Over the next few days/weeks we’ll be posting pictures and stories from our Winter 2010 Vacation.  This is the first installment about the first stop on our adventure – Seoul.

Kate’s sister, Molly, came to visit us in Korea in late December.  She stayed for about 10 days and we had a great time with her.  It was wonderful to actually get to share this place with someone from home.  The last 4 days that she was here we were off work and we all went to Seoul.  The trip was mainly a whirlwind tour of the city’s hot spots.  Here are some pictures from Seoul.   There are more in the gallery to the left.  As always – click for a larger image.

We stopped at a KimBap Restaurant (Korean Fast Food) for a cheap snack before heading off for the afternoon.  This is Ram-bokki a combination of Ramen Noodles and Dakbokki – spicy sauce and rice cake.  In the background you can see Kim Bap (Korean sushi rolls without the sushi) and Mandu (Korean Dumplings).  Molly had a pretty good amount of Korean food while she was here… its definitely an experience.  Kate and I love this stuff now

There was an Andy Warhol Portraits exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art, so naturally we checked it out.  It was a coooold night but we ventured out.  The exhibit was fantastic!  A really wide range of his work and a lot of historical information and artifacts about his life.  The English translations of the commentary were also really entertaining.

We got a little lost walking back to the subway which wasn’t good because it was about 1 degree outside…but we made it!

The next day we went to Bongeun-sa Temple near the Coex Mall.  Every Thursday they have a “Temple Life” program where foreigners can get a tour of the temple, learn some basic meditation practices, participate in the Tea Ceremony and make lotus flowers.  It was about 2 hours and a really great way to experience Korean Buddhism up close.  We had hoped to do an overnight Temple Stay the weekend before, but Kate was sick and it didn’t seem like a good idea.  This was a nice way to still get at least some of the experience.

Lanterns are hung at the temples for a period of time before and after the four major Buddhist holidays.  I think these were up for the New Year.

This is one of the tallest Buddha Statues in Korea.  The picture doesn’t really do it justice but it was huge!

Tea ceremony!

Kate and Molly making Lotus Flowers

The Temple is right in the middle of the city – providing an interesting contrast between the skyscrapers and apartment buildings all around it.

Kate and Molly on the Subway.  Seoul has one of the best subways I’ve ever been on.  It’s quiet, clean, and fast… amazing!

The last day we took a bus tour around the city.  This was the easiest and cheapest way to see all the highlights of the city.  It was a fun way to spend the day.

I think this is Namdaemoon, or Dongdaemoon …  From the bus.

We also went to see Avatar in 3D one afternoon, and ate some Mexican food in Itaewon.  On Saturday we took Molly to the airport for her early morning flight, then we waited there for our 9:30pm flight.  Stuck in the airport for 13 hours… not too fun.  Incheon is kind of the most amazing airport in the world though, so it was not a problem… more on that in the next post… Manila!

Happy New Year! (belated.. )

Hello all,

I wrote a longer post a little bit ago but it got deleted Sorry… here is an abridged version -

Kate and I are in Puerto Princesa right now sitting in an internet cafe surrounded by World of Warcraft Gamers.  This morning we were in Manila  – which was an interesting experience.  Very grimy gritty city – more third worldy than we expected but it was definitely worth a day or two.  It Put everything in perspective for sure.  We will post more about that later.

Kate’s sister Molly was in Korea for the last 2 weeks visiting us.  We had a great time with her!! She came to school with us.. toured around Samcheok and went to Seoul for a few days before she flew home and we flew to the Philippines.

Making Lanterns at Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul

Again at the Temple

Kate and Molly on a Seoul Bus Tour

Kate and I had to wait in the airport for 12 hours for our flight (after Molly flew out in the morning) .  Gave me some time to practice with my Camera

Kate doesn’t like sitting in the airport for 12 hours

Some Kids in Rizal Park in Manila.  They were really excited when they saw my camera

Kate, Blanca and Ana (friends we met at our hostel) at Fort Santiago in Manila.

The view from our hostel tonight on Palawan Island – Puerto Princesa City…. Pretty amazing.

We’ll post some more pictures sooon when we get internet access again.

More soon,

-All the best

—-Chad & Kate!

I’ve been hoarding a bunch of new pictures for the past few weeks – waiting for a good time to edit them down and post them. So here we are. Be sure to check the captions on the pictures for more information about them. We’ve had some great adventures lately and these hopefully capture a bit of them. I’ve been trigger happy lately ending up with 5 and 6 hundred photos from some trips, so this is definitely a sampling – but it’s really all the pictures anyone would ever actually want to see. I’ll be posting some more photosynths of places around Korea soon too. (That’s really where the photo counts go up like crazy! )

Enjoy and please leave a comment!

-Chad

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