Monday, November 25, 2013

The End went very fast.

 So we took a fancy fast French train from South to North
Where I made friends with my 2 & 4 year old neighbors after disracting them with magic blank paper and pens.  Blank paper is MAGIC I tell you.  IPADs are overrated. 
Do you see the dragon flies?


And then a fancy, super clean metro that plays a nice little chime when it arrives at the quai.
And as usual, everyone is on some sort of mobile device.


After we got in, we dropped our stuff and went to the National Museum to soak up the last bits of culture.  Including some Celadon pottery.  And Buddha's of all different shapes and forms.
Buddha Buddha

And then it was off to the airport.
Annyeonghi Haseyo...

Monday, November 18, 2013

We totally did.

So they have these places called Love Motels.
You drive in with your lover and the garage immediately shuts so that no one sees your car.
You pay in cash so there is no credit card trace.
and its so classy.
Ok so that is a lie.  WE CHOSE a super classy red/black/white room with fringe and a round bed.  There were white rooms and black/white rooms with regular beds. 
We're just all fringe and red-light district on the inside.

They had family sized products, like all the other hotels.
Except the welcome kit.  They were the ONLY travel/individual products we saw.  2 points for Love Motel!

More highly reccomended than the nicest hotel in the city. (We stayed there the night before, along with the engineers for Ferrari and Mclaren.)

Shinan Beach Hotel.  Boo Las Vegas 1982!

Yes please!
We could have stayed the whole night.
But we didn't.
Because we're classy like that. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Random notes from the edge



Scissors and tissue boxes (napkins) at every table

only 45 year old women servers

Mid-steps in all entryways and slippers

Bathroom crocs

Communal bath products

Nothing smaller than FAMILY sized shampoo and conditioner

Golf driving ranges everywhere


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Green Tea me

I had to learn to compromise.  It wasn't very easy since I pretty much equate 'compromise' with 'lose-lose'.
But now it's called 'negotiation'. And even on vacation we negotiate:
No archeological dig-sites for me in Israel. (Who doesn't want to see ancient cities being dug out of the ground?!) And no obscure, modern art exhibits for B. (Blank canvas with black dot and string.  ugh)
I wanted to see the home of Celadon pottery in Ganjin.
B wanted to see the Green Tea plantation.
Tea plantation was up first.  Since his was so great, I gave up the extra 3 buses it would have taken to get to mine (Our bus total would have been 7 over 48 hours). Glad 5+ years means our tastes are starting to merge. Glad to have not taken another 3 buses after sleeping on the floor, for a museum likely to be mostly in Korean and over 1000 years old(i.e.not much left).  
At least they didn't claim to know exactly where one baby was born. 

 


And then we bought green tea biscuits, green tea candies, green tea chocolates, green tea.  I am a marketers dream.  
But I didn't buy the face cream.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Busan to the Island

We spent less than 24 hours in Busan. 
Enough time to walk the beach, get lost with our GPS that only speaks Korean, and eat at the famous fish market. 
The nicest hotel we stayed in....for less than 5 hours.  with slippers, of course.

Carrying our LIVE crab from the market back to the restaurant.  

And then back to basics.  We left our friends and got on a bus at 6a.m.
It is slightly more scary when you have to be the navigator and you are not safe in your own car.  And you don't blend in. 
Not even a little bit.

So after 2 buses, we took a boat onto the gray and misty sea.

and because I am sure my photos are getting old for you, I made you a montage.

(L-R)Map of our tiny island, The local temple, stuff of my Korean nightmares
Fishing nets and old ladies unwrapping garlic, BLUE berry, the tail of the dragon island, more nightmares
Fisheries, the lonely statue in the mist, and the perfectly good vegetable pancake that someone decided to throw octopus tentacles on at the last minute.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Gyeongju


Land of the Silla Kings

View from above
Another minbak that we stayed in. 
Our room with sleeping mat on the right
On the street
 My favorite cafĂ©. Alice in Wonderland themed.
Delish desserts.  White chocolate lemon tart, persimmon sorbet, cookies...
 

tidbits from the Korean Seaside

 Saying hello to the Sea of Japan
 Recently retired warship (a gift from the U.S.) right next to a very small North Korean spy sub that was captured off the East coast in 1996
 That boat is a hotel.
Fishing boats line the horizon at night.  The light attracts squid.

Friday, November 1, 2013

They LOVE children.

The table next to us with our friend's 2 year old.  30 minutes of relaxed eating Woohoo!

And as we were leaving, the hostess felt obliged to give him a free bag of garlic crackers

We sleep on the floor


The good thing about sleeping Korean style (2 inch thick mats on the floor) is that you have no desire to stay in bed any longer than is absolutely necessary. 
Our friends in their mosquito net on their sleeping mat.  Looks like fun!

Luckily we weren't there to sleep.  B got up at 5 (miracle) to walk in the rice fields surrounding the traditional village we stayed in.  I tried sleeping in. on the floor.