Seoul: Leeum Samsung Museum details

More info on the Leeum Samsung Museum in Itaewon.

This museum has 3 cool buildings of different architectural styles; 2 house permanent collections (inc. modern Korean and foreign art), and one has a temporary exhibit.

Highlights of the museum (IMHO):

  • 2 funky huge spider sculptures by Louise Bourgeois in the courtyard
  • Museum 1: some small but impressive ceramic vases
  • Museum 2 upstairs: a tall thin bronze woman statue (Susan would like this one!)
  • Museum 2 main floor: a shiny smooth blue egg with a pink-red bow on top (sculpture) by Jeff Koons
  • Museum 2 main floor: a large mosaic-like painting of a face
  • Temp exhibit: When I visitied, it was Joseon era paintings, including surprisingly explicit erotic art, as well as:
    a 1760 painting of the Cheong-gye-cheon (canal) being uncovered and cleaned up (recall that this was just done 5 years ago, so history does repeat itself!)

Misc notes:

  • Cool technology: touch-screens that let you scroll and zoom in on digitized versions of some fragile paper art
  • the light in the temporary exhibit was so dim you could barely read the descriptive signs

Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside, but here are the spiders in the courtyard:

Louise Bourgeois’ Spider Statues

Cost: W13000/$11.50 for all 3 museums

Directions: M6 to Hangangjin station x1, go south and then follow signs to “Leeum Museum”

Seoul/Guam: an extra 20 minutes in NRT. And lock trouble

Really? After a 6 hour layover, the incoming flight is late so now we’ll be leaving 20 minutes late. Oh well, I guess that’s 20 minutes less sleeping-in-the-airport time in GUM (or 20 minutes less until the business lounge opens there :-)

The seat map looks like I might score one extra seat next to me by the window (it’s a 2-5-2 seating on a Boeing 777). Out of only 2 empty seats in economy/plus! Some deity is smirking at me, if not smiling, today.

The lounge here is down to maybe a dozen people. Which is surprising, given how full this big plane is.

Side note: I had a problem with one of my luggage locks, which I keep on my carry-on knapsack. It’s a 3-digit TSA-approved combo lock.
Well, it wouldn’t open. And the compartment it locked had my passport.
The agents called for maintenance, but they didn’t bring the right tool. Wihle one maintenance guy went to get a bolt cutter (hopefully), the other one fiddled with the lock and suddenly opened it. One digit had shifted by one position magically. i.e. if my combo was 1-3-5 it was now 1-4-5 somehow! Very weird.
But at least I have my passport to get on the flight!

Update: I spoke too soon. The flight will be full (in economy/plus). I reluctantly agreed to move so 2 people could sit together. I asked if they’d move me to the rather empty business class, and she said no. Sigh.) Good karma perhaps?

Seoul: Flying back, through Tokyo NRT airport

50 hour door-to-door trip with 6 legs: ICN-NRT-GUM-HNL-SFO-ORD-YYZ
Major ouch!
(And yes, there is a non-stop flight from Seoul to Toronto on Air Canada, but that’s besides the point)

Currently I’m sitting in Tokyo’s Narita airport (NRT) in the United Club lounge for this 6 hour layover.
Which isn’t nearly as fancy as the Asian lounge I used in NRT on the way to Seoul last week. In fact it is similar to the ones in the US, but with a much smaller (self-serve) bar. Slightly newer feel to it Noticeably missing is Bailey’s (for my coffee).

When I first arrived in the lounge, it was very full. It’s quite large, but that’s a lot of people. Now (at 18:30 local time) it’s almost deserted – I can see maybe 20 people. Strange. At least the wi-fi is running at a reasonable speed again.

Also while I was sitting here, the guy next to me (we had been chatting about flights) suddenly says “enjoy your flight” – it turns out there was another (Continental-operated) flight to Guam 3.5 hours before my flight to Guam. Perhaps I could have gone stand-by (since my bags are checked through to San Francisco anyways) and gotten some sleep in a hotel there; I checked the flight status seating map on my phone and there were no seats left; in fact, there was one person still on the standby list). Besides, then I wouldn’t have been in a nice Economy Plus seat for the 3.5 hour flight.

Side note: for international connections at NRT, you pass through a security check after deplaning, and there were actually 3 x-ray machines for Star Alliance Gold passengers, and only one for regular passengers. Yeah (since I’m in the former category)!

