Be still my Seoul

Hi! As promised, we’re back for another adventure. This time, we will be traveling throughout Asia for an extended period. First stop, Seoul!

We had originally planned to start our trip in early January with a month in India, visiting our good friend, Utkarsh, and traveling around the state of Rajasthan. My father was hospitalized in mid-December and passed away January 2nd, which led to an itinerary change.

My dad supported our love of travel and had even been to several of our intended destinations during his time serving in Vietnam, both during his active service and while on R&R. We talked about his travels several times before his passing and I can’t help but feel he will be with us along the way.

We were scheduled to leave India and fly to Hong Kong on February 8th. So, we needed to find another destination to spend a week or so prior to resuming our original itinerary in Hong Kong. In looking at our options, Seoul seemed like a good one. South Korea is a country we’d planned to visit during our travels, but did not want to spend an extended period of time due to it being one of the more expensive countries in Asia.

We were able to use our travel credit from the original, booked flights to India and apply it towards our tickets to Seoul, even being able to upgrade to comfort economy for only around $20 each. We also used our IHG Hotel credit card points to cover our entire 8-day stay in Seoul! Score!

We flew 6 hours from Raleigh to Seattle, landing 10 minutes after our flight to Seoul started boarding. We ran as fast as 40-somethings with heavy-ass bags on our backs could to the gate and luckily made it, 3 minutes before they closed the door. We were not so sure, however, that our one checked bag would also make it in time. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best as we took off on our 12 hour flight to Seoul’s Icheon airport.

We (and our bag!) made it to Seoul and we quickly made our way through passport control to meet our driver who Phil arranged through booking.com. We are traveling on a budget, but feel it’s often worth it to pay for a private car, Uber, or taxi following a flight to our accommodations. While a bus or train is certainly less expensive, schlepping the aforementioned heavy-ass bags plus an additional roller bag around on crowded, public transportation, especially after a long flight, is not an inconvenience we want to deal with and wish to avoid when possible.

We were pleasantly surprised by the swanky Voco Myeongdong hotel upon our arrival, and were thankful for the relatively spacious room and 24 hour convenience store located in the hotel lobby. We grabbed a couple of snacks and called it an early night.

The next morning, we awoke early due to the time difference. Seoul is 14 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time and we didn’t sleep on our flight over. We spent the morning lounging around in our robes, drinking Nespresso ( I told you it was swanky!) before heading our to explore the city.

Did I mention it was cold in Seoul? It was. Luckily (luckily?) we were somewhat used to cold, winter temps having spent an extended amount of time in Missouri and even North Carolina had an unusual cold snap before we left. It was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit as we left the hotel. The city has an good public transportation system, but we decided to explore on foot that first day, heading toward the Buchon Hanok Village, an old-town are of the city with restored, traditional Korean houses called Hanok.

On our way to the village, we passed by a restaurant we’d saved on our maps app called Keunkiwajip that was awarded a Michelin star in 2018. They are known for their raw, soy marinated crab. Luckily, while busy, there was no line and we got a table right away.

The table had a call button so when ready to order or in need of something, one simply presses it to summon the wait staff. We ordered two different dishes featuring the crab. One, a bright red dish that the waitress warned us was spicy. We have a pretty high spice tolerance, so ordered it anyway. We have a basic understanding about spice levels in the countries we plan to explore. If in Thailand, for example, the waitstaff warns us about spice, we will be more conservative. We felt that the spicy crab would be doable, and it was. That being said, it was quite spicy, and we needed plastic gloves to handle it (the very red dish below).

The meal was served with various dishes of pickled delights including kimchi. One of the dishes contained little, brown, gelatinous cubes that oddly enough tasted like an Italian beef (for those who’ve experienced the Chicago staple sandwich).

After our meal, we walked onto the village. It was hilly and a very popular tourist area, with shops selling various tchotchkes and renting hanboks (traditional Korean outfits).

On our walk back to the hotel, we passed a park with a cool art installation of 24 different walls, each commissioned and completed by different artists and design teams.

After a couple of other stops along the way, we called it an early night. We had a wonderful first day exploring Seoul. Stay tuned for more posts on our Seoul travels!