Seoul:

Bye JEJU. Hello Seoul .

We opted to fly to Seoul early in the morning. Javier made it even earlier by insisting we leave the hotel three hours before our flight. After dropping the car and taking the shuttle to the airport, we arrived one hour before the ticket counter, and Dunkin Donuts, even opened! I couldn’t even pass the time with a delicious chocolate donut. In discussing our departure time the night before, I had suggested we leave the hotel later, but you can see how that turned out…

Seoul Incheon is the best airport ever, period, end of story. At least in our opinion. It’s like a giant mall, with everything you could need and want. I could happily live in this airport. It was really easy to navigate and we were able to find the metro station in no time.

Jackie claiming her territory in the room.

The metro is economical, quick, reliable, and takes you right into the heart of Seoul. When we arrived, it was fairly hot and humid, and our uphill hike to our guesthouse was a doozy. I was hungry, and suggested we drop our stuff and find lunch. When we arrived in the room, we decided to try out the beds. The guesthouse was traditional Korean sleeping, so we were on cushions on the floor. Once we were on the floor, Javier started doing something on his phone, and I fell asleep. 

We were staying in Myeong-dong neighborhood, and were surrounded by good restaurants. We chose one at random, and were not disappointed.

Myeong-dong: our neighborhood.

There was a master plan to buy a new Samsung phone while in Korea. Javier had read about a place called Samsung D’lite in Gangnam. Since we wanted to check out the Gangnam scene anyway, it seemed like a good idea. On the way to Gangnam, we stopped to have our first of many boba milk teas in Korea- we drank at least one a day, per person. When we arrived at Samsung D’lite, we were impressed by the store, and not impressed by the prices. The phones were more expensive than in the US! The store however, was awesome.

FIFA 15

They have everything Samsung- from phones to computers, to TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines. It was a large space with three floors, and for some reason, the location for a school assignment. There were junior high students everywhere. They were running around with papers filling in the blanks and of course, the boys stopping by the many video game stations to play Fifa and boxing, while the girls took pictures of themselves which were then displayed on a huge screen. 

After we had our fun, we had read about another area of the city that has every electronic you can imagine, at dirt-cheap prices. When we stepped out of the subway, we couldn’t find the building. We asked a guy on the street and he pointed us in the right direction. We thanked him and started walking.

Seoul

We had to walk through a tunnel, and when we emerged on the other side, all I could see was a large, old building with signs all over it. Surely this was not the place, at least not what I had imagined. When we walked inside, there were small walkways to follow. As you walk, you pass by several small spaces (you can’t even really call them shops). Each one selling something different. The place did indeed have tons of electronics, and parts to fix any electronic, but no cell phones. After walking to another one of these buildings, and finding more of the same, but not what we were looking for, we decided to walk back to our neighborhood. It would take a couple of hours, but would also allow us to see more of Seoul. I was craving Korean barbecue, so we stopped at the first place we saw that served beef, and Javier was able to order a soup he’d been eye-balling for a while. I love the Korean’s use of scissors during their meals. For barbecue, they cut all of the meat with scissors, and Javier’s soup had a large pork bone with meat, that the waiter instructed he eat by cutting the meat off the bone with scissors. We have since decided we will start incorporating more scissor-use in our cooking- it just makes life easier.  We kept walking and ended at Seoul station. By now it was dark.

K Pop

Seoul station has a large shopping mall attached to it, so we went to check it out. As we crossed the street, we heard music and saw that there was a stage set up. We went to get a better view and saw a group of young boys dancing. Actually, they weren’t young boys, but probably young adults. We’re not sure if it was some sort of competition, talent show, or something else altogether, but there were K-pop dancers, interpretive dancers, singers, and piano players to name a few. We stayed and watched for a while. It was really fun, and it was a Thursday night!

Korean BBQ

The next morning, we did laundry. Exciting, huh? Well it was for us! We had been sink- washing since leaving Nepal, and it was very exciting to finally use a proper washer and dryer! This is what excited us these days folks, a washing machine and dryer. 🙂 While we were waiting for our wash, we continued to plan for Japan. By the time we were done, it was time for lunch. On our walk home the night before, we had walked by a different barbecue place, and decided to try it for lunch. This place was also delicious and included tofu soup, which I love.

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Change of the guard.

We visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace, and when we arrived, it happened to be during the changing of the guard ceremony and it was quite a show! We took a free tour around the palace, and were surprised that it looks exactly like the Forbidden palace in Beijing. Its layout and design are almost identical. The structure of the buildings are identical including the stone platforms, staircases, and foundations of the buildings. There was the same coiled golden dragons in the ceiling, although China only has one, and little animal statues on the roof. It was really weird. When I asked the tour guide about it, she looked offended. She just said that Korea, China and Japan influenced each other, and that was it. I didn’t press further, but it’s one thing to build in a similar style, but another to replicate. Either way, the buildings are beautiful.

