Power Family Trip to Korea 2010

Pouring rain again this morning. Late start. After breakfast, kids got involved in watching the movie Avatar on tv. It was in English with Korean sub titles, which was only a problem when the avatar people were talking in their weird language the subtitles were still Korean, not English, obviously. Henry wanted to watch the end, so Andrew, Sami, and I went out for a walk. When I say we got caught in torrential rain, I am not exaggerating. We went back to Insadong to get a few more last minute souvenirs. Andrew and I started out sharing an umbrella, but after 10 minutes, we stopped at a shop and purchased another (umbrellas are pretty cheap, this one was 3000 won which is about $2.80, and available everywhere, as it is the rainy season). We returned to the hotel with soaking we feet from sloshing through the "streams" that were forming in the streets.

Finally, got out of the room after noon and made our way to the subway. The rain had slowed a bit by then. We headed to the Korean War Memorial Museum which was not far, maybe about 8 subway stops away. This place was truly impressive. The grounds are expansive and there is a large collection of tanks, artillery guns, airplanes, transport vehicles, etc. We decided to walk around the grounds outside first and then go into the museum, which was fine for the first ten minutes until another total deluge began and we all got soaked despite our raincoat and/or umbrellas (not all of us opted to bring both).

The museum is maybe my favorite attraction that we saw while we were here. It was beautifully put together, modern, high-tech, multimedia, etc. There was a floor dedicated to the history of war in korea from the 300's through the mid 1900's, another floor dedicated to the Korean war, and a third with interactive exhibits, but by the time we made it to that floor it was a half hour until closing time and most of the interactive stuff was already closed. More for next time. Everyone was engaged through out the three to four hours that we spent there.

Stopped for dinner on the way home at the same place we went on our first night, where we already new the prices ...

Now turning in for the night to prepare for the longest Fourth of July ever. I think we figured out that our Fourth of July tomorrow will be 36 hours long! Looking forward to being back in the good 'ol USA...

Boys and girls split up as planned. Sami and I went to the famous Dongdaemon shopping district, a crazy Mecca of shopping as far as the eye can see. Actually, all of Seoul is like this. Everywhere you go there are shops. It is hard to believe that all these shops can possibly survive, they are just wall to wall all over the city. They sell anything and everything. There are shops on the street, some in store fronts, and some on carts, shops underground, shops in malls, shops everywhere. Dongdaemon is most famous for enormous indoor malls with stall after stall of vendors where you are expected to bargain and you feel like you're in a fire trap for sure. We went one of those to look for t-shirts, we bought one, but then it just felt too crazy, had to get out of there. Then we went to a newer hip mall that caters more to hip younger shoppers called "Doota". Bought a new Han Bok for Sami (a traditional costume) and some fun t-shirts. Lunched in the food court on the top floor, as they had a Burger King stall and that sufficed for the promised McDonald's lunch.

Walked part way back along the Cheongyecheon Stream, though it was extremely hot and muggy, so after a few blocks we hopped back on the subway. We were not done shopping (still needed to do our souvenir/gift shopping) but we were literally dripping with sweat, so we opted for a quick stop back to the hotel to change, drop off our bags, and stand in front of the air conditioner for a few minutes. Feeling rejuvenated, we headed out to our local tourist shopping street of Insadong and spent the next two hours choosing just the right souvenirs. We had lots of fun and returned to the hotel loaded down with more bags. After some down time, a swim, and making spaghetti for Sami's dinner, we went out for another very late dinner (since she had already eaten, Sami brought my iPad and watched a movie while we ate - actually a nice arrangement). We picked a restaurant that looked good and were seated at a very nice booth before we looked at the menu and saw the prices. In general, food is very inexpensive here and we've managed meals for under $30 for the five of us many times. After some deliberation, we decided to stay since it looked like a really nice place. In the end we were glad we did as the the food was delicious and there was a great deal of it. Though eating short ribs on the bone with chopsticks is a little challenging. Still not sure if my using my hands was a gross offense, or expected behavior. I did finally figure out a way to eat by spearing the chopsticks through the meat to hold onto a large chunk and then biting pieces off of that. Again not sure how this would be interpreted in terms of manners, but it worked reasonably well.

Andrew with palace guard

Boys at palace

Enjoying very weak korean beer

Outside Korean War Memorial Museum in the pouring rain

Famous statue of brothers from North and South meeting on battle field

Drinking from a water envelope

on line for the water ride

On line

Hamming it up

Snack anyone?

Mountains around Seoul

Cheongyecheon stream

Lotte World

Caught in a downpour

Sami