Seoul - 15th & 16th July 2008

15th July 2008
1900 - Reached home from school, packed, ate dinner, showered.
2020 - Train from BL.
2130 - Alighted from Skytrain, reach T1.
2140 - Met Naga, Jeremy and Terrence (nice of them to send Naga off); checked in trolley luggage, first time gotten mistaken for a Korean, went thru Immigrations, bought YSL fags, coffee.
2235 - Boarded KE642.
2255 - Take-off.

16th July 2008
0200(???) - Possibly the closest ever I can get near to Moon in my lifetime.
0400(???) - Breakfast; friendly beautiful stewardess passed me a Western b/f without asking, then proceeded to ask Naga for his preference for b/f. Went for Bibimbop; wasn't too bad.
0558 - Touched down Incheon.
0650 - Took A*REX, their Airport Railway.
0730 - Transferred to Seoul Metro. Sat down, then realised we were sitting on seats reserved for the elderly/disabled/pregnant. Converted to standing position and encountered our first experience of the Seoul rush hour.
0820 - Two transfers and a 50 m 30degrees upslope later, reached Dongguk University.
0910 - Finally found out where's the conference room. Drenched in sweat already.
1000 - Reached Jongno 3rd Street station, hor lan-ded while searching for Yims' House. Kind passerby called the hotel for us and managed to get one of the Yim brothers to fetch us to the hotel. Yims' House is run by two brothers, friendly, and can converse in English. Turned out we are living close to Changdeokgung, a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of the filming sites for Dae Jang Geum. Cannot check in till after 12, so went to Internet lounge and then out for a walk.
1130 - Tried in vain to look for lunch place; most places aren't ready for lunch yet. Passed by this BBQ place - boss understood and spoke English, told us "Too early!" Other places told us the same thing, only that they used gestures. Settled for (Expensive - Seoul is one of the most expensive cities to live in) coffee in a coffee house
1200 - Went back to "Too early!" and finally settled on the two person set meal with pork belly. Damage: 20,000 won (Slightly over S$20) for two. The lady working in the shop speaks Mandarin, and asked me if Singaporeans spoke 中国话。I told her, yah, mostly the Chinese.
1300 - Stepped out of "Too early!" and was greeted with a shower - finally the grey skies opened up, albeit at the wrong time. Took refuge in a mini-mart and bought an umbrella amongst other things.
1315 - Finally checked into our room. Small, but good enough. And there's wireless! Showered, and now, preparing to rest - one freaking hour of sleep on the plane...

To be continued...

2000 - Woke up from sleep.

2030 - Headed out for dinner. Tried a different area - around Anguk Station - and had this oxtail stew dish called Seolleongtang with rice and kimchi. Pretty warming dish in the cool night weather. Had a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts on the way back to hotel.

2350 - Preparations for conference. Last round of rehearsals.

17th July 2008 0130 - Feels hungry. Should sleep. Soon

Out.

~Ugly~