South Korea: Golden City, Golden Time!

The 66th UN DPI/NGO Conference 2016 was held in Gyeongju, South Korea, May 30-June 1st.

Few of  us, who worked for the Youth Sub-Committee Planning Team, found sponsors to travel to South Korea. Since March of 2016, we worked day and night, planning, writing, and executing youth events in New York City and beyond. Our team members live all around the world, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Senegal and India are just few names of the various countries involved.

We worked in engaging young people globally to talk about, advocate and work on the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs), also called the Global Goals.

Working to organize youth events for the conference has broaden my horizon, helped sharpen my leadership skills and prepared me to become a Global Citizen.

My colleague Ivana and I, decided to see the beautiful city of Seoul, along with attending the conference.

So we started the trip from Seoul, stayed in Seoul for 5 days before going to the Conference in Gyeongju May 30-June1st, 2016. The Conference mainly focused around Goal 4, Quality Education and the name of the conference was, Education for Global Citizenship.

The first few days in Seoul, we walked around the city, ate a lot and went shopping. The best way to see a city in my opinion is by walking, whenever you feel like, you can just sit down in a bench. Of course, developed cities such as Seoul, have numerous amount of benches around. 

As soon as we landed in Incheon Airport in Seoul, we found friendly people and detailed cartooned  directions of  Air Train, Taxi, Passport Control, Bathroom and so on.

We took a bus to go to the city in Namdaemun area. It was pretty easy. The view of the country side was so pretty filled with hills and greenery, reminded me of Bangladesh. 

As soon as we arrived at our destination, we found narrow roads and many small shops surrounding us. Everywhere South Korea Flags were visible. We thought there must be some type of celebration happening. We walked with our heavy suitcases in those narrow roads, since Ivana suggested we take all our nice clothes to travel. Once we found our hotel, we were so happy after 14-15 hours of traveling. It was  a small but pretty cozy hotel.

Most mornings in Seoul, we would go and eat at Paris Baguette, since a lot of their food are usually spicy and we NewYorkers prefer sweets and coffee in the morning.

Namdaemun Market

The neighborhood around Namdaemun Market looked a lot like Dhaka to me or other South Asian Cities. The crowd, street food and fun people made the aroma even more exotic. Once a street food vendor, even asked me in broken English, " Are you going to Marry me and take me to America ?". I was only waiting on line, surprisingly enough, that came to me, when a friendly lady asked where I was from. 

So the adventure began there at Namdeamun Market. The street food I liked the most was Japchae Hoddeok, it's a fried spicy vegetarian pancake. So I was safe to eat it. Most of the dishes in Seoul usually have pork in it, so it's hard for me to eat a lot of the food. 

However, I loved eating spicy fish soups as well as chicken or duck. Duck are usually cooked so well in Korea and they're amazingly delicious.

Most stores in Seoul stays open late at night, so getting home after all day sightseeing wasn't scary at all. Korean people are very friendly, they go out of their ways to help you, and always with a smile.

Everyone usually wants to speak English in Seoul, so the language barrier wasn't a problem at all. I also learned some Korean to connect with the locals; such as 'Kamsahamnida' meaning 'Thank you'.
The day after arriving Seoul, I practiced saying thank you all day, everywhere I go. People were super happy.
The first day at Seoul, we walked from Namdeamun to Gyeongbokgun, also called, 'Palace of Shinning happiness'. I really wanted to go there after reading about it many times, the palace is a great example of Buddhist decorations overlooking the mountains.

Gyeongbokgung Palace, Ivana and I with girls in Korean Traditional clothes

Gyeongbokgung Palace was build in 1394 by King Taejo, the king of the Joseon dynasty. The king selected beautiful Seoul inaugural capital in 1392 and this amazing city has been in prime importance ever since.The beautiful wooden gates and hallways of the palace are true example of Confucian style architecture, the colors are subtle and matches with nature perfectly, with pine covered mountains from the north.  

