Travel Notes | Seoul

Sometimes it takes me a while (literally, years) to blog about the places we’ve been, and I hate that because so many memories, the insignificant yet special memories I love so much, seem to get lost over time. This year I am going to make an attempt at keeping an on-the-go travel diary with less-than-perfect, unedited, photos and accompanied by stream of consciousness notes. In a perfect world I would accompany these posts with a page from my sad and empty sketchbook, but let’s not get too ambitious and give up before I even begin.

Seoul, Korea
February 14- 15, 2017

// We are in Seoul because Sly had to be here for work,  it’s just coincidence that his work days also fell on Valentine’s Day. This time around, we are staying in a business-y hotel with an foyer constructed almost entirely of white materials. Think marble, quartz, and slick white tile with a massive, gaudy chandelier dangling in the center. I would describe the decor as “Asian-fancy” which is a strange mix of baroque, velvet, gilded everything, and colorful fiber optic lights to give it that unique Asian club flair. I might need to photograph this foyer.

// We are staying on an “executive floor” which sounds nicer than it really is. The hallways on this floor remind me of a 1980s cruise ship. All the doors have birdseye maple veneer. There are two (or three?) ladies who greet us whenever we pass by their desk. We have a pillow menu in our room with seven choices of pillows. There is a slick pamphlet in nightstand titled, “A Guide to the Art Museum,” which is a 10 page guide to some of the hotel’s art pieces. The “executive lounge” has nonstop food service including breakfast, tea, and happy hour. We tried to get into happy hour, but as I’m tagging along on this trip, we were only permitted entry for one person, and didn’t feel like coughing up an extra $25 for okay wine and an assortment of cold cuts. Our toilet has a strange funnel-like flushing system. It also has a bidet. I had to google the make and model of our toilet to figure out the buttons I didn’t recognize.

// Food at this hotel is exorbitantly expensive, with no real value add. For example, a can of Budweiser costs about $13. THIRTEEN DOLLARS. FOR BUDWEISER. And that’s the hotel bar rate, not even the mini-bar rate.

// Sly tried to sneak me a croissant out of the morning breakfast buffet. He got too nervous and aborted mission.

// For Valentine’s day dinner we ate at one of the hotel restaurants. It was more for convenience (Sly had a meeting to attend that evening) over actual desire to visit said restaurant. We ordered a set menu called “Aroma” from their oyster promo selection. Basically it was a crazy expensive 5-course dinner that reminded us of decent 1980s style hotel wedding food. We’re talking thick cream sauces and dessert in a champagne glass level stuff.

// I cannot figure out how to use the nespresso machine in our room.

// I took the hotel shuttle to nearby Myeongdong, got off at the wrong stop, and ended up walking through the middle of some kind of riot or protest. I’m not sure what the people were protesting because the much-hated Korean president has already started impeachment proceedings, but the streets were lined with at least 200 or so policemen wearing riot gear.

// I ate something called “Isaac Toast” for lunch: two pieces of buttered bread, grilled, with a square slab of scrambled egg, cheese, shredded cabbage, bread and butter pickles, spicy mayo, and a choice of meat (I chose chicken), wrapped and served in a paper pocket printed with Bible verses. It cost less than $3 and was really tasty in a street food sort of way

// I totally blanked on the location of the shuttle stop for the bus that would take me back to the hotel. I wasn’t paying attention at all when I was dropped off and there were no signs. I ended up roaming the streets, lugging a jug of water and groceries, in search of the shuttle stop.Eventually I noticed a bunch of other tourists with huge shopping bags queuing on the street corner and figured they were probably waiting for the same shuttle.  Thankfully, I was correct.

// For dinner, and because apparently all I do is eat, we met up with some friends at a “Texas-style” BBQ place called Manimal. I always sort of doubt the legitimacy of Texas BBQ outside of Texas (and especially in a foreign country) but  the owners use a smoker they flew in from Houston to smoke their meats. They also had Texas bbq sauce among the lesser Memphis/Carolina etc. sauces. Verdict: legit but not quiiiiite Texas-good, plus no sliced white bread, pickles, or onions. It did taste like Texas bbq -not a Koreanized version – and outside of Texas, I would happily eat there. Inside of Texas it would be able to hold its own as maybe a neighborhood spot, but wouldn’t have a cult following like many of the other bbq places. There’s just too much good bbq in Texas. But, I give this place props for their dedication to getting the smoke right (the key to good TX bbq) because it would have been easy for them to cut corners, especially since most people in KR aren’t familiar with what constitutes Texas bbq. Long story short: we ate a lot. I still regret I didn’t get dessert.