Septeber 27, Wednesday
Seoul
What a whirlwind! I'm doubley glad we kicked back and took it easy in Thailand because we've been going virtually nonstop since we arrived in Korea at 0455 last Tuesday morning. I had slept most of the way from Hong Kong to Seoul and there wasn't much of a welcoming committee at the airport for anyone when we arrived and passed through customs. We took an airport limosine bus to the gate so the army base where we met my dad and got Jon and I checked in after showing passports. We took a taxi up to Dragon Hill Lodge which will be our home away from home while we're in Seoul. DHL is my dad's favorite place to stay and I can see why. The beds are comfortable, there's a nice gym, a variety of restaurants, cash machine, all the convieniences of home under nearly one roof. What we're having to get used to is that while on base we use US dollars and then switch to Korean Won once we step off base.
We pretty much passed out for a few hours after we arrived (love those blackout curtains) before getting a bite to eat and walking to the Korean National Museum which is next door to the base. The museum is massive and while we were awake Jon and I still had the long-airplane-flight-blahs and everyone else still had jetlag so we kind of plodded through the museum, didn't see even half of it, took a little caffeine, kiwi drink break before finishing up, stopping by the gift shop and heading back to the base. As always, dad got a lot of attention for the Korean kids, everyone always says hi to him, turns out the same thing happened with Jon. The girls say hi and then giggle but the guys would ask Jon for the time since he has that massive Suunto watch.
We had planned to go to Anyang where my uncle and cousins live which is southwest of Seoul but we all just felt crappy so we called them and made a date for the next night.
We would be sharing a room with Mary who had also gotten a computer for our room which is cool. Like when she visited us in London we would alternate nights between good bed and hideaway/bad bed. It's a system that works for us.
It's been great to see my parents and sister. They brought a picture or our cats - they've gotten so big! They're like full grown cats!
We had dinner in the one of the restaurants in the hotel and then back up to our rooms. It didn't take long to pull out the hide-a-bed and I was asleep about two seconds after getting under the covers. Tomorrow we would see my uncle and cousins in the evening after he gets off work and during the day we'll go to Dongdaemun market.
