"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #49 Incheon, South Korea February 18, 2017 Saturday Sunny & 29 degrees Part #1 Of 2 81 Pictures

Today's port of call was Incheon, South Korea. Actually, it was two cities….the other one was Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The total population of the country is 48,509,000 living in an area of 38,492 square miles. The official language is Korean.

Compared to its secretive neighbor in the north, South Korea is a progressive nation, second only to Japan in scientific breakthroughs is gadgets and gizmos. Korean cuisine has spread across the globe, although relatively few travelers have explored here.

For every high-tech city, there is a medieval fortress or green national park. Confucius is still popular here after 2000 years. Young Koreans are famous for their national pride as shown during games of national soccer and taekwondo teams.

September and November are the best months to visit for the autumn colors. However, we are sure that blossom time occurs here in the spring. We can all agree, February is brutally cold here.

Things to do and see include going to markets, museums, and medieval cities. There are tombs, ruins, temples, and royal mausoleums……mostly in Seoul. You can find parks, mountain forests, and hot springs out of the cities.

Fish markets are interesting to tour, and food stalls that sell "galbi" or BBQ ribs and chicken.

The volatile border, DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is a place to visit if you can handle the history there. It continues to this day…….

And like Japan, South Korea has futuristic automatic toilets with many bells and whistles.

While in Incheon or Seoul, it is a must to try kimchi, a fiery pickled cabbage with chili. Or eat galbi, a variety of food that is grilled. A local drink, soju, is a vodka, while bori cha is a warming tea, and is made from roasted barley.

Trademarks are Korean BBQ, taekwondo, K-pop?, ginseng, hot springs, free-trade zones, and stand-offs with north Korea and the DMZ.

A random fact is the Koreans are famous for their technological know-how. More than ½ of Koreans pay their bills using mobile phones.

Here is a little info on Incheon, the port city for Seoul. A major battle occurred here in 1950 when US marines landed here and got involved in the Battle of Incheon. That was in the early days of the Korean War. Since those days, Incheon has become the country's first enterprise-free zone and main shopping port with an airport serving Seoul. Three million residents live here and use the extensive metro system. The borders have grown so much, that Incheon has blended into Seoul.

The city of Seoul suffered much damage after the Korean War. Reconstruction produced a sparkling extensive city, which is home to half of the Korean population. You can see palaces, shrines, museums, and tombs that are all surrounded by mountains.

There were 7 tours offered today, with two more added for tomorrow, since we will be staying overnight. These excursions range from 3 ½ to 7 ½ hours costing from $60 to $159. Only one tour remains in Incheon with stops at a fish market, garden, Chinatown, museum, and Sinpo Market, a huge shopping venue with seafood and clothing.

The other six tours took folks to Seoul, an 80 minute drive from the port of Incheon. You will see a palace, museum, a market with lunch. Others went to art galleries, a park, a village, and a rice cake museum. An evening tour included a Korean dinner with a performance that followed.

But first, before we could go anywhere, we all had to be seen and cleared by the Korean Immigrations Officials in the Explorer's Lounge. Our number was the letter S, so we could have gone first or anytime we chose. First worked for us, because we had just finished breakfast when they started the procedure. We were done with the check point by 9am.

We took a quick walk around the promenade deck to see how cold it was. It was no surprise that the temperature was 1 degree Celsius, or 34 degrees F. What was funny were the icicles that were hanging off of the ceiling of the promenade overhang. And the ice that had formed on the teak decking from a leaking faucet. Yes, we would need to wear our down jackets for sure.

There must have been a lot of tours booked today, because there were 25 buses on the dock. So we decided to finished doing emails until 10am before going outside. Perhaps with the sun out, it may warm up a bit later.

A complimentary shuttle service was available to take folks to the Sinpo Market, a 15 minute ride from the ship. Also near the ship, was the information table with maps and a brochure of what to see and do right here in Incheon. Since no Korean money (Won) was being sold on the ship, a money exchange service was available on the pier. We decided to wait until we got downtown to find a money changer if we needed to.

Actually, there were two buses. One took the guests to the Subway for the train to Seoul, while the other the Incheon. That was the bus we hopped on. It filled quickly and we were off to town. Something happened on the way to the port gate which was odd. One lady asked to be dropped off at the entrance to the pier. This must have been a problem, because a policeman came over and got into a heated discussion with the bus driver after he let the lady off the coach. Whatever the problem was, she did not get back onboard, and we continued on. This is not the place you want to have confrontations with police.

It seemed like a long ride to the market, but it was reasonably close. This part of town houses the Sinpo International Market, Chinatown, Jayu Park, Incheon Art Platform, and a Fairy Tale Village. Also, we discovered a massive underground mall at Sinpo, the city's first underground mall with over 1000 stores with nail and barber services.

Starting at the entrance where the bus drop was, we walked right into the food section of the traditional market. It has been around for 100 years and is famous for their glazed fried chicken bites, colored dumplings, and popped bread. Any kind of fish, fresh or dried, is offered for sale here. There was a large variety of fresh produce and spices. And bread, either in loaves or steamed buns. Sweets were everywhere too. There were stalls for kitchenware, as well as a section for clothing. We saw lots of socks, slippers, and shoes for sale as well. This market was extensive, however, nothing like the underground mall we happen to find.

Going down a flight of stairs, we discovered a city below the ground that went out like a grid of stores for miles, it seemed. We never saw so much stuff for sale. We found out they did not accept US dollars, nor did they understand the conversion rate. Actually, few people spoke any English, so without their money (Won), we did not buy anything. Truthfully, most all of their clothing is sized for the smaller, shorter Asia people and probably would not fit most foreigners like us.

Seemed like we had walked for hours, when we found it would be nice to go outside and get some fresh air. Underground, these malls are kept at a very warm temperature, almost too hot when you are bundled up for the cold outside. Surprisingly, we wandered down a narrow street full of shops with the traditional Korean clothing. The window displays were complete with mannequins dressed in various colors and fabrics of women's dresses with decorative short jackets and bell-like long skirts. There was not one alike. The men's version was also exotic, as were the outfits for kids. In between these shops were bedding shops with heavy quilts, blankets, and like items. We saw the cutest stuffed dogs and lambs. So we negotiated with US dollars to purchase a bull dog. He will be a perfect mascot for our bed. Kind of off-sets the Guatemalan skeleton on the nightstand. Although he looks pretty cool now wearing the Panama hat.

It was a long walk back to where we had entered, and since it was after 2pm, we thought we should get back to the ship and order some lunch. Seems like the ride back was only 10 minutes or so. Sure was nice to get back to our warm and cozy stateroom. Lunch arrived around 3pm, and we worked on photos for the rest of the afternoon.

The sun was going down after 6pm, so we went outside to take some photos. There was a thin fog forming that cast an eerie haze on the sun. It also made it colder than earlier. Needless to say, we the only ones on the outer decks. The nice thing is that we will be staying overnight, and we can continue our explorations of the city for another full day.

We had run into Ruud, who was going on the evening dinner tour. He mentioned he would not be at dinner tonight. Scoop was also missing, and we all hoped that he was feeling OK, as he is recovering from another cold we think. So there was seven of us, which was good…..we got served a bit quicker. All of our entrees and appetizers were as hot as they could make it. Did we mention that it was chilly in the dining room last night? Apparently, it had not been resolved today, because it was still colder than normal. Tonight, we all dressed warmer with long sleeves, shawls, jackets, and sweaters. Once most of the diners left, we asked Endrien if he could drop the drapes on the aft windows. He said absolutely, and it did help warm it up.

For a change, we finished our meals by 9:30pm, and it appeared most of us were off to our rooms. The show this evening was a lady by the name of Venus Tsai, possibly a violinist from Korea.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS Joanne……..Rich and Peg send a big hello to you.

Incheon International Passenger Terminal