Layover in Seoul & The End

Okay, Lil and I spent most of the time at the airport giggling like maniacs and pointing out potential "sex tourists" which we had great fun doing. We tried to take pictures but the dirty old men are sly...

Anyway, since we did that instead of getting some much needed sleep, we passed out on the plane to South Korea. We missed the food, the movie, EVERYTHING. Whoops. Guess I'll never know if something exciting happened. Most likely not as the guy a couple seats down from me appeared to be just as surprised we were landing as I was. Kudos to the pilot for a smooth flight I suppose.

Well, we had a 12 hour layover in South Korea and I was just aching to get a new stamp on my passport so we filled out visas and exited the airport for a little day trip. We navigated our way to a bank where I was pleased to find that the exchange rate was 1000 won to the dollar. I checked my bank account...I was a MILLIONAIRE!!!!! This was fun news!

So we hopped on the brand new airport transit. Basically it was a high speed train. We took it from the airport to downtown Seoul. I have to say I was NOT a happy camper at this point. My contacts were bothering me, I was starving, and I was still a tad bit tired. Not really a great way to start out a trip. Some kid took pity on our obvious confusion and led us around until he got us where we needed to be. He was really nice. Lili talked to him a lot but I stayed pretty quiet.

Finally we got to the area where the palace in Seoul is. We decided to stop and get something to eat first (thank god) and quickly discovered that South Korea was not nearly as easy to navigate as Thailand. It's not exactly a country that's based on tourism and therefore very little is translated into English (mindblowing, I know). It took us kind of a while to find a place to eat but we found one that looked pretty harmless and walked in.

They seated us a a table with other people. It was sort of like a picnic where someone is taking your order and then bringing it to you. We diligently studied the pictures chose the prettiest ones and were immediately discouraged from ordering those. As the waiter put it, "That HOT!" So we asked him what we should get. He pointed at two things, we nodded, and off he went.

We didn't have to wait long. He brought out two pots of stew for us. A couple bites in and my mouth was on FIRE. Shoot. I grabbed my cup and went to the water machine. I filled it up and started drinking. Several glasses later my palette had grown a bit more accustomed to the taste (or had stopped working in protest and shock) so we finished up and paid the bill. We left feeling significantly better.

We finally found the old palace we had been looking for. It was a few thousand won to get in but then the tour was free (we got headphones and an MP3 player). We wandered around in search of the Secret Garden. Mostly because I read that book numerous times when I was little and was somewhat fascinated with the idea of a secret garden. But also because there was some funny story about getting drunk there and jumping into the water or some such nonsense. Anyway, when we found it it was somewhat, well, boring. I expected the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, not my backyard.

We explored the grounds a bit more, took some cool pictures of the building and then set off to do what we do best...shop. We bought a few odds and ends. For such an interesting exchange rate nothing is actually cheap in South Korea. It's exactly the same price only multiplied by 1000. No fun!

Eventually we were just tired and wanted to sit down. So we headed back to the airport.

Again, I was hungry (seriously, what is with me?) but I had had it with Korean food. It did not sit nearly as well as Thai food. So I went to the airport directory at Lili's suggestion. We found the American food section and headed off. I have never been so thrilled to see a KFC, Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts in my entire life. Seriously. I went on a food shopping spree. And, let me tell you, it was delicious.

Eventually, we boarded the Korean Air flight back home. WHAT?!?!? There were NO individual televisions!!!!!! Okay, I know that is super spoiled of me, but I get bored and I had paid a LOT for the ticket. And it was a 15 hour flight or something ridiculous like that. Ugh. Me=Not happy. Luckily Lil and I had three seats for just the two of us. We created quite a comfy little cove between the blankets, pillows, socks, and eye covers they gave us. Then we busted out our books and started reading. I managed to finished the beast of a book I had bought in Bangkok. I handed it over to Lili who had been eagerly awaiting my finish and we traded books.

I slept a little, though nothing to speak of. We ate. The food was okay. It was time to be home.

FINALLY we landed in Los Angeles. What a MESS!!! Seriously, for an airport that traffics that many people through each day you would think they would have their shit pulled together. Not so much. We got through customs after the longest wait in the history of waits (okay, exaggeration) and then went to get a shuttle to Burbank. So, this was by far and away the cheapest option but the shuttle kept doing laps around the airport looking for people to pick up...and our flight was leaving in two hours...during rush hour. CRAP!!

