Very often, I post summaries of my trip when I get back from various locations around the globe, day by day. Instead, I think I’ll just post a general impression I got from going around Korea one more time instead.
I’ve visited every place on this trip at least once or twice before I went there with my college friends. I took them there for that very reason. I wanted them to see some of the cool stuff I had seen while I was in Korea, and let them experience some of that I get up to when I travel around Korea, minus the headaches of finding a place to stay or learning where to go when you visit a place for the first time.
In general, everything was easier this time around.There were a few problems, like a barrage of rain while we were in Seoul, and the summer weather making the trip a sweaty affair. There are always those moments like, “Oops, we missed that bus, we’ll have to wait 10 minutes,” but there wasn’t anything disastrous that befell us while we went around Korea.
The last time I hauled people around Korea, we had a tight schedule with the public transportation booked weeks in advance. That sort of inflexibility hurt our plans, because we’d leave places we wanted to visit to make a train early. We were promised a seat, and we knew when we had to do something, but it was much too stressful.
This time I got everywhere I thought we needed to go with minimum hassle, and with only occasional help from the wife for reservations for where we wanted to stay. We booked hotels, but had the entire day to get to the location. If we wanted to add something to a schedule, or move things around, we could. This lead to a little vote after each place we went, as I could ask them what they wanted to see, and I could suggest the next logical place on the tour.
My parents are pretty good tourists. They are adventurous and world seeking, but have their limits as to what they can see each day. Eventually they’re going to get tried, and if they are tired, they complain. They’d rather have a good time than explore. My brother is a world explorer, but hates urban environments, people watching, and anything remotely cosmopolitan. Put a big rock and some trees in front of him, and he’ll be happy. Drop him in a crowded market with hundreds of people all selling crazy and interesting things, and he’ll crawl up the walls and complain. While my family got me started traveling the world, at times they aren’t the easiest people to take on a trip. We have very different lists of things we want to see, and when people all want to pull you in different directions, but don’t do anything on their own to make what they want to do a reality, it’s rough.
Having people that follow the blog, and are actively interested in seeing the country with me are the best people to take on a tour ever. My friends were up for everything I put in front of them, save eating live octopus. Hell, even I haven’t done that yet. I didn’t hear a word of complaint, and they had the same idea I did: If you are going to come half way across the world to see something, see everything you can, try everything you can, and do it well. Sleep when you are dead, or on the flight back home, whichever is first.
A week is a pretty short time to see Korea, but it’s almost doable with a few sacrifices, depending on the schedule and time of the year. While at first I thought the DMZ being at the beginning of the trip was going to be horrible, it actually worked out perfectly. Getting out of Seoul as quickly as possible and not returning there is highly advisable when I go, but this time I didn’t get any migraines from the crowds or pollution. If I had to book another set of tours, I might want 10 days for a trip to Sorrak mountain, or possibly Jeju island depending on the weather and what the people on the tour are into doing.
It was great to see friends again. It’s one of the few lasting connections I have with my culture back at home. We fell into the old routines like we always do. I’m glad I’ve kept up with the two friends that visited me, but I’m sad that I’ve lost touch with a few of the other guys I used to hang out with in college. It’s only natural that living on different sides of the world strain friendship, but people need to drop me the occasional email. I heard one of our mutual friends is married, and I didn’t even get a notification. I’m ONLINE people, no excuse not to send me an email. No, I will NOT join Facebook either. EVER.
I’d totally do another tour for other people if I was given the opportunity, but I can’t think of anyone else in the States that would be willing to come visit me. Setting out on a journey and getting a smile when you bring someone to a place you know is awesome is a wonderful feeling for me. Sharing all the stories about the various locations and things that happened on previous tours is also fun.
I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to do something like this, but I really enjoyed myself and had a great time. It was a special trip to be able to share my Korean exprience with my friends. It’s one of the reasons I started the blog and to continue to plug away at it every day. Without a touch stone like a blog to keep in touch, I’d drift away from my culture completely, and I’d lose a lot of my past. While I sometimes look back at my life in the States as a drifting memory, there are important reminders like family and friends that keep it alive for me. I want to thank my friends for visiting me, and giving up some much of their time and money to see what I’ve been talking about for the past seven years.
