And it starts (Vacation Part 1)

Even though our flight to Singapore wasn't until the 8th, we had decided to head to Seoul 3 days early to vacation before the vacation.

The 8:30 train to Seoul came SO early, but we were both excited to get going. In her incredible wisdom, Steph had pre-booked a Motel (The Jeon Poong Hotel - sweet name 37°33'36.68"N 127° 2'1.85"E) that sat right on two subway lines and kitty-corner to an Outback steakhouse and a Fat-Donalds!

The three days in Seoul were jammed with tons of subwaying and walking. We walked Itaewon, the "foreigner" section of Seoul, where you can find all the international amennities as well as clothing sizes thanks to the 24,000 member American army base located close by. There definitely was "dark" feel to the place, highlighted by the multitude of unfriendly faces and a gloomy walk up "Hooker hill". I don't think "seedy" is too strong a word. Shortly after arriving, we left Itaewon for Dongdaemun; the shopping district.

To our suprise, we found an amazing "urban river" path that ran from Dongdaemun back to our hotel (although it did take a couple of hours). Cheonggyecheon, in 1968, was completely covered by an elevated highway into the city. In 2003, the highway was removed in a uniquely responsible moveby the city of Seoul, and the river was rehabilitated into a social asset. It was extremely nice, with tons of people using it, not to mention the countless condo projects being built along its sides.

Day 2 found us at the biggest mall in Seoul; the COEX. I've never seen so many people... and such an example of consumerism. Go economy, Go! Close by, the Trade Tower and the Buddist temple - Bongeunsa took up most of the afternoon. It was an interesting sight to see the city's center of commerse and business sitting across the road from the most peaceful of temples. We finished the evening off with a picnic at Ttukseam resort on the Han river. Thousands of people were using the parkland on this, and most nights this summer. Since most people don't have air conditioning and the temperature was 30C with 85% humidity, many people come out at dusk to sit by the river. Some camped out all night, with or without a tent (Korea is still great for camping absolutely anywhere).

Day 3 proved to us that even though the subway system is great in Seoul, the urban sprawl makes everything tough to get to. We checked out the World cup stadium and adjacent parks, which were really nice, but super under-utilized probably because they were so remote, and because Koreans don't really care for the sun. We swung back to the Korean War museum as an after-thought, which turned out to be a great move!
On the monument seen below was this passage:


Monument in Remembrance of the Korean War
The tragedy of the Korean War, which began early in the morning of June 25, 1950 with North Korea's illegal invasion of the South, resulted in over 4 million casulties, 10 million dispersed family members, and US$23 billion in property damage across the nation.
The Republic of Korea, along with the UN forces from 21 different nations, fought at the risk of their lives in order to protect democracy and national peace. The war lasted 3 years, 1 month and 2 days, and the Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. [...]
In this spirit, as we commemorate the tragedy of the war, we erect this war monument in order to pay tribute to those sacrificed their lives and to leave the eternal peace to our sons and daughters with the hope and promise of the unification of the nation.
The monuments were breathtaking. Around the War museum, was a slew of military equipment used in the war... perfect for two oversized children (us) to play in. We finished the night with dinner at the Yongsan station, knowing that in 8 hours we would be back there, catching a bus to Incheon airport, and our plane out of Korea.