Seoul, South Korea

Just returned from a marvelous, nine-day trip to Seoul, South Korea with my beautiful family. As soon as the trip started, I had to ask myself, “Why haven’t I seen my old friend more frequently?” By old friend, I mean travel. I always have a similar sensation. I am excited to see them, find it so enjoyable and easy to be with them and tell myself I need to see them more often.

Why do I enjoy travel so much? I have written about that before, but it is so many things wrapped into one. The planning of the trip is stimulating, educational and challenging. Where to go? When to go? How to travel? Where to stay? How to communicate? Once underway, it is a constant puzzle, figuring out how to do what are mundane tasks at home. How to get on the subway, where to park for flights, how to order food in a restaurant, how to get from point A to point B. So many small challenges to take on and succeed, so there is a feeling of accomplishment as well.

I love how the newness and difference taps into my brain and wakes it up. It is difficult to be mired in inward thoughts when receiving so much new and different stimuli and the requirement of actually thinking about each thing you do.

Traveling with a family of four, including twin 8-year olds makes things even more complex and challenging but also more rewarding. Watching them navigate a completely different culture as if it is secondhand for them is so reinforcing. They seem to think that it is all pretty normal. To think that I was never on a plane (it was domestic) until age 16.

Truly a great trip. From start to finish, all went very smoothly, safely and enjoyably. I highly recommend Seoul for anybody wanting a safe, kind place to travel to with children.

Korea, or the Republic of Korea has over 50 million citizens. Seoul itself has about 10 million, 26 million in the metro area, so it is a very densely populated country. It is about the size of the state of Indiana in the United States. Its alphabet, called, Hangul, has 24 letters and i just read that you can learn to read it in an afternoon….wish I had known that! It is 17 hours ahead of where we live on the West Coast, so quite a change as far as time zones go.

It is located on a peninsula between China and Japan and has North Korea to the North as a result of the Korean War. It has four seasons of weather. It is the 10th largest economy in the world, with large companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, LG, Sk and Lotte. I just read that it has the fastest internet in the world and the highest smartphone penetration. I have never seen so many people glued to cell phones and most transactions can be done with your phone. I could tell the internet was fast with the e-sim I was using.

Culturally, it is quite famous for K-Pop, such as BTS (my wife is a big fan), BlackPink and others. Also famous for K-dramas. Squid Games may be the most well known. Checkout Netflix as there are many there. The food is excellent and eating is very social with the food being shared. Seoul has more cafes per capital than almost any other city. I have never seen so many.

Some other cultural stuff. Instead of shaking hands, slight bows replace that. It is a very nice acknowledgement of the other person or people. When giving or receiving something, even paying with cash, people use two hands and often bow at the same time. It is an incredibly safe place. You can walk alone at any hour, leave your belongings at your table, etcetera. In stores, one of the unique things is there seems to be little concern for shoplifting. The cashier is often on the top floor of a store…you could easily just walk out on the bottom floor without paying I suppose. In the states, it always feel like you could be suspected of shoplifting.

One thing I was unaware of is that they refer to it as a “pali-pali” culture. It means hurry hurry. Everything is fast. Subway trains every couple of minutes, things delivered to your home quickly and so on. Indeed, everything happens quickly there, but the remarkable thing about that is that you sense no tension or pressure at least outwardly. Every interaction seemed efficient and functional with minimal extra steps. Things just happen quickly and smoothly as if everything is designed to make it easier for everybody. I like that. It gives one great confidence in the various systems.

Tipping is not a thing there, which is very nice. It eliminates the stress or awkwardness of deciding how much to tip someone who is serving you. In the States, you are typically presented a tablet with options ranging from 18% to much more. It feels very awkward and creates an odd vibe between the customer and the person serving you. In Korea, you simply pay and that is it. There is obviously no sense that they are waiting for something extra. On one Uber trip, we were to pay 8000 won or something like that, which is about five dollars. I didn’t realize that my Uber app was already paying for it via credit card. I had a 10,000 bill, so for simplicity I just gave it to the driver. He seemed very surprised and in fact didn’t understand. We couldn’t communicate, so I just gestured to him to keep it. Finally he accepted it, but you could tell it wasn’t a normal thing.

