Seoul -- Day 2 -- Soju, soju and more soju!

After the last night's festivities, I woke up somewhat late and over breakfast I met Britt and his friend Charles, both New Zealanders. I had no specific plans and neither did they. Charles lives outside Seoul, where he teaches English as a second language to Koreans. We decided to walk the newly constructed footpath and park along the Han river. Han river, incidentally, bisects Seoul neatly and is almost a kilometer wide within the city limits.

Seoul has been growing fast, real fast and has been gaining a lot of international attention as well. In the wake of its hosting the Olympics in 1988 and the World Cup Soccer in 2002, there's been a lot of construction and beautification. The Han river walkway and park runs almost 17 kms and is now a popular area for outdoor activities like bicycling, fishing, running etc. They also unveiled a fountain to commemorate the World Cup 2002, supposedly the world's tallest capable of reaching almost 202 meters (673 feet). Earlier, there used to be a sewage plant on the Han river that let made the river dirty and smelly. It's much better now. Reports indicate that there has been significant improvement in smog and pollution. At any rate, the three of us walked about 5 kms of the stretch and chatted about Koreans, English as a second language and fashion.

We walked past the National Assembly building, an extremely drab one at that. It looked like a building from the Soviet Union days. It was Sunday and yet there were soldiers in riot gear near the assembly. Apparently, South Koreans have a habit of protesting for everything and so the cops are always ready for a new demonstration. We were very hungry and searched long for a restaurant. The only place we found open was Popeye's, yeah I know. Lame.

Walking in the city gives you a good idea of how huge the city is. In the newer parts of the city, the streets are very wide with 7 lanes of traffic. However, it is a challenge to cross the streets, because traffic doesn't stop and it isn't easy to find subways to cross either. The architecture of the city is a mishmash of modern glass structures and older nondescript buildings mixed with storefronts and restaurants. What is amazing is that there is very little urban art and very few outdoor cafes. Everything in Seoul takes place inside and every part of the city resembles every other part. In short, it is a generic cityscape with nothing to distinguish it -- say like Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge or Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It is not at all a scenic city.

After a late coffee, we walked to Seoul Station and to our surprise saw a few drug addicts, drunks and panhandlers. Seoul Station is a hub for local and long distance trains, and is a popular shopping place. We walked around with no particular destination in mind. In and around Seoul Station is the business district dotted with tall buildings from the corporate giants of Hyundai, KIA, LG and Samsung. Britt and Charles had to take off, so I bade goodbye and headed back to Kim's, where I met other house mates, Marc (France), Andreas and Matthias (Germany). Manuel, Charles and I went for dinner to a local restaurant for bulgogi and an excellent fish soup. We returned to guest house and picked up a few bottles of soju and beer. We had to bid goodbye to Andreas, because he was leaving early next morning. Again, plenty of conversation about politics and people. In short, a good time was had by all. Good night.