Joni Deb

I'm on the plane back to San Francisco. Hard to believe that the trip is over! I've had a lot of fun, but I am ready to return to my own country. I am ready to sleep in my own bed again and slip back into the comfortable familiarity of my own language and customs.

When I last wrote, I was in The Plaza Hotel. My perfect five star dream hotel wasn't so perfect the last night we were there. The hotel is situated near an area where there's always protests. That last night there was a protest with a man yelling on a bullhorn until 1 am! He came back again at 7 am and started up his yelling again. The front desk told us that it was a protest about unions, but who knows.

SATURDAY

It was hard to get out of bed and greet the day since we had so little sleep and it was rainy and cold outside. After so much rain in Hong Kong, I wasn't looking forward to being wet again. All you can do is buy an umbrella and get on with it. I'm glad I packed an extra pair of shoes because my feet kept getting soaked.

Finding our next lodging - Rakkojae - was pretty difficult. Seoul is a very confusing city to navigate because it's not on the the grid system. To make matters worse, many of the streets have the same name but with subtle differences. Korean words are kind of like German words in that they can get quite long and confusing. After wandering through the maze like streets in the freezing rain with our heavy luggage we finally located Rakkojae. I was rather crabby when we first checked in, but the hostess (I think her name was Whoopie or Winnie) was so gracious that I relaxed and cheered up. We had yuzu tea and traditional Korean cookies with her for awhile, and she told us the history of Rakkojae and helped us plan out our day. I think the staff at Rakkojae is the most hospitable group of people I've ever met.

Rakkojae is a traditional hanok (guesthouse) located in a historic area of Seoul called Bukchon. Seoul was pretty much destroyed by the Japanese so most of the buildings here are new, but the Bukchon area was preserved. A traditional hanok has tiled roofs, paper windows, and sliding wood doors. The floors are heated by a system called "ondol." The warm wooden floors keep the hanoks warm, which is quite amazing even with the paper windows. You must take your shoes off when you enter a hanok, the beds are futon mattresses on the floor, the seating is floor pillows, and the tables are low. It's pretty similar to Japanese ryokan but a bit more rustic and the mattresses seem much thinner. Mike didn't sleep so well on the thin mattress atop the heated floor, but I slept pretty deeply.

That afternoon we decided to explore the traditional neighborhood of Bukchon. It was still raining and cold, and we got lost again! This became a recurring theme during our time in Seoul. When we got to the point where we could no longer feel our hands, we decided it was time to find a place to sit down and have some hot tea before our dinner reservation. Mike saw a sign for a tea house and we managed to find it nestled deep in the labyrinthine alleys of Bukchon. What a treat the teahouse was! It was traditional, so you had to remove your shoes upon entering and the seating was at pillows around low tables. The decor was very simple and stark and they were playing very relaxing music. Nobody else was there except for a lone Korean woman drinking tea, so we whispered to each other so as to not disturb her reverie. We both had hot ginger tea that the hostess served in large beautiful ceramic cups. The tea came with small cute little snacks that tasted like green tea and sesame. My experience there reminded me why we braved the freezing rain and confusing alleys of a foreign country - you sometimes stumble upon hidden gems that make it all worth it.

Our dinner reservation was at a traditional Korean restaurant owned by Rakkojae. And guess what? We got lost trying to find it. Whoopie gave us a card with directions in Korean, so we were incredibly confused. After about 45 minutes of wandering around totally confused in the freezing rain, I screamed in exasperation. We were about to give up and find somewhere else to eat when a really nice Korean girl offered to help us find the place. She led us right to it - I am so thankful the Koreans are so helpful and sweet.

The restaurant was very lovely and traditional. I am thankful we were seated in our private room, because when I removed my wet shoes it was the stench of ages. They served us so much food. Just when I thought we were done, a waiter came in bearing more dishes and trays. I don't understand how Korean people stay so slim since they seem to eat so much.

When we got back to Rakkojae that night, we spent some time in their mud-walled sauna that was delightfully scented with mugwort until a Japanese tourist on her cellphone came in and disturbed our peace. Argh. Really, lady? The outfits we were given to wear to the sauna looked like something straight out of a 90's urban dance group/rave video. Think Kriss Kross. It didn't help that they were sized for small Asian people, not giant white people. We took some pictures of each other wearing the hideous mustard yellow get-ups that will remain in our private collection, ha!

SUNDAY

Breakfast at Rakkojae was not so good. I made the mistake of neglecting to request Western breakfast so were served Korean style food. It was a piece of fish, some sort of lumpy fish stew, anchovies, fish paste encrusted vegetables, and kimchi. No. I took a few bites of the kimchi and put the rest outside of the room because it smelled strongly of fish which is always unpleasant, and especially horrible in the morning. I think they realized something was wrong because then they served us (and I am not kidding you) about a tablespoon of plain yogurt with frozen berries and black coffee.

