bennettkdavis

[bennettkdavis]

Leftists

Our mission, as it started out, was to see Caroline and since she lives out in the boonies, I had no choice but to rent a car.  No getting around this.  To prepare for impending doom, I purchased the best car rental insurance I could find before leaving the states.  $40,000 no deductible.  Fortunately, the Australian government forces all car rental companies to carry liability insurance, so I’m not responsible for the fact that I don’t know how to drive on the left side of the road and as a result of that lack of experience I might actually kill someone other than me.  (It makes me wonder if Lisa had expired due to my lack of left hand driving experience, could I have sued the car rental company for negligent homicide?)  Additionally convenient and considerate, since they have a universal healthcare, single payer system (more on that later), everyone is covered for medical, so basically, I’m just responsible for the rental car.  The last time I drove on the left side of the road was in Barbados and I took the side view mirror off the car while trying to pass a school bus.  Funny thing was the rental car company didn’t seem to care.  Notwithstanding that I admitted that I accidentally knocked the side view mirror off the car and its remnants can be found on some road somewhere, the answer I received,  No problem, mon. Back to Australia.

I rented a Budget car, picking it up in downtown Adelaide, a city of about one million.  The plan is to get the car, drive up to Adelaide Hills, the area above Adelaide, hence called the Adelaide Hills (duh……), and then onto Strathalbyn (don’t try to pronounce it, you’ll hurt your tongue) to get Caroline, and then onto the Sticky Rice Villas in Stirling back in the Adelaide Hills. Budget has our car ready when we arrive at about 11am.  Lisa says to the delightful Budget agent, Any advice for driving on the left side of the road when you normally drive on the right? She responds without missing a beat, Be careful?  That’s reassuring.

We load our bags in the car and then not quite ready to take on the challenge (when we told Caroline we were renting a car she said, DON’T DO IT!), so I suggest we get some lunch first, putting off the inevitable.  The budget manager I believe sensing some trepidation says, How ‘bout I pull the car around in the lot here and having it facing in the right direction?  These Aussies are about the nicest people I’ve come across… We go over to Rundle Street, the main hub of Adelaidian activity (this is a lively town) and settle in at a Vietnamese restaurant, where I get the strong feeling that everyone is in a good mood in this country. We have a delicious meal, but now it’s time to face the music.

We get in the car and I notice this on the windshield:

Helpful....

I reach for the seat belt, nothing there.  It’s on the other side. Not a good beginning.  Start the car (that’s easy), and then pull out (think left, left, left).  Of course the GPS is telling us to go right, but there’s a barrier separating the lanes, which I can’t go over, so that’s not happening.  We have to go left and we do.  GPS reroutes and says make a left turn in 300 meters.  Meters? I’m not good with the GPS when that horrible pushy woman in the phone says, Turn left in a quarter of a mile, let alone 300 meters.   Guessing 300 meters will come quickly I press down on the turn signal indicating to all other drivers a left turn is coming from our car.  Windshield wipers go on.  Not good. Directional signals are on the other side. 300 meters later, the woman is saying turn left, turn left, turn left like she is screaming at me (maybe that was Lisa?). I’m turning left and certain everyone is looking at us wondering why in this sunniest of places this idiot is driving with his windshield wipers on.  Answer: because this IDIOT doesn’t know how to turn them off!!! Now here’s where I must give a lot of credit to my co-pilot.  At home, my co-pilot is not always so calm.  In fact, I’d say she’s anything but calm (think air braking on the passenger side, think Do you not see how close you are to that car?, think Do you want ME to drive?).  Nope, my co-pilot is like cucumber cool.  I’m thinking maybe I should get a car with the steering wheel on the right side when my car lease comes up next year since it seems to have this calming effect.  In a most tranquil and unexpected manner, Lisa says, The wipers are on (no doubt wanting to add, dumb shit) because the directional signal is on the other side.  Ahhhhh, I see.  We are working as a team.  All is going pretty well and then the dreaded roundabouts.  Who invented these things and what is the point?  I think there are about 5 stop signs in all of Australia. Everything else is a roundabout. I guess Australians don’t want to stop, just slow down.  So the first roundabout is at a heavy trafficked area and I don’t even know I’m in one. First rule is yield to people in the roundabout.  Blew that.  Second rule is put your blinker on when you’re about to turn.  Windshield wipers go on. Dang! UGH!!!  At this point, I had no choice but to follow the traffic and good news it was flowing in the direction we are headed. Ok, I got this.  GPS lady directs us to the highway (much easier except I had a hard time thinking that the slow lane was on the left) and in about 20 minutes we are in Stirling, where we are staying.  Without exception, every time I had to make a turn, the windshield wipers were employed and I’ve determined that directional signal employment was the hardest thing about driving on the left side, even harder than the roundabouts.  We had the car for seven days and surprisingly I only turned into traffic once!  (Co-pilot was a little too calm for that one.  Said softly, You’re going to get us killed, dear, there’s oncoming traffic.  My initial reaction was to flee the car.  I actually opened my car door…)  The good news was that as time went on I had two full days without mistakenly turning on the windshield wipers only to slip up the last day bringing the car back to Adelaide. Ok,to be completely honest, the two days were in the Outback where directional signals are not needed because there’s NO ONE on the road.  Heck, in the Outback, you could drive on either side of the road, in the middle, even in reverse and no one would know.

Small miracle.  Actually, each time we reached our destination, I declared it a small miracle. Co-pilot mumbled something under her breath (prayers of thanks I’m guessing).  We checked into the Sticky Rice Villas, which are part of the Sticky Rice Cooking School.  Our plan is to go pick up Caroline and bring her back to the villa to spend the night. The villa is a Japanese Zen styled apartment.  There are three of them and we are in the Yoko villa.  My initial reaction:  I want a Japanese Zen villa.  This place is so serene and since it’s part of a cooking school the kitchen cooking equipment is state of the art.  There is wine for us and fresh eggs, Australian bacon, a small round of Camenbert cheese, fruits and more.  There are even three bottles of different Asian fish sauces fermented for two years! for us to take home.  This is nice.

After about three minutes of oohing and ahhing, it’s time to go pet kangaroos and koalas, see wombats and wallabies, and Tasmanian devils.

