So I made it past the first leg of my journey: a 12 1/2 hour flight from San Francisco to Seoul. Since my 4-day layover in Seoul isn’t until my return trip from Asia, I had planned to spend 14 long overnight hours in Incheon International Airport, people-watching and trying to sleep. But at the last moment I got restless. I knew it would take me an evening to get my bearings in the city so I figured, why not do it now so I don’t waste time on my “real” layover?

Check out this Traditional Korean Cultural Experience Zone in the middle of Icheon International Airport!

I found a cheap hostel on the Korean tourism website so that I had a general direction in which to aim, and made my way to the bus stop. After about a 45 minute bus ride and another hour and a half of walking (I never found that particular hostel, but the one I’m at is great — more on that later), I’m making a quick survey of first impressions about Seoul before I head off to catch a few hours of sleep before my early morning wake-up call.

So far, this is my defining statement about Seoul: it is both more and less Asian than I thought it would be.

Funny how non-descriptive that sounds. I had thought of Seoul as a big, hulking, modern, sleek, Singapore-like city where everything is clean, green and pristine; yet everybody thinks exactly the opposite of you. Kind of a mash-up between Tokyo (bustling, bright lights, non-stop) and Singapore (modern, un-adventerous, ruthlessly ordered).

So: how is it “more Asian”?

Fighting!!

First, the street food! While I know that any vibrant culture has its own version of street food, from the food trucks of NY and LA to the crepe-maker in a little hut on Parisian streets, this is not the kind of street food I’m taking about in Seoul. I had expected the bright, modern, corporate-looking coffee houses and upscale “dessert boutiques” (with which I have become recently acquainted) but I didn’t expect that right in front of them, out in the street (not the sidewalk, mind you, but the street!) there would be little plastic tents with tables and what looks like a pop-up kitchen that could be assembled and dissembled in a matter of minutes. Some have seating, and others are just a little hut made of plastic for the vendor to stand in; they all have what looks like delicious variations of fish cakes on sticks, vegetable and dough balls, kimbap and a variety of other unidentifiable substances that put me right back in Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh — THAT kind of street food. Not that it would stop me from eating any of those things, if I had had cash on me. But this level of hygiene-neutral eating “establishments” seemed SO Southeast Asian. Not the modern, developed way I think of Seoul.

And less Asian? Well, for one, there’s the quietness. In the heart of the city, when everything is open and everyone is out for a night, the neon is the loudest sound on the street. Even the buses manage to seem abnormally quiet. No honking, no yelling, no ads or music blaring from the retailers. No noise at all, really. I felt like it was that post-bar quietness, after everyone has gone home, even though it was only 9pm. I definitely hadn’t expected that.

And how is it exactly the high-tech, Eastern world I expected? Well, the neon for one. A world of neon is always the way to my heart. And the little touches of design and comfort, like sandals for inside the hostel room, and the heated floor. Yes, HEATED FLOOR!!

Neon: an homage

I guess I will have to continue my observations when I get back in three and a half weeks. For now, it’s back to the airport and on to the next adventure, the soul of Seoul still undiscovered.