The importance of doing laundry...

... should never be underestimated. All these years, laundry has been such a simple thing for me. When I'm at home in Malaysia, all I have to do is put it in the laundry basket and it will appear in my cupboard, washed, folded and perfectly ironed where necessary. When I was at school, the laundry room was always just a flight of stairs away. In New York, things were a little harder because I had to walk three blocks to get my laundry done and making sure I had enough quarters was always a pain. But now that I'm in Seoul... doing my laundry is elevated to a whole new level of complicated.

The first thing my team and I had to do was find a laundromat because washing one shirt costs about $12 or something ridiculous like that in the hotel. Questioning the staff at the reception was particularly unhelpful. Staying at the Park Hyatt is great, but the staff just automatically assume that one is used to a certain level of luxury so anything you ask them to recommend will always be top quality and hence top dollar. In the case of laundry, no one at the reception could think of a laundromat that wasn't only "for locals", whatever that means. The staff at the entrance foyer pointed us to a laundromat that was about five blocks from the hotel, but the language barrier presented another problem. In the end, we had the hotel staff call the laundromat before we went and the laundry guy had to call the hotel when we got there in order to figure out what we wanted.


A day later, I have my laundry all washed and clean smelling. They even ironed my gym shirt! And everything is now in plastic bags. I had to walk back to the hotel with my computer on one shoulder, and two handfuls of shirts on hangers. What a pain! And it cost the three of us $147 to get two weeks' worth of laundry done. But the worst thing is, I have to leave for Taiwan in two days, so all those beautifully ironed shirts will have to be folded and stuffed into my luggage, and then I will have to unpack and iron them again. Sigh... if only I were at home again and I didn't have to worry about laundry.

Foodie-fun-time

My teammates are great, but they're not very adventurous when it comes to food, and I'm afraid they've already vaulted over their tolerance level for kimchi in the first week. Nowadays, we eat mostly western food, or "safe" asian food like sushi as a team. Kimchi is permanently on the veto list. :(

Luckily for me, when my brother was in town, we ate Korean food to our heart's content. In fact, I think I might be getting pretty close to my tolerance level for Kimchi myself. Well, at least for the next few days anyway ;).

We had Bulgogi for dinner one night. This was what our table looked like - and this is before we even ordered! There's a tub of glowing hot charcoal in the middle of the table, which the grill is placed over, and surrounding it are little bowls of kimchi. That was an excellent meal, but when we stepped out of the restaurant, we realized that there was a seafood bulgogi place next door! Sigh, if only we'd gone just a few more steps down the road...

Mussels and what looks like snails at Hyehwa

Saturday breakfast was a little room service pampering - eggs with sausages, bacon and grilled mushrooms, served with a bakery basket. This is meant for one, but the two of us couldn't finish it! And no, this meal did not have kimchi in it.

After breakfast, we headed to the Noryangjin fish market. I was expecting a lot of fish, but I didn't expect this: stalls as far as the eye can see, all selling roughly the same product: fish, octopus, shellfish, crabs, prawns, even worms!

The sprawling Noryangjin fish market

worms

Unidentified finless objects

A sample of their wares

Crabs!!

The thing to do in Korea is to eat a live baby octopus. My brother and I didn't dare to. My dad's horror stories about wrestling with the octopus as it clings to the plate for dear life and then feeling it wiggling down your throat towards your tummy put us off the idea. However, there were lots of octopii for sale at the market, including these super-long tentacles.

Some sort of stingray

Some sort of shellfish that we tried. It was a little chewy, not as sweet as conch, but good nonetheless.

Sea urchins - delicious! But don't eat the brown stuff.

We had a light lunch there of grilled prawns and raw sea urchins and some sort of shellfish. I'm afraid we got a little fleeced - $15 to buy the seafood from the market and another $8 to get them cooked (or in the case of the urchins and the shellfish, to cut them in half or slice them up). It was the most expensive meal we had, but at least it was good.

On Saturday night, after finally discovering the Daehangno area, one of the first restaurants we saw was a tiny noodle place with a line around the block. We figured that had to mean it was good. Half an hour later, we had one steaming bowl of kimchi noodles (delicious!), one ice cold (literally) bowl of kimchi noodles (not so delicious), som sort of boiled dough sticks (kinda gross), and some fried dumplings stuffed with some meat and vermicelli (excellent). All for about $12. Gotta love Korean food :)

I do like kimchi a lot, but I also think I'm ready for a little break from it. Luckily my teammates won't go near the stuff anymore, so I think I'll be safe until I get my next kimchi craving!