We endured 15 minutes of my harrowing driving and arrived at the Cleland Conservancy, dedicated to the preservation of the fauna of South Australia (small miracle, prayers of thanks upon arrival).  We pay the entrance fee and the woman running the entrance takes a liking to us.  Taken by our sense of humor, no doubt.  She’s a hoot and she comps us a couple of bags of feed since we’ve been entertaining, a $6 savings!. Off we go. Sadly, it’s too hot for the koalas to be held so we can only go to a koala talk among the koalas. These koalas are really something else. If there was any species that should be extinct by now, it should be them.  Koalas as most people know stay stoned all the time eating eucalyptus tree leaves.  Did you also know that roughly 60% of them have chlamydia?  Or that most of them have renal disease?  How about that they are mostly blind? Or that the reason it’s too hot for them to be held is that they have no way of releasing heat like sweating or panting and our bodies up against theirs creates more stress on them? Probably the only reason they are alive is that WE humans find them adorable, which they are, and we go out of our way to see that the species survive.  They are totally useless creatures.  They are the homeless of the animal world.  They are that hopeless cousin who never fit in but whom the family supports because he is not capable of supporting himself. Pity creatures, but way cuter than that cousin.  And get this: If the mothers have twins they’ll abandon one because it’s too hard to take care of two kids. Question to God, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?  And you, Noah, what’s your excuse?

DISGUSTING!

FREELOADING STD CARRYING DRUG ADDICT!

Having lost all respect for the koalas, it was time to focus our attention on the kangaroos with their cute little pouches and responsible behavior.  And there they were hundreds of them (well maybe a hundred of them).  So well behaved. These were smaller kangaroos, probably the tallest about four or five feet.  And so kind. They fed out of our hands and when they had enough, they would turn their cute little kangaroo faces away from the food as if to say, Oh, I couldn’t possibly eat any more.  Save the food for the others.   They had no problem being petted, unlike those ungrateful hot koalas who could learn a thing or two from the roos.

Wallaby, nice like the kangaroos, not useless like you know what...

We saw the wombats sleeping and if you’ve ever seen the viral video on the Net of the hopelessly adorable baby wombat hanging out and playing with this guy, the adorable part is short lived.  They are some nasty looking adults.  The Tasmanian devil was a no show hiding from the heat, but that was ok because it was time to get Caroline, who lives and works about 40 minutes from where we were.

Back to the car (left, left, left) and actually had no driving issues.  We make it to the winery where Caroline is working, but we are early and she’s not off yet. We decide to go into the little town of Strathalbyn, population 600.  In a way it looks a little like a Western town, but then there’s the very English park, which is beautiful.

Strathalbyn Park

We walk around the town and into the park and we notice this sign made in boxwoods:  Remember the ANZACS.   We had no idea what that was, but I theorized that the Anzacs were a beloved large family that used to live in Strathalbyn who moved away and when they did, the town’s population plummeted and the town mourned their leaving because the kids were very popular.  I could be wrong. (I hope no one from Australia or New Zealand is reading this...)

[bennettkdavis]

Way Down Yonder in Down Under

We fly Korean Air from Seoul to Sydney. It’s our first time on the A380 double decker jet.  The entire upper floor is business class.  After spending time in the Korean Air business class lounge (uninspiring) we board the plane. Business class is sparsely occupied.  Korean Air is no match for Singapore Airlines. Nope, nada, no way, nuh uh.  However they do a have a bar in the rear of business class and, of course, Lisa and I put it to good use.  No one else did, though, so we had the place to ourselves.  

The flight was uneventful, not memorable in the least, but we did have full flat bed seats so I actually got a decent night’s sleep though Lisa did not.  The good news was that there’s only an hour difference between Seoul and Sydney so no jet lag.  By this time, we are completely use to the time change.  What we weren’t used to is going from winter to summer.

Flight lands in Sydney and we have about three and a half hours to catch the next flight to Adelaide.  I thought that was too long but Sydney’s airport is actually in two halves: domestic and international, and not so easy going from one to the other.  It took a solid two hours to get our bags, go through immigration, go through security, then drop our bags at the Qantas check in, go through security again, catch the shuttle bus to the domestic terminal and find our gate.  (Yes, I know...another first world problem.)  The flight to Adelaide is two hours and after the 12 1/2 hour flight from LAX to Seoul followed by a 10 hour flight from Seoul to Sydney, this one is a piece of cake.  Qantas packs them in on these domestic flights, so a good thing this one wasn’t too long. Knees firmly implanted in my chin.

Apparently Adelaide is the festival capital of Australia (there’s something you likely didn’t know!) and there were two going on when we arrived.  I’m starving (Lisa ate at the Sydney airport, but I did not) so we go to the famous Adelaide Central Market, which is a large farmers market with food stalls. Can’t wait to try out Australia’s cutting edge food scene.  So what do I do?  I come across a Russian food stall and get some stuffed cabbage covered in a light tomato sauce.  Cannot resist stuffed cabbage.  Ever.  You see my grandmother made stuffed cabbage (as did my mom) and well, nobody cooked like my grandmother (except my mom--Mom, you’re reading this, right?).  When I tell you this tasted just like hers (and hers), I’m not joking. It’s probably the same Eastern European recipe.  I’m half way around the world with memories of eating my grandmother’s stuffed cabbage (passed on to my mom) from a completely different side of the world.  Very cosmopolitan moment for me, this stuffed cabbage experience. Cutting edge food scene will have to be put on pause as I savor my roots.  

That is NOT me at the Adelaide Central Market.  I swear I took the picture.

We go back to our hotel to rest up for our dining experience at Penfold’s Winery Magill Estate Restaurant.  Magill Estate is consistently ranked as the top restaurant in South Australia (it’s a state,) or SA as it’s commonly known (I just made that up. I don’t know what it’s commonly known as, but it should be known as SA, even if it’s not).  We get to the restaurant and we are both dolled up pretty.  Beautiful place overlooking the vineyards just a 15 minute drive from our hotel.  We are greeted by the host, who suggests we take a cocktail in the bar before dinner. Sounds good to us.  Perhaps you would care for a Rose Champagne we just opened? Lovely.  Really was lovely, but would have been nice to know before we agreed that it was $40 per GLASS!  What does it matter?  We are living it up and since we don’t live at the Four Seasons Seoul anymore, were reduced to flying business class from Korea and had to fly coach today (it embarrasses me to even bring that up, the shame!), we could use a nice glass of champagne to bring us back to reality.  Then we are seated in the PRIME spot, a semicircular bench in front of the plate glass view of the vineyards at sunset.  Ah, how romantic!  As for the meal, which was a nine course degustation with sommelier wine pairings at a ridiculous price, it was meh. They almost, ALMOST, redeemed themselves when the sommelier brought over some Penfold’s Grange (think $500 and up per bottle) that was remaining from an unfinished bottle and poured us each a glass.

