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Published: October 16th 2006
Hi Everybody!
Sorry that I haven't been able to write. We have been very busy and when I have tried, the computers have gone down. We are thoroughly enjoying our trip and are making do when there are language problems. We have met many new friends, especially in Korea. We stayed on base in an exceptionally nice 300 room hotel with health club, Starbucks, several restaurants, etc. The Asians serve you many dishes with a meal. It is fun to try new foods. If I like it I eat it, often not knowing what it is. So far, we haven't gotten sick. Walt has probably eaten about half a pack of Pepto Bismol tablets trying to be careful.
I found Seoul to be beautiful at night. The Han River runs through the town and is about 1/4 of a mile wide. The bridges are lighted and the lights reflect in the river making a beautiful sight. We also saw a neat fireworks display along the river. We took a tour to the DMZ area and saw the Bridge of Freedom, one infiltration tunnel, Anti-Communism Hall, etc. I was impressed with a sculpture, Stones of Peace. It displayed stones from 86 battlefields of the world going back to very early times. There were lots of neat people on our tour - all English speaking. One guy was from the Ritz-Carlton recruiting Korean chefs. Believe it or not, he knew my friend, Deborah Diehl from high school's husband, Rick Graham. Rick use to work for Ritz. Another couple from NY had recently visited Auburn and Hoover, Alabama. They were on their way to Vietnam and about our age. In all of Asia, you see women wearing hats, scarves, towels, newspapers, etc. trying to cover their faces and heads. They think dark skin equals a job outside and reflects a lower class. They want to keep from tanning and also use whitening lotions. We visited several parks that were very crowded with families relaxing together, flying kites, hiking, etc. Vendors were set up to set goods and food. Walt kept complaining about a horrible smell. Finally, someone told him that it was the larva worms that they cook in water. I saw them along with steaming bowls of small shell animals that look like periwinkles. They also were cooking squid by tossing the whole thing on charcoal. Many other exotic things were for sale. A Japanese gentlemen sat by me on the flight to Korea and gave me his business card. It had a Rotary emblem on it. I suspect that he might have been the president of his club in Iwata, Japan.
We have figured out as we leave a country to change our money into the next country's currency. Every single country that we are visiting has a different currency. I bought a currency folder before I left to hold samples of each currency.
People are very nice to us. We have not felt threatened at any time. We did complete our Visa work for China and hope to go there in November.
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Annette, Adam & Lisa
non-member comment
Where are the pictures?
Hello from little ole Oxford! We have been catching up on your entries and are very excited to see some pictures, but we are not sure where the "gallery" is - can you help us? I am envious of sushi (in Japan) - yummy yummy. It is probably better that you DON'T know what you are eating sometimes. More power to Walt and his pepto bismal tablets! I remember all the currencies that I had to lug around before Europe went to the EURO. A bit of a pain. Adam says - Don't let your husband get diarrhea! Looking forward to more! Annette