Gyeongbokgung, also known as Gyeongbokgung Palace.

They continually restore the outside paint, so the colors and bright and vibrant. There was a large banquet hall surrounded by a moat with koi fish. Our tour guide told us that after a woman gave birth, they would take a koi fish, boil it, and the woman had to drink the broth for nutrition. Sounds pretty gross to me! The queen was not allowed to leave the palace…ever. So, she had her own garden to keep her company. While the garden is pretty, I’m thinking I would go crazy in no time. The rest of the grounds are quite nice. The king and queen slept separately and the concubines slept in another building. We were told that in Korea, the king goes to the women, not the other way around. As she put it, “The butterfly goes to the flowers.” 

Gyeongbokgung, also known as Gyeongbokgung Palace

Seoul was such an interesting city. There’s so much to see just walking around. We decided to exit the subway a stop early and walk home. We walked through the shopping area of Myeong-dong. There were so many people! We stopped for an ice-cream. It was overpriced, but shaped like a rose, and that makes it worth every penny! There was a local craft fair, so we looked around. It was all very etsy-ish. We tried this little egg-on-a-bun thing with some sort of cheese? maybe? Anyway, we didn’t care for it, so we washed it down with another bubble milk tea. We were told to go to the top of the mountain, near Seoul tower, to view the city at night. We weren’t really feeling like it that night, so we decided to put it off until tomorrow.

Myeong-dong

The next morning was more laundry and FaceTime with my family. Trying to coordinate a trip for 11 people to Japan is not easy and is quite time consuming. Especially when they are coming as three separate groups whose dates overlap one another. Trying to make sure everyone gets the most out of their trip without having to repeat things is almost impossible, and therefore lots and lots of FaceTime. By the time we were done, it was already afternoon and we were starving. During my family conference, Javier had picked up some bubble tea for us, and saw a pork cutlet place that he wanted to try. It turns out that the street above us, is lined with port cutlet restaurants and at 2pm, the lines were looooong. Apparently, this pork is very popular. We gave it a try, and it was good, but I don’t think we would be lining up for it any time soon. It was our last day in Seoul, and instead of trying to see another tourist attraction, we decided to just get ready to meet Javier’s parents in Japan. First on the list: get Javier a haircut. This proved to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. Everything was a salon, but we had tried the salon experience before in another country, and didn’t like the results, so we have since stuck with barbers.

Jackie and her flower ice-cream

We had noticed earlier that many of the men’s hair was not blended the way we are used to, but instead had an obvious line where the hair length changed. We were joking that this must be the style in Korea, but didn’t really think about it in regards to Javier’s haircut. We found a mens-only hair place, so we thought we were in luck. As it turned out, Javier ended with the same type of line around the back of his head as everyone else. He hated it! And I kept laughing…yes, I am a very supportive girlfriend. I kept pointing to different people telling him, it looks like that. The more he saw, the more he hated it, so when we were back at the hotel, he pulled out his clippers and got to work. The shaved part of his head was still long enough to trim down, so he took care of most of it and handed it over to me to finish. We chose the Macklemore style, since it’s the easiest, and I have to say, my masterpiece doesn’t look half bad. 

The next day was a travel day for us, but also revolved completely around the Maywether/Pacqiao fight. Javier had planned for us to get to the airport by noon to watch the fight.  According to the owner of the guesthouse, the fight would be broadcasted on national TV. He told us all of the TVs at the airport would be showing the fight, so we could watch it there. Javier was ecstatic. We arrived at the airport by noon, and started looking for a TV. We couldn’t find one. We went to some of the restaurants in our terminal…no TV. After searching for a while, Javier decided we should just check in and try our luck inside. By the time we made it through security and immigration, it was already 1230. We looked everywhere for a TV. Nothing. We asked at information- nothing. Finally, we decided to forget about it and find something to eat.

Pacquiaio Mayweather fight.

There was a lounge/restaurant on the floor above, so since we had a couple of hours, we decided to eat and rest up there. As we were walking around, we saw the fight. It was in a premier club lounge, for which we are not members, so we paid to enter. We were able to watch the fight from the 7th round, and ate unlimited buffet. Javier was happy, and I was just glad to sit and relax. 

On the way to board our plane, we had extra won, so Javier stopped by a shop and bought some water. When we arrived at the gate, the girl told us that we couldn’t take the water on board. We asked why, since we bought it after security. She said it was government policy. So, we either had to drink it all, or return it. Can you believe it?? I was so irritated. Normally, we would just drink the water and be done with it, but since both of us were so full from the buffet, there was no way. We decided to return it, so with only a few minutes before the plane was leaving, Javier went back to the store, returned the water, found another store to buy a snack, and made it back to the plane just as they were closing.

Seoul Airport. tourist entertainment.

We both really enjoyed Korea. The people were great and the food, amazing. But I have to be honest, we were so excited to be moving on to Japan!!

To see more pictures of South Korea, click HERE.