Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
Speaker 1: are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
Speaker 1: makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
Speaker 1: rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
Speaker 1: one way. So this is the platforms to hear and
Speaker 1: explore the stories of those who found lives they adore,
Speaker 1: the good, bad and ugly, The best and worst day
Speaker 1: will bear all the facets of seizing your yea. I'm
Speaker 1: Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned
Speaker 1: funentrepreneur who swapped the suits and heels to co found
Speaker 1: Matcha Maiden and Matcha Milk Bar. Sees The Ya is
Speaker 1: a series of conversations on finding a life you love
Speaker 1: and exploring the self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along
Speaker 1: the way. Lovely yighborhood, Welcome it to our Soul Diaries episode.
Speaker 1: As you know, Nick and I have just come home
Speaker 1: from five days in Soul for an incredibly special trip
Speaker 1: and for Nick's first time ever visiting South Korea. I
Speaker 1: won't talk too much in the intro as we cover
Speaker 1: pretty much everything we did in great detail each day,
Speaker 1: and it's already such a long episode once I put
Speaker 1: that all together. We haven't actually done a real time
Speaker 1: diary episode before, but it was so much fun, especially
Speaker 1: doing it together. So maybe you'll hear more of that,
Speaker 1: or maybe not totally. Let us know what you think.
Speaker 1: It's not that often that I can drag Nick onto
Speaker 1: the show, but he embraced it fully this time, and
Speaker 1: I laughed so hard listening back to this one. We're
Speaker 1: absolutely chaotic and unhinged, but I loved it, and I
Speaker 1: also feel like we've revealed far too much about the
Speaker 1: inner workings of our relationship. But we cover the highlights, surprises,
Speaker 1: and lessons from each day, from wearing traditional Korean harm
Speaker 1: books through the streets to Nick's second ever facial treatment
Speaker 1: from the demilitarized zone at the most armed border in
Speaker 1: the world, and Nick's journey with rubbish bins and fire hydrants,
Speaker 1: which will make more sense as you listen. You may
Speaker 1: know it was extra special for me being my country
Speaker 1: of birth and we reunited with my foster family during
Speaker 1: this trip, but we will be covering that in a
Speaker 1: separate episode. As there have been so many adoption related questions.
Speaker 1: I think I did an adoption episode quite a while ago,
Speaker 1: now and have a lot of new revelations after this trip,
Speaker 1: so if you've got any new ones yourself, there's still
Speaker 1: time to send them through and I will record a
Speaker 1: fresh set of insights about that in a coming episode.
Speaker 1: A very big thank you at the outset to our
Speaker 1: jet Star family for getting us there and back safely.
Speaker 1: As always, they always have the cheapest fairs with all
Speaker 1: different options and inclusions to tailor it to your style
Speaker 1: of travel, which makes such a difference. Jet Star flies
Speaker 1: direct from Sydney to Soul as you guys saw, I
Speaker 1: was already in Sydney doing a few gigs, so that
Speaker 1: was perfect and we'll be commencing direct flights out of
Speaker 1: Brisbane too from the first of February next year, so
Speaker 1: hopefully some of you are encouraged to book your trip in.
Speaker 1: I've had a few dms about people who have been
Speaker 1: convinced a book in a trip, which is amazing news.
Speaker 1: And if you do let me know I can send
Speaker 1: you much more detail. I'll pop the link in the
Speaker 1: show notes to the Jet Star Souls so you can
Speaker 1: have a look, and I hope you enjoy listening along.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our first Korea diary. We arrived last night.
Speaker 1: Nick has never been here before, and this is the
Speaker 1: end of the next day, so we've had one full
Speaker 1: day here.
Speaker 2: Was really chill day.
Speaker 1: We met up with one of our beautiful friends and
Speaker 1: had a very local focus day. So we haven't really
Speaker 1: fully started our itinery yet. But first I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, Nikki, what your own expectations were last night, Like,
Speaker 1: you've never been here before. This is a whole new
Speaker 1: country and that's pretty rare. We haven't done that in
Speaker 1: a long time. So what were you expecting A.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I've been to most parts of Asia, like
Speaker 3: all the major cities and countries in the region, and
Speaker 3: I just assumed that it was going to be similar
Speaker 3: to a lot of those. The history of the country
Speaker 3: I find very interesting, so I was very interested to
Speaker 3: come here. And how incredible the economic growths been that
Speaker 3: the nerd in me loves. The economic growth here in
Speaker 3: the last like thirty years has been huge, and it's
Speaker 3: a big tech place so and lots of cameras, so
Speaker 3: I like it here.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 1: Most people are like skincare, capets, shopping, and you're like
Speaker 1: economic growth.
Speaker 3: No. But I mean, if you think about like it
Speaker 3: was in like when I was a very small child,
Speaker 3: it was a third world country and now it's Look
Speaker 3: you've got LG, Samsung, Kia, Hyunde all from this place.
Speaker 3: And then obviously skincare. It's massive in skincare and a
Speaker 3: lot of the major skin companies manufacture here. It's incredible.
Speaker 3: It's an incredible place. And also the people are awesome.
Speaker 2: Expt you except me love.
Speaker 1: Literally, if you ever wanted to understand how Nick's brain works,
Speaker 1: this is how economic growth is what I expected about career.
Speaker 2: But it's true.
Speaker 1: I mean I was adopted from here in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: nine and it was basically a third world country and
Speaker 1: it has just propelled onto the global scene in so
Speaker 1: many different industries. I mean, it's amazing in terms of
Speaker 1: like what you actually saw on the street today walking around,
Speaker 1: what did you expect it to look like or you know,
Speaker 1: did you have like a vision in your head?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so far, it's pretty similar. It's super clean,
Speaker 3: it's not as busy as I thought it was going
Speaker 3: to be. I thought the streets were going to be
Speaker 3: Hong Kong esque bustling and stuff like that, and people
Speaker 3: are a lot less rude, not rude, like culturally pushy
Speaker 3: like in other parts of Asia. Here it's very like,
Speaker 3: no one bumps into you or anything like that. Super clean.
Speaker 3: Even though I haven't found a trash can in the
Speaker 3: last twenty four hours I've been looking. I'm still carrying
Speaker 3: my coffee from yesterday.
Speaker 1: That was one of your first impressions this morning. So
Speaker 1: we started the day. We had a very late flight
Speaker 1: last night, so we kind of had a slower start
Speaker 1: to the morning. It was raining also in the first
Speaker 1: few hours of the day, and then it cleared up
Speaker 1: and became beautiful. But we just were staying in Beyoonda,
Speaker 1: which is like where it's all happening.
Speaker 2: So he went for a little walk to Nike.
Speaker 1: Ironically, that was like our first off because I was
Speaker 1: writing with the will go shopping, and your first comment
Speaker 1: was a everyone is so polite because there's no cars
Speaker 1: honking on the road despite hectic traffic. Everyone was just
Speaker 1: so lovely and courteous, and b there are no rash
Speaker 1: cans anywhere.
Speaker 3: And the guy I walked into the two Nike, I
Speaker 3: was drinking your coffee. First off, the guy watches me
Speaker 3: walking with it says a low to me, and then
Speaker 3: I'm walking in there shopping for a bit and I
Speaker 3: take a sip in my coffee and goes there. Everyone
Speaker 3: taps me and goes, oh, sorry, but you're not allowed
Speaker 3: to drink your coffee in here. You're allowed to carry it,
Speaker 3: but you're not allowed to drink it. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: no worries, that's fine. One. I don't quite get the
Speaker 3: difference between carrying it and drinking it. But if that
Speaker 3: was anywhere else, they would have just stopped me when
Speaker 3: I walked in and said no, you can't bring it in there,
Speaker 3: Like they wouldn't trust me to just not drink the
Speaker 3: coffee in here and just carry it. Like yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3: It was really nice, and it's just so clean and
Speaker 3: everyone's just so polite.
Speaker 1: I love the trust system. I too, was like, are
Speaker 1: you going to monitor if I take a simple or not?
Speaker 1: Like why are you letting me keep holding it? How
Speaker 1: do you know I won't be tempted? But I think
Speaker 1: that's like, yeah, indicative of how courteous and respectful everyone
Speaker 1: is here so far. So as you guys know, I've
Speaker 1: been a couple of times, but not since twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: and that was a work trip, so I haven't done
Speaker 1: any really touristy stuff since two thousand and two when
Speaker 1: the World Cup was on and I was so young then.
