Elizabeth's Visit, Part 4 - Seoul, South Korea

We had about 2 days at home in our Shanghai apartment before we flew out to Seoul, South Korea.  When Elizabeth decided to visit for her birthday, she asked that we travel outside of Shanghai and, preferably, outside of China.  We discussed Tokyo, but decided that we might upset her sisters if we went to Tokyo, as we'd definitely want to visit Tokyo Disney and we couldn't go without Samantha and Miranda.  So, when we looked at the options, after the trip to Xi'an and Luoyang, we decided to go to Seoul, South Korea.

We flew into Seoul on Thursday, arriving mid-day, and took a taxi to our beautiful hotel, the Westin Chosun.  Elizabeth was able to use her SPG points to get us two beautiful suites in the Westin.  After checking in, we had lunch at the Italian restaurant in the Westin, given that it was so far past lunch time already.  Elizabeth ordered the BLT salad pizza, a pizza with salad on top.  Unusual, but good.

After lunch, we walked around the pedestrian mall area where our hotel was located and were surprised to see a seemingly endless number of cosmetic stores and coffee shops.  The weather in Seoul was beautiful - warm and sunny and such a nice change after the rain in Xi'an.  We had tickets to see a show on Thursday afternoon, one recommended by Nickle from her trip to Seoul.  The show is call Nanta and is a chef/restaurant show similar to a Blue Man/Stomp show - lots of drumming on pots, pans, plastic buckets and chopping blocks.  It was a really good show and very funny - we really enjoyed it.

After the show, we met Chris's colleague, Charlie, who took us to enjoy Korean BBQ.  Unfortunately for me, it seems that Korea uses a lot of nuts in their food, so I was faced with the ability to eat the plain meat and lettuce, but not much else.  Chris and Elizabeth seemed to enjoy all the vegetables, sauces and condiments, though.  I really liked the beautiful stone tables - like a big slab of granite with rough edges and a hole in the middle for the grill.  Korean BBQ seems to be of the same type of meal as Hot Pot, Fondue, and Raclette - a cook on your own, while enjoying a leisurely conversation meal.  I guess these types of meals are popular in many cultures.

On Friday, we had arranged for a guided tour of the DMZ - De-Militarized Zone - on Friday morning, so we got picked up early and headed about an hour north.  Unfortunately, our tour guide wasn't very informative, unless we wanted to know how long we'd be at each spot and when to be back on the bus.  I was a little confused at the beginning, but I think we figured out that there is a military zone both on the north and south of the DMZ.  In the military zone in South Korea, there are farmers living and farming the land.  The guide pointed out a "propaganda village" in the military zone on the North Korea side. 

In the actual DMZ, there is nothing but wildlife.  At least, theoretically.  However, the South Koreans have found 4 tunnels that the North Koreans have dug under the DMZ.  While they have only found 4 - mostly due to defectors - the South Koreans estimate that there are probably more like 40 or 50 of the tunnels.  We walked down the 3rd tunnel.  The South Koreans built an access ramp, a long ramp, down to the tunnel.  We put on our hard hats and walked down the ramp, through the tunnel and to the barrier wall.  Once there, all we could see was a small window in the wall showing a small window in the second barrier wall and a third barrier wall.  Along the tunnel, we saw the fake coal dust the North Koreans put inside the tunnel to claim that it was part of an old coal mine instead of a military tunnel.

They claimed that the tunnel was 2 meters tall, but Chris can attest to the fact that it is not - we kept hearing when his hard hat hit the roof.  After we left the tunnel, we went to the observatory and looked out over the DMZ toward North Korea.  Finally, we saw the train station where South Korea plans to have trains go from South Korea to North Korea and eventually to Asia and Europe, once the countries are reunified.  There was a lot of talk of reunification, but our guide stated that, although 89% of South Koreans are in favor of reunification, they don't want it now - not for 10-30 years. 

North Korea is in no financial position to reunify - people are starving, have no electricity, no infra-structure.  South Korean men must serve 2 years in the military when they turn 18.  North Korean men must serve 10 years in the military when they turn 16.  When we seemed surprised by that, our guide said that at least when the North Korean men are in the military, they are getting food and shelter, whereas they might not have that otherwise.

After returning to Seoul after the tour, we had lunch in Pattaya, a Thai restaurant in Itaewon, the center of international food in Seoul.  We saw Bulgarian, American, India, and all types of international food.  In fact, as an American Expat in Asia, I was surprised by the number of American restaurants in Seoul.  We saw Taco Bell, Popeye's Fried Chicken, Outback Steak House, Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kremes, and all kinds of American franchises - even Yankee Candle!  The U.S. Military has made such a lasting impression on Seoul that the city is very friendly to Americans and English-speakers.  One of our taxi drivers even showed us a laminated sign he kept in his taxi thanking the U.S. for our military help and saying how much he loved the U.S.A.

After lunch, we made our traditional stop in a local grocery store and picked up some Choco-pies, a traditional local treat that is essentially just a moon pie.  Chris even brought some of them home for Peter & Nickle's kids. 

Later Friday evening, we were picked up by two of Chris's Korean colleagues for another dinner with Charlie at a great Italian restaurant.  While Charlie wanted us to eat Korean again, I was glad for a chance to be able to eat things without nuts.   He was very kind to arrange for a birthday candle and song for Elizabeth, because Friday was her 24th birthday.  Dinner was delicious and a lot of fun, but I know I was starting to get pretty tired from all of our "vacationing." 

 On Saturday morning, we slept in a little bit before heading out to catch the hop-on, hop-off bus around Seoul.  Unfortunately, the traffic in Seoul is so terrible - every day at every time - that the bus tour wasn't a great idea.  Also, Seoul doesn't have a lot to see from a bus tour like this because the city was pretty much destroyed during the war and has been re-built since then, not leaving a lot of historical and pretty

sights to see.  We would have been better off to hire a private tour guide to take us to the specific sights we wanted to see via the subway.  Perhaps some of the traffic was because President Obama decided to visit Seoul at the same time we did, but I think it's always like that.  

We hopped off the bus after 2 hours, not even 1/2 way through what was supposed to be a 2-hour loop, so we could meet Elizabeth's friend Yeina for lunch.  Yeina and Elizabeth were friends in their last 2 years of high school in Frankfurt, Germany, but hadn't seen each other in a while.  Yeina took us to a different Korean BBQ restaurant and then for some delicious Korean ice cream, which is essentially shaved ice covered in a sweet milking mixture and fresh strawberries.  I really liked it.

We parted company with Yeina to head back to the hotel to check out and catch a bus to the airport.  Unfortunately, we only had a short weekend in Seoul - definitely not enough time to see Seoul.  There are many sights we would like to go back to see another time.  Seoul has a lot to see and a lot of restaurants to try (as well as an incredible amount of coffee shops, if you're a coffee drinker), so we'll have to try and find time to go again in the future.  But, I think Elizabeth enjoyed her birthday trip, getting a chance to see Yeina, and getting to see a new country.