Children in Korea. Interestingly, we saw very few children anywhere. When we went to Lotte World, which is like Korea’s Disneyland, there were many groups of small children and similarly at the National Museum. These were school children on field trips. On the subway, which was always quite full, we almost never saw children. Upon returning, I looked up some information about children in Korea online and it talks about the great paradox of children in Korea. Children are often seen as the parents’ retirement plan. Children are essentially worshipped and seen as very precious as most families now only have one child. Grandparents will move in and pay for everything to help raise them. Parents spend a tremendous amount of money for extra tutoring (hagwon) on top of school. Education is seen as the #1 duty of a parent. Kids get the best food, the best room, new clothes. “my child is my everything” is a common phrase apparently.

However, children are a massive burden and project. You can’t just have a kid. They need English from age three, piano, Taekwondo, math and so on and eventually they need to go to a top university. Koreans feel that it’s irresponsible to have a kid if you can’t afford all of that. Publicly, apparently, there are many “No-Kids Zones” in cafes and restaurants due to noise complaints. We did not notice that or know that while there. So, oddly, they are precious but also seen as a bother.

Korea has the lowest reproduction rate in the world with 0.72 per woman (2023). This is the lowest ever recorded by any country. It has risen to 0.87 in 2026. In Seoul, it is even lower at 0.63 in 2025. People want children, but there are many factors making it difficult. Housing is tremendously expensive and salaries are not that high. You must work long hours and can’t just leave work at 6 pm. Women are expected to do most of the childcare and housework and keep their career, which is very challenging. One child in a university can mean $200-300K in private education alone. The average age for first marriage is now 33.5 for men and 31.5 for women and having a child outside of marriage is still extremely stigmatized.

Why did we choose to travel to Korea? I had planned a solo trip to El Salvador in August and then didn’t go as I already was missing my children, so I cancelled the flights, hotels, everything. I still wanted to travel, so started thinking about where we could go as a family. As per usual, I looked all over the globe. Valencia, Spain was in the running as the weather looked good and I actually wanted to check it out as a possible place to live. My wife and kids as Dominicans have a fast route to citizenship in Spain, so it seemed like a good idea. Japan was in the running. I can’t recall all of the other places I checked out. I wanted a direct flight, with good hours of departure and arrival, a safe interesting place at a reasonable cost. My wife never seems super enthusiastic about travel, but she is crazy about Kpop, specifically BTS and is a big fan of the many Korean Netflix series on TV, so I asked her what she thought of going there. I saw a light in her eyes that I typically don’t see, so I looked into that more. I had never had an interest in Korea, but as I looked into it, it looked like a great place to go. Japan also had direct flights,but was much more expensive and looked a little more challenging to plan with children. Valencia required two flights, which is much more difficult on everybody. So, Korea it was.

So, months back, the preparation began. We planned it to interrupt with school as little as possible and allow the kids to finish soccer season and experience Halloween. The last soccer game was October 31st (I was the head coach) and of course Halloween was on the 31st. We flew out on November first, which also was the day daylight savings time hit here in the USA. However, we flew out of Vancouver, Canada, which is no longer practicing Daylight Savings Time. All of that was a little bit disorienting and concerning, but we figured it out.

Why fly out of Canada? Remarkably, we saved about $200 per flight, parking was much cheaper and the drive was actually shorter and less stressful than going to Seattle. So, we saved almost $1,000 in flights and parking and honestly, it is just a nicer experience. Choosing airlines was a decision to be made. It was between the Canadian Airlines and Korean Air. If I recall correctly, Canadian was slightly less expensive, but their interface was terrible and I could not get through to them with any questions. I read terrible reviews about their service and also that their seating space was less. Korean Air on the other hand was easy to reach and very service oriented. A good thing to know is that Canada has a law that all families with children must be seated together by law, so we were able to book economy and not pay for reserving seats. It was all very smooth. The app for Korean air is highly functional. At this time, you needed to fill out an e-card online for entry, which was fairly easy. There were a few hiccups and it took a couple of hours. This will be changing in 2027 to a more complex process. It was a little cumbersome to fill out, but we did it. One unique thing is that they write the date by year, month and then day instead of month, day and year as we do here. The experience with Korean Air was friendly and comfortable and efficient as is everything we experienced in Korea. We were able to get priority boarding in both directions due to Robert’s autism. That is very helpful as we could get situated before the madness of everybody boarding takes place. I am always amazed at how dangerous people are stowing their luggage in overheads. I get hit by bags almost every time. The flights went well, although there was some turbulence both ways. The flight there was closer to 12 hours and the return slighly less than 10. It’s hard on my body, but ok. We arrived in Korea about 6:00 PM, which was good for getting into a sleep routine, even though it is 17 hours ahead there.