Speaker 1: So we're kind of experiencing all of this again for
Speaker 1: the first time because I didn't go to many of
Speaker 1: these areas. So we have a lot of things on
Speaker 1: our list for the next I think we're here for
Speaker 1: five or six days and we'll take you through the
Speaker 1: ideal itinery to get a little bit of the old
Speaker 1: town of Soul, the new areas, skincare, technology, food, drink.
Speaker 1: There's so much to do, but today was really We
Speaker 1: caught out with our friend Jade, who we haven't seen
Speaker 1: in a long time, who lives here. She was born
Speaker 1: in Seoul, came to live for in Australia for a
Speaker 1: little while and then came back to Soeol And we
Speaker 1: kind of didn't put anything on the list today, which
Speaker 1: is really nice. We just had a proper local. We
Speaker 1: knew she was picking us up and we didn't know
Speaker 1: anything else, and that was the nicest day.
Speaker 3: So she was she was our soul mate.
Speaker 1: I thought I would crack first on the funds. Well done,
Speaker 1: thank you, So yeah.
Speaker 2: We had a lovely walk.
Speaker 1: Around the area and then Jade picked us up at
Speaker 1: twelve thirty and it was just Oh, she's just so lovely.
Speaker 1: It was so so nice to see her. And she
Speaker 1: took us on a little locals tour, starting with an
Speaker 1: incredible lunch and unfortunately I can't even tell you what
Speaker 1: we ate or what it was called, because she just
Speaker 1: ordered for us.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to lie, and she goes, oh, I've ordered.
Speaker 3: There was only like four things, and then she just
Speaker 3: pointed out them and I looked at the pictures and
Speaker 3: I don't know what we're in for here, and it
Speaker 3: was delicious. I had like four different types of Kim.
Speaker 3: She was incredible.
Speaker 1: It's definitely one of those places I think a lot
Speaker 1: of local experiences are like that, when you walk in
Speaker 1: and you're just like, this is not going to go well,
Speaker 1: and everything looks a bit questionable.
Speaker 2: But everything was amazing.
Speaker 1: The coolest thing about Korean food is that at every meal,
Speaker 1: they'll bring you like one hundred different little mini appetiser
Speaker 1: plates first, no matter what, like, they'll always bring out
Speaker 1: a million little plates.
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's what I just got here.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well that's a perfect segue into our little activity
Speaker 4: that we're going to do each day, which is to
Speaker 4: pick a highlight, a surprise, and something you learned about
Speaker 4: Korea or Korean culture or the language or people.
Speaker 2: So your highlight, your surprise, and your lesson.
Speaker 3: My highlight was probably probably that lunch or maybe just
Speaker 3: when had a nice little tea and I've looked where
Speaker 3: was there.
Speaker 1: We were around book Chon, which is the really ancient area.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of high rise areas.
Speaker 1: That are really modern, and then Bookton's kind of like
Speaker 1: the ancient village where all the shopfronts are still really
Speaker 1: old and beautiful, and Jade took us to it. I'd
Speaker 1: really tucked away hidden tea house that's super famous, and
Speaker 1: we had all the marchery.
Speaker 3: So that was that was a highlight on Walter was
Speaker 3: the other two questions.
Speaker 1: You're surprised something that like you didn't expect that you
Speaker 1: saw today, And it's hard because we didn't do as
Speaker 1: much as we probably will every other day. But something
Speaker 1: that surprised you and then something that you learned.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was definitely surprised about the cleanliness. The
Speaker 3: cleanliness is crazy, especially considering the lack of rubbish bins.
Speaker 2: That's a real issue for you isn't it.
Speaker 3: Well, it's good. I mean, obviously they don't have as
Speaker 3: much rubbish to throw out, so that's a good thing.
Speaker 3: And just well so far, just how the people aren't
Speaker 3: pushing into me and stuff like that, like to sounds
Speaker 3: so weird, but like culturally it's obviously the way people
Speaker 3: walk around streets and stuff is very different and a
Speaker 3: lot of parts of Asia and the people are in
Speaker 3: a hurry, you know what I mean. Especially it's a
Speaker 3: lot of people in a small city. It can feel
Speaker 3: like it's it's not rude, but it feels like it
Speaker 3: is because we're used to our culture. So you're getting
Speaker 3: bumped around if you're walking slowly and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: But it's not like that at all here so far,
Speaker 3: and it's been lovely. It's been just nice and everyone's polite.
Speaker 2: And a lesson you learned today, be.
Speaker 3: Prepared to carry your coffee cup for a long period
Speaker 3: of time.
Speaker 1: A lesson about Korea and Korean culture.
Speaker 3: Don't drink your coffee cup in Nike.
Speaker 2: You learned one word today. I'm very proud of you,
Speaker 2: Mohammed day.
Speaker 3: I forgot to do it.
Speaker 2: So closeuse.
Speaker 3: Come.
Speaker 2: I need to edit in a tumbleweed and.
Speaker 3: What it come to Hamida, Come to Hamida.
Speaker 1: Oh well done, the intonation and everything well done. I'm
Speaker 1: really proud of you. That's a great lesson. And we've
Speaker 1: only been here for one day. Tomorrow we have a
Speaker 1: big day again. I'm going to cut us off now.
Speaker 1: That was day one. It was amazing. We'll have more
Speaker 1: few in the next couple of days. And we're also
Speaker 1: going to be visiting the demilitizer as well, which will
Speaker 1: be absolutely fascinating. And then I'll be taking Nick back
Speaker 1: to the orphanage where I was born and they have
Speaker 1: organized for my foster parents to come and meet us,
Speaker 1: so that will be a really wonderful experience.
Speaker 2: And we will be back shortly. Good morning.
Speaker 1: We are back after day two, but it's actually been
Speaker 1: a little bit. We did Day one in the afternoon
Speaker 1: and then we headed out for a little night adventure
Speaker 1: to see Yongdong where we're staying at night, and it is.
Speaker 3: A vibe be going on, isn't there.
Speaker 2: It's so much cooler.
Speaker 1: I mean it's cool during the day, but at night
Speaker 1: it just it happened to be a Saturday night as well,
Speaker 1: and so among all of the Neon all of the
Speaker 1: skincare shops. There was like this a massive night market
Speaker 1: going on in the middle, which was so amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those potatoes are unreal, to those twisty ones.
Speaker 2: Nick was so excited.
Speaker 1: It was like a little kid having the twisty potato.
Speaker 1: You guys know, the Korean twisty potato street food things.
Speaker 1: You saw them and I haven't seen your eyes light
Speaker 1: up like that in.
Speaker 2: A long time.
Speaker 3: I love them. They're so good.
Speaker 1: So my lesson for today, you guys know, we're doing
Speaker 1: highlights surprise and lesson is that those twisty potato things,
Speaker 1: which some people call potato tornadoes in Korean are called
Speaker 1: hoyoti gumja. So that was my lesson, but we'll get
Speaker 1: to yours on a second. Firstly, what have we done?
Speaker 1: So we did Myongdong at night and just had a
Speaker 1: little wander, which was I think it's the coolest suburb
Speaker 1: if you're looking for someone to stay. It's such a
Speaker 1: great area. And there was so much going on and
Speaker 1: everything was open so late. But then day two, officially
Speaker 1: the next day was massive. So we started with hiring
Speaker 1: Hardbox to go to Young Bokbung Palace. I hope I
Speaker 1: said that right, and I somehow wrote Nique into.
Speaker 2: Wearing a hard bog with me around the streets. How
Speaker 2: was it?
Speaker 3: It was actually reasonably comfortable, except I couldn't reach my pockets,
Speaker 3: but I was comfort I was happy with it.
Speaker 2: I was so impressed.
Speaker 1: I did not think, because you're not a big costume,
Speaker 1: doing things like that really make you stand out in
Speaker 1: a crab. But everyone else was doing it as well,
Speaker 1: and it was so nice to see it. Like i'd
Speaker 1: heard that it's quite a thing that you do. You
Speaker 1: hire the harmbock, and if you do, you get into
Speaker 1: the palace for free, which was also really sweet, and
Speaker 1: I thought we'd kind of be the only really truesty
Speaker 1: people doing it, but everyone on the street was in
Speaker 1: these glorious traditional hambogs and it was really beautiful.
Speaker 3: That is girl math. It's like a dollar to get
Speaker 3: in the without a handbock on, and it costs you
Speaker 3: money to hire the handbox. So's that's the worst girl math.
