Our flight leaving Boston was delayed and made us miss our flight leaving SFO to Seoul. After 15 nerve-wracking minutes, we were rerouted to Narita then to Seoul. We had no time to make our connection in San Fran. We ran across the airport to get to the international departure gate. I pushed over little old ladies - a proud moment.
Our flight attendant put together vegetarian trays for us. Our meal preferences did not follow us.
Got into Seoul after 10 pm, took a limo bus to the hotel. The hotel is attached to a casino.
We had free nights at the Hilton Millenium near Namsan park given to us by my brilliant friend, Liesl, for a wedding gift. It’s a superdeluxe hotel according to our Michelin guide. We made use of the pool. Everything else is overpriced. But ah, AC.
It’s very humid making it very uncomfortable during the heat of the day.
I started the day at 5:30 ish. I woke up after having dreams of work and Korean maps. I ate bananas from Lotte mart that we bought the previous night caught up on emails and waited for Joseph to wake up. We walked up Namsan park and looked out onto downtown Seoul in the hazy morning light. At the top there’s a fence with a bazillion locks and messages written on them. It’s supposed to be lovers’ promises. Fitting, since we are honeymooning.
Came back, had a swim, napped for 4 hours. We went back out to scope out Insadong for a hotel. Staying at hotel sunbee near a buddhist temple, Jogyesa. Vegetarian restaurants around this area too.
The cabs are awesome. It was cheaper to take a cab to Insadong from the Hilton than taking the subway and the subways are pretty cheap. The subways are great for English speakers and feature nice reminders for dudes to sit with their knees together and dudettes to avoid kicking a crossed leg.
Sunday - we checked out of the Hilton, got a hold of Jeongah, and made our way to our new hotel. We looked at the Jogyese temple and had lunch at Baloo (or Baru) for vegetarian temple food. Food was really tasty and refreshing. You can’t see the awesome noodles in the cold cucumber soup but they are clear and colorless and have a great chewy texture.
Very hot today. I really like insadong.
While waiting to check in we stopped at a tea room for something cool to drink. A man approached us while we were looking for the place recommended by the guidebook. He gave us “true tea” and helped us find another tea room.
We are relaxing until meeting up with Jeongah.
We went to another tea house that was right next door to the one we were at previously. Looked just like it. We had more delicious infusions and tteok. it was odd and wonderful to see an old friend. We don’t have much tying us together but still interesting to see where we are now.
After we split from Jeongah, we went on a quest to find the Subway sandwich place we had passed hours ago. Joseph craves his bread. We were both loopy from jet lag and hunger and the ground felt unsteady. It seems to be a rule during travel that you never find what you’re looking when you really want it, only when you don’t. I think this is a rule in a Winnie the Pooh story as well.
Early to bed and almost a normal sleep schedule.
This morning, breakfast of soft white bread and American cheese and yogurt at the hotel. It started pouring while we finished our juice. We headed out to Yongsan electronics market. Blocks and blocks of gadgets and tools. Joseph’s idea of awesome.
We then took a walk around the Itaewon district. Very international. We had falafel for lunch while it rained. The sun came out and the heat was intense. We window-shopped until the heat chased us inside again. We went to a coffee shop, probably an American chain called homestead coffee. I had something called froff. It’s basically an icy shake like a Starbucks frappuccino. Starbucks is very popular in Korea. We enjoyed the AC while Joseph read about Korean plumbing and toilet paper disposal habits.
We made our way back to Insadong via subway. We’re pros now. The subway is very logical, nice signage, and affordable.
We stopped at a couple of stores on the way home. At the beautiful tea museum, I will buy some Korean yellow tea.
We are refreshing ourselves and then we will have temple food at Sanchon or Baru. Then a walk along the cheonggyecheon, a renovated stream bordering Insadong.
We had dinner at gamlodang (or gamrodang) since Baru was closed for some reason. It was a challenge to get there but was worth it in the end. Food was great and was visually very appealing. Temple food - beautiful to look at and eat, but so much of it! I like the idea that temple food started when the buddhist monks were chased into the mountains when Confucianism was pushed as the religion du jour. The monks had to live on what they could forage from the mountains. We had bamboo salt; I’d like to buy some to take back. It’s delicious, kinda eggy and sulfurish in a good way.
We walked along the cheongyecheon on the way home. It was lovely and honeymoonish. Joseph took some great photos.
We went back to the hotel and crashed. I was very full and sleepy.