We parked our car at the Long-Term Value Parking near the Vancouver airport. Very economical and easy to use. I highly recommend it. You hop on a sky train and go to the airport at no cost. You get a small green, round token that you have to save for exiting the parking lot when you leave. All of that worked very well with the Sky Train dropping you right at the airport. The Vancouver airport is comfortable with some native artwork and carvings throughout. One of the exciting things about travel I have determined is the uncertainty of pretty much everything. How easy will it be to find the parking? Will the QR code work when entering? What was it about the green token? How do we get to the sky train form the parking lot? That was easy, but then we struggled with getting the tickets to get on the train. Somebody of course helped us. How long will the border wait be? I allotted a tremendous amount of extra time so that we could deal with any surprises calmly. Thankfully, my wife concurs with that approach. The border wait was very short. I always figure I should allow time for accidents, flat tires and so on.

Before the trip, I had arranged for a taxi to meet us at the airport in Incheon, which is about an hour and a half from Seoul. I knew we would be tired. It is cheaper to go via the subway, but hauling our luggage would have been a challenge and figuring out the subway with that fatigue and a full family would not have been wise. Klook has an app from which you can arrange such things. It worked fantastically well and the driver was their waiting for us and he was Whatsapping us with messages upon arrival. He had a photo of us, so he recognized us right away.

In the airport, I changed some currency, as I thought I needed to also buy the T Money cards in the airport. I could have waited and it would have been fine and the exchange rate is better outside the airport, but it was good to have a little cash. It is a little weird when 10,000 Korean Won equals about $6.50, but you learn to do the math quickly. The T Money cards are wonderful. They are the card that you use in the subway, but you can also use them to buy things at stores. You load them with money and use them like a credit or debit card. We stayed in Korea eight nights. At the airport I loaded about $30 on a card for my wife and one for myself (each person needs a card on the subway) and kids’ cards with about $15. Kids pay half what adults do on the subway. The crazy thing is that we rode the subway a lot every day and my wife and I both had about half of our money left over. A great feature of the T money cards is that before leaving, you can simply go to a convenience store and they pay cash back for whatever balance you have remaining. What a great system! It was excellent for the kids to learn how to use their own cards in the subway as well. The kids actually ran out of credit on the last day and it was easy to add to their balance in the subway area. Efficient as always.

Tax refund. Before I forget, a unique aspect of travel in Korea is that if you save your receipts, you can get a tax refund when departing from the airport. We didn’t shop that much, but even our convenience store purchases could be redeemed. At the airport, I had to wait in a line, scan my passport and then all of the barcodes on the receipts and then once through security, I could get cash at a small kiosk for my tax refund. Kinda cool. The line for scanning looked long, but like with everything else, was very efficient and smooth. A lot of things are done electronically there, but are typically accompanied by extensive instructions on how to do it and if you don’t understand it seems like somebody always steps in to help. Very practical people.

The taxi driver was very kind and patient with us at the airport and delivered us without drama to our hotel in Myeondong. The Hotel name was the Hotel Botanik. Not sure why. We got a room that had about twice as much space as most hotel rooms in Seoul. I thought that would be a good idea with two eight year olds and eight days. It was a good move. We had two small balconies and a view out on to the city. We could see Seoul Tower from our room. There was a nice kitchen with a stove, oven and microwave. We had a hot water device for coffee, tea and making ramen. The refrigerator and freezer were spacious. We stocked it with lots of iced coffee and banana milk, which became our go to every morning and afternoon for caffeine refueling. Interesting how when in new places you establish new routines quickly. From one life of routine to another. The first day we woke up before 4:00 AM due to jet lag, which gave us plenty of time to transition into our first day there. We had two large beds in separate room and a walk-in closet with an electronic safe available. I keep saying this, but even the safe worked more efficiently than many places. They even had a closet with temperature control for suits and nice clothing. The room had a clothes washer and dryer. All of these things were concealed behind wooden cabinets for the most part so a very “clean” feeling to the place. The bathroom had an excellent shower and of course a fancy toilet with cleaning features that one misses already. The room worked out very nicely and the hotel was super well run. We didn’t eat on site, but there were several places to eat. The convenience store on site was open 24 hours and we shopped there a couple of times a day. It is so fun when even the convenience store is a new, interesting experience.

