Where Was I?

 

I left Macau and actually flew back to Bangkok for a quick stopover to meet some friends before continuing on to South Korea. 

The forecast wasn’t great for the week I had planned in Korea so I cut this country down to four days, which was enough to see the main attractions and try the food. 

Similar to Hong Kong, South Korea also had a very interesting history, which I would get to learn more about on my tour of the DMZ. 

 I also was able to sample some more excellent cuisine and even got to enjoy a baseball game. 

 

The Best Thing I Did in South Korea 

Visit the DMZ

 

This was one of the more interesting stops I would take anywhere around the world. 

Although it wasn’t really spectacular looking like some of the scenery in New Zealand or South Africa, the historical significance of this site, the Korean Demilitarized Zone, made for a fascinating afternoon on the border of South Korea and North Korea. 

Without diving into too much detail about the history of this buffer zone and how it came to be, North and South Korea have now been separate countries for nearly 70 years.  There remains tension between the two sides, with democratic South Korea and communist North Korea at odds over many ideological principles. 

I took a day tour from Seoul to the border, which has now become a fairly popular tourist attraction, despite it being an active military zone.   

I was surprised to learn from the guide how much of the younger generation Koreans were hopeful for a united Korea; one in which the two sides could become one country again.   There remains plenty of debate how realistic that goal may be, but it was interesting to hear the locals discuss the prospects of it coming to fruition. 

As a U.S. citizen, to many of us Americans, North Korea has always represented oppression and sometimes it’s hard to believe a country could exist in this fashion in the 21st century. 

To visit the DMZ and actually look into North Korea (through binoculars) and see the guards standing at their posts, farmers working in the fields, and the giant Kim Jong-Un statues, it was a bit surreal. 

 

Behind me here was North Korea.  As you can tell, it doesn’t look like anything special, but it was pretty fascinating getting a glimpse into that world.  

 

The tour lasted a few hours and there was more to it than just looking into North Korea. 

There was an infiltration tunnel that guests were allowed to walk through with hard hats on due to the low ceilings. It was once used by North Koreans to try and sneak into South Korea before it was discovered in 1978.     

Before arriving at the DMZ, the tour stopped at Dorasan Train station, which was recently restored and located just outside of the zone.   

There are many who view this place as a hope for the station that could one day connect the two countries again and allow people to move between them freely. 

  

It was filled with pictures of the two leaders, South Korea President Moon Jae-In and North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, shaking hands and showing unity at different summits.  

      

  

 

Other Highlights

Night Food Tour

 

One of the most common questions I’ve answered about the trip has been: “What’s the craziest thing you ate?”

I usually go with the live octopus I ate on a food tour in Seoul. 

I’m a big fan of both raw squid and grilled squid, but I had never tried squid that was still moving until this day. 

The key was to chew quickly before it could move in my mouth.  It did taste good and mixed with that meat underneath it was a nice dish, although I probably would prefer my squid to be dead if I had the choice.    

We did sample many other Korean delicacies and treats throughout Seoul, along with visiting one of the most famous food markets in the city featuring lots of Korean street food.

 

 

I also booked this Night Market Food Tour through Airbnb Experiences and once again had an awesome local guide, Jay, who was filled with information about Korean culture.  

 

 

Gyeongbokgung Palace

 

After the tour of the DMZ, I was able to check out the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was a royal palace in Korea built in the 14th century.  

 

 

The guards at the front still dressed in traditional Korean garb and I was lucky to get there just before the daily Changing of the Guard ceremony, which I later learned was one of the more popular attractions for tourists to witness in Seoul.  

 

 

Korean Baseball Game

 

This was a real treat.  

I had always heard about the passion from fans in the KBO League (Korean Baseball Organization), but I can attest one really can’t understand what sitting in the crowd for one these games is like unless they go themselves.  

 

 

As someone who has been to every MLB stadium (not to brag) and attended somewhere around 500 MLB games, getting to see baseball played in another country was something I really could appreciate.   

The game may have looked similar on the field and most of the rules were the same, but the atmosphere from the Korean crowd was unlike anything seen in an MLB stadium. 

The fans sang and chanted during every at bat.  Nine innings, non-stop.  There were fans from each team in the stadium, although the home team, the Kiwoom Heroes,  had a stronger presence.  Whichever team was at bat, those fans would have a chant for each player, and then chants when something good happened, something bad happened, or when nothing at all happened. 

One of my guides on a tour explained to me that many people went to the baseball games to let out steam after a day of working, so they liked to sing and chant throughout the game. 

It was fun to be apart of it and take it in, although I don’t know if I ever could get fully used to the idea of chanting for nine innings, regardless of the score.    

 

The Sugars

Highest high: 200

Lowest low: 64

Avg Morning: 123

Avg Afternoon: 114

Avg Night: 134

Insulin Pods: 2

Avg Basal Rate: 1.10

Emergency sugar supply: Skittles, glucose tablets, energy drinks

 

I was only in Korea for a few days and thankfully did not have any real eventful sugar mishaps.  

I had a hike planned for one of the days but it was wiped out due to weather.  

Because I don’t have any sugar stories to share from Korea, I’ll replace it with a quick one about laundry. 

 

The laundry question was one I would get from time to time when telling others about the trip.   

The answer was it really depended on where I was and what machines I had access to.  Sometimes I had a machine in my apartment, sometimes in my building, sometimes I would need to find a local laundromat, or sometimes I’d have to get creative and use a sink.    

My Airbnb in Seoul did have a washing machine, but because I could not read Korean, I would have to do some translating to figure out the settings.  

I became pretty good at using the Google Translate lens, which really was an amazing tool.   It allowed one to put their camera phone against words from any language and it would translate back into English or whatever native language you would want.  

Sometimes things would be lost in translation, but I tried to pick the words that were closest to ‘Normal Wash’ from the washing machine options.  Thankfully, I must have chosen an option close enough because I managed to complete the washing mission without the clothes ruining. 

 

 

  

And for my food dish, this dumpling spot in the back alleys of Seoul had this unbelievable plate of mixed dumplings that rivaled any I tasted around the world.  (And I sampled many!) 

This needed about 14 units of insulin.  

 

 

After wrapping up my quick trip to Seoul, it was time to head off to Tokyo for a few weeks in Japan.

Keep the sugar levels steady.

Jeremy 

 

 

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