Next day we left for the east coast and decided to head to samcheok. We stayed at a love hotel where they give you free condoms but then you get skeeved out at the mysterious stains on the sheets. The hotel was right next to the bus station so was convenient. An ok price art 80000 won. Later we realized we could have haggled a little.
We looked for the beach and didn’t find it. Many tiny seafood shacks that doubled as homes. Each one crammed with stuff.
We were a little disappointed. I guess I was expecting sand, clam shacks, and ocean breeze. Instead it was drying squid, homey shacks, and rocky coastline as far as the eye could see. We saw the pricier hotel palace in the distance and gave up our search for the sandy beach. Later we realized the beach was there, just much farther north than we thought it was.
We took the sea train north to Gangneung. We saw a lot of beaches and barbed wire.
At Gangneung we found the type of beach that we were looking for and that had several hotels within spitting distance. We stayed at a Hilton again. But we really should have looked closer, the sign actually said, “Hil Ton.” We were so relieved to find one in our budget and available that we didn’t realize the little things like lack of sheets and the punched out holes in the walls. When the hint of seedy creeps in, you can’t get the dirty sensation out of your mind any time soon. We decided to look for another place for the following night. We went swimming at Gyeongpo beach in the East Sea and lounged on the sand. Koreans really keep covered up in the sun. (Well, except for the lifeguards.) Are they really worried about skin cancer? The water temperature was perfect.
We cleaned up and went to dubu village. This area is famous for their tofu because they use the local sea water. This sounds just like what everyone likes to claim - it’s the water! We had a nice meal at one of the restaurants. Rather bland but interesting tofu soup and lots of sides.
We spent the rest of the night at cafe benne with gelato and a cookie. We sat on the balcony overlooking the sea, people-watching.
I slept ok considering the lack of sheets and worry about the dirty blanket we were laying on and the dirty blanket we refused to use. I wrapped my sarong around us and curled up in a ball. It started out hot and muggy and at some point became cool and damp.
Thursday, misty and then a steady drizzle until the late afternoon. We walked around the lake that’s right next to the coast and then checked out. Cafe benne again for a late breakfast. I had a really weird honey bread thing with orange cheese melted on it. The garlic was kind of weird on it
We walked around again in search of a hotel. We went north along the coast and found something a little nicer and a bit pricier. We are now at the MGM hotel and the manager speaks English. vegged out in front of the TV watching the Olympics. Went out for a walk and a bite. Saw a really cute scruffy dog and a “super market”. This was actually a little shack crammed with beverages, dried fish, and other random sundries watched over by a couple of old grannies in visors and nibbling corn on the cob. We passed fields of corn, rice paddies, cabbage patches and little plots of chili peppers. If you have a little bit of soil in Korea, you grow chilis for your kimchee.
We had dinner at one of the ubiquitous fish restaurants along the boardwalk. Joseph had rice and veggies. I should have as well. I had fried fish and had diarrhea afterwards. Next time I will forgo the fish eyeballs.
Since I was indisposed, we missed the DJ party on the beach.
Next day we walked to what we thought was a park but actually was a golf course. it was pretty rural with rice paddies and farm land and I got a sense the hills were dotted with summer homes for the well-to-do.
It got hot and we tried to catch a cab to the city to exchange money and get a bite. We couldn’t explain to the cabbie that we wanted to go to Gangneung city proper. We ended up walking back to our hotel at the beach and had a swim. We didn’t eat much. Street food, corn on the cob. We did eventually go into Gangneung. We went to a mall and had mall food which included fresh baked pretzels (awesome) and thick cut french fries with overly sweet dijon dressing (kinda sickening) and then watched Batman.
We slept really late today, had to hurry and check out and took a taxi to back to Gangnueng City. Grabbed a bus back to Seoul and had no time for food. Starving while on the bus. The M&Ms that I turned my nose up at on the plane look really good right now.
On the bus, we see a cute dog in a carrier sitting next to us. We strike up a conversation with a western woman who teaches English in Seoul. She is going back home to Seoul after teaching at a camp.
We arrived back in Seoul. It’s 35 degrees Centigrade. I think maybe close to 100 degrees F. The sun and humidity are soul destroying. I forget what we are to do. We take the subway to Insadong and eat at Agio a little Italian place near the buddhist temple, Jogyesa. They seemed to pride themselves on offering slow food. We had pasta with mushrooms and mozzarella tomato salad. It was our first meal of the day and really good.