Seoul: Days 5-6 summary

It seems with each passing day I saw fewer and fewer sights each day…

Day 6:

  • Dongdaemun gate/market/design plaza and fashion district: market overload and it wasn’t even in full swing (busier as a night market!).
    The Dongdaemun Design Plaza’s contest-winning design is a Gehry-esque fluid building and green space designed by an award-winning female Iraqi architect
  • Enjoyed a nice grilled fish lunch (W6000/$5), where the big water bottle on the table was “Kirkland Signature” (i.e. Costco!)
  • Worked for a few hours :-(
  • Kalbi dinner (beef on a table top charcoal grill) with the hostel owner Mr. Kim and one staff member.

Day 5:

  • Inwangsan (mountain): hike up the 338m for shamanist shrines (part way up), old castle city walls and views of Seoul (south towards old part of town and Seoul Tower)
  • Dongnimmun Park with the Independence gate and park
  • Gyeongbokgung (palace): huge grounds with lots of buildings. too many beyond the first few… also a colourful changing of the guards ceremony at the top of each hour during the day.
  • Pork grill on table top hotplate with the hostel owner Mr. Kim, 3 staff and a few guests (going away dinner for a Canadian guy who stayed there for a month)

Also updated the map.

Seoul: unreadable Starbucks name

Supposedly this is the only Starbucks in the world that has its name written in other than English (I don’t mean all of the stores here, just this one location by Anguk metro station)

I can recognize a fair number of Hangul letters but this is in a funky script that is mostly unreadable (to me).

It does in fact say Starbucks Kopi (since Kopi = Coffee)
And yes, it really was that cold outside (I had gloves on too, just not in the photo).

Though it does seem wrong to pay almost as much (W 4600/$4.05) for my grande soy latte as for my filling lunch (W 5000/$4.40 – tax included and no tip here as that would be insulting in this culture)

Starbucks Coffee in Hangul (Korean language)

Guam: 1/2 day

(on my way to Korea last week, I had a one-night layover in Guam)

My hotel was up the hill near the north end of Tumon Bay, a west-facing horseshoe bay with a narrow beach and lined with hotels (about 10 minutes from the airport). I had a view of the water, and fast Ethernet internet access. No wi-fi in the room, which meant I couldn’t use the internet on my smart phone, only on my laptop computer – and here I was beginning to think the smart phone almost made the computer useless!

The road, on the inland side of the hotels with no view and no real breakfast options, was full of high end shopping malls and low end strip malls, bars, massage parlours and strip clubs. And lots of typical American chain stores and restaurants (ABC Stores, Subway, Burger King, Circle K, Outback Steak House, etc.) In other words, not very pretty or exciting once away from the beach. Not surprising, given that Guam is a US territory (and uses US$).

Apparently they get a ton of Japanese visitors, with an increasing number of Chinese visitors. To wit: I recognized the cold Mr Brown’s Coffee cans from Taiwan (recall, that’s the one whose logo reminded me of a Simpsons’ style Mexican caricature).

There were a few public beach access points, and I meandered up and down the beach (only 15-20 minutes to walk most of the length of it, in one direction). The beach wasn’t terribly wide, but adequate. The water was warm, shallow and calm due to the protecting reef. There is some algae, and some rocks. Parts of the beach are better than others.

The native culture is called Chamorro, whose language has a Spanish influence due to 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. You see Hafa Adai (“hello”) everywhere (e.g. at airport and on restaurant menus).

Well, it was a nice break to my long flights. Unfortunately on the way back my layover is 4.5 hours in the middle of the night!

Tumon Bay, Guam

Seoul: Quick 4 day summary

Here’s what I’ve seen so far (more details to follow):

Day 4 (sunny but c-c-c-cold!):

  • 63 City (tower): good views of Seoul from the south bank of the Han River
  • Leeum Samsung Museum: a few interesting pieces in a cool trio of buildings
  • N Seoul Tower: better views of Seoul (around sunset)
  • Namdaemun Night Market: only a quick walk-through the main street as not much was open on Sunday
  • Silloam Fomentation Sauna: hot tubs too, so even better than the Turkish Bath (plus much cheaper and lots of facilities!

Day 3:

  • Changdeokgung (palace) and Secret Garden: the latter was even more impressive than the World Heritage listed palace, especially with fall foliage!
  • Yongsan Electronics Market: overwhelming!
  • Itaewon: the foreigner district (saw 4 Turkish döner shops!)

