Hooker Hill

We decided to stop in South Korea on the way from Beijing to Tokyo. It's pretty much in between, so it seemed like a good idea. The more fundamental reason being to getin a good picture of the entire region of East asia.

Erik's contact in Seoul recommended we stay in the Itakewon area, which was apparently pretty sour advice. Itakewon is the foreigner district and he wanted to take us out to those bars later that night. The only budget option my Lonely Planet guidebook recommended was on a place called Hooker Hill. And it wasn't even there, replaced by a different hotel with a different name. Apparently Seoul is unrecognizable after four years, so a guidebook from 2006 is unacceptable. Anyways, walking from the hotel to the main street resulted in blatantly being urged into various hotels by prostitutes. 

As for sightseeing, we checked out Gwanghwamun plaza, which was pretty much exactly like the Forbidden City, a bunch of rooms with fancy furniture. The folk museum was actually pretty interesting. Although I was a bit surprised to find the world's first example of children's artwork in pottery form.

We also hiked up Dobongsan mountain, getting a good view of Seoul, of course once again covered in Smog, though not quite as bad as Beijing.