BILL AND JJ’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
South Korea trip
for Hunter's and Jin's Wedding
MAY 24-31, 2010
(CLICK THE THUMBNAIL PHOTOS FOR A LARGER IMAGE)
On
Sunday, May 23, 2010 JJ and I drove up to the Hacienda Hotel at Los Angeles
airport for the start of our brief trip to Korea. We were about to be off
for Hunter's and Jin's "wedding", to meet her family and to visit her native
country. The Hacienda permits up to 2 weeks free parking even if you stay
there for only one night.
May 24 ,2010 Monday
Ann met us at the airport for our 13 hour non-stop flight to Seoul via Asiana airlines. The flight was not too bad and food was OK. Our only complaint about Asiana was their peculiar policy of not wanting passengers to look out the windows!! We were in daylight the entire trip and some scenery was quite spectacular as we flew over Alaska, Aleutian Island and the Bering Sea. However, the flight attendant wanted all the passengers to watch TV and not let sunlight into the plane! Oh well, it soon got cloudy and was not worth fighting over.
May 25, 2010 Tuesday
We arrived at Incheon Airport at
about 6:30PM local time and soon were done with customs (well, JJ and I got
busted for having fruit in our suitcase but no big deal). Our
limousine service was waiting and after a one hour's drive we reached the Somerset Palace
Hotel. This hotel is in the Jongno-gu section of Seoul, on a northern edge
of the downtown and with views of mountains to the north.
We were delighted to see Jin waiting for us and soon had a chance to meet and
visit with her mother and number 2 sister, Yoon-mi and her husband Chul -min Ahm.
Also Sue and Gina joined us having survived their long flight from New York
arriving at the Somerset very early Tuesday morning.
May 26, 2010 Wednesday
The Somerset provides a full breakfast buffet with both Korean and
American food. We ate the American stuff. Then Ann, JJ and I were
off for our first adventure to visit Namsang park and the N. Seoul Tower which
has excellent views of the city and a good way to get ourselves orientated to
Seoul. The subway is excellent but took us awhile to figure out.
Fortunately, anytime we looked confused someone would eagerly come to our
rescue. One gentleman even asked us to sign his log-book in which he maintains a
collection of signatures from foreigners that he has helped! In the
downtown areas the subway has signs in both the Korean script (han gul) and
roman/english script. This is not the case when you get out of town!
We had a great, clear day for viewing from the tower. The city sprawls in
all directions with endless rows of high rise buildings. The Han River
seems to bisect the city into north and south sections. We were in the northern
part.
That evening we had dinner with Sue and Gina and shared the day's experiences.
They had ventured out of town via subway and train to a Korean village whose
name I do not recall. Also, Hunter arrived late this evening.
May 27, 2010 Thursday
Today was our first "official" day for wedding activities.
However; first we had a special treat that had been arranged by Jin's boss, Mr.
Won-soon Park, who is the founder of the "Beautiful Foundation" charity
organization. Mr. Park had arranged for us to visit one of Seoul's largest
Buddhist temples (Bong un sa) and to meet the "president" of the temple-its
number one monk. He served us tea and we had a nice chat with him. Jin
did all the translation. After our brief visit we then joined a formal tea
ceremony with some other guests and then toured the temple grounds.
After the temple we had a long taxi ride to a lovely restaurant for lunch with Jin's family. All except Jin's number 1 sister (she had to work) were present. Jin is the youngest of five lovely sisters. We had dessert outside and then we got our first look at the special clothing (han boks) that Hunter, Jin, Mom, Ann, JJ and I will wear during the wedding tomorrow.
Finally, in the evening Hunter treated us to a show-Nanta. It is a comedy with dancing, acrobatics and stuff all based on a cooking theme as "chefs" prepare a special wedding meal. It was very entertaining!
May 28, 2010 Friday
Today is the big day for the wedding ceremony! The ladies all went shopping and Hunter visited with his friend, Jon, who arrived from San Francisco last night in time for the Nanta show. I decided to visit the Gyeongbok Palace which is only about 1 block from our hotel. The Palace is actually a very large, walled-in park and was once the official home and headquarters for the Joseon Dynasty. The Joseon Dynasty lasted from about 1392 until the last king died in 1920. None of the original buildings have survived but the current ones have been carefully reconstructed starting in about 1865 and still under reconstruction today. I was impressed with the way they heated the palace buildings for the very cold Korean winters. There were underground furnaces which heated the stone floors in the buildings. Chimneys were located outside the buildings.
