Now, I can't be sure if I would desire to return to Seoul.
But anyhoooo, here's what I did in Seoul. :)
First of all, I fell in love with makgeolli, a traditional Korean rice wine popular with farmers. Although it was a simple liquid, made by fermenting boiled rice, wheat and water, it intrigued me and had me hooked at first sip.
I love how makgeolli is a little sparkly and sweet, which makes it so easy to drink. And because of the low alcoholic content, one could drink it all night and not get (too) drunk. :)
And so, Pauline, Irene and I had nightly makgeolli parties in my room till past 2am. On the second night, we drank till almost 3am and Irene had to cut short our (Pauline and I, mostly!) nonsensical chatter and drag Pauline back to their own room.
Oh, did I tell you we cleaned out seven bottles of makgeolli that night? Hehe.
To continue our love affair with the humble rice wine, Pauline and I raided Lotte Mart at Seoul Station for more supplies to bring back to Singapore. There, we found makgeolli heaven!
Look! So many different brands and flavours of makgeolli to choose from! Pauline and I stood in silent awe in front of the shelves for a while, trying to make sense out of the varied labels in Hangul.
Eventually, Pauline lugged home six bottles and I got four (my luggage was close to bursting because of my Hello Kitty haul).
Next, I must tell you about the old man who is at such peace with the world that even if the sky was to fall down, he would still keep smiling.
The good people at the tourism organisation arranged for a bunch of journalists to visit Bongeunsa Buddhist Temple, which was just a few steps opposite the exhibition hall. That way, we can see the sights before starting work at the trade show.
All good, except it was a rainy morning. The light drizzle progressed quickly into a massive downpour. The golf umbrella I had was useless against the rain. Rain water seeped through the umbrella fabric and I was all drenched.
The aforementioned old man was the temple guide assigned to our group. He brought us around the temple and paused at various spots to narrate stories of how Lord Buddha came to be and His teachings.
His stories would have been great entertainment if not for the rain. The old man kept us in the open, under the pouring rain, oblivious to how sad, cold and wet we all were.
One of the tourism organisation officers asked him to take us indoors for the story telling. He refused, explaining that he had specific spots to tell certain stories.
After 15 minutes, the same tourism organisation officer asked him to proceed to the tea ceremony because time was running out. You see, we had to make it back to the exhibition hall by 11am for the opening ceremony.
The old man exhaled deeply as he clasped both hands behind his back and said, "Ah, soooo... it seems that drinking tea is more important than listening to Buddhist scriptures. Never mind. Let's move on to the tea house."
Ouch.
So we made our way to the tea house. And that tea house was up on a hill, beyond slopes of gravel. And because the rain was coming down in torrents, streams of rain water had formed in the grooves of the slope. I felt like a participant in Wipe Out, as I made my precarious climb up in strappy heels. My poor strappy heels that have since dried into a stiff leather. :(
Oh. Did I mention that I was in business wear and had my Nikon baby around my neck? Heading up-slope in pouring rain was like walking towards people who were trying to hose you down.
More than half the group progressed very slowly, so the old temple guide made us stand in the rain to wait for the rest to catch up. Pauline got frustrated and asked him why couldn't we wait indoors.
His slow reply was, "It is just rain. Embrace it." And he said that while sweeping his arms in an arch towards the skies. Hehehe...
Seconds later, another tourism organisation officer angrily remarked to the temple guide that he should have warned us that the tea house was a uphill trek, as all of us were in business wear and had cameras.
"What cameras?" the old man asked slowly.
He then went on to say, "I've never seen anyone as angry as you, young man. They (meaning us journalists) will look back on this morning in fondness."
Really! That old man is psychic because when Pauline, Rob and I finally made it to the tea house (the others gave up and went back to the hotel), we had a good laugh at how awful we all looked and then enjoyed hot tea quietly.
After two days at the exhibition, the tourism organisation people brought us around Seoul. One of the places I visited was Samsung d'Light, a place where one could find various Samsung products.
Within Samsung d'Light was a section dedicated to its TVs. Members of the public are welcome inside to play with the game consoles that come connected to the TVs. These lads in the photo below made themselves right at home. I wonder if they were missed by their colleagues?
In the basement was a massive shop that sold many things, including non-Samsung smartphone and camera accessories. I found these:
I also got to visit Changdeokgung, where I witnessed a re-enactment of a Change of Guards procession.
And I took a photo with this poor fella dressed in so many layers under the hot Korean sun.
While I was inside the ancient palace, I also pondered the meaning of these statues, especially that one on the far right.
Oh, and I had many good eats in Seoul. The best meal I had in Seoul was at Maple Tree House, a chain of restaurants that specialises in Korean barbeque meats.
Just look at those slices of beef cooking on the grill. You could almost hear it sizzle and smell its fat!
On one afternoon, I went to the Kimchi Academy and learnt to make kimchi!
Alas, my masterpiece got confiscated at the Incheon airport customs checkpoint. Apparently, kimchi falls into the same category as liquids and gels. :(
I also visited Leeum Samsung Museum of Arts, walked through a scenic hanook village while sucking on an excellent honeydew flavoured ice-cream bar, visited a claustrophobia-inducing private owl art and craft museum, had coffee at the immensely popular coffee joint Caffe Bene (said to be a fave hangout for local celebs, but I did not see Hyun Bin or Ji Jin-hee there. *sigh*), had wonderful fried chicken at a noisy chicken-hoff bar, seen the future site of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and had MORE makgeolli in a makgeolli pub.
There is much to see in Seoul but the shopping is expensive. I don't mean the street stuff, which are cheap, but are of awful quality. And it somehow reminds me of Shanghai. Anyway, if I ever feel the need to return to Seoul for a holiday, it would be be for makgeolli, fried chicken and a longer visit to the Leeum Samsung Museum of Arts.
Gosh. I'm tired of writing. So I shall leave you with this photo.
As usual, all other photos available on Facebook!
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