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Hopped over to Seoul last weekend for a high school classmate's wedding. The attendance was impressive: While my two-hour flight was no big deal, she had about 12 friends who made the 20-hour trip from Chicago and New York. I guess her wedding would be as good a reason as any to take a vacation to this side of the world.

Seoul itself is not a bad place. It closely resembles Tokyo: the streets are massive, broad canals of traffic, and everywhere is extremely clean. Unfortunately I didn't have time to venture to the outskirts of the city, so I mostly wandered beneath Seoul's bohemoth skyscrapers, most of which were fairly ordinary glass structures stretching skyward. I must say that Seoul's architecture is somewhat ... conservative. Even the palaces, of which I saw two, were unremarkable, although they were extremely serene and relaxing and not completely trampled by tourists.

The subway is pretty convenient (12 lines) and an inexpensive alternative (between $1 and $1.35 to ride to most stops) to the swarms of wallet-leeching taxis (~$5 base fare for 3 km). Prices for clothing, etc., were surprisingly cheap, but that could be because I'm comparing with Taipei, where merchandise is frustratingly costly. I saw but a handful of Westerners, mostly businessmen and the occasional student. And as with most major Asian cities, Seoul has adopted its share of Western culture, with a plethora of Burger Kings, KFCs and Pizza Huts, and even Krispy Kreme doughnuts (boy was I glad we stumbled across that).

Now for the important part: Korean food. The fare was excellent, but hampered by an astounding lack of variety. The food was mostly the same everywhere I went: Korean barbecue, noodle soup or rice. We did have very tasty oxtail one night and passed several shops specializing in seafood, but those options appeared to be few and far between. And whoever told me Koreans eat a lot of kimchi - cabbage and other veggies pickled in a hot, spicy sauce - was not kidding. There was no less than four types of pickled vegetables at each meal, and each made more or less in the same fashion. Even the miso soup had kimchi in it; one stir-fried beef dish we encountered glowed red from being stewed in the ubiquitous hot sauce.

Of course, this is just a four-day glance at Seoul. I wouldn't mind going back - the people were friendly, the atmosphere lively and the air much cleaner than Taiwan's. And then there's the rest of South Korea, which I hear is gorgeous. I am making it a point to visit the DMZ the next time I return to Korea, which could be as soon as next month (for business). An adventure into North Korea would be interesting as well.

I'll post pics when they're ready. The next stop looks like it will be the Philippines, in mid-August.