We arrived at Gimpo Airport around 6PM Saturday on a warm, sticky night. Gimpo is the airport where I left almost 39 years ago(Joanne left 44 years ago) as a child, and am now returning as a grey beard. Nothing like Nelson Mandela who spent some thirty odd years growing old, locked up in prison, before being released, but my emotion, upon returning to my homeland, was somewhat liberating. Probably it was more so from the fact that I was embarking on a long vacation. We were greeted by my sister, Eunice and my brother-in-law, Cliff. They’ve been living in Seoul for about a year after living in Tokyo for about 3 years. Cliff is in charge of Korea and Japan operations of Office Depot as the president and they are doing well in Seoul. I had warned my sister that we were bringing a lot of luggage and she had assured me not to worry. They picked us up in the largest sedan in Korea, like a limo size, and had no problem fitting the two elephants and two gorillas as well as the four of us.
A large traffic jam immediately hit us as we entered the city, seemingly unusual for a Saturday; but I was thinking this is Seoul. We see people walking about on the freeway, cars are literally parked in the slow lanes two deep and people were even sitting on mats. I was thinking, wow, this is something! Soon thereafter, we were greeted by a big fire works display over the Han River. First, we are personally greeted by a personal chauffer who happened to be a president, then the citizens line up on the freeway and then a fireworks show? What’s going on? What a welcome! Later we learned that we had arrived on the day of the Seoul International Fireworks Festival. A memorable welcome home.
Our taste buds come alive
I knew when we arrived in Korea we would be treated to a feast of authentic Korean foods. That was one of the things I was really looking forward to, being able to taste all variety of regional delicacies. Having lived in Seoul for a year, my sister and brother-in-law knew exactly where to take us. See photo
Itaewon Shopping
Even though Korea is such a close neighbor of Japan, it is very much different from Japan. We may look alike on the outside to most other people, but the culture and the way of doing things are not at all similar. If Japanese are courteous, precise and meticulous, Koreans are bending, warm and giving. However, you need to know the Korean way to get Korean generosity. In other words, you need to know how to deal with them to get all the extras.
We were fortunate enough to get up in the morning and find out that the currency exchange was favorable. We then got an extra bonus by having my sister deal with all the merchants while shopping for us. Of course, the first thing on our shopping list was luggage (good bye elephants and gorillas). My sister and brother-in-law knew just the place to go; they’ve been going there and the owners knew them well. When you know the people you’re dealing with, everything is so much easier in Korea. Now days with most of the goods being made in Asia, the same brand name luggage, but without the fancy labels, are much cheaper here. Of course for Joanne, she wasn’t having as much fun shopping. Why? She declared that after throwing away and giving away so much “stuff”, she wasn’t going to shop for awhile.
The night of arrival in Seoul, a BBQ place in Mapo district. The BBQ beef & pork, dong-chi-me noodles were all so yummy!!!! The restaurant was totally filled with people.
A sit-down style dinner. You need to fidget a lot or else your legs fall asleep or cramp up, whichever comes first. My sister & brother-in-law are on the far right, next to wall.
The next day (Sun.) in Inchon Harbor for lunch. So many different types of clams;all different shapes & sizes; probably 10 types. They brought out more and more for us to eat - to our heart's content. When BBQing, the clams only open up when fully cooked.
Monday,on the way to get our visa pictures taken. Could not resist warm and sweet "boong uh bhang" goldfish shaped pastry stuffed with red beans.kristin said...
wow! i'm so jealous youre eating yummy yummy korean food.. i miss it! and i love the fish shaped red bean bhang.
mommy looks pretty in the last picture. so happy!
October 7, 2008 2:04 AM
Nam-dae-mun (South Gate) Market is a open-air, traditional market. Be prepared to bargain. Where's Waldo?
LG-Xi complex where we my sister lives (where they generously let us free load while in Korea). It comes with an indoor gym and golf practice area.
The view over looking the Han River from the living room. Their high rise condo is large by Korean standards; 67 pyung, about 2000 sq feet that keeps us comfortable.
Early morning soccer practice outside the complex. The players are getting ready for a game; probably will have a good group smoke afterwards. It seems most men smoke in Korea/Japan.