Speaker 1: It's great girl math. It was basically basically made money
Speaker 1: from getting in for free.
Speaker 3: Look, it was fine because probably seventy percent of the
Speaker 3: people in there were wearing handbocks, So it's quite cool
Speaker 3: because you look around and it can you can really
Speaker 3: understand what the place would have looked like because everyone's
Speaker 3: almost in traditional garb. Like it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And I think in it in like this day and
Speaker 1: age where everyone like this tradition has less and less
Speaker 1: of a role.
Speaker 2: I actually loved so.
Speaker 1: Much that so many people who went bothered, like you know,
Speaker 1: you do have to go to some to find a
Speaker 1: hard bock place, you have to get in it. You
Speaker 1: tried them on, you know, in the middle of the
Speaker 1: street in this full blown gear. But it was so
Speaker 1: beautiful to look around as everyone in them and.
Speaker 3: It's without that cultural appropriation aspect of local film's going.
Speaker 3: It's not like you know what I mean, it's not
Speaker 3: it's really difficult now to actually show off, but how
Speaker 3: beautiful the dresses and cultures are in different countries because
Speaker 3: people don't want to get in trouble for it, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And it was really cute to
Speaker 3: see that because but everyone was having so much fun.
Speaker 3: And I think because there's such easy outfits to put
Speaker 3: on and wear and stuff like that, and so accessible,
Speaker 3: like it's like ten bucks or something like that to
Speaker 3: hire it for an hour or so.
Speaker 2: It was so amazing.
Speaker 1: I expected it to be much more expensive because they're
Speaker 1: beautiful items. So that was my highlight for the day
Speaker 1: I was living. You guys know I'm adopted, so I
Speaker 1: don't but I still have hard bocks from all the
Speaker 1: different times that we've come here. So I had one
Speaker 1: when I was a baby, then I had one when
Speaker 1: I was four, then when I was twelve, and I
Speaker 1: have an adult one somewhere but nowhere near as beautiful
Speaker 1: as these. But I feel like I entered my Korean
Speaker 1: era was I'm not living my best life twirling and
Speaker 1: having the best time, and you saw so many other
Speaker 1: girls who were having the best type like you took
Speaker 1: photos for how many different people.
Speaker 3: So many, so many, it's crazy. And the little kids
Speaker 3: having selfies with me for some reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my.
Speaker 1: God, that was another one of my highlights. I think
Speaker 1: you must look like a famous actor or something, because
Speaker 1: all of these little kids kept coming over to Nick
Speaker 1: and being like selfie, selfie, and then their parents would
Speaker 1: take photos of the kids getting the selfie with you.
Speaker 3: It was strange. I'm not quite sure what's going on.
Speaker 1: So that was definitely my highlight. Was just, yeah, being
Speaker 1: transported into a different era. The palace is from back
Speaker 1: in the thirteen hundreds. It got burnt down in the
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds, then rebuilt. It got completely demolished in one
Speaker 1: of the wars, I think in ninety percent of it
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, and then again rebuilt. But some
Speaker 1: the main sort of big halls are still rebuilt from
Speaker 1: the original ruins and there are seven thousand, seven hundred rooms.
Speaker 1: The intricacy in the detail was incredible and your highlight
Speaker 1: is something else that we managed to see, which I
Speaker 1: would highly recommend you do if you get the chance.
Speaker 3: It's the Changing of the Guard did the same palace.
Speaker 3: And for any of those guys out there that played
Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat when they were younger, the guys, the guys
Speaker 3: literally looked like characters had a Mortal Kombat and they
Speaker 3: had the wildest facial hair. It's funny, but it was
Speaker 3: pretty cool. It was really cool to see, like the
Speaker 3: traditions were cool, even like the music they were playing.
Speaker 3: These instruments are walking along and I'm like that guy
Speaker 3: playing a shell, remember the sky just blowing on a shell,
Speaker 3: and then the.
Speaker 1: Other guy was playing like a kazoo. I was like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? But it was like a full
Speaker 1: marching band, Like we knew the changing of the guards
Speaker 1: happened twice a day, and we rushed to kind of
Speaker 1: get there. But I thought it would be like literally
Speaker 1: a five to ten minute thing where like one guy
Speaker 1: comes out of his box and the other guy goes in.
Speaker 1: But they were like, how many people, like a fifty
Speaker 1: people procession with marching drums. They all had different instruments,
Speaker 1: and they had like flags, and they re enacted.
Speaker 3: Some dude with a shell the shell guy.
Speaker 1: And then they would say over the loudspeaker in like
Speaker 1: four different languages, so they did Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese.
Speaker 1: They'd explain why each person was waving the different flag
Speaker 1: to acknowledge different parts of changing.
Speaker 2: It actually went for ages.
Speaker 3: The English translation will go, he's blowing the drum right now,
Speaker 3: just to let the other person command and know what's
Speaker 3: going on. I'm like, whoa, it was so random, so
Speaker 3: turned on right now.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's.
Speaker 1: Quite re actually was supposed to have. But if you
Speaker 1: do get a chance, it was really special, like it
Speaker 1: went for quite a while. It was really true to
Speaker 1: so they were saying, all the costumes are exactly true
Speaker 1: to how it would have been done from literally the
Speaker 1: thirteen hundreds, and.
Speaker 2: Even true to the facial hair. You're right, yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: Like and I don't know how these guys get normal
Speaker 3: life with that facial hair, but it's pretty wild. Literally
Speaker 3: more to combat characters.
Speaker 2: I think kind of the matter scythe it's had to.
Speaker 3: Full gnarly weapon that one. No one like, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: find the character name and I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Just pop it in the show notes for anyone who's
Speaker 1: curious listening. Anyway, it was a really beautiful traditional and
Speaker 1: also it happens against one of the biggest gates, but
Speaker 1: the backdrop behind the gates that you're watching them from
Speaker 1: is skyscrapers, which is also such a cool contrast. It's
Speaker 1: just such a beautiful palace and.
Speaker 3: The other side is mountains, so it's pretty cool. Like
Speaker 3: you can still you've got that cool juxtaposition of old
Speaker 3: and new when you're looking one way and then you
Speaker 3: look the other way, and you could like almost especially
Speaker 3: with everyone dressed in handbox, you could almost just imagine
Speaker 3: what it was like then because you can't see buildings
Speaker 3: facing the other way. You just see the like the
Speaker 3: mountain ranges behind it all not mountain ranges, but the
Speaker 3: hills behind it. It looks like it's quite magical, but
Speaker 3: it is a magical place.
Speaker 1: And that comes back to your whole like economics comment
Speaker 1: from day on that that is what is so called
Speaker 1: about this city is it's such a juxtaposition of like
Speaker 1: traditional old ancient buildings and a very different economy coming
Speaker 1: now to this extreme modernity.
Speaker 2: In like Myongdong.
Speaker 1: You would have no idea that we were surrounded by
Speaker 1: mountains and ancient palaces. It's so modern, which kind of
Speaker 1: leads me to my surprise for the day, which is
Speaker 1: that Soul became the capital when this main there's quite
Speaker 1: a few palaces, but this main one Gyeongbokung where we
Speaker 1: were for the changing of the guards. When that got
Speaker 1: finished being built, Soul became the capital and has remained
Speaker 1: since then because of its fun shui being around mountains
Speaker 1: and river. So it's surrounded by They're not hills, they're
Speaker 1: thirty three mountains and the river has like the best
Speaker 1: funk shue for a capital city.
Speaker 3: So that's that's isn't punctuey Chinese?
Speaker 2: Yeah, But it's.
Speaker 1: Still like the principles of its ideal location in nature
Speaker 1: based on like, yeah, the principles of how energy flows
Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah, I was reading. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the green version is, but that's why it was kind
Speaker 1: of chosen as a city.
Speaker 2: So that was my surprise.
Speaker 3: Interesting well, speaking of funk Shue, my surprise is why
Speaker 3: the functue of the industrial design around here and their
Speaker 3: architecture doesn't include a rubbish bin because I'm still carrying
Speaker 3: my coffee cup in the first day I found one.
Speaker 3: I actually found one garbage bin the entire time I
Speaker 3: was here, and it's the cleanest place in the world,
Speaker 3: and you just there's just no, there's no cabbage bins.
Speaker 1: This is a continuation of your surprise from day one,
Speaker 1: which is still the last. All day you were like,
Speaker 1: I still haven't seen one. I still haven't seen one,
Speaker 1: but I've seen so many fire hydrates, Like where are
Speaker 1: the bins?