I booked The Hotel Botanik on http://www.booking.com. I have always had good luck going through them.Typically I can find hotels with free cancellation up to a certain date, which protects us in case something happens. I will try to provide a link to the hotel as I highly recommend it. Their front desk was incredibly efficient. They answered the phones quickly if I had a question and the room was extremely nice. It was more expensive than what I would typically book, but with a family of four I wanted it to be a comfortable experience.

One thing I have taken to doing consistently is paying for travel insurance. I did so through http://www.Aardy.com. I recently had a trip planned for the family to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where my twins were born and the war broke out. I had to cancel the flights, which were non-refundable. Between the airlines and the insurance I was able to come out of that whole. The insurance also protects for medical issues, death and so on. We had to use such insurance once before when we all had significant respiratory issues on a trip when the kids were small, so it definitely provides peace of mind. Thankfully, we did not need to use it this time.

Communication is always a decision to make. The last few trips I have used an e-sim with unlimited data for my phone and my wife’s. We have used Airalo, which has an app and can be found at http://www.airalo.com. It receives good reviews and for the most part has worked well for us. In Korea it worked flawlessly. In other countries it seemed like the connections were a bit spotty, but not in Seoul. I do not get a sim with a phone number, so I can’t make phone calls or make/receive phone texts. I kind of like being cut off from that noise, but having a local phone number would be handy for local calls if needed. Whatsapp works fine for calls also. The only problem I had was trying to buy passes to Lotte World (the Disneyland of Korea) via Klook. When trying to use my credit card, they needed to send a notification to my cell phone, which of course I didn’t have my number from home, so we had to buy tickets on site. Fortuitously, they gave us a 30 percent discount because we had flown with Korean Air. Things have a way of working out. Anyway, the e-sims are kind of cool. You turn off your sim from home and turn on the one you purchase and install electronically…and presto….you have service. One can use their home phone service, but it costs a fair amount more. I do recommend Airalo and you can find discounts online.

The one app that came in very handy for us is called, Naver. It is essentially the Google Maps of Korea and it was superb. You could enter a destination and it would show you precisely how long it should take to walk, take the subway, drive or take a train to get there….or a combination of those and then you could follow the prompts. We used that extensively and it never failed us. It guides you to the subway stations, tells you how long the rides will be, where to get off and how far you have to walk after. You also can save locations all over the map, so that you can pull up the map at any time and see the landmarks you wish to visit and orient yourself accordingly. Great stuff!

We got settled in the first night and bought some food from the convenience store. Rice became the go to for the kids. My wife and I drank iced coffee with banana milk a couple of times per day and sample other things from the store. The iced coffee comes in pouches or bags that you put in your refrigerator to keep cold. You actually buy plastic cups full of ice and get straws. When ready to drink the coffee, you mix the banana milk and coffee over ice and drink with a straw. It is pretty delicious. I ordered some today from Amazon, but it’s a lot more expensive here and we will see how good it is.

The first morning, we woke up at about 4:00 AM due to the time difference and slowly began the day. I did my morning exercises, had a coffee and then Robert and I went out to find a money exchange house nearby. Our first outing. What a treat to spend 9 days with my family. My son is glued to me like gum, my wife likes to say. He holds my hand everywhere. Maybe we are both insecure. I like to think we both just love each other so much. He constantly talks, which occasionally gets tiring, but he is great fun. As we made our way using the Naver app, he would pose in front of the seemingly exotic store fronts along the way. I was so impressed with how comfortable him and his twin sister seemed throughout the trip. They also showed great stamina. We walked a lot everyday and going in and out of the subway always involves a ton of steps. Great workouts! It’s interesting how the first adventure in a town always seems longer as you are determining the route to get places. After a while it becomes routine, just like at home. Another note of interest is how quickly patterns of behavior set in. What you do when you wake up, what you eat and drink and so on.