The Grange with some belly. Did not make up for a mediocre meal, but it helped.

Got the check ($$$ in my eyes like I was in an old cartoon). I give my credit card to the waitress.  She brings the credit card machine to the table and there is a place on the credit card receipt for a tip.  Now in the security line at the airport in Sydney, the Australian counterpart to a TSA agent, said loudly to everyone passing through, Welcome to Australia, remember we don’t tip! I thought that odd, but sounded good to me. I ask the waitress, Is the tip included? She answers, No, it’s not included. It’s at your discretion.  So of course I take that to mean it’s not included so add it, which I did.  Well what she really meant and she could have been clearer is that the amount does not include tips because we DON’T tip here.  So I got suckered into adding another $50 in tip.  Why can’t we be back somewhere where it’s easier to understand things like Korea? Lesson learned.  Done with dinner we call for an Uber, but Uber is taking too long.  In the meantime, my pocket wifi battery dies eliminating any possibility of communicating with Uber. A cab shows up and we take it. Next morning I get a nice little note from Uber Australia saying that we canceled our Uber within 5 minutes of arrival and will be charged $10 AUD ($7.50 US).  As if an already expensively disappointing dining experience wasn’t enough?  The cherry on top.  I laughed. 

[bennettkdavis]

On Becoming Seoul-less After Being Seoul-full

Thursday morning arrived and we faced the twisted emotions of leaving a place too soon alongside the excitement of going somewhere new (not to mention the utter letdown of knowing that the Four Seasons Seoul would no longer be our temporary home. How will we ever survive the step down? What? No more personal concierge?Clearly a first world problem, but judge ye not lest ye be judged. Somebody important said that, right?) The flight to Sydney is not until almost 7pm so we have plenty of time to squeeze out a little more Seoul before heading off.  Bags were packed and ready to go.

Lisa wants to go to the Leeum and I want to go to Toc Toc Restaurant so we plan both.  The Leeum is Samsung’s gift to the people of Seoul, a state of the art museum housing much of its art collection.  One side is modern the other side is Korean traditional.  We chose the modern side and it is not to be missed! We purchased the audio tour.  We are given a headset connected to a Samsung phone (not the 7).  As we walk around the gallery space, each time we stand in front of a piece, the phone is activated and we hear a description of the piece and a little bit of the artist’s inspiration for it.  You can look at the phone and link to more information if you want, but then that would take more effort, nah.  This is an amazing place (there is a doorman to greet you and help you out of your car!) The collection is filled with master artists, and it is by far the best way I have ever been guided through a museum.

The Leeum.  Look closely and you can see the doorman.

We leave the museum and head for the main thoroughfare to get a cab.  One immediately stops and we get in.  We hand over our Four Seasons card with the Toc Toc info on it and the driver loads it into his GPS and we are on our way.  It’s in Gangnum, which we are seeing for the first time in the day. The wealth and style of the place are unmistakable.  This is where the chi- chi want to hang and live and work.  Two Maserati dealerships within four blocks?  Yep.  The drive seems to be taking WAY too long and the driver is clearly lost.  The GPS wasn’t working so well trying to find Toc Toc.  He says (we assume in Korean) we are here, but there is no Toc Toc.  He changes his mind and motions us to stay in the car.  Drives around some more, but no Toc Toc.  After about five more minutes in the cab, he gives up.  Says in Korean something to the effect of “I have no freaking idea where the hell that little restaurant of yours is, so I’m letting you out here. Goodbye and good luck!”  I tried to pay him the amount on the meter, but he refused the full amount knowing he had not gotten us where we needed to be.  What cabbie in the states would have done that???

We exit the car and walk a bit, but we have no clue.   A “lucky” young man walks by and we stop him and give him the Four Seasons don’t get lost card. He plugs the address into the GPS and then says in English, two blocks left, one block right, two more blocks left and you are there.  But wait, Is an alley considered a block?  We were doomed.  Who knows what we did, but it wasn’t right.  Ask a man coming from the other direction.  He gets out his phone and plugs in the address, then plugs in something else, and something else and he stares and stares and plugs something else in and more staring.  We are waiting for about 10 minutes, not wanting to seem impolite and Lisa looking at me her eyes rolling around her head like they’re never going to stop.  Finally, FINALLY, he says something and with sweeping hand gestures motions to us to go in some direction and ….argh, whatever.  Still clueless, we meander some more and then we see a young guy wearing chef pants and a white chef shirt.  Surely, he will know.  After all Toc Toc is owned by one of the up and coming chefs that anyone who knows food in Asia is talking about, but nope.  He doesn’t know it. He gets out his phone, plugs in the address from the Four Seasons card, finds it, but instead of trying to explain how to get there, he says, in English, follow me. And we did.  This total stranger interrupted whatever he was doing to help us. We walked about three short blocks and I saw the sign Toc Toc Restaurant. We thanked him and then went up the elevator (another restaurant on an upper floor-third this time) and we were in Toc Toc.  Even an hour late, the staff greeted us with smiles, not to worry.  The place is small but full of people.  The food—-incredible.  A fusion of Korean and French.  Maybe we were just super hungry after the ordeal of finding this place, but no, it was just that good.  Put this one down as a not to be missed meal in Seoul, the next time you’re there.

My appetizer at Toc Toc Restaurant.  Too pretty to eat, but I ate it anyway. 

That’s it.  Seoul is over.  After serious heartfelt hugs with Keith Lee, we are loaded in a cab and sent on our way.  The drive to Incheon Airport is long, about an hour.  It’s a good time to reflect.  As we were finishing our tour yesterday with Grace, I asked her what is it like to live so close to North Korea? How do people in Seoul seem to be so calm knowing that a war could start at a moment’s notice?  Her first response was that they are not worried about North Korea because that country is so poor, any war would not last long.  I looked at her and said with nuclear weapons, it just takes one. Then she paused, looked down and then slowly back up at me and said, We choose not to think about it. Suddenly I realized that Seoul is the 21st century Berlin in the regard that it is the place that bears the brunt of the first spark of what might become a powerful powder keg.  As we pass through this city that seems to never end with its skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, this massive human endeavor of a city, in a place that not unlike say Poland, whose geography finds it easily accessible by its more powerful neighbors, for Poland, Germany and Russia, for Korea, China and Japan, and this crazy guy just a stone’s throw away, seems so vulnerable.  In the last half of the last century, that place was Berlin, where the two superpowers stood in each other’s shadows.  But now, in the beginning of the new century, that place is Seoul. History does not stand still.  As I ponder this, I hope for hope that Buddha can indeed read my English on that tag hanging from the yellow lantern next to the lucky pagoda tree (wait, is that another wish?  Do I need a separate tag for that? Oh shoot…).

