I did not know much about South Korea besides the Korean auto brands in India and the tensions with their northern brethren. This changed in 2015. Work took me to South Korea. I was fascinated by the rise of this nation from the 1950s. The per capita income in the early 1960s was lower than Haiti, Ethiopia, and Yemen, and about 40% below India’s. Today’s South Korea is well known, not only in the economic sense, but also in the cultural influences- K pop, dramas, cosmetics and the real coup, food!

We did our first family trip to Seoul in 2019 for a week. After 5 years, the next one happened in the winter of Dec 2024.

Ski

We under-estimated the need to book ski resorts in advance, By mid-November, the first and second choices were fully booked. Alpensia Ski Resort, no luck. Monapark Yong Pyong Ski Resort, no luck. After some scramble, we booked High1 resort. It has a historic context- it was developed to revitalize the declining near by mining towns. It is one of the largest ski resorts in South Korea and the infrastructure is massive – 3 hotels, 3 condoniums, 18 trails, 9 lift systems including 3 gondolas that connect all the facilities, multiple bus and taxi networks. The software or the customer service for non-Korean speakers was lacking. Pre-trip, a Korean colleague had to a pitch in with a few calls. Up on reaching the resort, we figured it out with some persuasive skills! Even though notice boards and menus were in English, we were not acquainted with integrated resort concept of such kind. Besides these little hiccups, we had a great time with the ski lessons and ‘playing’ in the snow.

Spice

Back to Seoul, we stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Gangnam area. Last visit we stayed along the beautiful Cheonggyecheon stream near Jonggak station). On hindsight, we should have stayed near Myeong-dong (we ended up in this area every single day!)

• New year’s eve at Dongdaemun Design Plaza
• Colorful Christmas pop-ups in Hyundai Seoul mall
• Christmas tree and decorations in the grand Starfield Library
• Tteokbokki stew & fried rice experience at  Sindang-dong (as seen in Phil Rosenthal’s show, Somebody Feed Phil :-)
• Variety of street food in the lively Myeongdong area
• Energetic and funny Nanta show in Myeongdong 
• Hearty bingsu at Sulbing cafe
• Noksapyeong Overpass & Danbam- Filming location of Itaewon Class (The k-drama that kept us company during Covid lockdown)
• Hike around Naksan Seoul City Wall

We hardly used the subway trains. Taxis in Seoul are relatively inexpensive compared to cities in Japan, Australia, Europe & USA. Unlike cities like Bangkok or Bangalore, traffic is not much of an issue. Kakao Taxi app app served us well.

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