We try to see if there are rooms at the sunbee where we stayed before. After seeing and staying at some borderline seedy places, I have fond memories of Hotel the Sunbee. No rooms. Ooh no! Don’t send me out in the awful heat. We search for an affordable place. At this point anything around under 150,000 won sounds good. We stop at several love motels and told we can check back at 10 pm. I’m not excited about carrying our bags or sitting in a cafe for the next few hours. Joseph is irritated with me. We agree to pay 80000 plus 30000 won for an early check in at 7 pm. I guess you don’t check into a proper love motel until later. You can have what is called a “rest” during the day and you pay for the privilege. The pop hotel was pretty stylish though. Bright red shiny doors and white everything else. There were different styles of rooms, his and her computers, surround sound, and jacuzzi tubs. Very clean and new. we refresh ourselves and bask in the AC.
It is Saturday night and pretty busy in the city. We walk around and look for dessert. We walk to Gwharmanum plaza and end up at Paris Baguette for hopefully a late second dinner and a bit of sweet. This trip is punctuated by hunger and fatigue between long sweltering walks. My eyes are as busy as my belly though; there is much to see.
We notice a lot of young couples. It is Saturday night after all. Sitting in the cafe, we drink a banana kiwi juice and have a nibble. My eye catches on a young couple sitting near us. I’m appalled as I watch the girl pull out a q-tip and start cleaning her boyfriend’s ears. I throw up a little in my mouth. Grooming seems to be a courtship ritual. We’ve seen couples brush each other’s hair while sitting along the cheongyecheon, another boy tying his girlfriend’s shoes. There’s a lot of public grooming in general. I’ve seen many females applying makeup and primping in front of mirrors and their gadgets here. I like to groom Joseph as well, but only in the comfort of my own home. It’s often an idle thing something I do unthinkingly as we’re watching a movie or something. It drives him crazy.
Sunday - We walk around the area near our love motel and end up at a tiny little cafe owned by a sweet friendly Japanese man who has real plants on his tables and little Japanese tchotchkes tucked here and there. Joseph just wants a bowl of fruit but inadvertently ends up with binsu which is a huge bowl of shaved ice, candied fruit and sweet bean. I played it safe with a hard-boiled egg over some iceberg lettuce with a big slab of fluffy white bread. Since Joseph is not satisfied with a big bowl of shaved ice, he looks around for something else. He spies a guy behind us eating what looks like raisin toast. He points to it and asks for some. Everyone laughs and looks chagrined. The guy is the proprietor’s friend and brought his toast in from somewhere else but helpfully gives it to Joseph since he can’t eat it all.
I’m determined to do cultural things today. It’s my last chance. It’s scorching hot still. Joseph is only interested in sitting and reading at the public library. I want to go to the cheondeokgung. The palace is only open if you do a tour and I want to see the hidden garden. Joseph reluctantly accompanies me. It’s a tour of the palace grounds first and it’s just a bit hellish. We scramble around in the sand and scurry from shady bit to shady bit and try to move as economically as possible. I weigh the benefits of going out of my way to stand in the shade with how much I can hear of the tour guide’s spiel. Do I care anymore where exactly the king worked and slept? We never made the royal garden tour. I can hear Joseph silently saying, ”I told you so.”
That night we walked along the Chongyecheon again, go home and watch the Olympics.
We meet up with Jeongah today. It was lovely. We went to the national folk museum. Had lunch not far from there at a popular noodle place where we got delicious noodles in a blended smooth cold bean bisque. Very refreshing. The noodles were really good, chewy. I’m inspired to create a cold bean soup now at home. We then stopped at Jeongah and Alex’s burger stand. They’ve been running it for the past half year in the hopes of learning the restaurant business so that they can open a Cuban restaurant soon.
We went to the Yonsei University where she teaches, visited Bongwonsa which had some kind of Lotus Buddhist festival, stopped at the grocery store that’s a bit like Whole Foods and then picked up her little one, Juho, from day care. We stopped back at her and Alex’s home. She offered me maesil, the plum tea juice that I liked so well. I need to find that and bamboo salt again when I’m home.
Back to insadong. Dinner at Hollywood something-or-other which is right around the corner from our hotel Sunbee. Nice avocado salad and brown rice bibimbap. Joseph says we should eat more of that at home.
The next day we think we can hit the other electronic gadget market near Gangnam which is south of the Han. We never make it. We grab Indian food at the upscale mall food court and barely have time to eat before our airport bus is due to leave from the closest bus stop. I madly scoop my curry onto my naan and run pellmell for the nearest mall exit. We just make it onto the bus and we head out for the airport and enjoy our last views of Seoul.