Addendum:  one last Seoul impression at Incheon Airport.  They had live entertainment.  Three very attractive girls in short red dresses and high heels playing Beethoven’s 5th on electric violins in a “Switched on Bach” style while dancing around.  Words do not do justice.

[bennettkdavis]

(A) Living Seoul

It’s now Tuesday in Seoul, Monday in our body clocks.  Doing better with the time change, we are up at 5am rather than 4am.  Clearly making some progress. We know now not to try to leave the hotel for breakfast.  After hanging in our room (ain’t all bad, let me tell you), we decide to venture into the basement of the hotel for coffee and a Western breakfast.  In the lower level of the Four Seasons is a fairly large extremely high end wine shop, the Speakeasy, and the largest cafe I think I’ve ever seen.  It must have been 10,000 square feet.  I have no idea who eats there as only about three tables were taken.  We sit down at a table and I order a cappuccino and Lisa a latte.  The young waitress brings them to us and I then ask for menus.  Oh no, Sir, only breakfast buffet.  I look over to the far side of the room and there’s an enormous buffet.  We just want some eggs though.  Ok so what is the price of the breakfast buffet?  45,000 won.  What?  That’s roughly $45 each for breakfast?  That really is breakfast at Tiffany’s. Not happening.  Just bring me the check for the coffees.  Yes, Sir.  Very sorry.  Check comes and I look at it.  I believe this is when my eyes fell out of my head.  Each coffee was about $16!  After our $32 worth of coffee, we finally gave up on the concept of breakfast in Seoul.  Sadly, we go without. Back to the room, I found a couple of Lara bars in my backpack I’d brought from home.  Breakfast.

Time to go see “our” concierge, Keith Lee.  Keith is a 20 something on rise in the hospitality business.  He has been communicating with us before we left the States and for the duration of the stay has been designated as our “Personal Concierge” meaning that he is our main concierge contact for all of our needs. He lived in the US for a year studying at a college I had not heard of in Pittsburgh.  He’s fluent in English.  HIs manners are impeccable.  We received three handwritten cards from him (who does that anymore?) and his direct role in our visit enhanced our experiences without question.  So the next time you’re staying at the Four Seasons in Seoul, please ask for Keith.

Keith has arranged a tour of the Korean Furniture Museum (”KFM”) with Lisa.  (As you can tell, Lisa has been Keith’s main point of contact.)  Furniture Museum?  Furniture Museum???  Ok, fine, but I’m going to hit the 10th floor golf links at the hotel after that.  The KFM tour doesn’t start until 2pm so we have loads of time to go explore.  Keith asks us what else would we like to do. Lisa suggests the Lotte Department Store, which is the super-sized high end department store.  Keith looks at me quizzically asking without saying a word, Is that what YOU really want to do?  So I tell him, What I want to do is get jimdak, braised chicken that looks incredible in pictures I’ve seen, and then go to a dog coffee shop.  Dog coffee shop?  It’s another Seoul thing.  Seoul has plenty of tea, but the Seoulites (Seoulians?) penchant is for coffee.  There are easily five or six coffee shops on every block.  To differentiate from one another, some coffee shops actually have animals in them.  There are dog cafes, cat cafes, sheep cafes, and even a raccoon cafe!  I’m happy with a dog cafe. Eager to please, Keith is off on his task to find jimdak and a dog cafe within walking distance from Lotte.  He sends us off so he can do his work and so we head to the floral shop in the Four Seasons, Nicolai Bergmann.  Nicolai Bergmann is a world reknowned floral designer based in Tokyo.  Lisa, reknowned florist in New Orleans, is so in her element in this amazing place.   Flowers as contemporary art is the only way to describe it.  Here are some examples:

Oh, by the way, I needed some Korean won, but was having trouble at the various ATMs because Chase doesn’t trust ATM’s in Korea.  Keith actually leaves his post and takes me to some ATM’s a couple of blocks away.  Good news is that I got some won.  Bad news is that I must have been so caught up in finally obtaining the won, I must have left my card in the ATM.  Great!  Day 2 and I have already lost my ATM card.  Oh, well.  Big shout out to Nicole Williams at Chase in New Orleans for helping me out.  Though I’m not able to get a new card while traveling, I was able to cancel it.  What can you do? Nothing.  Bitch about how dumb you are for about 10 minutes, but then move on, right? Right.

We head out.  Our route will take us to the Stream, which is a small creek that runs across Seoul that had been terribly polluted.  At some time, the Seoul civic leaders decided to clean it up and set it as an example of Korea’s commitment to the environment as it’s industrialization exploded.  Now it’s a linear park (see Seoul Mate blog title page-that’s it at night).  At the beginning of the Stream we run into this:

Any ideas?  Seemed like people would walk by and then change into these blue santa outfits, then have their picture taken in front of this sign.  Oh how I wanted to do that...Lisa pulled me on.

Here I am walking across the Stream and yes it’s COLD!

We somehow manage to get to the GIANT department store (really a small miracle) and Lisa wants to buy some Korean cosmetic products.  Keith, being the attentive personal concierge that he is, even printed out the logos of some of the Korean products his mother uses.  We ended up at about four Korean cosmetic counters. English is sporadic, but they are usually able to find someone who speaks it.  This whole place is all about selling, selling, selling.  After we looked at what seemed to me to be a couple of hundred products (probably about a dozen in reality), Lisa decided, rightfully so, that this was way too confusing and expensive to make a rash decision.  No Korean beauty products...yet.  We decide to split up and meet up a half hour later.  My first stop is the mens department.  Now I barely have room in my suitcases for the stuff I brought (winter and summer suitcases), so I’m not that anxious to buy anything, but I look nonetheless.  Upon entering the mens department floor, I am flooded with salespeople.  Every time I turned a corner there was someone to greet me and show me their latest stylish suits, pants, shirts, etc.  Blank stares from me.  I could have been from Mars.  The good news about this shopping experience was the language barrier.  It was all I really needed to shut down a good sales pitch.  But EVEN if I wanted to buy something, nothing and I mean NOTHING would have fit.  The Koreans are a slightly built bunch.  Every item of clothing is super slim or super, super slim.  I would have been lucky just to get an arm into a sleeve.  I’m not a big guy, but this is like children’s clothing.  (Maybe I was in the kids department?  I wouldn’t rule that out).  I left the little mens department and headed for the “Golf floor”.  Yes, that’s true. The golf floor is all things golf.  Mens, women’s, kids, clubs, bags, shoes, everything golf.  Tempted, I refrain.  Not many sellers hounding me on this floor.  They must have sensed my golfing prowess and were intimidated (or more likely, gotten word from the floor below that the Gringo was not a buyer so don’t waste your time.)