I have attempted to reconstruct the days. It is challenging as I took no notes during the trip. No time for journaling with a family of four. On the first day after Robert and I changed some money, we decided to explore slowly in nearby areas. We chose Insadong, which is a historical area that has lots of cafes and places to eat. Aisha scored her first Pokie man (or is it mon?) card there. She was so excited. The shop keeper gave her an extra one as well. I have no idea what the significance of various cards are, but she insists she got some rare ones on the trip. From there we strolled across the street into an open field that had some beautiful trails through wildflowers and a large area with modern art and sculpture. It’s always a reminder that just wandering around leads you to some great finds. We then went to the Bukchon Hanok neighborhood known for its traditional homes. People still live there. The buildings were unique, but honestly I did not find it that fascinating and one had to navigate among many people trying to capture perfect photos. A lot of windy, uphill roads and many reminders to keep the noise low because people lived there. On the way out of the neighborhood, we ate our first street food. I ate some compacted rice in hot sauce called, tteobokki and Denny ate fish cakes on a stick. It was pretty good. The kids ate what were essentially cheese sticks. We then returned to the hotel via the subway and later went on our first foray into the Myeondong area with the throngs of shoppers.

The subway is truly a marvel. I think my trip to Taiwan had me much better prepared to navigate it. There are many subway lines distinguished by colors. Uniquely, the green line goes in a huge circle, connecting to all of the others. What I found remarkable was that no matter where you were in the sprawling city, there was always a subway station nearby and you could find it simply by walking and looking or better yet, using the Naver app to locate it. Typically, you descend down a long series of steps into the underground then walk through significant distances and follow signs leading to whichever lines are located there. You can transfer from line to line at various stations. At one point, you must use your card to electronically go through a gate. I was concerned how that would work out with two young children. I took Robert and Denny took Aisha. I would typically have Denny stay behind Robert to make sure he got through. Eventually, both kids learned how to use their cards. When exiting the subway you must do the same. The subway area is much more than just transportation. In some stations, there are essentially underground malls. So many types of shops. Clothing, books, food, flowers and much more. 7-11 stores, cafes, restaurants and so on. An underground life. Seoul metro lines have about 7 million individual trips per day. That is a lot of people being moved! Once near the trains, you have to be sure which direction you choose to go as you could go two different directions on the same line. This is often challenging as the name of the destination might not necessarily appear on the signs. You have to find a name that you know is in the same direction. It’s a bit of a puzzle, but part of the challenge and reward for using your head. Once ready to go, there are distinct positions outside the door where people wait in lines. It is very orderly. Before the train arrives, a fun music plays. When the train stops (it is a very long train!), the doors open and the riders exit between the orderly lines and then everybody enters. It is often quite crowded, but I can’t recall even one time where people seemed pushy. It was important to grab a handhold, so you didn’t fall when underway. Robert would typically hang on to me. If seats freed up, the kids were often offered the seat. There were very few children on the subway. Fantastic system!

On day two, we decided to go to the palace famous for the changing of the guard, which happens at 10 and 2 most days. It is called, Gyeonbokung palace. I must say the name places were a bit hard to remember and say. Next to the palace is the National Palace Museum of Korea, which I found to be one of the serendipitous finds of the trip. We entered the palace and had some time before the changing of the guards, so we wandered over to the museum. All of this was free during this week for some reason. The museum had many cool artifacts and lots of nicely done videos that showed various things. After strolling through the museum, we headed over to the changing of the guards. People formed a great ring around the performance. It was interesting to watch, but for me and Robert it got a little long. We were hemmed in by too many people and eventually made our way out. Later, Aisha commented on it being a highlight. The palace and grounds itself were not that amazing and you were not allowed to enter into the more ornate inner parts.

After the palace we decided to just walk. We strolled down Gwanghwamun Square pst freedom hall and King Sejong’s statue. There was a huge model of McDonald’s french fries at the top of some stairs that the kids ran up to.

