Wow! Gangneung Korea SURPRISED Me! | American Expat In Korea

Wow! Gangneung Korea SURPRISED Me! | American Expat In Korea

Okay, let me show you what Korea has 
that America doesn’t have. I’m here at the KTX station and we are going 
to take a KTX. This is a high-speed train to Gang. We’re going to take a look. 
We’re going to the countryside. This train is amazing. It’s super fast. It’s super 
comfortable. You guys can take a look. Good morning. See, everyone’s here. Everyone’s 
here. Oh, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Yay. Okay, so uh France is really 
late. France is actually really really late, but I made it here on time. So, uh yeah, we’re 
going to get on this train and we’re going to get to Kungan super super fast. I hope. And 
I’m just going to enjoy the time on the Yeah, I I am. You say it’s on me. Yeah, I messed up. I’m 
late. So, anyways, let’s get going. Let’s take a look at some of the amenities in this train. So 
you have your book just just like an airplane. So uh if you’re on an airplane and you need something 
to read, you have a book. Same thing here on the train. And then you have the pull outs tray here 
in case you got food you want to put. Franis was late and he forgot to bring snacks. But you can 
see everyone else brought snacks. She’s got apples and all kinds of stuff. There’s also a power bank 
here. Mobile phones. So I can just take my phone. I can stick it in here. I think it’s like this. 
And is it charging? It doesn’t look like it’s charging. Let me see. How about I turn it? So, not 
charging. I don’t know why it’s not charging. Ah, it’s just you stick your phone inside and then 
on the side here, you have even cables. I’m so dumb. Oh my goodness. There’s even Wi-Fi 
on this KTX. Look at that. It’s connected to the Wi-Fi. My goodness. That’s a photo of my 
grandma. Hi, Grandma. Love you. Miss you. Okay, another thing before we go. Usually Korean train 
etiquette is that everyone is pretty quiet, but it’s the summertime and taking a ride on the 
KTX is like such a vibe. So, people are are very excited to get on the KTX is also a little 
expensive. I mean, it’s not super expensive, but uh people aren’t like going on this 
KTX all the time. So, business people are, I think, but not so many people are taking 
the KTX like constantly. So, you know, when they do get on the KTX, they’re like really 
enjoying it. So, people are laughing. Hear a lot of uh voices in the background and stuff. 
Super cool. We’re leaving from Soul Station. thing is that uh the KTS workers, they 
always pass through each of the cars and when they get to the end of the car, 
they stop and then they turn around, they look at of all the passengers and they 
bow, a nice Korean bow and then they walk off. It’s like they’re welcoming us and 
they’re thanking us for taking KTX. Like here’s another crew member. She comes in. She 
gave a little bow. Now she’s going to walk off. We made it to Kang. This is like a place uh on the 
sea. Let me show you like how the the train looks before we go. Like wow. Look at that. Definitely 
different than the Amtrak train that you will find in the United States. a lot more advanced and a 
lot cleaner, I think, and a lot faster. It took us about two hours to get here. Two hours to get 
here from um from Soul. Really, really fun. Really fast experience. And also I heard that these uh 
KTX trains, these uh Korean fast trains come from France or maybe the engineering comes from the 
TJV um in France, which is something I’m really familiar with because I used to take the TGV in 
France often, but definitely like cheaper. These uh KTXs are cheaper than he in France. I think uh 
for a roundtrip ticket 2 hours from Soul to the the sea is 25,000 W each way. So it’s like yeah 
about 50,000 W. Really really inexpensive which allows for everyone to come and to enjoy the 
experience regardless of which social economic class you belong to. Which is another thing 
that I really love about living in Korea. Like regardless if you have money or not, everyone 
can enjoy everything in this country at a very cheap price. Sam’s first time taking the KTX, 
right? Yeah, first time. How did you like it? It was really nice. I’ve taken the Amtrak in 
the US before. Definitely not as smooth as of a ride. I feel like these seats were so comfy and 
nice. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. Good. As I said, definitely different than the Amtrak trains 
in the United States. Yay! We made it. Wow! Yay! Okay, now we’re going to go outside and 
actually I don’t know where we’re going. Just going to go outside and uh I guess go to the 
hotel. Go to a museum first. Museum first. Okay. Okay. We’re going to go to something around 
this area. Hopefully, we’ll get something to eat uh later. So, yeah. Anyways, we’re here. Take a 
look. Yo, another thing about Korea, all of the metro or excuse me, all of like the KTX stations 
are super clean, super advanced and just lovely to be in. Can easily move around. No one’s pushing, 
no one’s fussing, and there are no pickpockets or any kind of like dangerous people uh located 
here. And they all have like these places where you can go and sit down and charge your phones 
and all of your electronic devices. There’s always a restaurant and everything close by. Yo, Korea 
is super sick for its transportation. I’m trying to tell you, don’t sleep on Korea. Not at all. 
