Tips For Vacationers In Korea

In case you haven’t gone on vacation yet or are hoping to take one in South Korea next year, I will tell you how we, Koreans, are enjoying—or rather, torturing—ourselves on our vacation every year, so that you can adjust to the local customs and become a part of the great summer ritual.

First, you have to decide on a place where you and your family will spend your vacation. I don’t know about you, but personally, my idea of a vacation is to get away from it all, if only for a few days. I would like, therefore, to grab a few books and go to a quiet place—it doesn’t matter whether it is on a mountain or at the seaside—and catch up on my reading of the latest mystery novels in the cool shade during the day and stroll in the woods or on the beach in the morning and evening.

The point is, the fewer the fellow vacationers around, the better. But most of my fellow Koreans seem to prefer to go to places where there are lots of people. In fact, the more people milling around, the better or more exciting and enjoyable.

You must have seen at least one TV segment that showed more than half a million people just standing in the water shoulder to shoulder in the sea, off Pusan, or Kangnung on the East Sea coast—or, thousands of children practically turning a swimming pool in one of those amusement parks near Seoul into a neighborhood public bathhouse.

If you want to go to a popular or famous vacation spot, just follow the crowd, and you can’t miss it. And don’t think that where you are is the only crowded place in Korea. You can safely expect a mob of at least several thousands wherever you go, if the place is well known.

Once you picked your destination, you will have to decide whether you will take public transportation or your car. If you want to relax on your way, leave the driving, as the popular advertising goes, to the driver of the bus or the train engineer. But if you are like a Korean, you have to take your car, no matter now awful traffic conditions are during the vacation season.

Driving a car to Pusan or Kangnung, for instance, takes more time, sometimes, than flying from Seoul to Los Angeles. But you shouldn’t mind, because driving through that horrible jam is part of the fun for Korean drivers. If you don’t believe it, just look out of the window of your car and you will find many Korean drivers grinning and even waving at you happily, instead of gnashing their teeth and nursing their impatience to an explosive point.

If you are really in a hurry, you can drive on a lane reserved for buses. Driving through that lane is against the law, but many people are doing that with impunity and why shouldn’t you? And if you worry about parking, you shouldn’t because you can leave your car almost anywhere you like. You may have noticed that narrow rural roads to a national park, for instance, are almost completely blocked by illegally parked cars so that they have practically become obstacle courses for visitors on foot.

Next, you have to pack uncooked food, like marinated beef for bulgoki, and a portable burner. The idea is to cook your dinner or lunch on the spot, I mean, in the mountains, on the beach or wherever you are.

There are no officially designated picnic areas where you can cook. And cooking in public places is actively discouraged these days. Nevertheless, cooking and eating is still a must for most Koreans wherever they go. I often see a family sitting around in an off-limit lawn in city parks or on the banks of the Han River and cooking.

Oh, I almost forgot. You have to bring your soju—or Korean whisky, if you like—so that you can drink with your bulgoki, get drunk, sing as loudly as you can and dance. If your fellow vacationers frown on you, just ignore them. They are obviously not used to Korean customs.
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