Seoul was a bit confusing for me. I did little to no research into coming here other than arranging the tour to the DMZ. Mainly because I figured, Eddy being Korean and having been here before should have a better idea. So having landed around 9:30 PM slightly groggie from the 14 hour flight w/ a one and half hour layover in Tokyo. We were swept to our more trusty friend and guide’s (Kiyun Lee) apartment to dismantle our bags with just enough stuff to stay at the Kaya Hotel for the night. We figured this would be more convenient since we would need to wake up extemely early the next day and this hotel is right next door to the start of our DMZ tour the next day.
Inundated with DMZ sites, we went back to Seoul, which is only an hour’s bus ride from the DMZ, very scary. Went for some great, holy shit, I can’t even remember our first real meal. Oh well, will fill you in later. DMZ tour food was nothing to rave about though. It’s edible Korean cafeteria food, you get choice of bibimbab or bolgogi, we had both and combined them.
Second full day in Seoul, we decided after having Korean beef broth and then coffee (we haven’t kicked the habit yet) to take care of our emails and such. Around noon we figured it was about time to play tourist. So as good little tourist we headed off to the Imperial Palace. Ho-Hum! Just tired me out, with nothing spectacular. The best thing was seeing the queen’s quarters, because technically according to Eddy’s family tree, he is related to the last empress. Just think Eddy could have been a Korean Emperor if not for the Japanese and all the other more legitimate family members he would have had to kill. 
Lunch was completely uneventful, tonkatsu w/ very sweet katsu sauce. By the way I have yet had a meal so far without KIMCHEE! But the amazing thing is I never feel self-conscious about smelling like garlic here, it seems perfectly natural, everyone else smells so no one does. If you like Korean food, but hate the smell, this is the place to be, you’ll never smell it. Dinner we did the obligatory meeting of family members. They were nice, but I was tired, you understand. BBQ pork belly, YUMMIE! Then we were transferred by our more trusty friend to his mom’s place in the suburbs to have a few beers and hang out for the next couple of nights.
(By the way, I remember now, the first great meal was live squid, cooked right in front of us. A bit too much for me, it was delicious, but I don’t think I can do that again unless they kill the squid a little more humanely. Then we went to a great little bar, Crazy Litte Bar (I’m not sure). Had a couple of drinks and called a night. Our guide’s place is too small for all three of us, so we displaced him, he had to stay with a nearby cousin. So nice.)
Third day, first time I had a meal with no kimchee, breakfast at Mrs. Lee’s (Kiyun’s mom). Yeah! A normal American breakfast, bacon, eggs and croissant. Coffee! (still in the habit) There was great discussion between mother and son as to what we should do this day. It was decided that we explore with Kiyun and join his mother at a gallery later on in the day. By the way, it’s Children’s day today. In LA we would be celebrating Cinco de Mayo. So the whole country has the day off. Needless to say, we saw children everywhere we went. The sites with Kiyun were small non-touristy places, for a reason, not extremely interesting but nice. So let me concentrate on the food instead (Are you catching on yet?). We stopped by a nice intimate tea house where we hung out in an open thatched roof elevated little space enough for four. That was a very nice break from the concrete of the city. Then we went to this great little place known as a Taxi driver lunch stop. Great BBQ pork belly, water and coffee for $5. Yummie, once again. Eddy will post their info. Can’t translate the Korean. We had time to kill so we went for a beer at Gecko’s in the hip part of town. Strange place, everyone was a foreigner. So that was a little warped. After this we dragged ourself’s to be what promised to be another ho-hum location to check out these galleries which will be having a children’s event coordinated by one of Kiyun’s many cousins. We pull up next to what seemed actually a very nice and highly designed building and I asked if this was where we were going and Kiyun said “Yes”. Wow! Something truly worth visiting, the Leeum Museum (Samsung Museum) designed by Mario Botta, Rem Koolhaus, and Jean Nouveal. As much as fame and big name projects are not important to me, I must admit when I enter good architecture, the architect in me does submit to being truly impressed and somewhat hopeful that the immense effort required to build such work is worth it. The last ten years of working as an architect in Hong Kong and Los Angeles has made me a bit cynical. But visiting these these buildings yesterday reminded me of how nice it is to work through great work. Well, enough of this, architecture is on the back burner this trip, but I was just glad to run across it so accidentally. So the best tour guide is Mrs. Lee for convincing us to go. By the way for you architects out there thinking of making a trip out here to see this place, make reservations a month in advance, it’s got that long of a waiting list and it’s only open by appointment. We lucked out that this children’s event was going on and no reservations were required. We had an imperial dinner, no kidding, it’s a restaurant that specializes in Korean imperial style meals. It was AMAZING! We’ll have to get the photo of it on this blog, you’ll understand then that words will not be enough.
Today our last day before tomorrow’s departure to Vladivostok will be our first experience of true Seoul traffic as we are to head back with Kiyun so that we can pack up and buy the foods we will need for the Trans-Siberian Rail. Nothing too special planned for today, we will be making bibimbap with all the left overs from last night. Then tonight we will have one last drink with Kiyun before we take off for Vladivostok and he takes off for Cannes.