Speaker 3: It's cut my coffee, Like I usually have two or
Speaker 3: three coffees. I've only had one a day because I'd
Speaker 3: never get to put the coffee cup down. So it's no,
Speaker 3: but it's stunning. It's amazing that you don't need to
Speaker 3: like if that, if they had the little amount of
Speaker 3: coffee cups like that in Melbourne, where would be stepping
Speaker 3: over rubbish just to walk down straight like it's incredible.
Speaker 1: So speaking of coffee, that is where we wandered to
Speaker 1: after we got out of our Hambucks. I had hired
Speaker 1: mine for the day, so I was ready to wear
Speaker 1: it all day. Nick not so much so you know,
Speaker 1: changing back out of them, but you can do by
Speaker 1: the hour higher or full day hire or multi day higher.
Speaker 1: And one of the places where people also where Harmbox,
Speaker 1: is to Bookchon, which is the ancient area where a
Speaker 1: lot of the old Hannocks, which is like the very
Speaker 1: traditional again dating back to the thirteen hundreds, the Harnock.
Speaker 2: Houses are still.
Speaker 1: I think it's the largest population of these houses that
Speaker 1: have still been preserved. And a little while ago there
Speaker 1: was a whole thing about knocking them down and then
Speaker 1: everyone protested.
Speaker 2: So it's this.
Speaker 1: Beautifully preserved village where a lot of the old Hannock
Speaker 1: houses are still residential. So like it's a fully tourist
Speaker 1: area now and there's all these signs saying please be quiet,
Speaker 1: keep your voices down because we live here. But there
Speaker 1: are also all these little stalls and cafes. There's a
Speaker 1: sulasa in there. That's where we went to the Oslock
Speaker 1: tea house the other day. So we went in search
Speaker 1: of a coffee and to go for a little wander
Speaker 1: in this beautiful area where again there's you walk sort
Speaker 1: of upper hill and there's all these beautiful traditional houses,
Speaker 1: but then you look down the hill and there's the
Speaker 1: city skyscraper skyline.
Speaker 2: It was so beautiful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's so nice. It was. I Like, I
Speaker 3: like it when places retain that culture, Like it's so
Speaker 3: easy when you've got a country that has economically grown
Speaker 3: so fast, like thousands of send increase on their GDPA
Speaker 3: over last things, Like you know, I read somewhere it's
Speaker 3: like seventeen hundred percent increase in GDPs And so I've
Speaker 3: been alive in the last forty years. Whoa, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think Australia it's like eight hundred in that time
Speaker 3: and we've had a big increase. But like I mean,
Speaker 3: think about LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, like that they're all
Speaker 3: from this country and look at the growth of those
Speaker 3: brands in last year. So do you think about how
Speaker 3: this entire country has gotten to be, Like it's so modern,
Speaker 3: everything's so modern. It's to be able to retain those
Speaker 3: properties and make them still look the way they are
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, and also allow people to wander residentially.
Speaker 3: Imagine someone in a really nice house in Melbourne and
Speaker 3: you people just wandering through them and taking photos through
Speaker 3: like that wouldn't happen, and it's lovely that they allow
Speaker 3: it to happen. But it's beautiful and it's just so
Speaker 3: safe here too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was your surprise, wasn't it? So my surprise?
Speaker 1: I had so many different surprises, but was yeah, about
Speaker 1: the Soul being the capital city, and also like your
Speaker 1: main surprise was the bins, but your other surprise was
Speaker 1: something Jade's partner told you about about safety here.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was like you could leave your laptop just
Speaker 3: sitting on a table and walk off. So he left
Speaker 3: his bag in a park on a bench, and he
Speaker 3: forgot about it, and he went back the next day
Speaker 3: and it was still sitting there, like people just won't
Speaker 3: touch it. It's apparently just the crimes for so longs.
Speaker 3: I haven't done my research on the crime stats and
Speaker 3: stuff like that, but apparently it's crazy safe here. So
Speaker 3: it's pretty cool. There's no graffiti except for artistic graffiti.
Speaker 3: I saw one bit of gre yesterday in it day one,
Speaker 3: and that was the neatest, cleanest bit of graffiti on
Speaker 3: this plain wall. It was like a smiley face and thing.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it's probably commissioned. And another funny one
Speaker 3: was some of the driving. He is awful. But they
Speaker 3: have their warning lights on, so if you put your
Speaker 3: warning lights on here, you can pretty much do anything.
Speaker 3: Like It's like it's like when someone gives you a
Speaker 3: wave and says sorry, and you're like in the car
Speaker 3: and you're so angry and you're like, oh, it's fine.
Speaker 3: Then you said sorry. It's like that with their warning lights,
Speaker 3: people just stop and just put their warning lights on.
Speaker 3: Everyone just waits and then but if they didn't have
Speaker 3: a warning lights, yeah, I mean it's like it's this
Speaker 3: little rule of God, apparently according to the sky I
Speaker 3: was talking to. And it's a funny place.
Speaker 1: It is so interesting, how like how sh meeks some
Speaker 1: other really modern like in book John, there's obviously all
Speaker 1: the old places, but the tea house that we went to,
Speaker 1: which is kind of nestled in among all the old buildings,
Speaker 1: was so modern, like this three story industrial awesome modern place.
Speaker 1: But then at the same time they've retained my favorite
Speaker 1: part of Asian culture, which is all the cutest cartoon
Speaker 1: characters for everything.
Speaker 2: Remember the hippos we saw yesterday.
Speaker 1: I was like, I want that tattooed on me because
Speaker 1: it's the cutest hippo cartoon I have ever saw.
Speaker 3: The hippo was wearing a handbop.
Speaker 1: It's so cute. Outside the police stations there's these like
Speaker 1: cute happy police in cut little cartoon character.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's so sweet.
Speaker 1: But another thing that we tried to do, so we
Speaker 1: had a big day today of ticking off things. So
Speaker 1: we had this beautiful cultural traditional morning and then we
Speaker 1: went in search of a couple of the things that
Speaker 1: were on all the tourist lists. So one of them
Speaker 1: was Onion Cafe, which is again like a really beautiful
Speaker 1: ancient architecture but a really modern Melbourne level coffee joint
Speaker 1: and cafe. Inside the que was like two hundred people,
Speaker 1: so we didn't go inside.
Speaker 3: You don't love a q doo No, that was a
Speaker 3: ridiculous cue that was so long. What was it was
Speaker 3: peak time though, on and on a Sunday, so I
Speaker 3: get it. And then we went to that Michelin Star
Speaker 3: dumpling place, and there was a pretty solid Q and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh I I don't like ques at the
Speaker 3: best of time. And we stood in it and moved
Speaker 3: so fast. So if you ever do to go to
Speaker 3: the Michelin Star, if you want to go to that
Speaker 3: dumpling place which is cheap ads and it was really
Speaker 3: as beautiful. Yeah, don't don't worry. The Q moves so fast.
Speaker 3: And get the noodle soup no, no, get what was it,
Speaker 3: the one ton soup and the dumplings. Yeah, don't worry
Speaker 3: with the cold ones.
Speaker 1: So we had I'd seen it on a few lists,
Speaker 1: but it was actually a couple of people who sent
Speaker 1: me dms who were like, you have to go to
Speaker 1: kur Ja. There's a few different branches, but the que
Speaker 1: was like down the street and it moved. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean like we got seated within five minutes. There's only
Speaker 1: four things on the menu too, are hot to a
Speaker 1: cold probably go with them. Yeah, as you said, the
Speaker 1: hot things. The other two noodle soups that were cold,
Speaker 1: which kind of surprised you.
Speaker 3: They were nice, but the hot ones were way nicer.
Speaker 3: And sets one with the kim cheese that was really hot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was hot.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of kim.
Speaker 3: There a lot of kim cheese and they're different shapes
Speaker 3: and stuff. And I don't not a huge kimchi fan
Speaker 3: in Melbourne, but when I'm in a different place, I'll
Speaker 3: try everything. And it's growing on me. It's growing on me.
Speaker 3: We haven't ediblegogi yet.
Speaker 1: I've had it for breakfast every day. I just felt
Speaker 1: like it. I don't know anyway, And then so it
Speaker 1: was a big day, so we did that. We came home,
Speaker 1: had a little rest, we walked. It's really nice. We've
Speaker 1: been walking a lot, which is really lovely. I also
Speaker 1: learned it's the longest metro in the world. It's like
Speaker 1: nine hundred fiftyilometers. We haven't touched it because we've been
Speaker 1: either in cars or walking.