Yo, not gonna lie, it’s hot out here. It’s Yo, my skin is burning. This is burning. I’m 
glad I brought this hat because otherwise I would have been So, I forgot my sunglasses. 
Definitely, if you’re going to Korea, coming to Korea in the summertime, please bring your 
sunglasses because the sun is super intense. Yo, it’s hot. My skin. Oh my god. I can’t believe 
my skin is burning. I’m a darker skin person, too. Not super dark, but yeah, at least I have 
a little bit of protection, but man. Yo, feels like it’s about 34 Celsius with humidity at about 
60%. No, no, no. We actually have a a nice van, like Mercedes van that’s going to pick us up and 
w take us to wherever we’re going. Yo, this is so cool. I’ve never been in one of these before. Wow. 
Yo, check this out. Real real leather in and out of place. Cup holder. Oops. Did I open the wrong 
way? Oh, it’s the right way. Cup holder comes out. There we go. That’s nice. Okay, this is going to 
be really, really cool experience. Oh, really? Wow. Look at this place. Look at this. Oh my god. This is 
crazy. Shoot. Place is crazy. Like, look at this restaurant. I don’t know 
how we were able to get this restaurant, but it’s crazy. I’m going to take you outside 
later, but let’s go on the inside of our room. Oh my god, it is so crazy. Yes. So 
amazing. And then this is our hotel for the evening. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. 
Do you like your steak? Medium well or rare or which one? Medium. Medium well. Well 
done, please. Well done. Well done. Yeah. Yo, so we’re here at this restaurant and 
half of the meal is being covered by one of the professors in my department. Her name 
is Professor Kim. Her mom is actually going to cover like half of the price of this meal. And 
you can see already from the the way the table looks that this meal is a little expensive. 
We’ve already started with the salad. They’ve got the soup and there’s bread and things 
and they’re going to bring out the A course, B course, C course later. So yeah, thank you to 
Professor Kim’s mom for sponsoring this meal. Oh, it’s locked. Yeah, cannot go outside. 
Oh, I really wanted to go out there. The view is so nice. After lunch, we came to this 
um cultural site near the there’s like a lake here in Gangnung or near the area where we are 
in Gangn. There’s a lake like right there. It’s very windy here. And for some reason, maybe it’s 
because of the sea, but it’s not as humid here as it is in Soul. Not nearly as humid. Maybe it’s 
because the uh the sea is absorbing all of the humidity possibly. But uh yeah, feels really good 
out here. There’s a nice strong breeze. It’s hot, but as I said before, not humid. My skin is 
burning, but yeah, it feels good here. Highly recommend coming to I can’t believe this is 
my first time coming here. Oh, I just heard something very interesting. This is a statue of 
a comfort woman. And I was told that members of uh the Korean far right uh they mock this statue. 