Just outside the north gate of the Palace grounds is the "Blue House" (Cheongwadae) which is the residence and offices for S. Korea's current president. Back in 1968 a squad of North Korean commandos tried to storm the palace and kill everybody. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful and security is still very evident today.
At about 5PM the U.S. crowd loaded up into taxis and headed for the wedding site on the south side of Seoul. It was a 1.5 hour ride in heavy traffic and Jin was getting a bit worried that we would be late for the event. We made it in time!
The wedding (actually a renewal of their marriage in NYC during May 2009) took place in an Italian restaurant, Aimo and Nadia. Of course, all of Jin's family were present as well as lots of her friends and their families. I will not make any attempts with names.
Jin's number 1 brother in law is a Christian minister and he performed the ceremony. His messages were translated by one of Jin's good friends and we were very impressed with his clever suggestions for a happy marriage. (We hope to get a written English translation sooner or later)
Here are links to some video clips from the wedding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0w9wRlWzI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TVUWdwQJ0w
We had a great time with the "traditional" rituals that followed the actual ceremony. Here we got to wear our han boks and I must say they are most attractive outfits. Getting dressed back in a tiny room behind the kitchen was challenging but fun. Jin's family members were always there to make sure the han boks were worn properly.
Finally, at about 10PM is was time to say good bye. That was pretty sad but we sure hope to see some of Jin's family and friends again when they come to visit the US.
May 29, 2010 Saturday
We managed to get up early for our bus excursion to the Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ) which started at 8AM and concluded at 5PM. This was quite an adventure for us, especially, since the
current news was all about the big conflict with North Korea's sinking of a S.
Korean naval ship. The tour leader warned us that we may be very
restricted in where we could and could not go. Anyway, it all worked out
pretty well and we got to do the standard tours of the Tunnel 3, views into the
N. Korea and, ultimately, going into the DMZ and right into the Joint Security
Area (JSA) also known as Panmumjom.
The tour leader and the military escorts succeeded in scaring the heck out of everyone-"no gestures, no comments, no photos, etc". We were disappointed that we could not go into the UN "MAC" building which straddles the boundary between north and south-the N. Koreans had locked the door! We did get to stand at the border and stare into the north while the N. Korean soldiers stared right back!
The DMZ is now a nice wildlife sanctuary since it has been a no man's land for 60 years. The countryside reminded us of Virginia or Missouri with the summer greenery. We could take photos of the "Bridge of No Return" which is inside the JSA area (I think). Here both north and south prisoners of war were given an option to go home or remain behind at the end of the Korean War. However, once they crossed the bridge there was no going back!
May 30, 2010 Sunday
Hunter and Jin departed this morning for their honeymoon in Bali. Jon slept in to recover from our big dinner last night which included still squirming squid tentacles! Yuk! Ann and JJ went to the nearby Palace and Sue, Gina and I were off to go hiking in the Bukhansan Park. This park is about a 40 minute Metro ride north of our hotel and is a very popular, lovely and rugged hiking area. We were the only foreigners among about one million folks who were all dressed up for their Sunday outing and picnicking in the mountains. There are several Buddhist temples nestled among the streams and forests throughout the park. We got a bit confused with our trail map and soon had a new friend for the day, Mr. Geumjo ma. Geumjo speaks good English and works for Hyatt Hotels and seems to enjoy befriending foreigners. He was a great help to us and even held Sue's hand during the steep descent. At lunch break we shared food with a bunch of folks and they introduced us to a popular drink, Mak ku li. It is some kind of rice beer, I think, and pretty good. Everyone along the trail wished us "have a nice day". After the hike we had a snack and some more Mak ku li with our new friend and he insisted on paying for it! We finally talked him into accepting some money to help pay for our treats.
May 31, 2010 Monday
Well, this is the end of our brief visit! Sue and Gina departed early for their long flights back to Ithaca. Jon will stay around until Wednesday and JJ, Ann and I have a 4:30PM flight back to LA. JJ and Ann did some last minute shopping and then JJ and I visited the Jongyne Temple next door to the hotel.
The return flight was only 11 hours back to LA. Despite a lengthy wait at LAX for customs and luggage we were back home in Bonita at 3PM-one hour before we left Seoul!