The Final Aussie/Korea Blog

In the past 23 days:

- We have completed 8 flights (4 international and 4 domestic) which equals 25,878 miles flown per person. All with no lost luggage or delayed flights.
- We drove 3,716 km (2,309 miles) while in Australia- on the wrong side of the road
- We went diving at the Great Barrier Reef
- We saw 20,000 year old rock art in Kakadu
- We were down on the beach with Australian Sea Lions and saw many other native animals like Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies
- We drove the Great Ocean Road and saw some of the most spectacular coastal scenery
- We spent 3 days in Sydney which is one of the most beautiful cities we have seen. We climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge and went sailing in the Sydney Harbor
- And last but not least we spent 5 days in Seoul traversing the city by foot and subway and experienced Korea and all it’s interesting food, sights, sounds, smells and cultural differences.

We are now on our way home (last flight home from Seoul to Seattle tonight). We have had a great trip, have met some amazing people and seen some spectacular places. For those of you who have enjoyed traveling by proxy with us through this blog, we will be accepting donations for our next long trip. Yes, we already have it planned…..

James and Maija

Sightseeing in Seoul

We have had a good time in Seoul and have been all over the city on the subway. We have done a lot of shopping at the different markets and it is shopping like I have NEVER seen...the markets go on and on forever (somewhat like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul if anyone else has been there). It is almost overwhelming how big the markets are.

On Saturday night we went to the Korea House for traditional Korean food and saw traditional Korean dance. The dances and costumes were beautiful.

We have been to the sauna here in our hotel but it is not a real JIM JIL BANG, more like the spa you might have in your gym locker room. After shopping yesterday we went to the JIM JIL BANG downtown for "real" Korean sauna, and yes, it was exactly as the article described down to the "uniforms" (see prior blog/article about Korean spa).

Here are a pictures of our sightseeing:

Gyeongbokgung Palace









Downtown Seoul




Jogyesa Buddist Temple

As much as things change some things never do!!

Being here in Korea has been a real blast to the past, as I left Korea 21 years ago. We took the subway to BongCheon Dong, the first area that I lived in Seoul. We walked from the subway station towards the church. There was not one recognizable building on either side of the street. They have literally raised whole neighborhoods and rebuilt new high rise apartments and shopping centers. And, the street was littered with Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Red Mango, a French Bakery, and an Italian restraunt. I don’t think missionaries in Korea are suffering through 3 meals a day of rice and kimchi!!!! However I was able to find the little restaurant we ate at everyday for lunch, and it was hardly unchanged. A bowl of Ramen noodles that cost us 500 won is now 1500 won. It seems to me the bus used to cost 100 won, now it’s 1000 won, the taxi meter now starts at 1900 won, it was 600 won. And the vehicle traffic is beyond belief!!!! BOKCHAPHAYO!!!!! Very congested…for you non Korean speakers….:) But the subway still rocks, and is at least 3 times as large as it used to be.

All the men still wear a suit and tie wherever they go, but the ability to match tops w/ bottoms and a tie seems to be much improved. They still wear the surgical mask around when they are sick. I’ve not seen one baby strapped to a mothers back and a bag of rice on her head. I’ve seen no crippled people begging at the subway or bus stops. In fact I actually saw a man in a motorized wheelchair. They have handicap spots on the subway, ramps for wheelchairs and elevators. All things that were non existent 25 years ago in Korea. However, and even Maija made this comment as were were walking home in the dark, that it feels very safe here. No matter how dark the alley, you don’t feel like your going to get mugged, and that is the way Korea always was.

On Saturday we continued walking past Seoul National University, then onto another area that I used to live. We found the market street and walked up into the neighborhood. There are more grocery type stores, fewer street vendors, and I used to hold my breath for 3 blocks to get home every night. Which is one of the things that I’ve noticed the most about returning to Korea. It just doesn’t smell like it used to, not that it’s a bad thing. But I think that smell is one of your strongest senses, and it’s the thing I remember the most about living here. The strong smell of garlic, or red peppers drying on the street, raw sewage, the fish in the markets, tear gas lingering from the riot the day before all combined made for a real potent mixture.



