What I Brought Back from Seoul

A mountain, three cameras, and a solo trip that changed how I spend.

A trip to Korea changed my life. I’ve been less frugal since I came back, haha. And I think I came back knowing myself a little better too. But before I get into any of that, let me tell you about a mountain.

The Bukhansan story

I like hiking. So when I discovered that Korea is 70% mountain, I had to hike one. I did my research, and Bukhansan is the tallest mountain in Seoul. I looked at the reviews and guides, liked it. So I decided to hike Bukhansan.

For context, I brought 3 cameras from home. I wanted to document as much as possible. For another context, I knew there was a vending machine at the first post, so I decided to buy a drink at CU. I also thought there would be more CUs further down the road, but:

1. I somehow couldn’t use the vending machine. Either I was wrong, or it was broken.
2. There was no (more) CU. The first one I saw at the gate was the only one.

So I hiked the mountain. I took the hardest path, also because it feels cool. No food, no drinks. It was early in the morning. I believe it was around 1 degree Celsius. I was in my base layer. I forgot to bring gloves. I saw someone selling them near the bus stop, but I didn’t think I’d need them. Hiking more and more, I couldn’t feel my hands. I was thirsty.

Now I had to make a decision. Should I take more footage? Should I ask someone for water? If so, which one? Korean? European? Those questions define you. Well, in this case, me. It was a matter of survival. Nobody knows me. I could do the stupidest thing and not get embarrassed. Most likely, we were never going to meet again. That’s where you find yourself reflecting on that moment, on who you really are.

On filming vs experiencing

I didn’t only stop filming because I was exhausted. On other occasions, I stopped filming because I felt like it took moments from me. I really wanted to document the whole thing, so I could see it later, but I already brought my photo camera and its film. That’s why I wrote this also, so I have an excuse to share this here with the highest resolution.

I like Korea. I like the cherry blossoms. I like the views from Bukhansan. I like the streets of Seongsu in the rain. I kind of like (more on empathy) the street in Hongdae while it’s raining, and some young adults trying their best to work, offering perfumes, doing caricatures. I wanted to capture that. At least I captured it with my film.

Because what I feel, what I personally feel, is that filming them makes me lose that moment. Maybe I could recall it, but it would feel different if I witness and experience it myself without any filming. That’s why I’m thinking of an action cam or glasses cam, so I could just do the usual things while those things are recording, and I don’t have to kill my own experience.

Getting to know myself

Many people say that solo travel makes you find yourself. I kind of see it more like, who am I, when nobody knows me, and I get to do what I want to do. I’m in a foreign country, I don’t care about anybody, and nobody cares about me. I still have one agenda on the itinerary, do I push that or should I take a sleep early? Oh, the restaurant I wanted is closed, should I go to an unknown restaurant that I don’t know if the keeper speaks English or is friendly toward tourists, or should I just eat at a fast food chain? And so many more.

Things like that, decisions you make on your own, especially regarding survival, will make you know yourself better. Bukhansan was one of those moments. But honestly, the whole trip was like that.

Rethinking frugality

Another thing I brought home is a different relationship with money. Before the trip, I was doing a no-buy thing because I thought frugal was the way. For this trip though, I didn’t want to suffer, like eating at convenience stores only, or renting a bad and cheap hotel. I wanted a nice vacation. Of course without breaking the bank, I still had budgeting in mind.

Turns out, on my last few days, I still had some money left on my budget. It surprised me. I didn’t budget that much (trust me, I am not filthy rich, just an average tourist). I ate good food. Maybe what I overestimated is how the food portions are big, so I sometimes only ate one big meal a day and small meals in the evening.

Now that I’m back in my home country, I don’t really want to penny-pinch anymore. Sure, I still try my best to be frugal and not buy things I don’t need, but food? I’m going to stop being cheap on it. Again, I’m not eating fancy luxury food, but I don’t want to be cheap if it happens to be a weekend and I’m at the mall and I see some delicious looking pasta. Then it’s okay for me to order it. (I rarely went to a mall, but yeah.)

Coming home

Coming home, after seeing a lot of good things, getting new friend(s?), talking with strangers, I came home with maybe one or two new things about life. But it makes me want to learn the language. Many people say they only want to visit South Korea once, but I want to go again. Maybe to another city, or back in Seoul, there’s a lot of things I haven’t experienced yet. Maybe they try to mark all the checklists on countries to travel, but I want to dive deeper into the culture. That’s why I’ve decided to learn more about
the language. I hope it goes well.

Thanks for reading this. 🙂

I do not consent for anything in this post to be used for AI training, or to be claimed as anyone else's creation. I wrote all of this by myself, and took all the pictures by myself.