Wongs Loving Life: Korea in Pictures

The very long flight.... but lots to do on Korean Air. Hands down the nicest flight ever.

After 14 1/2 hours in the air we arrived...

and we were off to the hotel.

We had the two bedroom suite at the Somerset and loved it. The view was amazing and we had plenty of space. The hotel staff was wonderful and could not help us enough.... and trust me, being that neither

me or my friend Kristen spoke English we really needed tons of help.

The yummy restaurant that we ate in the first night.

It was Korean BBQ and right at the begining of Insadong. The food was delish and the menu was in both English and Korean - which was great because a few nights later we weren't so lucky.

Jet lag hit me hard. I did not sleep on the plane at all so I thought if I stayed up until 10 or so Seoul time that I would be able to easily adjust. I went to bed at 10:30 the first night and was up for the day at 330 AM and could not go back to sleep. I thought it could be the excitement of meeting James for the very first time but still have no idea because I woke up the same time for the following 3 nights.

I kept busy preparing and wrapping the gifts to bring to Holt with me.

We had a little time before heading over to Holt so we had breakfast and then walked around Insadong. Insadong soon prooved to be our favorite spot and pretty much every single night we ended up over there.

We would shop and walk and shop some more. This is where we got James' name chop too.

We bought some good luck 16,000 strand candies after watching in amazement how they turned

cornstarch and honey into a yummy treat.

More shopping....

Then it was time to go meet my boy.

But of course that will get its very own post :)

That night after we left Holt we went back to Insadong.

A tea house ...

...and a VERY aunthentic Korean meal at a little reastaurant we found in a little alley deep in Insadong.

The menu was all in Korean except one line "Korean Food".... since we can't read hangul that was what we ordered and this is what we got.

I have had my share of Korean food but this was hands down the spiciest food ever ..and the majority of what was served we could not make out. Some have commented that it was seaweed soup and softshell crabs but if you saw it in person you would know it most definitely was not.

These little crabs were about the size of a penny and had a shell as hard of a rock and were covered in chili paste. They are supposed to be eaten all in one bite.. thick cruchy shell and all.

Kristen and I are both adventourous ( trust me, we even took part in a Korean underwater pedicure) but we had to draw the line somewhere. So, instead of eating those slippery little suckers we laughed about them. I mean like big belly laughing that I am certain we will still be chuckling over when we are seventy. I am giggling again just thinking of it.

Its whats for dinner!!!

Some kind of fish that we though was the most edible.

If your heading to Korea and can't read Hangul this is not the place for you :)

Back at the hotel trying hard to do some laundry. It was all written in Hangul so we needed a traslated manual to help. The dryer took about 5 hours to dry - not sure if that was the same for everyone or just the two of us - lol.

The next plan was a day of sightseeing on the Red Bus city tour. We couldn't find the bus stop and somehow when trying to hail a taxi the bus drove past. I was so excited that I started jumping up and down and calling to Kristen and the bus stopped and let the two of us on. Then stopped at the bus stop and told us to get off the bus now. Apparently that wasnt how you start the tour - and we quickly hurried over to the right bus.

A long way from home.