The shuttle eventually got us to the Burbank airport where we raced through the ticketing entrance to find our counter. Only to find it had been abandoned. Okay, think! We still had 15 minutes before our plane stopped boarding and we had checked in online in Seoul (thank god). We opened our suitcases and ripped out everything liquid we could find. We probably threw away over $75 worth of stuff but it was better than missing the plane...

We rushed through security, ran down the terminal and were the last ones to board the plane. We made it by two minutes. Oh. My. God. Ahh, breathe.

So we made it home to Columbus. Amazingly enough.

But I have a free ticket from Delta and I'm thinking that I might want to spend the end of the summer in Europe...who knows!?!?!

Bangkok...Day 4 (Last Day)

Well, our train pulled into Bangkok reallllllly early. It was just barely light out when we got off the train. We said good-bye to all of the group and got in a cab back to the hostel we stayed in when we here a few days ago. We put our luggage in the storage room at the hostel and went down the street toward the river.

We hopped on a river boat and took it to the exit for the big you-cannot-go-to-Bangkok-and-not-see-these sights. The river boat was a bit frightening because they do NOT warn you when they are going to stop or what stop it is...luckily we we just getting off at the last stop. Still, you better move quickly or not at all!!!!

Well, we must have taken a wrong turn because pretty soon we were in the middle of a nice Thai neighborhood where no one spoke English. Since our knowledge of the Thai language was limited to "yes" or "no" and "thank you" we were stuck. We found a cab an got in. He didn't understand what we were looking for until I said Wat Pho. We realized that that would be the same name in Thai and English. Made our searching MUCH easier.

So at about 9 am we found ourselves outside Wat Pho ready to explore this famous temple. We wandered around a bit aimlessly. While I can really appreciate the beauty of the whole thing, I'm afraid the religious significance is a bit lost on me. *Note to self, research better next time.* But what the Wat is really famous for is the gigantic reclining Buddha in the middle. Personally my favorite part was his toes (Mother of Pearl inlay was spectacular!).

So after another round of photos we left in search of the palace and the Emerald Buddha. Turns out the Emerald Buddha is inside the palace walls. Sweet, one less chance to get lost.

As we walked in we were directed to a small building on the side where we rented sarongs (skirts, basically) which we had to wear, along with long sleeves, because it would be inappropriate for women to be walking around in what we had on. While the sarongs were beautiful (Thai silk, embroidered with gold elephants) they made the heat that much worse. Good thing it was still pretty early. I would NOT have wanted to be wearing that at 2 in the afternoon...

It's always amazing to learn that a building is from 1200 years ago (or more). I mean seriously, America wasn't even a thought back then. Also, it's terribly difficult to imagine how early explorers could think that the people who built this stuff were anything less than brilliant. Everything is gold, colorful, masterfully finished and fantastic to look at. I'm impressed today. Thousands of years ago I would have been awestruck!

We rented a guided tour which Lil and I shared. One earbud for each of us. We followed the map and listened to the stories of each part of the grounds. Way better than paying for a tour guide because we got to do it at our own pace (and it's nice to hear the American accent every once in awhile).

Eventually we got to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which is on the palace grounds. There are very strict rules about going in. Unfortunately I have no pictures because there were no cameras allowed. There are times when I think it's okay to break that rule, but religious things should be respected I think. So...no pictures.

Then again, it was not as impressive as I expected. The Buddha was quite small (I think I was expecting something HUGE) and was surrounded by piles of objects in honor of him. The overall effect was quite overwhelming. However we discovered that he was in his summer garb. People actually come in and change the clothing the statue is wearing according to the season. Pretty sweet for a statue!

Eventually we decided that we'd seen all we came to see. Wow! Total sense of accomplishment!!!!!!

We wandered through the streets a bit, checking out the goods for sale. We bought coconuts and drank the milk from them. Then we walked back toward the river and got on another river boat. We took this to the last stop and hopped on the Skytrain back to Sukhimvit.

Lili must have been tired because we got back to the hostel and didn't really do much. We watched a few movies, talked to some of the people that came through, then decided it was time for showers. We paid the hostel to rent us some towels and went upstairs. A nice shower was perfect and then we packed up everything and went downstairs to hail a cab to the airport.

I'm sad to leave Thailand. I could seriously spend at least another 2 weeks here, if not more. But I am excited to get back to Columbus too. It's been a crazy couple of weeks!!!