Korean nightlife PC style

My brother came to visit me for the long weekend since he had Thursday and Friday off for Labor day. Unfortunately, even though it was a public holiday here on Thursday, I still had to work so I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I wanted to. But we did have lots of fun exploring the city together.

On Thursday night, we went to Myeongdong, a hip, hot and happening area in downtown Seoul that's filled with bright lights, restaurants, bars, shops, and hawkers peddling their wares from makeshift stalls. The mostly pedestrian-only streets were thronged with people, and there was an electric buzz of excitement in the air.

Unfortunately, I don't think Gandalf shared my point of view. He seemed to be quite disapproving of the young crowd.

Friday night was spent in another part of town, where lots of university students hang out. We'd read about this area, Daehangno, in the guidebook, but the cab driver must have misunderstood us, because we ended up in a totally different area. Nevertheless, the area was just as lively and packed as Myeongdong, and to be honest, we didn't even know we weren't at Daehangno until we entered a subway station and discovered exactly where we were. If you're looking for fun and excitement in Seoul, visit the area around the Hyehwa subway station on the blue line. I have no idea what it's called, but the place looks like a "western town" for Koreans, sort of like what Chinatown is like for Westerners, or Asian fusion, but heavy on the Asian.

On Saturday night, we finally ended up in Daehangno, after getting lost and wandering in the general, educated guess direction of our destination for about an hour. We were just about to give up, but luckily we didn't, because we eventually found it, and it was just as great as Myeongdong and Hyehwa. Lots of people, bars, restaurants and clubs everywhere, and a kind of bustling excitement that I've never experienced in New York.

All the elements of a successful nightclub...

Seoul is an awesome city. There's so much to do and see here that it's mindblowing. There's the cultural and historical aspect of the city, there's all the stuff that you would find in any other major city, there's nature that's so close that you see hikers kitted out in all their gear on the subway, and then there are so many trendy hangout places that I'm spoilt for choice. I've never known any other city like it. I suppose that in a city with about forty universities, there's gotta be lots of cool places to hang out.

First day in Seoul

My first destination in Seoul, after I had had breakfast, showered and napped, was the Dongdaemun Sichang, a sprawling market that I only managed to cover bits of. I wandered through the shoe section and the fabric market before going into a tiny hole in the wall Korean restaurant that didn't have a hint of English in it. Fortunately, there were pictures dotted around the walls and through a combination of pointing and hand signals, I managed to get a delicious bowl of bibimbap.

The fabric market had colourful bolts of all kinds of cloth. However, I didn't see any tailors like they have at the fabric market in Shanghai where I got a tailored three piece suit for a steal. They did have the most gorgeous (and extremely expensive) curtains , though.

My next stop was the Geongbokgong, the main palace and governmental heart of the old walled city. There was a row of colourfully-dressed palace guards outside the palace, holding fake swords or whatever they're called and trying to look serious. That must be the worst job in the world - having to stand still for hours staring into space. What a waste of time.


The palace is huge and constructed mainly of wood. The ground was mostly packed dirt, which I didn't really like. Perhaps back in the days it was filled with ranks of soldiers and guards, but today, it seems like a lot of empty, wasted space that could have been covered with lush green grass or something.
At the corner of every bridge and stairway, there is a different mythical creature that's supposed to protect the palace and its inhabitants. This one looks like a constipated lion crossed with a snake.

The ceilings of the palace are ornate and intricately painted. It was the aspect I most enjoyed about the palace.

Towards the back of the palace where the residential areas (as opposed to the govermental areas) are, there are lovely gardens running along the walls. I'm not sure if these flowers bloom all year round, or if it's particular to Spring, but they were gorgeous and made the palace look less formal and more of a home.
There was a spring-fed lake in the middle of the palace grounds. The pagoda in the middle looked like such a peaceful place to lounge around and read a book or embroider or whatever it was they did back in those days. Unfortunately, no one lives here anymore. Or maybe it's a good thing, because quite honestly, it didn't look like a very comfortable place to stay. Too heavy on the minimalist and zen and not enough of the creature comforts for my taste.

After the palace, and a quick stop in the National Folk Museum next door to the palace, I was too tired to do anymore, so I went back to the hotel. I was contemplating visiting the gym or the pool but was too lazy to do either (surprise, surprise :P). I fell asleep at 8pm that night. Jet lag sucks.

An afternoon in Insadong

My teammates and I spent the afternoon in Insadong yesterday. It's a charming part of town, where the streets are lined with art galleries, the occasional bookshops, tourist-kitsch shops, and little antique stores. It was a great place to wander, where we could duck into stores to avoid the on-and-off drizzle.

