Lost in Seoul

After a week in Jeju, it was strange to be back on the mainland. Seoul looked too modern, in terms of architecture and food outlets.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt near the Coex. The plan was to be able to go shopping in the Coex area and be a bit far from all the relatives so we have the excuse not to do crazy outing all the time. Well, how wrong was I.....

We arrived at Kimpo airport around 4pm on Friday and it rained a lot. The ride from Kimpo to the Park Hyatt was hell. We were moving at the speed of me crawling on the floor using two hands on the Olympic Expressway. That really gave me a good look of the Han Kang River. Was able to see the markings of the last flood which apparently was really bad.

The decor and setting of the Park Hyatt was nice for the hip and chic. It isn't practical when you have a curious toddler. Yes, they have blinds and frosted glass panels but having a big standalone tub means your toddler wants to swim with you or go behind the blinds to play hide and seek at the most inappropriate time. Last thing I wanted was being a caged animal, being observed when I am responding to nature's call. The sliding doors are another safety hazard. I got my fingers caught once and I used the four-letter word that I should not have used in front of Changunnie.

After a short break (including Changunnie destroying a chocolate bar in a record time of 2 minutes), we went to see Yong dong-pu Uncle (Grandpa's brother). His second son lives in the same building to look after the parents. Even though I don't want to be with relatives all the time, I always have a soft spot for this branch of the family. Myung Hee hyunsoo nim is one of my favourite and her children, Byung Hwa and Hyun Jo, are adorable. The first time I met Hyun Jo, she was an infant and now she's a 12 year old who won awards for her poems! Byung Hwa was a chubby little muchkin and now a very handsome young man. Seriously, anyone out there is a star scout, I have a good one for you.

Changunnie loves Hyun Jo unni and in no time, they were downstairs to see Hyun Jo's pet chicken and quail. They picked a quail egg from the cage and cooked it. The egg tasted like... well real egg! In fact, the yolk colour was darker and floated on top of the white.

The entire family moved on to a soondae jib around the neighbourhood. In Hong Kong,you get a "full" menu at Korean restaurant. In Korea, each restaurant sells one thing only. The place we went to sells nothing but soondae and organs. The serving was big but with the Son-sshi men around, the food didn't stay in the tray for too long. I didn't really get to eat because Changunnie tried to cross the street in search of ice-cream.

In order to let the others to eat, Myung Hee hyunsoo-nim and I took Changunnie and Hyun Jo to a near by park. It was peaceful until I smelled cigarettes. Turned out a bunch of middle school kids were smoking under the protection of the slide. They stopped when we approached them and unlike kids in HK, didn't talk back or anything but all that made me wonder what's going on in the world right now? Is it not cool if you don't smoke?