Okay, I'll admit it, we didn't do a great deal today. Over half of the day was spent searching for the flipping USO, a problem which could have been solved a great deal faster if Seoul only had one Outback Steak Restaurant, and not three. THREE!! How many do you need?!
So, let's do this one step at a time.
I woke up at an okay-ish time of 10, yet waited around for 2 hours for Bill and Ben to wake up and get ready to go. In that time I researched our biggest and most dramatic plan for the week: visiting the DeMilitarised Zone (the 'DMZ') on the border between North and South Korea. After attempting to call the USO, the company the runs the cheapest and widely regarded as 'best' tours, and getting an angry Korean voice instead, we set off to search for it ourselves. Breakfast (in a way) at Dunkin' Donuts and then off the the City Hall where the maps said it should be. Only it wasn't, obviously, because there are too many Outback Steak Houses in Seoul. In the end we asked at one of the multitude of Tourist Information booths around Myeong-dong and were off to Itaewon (self-described tourist trap) where we managed to find it without much hassle. Really nice place, the USO, with massive leather chairs and a big screen that shows CNN and stuff. The staff were ace as well, though it didn't change the fact that you need to reserve about a month in advance rather than a couple of days.
On our way to Itaewon proper to grab dinner we passed the Korean War Museum. It struck home, I guess, just how little I know about these two countries and what they went through, and I have since decided to learn all I can about what happened. The Museum, though we didn't go in, is a very impressive building, and even without going in there's a massive amount to see.
We moved on, as we were famished by this point, to Itaewon. The sight of so many classic foreign chains on one street was pretty mind-blowing, I can assure you, but we silently agreed to attempt to be more adventurous and ended up in Curry Town. We, and nobody else, not one soul. It seems Koreans must eat dinner later than we western infidels, as from when we arrived at 6 to when we left at 7 not a single person came into the shop. I had a fish masala, incidentally, which was super-nice but for the mountains of bones I had to extract from it.
Then we went across the road for dessert, to a little pie shop run by a Frenchman pretending to be an American. Good prices and incredible pies on sale, there, and milk that didn't taste like Japanese milk.
Ooooooooooh.
Eh?
Anyway, by then it was snowing, and we headed off to the alleged Tourist Information booth in Itaewon to seek out DMZ tours that weren't full up. And that's literally all we had to ask for. We're on the tour tomorrow. Incredible. There were slight hiccups involving a supposed 'Dress code' which stated no denim, but according to the tour guides on the phone it wouldn't matter so long as they "didn't have holes in them". Well, whatever they say. They'll be the ones keeping us out of firing range, after all. Another thing they mentioned was that one of the tour spots (which include war bridges, monuments and, most impressively, North Korea itself) would not be available due to "military troubles". Sounds exciting, huh?
On the way home we checked out a massive book store near the palace. Mark got a Rachmaninov CD, Steph got some CDs of some Korean prettyboys, and I got 5cm per Second. I tell you, cheap-tastic this country is. Cheap as chips.
Need to be at a certain hotel at 9am tomorrow, which may not be possible for Tweedledum and Tweedledee, so I may get some sleep. That or stay up aaaaaaall night beefing up Ushiro the Venusaur, which is also possible.
This may well be the last entry I make, so thanks for reading.
*****
あぁ、腹減った！！ダンキンドーナツのキムチクロケを食べたい！
以上！
No comments:
Post a Comment