Street view

We walked all around, the streets are pretty clean and safe at Seoul Downtown.  I noticed most people are very health conscious in Korea, they eat a lot of vegetables and workout. They love their face products. My friend Ivana loved shopping for face mask, make up or lotions there. She said, Korean girls have ten steps to follow when it comes to taking care of their skin. That sounds like a lot of work to me, since in America we talk about three steps to face care, which I haven't really followed all my life. 

We noticed South Korean fashion is really nice, the colors of their clothing are very subtle, mainly light blue, white, stripes and other light colors. Their color choice is not much glittery or bold at all, like the way we find it in other parts of the world. Ivana and I, were happy since we could bargain at those never ending street shops, and walking was pleasant as well with flowering pots, and plant decors. Every now and then, we would notice beautiful decorated wooden gates. Once we found one UNICEF Heritage site named Changdeokgung Palace. We went there pretty late and couldn't enter the palace, unfortunately. Since we were always busy talking and taking thousands of pictures of every pretty details of the city. One day, it was around dusk in Seoul and we walked far from our hotel. However, we kept walking and walking, until we found a small Korea Barbecue restaurant. We sat there and ordered so much food. We kept eating and talking. We were so much into planning our next adventures that we forgot to take our phone charger, which was charging our phones all this time, sigh. Yeah, that's our story of Seoul, talking, walking, eating and more talking. 

Soon our adventures in Seoul was coming to an end, when we started our journey toward meeting so many amazing people at the UN DPI/NGO Conference in Geyongju. We had the privilege to ride this high speed train KTX, from Seoul to Geyongju, Korea. The train runs 300 km/hr, which is pretty amazing. Hence, our journey began to the Old Capital of Korea, Golden City, Geyongju. 

Gyongju Train Station, UN DPI/NGO Conference banner

As soon as we arrived at the Geyongju train station, we found welcome messages for the conference participants. That made us pretty happy as if we came back home. The roads and signs all said, 66th UN DPI/NGO Conference, both in English and Korean. 

The station also had  public transportation to HICO area, where the conference was held. 

So, we took a Taxi to our hotel, which wasn't far at all. The driver, an older gentleman originally form Geyongju, explained the glory of his city in the old days. We were listening with so much fascination and excitement.

The moment we arrived at the Hyundai Hotel at Geyongju, our eyes stayed open for a long time, 

Hotel Hyundai, view from our balcony.

couldn't believe how beautiful this five star hotel was.

We couldn't stop taking pictures, as usual. Well, 

it's a good idea of taking picture of your room before you unpack and settle. That's my travel tip and works well all the time.

Soon arriving at Gyeongju, we went to meet our team members, all nine youth sub-comitte members arrived as well. It was so fascinating and amazing to see some of them for the first time, mainly our friend Mohammed from Saudi Arabia. We also had youth representatives coming from different countries in Africa. After meet and greet, we started working right away, we must , since it was the day before the conference. 

Months of planning and writing was about to come into reality, the first day of the Conference, May 30th, 2016.

Our Youth Program started at 8 am where the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon himself came to cheer with us. He loved our Energy and Enthusiasm. Starting from Day 1, we had the opportunity to meet Youth Representatives from South Korea, Dubai, Nigeria, Senegal and other parts of the world. We organized events, talks and interviews at the Youth Hub, where conference participants could drop by anytime of the day to enjoy our events. We also had singers at our Youth Hub Show Time. The networking events in the evening was the best, we would have interesting topics to discuss about, such as 'what global citizenship means to you'.

Amazing Youth Representatives from all around the world!

The days of the conference passed by very quickly and the nights were filled with meeting interesting young people and making friends for a lifetime. I have met some friends, who shared so much with me, I was surprised by how this gathering and the beauty of this city, has opened us to others toward working for a great cause. The quest to ensure Quality Education in every corner of the world is a great one and this cause alone has broaden our minds. 

Soon came the day we had to leave South Korea. The night before our last day, we spend at a beautiful rooftop, hosted by our new Korean friend. We all shared our ideas, experiences and thoughts for the future. Traveling to South Korea was the most amazing experiences in 2016 for me, and I will cherish every moment of it, in the years to come.

Last day in Seoul, will see you again