Speaker 2: So we had a little.
Speaker 1: Rest and then we headed back out for nighttime again
Speaker 1: to check out the markets here, which are again a
Speaker 1: huge feature.
Speaker 2: There's Guangjong Guang Jung.
Speaker 3: Been practicing all day.
Speaker 1: There's also Num Damon, there's Dong Daemon. There's a heaps
Speaker 1: of markets that we chose Guangjong on the recommendation of
Speaker 1: our dear local friend Jade.
Speaker 2: And it was a lot. It was awesome, so many smells,
Speaker 2: so much going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot going on. But I've been to
Speaker 3: a lot of these markets so that where like a
Speaker 3: lot of them that you'll bitch. Look, they'll cook the
Speaker 3: food in front of you and you're just sitting there,
Speaker 3: which is pretty cool. I probably trust this street food
Speaker 3: more than most. Don't reckon like most, like in Thailand,
Speaker 3: you just know it's that you. Yeah, I mean like
Speaker 3: in a in Thailand's and and different countries. Is great
Speaker 3: for Asian countries, is great for the restaurant food, but
Speaker 3: the street food is pretty much for locals only. And
Speaker 3: this here, I reckon you'd be probably pretty good. I
Speaker 3: really want to try one of those pancakes. I wish
Speaker 3: we got on, but we didn't have time. But it
Speaker 3: was beautiful. It was it was It was just I
Speaker 3: don't know, it's just it's not so in your face,
Speaker 3: like people yelling at you and all that type of
Speaker 3: stuff like some some markets you go to, like food
Speaker 3: and stuff. That was just really really interesting.
Speaker 1: No one really like hustles you like, you know when
Speaker 1: you're going past sometimes in some places and they'll touch
Speaker 1: you and be like come.
Speaker 2: And sit down, Come and sit down.
Speaker 1: They were all just these Most of them were like
Speaker 1: beautiful older Korean ladies cooking what you are sure is
Speaker 1: a family recipe for like the whole you know, generations
Speaker 1: cooking it right in front of you, and people sitting
Speaker 1: on these like little very rudimentary like camping chairs, but
Speaker 1: half locals, half to USA recond or maybe even more locals,
Speaker 1: or just being literally served from the pan. All kinds
Speaker 1: of different street food and it was such an experience.
Speaker 2: And then we went on.
Speaker 1: To Itta One, which is the nightlife. I would say
Speaker 1: it's probably a more international suburb, really cool, lots of
Speaker 1: like amazing boutiques. If you're from Melbourne, it's very like
Speaker 1: Chapel Street versus a Chatty or a Melbourne CBD like boutique.
Speaker 1: Kind of amazing shopfronts, very modern, lots of international food.
Speaker 2: For the first time.
Speaker 1: We haven't really seen that many places like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there was. It was candle shops and like
Speaker 3: but like well, like a French named clothing store that's
Speaker 3: in a sanserra font with lots of negative space and
Speaker 3: you walk in down there's seven pieces of clothing on
Speaker 3: the rack and they're all nine grand each like stuff
Speaker 3: like that. But that was it was really cool and
Speaker 3: big open but again big open streets clean that one
Speaker 3: we were walking through in the dark, and not one
Speaker 3: second I felt unsafe. It was. That was lovely.
Speaker 1: It's pretty much the we've been told it's like the
Speaker 1: clubbing town where all of the clubs and cool bars are,
Speaker 1: which it's not what we were kind of looking for.
Speaker 1: We just wanted to experience it. But I think because
Speaker 1: we went on Sunday night, it was a little bit
Speaker 1: quieter than it would have been on a Saturday, but
Speaker 1: even still, like there was no like alcohol, you know,
Speaker 1: that alcoholic smell in bar suburbs.
Speaker 2: There just was like it was so pristine.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Have I mentioned the fire hydrants on here?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: So there's a little fire hydrants here. They've got the
Speaker 3: little stands. They look like they've just won a price.
Speaker 3: They look like a little trophy. To show you photo.
Speaker 3: I found another one yesterday. They're so cute. They they've
Speaker 3: got these little stands and I'm just like, oh, well done, buddy.
Speaker 2: Every day Nick walk was past one of them.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, good job, buddy, good job, You're doing
Speaker 1: such a good job.
Speaker 3: They're so funny. They've got this little little chunky, little
Speaker 3: fire extinguished in a little stand with like gold riding
Speaker 3: on them. They look like they got Employee of the
Speaker 3: Month underneath or something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't get why the gold pluk doesn't really make
Speaker 1: Nick's gone to find a photo to upload to the
Speaker 1: show notes for your reference.
Speaker 3: Wait, do you see this one?
Speaker 2: They can't see, but it's audio. They're so cute.
Speaker 1: Anyway, while Nick goes and finds that that was our
Speaker 1: gigantic day two. It was absolutely incredible. I'm falling in
Speaker 1: love with the city all over again. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: last time I was here, I didn't really get to
Speaker 1: do much of this truthy stuff. So doing it together
Speaker 1: kind of for the first time, or for the first
Speaker 1: time I was twelve, has been really special. This morning,
Speaker 1: we got up and we're about to go and.
Speaker 2: Spend some time in Gangnam for I'm so proud. Yes,
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: We're going to go visit Gangnam, which is a really
Speaker 1: cool shopping district. It's got so much it's really busy.
Speaker 1: It's got that massive library that probably a lot of
Speaker 1: you've seen, as I have on Instagram and TikTok, that
Speaker 1: just has like floor to ceiling, but like multi level,
Speaker 1: Like the ceiling is like goes up multiple levels without
Speaker 1: any What am I saying?
Speaker 2: Do you know what it matter? How would you describe it?
Speaker 3: Goes up multiple level like as in there's not anything.
Speaker 1: The library that has like floor to ceiling book bookshelves,
Speaker 1: but like there's no different flaws like this.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, the really cool library. Look up really cool
Speaker 1: library and soul. You'll understand. It is the one where
Speaker 1: there's just like.
Speaker 3: They're going to google really cool library and soul.
Speaker 1: That's what I googled, and it brought up co extermel. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so we're going to go explore that. We're going to
Speaker 1: go shopping. We've got facials booked for tonight for the
Speaker 1: you know, Korean skincare side of things. I can't believe
Speaker 1: you're getting a facial.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent believe I'm getting a facial.
Speaker 2: So excited.
Speaker 1: So we'll be back and I will figure out how
Speaker 1: to explain the library better.
Speaker 3: It's a really cool one in Soult.
Speaker 2: Well just look at us, I'm cutting you on.
Speaker 3: Look at really cool library and soul with ceilings that
Speaker 3: like extend ceilings into like ceilings.
Speaker 1: Okay by guys nicky boy, Day three and four we've
Speaker 1: done again.
Speaker 2: We've got me so much into this trip.
Speaker 3: It's been great. I'm about to roll onto the plane though.
Speaker 3: When we do get there, I tell you what I've
Speaker 3: eaten a lot.
Speaker 1: I feel like all we've done is eat, get skincare shop,
Speaker 1: eat gets kids.
Speaker 3: Having said that, we've walked a lot, so I mean,
Speaker 3: especially in the DMZ. We walked a lot, didn't we
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we haven't even covered the DMZ. So where
Speaker 1: were we up to last time? We were just about
Speaker 1: on day three to go to Gangnam, and then we
Speaker 1: had our facials that night, and then we had the
Speaker 1: DMZ tour the next morning, and then dinner last night.
Speaker 1: So that's all of day three and all of day four.
Speaker 1: So let's start with Gangnam.
Speaker 2: What did you do then? Oh, we went to the library.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one that you were trying to tell me
Speaker 3: about on Instagram, which I hadn't seen ever in my
Speaker 3: life and now I get wides everywhere. But it was
Speaker 3: pretty awesome, and the best bit about it was I
Speaker 3: hid from you. And let's just up to the top
Speaker 3: watching you look for me and get angry.
Speaker 1: It was pretty funny after I think that's fair. I
Speaker 1: deserved it. After I made you do the Gangnam style
Speaker 1: pose underneath the massive hand So there's a whole statue
Speaker 1: dedicated to Si and Gangam Style outside the mall. And
Speaker 1: I made Nick pose, which you loved, oh.
