Hi Seoul!

When we were in the Hong Kong airport, a tourism board representative approached me and asked me to take a survey on my experience. I gave Hong Kong very high ratings. I think it's a wonderful place that's definitely worth seeing. The people are very friendly, and there's so much to see and do. The only bad thing I had to say was when she asked me about the air quality. I rated it a one and told her the HK government should take better care of the environment. Other than that, I give HK five stars!

We landed in Seoul last night. The 4 hour flight here was quite pleasant. They served bibimbap again and I spent the majority of the flight catching up on this blog. Mike watched a Korean drama that was apparently quite good. When we deplaned, I was immediately struck by how much colder and dryer it is. HK was so muggy and hot. Seoul Incheon airport is like most other airports - grey. When we arrived in the international terminal, we found an information desk with a giant touch screen information kiosk that helped us figure out how to get into the city. South Korea is a very digital place and this was the first example of many to demonstrate how wired their country is.

We took the airport express train (otherwise known as AIREX) into the city and transferred onto the city's local subway line. Figuring out how to buy a ticket was difficult since almost everything is in Korean. A man saw how confused we were and showed us how to buy a single use fare. This was the first encounter of many that we've had with super friendly and helpful Koreans.

The train system here is pretty easy to figure out since it's color coded and uses Roman numerals. When we got off at our stop, we were stopped by numerous Koreans asking if we needed help finding our way our hotel. Two older men led the charge and escorted us out of the station to our hotel. When they asked us where we were from, they said "Baseball! San Francisco! Win!" and made a baseball bat motion. They kept laughing and saying "win! San Francisco win!" It was pretty funny. Eventually they found our hotel and shook our hands and left us to check in.

Hotel Doulos is situated in a district that seems to be populated by love hotels and trophy/award shops. Odd, isn't it? The streets are very narrow and twisty. Since it was nighttime, the trophy shops were closed and there were street food carts and tents everywhere. We were quite hungry and wanted something to eat. It was a bit frightening at first since we weren't sure what the foods were, but I picked one that looked like something I had seen on a travel food program. It was DELICIOUS! I can't describe it other than it was mochi like rice tubes covered in an indescribably tasty bright orange sauce. I saw other people eating it with toothpicks so I did the same. We also bought these goldfish shaped things filled with hot red bean paste - super delicious. I am getting hungry just thinking about it. So far all the Korean food I've had has been amazing.

So... our hotel. It was awful and we checked out early and found a new place. It had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor which is why I selected it. I was fine with the room being the size of a matchbox, I was fine with the dingy quality of it, I was fine with the paper thin walls because I had earplugs, I could deal with the dodgy wi-fi connection, but I just could not deal with the bed. It was rock hard and lumpy and neither of us slept much at all. Getting a good sleep is crucial when you're on a vacation like this. When you're running on little sleep it makes you feel sluggish and irritable. The final straw was the awful breakfast. They didn't offer much food, and the hot food was cold and had obviously been sitting out for awhile. It was a joke.

We weren't going to get a refund on Doulos, but we were willing to eat the cost because it was so terrible. We went online and found another place relatively nearby that had excellent reviews - The Plaza Hotel. Of course it costs more than twice as much as Doulos but it's worth EVERY penny. We checked out the rooms before we booked it and I was sold immediately once I checked the softness of the bed. And, even better... the front desk hostess gave us a free upgrade to a luxury suite because she said she wanted us to have a wonderful time in Korea. I just took a bath and am lounging in my plush robe and feel wonderful. Now I feel ready for Seoul.

I have to get ready for our food tour now. I am very excited to chow down on Korean food! YUM. I can't drink too much soju either because tomorrow is our DMZ tour. SCARY.