Uh, I’m not a overly political person. Actually, I’m not political at all, but h sounds sounds 
weird. like we just took a a photo there and I was remarking how that’s a comfort woman’s 
uh you know statue and I don’t know if we should be taking a photo there but one of the 
professors that is with the program said yeah we should because we need to document that 
it’s um you know it’s a cultural historical uh remembrance of some atrocities that happened 
and he said yeah there are some farright people in Korea who mocked that statue I can’t understand 
that so we’ve come to another area where we get uh 10 minutes to look around. I’m going to look 
at these cool trees over here cuz these trees look really really wonderful. Kind of red. Those 
aren’t redwood trees. Definitely not. Gang has a lot more historical places than I thought. I 
didn’t know that there was so much history here connected with Japanese occupation and yeah, other 
elements of Korean history. It is pretty cool. Um, but not only cool because um, they have a lot 
of monuments and things. So, it’s cool because, you know, every place in Korea that I travel to 
does a really good job of showing Korean culture and Korean history. This country really does a 
good job of promoting their history and their culture in a very fun and interactive way. So, 
when you’re coming to all of these these these monuments, these um these sites, these historical 
sites, you can have fun here. And not saying that you need to have fun at every historical or 
cultural site you go to. But it’s very engaging and you can come here and you can feel at ease. 
You can feel comfortable. You can eat. You can, you know, take a rest. You can enjoy the shade. 
It’s a really nice experience. Whole area here with all of these trees is is wonderful. I’m I’m 
really digging it. Really digging it. Look at these these seats over here. You can see like the 
silhouettes right there. There’s a man and there’s a woman right here. That is really interesting. 
That here and then put the silk full. Okay, these weren’t red woods of course. These are just 
pine trees. Evergreen pine trees. And it feels very cool in here. Like really cool. Like outside 
it’s hot, but like these trees are sheltering us from the heat or at least sheltering me. It 
feels really nice. Up. Here’s a map of Kang, the area where we are. You can see up here it says 
Kang and here there’s a nice little water area. Look at that breeze. You can see. Wow. Check a 
look at this. Straight down. But that’s in the open. So, better not walk that way in the 
summertime. This is This is really Korean culture. Can we see? This guy’s got a fan. This 
guy’s got a fan attached to his back. Love these areas whenever I go traveling to like Korean 
traditional houses or traditional buildings. It’s just like this courtyard uh on the on 
the outside or the inside of a building like in the middle. I don’t know what this symbolizes, 
but I’m pretty sure it means something special. So in the comment section guys go ahead 
let me know uh what it means to have like this courtyard inside of the home. Is it like 
from Confucianism society? Does it come from Josan? Does it come from Gorio? Like where 
where does this come from? Uh it’s our hotel lobby looks so nice. Very airy, very spacious. 
Really nice place for some photos. have a little pool here in the center. Okay. And then over there 
there is a tusome place and then it’s showing like there’s an infinity pool here and wow there’s a 
midnight splash pool and then upstairs I think there’s an area where we can sit and chill and 
look at the view. Okay, in the room. Wow, look at this place. Always got to check out the bathroom. 
Bathroom’s looking nice. Nice shower. Very clean. Very clean. Toilet is clean. That doesn’t come 
with a toothbrush. Got to go buy a toothbrush. Forgot to bring. Okay. Nice little minivies. The 
beds are nice. The beds are nice. There’s a single over here or full size. And here’s a queensiz 
bed. And then, okay, the view isn’t bad at all. So, we just came back from being at the beach over 
there. The whole day, the whole afternoon, well, for about 3 hours. It was so nice. We ate burgers. 
I’ll put the footage in here. You’ll see it. We ate handcrafted burgers. It was really good. And 
just had a wonderful time in the in the sea. It was cold, but as soon as you go in there and you 
don’t um think about it too much, the water can become warm. It was really nice. Okay, now we’re 
leaving Gang Nong or we’re leaving our hotel at least. And wow, the sky looks amazing. I love the 
area where our hotel is located right off of the shore. And we’re getting back into the van over 
here. It was a really amazing experience. Very, very enjoyable. I had a fun time going to the 
beach and eating and yeah, singing and all kinds of stuff. So, time to go back to Soul. All right. 
Now we’re at this famous dubu place. Dubu is tofu. Um, Professor Kim, why is this place uh famous? 
Because uh the Jamong Sundubu is the specialty in Gang, but this is the first restaurant to pro to 
make jamongu. Jong is jamong means okay. Chinese a kind of Chinese food, but all vegetables and other 
things mixed together to make it. And also it’s very spicy one. Yeah. So very creative uh food 
like jamongu. Actually originally we have just sundubu but they developed jamong. Oh wow. She’s a 
specialist of of dubu. I have no idea. But yeah I guess I’m going to eat it. That was very fast. 
