Ungelic: Autumn in Seoul (Part 1)

Actually, it's almost winter when my friends and I went to Seoul last week. Almost half of the foliage have already fallen off from the trees, and our fingers could be mistaken for popsicles. But nothing could spoil the fun. We still had a grand time in South Korea.

For weeks prior to the trip, I busied myself with our itinerary. We were all traveling to South Korea for the first time, and although majority (4 out of 5) of us worked for Koreans for at least a couple of years, our knowledge of Korea was limited to "annyeong haseyo" and "yeye" expressions. Koreans are really not very keen on teaching their language to other people. It must be their difficulty in English that makes them hesitant. They get really frustrated when they couldn't express themselves.

But I digress...

So, for a few weeks prior to our trip, nobody was excited but myself. They wouldn't help me with anything. I had to use all the resources I had. I was very lucky a lot of people wanted to help me with the planning.

Long story short, I came up with a pretty good itinerary. Tada!

Day 1 (of lakwatsa) (FRIDAY)
Seoul city bus tour
Dinner with Mr. Choi JH
Bar in the Hongdae area

Day 2 (SATURDAY)
Nami Island
Han River cruise

Day 3 (SUNDAY)
DMZ

Day 4
Samseong (to meet former bosses for lunch)
COEX mall

A day before we left Manila, Mr. Ham (my former boss' staff's staff) called me to inform me that Mr. Lee (my former boss) wanted to have dinner with us on Day 1. I probably sounded panicky because he assured me that Mr. Choi JH agreed to swap appointments. Apparently, they were talking to each other and making arrangements. Cool.

When we arrived at the Incheon airport, we were greeted by the (surprisingly young and dashing!) Mr. Ham. He was holding a sheet of paper with my name on it, and that was when the excitement of my girl friends "officially" started. We all forgot to rent a cellphone because everybody wanted to rush to his side. Haha. We exchanged some pesos to won, and off we went to Lee & No Guesthouse on Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-Gu in Seoul. I was thrilled even more upon seeing our vehicle -- a Limousine van!

This is Mr. Ham with the gurls...

Upon reaching the gate of the guesthouse, we were greeted not by a person, but by this note taped to the wall:

After unloading our luggages, Mr. Ham set off to bring Kim (a girl I met online the previous night) to her hotel. We did exactly what we were told to do through the note, got inside the guesthouse, and met a Japanese guy named Tadashi. It was so nice of him to welcome us and show us to our room (Mr. Lee of the guesthouse didn't arrive until after 15 minutes). A little later, we remembered that we haven't had dinner yet so Tadashi gave us directions to a kimbap place. He probably sensed the fear in our eyes, as he offered to take us there. He said that it serves the best kimbap, not to mention that it was probably the only place open at the time.

Our first adventure started at the restaurant. It was literally a turo-turo because there wasn't ANY English on their menu. Even the lady server didn't speak English at all. We pointed to her a noodle dish, which turned out to be udon (pronounced as udong). We were lucky because it was piping hot and tasted really good, exactly what we needed!

After a good night's sleep and a light breakfast, we went out to see downtown Seoul. We were supposed to take the City Bus Tour, but Mr. Lee (of the guesthouse) suggested we take a tour of the city on foot. He made it sound easy so we took his advice. Unfortunately, we got lost. But we were lucky to have found Gyeongbok Palace...

and the National Folk Museum of Korea (but we didn't go inside)...

Along the way, we got distracted with a few interesting things like Goo Jun Pyo posters...

...the Bioman-inspired Pieta...

... and these lettuce flowers...

And those were just a few of the distractions. There were the dried squid vendor who was selling dried pusit for W20,000 (around Php800!) per pack, the maple leaves, the policemen, and others. Getting lost wasn't all that bad. However, by 4pm, we should be back at the guesthouse to get ready for dinner. Dinner that night was probably the highlight meal of the entire trip, as it was hosted by my former boss (now president & CEO of a bigger subsidiary). So we had to rush back home. But how were lost people supposed to hurry?

At 6:00pm or so, we were again picked up by Mr. Ham at Exit 7 of the Samseong station. He was as ravishing as the previous night and I felt everybody's excitement at the sight of him. On the way to the restaurant, we were getting impatient with the heavy traffic. Yes, it doesn't only happen here in Manila. The big difference though is that very few people use their car horns in Seoul.

As we entered Sam Won Garden, we were greeted by Mr. Kim. But he doesn't deserve that intro. He was g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! I've known him since 2003 (he was actually the one who hired me), but I've never seen him that gorgeous before. He was sporting a handsome trench coat that highlighted his broad shoulders, and a smile that could melt the icebergs in the North Pole. Oh-my-god. He was divine! Of course, there has to be proof: