended for what seems considerable amounts of time.

Definitely an intriguing place and one that I want to visit again in due course …