We had some coffee at a nearby cafe. We then happened upon one of my favorite aspects of Seoul, the CheonggyeCheon stream which cuts through the city. It is below street level. There are fish in the stream, trails on both sides and stones that you can walk across from side to side. Every so often there are stairs that you can take up to street level. Essentially you can walk from one place in the city to another along a peaceful stream surrounded by water and greenery. Many people sit by the stream to read during warmer months and others use it for exercise. Truly a gem. Apparently it is almost 11 KM long and passes under 22 bridges. We walked along it frequently. Seoul also has the famous Han River, which many people frequent, but we did not. Next time.

Around the same time, we came across a memorial to the Korean War, which took place in the 1950s. My father actually served in that war, but on the home front. As I recall he inspected meat for the military (he was a veterinarian). Korea was split in 1945 by the USA and the Soviet Union (of course, the USA is involved once again). The North is communist and the South, capitalist. The temporary division became permanent in 1948, both claiming to be the legitimate Korea. The North invaded the South in June of 1950. Stalin thought the US would not fight for it, but they did. It was a stalemate for three years. It is a war not talked about a lot in the USA, but the US lost about 36,000 soldiers I believe…similar to Viet Nam War. An armistice was signed, but never a peace treaty, so technically they are still at war. 600,000 Chinese died. A million South Korean civilians and a million North Korean civilians died. Apparently Seoul changed hands four times and was almost completely destroyed. To this day, 28,500 US troops remain.

Anyway, the memorial we saw had the flags of all of the countries that helped South Korea and we found that the Dominican Republic (my wife and kids have dual citizenship) was involved, so we got a few photos of that.

That even, we went to Kwanjang market, which is within walking distance of our hotel. The market was full of textiles in one area and tons of food stalls in another. Upstairs we went to the Olive Young Skin Product shop that is so famous and we also discovered a very cool arcade for the kids. We went to the arcade several times while there. The arcade had high quality activities that were quite inexpensive compared to the States. How could we resist. They rode horses, sports cars, jetskis, shot baskets, played air hockey and much more. What a great outlet for them! We ate some street food once again. Robert ate a long string of potato chips on a stick. I think Denny ate a big cheese dog if I recall correctly. The food stalls were super photogenic with lots of people eating in groups with the server in the middle.

On Day 3, our focus was to be Lotte World, which is the Disneyland of South Korea. Something I honestly was not looking forward to. Waiting in lines, etcetera. the Klook app has discounts for tickets and you can avoid the ticket line by purchasing online prior to, but in order to do that, I needed my phone number from back home to verify my credit card purchase, so I could not do that. The subway ride was about 30 minutes. Outside Lotte World, you also have Lotte Tower and an associated mall. The tower is 123 floors tall at 555 meters. It is the tallest building in South Korea and one of the tallest in the world. It has a glass floor observation area. We did not make it up there, but did make it to Lotte World. The tickets to Lotte World were not very expensive compared to places like Disneyland. We received a 30% discount by showing our Korean Air flight information. I believe they are owned by the same company. I believe it was around $30 per entry ticket. The great thing is that you don’t have to pay for any rides individually. I recommend going early if you go there. There is an outdoor area and an indoor area. We started indoors as it is more appropriate for eight year olds. The kids started out on the merry go round and went from there. As a family did a fun King Kong and Godzilla ride that has some great imaging along the way. We also took a boat ride together that was quite fun. Robert screamed a lot on both rides. The kids went on various other rides and we had a great time for about four hours. We did go outside, but by the time the afternoon arrives, the lines are way too long to justify waiting. Great place for kids.

The following day, we went to Seoul Tower in Namsan Park. It was a colder, somewhat windy day, but clear with a bright sky and beautiful fall colors. One can walk to the tower, but we chose to go on the cable car. We had a little trouble finding our way their and took our only Uber ride of the trip, which went smoothly. There is a large plaza at the base of the tower and several floors of restaurants. Good views even without going up the tower. This is also a place where people place “love locks” on a fence. We took some photos there, but did not put love locks. The ride up the tower is very smooth and there is a 360 degree observation deck. I like how they have the names of other international cities on the windows indicating how far away they are. We ate at a Cinnabon restaurant and then went up the tower. As we descended and started to leave, I realized I had left my backpack somewhere. I searched the entire tower and eventually figured it was back at the restaurant. The great thing about being in Korea, you can be pretty sure nobody would steal it. I was not stressed. There it was next to our table behind a group of people. Such a feeling of safety cannot be overvalued.

