Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 352

I am back from a week in Seoul with plenty of pictures and a full suitcase. Eve and I arrived in Korea late Monday night (Aug.14) in Incheon and headed off to downtown Seoul, an hour away from the airport. We had a free shuttle bus with Japanese tourists through the tour copany we booked our flights through. The tour agent on board the bus though, chose to ignore us completely, despite our asking her questions in perfect Japanese. Arriving at our hostel- The Holiday In Korea- proved to be challenging, as both the cab driver, a hotel bell hop, and numerous people on the street had no idea where we were going, even with Korean directions. After circling the same few blocks and stopping random people on the street, we eventually found the place. Luckily, ... read more

I did some wandering today. Erika slept late because she had been up late drinking with a couple of guys we met last night in the hostel, and I was up and about by 9:00am. I know, hard to believe! Since she was still sound asleep, I decided to wander around the city a little bit, check out where the tour buses were supposed to leave from, and see if there was anything else of interest along the way, and always on the hunt for postcards. I walked past the subway stop where we had been yesterday, saw the Pagoda Park, and kept on walking. Lo and behold, along my travels I found a Subway! (I mean the sandwich shop.) Amazing! I also found another 2 McDonalds, 2 more KFCs and 2 more Mr. Pizzas. I ... read more

Well, we've made it to Seoul and have checked into our hostel, Guesthouse Korea. I don't think I've stayed in a worse place. It's cheap, yes, but pretty cruddy. We have our own room, and our own bathroom, but no sink at all. I guess we'll be brushing our teeth in the bathtub! It looks like it's seen MUCH better days, so I think I'll wear those flipflops while in the shower...... Eeew. We walked around the nearby area today and saw some neat things: street vendors selling everything from tempura shrimp to watches to shoe repair guys to fortune tellers. Weird. There is a McDonalds, Burger King, and Mr. Pizza all near the closest subway station to us. We also hit Pagoda Park (ok, it has another name too, but don't ask me to find ... read more

I decided to go to Songtan because I had a deficiency of teaching shirts, and I needed to find new ones. A bunch of my friends were going and I thought it would be a fun outing. Songtan is a city right next to an American army base, so the shopping is good because it is geared to the Americans on the base. My friend Cat and I searched for clothes that would fit me, but they were very scarce: Korean women are deceptively tiny. I figured Steve would have a hard time finding clothes here because of his height (although I have since learned that Koreans are taller than I expected), but I figured being a small back home, I would still be able to find clothes here. I have to say I have never ... read more

Yes, that's right, I climbed a mountain today! We're staying in Mokpo, and we took a bus to the outskirts of the park. The intention was that we would go out to the Wolchsan National Park to find the suspension bridge. Little did we know that we would be climbing up for 2 hours. The signs said 1.9km, but we didn't know that they meant up! It was brutal, climbing up and up and up over rocks and me with a sore ankle and knee! Anyway, we made it to the top and got some pictures. (I finally found an internet cafe that would let me put pictures on here!) Erika was a little hesitant about crossing the bridge; apparently she doesn't like heights, even though it was her idea to climb to the bridge!! When ... read more