Finding the Old Piece of Mind in Seoul 2019

In 2025, after finishing almost 8th visit to South Korea since 2022, I found this piece on my Google Drive. Read it again, it's quite odd to reflect what I did and felt about Korea after drown into purple ocean. I post it to put as document on how's my perspective can change 180 degree.
PS: I didn't change a bit of the content!

Seoul, March 2019. It was almost an impromptu trip during the craziest month of the year. No bragging, but March for my professional life considered as busiest moment where our annual event, Film Musik Makan held in that month, followed by traveling screening. Also, another regular side job also took place in March. This year, it was special because my baby sister tied the knots on the same month. In between, i knew there’s CISV training i was about to conduct in Seoul which i haven’t assign until the very last minute. So this is a bit of story to Seoul after almost six days training and one half day extended.

Never thought of Korea will be one of destinations i’d like to visit personally. Not a Korean Drama or Music Fan, only enjoy some of Korean BBQ or Soju. So to begin with, i was quite nervous when we apply visa in group. Even though it will be individual application, we applied together just to make it easier for each of us. It wasn’t that hard especially we were guaranteed by CISV Korea who invited us, on paper. All went well and finally it comes to the departing day. As mentioned before, my annual side job from BIBO took same month every year. This year, it took on the same day of my departure day to Seoul. The activity took place in Bogor (2hrs drive from Jakarta) and started since 7AM for preparation then ended around 3 PM followed by evaluation about an hour or two. It was me and several people from BIBO who also coming to Seoul as well, and our flight was around PM. Time wise, all still possible to do it together. I want to make it easier, simpler, less tiring and efficient. We checked on hotel a day before in Bogor, so we dont have to rush in the morning to venue. It means we have to carry all the luggage for Seoul straight all together. After finished event, we asked to take shower in hotel, but because we already checked out, we can only use the one on poolside. Then, we went straight to Soekarno-Hatta airport which located in Tangerang, around 4hrs drive from Bogor, traffic included. Voila! We made, even way earlier at the airport and check in counter not even open yet! The beauty of direct flight, no transit whatsoever, we landed 8hrs later in Incheon Airport with breezy 3’C. Went straight to hotel in Gangnam area, there was airport ‘limosine’ which looks more like van with 20-ish seating capacity. They charged us around $12 for one trip and drop us off exactly on Intercontinental Co-Ex Hotel, where we stayed for coming week. Most of days i already knew how it’s going to be. From breakfast, non stop training session ‘til lunch, adequate break, continued to noon session and ended by dinner. It depends on the day whether it has common session or you can actually can sneak out to see the city at night. Mine, wasn’t really any choice. It was either common sessionor meeting with another regional team member i have to attend. But i managed to went out some other night to explore Seoul itself. Gangnam area itself is a business area, if i can call like SCBD (one of business district area in Jakarta). Aside from Oppa Gangnam Style hit single that built into a statue, i didn’t see any speciality in this area. I heard if you want to have good plastic surgery, they have plenty in this area. I also heard, some of K-Pop fans went to SM Town to feed their hunger of their idols. Oh well, apparently that area wasn’t that boring. Maybe it was just me who enjoy the night stroll to Korean food restaurant filled with BBQ, rice and fish cake and of course, soju. It was nice to see the CGV Cinema chain in their origins location. That was also an endless night with C&B, chicken and beer, typical Korean fried chicken served with special sauce as side of beer. One of interesting stuff we did, we went to this salsa bar. One of our Korean live in Japan friend enjoys dancing a lot. So he took us dancing (not the club kinda thing) and there were quite lots local and some foreigner dance there. They charge us around $7 (dance or no dance) with one bottled beverage included. It was pretty fun even thou i didn’t dance at all. There goes our night! There was one day we went out for Gyeongbokgung - Palace and explore the area. It was nice to see some of the art installation at Korean Modern Art Museum, just across the palace, too bad i didn’t see it from the beginning of our trip otherwise i can just skip the palace instead. We went to Bukchon Hanok Village, some of friends want to wear hanbok and took picture there. It was pretty cool place, i had some of these tteobokki and potato chips, while others enjoy their photoshoot in hanbok. After days of training, i finally out to visit DMZ, the infamous demilitarized zone with a neutral area between North and South Korea. Until now, i’m curious with anything related to North Korea. Having heard all stories from friend who went there for dance performance to notorious film director who wasn’t able to gave Harry Potter DVD to his guide during trip to the North, i can’t imagine how’s the life of North Korean people compared to people on the South. My only view was only display from Guy Delisle’s graphic novel and David Guttenfelder’s instagram posts who went for a while to Pyeong Yang.

DMZ Trip itself was nicely advertise to tourist which you can choose between half or one day trip with a bus ride. There was pick up in our hotel early in the morning around 7AM and pick up some other people before enter the whole route. We drove almost 3hrs to the area called Panmunjoeon before entering at least three spots; Imjingak Park, Freedom Bridge, Dora Observatory and Dorasan Station. Since we took only half day tour, we finished just before lunch and arrived back to Seoul around 1PM. We book it through Klook for $70/person for whole trip. The whole trip led by certified South Korean tour guide and there was check point where you have to prepare your ID and sign some paper work. There was also note where we cannot take picture in some particular places. First stop, Imjingak Park where we can see the border between North and South. There was also letters dedicated to whom separated with families, letters from international organization who encourage ‘peace’ and unity between those two country. Next, a bit up in the hill we can observe North from Dora Observatory Deck. It wasn’t that clear but you can see how obvious the difference the area of North and South. Lastly, we went to Dorasan Station where also we saw miniature of Joint Security Area, the blue building which formerly become the exact check point between North and South soldier. I heard from other visitors who went there before 2017, soldiers look at each other’s eye with gun on their hands. After April 2018, where both country leaders met during Inter Korean Summit, JSA no longer available for visitor to visit (No!!). However, the miniature looks pretty convincing if you want to see replica of those leaders. Maybe if you plan to visit those place, check first with your agent. Personally, it wasn’t as expected before. Maybe because of the limited areas where we can visit or any other thing i understand after the visit (these thoughts only available on verbal discussion to avoid any misleading information :p) To resume, i kinda enjoy Seoul including their parks, art installation which spread all over the city and of course the sreet food! I even enjoy Seoul more than Tokyo (but love Japanese food for sure!) Maybe next time i can visit Busan, no, not for the Train to Busan thing but for Busan International Film Festival. Saranghyeo!