Afterwards, we walked back into the city and ran into one of the big subway underground malls. Robert found a bunch of Beatles posters that he posed next to. He is a big Beatles fan these days. There were stores that sold many different things. Suitcases, antique cameras and much more.

Later we made our way to Myeondong for more shopping and browsing. On this trip, we gave the kids wallets and a certain amount of money. They really enjoyed that. They would stress making decisions about what to buy. Pokiemon cards, key rings, Spongebob dolls and so on. It was cute watching them try to pay the cashier (we were teaching them to present the bills with two hands, which is customary as a sign of respect). Denny looked for beauty products each time we entered stores.

We eventually settled into a restaurant for a sit down meal. I got one of the bubbling, boiling tofu soups, some prawns and cheeseballs were ordered, rice and a noodle soup for Denny. That night the kids hit the arcade again.

Somewhere around this time, I located a place to get a massage. Inexpensive. Almost all of the therapists were male, which was fine. The massages are given fully clothed. I found it very relaxing. They did some cool stuff with my feet. Must have hit some important locations. I came back another time. Nice people.

On the next day, a Saturday, we made our way to Hongdae, which is a hip area for younger people. The place was packed. Difficult to move around. They have primarily walking areas and different acts spontaneously take place. Singers, dancers and so on. We caught an act by a group of female dancers who looked like they were freezing (it was very cold). Aisha scored another Pokiemon. In one building, Karaoke performances take place above, overlooking the street. It looked like fun.

The next day, it was Myeondong once again and we ate at one of the Korean barbecue restaurants. You are presented with many side dishes and then whatever meat you order. You barbecue the meat yourself right at the table. It was quite good. You wrap up the meat in lettuce or other vegetables to eat. I also got another boiling dish of tofu stew.

On our last full day in Seoul, we went to a 12-story Daiso shopping store. That took a while to descend floor by floor and that was probably the place that we bought the most stuff. Things are inexpensive, so it is hard to resist. We later went to Namdaemun market, which had been recommended to us by a Korean couple from Georgia in the USA. Very much a highly visited local market. It was extremely crowded but very interesting. Robert found an Arizona Diamondbacks hat there, so he was very happy and we picked up a few other souvenirs before eating at a small, busy restaurant. We got a lot of food! I had a dish of ramen and another of tofu stew. Denny had another big dish that the waitress helped her mix up with sauce. The kids ate rice, which they did a lot of there.

We took a while finding our way home. I think we were tired. I have a great photo of Robert sitting next to an older man on the subway. Robert has a way with people. They immediately feel comfortable with him.

In the evening, we made it back to the Arcade. Just Aisha, Robert and I. Aisha fell on the sidewalk on the way there and got a few cuts but she was tough and we continued. We spent all of their remaining money and even tried playing the “claw” game where you try to grab prizes with a crane. I warned them that they might not get anything and sure enough they didn’t. Lesson learned.

The last morning, we took a leisurely stroll along the river, back to Myeondong for a quick meal at the McDonalds. Robert had not eaten much on the trip and he devoured a couple of servings of both pancakes and hash browns. He was a happy guy.

We had a taxi back to the airport arranged by the hotel. The taxis were reasonable. It was a 90-minute ride that cost about 75 dollars. The driver was quite a self-promoter and could not stop talking. He almost ran over a woman as we started, having to slam on the brakes. A little unnerving, but we arrived. Passage through the airport went smoothly with one last meal.

When we arrived to Canada, that went smoothly as well. Getting through customs, back to the parking lot via the Skytrain and onto the road.

We were reminded that we were returning to a different culture while driving. The car behind me was flashing its bright lights, presumably because they thought I was going to slow. Eventually they desperately passed me only to exit off the freeway while flipping me off. Back to the land of angry white people. Not a great welcome home. At the border, the US agent asked me if we had over $1,000 dollars, which we did. The limit is $10,000, so it was a bizarre question. He then said under $5,000? Yes. we were on our way. We arrived home safely even though it was raining hard. We all slept well that night.

Fantastic!