Enough of shopping it’s time for FOOD!  Off we go into Insadong.  Insadong is a frenetic, and I mean frenetic, retail neighborhood obviously geared toward the younger set.  Lots of small stores one right after another and multiples of the same stores blocks from each other- a big reminder of just how huge this city is.  

Insadong

We are looking for Bong Chu restaurant and we actually got quite close, but then hmmmm.  Fortunately a nice shopkeeper came out and in English asks us where we are going.  She looks at our Four Seasons “don’t get lost” card with the restaurant name in Korean and says we are one block away.  Close enough.  So we head over to Bong Chu to get jimdak.  I’m really looking forward to this .  We see the sign but there’s no Bong Chu. Then we realize it’s on an upper level.  Every floor of these four and five story buildings is retail.   I can’t even imagine what the rents must be for ground floor space, but retail is not just on the ground floor.  The restaurant is on the fourth floor.  We jump into the small elevator and up we go.  Door opens and we’re in the restaurant.  We are seated next to a couple of Korean businessmen.  The place is tiny, but very nice---upscale jimdak.  Every seat is taken once we sit down.  No tourists here.  This is the real thing.  The waiter brings us the menu in Korenglish and it’s simple but confusing. Essentially you order the amount of jimdak you want and the level of spiciness.  Let me tell you this was some GOOD eating.  Kind of odd that there was a confounding pair of kitchen scissors at the table.  Apparently when you get down past the braised chicken, there are fettuccine-thick, long, like two foot long, glass noodles, which need to be cut with the scissors.  Took us a while to figure that out so we were slurping them down.  Stupid Americans.

Lisa eating jimdak.  Notice scissors...

We finished our jimdak and head for the Dog Cafe.  Insadong is the beauty mask capital of the world.  They have masks for every part of your body and they are made from everything from snail slime to crushed pearls.  There are at least five mask stores on every block and Lisa cannot resist.  When I say they sell masks for EVERYTHING, I really mean it.

Lisa tells me the masks don’t really do much, but $70 later we have a year’s supply.  They even throw in a couple dozen more as a thank you...

We search for the dog cafe, but after locating it on the top floor of a retail building (how do the dogs get there?), it is closed (for lunch-huh?).

No dog cafe so it’s off the Korean Furniture Museum.  The KFM was the brainchild of a very wealthy lady who must have had a lot of spare time and money to spend on furniture.  She also collected 10 historic buildings and placed them on a property high in the hills overlooking Seoul.  She was/is kind of a control freak, you are only allowed to take photos in very specific spots. No idea why that is.  There are 2500 pieces of furniture and in the hour long tour you see EVERYONE of them.  Very interesting, but for me the best part was when the tour guide would get angry with this one Korean woman who would go into places she wasn’t supposed to be in, took a call on her cell phone, and was last to go to the next spot so she made him have to wait.  The guide was a bit persnickety (lots of rigidity to this place) so his interaction with Miss Korean Independence I found joyful. 

Me in front of the KFM

One last stop before we went back to the hotel and that’s at the Design Center.  Incredible architecture, but not much going on inside.  

Of all things, there was a Smithsonian photography exhibition.  We passed.  So a quick look around the design shop and off we go back for some relaxation and some....10th floor golf...

A natural.....

Final stop of the day is at Jungsik, a Michelin star restaurant in Gangnam-Gu (as in Gangnam style!).  Gangnam is the Beverly HIlls of Seoul.  Very, very high end with all the designer names you know: Yves St. Laurent, Lagerfeld, Gucci, yada, yada, yada.  The meal is a set menu with 8 courses unless you also want the Waygu beef course.  No thanks, 8 is enough.  Of course, they give you about 6 pre dinner snacks, too.  All beautiful.  Incredible meal finished with our choice of desserts.  Lisa picks the Hot Corn (it’s ice cream!!!!)

And I got the penis head green tea mousse...

[bennettkdavis]

Seoul Food

We were up at 4 am on our first day here.  While Seoul slept, our American bodies were telling us, Wake UP!  We were starving, too.  Thankfully the hotel greeted us with some fruit and cookies for our arrival, which we then scarfed down. At about 9am we were ready to go explore and get some breakfast so we set out to the concierge desk. The concierge looked at us blankly when we asked for breakfast recommendations outside the hotel.  I’m sorry, but Koreans don’t eat breakfast.  Huh?  No we don’t eat breakfast.  We eat whatever we have left over for dinner.  (For dinner?)  Let me see… she’s on a concierge mission to find us what we want…Here’s a place that offers brunch, it’s just down the street in D Tower.  D Tower? Like “the” tower?  No, D Tower.  Seriously, that’s the best the marketing team for this gigantic building could come up with?  D Tower? So she sends us to the third floor of D Tower, an imposing office building, which was next to B Tower, behind C Tower.  Never did see A Tower.  The first three floors of D Tower are dedicated to restaurants.  The concierge was not too specific about which one she was sending us to, but they all appeared closed except one where the door was open and people seemed to be inside.  Surely that’s the one serving brunch.  We wandered in and a small panic took place among the staff and one girl, I’m assuming the one that knew a little English because the others motioned for her to intercede, suddenly stopped her sweeping, came over and said “Closed. Open 11.”  Bummer.  

