Of jimjilbangs and meandering creeks in downtown Seoul...

Wow, I just read yesterday's post and it's REALLY all over the place. However, I have a good reason for that...it's because WE were all over the place. We got to Seoul and just started walking around randomly.

One of our random finds was the jimjilbang. Jimjilbangs are Korean saunas that are, for the most part segregated. So you walk in and there are a bunch of naked Korean men walking around, having a nap, hanging in the hot tubs, etc. The segregated areas have showers, hot tubs, lockers and sleeping quarters (consisting of flat floor space) and the unisex areas have saunas, steam rooms and a ton of open space. They also had about 20 little cubicles for sleeping in.

With the cheapest motel we found threatening to set us back 95k won a night, we decided that the luxury of a jimjilbang for 10k a night would be exactly what we needed. Sleeping in a jimjilbang is an experience in itself. About 100-150 people sleep anywhere and everywhere the areas I mentioned. We went up to the second floor up into a quiet little corner, which was nice, because there was nobody walking around us. If you slept downstairs you were in the middle of a big floor with people walking all around you all day. They had a couple of TVs and a restaurant in the jimjilbang going all night, plus people talking like they were in the middle of a field all alone....even though it was 3 a.m. and they were surrounded by 150 people trying to sleep. So, you can't be the sensitive type.

Also, our bedding consisted of the following: an 8"x12" brick-shaped pillow covered in vinyl. And that's it. We could have rented blankets for 1,000 won a night, but if you're going to do things cheap, you gotta do them VERY cheap. Plus, it must have been close to 30 degrees and 99% humidity in there (the main function of a jimjilbang, after all, is to be a sauna), so the less we had on the better. I managed to steal about a dozen of the pillows and pushed them together to make a bed that was surprisingly comfortable.

All in all, a very basic, cheap and fun experience...besides the sleeping, we had a great shower every morning and while we were wandering around Seoul we had a place to ditch our backpacks during the day...what more could you ask for out of your $9!

While in Seoul we also bumped into the Canadian Embassy (way cool! There is a Hungarian one too...very convenient considering I'll have to renew both passports while I'm in Korea if I stay another year)

A shot of the two of us (this has to be one of the least flattering angles ever...low-angle with an ultrawide lens shot from arm's length...)

We stopped for a quick Krispy Kreme fill-up (come on...you can't even get this in Canada!...at least not easily haha)...and found some decidedly Asian twists on the classics:

Mark at KK:

Then at night we hit up a beautiful creek that runs down the middle of downtown Seoul. Apparently it's the brainchild of the Korean president (who used to be Seoul's mayor). He is less than popular right now (more on that later), but this is an amazing idea. It's a gorgeous creek, going at times from a modern waterfall to what looks like something out of a nature movie, meandering through Seoul for nearly 6 kilometres!

The cool thing about this place was that it was incredibly lively. There were people of all ages wandering around everywhere. Everyone was in a good mood, which made for such a happy atmosphere...especially considering it was about 24 degrees out...perfect summer night. Mark and I had a romantic picnic of Subway (sooo delicious! haha...I miss Quizno's!) sandwiches on the shore, chilled out, walked around and headed back to our jimjilbang.

And on the way home, we found a big student protest (with HUNDREDS if not more cops)...apparently the aforementioned president promised to cut tuition in half and (surprise!) has so far failed to deliver on it. I joked around with the Korean who told us this that the Canadian prime minister is way better, since he never even promised to lower tuition a single penny. The Korean completely missed the joke.

It was pretty interesting to bump into something like that, but considering it's illegal for me to take part in such demonstrations, I didn't want to hang around too long, lest they think I was doing anything more than observing. So we sat across the street for a little while until the street was flooded with cops and cop vehicles and they took away a few busloads of protesters.

Okay...I still have a ton more stories and pictures from Seoul, but my work day has come to its end! Time for me to go home and hang out with Mark!

Have a great night, everyone!
T