I’ve been telling Maija that the best treat was HO DUK and it was everywhere. Well, it’s not everywhere anymore, but we finally were able to find it and it was still as yummy. It’s a small pancake sized, fried sweet bread w/ sugar and cinnamon in the middle. Everyday when we head out Maija says, lets find a HO DUK!!! And, it's been quite cold and windy while we've been here, hence the hoodies.

A few observations about Koreans....

What to say about Koreans? First thing I noticed as we were waiting for our flight in Sydney is that many of the younger people (20-30 y/o) traveling together wear matching outfits. Yes, it's true. I got great amusement out of watching this and tried to get some pics...

This couple actually had on matching jeans, white tank tops, a PINK shirt and a maroon jackets to go over the top. The only matching things they didn't have were hats (the hats where the same color but different logos) and shoes...although they both wore white shoes. We found this all quite amusing...no idea why...there were tons of couples all over the airport that were matched up. James is trying to convince me to buy matching outfits for the way home.

Second thing I noticed about Koreans in the airport is that they love to queue. They had not even announced ANYTHING about the flight and we had 10 minutes until we were supposed to board and they started trying to line up. The gate agents were telling people to sit down and not line up yet which resulted in a secondary line I called the pre-pre line...James says this normal for Koreans and that they love to get in a line, any line....it was crazy. The flight was never announced for boarding...almost everyone (except the Americans) were already in the line to get on board. Oh, and they love to push when they think you're not going fast enought in the line. We got on the plane and had to wait for some people putting luggage away and this TINY 4 foot grandma kept pushing into James' back to try to get him to move faster....

When you fly a Korean airline the food gets really interesting. Some was good like bibimpap but they give it to you with seaweed soup which tastes like rotten fish ( I tried it just to say I did). For breakfast they gave us a choice of a "western" meal with a disgusting looking omelet or pumpkin porridge, just as disgusting.

Yesterday we went to do some shopping at Itaewon. It is cold here and I didn't bring a winter coat since Australia was starting into summer. Here it is winter. As we looked through shop after shop I began to realize that NOTHING in this country will likely fit me, an "averaged" sized American women. Everything is a size 4...which is clearly not my size. In fact, we talked to one shop owner/lady about a coat and she summoned her co-worker. They were talking and pointed at me and said a word James didn't know but we clearly knew it was something about me being "too big" . Nice. But it made us laugh. Even James is not able to fit into a "normal" size here.

Last Day in Aussie

Happy Thanksgiving! (It is Thursday here in Australia). We are currently in the Sydney airport waiting for our overnight flight to Seoul. Today we spent the day looking around different areas of Sydney with a quick stop at Bondi beach. Sydney is a beautiful city with a lot to do.

We have loved Australia and feel like it is the 51st state. It is pretty much like America. For those of you who want to travel to a foreign country, but are afraid to...this country is for you. They speak the same language (well, mostly...there were a few Aussie phrases that we had to get someone to explain to us), they use a dollar, they dress like us, they listen to mostly American music, watch a lot of American TV and have a lot of the same stores...we even found a Target in most places. So, if you are wanting to do foreign travel but have concerns, come to Australia. Also, the people here were SO nice everywhere we went.

We have enjoyed our time here and are looking forward to the next couple of days in Seoul which will be a real culture shock for me as I have never traveled to Asia!

M

The Bridge Climb

This morning we climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We had great views of the harbor from 400 feet up. It was actually not as hard or scary as I would have thought (or as it looks). We also got to wear lovely gray jumpsuits....

Sailing in Sydney Harbor

Todays activity was a sailing around Sydney Harbor in a 33' Hunter!!