We checked out the other two floors of food service, all closed.  One intriguing place had a name in English, Mad About Garlic.  An all garlic restaurant?  We wandered out of D Tower now looking for anything to eat and came across a little restaurant that was open at the base of another tower opposite of D Tower. We have zero idea what kind of food they have, but it didn’t matter at that point. Open is open.  There is a lady behind the cash register counter, who seems nice enough.  All the signs were in Korean.  We are clueless.  She comes over to us and senses our bewilderment.  It wasn’t hard to sense, trust me.  Then she motions come on, come on for us to follow her and she heads to the back door and opens the door.  Are we being asked to leave?  And through the back door?  We follow her out into a dark covered alley, not know what in the world is going on and then she looks back at the restaurant and points up.  There, for some very perplexing purpose (who would see this?), is the restaurant menu painted on the wall in this dark alleyway stretching about 10 feet high by 15 feet wide with pictures of all of the dishes!  If Guinness Book of World Records had a category for world’s largest menu, this is it.  Lisa pointed to some rice dish and I took the dumpling soup (it was the closest picture to where I was standing). Done deal.  Dumpling soup at 9:30am.

We go back to sit down and we are wondering about the eating utensils.  There are none.  Lisa has been getting into high level chop sticks form using chop sticks for weeks now at dinner for our regular meals.  Let me tell you she is in tip top chop sticks form.  The Wednesday before we left, she actually ate a pork chop with chop sticks.  A pinnacle moment.  However upon having to face the real challenge head on, she felt more comfortable with a fork, so I went to “ask” for one.  I approached the woman server and motioned with my hand bringing it up to my mouth and said “fork?”  She said Ahhhh and took me to get cups of water (but no fork).   The woman opens up a refrigerator filled with about 100 cold tin cups beside a water cooler.  I figured out the rest.  Not wanting to insult her kindness I came back with two glasses (actually tin cups) of very cold water. By the time I got back to the table, the counter lady had shown Lisa where the utensils were (in a drawer attached to our table) and she had her fork.  Just like a man, ask him to go get the simplest thing and he comes back with something totally different.

We ate our Korean breakfast, which included about 5 versions of kimchi (there are over 200, bet you didn’t know that!) and wandered down to the royal palace close to our hotel.  To get there we had to walk in Se Jeong Plaza, where the mass demonstrations were held just days before.  No protesters, but police were all over the place.  According to polls, some 86% of the country wanted President Park impeached, so people were mostly happy.  The country currently has no president.  Wonder what that would be like…

So this guy, Se Jeong, seems to be a big deal around here.  He reigned in the 1400′s and invented the Korean alphabet.  Now Se Jeong only came up with 24 characters in his alphabet, yet we have 26 and we all say the same things in our different languages.  Makes me wonder, do we really need those extra 2?

(It says Se Jeong, trust me.)

The US Embassy was on the way to the palace and the police presence was astonishing.  Bus loads of police all in front of the embassy.  What is more depressing is the embassy itself.  I mean, we can’t do any better than this?  My guess is that there’s so much spy equipment in there, the US can’t afford to upgrade.  An eyesore to say the least, don’t you think?

After a short walk, we arrive at the palace.  The palace grounds are HUGE.  400 acres in all.  

Lisa and I at the entrance to the palace

Here’s the weirdest part: there is a trend among the Korean youth (high school and university) to dress up in Korean traditional dress and post pictures on social media.  I’m at a loss to explain that one, but one of the advantages to dressing up is that you get into Korean national monuments like that palaces for FREE.  Renting these costumes is a booming business here.   I tried to talk Lisa into getting one, but she declined.

Lisa with her new Facebook friends.

We started on an “English” tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace but after about 20 minutes decided to bow out.  Every time the female tour guide said the name of the palace, it sounded like she was saying Lisa’s brother’s name, Greg Brooking, like Gwegbookin.  We hightailed it to the Korean Folk Museum, which is built on the palace grounds and has a great place to take pagoda hat photos:

Lisa and her zodiac sign statue bear

Bennett with zodiac monkey

Done with touring (we did see one site after all) we headed back to our sanctuary, the Four Seasons. By this time, jet lag didn’t just creep up on us, it came down with a force of a thousand dragons. Knock out city.  A couple of hours of dead ass sleep and we are ready for the next adventure, a dining tour of Seoul, four restaurants in four hours.

The hotel puts us into a cab with written instructions for the cab driver on one side and the hotel address on the other so we can get back.  English was hit or miss with the cabbies.  The assumption is that they don’t.  One we had didn’t say a word to us the whole time so we assumed he did not and then he was cut off in traffic at a place where 6 lanes to to 1 lane and he says to us, do you see how dumb this is that 6 lanes goes into 1 lane? Where did that come from? Must be a case of spontaneous English.

The cab takes us to the meeting spot for the dining tour.  it’s a cooking school and dining tour company.  Up about 4 flights we get to the place.  There are 8 people on our tour: a couple from Toronto, a couple from Slovenia, us, and then this inexplicable combination of mother with teenage son’s girlfriend from Joliet, Illinois.  Our guide is Chris.  He asks where everyone from and we say New Orleans to which he responds in his Korean accented English, Oh I’m from North Carolina.  More to that story I’m sure.  Chris is in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, very hipstery with jeans that had more intentional holes than denim, black knit hat (think Rastafarian but solid color) and a white knit sweater over another blue sweater opened in the front that hung down to his hips over a t-shirt with a much smaller jacket on top.  He is tallish and had a four day old beard. Somehow he pulls this off because it looked perfectly normal on him.  On me, I would be ready for Fat Tuesday.  This so called North Carolinian transplant is nonetheless a great guy and off we go.  

Hip Chris

The first stop is a traditional Korean BBQ.  We are in an older section of Seoul and the streets are more typical of what you may imagine East Asia to be.  Winding alleys with pots of food cooking outside the restaurants, bars, people around.  This is a walking tour by the way.  We head into a building with maybe a 7 foot ceiling.  We are split into two tables of four and each table has a grill in the table.  We order beef.  First to arrive though are 6 different versions of kimchi bringing to 11 the number of kimchi we will have sampled.  Only 189 left to go.  The food is very good, but here is the best part.  They bring a cart with small drinking glasses, shot glasses, a bottle of beer, a bottle of soju (rice wine), and a bottle of Coke. Chris pours a little Coke in the bottom of the small glass.  Then he carefully layers the beer on top of the Coke so the Coke is still at the bottom.  He then drops the shot glass into the small glass filled with Coke and beer.  With the shot glass floating in the beer, he pours the rice wine into the shot glass.  He makes nine of these, one for each of us and himself, and then one, two, three down the hatch in one swallow.  Kind of the Korean version of a boilermaker and VERY efficient.  First you get the rice wine, then the beer, and finished up with the sweetness of the Coke.  Here is a diagram:

Next we go to a restaurant where we made a spicy noodley seafood broth (they really like these cook it yourself places).  Small, small place with gas lines crisscrossing the floor to bring gas to your burner.  Yikes!  It was good, but I wouldn’t risk my life to go there again.  

