Day 34 -
D and P survived the night,overall we slept well in our quaint little guesthouse last night although awakened early 5-6 am by birds and crickets. We have decided to stay the second night as planned and have booked our final night at the Somerset (long stay hotel) nearby as we would have to move to smaller quarters here for the third night anyway - the house is not available tomorrow night - but we knew that.
After breakfast at a bakery nearby we checked in the Somerset - a building that looked like a hotel but we couldn't be sure - when we entered the lobby - there was a photo shoot of sorts. Auspiciously (080808 - 8 is a lucky number for business here for the Chinese and therefore a very lucky day for asians and pseudo-asians like us) S struck up a conversation with the General Manager - a lovely Korean lady who spoke perfect English. Although a long stay hotel - and because we coincidently struck a conversation so naturally - she agreed to let us book for one night - a gorgeous 2 bedroom apartment overlooking the city for only $50 more than a night stay at the Sarang Chae (guesthouse) - so we are delighted. Breakfast is included and the facilities (shower/bath, rooftop swimming pool, gym etc... will be the right formula to end our stay in South East Asia as we head back to the airport for the long flight home.
We continued to the train (subway but travels above ground as well) and after some reconciliation with the map - some directions from an English speaking master of taekwondo gentleman - who recognized our Taekwondo t-shirts we were lead to the appropriate line and direction to make our way to Kukkiwon WTF headquarters. As expected, this is mainly an office building with a demonstration facility at its center. We were lucky to stumble on a training session for special needs instructors. We then toured the museum and identified our Grandmaster in a photo promoting the World Championships held in Canada in 1990s. We were able to buy some souvenirs and were happy to have made this special trip.
We continued to the Coex Mall - a huge complex, where D had new reading glasses made for him within 1 hr and were D and S had a Korean lunch - P and C opted for pizza. We are quite convinced that Korean food is not our favorite fare.
It was a very hot day today and at the end of the afternoon- we took the train back downtown for dinner as we are getting an extra few hrs of light here in Seoul.
We had a delicious feast of Tony Roma ribs. We were feeling a little protein deprived since Singapore - so everyone's belly is full tonight -we anticipate another good sleep. As we walked back to the Guesthouse - we strolled by the big screen (where we stumbled on the rock concert last night and watched along with a very large crowd the first 1/2 hr of the Opening Ceremonies. The door of the Guesthouse closes at 10 pm so rather than be locked out we headed back to view the rest on the tele in our jammies - sitting on the floor mats. All we are missing is the popcorn.
Observations today -
- Korean people we encountered in the subway and business district (Coex Mall) who can speak English are eager to help out and practice their English. They approached us. We are still being stared at and the poor little kids are afraid of us.
- There are many many italian restaurants here ... perhaps the Koreans prefer this fare to their own food
- There are also tons of donut shops (including Dunkin Donuts) and coffee shops everywhere - difficult to get a cup of tea here.
- There are huge intersections (11 lanes wide) with no pedestrian crossing - so one is forced to look for an underground tunnel often a block or so out of one's way.
On the horizon for tomorrow - check out of the guesthouse and wheel our luggage up to the Somerset (s few blocks away) where will store our luggage until check in time - 3pm.
080808 will be a memorable day for us - our first visit to Kukkiwon, a good day to sign a very good deal (our stay at the Somerset for one night) and the fact that we spent this day in an Asian country.