Speaker 3: So awkwardly, then you do the dance. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: not doing the dance. I'll stand there and hold my
Speaker 3: hands in that position, and you've got four seconds of
Speaker 3: me smiling, and then I'm going the resting bitch face
Speaker 3: after that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I had made you wear a handbock all
Speaker 1: day the day before, so to be fair, you've done.
Speaker 2: It very well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we did gang them and walked around kind
Speaker 1: of the main shopping street, which is we've been in
Speaker 1: really boutique areas. It's a lot more like big shop
Speaker 1: fronts and like bright colors, lots of Neon, drag Nikkivoid two.
Speaker 2: It's called Coex.
Speaker 1: Mall, and that's like another big, massive shopping center that
Speaker 1: actually has an aquarium in it.
Speaker 2: I don't think we.
Speaker 1: Saw it, but it has a lot of stuff going
Speaker 1: on in there.
Speaker 2: But the main thing is.
Speaker 1: Starfield library, which if you guys are following on socials,
Speaker 1: will have already seen my post about it. If you
Speaker 1: like books or any kind of bookworm, you will have
Speaker 1: definitely seen the viral videos of this, like floor to
Speaker 1: see that huge atrium of just books, Like it's so impractical.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how they get their books down,
Speaker 1: but literally like a hundred levels of books per shelf,
Speaker 1: and it's one of those things that on Instagram you
Speaker 1: think it's never going to be as cool, like it
Speaker 1: couldn't possibly be as cool in real life.
Speaker 2: But I walked in and I was like, it looks
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really cool. It was really cool. I
Speaker 3: think anything above headheight is for looks. But there were
Speaker 3: some cool books I've never seen before in there because
Speaker 3: I don't read Korean. Now it's in like some like
Speaker 3: English books, Like there's a book there by Colin Firth
Speaker 3: and I'm like, when's he been writing books? Like and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So it's kind of like surrounded by
Speaker 3: good coffee shops and cake shops and yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 3: There's so many people.
Speaker 1: There, it was packed, but we still managed to time.
Speaker 1: So one of the iconic photos that you get I
Speaker 1: was being such an instagrammer and annoying Nick so much
Speaker 1: is you on the escalators going up alongside one of
Speaker 1: the massive bookshelves, and you have to time it around
Speaker 1: people not getting on to go up or going down
Speaker 1: at the same time so you can be in the
Speaker 1: photo by yourself.
Speaker 2: I think I made you wait for.
Speaker 1: Me to go off and down the escalator about how
Speaker 1: many times I don't know, like forty, I don't know.
Speaker 3: But if you miss it, you've got to go all
Speaker 3: the way up top the escalator again, then wait for
Speaker 3: other people that are do it and think all the
Speaker 3: way back down. They're big escalators that go up like
Speaker 3: two sorry flights fly flight.
Speaker 1: So I just yeah, but that was only after I
Speaker 1: filmed you doing it first, and then I waited for
Speaker 1: you to come back down to take my turn, and
Speaker 1: that's when you hit from me. So for like twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: I was like, where's Wally?
Speaker 3: But you filmed me for you?
Speaker 1: Well, I just thought you might like a cute picture
Speaker 1: look at this, just.
Speaker 3: Like who was doing it for you?
Speaker 2: I was doing it for you. I'd send you the
Speaker 2: video afterwards.
Speaker 1: Anyway, highly recommend a visit, particularly if you're a bookworm.
Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, one of those really cool things that
Speaker 1: I've never seen anywhere else in the world. Definitely not
Speaker 1: like a Korean cultural thing, but it was.
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really cool to say. Actually, like I was
Speaker 3: neither here nor there about it when you were telling
Speaker 3: me about it, but seeing it was pretty pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's also because I explained it so badly anyway, And
Speaker 1: then ceilings above ceilings. So definitely recommend a walk around
Speaker 1: Gangnam as well. It's such a cool suburb and there's
Speaker 1: just like all the different areas here are so diverse
Speaker 1: and we love We've loved them all for different reasons.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that's like such a quintessential Korean
Speaker 1: area and there's so much capop around the place. There's
Speaker 1: also a like k pop idle alley there, which we
Speaker 1: didn't go to see, but there's like little statues of
Speaker 1: all the K pop stars, which is another big feature
Speaker 1: around there. But anyway, because we had a bit of
Speaker 1: a later start, we kind of had had a huge
Speaker 1: weekend and did a little bit of work on this
Speaker 1: particular day, we came back to the hotel and chilled
Speaker 1: out a bit before going.
Speaker 2: To get out. Facial I dragg.
Speaker 1: Nikki boylong to get his second ever face because you
Speaker 1: can't come to sell and not get some kind of
Speaker 1: skincare treatment. And you are I'm sorry, glowing, glowing tell
Speaker 1: us about your second ever facial experience.
Speaker 3: So let me tell you this. I don't understand. That's
Speaker 3: why they made me take my underpants off and put
Speaker 3: fake underpants on and light it. It's a facial like
Speaker 3: I get like minded take my shirt off because they
Speaker 3: massage your shoulders and arms and they don't want to
Speaker 3: get stuff on it. I get why you can't wear
Speaker 3: long pants and socks because you got that little foot
Speaker 3: bath at the start.
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted you to go into the detail
Speaker 1: of your skin and the procedure. But first they take
Speaker 1: you into the room and you change into your little
Speaker 1: robes and you get the disposable little undies. And it
Speaker 1: was so cute because I got disposable girl undies and
Speaker 1: Nick got disposable box of shots.
Speaker 2: That was so cute.
Speaker 3: You first, you don't know I had to wear them.
Speaker 3: Couldn't I slept minder pants on?
Speaker 1: You could?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is that your surprise for day three?
Speaker 3: Yeh, I've got another one for that start off with
Speaker 3: little foot scrub bath thing, then a whole routine.
Speaker 1: Of I'm so excited to hear you try and describe
Speaker 1: what the steps are without knowing what they're called.
Speaker 3: Well, it was a cleanse, then a deep cleanse, then exfoliating,
Speaker 3: and then there was a tona I think wasn't No
Speaker 3: tona was after the cleans, wasn't it anyway? And then
Speaker 3: they put the rubber mask on me. That sounded like
Speaker 3: a gimp mask.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't.
Speaker 1: The one that they paint. So they put this like
Speaker 1: a thick moisture mask, then a net, and then this
Speaker 1: really thick mask on top that they put on as
Speaker 1: liquid like cream or gel, and it like hardens into
Speaker 1: rubber that then you peel off all in one go.
Speaker 3: So and then in between it all, when they're waiting
Speaker 3: for all of the active ingredients to do their thing,
Speaker 3: they're giving me a massage. But yeah, I skin felt
Speaker 3: great afterwards. It was about nine pm at night, because
Speaker 3: do you want to put sunscreen on? I'm like, on panicked,
Speaker 3: I'm like yeah, sure, and I'm sure. Tod been like,
Speaker 3: what the what the fuck do you want sunscreen on?
Speaker 3: It's nine o'clock at night and you just get what
Speaker 3: are you doing? And I'm like and afterwards like, why
Speaker 3: did you say yes? Why do you ask me? It
Speaker 3: was nine o'clock.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but your skin looked at both of
Speaker 1: our skin, like, I don't think. I haven't had a
Speaker 1: phasial in a while. We've been on planes, we've been
Speaker 1: like out and about and you literally your paws disappeared.
Speaker 1: Do you find it relaxing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but my tensions, like I was just thinking things
Speaker 3: I had to do. So but course nice, it was nice.
Speaker 3: The massage was really nice as well, and yeah, it
Speaker 3: was good.
Speaker 1: I'm so impressed. And so after that we then felt
Speaker 1: pushed to we're staying in Yongdong, which is where all
Speaker 1: of the skincare outlets are. We felt pressed to make
Speaker 1: the most of the amazing deals. So we have so
Speaker 1: many masks in our suitcase, which is amazing. But I
Speaker 1: bet a hottail list along a little bit because we've
Speaker 1: been rambling. So Day four was the DMZ, which was
Speaker 1: something I wasn't sure I was allowed to do because
Speaker 1: there's a bit of a confusion around my passport. So
Speaker 1: I have a passport, of course I have an Australian citizenship,
Speaker 1: but there's one document that we can't find anyway. It's
Speaker 1: very technical. But for a while I didn't know if
Speaker 1: I was allowed to go there, so Nick was going
Speaker 1: to go by himself.