But the place I liked the best was called “Chicken and Beer.”  This is a thing in Seoul.  Restaurants where that’s all they have, chicken and beer.  The chicken is fried and then you get to choose what sauce you want on your chicken.  We had a garlic chicken (massive amounts) and a gooey sesame honey thing with a little kick to it.  Both were excellent.  All washed down with pitchers of cheap local beer.  I loved it and want to franchise this concept in the states.  Who wouldn’t like chicken and beer?  Big, big market.

The last place we go is in the huge food market.  The restaurant makes delicious pancakes with various savory ingredients.  The pancakes are crunchy, Kind of like a potato pancake, but not using potatoes.  Here though is the weirdest thing of the night.  They drink a fizzy, milky rice wine that comes in a green plastic bottle resembling a Sprite and, here’s the kicker, it is served in a tin cup that looks like something your pet would drink from.  Actually that’s what it probably is come to think of it.  Nasty, nasty, nasty.  I drank all of mine.

Here kitty, kitty

Four restaurants, one night. Full is not the word for it, but it was well worth getting to know the food of Seoul, meet interesting people, and having more rice wine than i care to think about. 

Now one last thing.  We go back to the hotel and decide to get a nightcap at the Speakeasy.  Located in the basement the unmarked marble entrance is under the stairwell. I would never have found it, but Lisa seemed to have no problem.  This place is not a secret but you really have to know it’s there.  

Door to speakeasy.  Lisa found it right away, like she’d been there.  Hmmm...

We walk in and have a seat at the bar.  It’s about half filled with locals (my guess).  The bartender hands us the drink menu and in it is this…

Oh that Karma train just keeps chugging along.......

[bennettkdavis]

Body and Seoul

(Slightly graphic with potty humor)

Immigration went smoothly.  I would say that 75% of the people in line were Japanese and all in their 20′s.  The remainder were Korean and a smattering of Americans.  Mr. Mushy Caviar passed us in the switchback zig zag of foreign passport holders and he appeared to be in a deep and very hearable conversation with himself. No phone, no earbud, no headpiece, just himself.  He seemed really engaged with the guy he was talking to.  Eh, enough of him.

We walked out of immigration (with all those other people) and by the grace of good, good fortune with all the uncertainty of international travel, there was the driver from the Four Seasons whom I immediately approached.  You are looking for us, right? I asked.  You’re lame.  Huh?  You’re lame?  Ah, my name. Yes! Davis. (Not being offensive, that’s how it went down.)

It’s winter here folks, about 30 degrees.  We hop into the Mercedes S500  (not bragging here, just giving you the facts as an observant journalist would do) and head out for the hotel.  The city of Seoul is about an hour’s drive from the airport.  Hardly a soul (!) on the roads, the ride is non-eventful.  Lisa, as she is prone to do, falls hard asleep.  Me, I am keeping my eyes wide open so I mentally record everything I see.  Well, it’s dark so I don’t see much.  I do notice that the entire trip into the city is on a raised freeway, making it a very long bridge.  Signs start out leaving the airport area a mix of Korean and English, but the farther away you get from the airport the English becomes sporadic.  Then out of nowhere I notice a small three story building with a lit sign all across the top of the first floor that says “Soul Mate Hair”!  Are you kidding?  The Karma train continues.

Arriving at the hotel, the doormen are there to greet, I’m assuming, their last arrivals of the night.  Our bags are swiftly carted away and we check in.  Staff is super polite and I’m kind of half listening to the hotel’s amenities but my ears did perk up when the girl mentioned the golf center on the 10th floor.  Must be an executive course.  I turn around to look for our bags, but they have already been taken to our room.  Now that’s efficiency.  Our room is on the corner of the building on the 26th floor.  As you walk into the room there is a bathroom to the right and a separate toilet room to the left (wait for it). There are two floor to ceiling windows in the bathroom and four floor to ceiling windows in our bedroom/sitting room.  There are numerous buttons on the walls for lights, shades (inner and black out).  Our view is simply amazing.  On one end we are looking at a mountain that rises up above the high rises in the far distance.  Looking south we have a great view of the North Tower.  Yes, for some reason yet to be figured out, the North Tower (like a space needle) is actually south of the “downtown” area.  Enough of looking out the window, it’s been a long trip and I need to settle into the reading room.

I walk into the toilet room and immediately notice that there is a blue lit up bear shining up from the back of the toilet where the seat meets the tank.  Ok, odd, but I really have no time to think about that.  So there’s an bear light on the toilet, is that a big deal? They do like their cartoon characters here, right? I sit down and at eye level to my right on the wall is a electronic pad with all sorts of blue pinpoint lights and instructional drawings with titles in Korean and English. What the hell is that?  In the meantime, I notice that my room temperature seat has slowly started to warm up and this is not just a warming up, but it’s getting kind of hot.  Toasted buns, literally.  I’m wrapping things up and I’m telling you I’m sweating my ass is so hot.  Time to move on (it is midnight), but hey, what man cannot resist the temptation to start pressing buttons he has no idea what they do?  So I decide to press away.  “Cleansing” sounds interesting, probably like a self cleaning oven.  Let’s see what that does thinking that a self cleaning toilet is so high tech and practical.  All of the sudden very, VERY warm water appears from somewhere below and with great force shoots up into my netherworld taking my breath away leaving me in utter shock and disbelief.  I quickly come back to my senses, relax and go with it.  Ok, I get this.  So I sit and sit thinking it must be on some type of timer, but no indeed, it just keeps going and going and going.  Must be a stop button because if I stand up water’s going everywhere.  There I go pressing away at all the buttons until i find the right one and then as quickly as it started it stopped.  My butt is drenched.  I mean I can’t just get up.  So I look back at Toilet Control Command Center and see a…is that a drying button?  So I press that one and sure enough from somewhere below the most gentle drying action takes over.  I’m thinking this is what your clothes must feel like when the dryer is on “Delicate.”  Such a nice finish.  Now I really must have one of these contraptions.  Actually I want five of them for each bathroom of our house.  Perhaps they would make nice presents, too, for, you know, special occasions.

Blue Bear 

Toilet Command Control Center

[bennettkdavis]

Seoul Plane

Two months ago we decided to travel to Australia to see our daughter, Caroline, who’s living there for the first half of the year. We were using frequent flyer points for our flights and due to the restrictions involved, rather than flying straight there, we were forced to go through somewhere else.  Our best travel value was on Singapore Airlines and that left us with three stopover choices: Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Seoul.  Hong Kong wasn’t terribly appealing, Tokyo seemed like it should be part of a whole separate Japan trip, and so, by default, we settled on Seoul.  It should be interesting, right?

On March 9, precisely one day before heading out to LA to catch our flight, I received this emergency notice from the US State Department:

“United States Embassy Seoul, Republic of Korea

Security Message for U.S. Citizens:

U.S. Embassy Seoul informs U.S. citizens that the Republic of Korea’s Constitutional Court will announce its decision regarding the possible impeachment of President Park Geun-hye tomorrow (March 10) at 11:00 a.m.

Demonstrations may follow the court’s announcement, regardless of the outcome.  Previously, massive demonstrations have centered on Gwanghwamun Plaza (across from the U.S. Embassy), including the area between Seoul City Hall and Gyeongbokgung Palace.  Demonstrations may also occur at other locations throughout Seoul and in other Korean cities.

Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. You should avoid areas of demonstrations and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations. Review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates. Be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security.”

Oh, and by the way, there’s that crazy guy with the nukes who just launched missiles in to the Sea of Japan just 35 miles north of Seoul.  Hmmmm....what to do???   I checked Google maps to see where the US Embassy is  where the demonstrations are taking place in relation to our hotel only to find out it’s merely one block away.  Hmmmm....what to do???  Change of trip?  Nope.  Go, of course!!! 

Off we went, stopping for one night in LA for in order to catch the flight the next day.  We were picked up by a young Uber driver to take us to the hotel.  Along the ride, she shared with us that coincidentally she was from Louisiana.  Small world.  Best answer from a getting to know your Uber driver: Do you like living in LA?  Yes, but they can’t cook here.  We get that.  Most awkward answer to a getting know your Uber driver question:  What do you do when you’re not driving Uber?  I’m in the “entertainment” industry.  (oooohhh...) Most awkward follow up question to an uncomfortable answer from an Uber driver from my lovely wife, What do you do in the entertainment industry?  (At that point I wanted to exit the speeding car.)  The girl fumbled around for an answer and then settled on “trying out for dinner theatre and maybe some TV, stuff like that.”  Yeah, sure. My sense was “stripper or porn” would have been likely the more truthful answer.  While I have come to understand that in LA many people are in the “entertainment” industry, she did not appear to be on the business nor technical side.  Maybe backside.

Now what’s even more coincidental is that our Lyft driver who picked us up to go back to LAX was from all places, Korea!  Talk about some kind of weird ride sharing karma!  Louisiana and Korea? What are the chances?

Now about that plane ride...well, I’m not bragging, ok maybe a little bit here, but we were able to snare a couple of first class seats on the Singapore Airlines flight to Seoul for a bargain amount of frequent flyer points.  To put it simply, we hit the frequent flyer sweet spot.  We get to LAX and check in.  The check in agent at Singapore Airlines actually comes out from behind the counter to tell us goodbye and to walk a ways with us to make sure we are going the right way.  Wow.  Then we head up to the Star Alliance Lounge and proceed to the entrance where we are rebuffed, this is only business class, the first class lounge is over there.  Huh?  Go with it.  We walk into what is basically our own private lounge.  There were a few Scandinavians but they left when we walked in (not because the fraudulent first classers came in, but because their flight was called).  Then there we were, just us and the staff.  We were in no hurry to leave the luxurious surroundings and as a result we missed the first class boarding and had to board along with the, well, little people (JUST KIDDING!). However, immediately upon passing through the gate to board the plane we were redirected to the first class entrance and then never had to mix with the little people again (JUST KIDDING!).

There were four seats in first class.  Lisa and I sat in the two middle seats so we could talk to each other, which wasn’t easy because the seats are so large at about four feet across.  There was a Korean gentleman to Lisa’s right across the aisle at the window seat who didn’t speak at all the whole trip and I had Mr. Obnoxious next to me across the aisle on the left window side.  When offered caviar he actually said, “I am a caviar aficionado and when caviar is served at high altitudes it becomes mushy.”  Vomit.  I had the caviar and it was delicious and as firm as can be.  After that, he was mostly silent after the plane took off but did hog our bathroom all night long (there were two bathrooms for four people and I had to share with Mr. Mushy Caviar who I think spent half the flight in the bathroom, probably just to piss me off).  Three wonderful attendants served the four of us, one of whom looked like the bald Asian thug from the Pink Panther movies.  Upon getting settled in our seats, we are asked most apologetically, Would you care for some vintage Dom Perignon? We are so sorry but we are not allowed to open the Krug before takeoff?  Yes, if I must, and don’t worry, that Krug thing is out of your control.  We are given the champagne, our refresher kits and then, what size pajamas do you want?  Do you prefer them to be tight to your body (female attendant with a Singaporean accent) or loose to your body? New territory for me.  I say large, she says medium.  Medium it is.

That nasty Dom.

Ah, the Krug.

The jammin’ jammies...

We take off for our 12 1/2 hour flight to Seoul.  Another couple of glasses of champagne, caviar (with vodka shot of course), lobster thermidor (good not great) change into jammies before dessert and after dinner drinks (Johnny Walker Blue--oh the envy, I feel it percolating and it brings me pleasure) and then the young male attendant comes to make our beds and it’s nighty night for the spoiled among us, me.  Six hours of blissful sleep (though I did have a mid-flight hangover at one point, but the flight was so long I recovered).  I remember being woken once when the female attendant was adjusting my blankie.  That something that hasn’t happened to me since pre-memory days.  With about three hours left to go, we are brought out of our slumber and asked would we like another drink?  Are you kidding?  Uh, no, but coffee would be nice. Now mind you it’s night time in Seoul so “breakfast” was salad and pheasant (very good), and even though I thought I was going to explode I managed to eat every bite.  Plane lands at about 10:30 pm and we are in Korea with me pondering the oddities of life’s journey that take you to places you never thought you’d go.  (Actually I never really pondered anything, but I needed an ending to this entry that sounded like I got something spiritual from one of the most indulgent things I have ever have experienced in my life.  Ok to be truthful, I was thinking that was the best flight I’ve ever been on and why do I have to stay in the immigration line with all the little people----JUST KIDDING!)