A Few Hours in Seoul

We had a 15 hour layover in Seoul and rather than sit in the airport, I arranged a guide to pick us up at the airport and take us to a few places in town.  Silly me thought leaving the airport would be a simple thing but little did I know it would take us 2.5 hours to get out of the airport!  After arriving at 5AM, we went to the Korean Airlines Prestige Club to store our carry-ons and to find out how to get out of the airport and that’s when the fun began!  After several minutes of trying to explain what I wanted to do, we finally were told we needed to go to the Transfer Desk to get a special stamp but they don’t open until 6:40AM (random time). Once we received our special stamp and our visa verified, we then had to proceed to security but the backside so we were doing the reverse of TSA and after being poked and prodded to make sure we didn’t have anything illegal to leave the secure area, we headed to Immigration which was a bit of a zoo.  Just when we thought it was safe to go in the water, we finally came to Customs (if you use their app, you actually zip right through and don’t have to stand in the long lines).  I wanted to drop to the ground and kiss it once we were finally out of the secure area and meeting our guide Sori Kim (Kim Sori…in Korea it is last name first).

One of the first things we noticed about Seoul is that it is much calmer and cleaner than Vietnam and Cambodia. I think the calmer has a lot to do with the fact there are very few scooters!  South Korean has a population of 51 million and 10 million of those folks live right here in Seoul.  While there is some construction, it is nothing compared to the construction in Vietnam and Cambodia who are trying to catch up to Seoul.

Because we were in rush hour, it took us about 2 hours to get to our first stop…Changdeokgung Palace.  This palace was built in the 15th century during the Joseon Dynasty.

Don’t think I mentioned it but when we arrived it was 17 degrees with snow on the ground.  So after walking around the palace a little bit, we were in need for a cafe with something hot to drink.  The cafe at the palace only had canned coffee but we figured we’d give it a try.  We were expecting it to be cold since canned coffee at home is cold.  Imagine our surprise when the can was super hot which felt so good on our cold hands.  Even better was the coffee was oh so good!

Next stop was Bukchon Hanock Village.  This is a traditional Korean village sits on a hill between 2 palaces and a royal shrine.  There are still 100 of the homes remaining and occupied today and is an example of how the area looked 600 years ago.  Sori said many of the residents complain because it has become such a tourist attraction and the tourist are…well tourists and loud.  Having lived downtown Charleston where tourists would come peer in my windows, I can completely appreciate their frustration.

This is the inside courtyard of one of the houses.  It has been 

converted to a gallery so we could go in and see the courtyard.

Our final stop was Gwangjang Market as it was just too cold for us to be out and about today.  The calmness we noticed in the streets extended into the market.  The markets we visited in Vietnam and Cambodia were very aggressive but this market was more our style in that they said hello when you made eye contact and then let you be.  By the time we finished walking around, it was time for some lunch so we got a mung bean pancake and tteok-bokki while sitting on a heated bench!  Whoever came up with the idea for these little stalls to have heated benches is a genius! One of my favorite shows on Netflix is “Somebody Feed Phil” before leaving the US, we watched the Seoul episode.  He went on and on about the tteok-bokki so we had to give it a try.  It had a good flavor but the texture was a little too chewy.  Now the mung bean pancake was a different story…we loved it!

Throughout the market we saw hand sanitizer stations

Think we wore out LuLu today as she was out like a light as soon as we started our way back to the airport.  Of course it could be the fact that she has been awake and on the go for 24 hours with the exception of the 2 hours she slept on the flight from Hanoi to Seoul!  Heck she’s been on the go since December 2 so I cut her a little slack…but just a little!

After saying out good-byes to Sori, we headed back in the airport and ironically it was easier to get in the airport than out!  We just chilled in the lounge and did some great people watching the rest of the afternoon.

Hanoi by Hop-on/Hop-off

Our Viking program officially ended this morning so after saying our good-byes to our new buddies, LuLu and I grabbed a Grab (Vietnam's version of Uber/Lyft) to get on the Hop-on/Hop-off bus.  This is something I do every time I visit a new place as it gives a great overview.  I will say the Hop-on/Hop-off in Hanoi leaves much to be desired but it beat sitting in our hotel room all day!  

Here's a few pics from our last few days in Vietnam...

We couldn't take the Hop-on/Hop-off any more so we hopped off for good and starting wandering the streets.  When we were ready to catch a Grab back to hotel, we took a pic to send the driver and this was our only picture of the two of us from today believe it or not.  This trip was fun but we were both tired of being on the go every day for the last 16 days so we decided to head back to the hotel and chill.

There was a grocery store in the underground at the hotel so we did pop in just for a look as I always do like going to grocery stores when I visit some place new. 

Vietnamese version of Buche de Noel

A final look at Hanoi as we headed to the airport...

Our Viking Travel Director gave us a map of the area and the ground we covered over the last 16 days...no wonder we're tired!

As we prepared for our flight to Seoul, we were entertained with animations and K-pop for the safety videos!

I'm so glad LuLu and I were able to take this trip together.  We weren't quite sure what to expect when we arrived in the place that took Daddy's youth and innocence and 56 years later took him from us.  I think because the Vietnam of today is so different from the Vietnam of 1965 it was hard to imagine Daddy being there.  Instead, there would be little things daily that would remind of him and bring a smile to our face and I like to think that made him happy as he was looking down on us.

We've already started planning our next adventure and looking forward to making more memories!