Speaker 2: In the end we just.
Speaker 1: Booked it and thought we'll figure it out. Surely my
Speaker 1: Australian past what would be enough, which it.
Speaker 2: Was, and it was.
Speaker 1: It was a half day, it was probably three quarters
Speaker 1: of a day. It was a big It's an hour
Speaker 1: out of Soul and there's a lot of waiting, a
Speaker 1: lot of like logistics between sites. But it was one
Speaker 1: of the most interesting things I think I've ever done.
Speaker 1: So if you guys aren't to where the DMZ is
Speaker 1: the zone between South and North Korea which was separated
Speaker 1: at the end of World War two. So on either
Speaker 1: side of the official border, there's a buffer zone of
Speaker 1: two kilometers on each side, so about four kilometers wide,
Speaker 1: and it's about two hundred and fifty kilometers long where
Speaker 1: no weapons or military forces can be used beyond that zone.
Speaker 1: It is the most heavily militarized border in the world,
Speaker 1: and there are actually still millions of land mines within
Speaker 1: the border itself as well, but technically it is meant
Speaker 1: to have no military activity in that four kilometers. It's
Speaker 1: such a fascinating place to visit and I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to go for years.
Speaker 3: It's very interesting. You've got to do it in a
Speaker 3: tour one. I think you have to to go in there,
Speaker 3: but also just for them to explain it to you.
Speaker 3: And the tunnels is what's interesting. So after the war
Speaker 3: they found tunnels in I think the sixties, seventies and nineties,
Speaker 3: and they go for kilometers underneath the DMZ. Now we
Speaker 3: went into the third tunnel, and we're talking big tunnels.
Speaker 3: The fourth tunnel is three meters by three meters. It
Speaker 3: was like that could have brought artillery and troops through it.
Speaker 3: They're all engineer. They're not like some little molehill. They're
Speaker 3: like blasted through rock. And I think the fourth tunnel
Speaker 3: was concrete reinforced along the way. And they found this
Speaker 3: tunnel because someone told them about it. Effect they told
Speaker 3: them about it, and so they put a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of PVC pipes in the ground, filled them with water,
Speaker 3: and then once they're blowing up the dynamite along the way,
Speaker 3: they'd see the water shoot up in the air, and
Speaker 3: that's when they knew where it was. So it was
Speaker 3: pretty incredible. So we went down into the third tunnel. Now,
Speaker 3: unfortunately we couldn't get any footage or photos because it's
Speaker 3: you know, i'd take bones or cameras in there. But
Speaker 3: we donned a hard hat and went three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty meters down a ramp which took a seventy three
Speaker 3: meters underground, and we went through this very narrow, tiny
Speaker 3: tunnel for another two hundred meters and they were actually
Speaker 3: around two hundred meters then or one hundred and something
Speaker 3: meters from the North Korean border underground boom, So it
Speaker 3: was pretty wild. What I found great was it wasn't
Speaker 3: the whole area wasn't about war with North Korea. It
Speaker 3: wasn't about we hate North Korea. It wasn't about like
Speaker 3: anti Kim Jong un or anything like that. It was
Speaker 3: about we want to be unified with our all of
Speaker 3: Korea unified. Because essentially they just drew a line through
Speaker 3: the center of it on one day nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 3: and if you were out going for a hike or
Speaker 3: something like that, you were just stuck on the other
Speaker 3: side of the line essentially. So it was definitely worth
Speaker 3: going to. It was not what I expected, it's not
Speaker 3: like we've been to some interesting areas in our travels.
Speaker 1: Like I think it was one of those one of
Speaker 1: those things where you have no idea what it's going
Speaker 1: to be like, but you sort of think I'd rather
Speaker 1: go and have said I've seen it and learn something.
Speaker 1: But we were quite blown away by how much we learned.
Speaker 1: And I think the crazy thing, like you said, Nick,
Speaker 1: was that I hadn't understood this either that on one
Speaker 1: day they truly drew a line and if you were
Speaker 1: on either side of the board at shopping or at
Speaker 1: the gym or whatever. I mean, not at the gym
Speaker 1: probably back then, but whatever side you was like on
Speaker 1: that day, you never got to go back over. You
Speaker 1: cannot North Koreans can't cross into South Korea, and vice versa.
Speaker 1: You could not see your family ever again. And so
Speaker 1: I found it fascinating that for five thousand years, Korea
Speaker 1: was one country, like ancient history, it's been one country,
Speaker 1: and they've only been separate countries for like seventy five years,
Speaker 1: but in that time, it's not only been shut off
Speaker 1: from the entire world. So then I of course spent
Speaker 1: the entire afternoon watching reunion videos on the one day
Speaker 1: per year that they allow certain families in a ballot
Speaker 1: to reunite, but that there's become over time, so they've
Speaker 1: gone from the exact same nationality, the same language, so
Speaker 1: the same people, but just a random arbitrary line to
Speaker 1: now seventy five years later there is a forty times
Speaker 1: difference in the GDP of the two countries.
Speaker 2: Blows my mind. I learned so much.
Speaker 1: But what is also amazing about the desert About the DMZs,
Speaker 1: you can see the tunnels. They actually built it for
Speaker 1: tourists to be able to look at it. But there's
Speaker 1: also an observatory where which we found fascinating, where you
Speaker 1: can see the South Korean flag on a pole on
Speaker 1: one side and the North Korean flag on a slightly
Speaker 1: higher pole. They had a pole competition literally meters apart
Speaker 1: from each.
Speaker 3: Other, poles apart from literally.
Speaker 1: Poles apart from each other. And then there's all these
Speaker 1: binoculars on the South Korean side where you can see
Speaker 1: the nearest town and people on bikes walking around doing
Speaker 1: their life. I mean, one of the towns is a
Speaker 1: propaganda town. It was built by North Korea literally just
Speaker 1: for display. But there are other parts of that area
Speaker 1: where like you saw, we saw people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was It was just strange, like just
Speaker 3: to know that the juxtaposition between the two countries, I mean,
Speaker 3: South Korea is GDP higher than Australia's like a North
Speaker 3: Korea is extreme poverty. So really that guy was the
Speaker 3: guy on plowing the field was Ko And it's just
Speaker 3: such a big change. And you talk about that whole
Speaker 3: North Korea South Korea thing. I mean, the founder of
Speaker 3: Hyuende he's an incredible story. Wikipedia the hell out of
Speaker 3: this blown. He was in North Korean and just before separated,
Speaker 3: he pinched a cow of his dad, sold it boord
Speaker 3: a train ticket to go a bus ticket or ticket
Speaker 3: or whatever to go just down south and got a
Speaker 3: job and started working. Then it got separated, and all
Speaker 3: his families north. He's always lived North, all that type
Speaker 3: of stuff and anyway, so he had this incredible life.
Speaker 3: You should look him up on wikipedi if you get
Speaker 3: a chance. And he just could never go back home.
Speaker 3: And he's the one that started this program where you
Speaker 3: could actually go and visit North Korea for a bit,
Speaker 3: which lasted for like five or six years. He also
Speaker 3: sent back one thousand and one cows because of the
Speaker 3: cow he stole off his dad back to his village
Speaker 3: as penance, and he put I think like ten in
Speaker 3: a high Undai truck and sent them on behind their
Speaker 3: trucks across the Unification bridge that they build, and he
Speaker 3: gave them all the cars as well, so they had
Speaker 3: some transport, and he donated lots of money back to
Speaker 3: North Korea for humanitarian purposes. But just thinking, like I mean,
Speaker 3: and a friend of ours that we were here with,
Speaker 3: like her some one of her I think her grandmother
Speaker 3: she was saying, was from North Korea, and she's had
Speaker 3: no family in South like just just none of her family,
Speaker 3: and she doesn't know anything about the family. So it's
Speaker 3: quite interesting.
Speaker 1: It was also fascinating to see that because North Koreans
Speaker 1: don't really have access to the internet, their media is
Speaker 1: very controlled by the state. It's so interesting to sit
Speaker 1: like we learned a lot about their laws as well,
Speaker 1: and like how controlled. So you know, we went down
Speaker 1: a wormhole of course of looking at North Koreans who
Speaker 1: had escaped, and there's a few who are quite well
Speaker 1: known that they didn't know there were countries outside of
Speaker 1: North Korea. They literally had no idea and they are
Speaker 1: not allowed. If the newspaper has a picture of one
Speaker 1: of the leaders on the front, they're not allowed to
Speaker 1: fold the paper across the photo, or you can go
Speaker 1: to jail.