Nice jogging trail outside the complex next to the Han River. The tall building you see is "6-3 building", the tallest in Korea. We had a nice jog early in the morning but on the way home, we were almost run over by a motorcycle.Planning our trip to China
It is Thursday morning here in Seoul, and we finally got the travel arrangements to China all squared away. China and Russia are two countries where we wanted to join a guided tour, rather than going solo. We’ve heard a lot of scary stories; we didn’t want to venture out there alone and be eaten alive or locked up somewhere in a Chinese or Siberian labor camp.
We looked into booking a China tour while we were still in L.A. and we were quoted a price of $1,900 per person for a 14 day land tour (not including air). We decided to wait until we got to Korea and arrange the tour there. At first it was so difficult; all the tours to China from Korea lasts only 3 - 5 days! You have to go back and forth from Seoul to Bejing for one tour, from Seoul to Shanghai for another tour, etc…However, finally, we were able to duplicate the 14 day tour for only $750 per person. Don’t ask me why, but somehow it is definitely cheaper here. With the exchange rate changing rapidly, it could work out even better yet.
Land of the Morning Calm
Korea is known as the Land of the Morning Calm. This may have been appropriate some 100 years ago, when they were traveling by walking or carriages. However, these days, there are so many cars on the street and filled with constant construction; Seoul is more like the Land of the Morning Chaos. Within the dwellings of high-rise condos, it is well sheltered and fine, but once you step outside, it is a constant battle with traffic. Unlike the states, here in Korea, cars seem to have the right of way. So you need to make sure to look both ways before crossing the street because you never know where a car or motorcycle will pop up. With narrow sidewalks, which sometimes even have to be shared with cars, it is an adventure just to walk a few blocks.
Shopping List
Now that we have unloaded a lot of nonessential items, we needed to pickup some essential items. Below are some items that we picked up at Namdaemun Market.
- universal adapter (Apple kind $30, at Inchon Airport $15, at Namdaemun $6)
- backpack, a good size we can take for 3 to 4 day trips; carry-on size that we can carry on our back ($28, the first place we went to wanted to charge $60, just goes to show that you don’t want to look like a tourist or you better get help from a local.)
- Walkie-talkie ($85, since we don’t have cell phones, Joanne thought it would be a good idea in case I get lost. The very next day, Joanne was given a cell phone to use while in Korea by my brother-in-law. This means I ended up with two walkie-talkies; I’ll be calling myself in case I get lost.)
- Decoy wallet ($8, Joanne heard from one of her friends that it is a good idea to carry two wallets as a decoy. The one we picked up for $8 was genuine leather and looked better than my real one. I couldn’t decide which one I should use as the decoy.)
- Casio watch ($20, I asked Joanne to leave all valuable or valuable looking things at home. I didn't want us to be a target of unfriendly encounter. I got tired of her asking me for time.)
- Quick dry panties ($12, unless I was going to do the laundry or don’t mind wearing wet panties, I had no say on the matter. Quick dry means small sized, and it's Korean style, which means something flashy. In other words, now I have to wear something that I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in; or with my pants down. I also worry I may develop a funny walk because of the way they fit. At least they made Joanne happy because they passed her one-day dry test. Case closed!
- Quick dry panties ($12, unless I was going to do the laundry or don’t mind wearing wet panties, I had no say on the matter. Quick dry means small sized, and it's Korean style, which means something flashy. In other words, now I have to wear something that I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in; or with my pants down. I also worry I may develop a funny walk because of the way they fit. At least they made Joanne happy because they passed her one-day dry test. Case closed!
6 comments:
kristin said...
teehee, quick dry panties.
this post was the best yet!
October 11, 2008 1:23 AM
gene said...
i think mom is wearing her backpack backwards in the first pic..
October 11, 2008 3:37 AM
Joanne said...
Kris, yep! but not as funny as when I saw him with them on.
Gene, yaparoozios!
October 11, 2008 6:25 AM
kristin said...
wow oppa spotted mom! i couldnt even recognize her from the back because mom, you dont usually wear jeans!
October 14, 2008 7:58 PM
Joanne said...
Kris, you'd better get used to it 'cause my friend gave me a pair of "7" jeans to wear during the next year of travel. I'll have Dad take a picture of me wearing this hopefully lucky 7 pants.
October 15, 2008 5:59 AM
Joanne said...
Guess what Kristin? Dad ended up throwing away the quick dry panties after just trying them out twice. Functional but uncomfortable!
February 7, 2009 1:10 AM
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