We spent the day at Changdeokgung Palace, which was very beautiful. Seoul has 4 main palaces and the city is built somewhat around them - we chose Changdeokgung because it is considered the most beautiful. We took a tour of the Secret Garden area which helped to illuminate exactly what I was seeing. Everything has meaning, from the gnarled rocks to the square shaped ponds to the ornate paintings on the ceilings of the pagodas. We toured a Confucian style structure which I found particularly interesting. The men and women lived separately, can you imagine? It has some appeal if you think about it, ha! The doors were so small too - the typical man of the Confucian period was 5'2" and the typical woman was 4'9". Tiny folks! We've banged our heads on doorways a lot during our travels through Asia.

After touring the palace, we went to see the changing of the guard at (and forgive me if I spell this wrong, I don't have a book or the internet to check the spelling right now) Deoksugung Palace. This was near the Plaza and right next to the protests. The changing of the guard was very colorful and had much pomp and circumstance. I finally got to see who kept me up at night. It seemed to be a bunch of students camped under a tent with many signs in Korean. I didn't see any anti-American looking images so I didn't high-tail it out of there, but who knows what those signs said. There were literally hundreds of cops just milling about the area. Our food tour guide told us the Seoul police are an ineffectual bunch. Hmmm.

We checked into our next and final place of lodging next - another traditional guesthouse. The spelling is really complicated so I won't bother telling you the name. The host was very friendly, but we both immediately disliked the place. It was basically a glorified shack! The courtyard area was filled with random junk and our room was a shoebox with two thin mattresses on the floor. Our host told us the construction site next door started up at 8 am. I think the last straw was the dirty and wet communal bathroom. This guesthouse looked like a bomb shelter from a war torn third world country! We didn't travel thousands of miles to stay in a terrible place like that. Wait until you see the photos of this place.

We found a nearby coffee shop with wi-fi and decided to check out a few nearby hotels. Hotel Sunbee was the second place we looked at and we really liked it, the price was right, and it was in a great neighborhood. For anyone looking to travel to Korea, I would recommend you forgo making hotel reservations ahead of time. The best thing to do is tour the hotel once you get there and decide whether or not you want to spend the night. Korea isn't a popular tourist destination for many Americans or other Westerners for that matter, so the few travel reviews I read on the hotels and guesthouses I selected didn't accurately represent Western tastes. I hate to sound like a tacky American, but I have certain standards I expect. Plus, I am too old to be sleeping in a place that is pretty much a slum.

After checking into the Hotel Sunbee, our mood improved 100% and we decided to celebrate by tracking down some Mexican food and cheap beer. We found a place that was actually pretty good, albeit a little odd. Like every other place in Korea, they were blasting insane techno music interspersed with smooth jams from Luther Vandross. We both had a crazy drink called a Mexican Bulldog that consisted of a beer bottle tipped upside down into a giant glass of iced tequila. The drinks made us feel pretty good we decided to get another beer somewhere else. Wandering through a neon lit nightlife district, two young and very drunk Korean men stumbled up to and asked us what the hell we were doing there considering what was going on with North Koreans. We started talking to them and decided to all grab a drink somewhere. It was weird at first but we decided to just go with it, you know?

The first place we went to was blasting obnoxious techno music. It was practically empty and after a few beers I decided I wanted to dance. I think I freaked the Koreans out because they were staring at me. Whatever, I'm on vacation. They danced with me a little and then told me they didn't think it was okay for me to dance with other men since I'm married. I told them Mike and I aren't jealous people, and it's very common and acceptable for American women to dance with whomever they feel like. Korean women are definitely more restrained than American women. I've tried to explain this to women who complain about being an American but it's not something you understand unless you travel. American women enjoy many freedoms a lot of other women on this planet aren't allowed to enjoy.

Mike talked a lot with the Korean who spoke better English about the North Korean situation and I communicated with the guy who didn't speak as good of English via notepad on my iPhone. They had a lot of questions for us and we had a lot of questions for them. They were particularly fascinated with Mike's beard and said he looked like Joni Deb (direct quote from my iPhone text conversation) and Brad Pitt. They asked to feel my nose and said it was very big (which doesn't bother me because I like my nose.) They also kept saying we are both very beautiful and should make a kid, and that they hope we have good feelings about Korea. Of course we do! We ended up going to a norae-bang (karaoke private room) and singing for a few hours. Oddly, the only Western pop songs they seemed to know were ballads by the likes of Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey. They sang a Korean song for us they introduced by saying it was "the most sad song of all." I think Koreans have a taste for the melodrama.

MONDAY

On our last day, we strolled the Cheongyecheon Stream (I have to look up the spelling) and did some shopping and eating at the Dongdaemun Market, Kwangjung Market, and Insadong neighborhood. The stream is situated along the center of the city and makes for a nice, peaceful walk. At the markets I looked for souvenirs and found a tiny kimchi pot, a pearl inlayed lacquer box, and a ceramic pendant. I am turning into my mom and grandmother because two of my souvenirs are knick knacks- although I might put some sea salt in the tiny kimchi pot and stick it in the kitchen.

We turned in early and got a good night's rest for the long travel day ahead. Now I'm sitting on the plane bound for SF and it's not so bad. My seat isn't broken, my neighbor is a nice guy with full capacities and average body weight, and my flight is a heck of a lot shorter on the way back.

Stay tuned for photos and random various thoughts! When I get home I'm attending a typography convention so they'll be up sometime next week after I have a few days to recover.