Speaker 3: You can't fold money because it's got the leader's face
Speaker 3: on it. And when you do finish reading a newspaper,
Speaker 3: you can't throw it out. You have to leave it
Speaker 3: flat somewhere so it's not folded, and have someone who's
Speaker 3: authorized to dispose of it. And you can't take a photo.
Speaker 3: Was it? You can't take a photo of a statue
Speaker 3: unless you get the entire leader in the statue in
Speaker 3: the insert in the photo.
Speaker 1: Which fascinated me so much, like to understand that there's
Speaker 1: a country that's literally next all we could see it
Speaker 1: and it was just so ideologically different, like it was
Speaker 1: what I think, coming back to the whole highlights, surprises
Speaker 1: and lessons, all of my highlights, surprises and lessons were
Speaker 1: the DMZ from the last two days.
Speaker 3: All my cameras have prime lenses on them. I don't
Speaker 3: know how I'd not crop them. I'd have to run
Speaker 3: across the road.
Speaker 1: What were your highlights, surprises and learnings from the last
Speaker 1: two days.
Speaker 3: I've found a bin which was a good chance not
Speaker 3: carrying the coffee cups in it. No, their highlights was
Speaker 3: was definitely the facial and the DMZ were like two
Speaker 3: things that I was actually looking forward to in your
Speaker 3: facial ape here because obviously one of my businesses is
Speaker 3: a beauty company, and we have investors in a large
Speaker 3: company in Korea as an investor, and Korean beauty is
Speaker 3: the epitome of beauty, especially now, So that was great.
Speaker 3: And the DMZ I find things like that so interesting.
Speaker 3: Sounds great now a big surprise for me. Now, this
Speaker 3: is along this whole why they're new trash can sting
Speaker 3: is why to Koreans have coffee so late, Like you
Speaker 3: go past a Starbucks or a boutique coffee shop or
Speaker 3: something like a twosome place it is and it's absolutely
Speaker 3: heaving at ten o'clock. I'm like, stop drinking coffee at
Speaker 3: ten o'clock. But that's why. That's why it's a vibe
Speaker 3: at night in career and no one can sleep because
Speaker 3: they're buzzing off their head on caffeine.
Speaker 2: But they don't open until eleven am, which is so weird.
Speaker 3: It's it's bizarre for me, Like I'm like, what someone's
Speaker 3: why are you having a double espresso. It's eleven o'clock,
Speaker 3: go to bed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but also have a cama mile tea and a
Speaker 1: lie down, a lie down, a lie hyphen down. I
Speaker 1: can see that the cultural significance of Korea has gone
Speaker 1: over Nikki Boy's head and all his highlights are related
Speaker 1: to bins and coffee behaviors over here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the fire hydrants and the little stands. No.
Speaker 1: I definitely think the DMZ was something that we did
Speaker 1: amina a little bit about because it's out of Soeul.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of different tours and it's sort
Speaker 1: of hard to understand to choose what's the right thing
Speaker 1: and which parts of it. But we can include links
Speaker 1: in the show notes if anyone's interested, because I highly
Speaker 1: highly recommend it to understand the history of the two
Speaker 1: regions and the significance of the fact that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just think we really learned a lot that we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have learned from any other experience here.
Speaker 3: And there's two words that make there's not two words
Speaker 3: make me shut out more than anything in the world,
Speaker 3: and that's bus tour, right, Like, honestly, tour groups alone sometimes,
Speaker 3: but bus tour was not up there with things I
Speaker 3: wanted to do in my late thirties, but it was
Speaker 3: very painful. It was great that was a really comfy bus,
Speaker 3: and the fact that you even if you can do
Speaker 3: a private one, but it's like seven hundred bucks versus
Speaker 3: like seventy bucks and you still have to get on
Speaker 3: another bus anyway, and so it's not really much point.
Speaker 3: I don't think so I would definitely Sarah's going to
Speaker 3: give the show notes stuff. But the people we went
Speaker 3: with were great, and yeah, I definitely recommend it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had an amazing guide as well, who was
Speaker 1: so knowledgeable and shared so much. So yeah, I'll popplink
Speaker 1: to everything we did really in the show notes, but
Speaker 1: I highly recommend the DMZ.
Speaker 2: I can't even remember what we did after that. We
Speaker 2: were pretty cooked. We walked around, we went to go
Speaker 2: get dinner, traditional Korean dinner, and we ended up eating
Speaker 2: at dntai Form, which was Taiwanese dumplings.
Speaker 3: Since what do we had last night's pizza and dumplings?
Speaker 3: Our food during the day has been very Korean but
Speaker 3: at night somehow, but I've had some street food at
Speaker 3: night as well, like my potato and they called it
Speaker 3: a tornado.
Speaker 2: Potato potato nado.
Speaker 3: Stop it. That was so good.
Speaker 2: Potato Nato, potato tornado. Okay, well that was day three
Speaker 2: and four.
Speaker 1: I'm also going to put together a highlight video of
Speaker 1: everything in a more concise order than this dear diary
Speaker 1: that has become quite chaotic. But tomorrow I am taking
Speaker 1: Nick back to the orphanage where we were from and
Speaker 1: where our adoption took place, and where meeting well, he's
Speaker 1: meeting my foster mother and foster father for the first time.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing my foster mother for the first time since
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, and I haven't seen my foster
Speaker 1: father since I was born, really, so that will be
Speaker 1: really really special and probably an episode in itself, so we.
Speaker 2: Will be back. I know myself too well.
Speaker 1: That last day was definitely worth an episode in itself,
Speaker 1: and I've since uploaded both the full chronological itinery to
Speaker 1: social media few guys as a list, as well as
Speaker 1: all the photos from reuniting with my foster parents. It
Speaker 1: was such an incredibly special day, and I just I
Speaker 1: can't still explain all the emotions that burst forth interestingly
Speaker 1: in a way that have never before, even though I've
Speaker 1: met them before. And have had all my life to
Speaker 1: reflect on what it means. It seems says quite a
Speaker 1: lot of separate questions about our adoption, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: which come up every now and then, so I might
Speaker 1: do a fresh, separate episode on that, as our diaries
Speaker 1: have already ended up taking up nearly an hour. The
Speaker 1: only thing I would add as a last note was
Speaker 1: that much like Melbourne, solely somewhere that has a few
Speaker 1: must dos on the hit list, but my favorite part
Speaker 1: was really just exploring the different areas and wandering lesslie
Speaker 1: to soak it all in. So on that last day
Speaker 1: we headed back to it On, but during the daytime
Speaker 1: we then kept walking onto Hannam, which we hadn't explored before,
Speaker 1: not to see anything in particular, but just to experience
Speaker 1: yet another completely different area. They were both so cool
Speaker 1: to walk around, with modern cafes and boutiques and bakeries
Speaker 1: hidden behind normal booking traditional street frontages. The only Tartan
Speaker 1: bakery outside of La is in Hannam, and a lot
Speaker 1: of K pop stars live in that area apparently, so
Speaker 1: we loved spending our last afternoon just roaming those streets.
Speaker 1: As I said, a more list based itineries up on
Speaker 1: Socials and I'll pop the link to that in the
Speaker 1: show notes and if you have any more questions, I'm
Speaker 1: so passionate about you all visiting Soul. It's such an
Speaker 1: amazing city. I hope you all enjoyed having Nikki Boy
Speaker 1: back on the show. It was so much fun listening back.
Speaker 1: I rarely hear us recorded in our completely natural habitat,
Speaker 1: and this was such a funny insight into us traveling.
Speaker 1: It's actually our fourth wedding anniversary as I record this,
Speaker 1: so we would you for a Davidson or a Yaevidson
Speaker 1: episode anyway, keep the dms coming and I'll answer as
Speaker 1: best I can. And if you are considering a trip,
Speaker 1: Jetstar flights direct from Sydney to Seoul and will be
Speaker 1: commencing direct flights out of Brisbane iiO from the first
Speaker 1: of February twenty twenty four. Jetstar always has the cheapest
Speaker 1: fares and as you know, we travel with them regularly
Speaker 1: because you can tailor your inclusion so that you only
Speaker 1: pay for what you want or need for a particular
Speaker 1: trip and can save the rest to spend at your destination.
Speaker 1: So grateful to our jet Star family for getting us
Speaker 1: there and back safely as always
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, I hope you're seizing your ya