Looks like uh some kind of soup. My goodness. Wow. And then this is Oh, wow. Look at this. And we got 
some pop. So, have you g Wow. So, they got the really spicy one. Very, 
very spicy. I’m interested to see how it’s going to look when they eat 
it. Great. Try it and then let’s see. Good, good, good. So, this restaurant specializes in dubu. All kinds 
of duboo here. My goodness. We got spicy duboo, we got bland dubu, we got block dubu, we 
got soup duboo, we got all kinds of dubu. Yo, and this place is like um a complex. So, there 
is a cafe here. There’s a doo place over there and some other restaurants as well. This is a really 
nice place uh nice area to chill. It’s called uh Donga Garden. Dongwa Garden. So, if you’re in 
Dang and you’re looking for a really special traditional place to eat and have fun and sit 
and chill, you got to come here to Dongwa Garden. Yum, yum, yum, yum. Wa! Looks delicious. Does 
it taste good? Yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah. Really good. Tastes like um like a real strawberry. Like I’m 
just eating strawberries. Let me try. Let me try. Do it the proper way instead of eating like a It’s like you’re eating m real mango. Frozen 
mango. Yeah. Okay. We are here at some kind of ah it says the world’s best film museum 
here in Gang. So, now we’re going into this area where it says General Electric, and we’re 
going to look at some of the old analog film equipment and things of that sort. Should 
be interesting to see. I think this is the last thing that we’re going to do before 
we head back to Seoul. So, let’s get it. Wow. Interesting. Oh, I guess this is how they used to play records in 
the day. I’m old, but I’m not this old. So many horns. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. This whole 
room is full of of horns. And look at this one. The one thing about Gang is that there are a lot 
of nice cafes just situated like not in the middle of nowhere, but I guess you can say on off beaten 
paths like this cafe here, Cafe 700. There’s like nothing really around here, but there’s a nice 
little cafe right there situated on the street. And the street is very nicely paved, like really 
really cool, really clean. Yeah. So, we are at uh Ojukhyeon Municipal Museum and this place looks 
really nice with the trees and the foliage and just the architecture, how the landscape is set 
up. Really enjoying it so far. We just walked in. I’m not entirely sure what to expect here, but 
so far it just looks very clean. Um there’s just so much green here. This is my type of place. 
My type of environment where there’s just a lot of green and wilderness and stuff. Really love 
this area. Love this kind of place. Oh, always love like the entrances to these temples and like 
parks and places like that cuz it makes it look like there’s something really impressive on the 
inside. And for the most part, usually there is. Oh, take a look at this. Maybe one of my relatives 
lived here since I’m the king. I think this is an area where one of the nobles lived. Could 
be. I have no idea. If you’re knowledgeable about Gangneung uh history, let me know. Yo, 
over here there is black bamboo. Okay. Okay. I try to be really quiet when I’m exploring 
these places because there are a lot of people here who are interested in the history. And 
oh, it says that these buildings were built during the Joseon dynasty. Um, this must 
have been so cool to live inside. And you have bamboo surrounding the place. I don’t 
know if bamboo attracts mosquitoes or not, but I’m pretty sure this area would have 
been nice. It’s like a little palace in and of itself. Wa! Well, there is some workers 
here who are from Uzbekistan. So, I was like, “Asalam alaikum.” And then I said, “Ham, 
the little Uzbekistan that I know.” But wow, Korea is getting like really diverse. There are 
so many people from different ethnicities working in this country. Now, I think maybe in 5 years 
we’re going to see like foreigners driving taxis. I’ve already seen a foreigner uh driving a train 
before, but you’re going to see like very soon foreigners driving taxis and firefighters and all 
that stuff. It’s crazy how much Korea is changing. We’re having fun. Just come here and go to sleep. Actually, it’s 
so hot. You can go to sleep here and just bring something to drink. It’ be really it it’ll be 
really nice to just chill here for maybe a couple hours. Doesn’t feel like there are any mosquitoes 
here either. So, yeah. And it’s free. Well, I don’t know if it’s free. Professor Kim, how much 
did it cost to come here to enter? Yes. Uh 3,0001. Uh 3,0001. So, that’s like a $1 uh 90 or something 
like that. No, I think the dollar is lower now. So, it’s like $210 to come in. You can stay as 
long as you want. Pretty good. Okay. So now we’re back here at Gang KTX station and looks like 
uh there’s a lot of uh building going on around here. So the real estate market in this area must 
be legit because yeah, there’s another building over there that’s uh renting apartments, I think. 
Yeah. So this definitely is a nice place to have some real estate. probably pretty expensive, 
I think, but still, yeah, if you’re going to look for some real estate, why not come here? 
Definitely a contrast from when we arrived here. The sun was like super hot and beating down on us, 
but now it’s it’s low. There’s so many uh well, it’s not low. There are a lot of clouds and stuff, 
but there it is, Gang Station. And we are going to say goodbye. But before we get on the train, 
of course, we’re going to get some cafe. Uh, some coffee. Get some cafe. Get some coffee and 
some drinks and chill out. And then we’re going to get back on the wonderful, the lovely, the 
amazing, the exciting KTX. Yo, just take a look. Last time I didn’t have time, but look at the 
station. You got your Dunkin Donuts over there. You got your Olive Young over there. You got your 
seats over here. You got Bouldor. She’s running. And there’s a Twosome Place over there. This place 
just looks so chic, so clean. It’s a really big LED TV right here in the center. Yeah, Korea 
Korea does as well. Amtrak train stations don’t have this. You have a a LED board up there with 
the tracks and times of the trains in English and in Korean. Very easy for people to see. And you 
have a map over here, tourist map of the area. tourist information which is found usually uh at 
all the KTX stations like as soon as you get off the train you can find them. They have brochures 
in English uh Korean, Chinese, Japanese and yeah all the like big lang languages the major uh 
languages and you can come over here and buy your tickets at the machine or you can buy it at 
the window. So many things and there’s lockers over there as well. want to come here, you can 
put your stuff in a locker if you’re only going to stay for a day. You don’t want to like bring 
it around with you um you know to the hotel and all these other places or to the beach ATM machine 
over there. Yeah, this is this is the place. This is the place to be. So, we’re going to hang out 
here for an hour or so before uh our train. Okay, one thing I wanted to show you is Gang. So, where 
are we? We are so I can read the map very well. Where is the This whole area here is gone. All 
of this area right here. And the KTX station is okay. Yuck. Not okay. Yuck. No, I can’t find 
it. Maybe I’ll find it somewhere uh when I play it back. But yeah, the Kick station 
is really close uh to the to the water. So, you don’t have to go very far. Maybe you 
can take like 10-minute taxi ride to any of the hotels that are littered along 
the beach. They’re pretty inexpensive if you ask me. And then you come upstairs 
from behind the cafe. This is the area that I showed you last time. You can 
come here, you can charge your phone, you can use the the Wi-Fi. Everything is here. 
It’s really nice. Everyone’s going back to Soul. Wow. Super crowded. Nice. Look at the KTX’s as we’re going down. Wow, they look so fast. And this is Architeex. I 
didn’t get a chance to show you guys when I was uh late the other day. I’m showing you now. Look at the front. It looks a little bit 
like the TED, the French train. And It goes on for a few cars now. But I love 
how everyone is loading onto the train, but very orderly. There’s like no people 
trying to jump over each other to get on the train. Everyone just gets on 
in a very orderly fashion. It’s very clean and not noisy. I love 
it. I love Korea for this. on. Okay, it’s time to go back to Seoul. So, 
thanks a lot for joining me and my team as we went around Gangneung and explored 
and had an amazing time. Hopefully, you guys will be able to come to Gangneung. 
I’m coming back definitely. All right, love you guys. Make sure you stay 
hydrated. See you in the next one. Peace.

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Wow! Gangneung Korea SURPRISED Me! | American Expat In Korea

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