Sightseeing in Seoul, South Korea - a Guide

We all know the song, we all know the dance. But what is Gangnam Style? Ian Jarrett goes to the South Korean district where it all began.

So here I am in the middle of the Gangnam district. The subject of the global rap phenomenon, Gangnam Style.

Everybody’s had a go at the crazy horse-riding dance that went viral after being posted on YouTube. At its peak you would open a newspaper and see photographs of sports stars, European royalty, robots and Philippine convicts looking – let’s face it – ever so slightly silly.

Even President Obama indicated that he might “do it privately" for Michelle – suggesting that the First Lady would appreciate the Gangnam Style dance made famous by South Korean rapper Psy, a Chubby Checker-like figure (real name Park Jae-sang) who describes his own style as “dress classy and dance cheesy."

Cheesy? This guy is the Pecorino of Pop. The Roquefort of Rap.

But who cares when you have the chance to teach Britney Spears to dance Gangnam Style on the Ellen Degeneres Show? Or that in May this year he was a guest of Harvard University in the United States where students have been studying Psy as a ‘modern global digital culture phenomenon’.

Gangnam Style was YouTube’s most-viewed video with more than 1.5 billion hits since its release in July 2012. With the Korean lyrics translating to words like: “I’m a guy who is as warm as you during the day, a guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down, a guy whose heart bursts when night comes", it’s hard to understand why it was so successful.

But the website Celebrity Net Worth estimates the song has earned 35-year-old Psy more than US$8 million. And his follow-up release Gentleman has also been collecting hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, further boosting his wealth no doubt.

So I’m searching Seoul(or Seoul searching) for Gangnam Style, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Even in Gangnam. I make a couple of moves of my own but the passing crowd looks at me more in pity than with pleasure.

Then someone points out you don’t find Gangnam Style in the middle of the afternoon. By day affluent, flamboyant Gangnam – one of Seoul’s four major zones – is for luxury shopping and smart dining. The rappers, the clubbers and the crazy K-Pop dancers don’t come out until well after dark.

During the day the spotlight is on the trendy fashion stores in Cheongdam-dong and Apgujeong streets –Seoul’s Rodeo Drive– where celebrities like to shop. I watch Koreans photographing themselves standing outside department stores where the windows are lined with pictures of celebrities. Weird to me, but normal in Korea.

Along with the classy shops and cafés, Gangnam is home to Samsung d’light, where the Korean manufacturer showcases its latest hi-tech products. Or for something different, performances of The Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy at the Lotte World Arts Hall fuse modern break-dancing with classical ballet. That’s weird, too.

South Korea sees popular culture as a means to increase international exposure. The government has actively encouraged the so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) of TV shows and pop music that has swept across Asia and beyond.

And to be fair, Gangnam is more than just a South Korean district that spawned a pop culture. Garosu-gil is a term used to describe a tree-lined street, of which there are many in Gangnam. One in particular is Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil Road, a 700-metre promenade lined with ginkgo trees where antique stores and interior design showrooms are squeezed alongside luxury goods stores.

Seorae Village, also in the Gangnam area, was formed around the school set up by the French Embassy in Korea and is now home to 50 per cent of the French people who live in Korea. In French-named streets and squares you’ll find, not surprisingly, some good French restaurants and bakeries, as well as wine shop and bar Tour du Vin which has an extensive collection of fine wines.

Local food favourites include samgyupsal, one of the country’s most popular pork cuts, while black pig from Jeju-do is a renowned regional favourite. Most often it is accompanied by the staple kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish, or jeonju bibimbap, mixed rice and vegetables.

Here’s something else about Seoul; I was told that couples who love each other also try to look like each other. And not just by dressing in the same clothes. They also like to have plastic surgery together. It’s not unusual to see a young couple walking down a street hand-in-hand in their matching outfits with their noses protected by small white bandages. Sweet. But weird.

It’s been estimated that one in five Korean women have undergone plastic surgery. And here’s the celebrity trend thing again. The most popular plastic surgery treatments requested by Koreans are for face shapes that match two of the country’s most popular – and prettiest – actresses. Neither is it just a female thing – males make up 30 per cent of plastic surgery patients.

Even Psy was advised by his record company bosses to get plastic surgery to make him better looking.

“The agency heard my raps and were picturing a six-foot tall, sharp-looking, trendy guy," he said.

In the end, the record company backed off. Psy kept his chubby cheeks and made them part of his appeal. And it paid off.

The Details

How to get there

Korean Air fly direct from Sydney and Brisbane; Asiana Airlines fly direct from Sydney only. The fare is from $1600 return ex Sydney depending on the season. Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines offer flights via Hong Kong and Singapore respectively.

When to go

The best time is spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Autumn is also best weather-wise. Korea has a wet monsoon/summer season in the middle of the year, and a cold winter from November to March.

Where to stay

Affordable: Ibis Myeongdong is located in the heart of the trendiest shopping district in Seoul, with major department stores, restaurants, cafés and nightclubs nearby. From $103 per night. ibis.com

Comfortable: Novotel Ambassador Gangnam is a 4-star property with a golf putting green, sauna, jacuzzi, massage services and a tourist information desk. From $158 per night. accorhotels.com

Luxury: The Shilla Seoul is renowned for its outstanding art collection including works by Picasso and Salvador Dali. The hotel will re-open in July 2013 after renovations. From $380 per night. shilla.net/en/seoul

Where to eat

High end: Paisun at The Shilla is a Chinese restaurant famous for its herbal medicine soup, called buldojang. 202 Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu; shilla.net/en/seoul

Comfortable: Gungyeon is operated by the daughter of royal cuisine cook Hwang Hye-seong. Royal cuisines are dishes strictly prepared by experienced chefs with recipes passed down by previous generations. 125-19 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu

Affordable: Guillaume is an authentic French bakery that serves freshly baked pain or viennoiserie and coffee. Lunch and dinner is also served along with a good selection of French wines. 88-37 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu; maisonguillaume.com

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You can’t leave without

Every city needs guards and Seoul has some absolute corkers. The royal guard changing ceremony at Deoksugung Palace is held three times a day and begins with a parade of colourfully dressed guards playing traditional musical instruments.

Wander in Samcheongdong with its art galleries, trendy fashion stores and highly popular dumpling and noodle specialty restaurants.

Take a guided tour of Changdeokgung Palace and the Secret Garden, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Gawk at the guards at the North Korean border. A day trip out ofSeoul is best organised by one of the tour companies licensed to take foreigners to the world’s last Cold War frontier.

Best thing about Seoul

Whether you enjoy a Korean Samgyeopsal (BBQ pork belly) or royal cuisine, you will always be served side dishes of kimchi, vegetables and other tasty morsels to enjoy with your meal.

Worst thing about Seoul

Seoul is hot and humid in summer and air pollution is a problem. It is best avoided at this time of year.

You should know

Take advantage of the Seoul City Tour Bus, a cheap hop-on hop-off explorer bus that takes in all the sights of Seoul. Seoul City Bus Tours Information

Seoul City Free Walking Tours cover various routes and attractions. english.visitseoul.net/index

Cosme Road is heaven for cosmetics lovers. The street is located in the popular district of Myeong-dong, an area full of cheap cosmetics, fashion, and food.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

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