The main street is wide and filled with tourists but the side streets are charming and lined with little teahouses that smell like kimchi. In fact, the subway smells like kimchi too. Well actually, I think it smells like rotting cabbage, but my colleagues pretend not to see (or smell, as the case may be) the difference. I could spend hours wandering around here, venturing into small alleyways to find the singing businessmen that my guidebook tells me exist here. Unfortunately, we only stuck to the main street, although that in itself had plenty to hold our attention.

One of the street stalls was selling these little owls. I thought they were adorable, but I wonder what one would do with them. I think I'm too practical to simply use them as decoration - they would just sit around catching dust.

Another guy hadn't even set a blanket or an umbrella out for his wares. There were simply these little stone bowls filled with flowers. I loved the simplicity of it, though. Other shops had beautiful (but extremely expensive) Goryeo celadon for sale and a puzzling amount of wooden chopsticks, considering that the country usually uses metal ones. There were also beautifully lacquered boxes inlaid with mother of pearl, painted fans, and intricate bookmarks that I fell in love with.

Towards the end of the street, we stopped in a train-themed tea shop, complete with the telephone poles that line the sides of tracks and train seats. The only thing I didn't like about the place (and this is true of many Korean restaurants) was that people were allowed to smoke in the restaurant.

My job manager, Peter in his Al Gore '08 T-shirt

There was a huge variety of teas in the shop. My cinnamon tea was really fragrant and had pine nuts floating in it, but was too sweet. The ginger tea was interesting, but again too sweet. The best tea we tried was the rose tea that Peter ordered. It was subtly flavoured and had beautiful roses floating in the pot.
By the time we came to the end of the street, it was 4pm and we were starving. My teammates were heartily sick of Korean food by then, so we snacked on hot dogs (the western variety, not actual dog) and McDonalds. McDs Korea has a Harry Potter theme going on, so the staff were dressed in robes and wizards' hats. I thought it was really cute. Interesting things to try on the Korean McDs menu: Bulgogi burger! :)

Lap of luxury

After 14 hours on a plane, which didn't feel as long as I thought it would (being in business class might have had something to do with it), I arrived in Seoul at 4.30 am. The cab driver fleeced us as we drove past the sleeping city on the way to the hotel, but the Park Hyatt was a very pleasant surprise. The lobby, for one, is on the top floor, with floor to ceiling windows on three sides showing gorgeous views of the city. The room, for another, is the most luxurious room I have ever had the pleasure of staying in.


The room is decorated along minimalist lines with wood and stone everywhere. Electronic panels control everything from the lighting to the air conditioning and the curtains. The flatscreen TV comes with a DVD player and all the channels I could want. There is a small round table that is perfect for eating at and working on. There's also a fully equipped mini bar and a panel hidden in the wall produces a high-speed kettle when pressed. The closet can be accessed from both the room and the bathroom, which I find really cool.

The bathroom is gorgeous, and bigger than my room in New York. A temperature controller assures that the rain shower is always at the same temperature when I turn it on. The water pressure is amazing, and there is a mirror right by the shower, presumably for me to ponder all the faults of my body as I shower. The bathtub is deep and wide, although I haven't actually tried it, and there is a TV screen in the wall.

The vanity is fully equipped with everything you could think of, including, luckily, hair ties, which I forgot in New York. Best of all, the toilet seat is warmed, and the toilet comes with a built in bidet, complete with front, back, and oscillating functions.

The service in the hotel is amazing too. The iron I requested was delivered within minutes, and I get complimentary bottles of water whenever I request them (the tap water is not safe for consumption here, unfortunately).

The gym, which I've actually been using quite often (shock and awe!) is on the 23rd floor, again with floor to ceiling glass panels, allowing me to look out at Seoul as it wakes up. There is an infinity pool on the top floor, and a sauna in the ladies' locker room which I've yet to try.

The only drawback about this hotel is that its a little far from downtown Seoul. However, it's one subway stop from work, which is incredibly convenient. Unfortunately, we're thinking of moving to a Starwoods hotel, both for the points and because it's significantly cheaper than this place. We went to check out the Westin Chosun in downtown Seoul yesterday. The hotel comes with a driving range, putting practice, hot tubs, and a killer espresso machine (not that I care about this last feature). Unfortunately, it's about 40 minutes away by subway, which is already packed on a Saturday afternoon so I don't want to imagine the conditions during rush hour. Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated.