South Korea - Our Adventures Begin Again!

The Adventures of Phillip and Pat are starting again! Next up: South Korea. I am specifying “South Korea” instead of just “Korea” in case someone thinks we may be crazy enough to head for North Korea. Phillip and I are adventuresome, but not foolhardy. When we were in Thailand in 2011, we did not make disparaging remarks about the royal family (such comments are against the law there), but I don’t think we could stop ourselves from saying something negative about Kim Jong-un, and North Korea is way more serious about such talk! No international incidents or North Korean prison camps for us, thank you very much. South Korea will be perfectly fine, as long as ol’ Kim doesn’t fire a nuke at it while we are there.

Phillip and I had initially planned to make a three month trip to Asia this year, visiting the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea; however, our plans changed when my mother got sick and died late last year. We shortened our trip to visit only Korea as we’re still dealing with probate issues, the remodeling of her

house, our move into it, and the sale of our house. Four weeks in Korea is still a great vacation, and longer than we spent in Thailand in 2011 and in the Philippines in 2014. And the question, “why Korea?” is answered, for me, with one word: food. Bul go gi, kimbop, kim chee, I love Korean food. Phillip was stationed in Korea for a year when he was in the Air Force, so he knows a few words in Korean and appreciates the food, the country, and the people.

We will have a direct, non-stop flight from DFW Airport to Seoul. After a few days in Seoul, we will fly south to the island of Je Ju Do, which Phillip says is Korea’s version of Hawaii. A week on Je Ju Do and then we will fly to Busan. The mother of one of Robin’s friends, Heather, is from Busan and Heather recommended it to us. From Busan, we will travel to Daegu, then to Suwon, and end back in Seoul before returning to DFW. Phillip was stationed at Osan Air Force Base, which is just south of Suwon, and he remembers visiting Suwon and the folk village near there. He is curious to see what has changed in the almost forty years since he’s visited. (My guess: a lot!)

My preparation for this trip is the same as for our previous trips. Phillip makes the arrangements to get us there, then I arrange the hotels and in-country travel. I research and create an itinerary of activities for us during each stop. The itinerary is just a plan, changeable if we see something else we want to do or if the weather doesn’t cooperate. The more important thing for me is to have transportation directions in the itinerary. Where do we catch the train from Incheon Airport into Seoul so we don’t spend $150 on a taxi? How often does the express bus run from Busan to Daegu and which bus terminal do we use? My only travel meltdown occurred in the Philippines over transportation when I had us at the wrong terminal and we ended up with a terrible, crowded four hour van ride. Phillip wasn’t upset, I was. I don’t expect anything like that in Korea, as my bible, also known as the Lonely Planet guide, says that the transportation infrastructure of Korea is outstanding. Also, Phillip and I know to hire a private car and driver now if we need it to avoid that previous experience.

Packing is not the chore it once was as we don’t take a lot of stuff. A week’s worth of clothes (people do laundry everywhere in the world), no extra shoes (no need for heels), a small bottle of shampoo (about 80% of the time, shampoo is provided where we stay) and minimal other toiletries (I don’t usually wear makeup anymore). I expect I’ll have the same “discussion” with Phillip about blue jeans that I’ve had before our previous international trips. Jeans take up too much space in the suitcase when they aren’t on one’s body, they take forever to dry when washed, and the pockets aren’t roomy enough to hold a camera or even a passport. I prevailed before on this, and I plan to prevail again! I hopeful that the lightweight cargo-type pants he bought last year will suffice.

Electronic stuff, however, is my packing nightmare. Everything needs its own charger cord. So, we’ll have two phones, two cameras and the GoPro, my new tablet and keyboard (keyboard has a power cord), and a back-up power supply device for the tablet and phones. That’s eight charger cords, plus the power strip to plug them into. And I’m not yet comfortable with cloud storage, so I’ll have an external hard drive, SD cards, and thumb drives on which to save the pictures. Maybe one day Phillip and I will travel with the just phones and I’ll use them for pictures and create and save everything in the cloud, but I’m not there yet. Heck, even my tablet still needs a keyboard!

I haven't actually started the packing yet, but I have completed the planning and arrangements. I've been emailing with Jessie, the lady in Seoul from whom we are taking cooking lessons. She speaks English and gives the cooking lessons on weekends and in the evening. We get to pick which foods we want to learn to cook. Phillip and I chose a bunch of the different side dishes: the cucumber kim chee, the noodles (jap chae), the scrambled egg roll, and the tofu side dish. We are very excited about our class. 

Nineteen more days and we will be boarding our flight!