Day 2:

  • DMZ tour: very interesting! (long day from 7:30 to 15:30)
  • Cheong-gye-chon (stream) stroll: lantern festival

Day 1:

  • Bukchon Hanok Village: scenic traditional houses in neighbourhood near little art galleries
  • Traditional Korean meal in a resto on main Insa-dong road
  • War Memorial Museum: overkill! But the turtle boat replica was cool
  • Dinner at Gwangjang Market: small market with small food section
  • Went to JUMP show: fun comedic martial arts show

Also updated the map.

Seoul: First impressions

Subway: super convenient, efficient, easy (English on signs), cheap (less than a $1 per ride), clean and goes everywhere! Impressive!
Food: tasty and cheap (both street vendors and small restos)
People: lots of them. Mostly looking at their smart phones. But friendly.
Weather: cool. High of 12 C / 54 F. And going to get colder.
DMZ Tour: very interesting (and I got to step into North Korea, inside a little building).
See map in progress

More on everything tomorrow.

Seoul: Checked in an hour ago, but it’s 1am and not tired

After enjoying the better than average business lounge at NRT, and then sleeping most of the almost 3hr flight from Tokyo to Seoul (the flight was pretty empty so I had 3 seats to myself, which is how many seats I need to lie down comfortably), and an easy train+subway ride into town to my hostel in the Sinchon university district, now I’m feeling pretty awake.

Earlier today I booked my DMZ tour for Friday, and just now I booked a ticket for tomorrow night’s performance of JUMP, a slapstick martial arts show highly recommended in my guidebook.

Istanbul: Day 6: Çemberlitaş hamam (Turkish Bath)

Executive summary:

I went to the Çemberlitaş Hamamı (Turkish bath), one of the 2 main tourist hamams that is conveniently located next to the eponymous tram stop between the Grand Bazaar tram stop and Sultanahmet tram stop (or a 5 minute walk from the latter). It’s also open from 6am to midnight (slightly shorter hours for women).

It had 3 options at different price points: 45 TL/$26 basic (you clean yourself), 69 TL/$40 inc. being scrubbed by an attendant, or 119 TL/$68 inc. a 30-minute oil massage as well. Tips included.

Tip: go for the middle option – the massage isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Details:

So what actually happens? I did the full monty so that I could give you, my loyal (?) readers, a complete report.

First off, the hamam is fully segregated by sex (unlike German spas). The attendants in each section are of the same sex.

After paying, you get soap and a new glove-like scrubber, and tokens for the extra service(s) like attendant scrub and massage.

In the change area, you get a booth to strip down and wear a peştemal, essentially a wrap-around-your-waist towel. You lock the booth door and take the key on a bracelet, so your clothes and wallet are safe.

Men must keep the peştemal on; apparently women have the option of removing it.

Then you go into the big domed hot steam room (well, it wasn’t actually steamy) and lie down on the big ~10m in diameter) heated circular marble slab in the middle of the room and sweat. It was neither comfortable (lying on hard marble) nor relaxing as the noise from conversations and the attendants’ stainless steel bowls clanging on the marble would echo.

After 20 minutes or so an attendant came to wash me (I don’t know if you can ask him to wait longer; certainly if you wash yourself, you have more control over how long you lie there and sweat). Moving to lie along the edge of the circular slab, he goes through various phases of rinsing, scrubbing with soap (using that new scrubber), rinsing. You lie down alternately face up and face down – face down is particularly uncomfortable, esp. on the knees. That clanging stainless steel bowl I mentioned? That’s used to pour rinsing water over you (the water comes from taps and basins that are situated along the perimeter of the round room.

The attendant also does a little head/neck wrenching that I found rather uncomfortable.

Then he leads you into the side room (neither round nor domed) where you possibly, wait for your turn at the massage (go to next step if you followed my tip to not buy the massage). The massage room had 4 massage tables crammed in it, with 4 masseurs who chattered too much, so again, not exactly relaxing. You do get a new peştemal to wear for the massage (since your first one is wet and sweaty). The oil massage was ok, but I wouldn’t call it a serious massage. And you are left all oily, the kind of oily that doesn’t come off easily in the next step:

Showering in one of a set of private shower stalls (with a new towel to dry yourself off).

Afterwards, you get another peştemal and a large dry towel to wear back up to your change booth, which you open with the key that should still be dangling from your wrist.

Voila!

So did I enjoy it? Yeah, it was an experience that should be done once for sure (minus the massage), but it’s not the best spa experience on the planet.