MANILA, Philippines – Some call it wanderlust: the endless search for faraway lands and the promise of a new adventure. Others put it less dramatically – when you can’t seem to stay put in one place, it’s gotta be a serious case of being bitten by a travel bug.

Traveling means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some travel to break the routine of everyday life, while others bring their backpacks to foreign lands to experience worlds and cultures different from theirs.

There are short or long trips, spontaneous hitchhikes and carefully planned itineraries. And many travel stories have been immortalized through books, photographs and films.

Camille Tajon’s unique trip in late 2011 is worth recounting because it brought her up close with Hallyu – the Korean wave, or love for Korean pop culture (K-pop).

From obscurity in the late 1990s, K-pop exports have since doubled on account of South Korean dramas that teach Confucian values, follow rags-to-riches plots, or speak of the pursuit of fame and an ideal dream job.

For these reasons, K-pop has resonated strongly with Asians and even Filipinos who tend to be Western-oriented. Camille and her friends are no exception.

Good find

In early 2011, nursing student Camille and two of her college friends found themselves reserving plane tickets for a November flight to South Korea.

An airline seat sale that was expiring in a few days forced them to make a quick decision. “It [seat sale] was really a good find because [it cost] P4,000, back and forth,” she recalls.

“Half of the trip had to do with K-pop because of me. The goal was to go to music shows, but since our schedule was from Monday to Thursday, we chose to go to music companies instead.” To her dismay, she discovered that music shows in Seoul are usually taped from Thursdays to Sundays, so they had to change plans quickly.

They wanted to visit places too featured in popular Korean drama series – the coffee shop in “The 1^st Shop of Coffee Prince” which adapted the drama’s name afterwards, or the carousel in “Stairway to Heaven.”

Looking for a place to stay was done in a jiffy. An online search months before the trip landed them with two rooms at Namsan 3, a guesthouse located at Myeongdong, one of Seoul’s main shopping districts.

Camille likens their waiting time for the trip – less than 10 months – to childbearing. Much excitement preceded the months which slowly turned into weeks, the weeks to days. Until finally, The Day.

Stargazing from coffee shops

In their ideal itinerary, they were supposed to go company-hopping: SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, CUBE Entertainment, Hook Entertainment, Brand New Stardom Entertainment and N.O.A Entertainment – homes to the brightest stars of Korea.

But because of time constraints and locals who couldn’t point them to their destinations, they ended up going only to SM, JYP and YG. From a coffee shop across the JYP Entertainment building, they sat and waited for 30 minutes, only to see who they thought were Taecyeon from the heartthrob 2PM and Sohee of Wonder Girls.

They tried their luck with SM Entertainment, one of South Korea’s biggest record labels. But what welcomed them instead were groups of fan girls waiting outside. They tried to see who it was by zooming their cameras, but gave up and left the place after just 15 minutes.

Luckily, she met one star-in-the-making and even had the privilege to sit down for conversation and coffee with him.

“BBoy Barom”

Camille first saw Barom Yu in a special episode of a Korean variety show, “Let’s Go Dream Team.” He was part of the rookie team who played against Super Junior. “I thought he was already an artist because he was with members of Block B in that episode,” she explains.

Block B, which visited the Philippines in 2010, is another K-pop group that Camille had the privilege to meet in person.

Barom Yu is a 21-year-old breakdancer (or B-boy) who grew up in Australia. He came home to Korea only in 2009 to pursue a career in the K-pop industry. For two years, he trained under Yedang Entertainment, whose stars include Jay Park and Rania, among others.

During his training, he uploaded dance tutorials and vlogs (video blogs) on YouTube (user bboybyu), which garnered him a decent following on Twitter and in real life. Even before his official debut as a K-pop artist, his official fan club SALT was already established.

After much persistence and several tweets, e-mail and KakaoTalk (Android’s BBM-counterpart) exchanges, Camille was able to set a meeting with Barom to give him gifts from his Filipino fans.

In fact, their meeting was included in their Korean itinerary. “I was surprised. I asked him, ‘Is it possible [to meet up]?’ and he said, ‘We will probably make time for you,’” she recalls.

Camille and her friends met Barom and his best friend (and fellow B-boy), Dabin Hong, in a coffee shop near their guesthouse. “The first thing I did was to show them two message books [made by their fans]. They were very touched and said they were speechless,” she says in between giggles while reminiscing the event.

They gave the boys some Filipino gifts, while the B-boys, in turn, showed them some dance floor moves. The meeting lasted for less than two hours, and after some picture taking, they parted ways.

Camille considers this trip one of her best memories of 2011. What’s the lure of K-pop? “[I like] everything, the whole packaging: looks and personalities of the artists, dance routines and choreography, vocals, and music videos.”

It could be this excellent way of packaging that attracts a lot of Filipino fans to K-pop, or it could simply be the artists themselves, muscular abs and all. And as long as the sounds reach the unlikiest of places, K-pop will be here to stay. – Rappler.com