Into the heart of Gangnam (Seoul)

MANILA, Philippines - It doesn’t really matter whoever thought of the line “It’s More Fun.” Whether it was us or them, I don’t really care. What’s important is I did have fun in Gangnam. I never knew what or where Gangnam was.

My first idea when I heard Psy’s song Gangnam Style was it was a description of a certain fashion or trend raging in Korea. It was only when I arrived at my hotel in Seoul that I was educated that Gangnam is one of 25 districts that comprise the city of Seoul. Like our  Makati, Gangnam is one of Seoul’s high-end districts. Now I regret that I never visited the city of Seoul in the past. Since the ’70s, I figured I have transited through Kimpo (Seoul’s old airport) over a hundred times on the way to the US either on Korean or Northwest but never attempted to visit Seoul until I had the need to do this business trip.

My Seoul indoctrination started one early morning (5:45 a.m.) in late April. I would normally fly direct on my airline of choice, Philippine Airlines, but it was difficult to resist Cathay Pacific’s Buy One Free One offer where I could bring my wife Mady along at no extra cost.

On the flight to Seoul via Hong Kong, I felt like the well-traveled “Rich & Famous” when Cathay Pacific upgraded me to a first class suite. Too bad I missed the food because I was so sleepy and immediately dozed even before the plane took off. It was early afternoon when we landed at Seoul’s sprawling Incheon airport. Incheon was amazing and a far cry from the congested and old Kimpo airport I used to transit through. The airport is well-planned, modern and has every creature comfort a traveler could ask for.

Recently, it bested Singapore’s Changi and Hong Kong’s Chep Lak Kok airports in the survey of the worlds top airports. My friend and co-promoter Peter Han welcomed me as soon as I exited immigration and customs, and whisked me to Gangnam Seoul via a well-paved and tree-lined eight-lane highway. Gangnam is about 30 kilometers from Incheon airport and depending on the time of day, it takes 40 minutes to one hour to negotiate the traffic. The city is very clean and green. There are trees everywhere that please the eye and streets are bereft of gigantic billboards that spoil the scenery like in Metro Manila. I would compare Seoul to San Francisco in terms of the hilly landscape. Our hotel, the Seoul Grand Intercon, was located within the newly-opened convention and exhibition center (COEX) and walking distance to sights, good restaurants and lots of shopping, not to mention a casino named Seven Luck, which I thought wasn’t allowed in Seoul.

I started discovering the city via a walking tour of Gangnam which took us through narrow, winding streets filled with small specialty shops that sold traditional Korean handicraft and souvenirs punctuated by food shops that sold every type of Korean comfort food one could imagine.

From Dragon’s beard candy (Gul Tare) to spicy cylindrical rice cakes (Ddeokbokki), I dared not try Korean street food as it looked and smelled super spicy which my tummy has a hard time dealing with. I opted to dine at a seafood restaurant that specialized in my favorite king crab. A three-kilogram king crab cooked fresh from the aquarium set me back by $350. In comparison, the same king crab would cost $1,200 in Hong Kong, $1,500 in Macau and over $2,000 in Manila.

Beside the hotel was the humongous Hyundai Department Store with 12 floors of upscale shopping delight. All European designers are represented here, including Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Prada, etc. It would take over a day just to explore. A few blocks away was the Lotte world complex that housed a hotel, shopping mall and an amusement park with a gigantic skating rink. When I return to Seoul with my kids, this is where we’ll definitely stay. I felt like a child once again marvelling at all the themed areas. My favorite was Pororo land named after the popular penguin named Pororo which my little daughter watches all the time on Disney channel.

Four days wasn’t enough to explore Gangnam and overall, I felt so at home, safe and secure in this city of friendly and gentle-mannered people. Next time around, I will stay for a week because “It’s more fun in Gangnam.”