Mom's Visit to Asia - Part One

February 15, 2011

Today’s entry is going to be a long one, because I’ve got to cover a long list of things! We’ll start with Mom coming to Korea, followed by our weekend in Seoul, our days in Pyeongtaek, our week in Thailand, and then a general life update following all that. Phew!

Mom flew in on Saturday morning super early, as in 4 a.m. She took a taxi to the Incheon Hotel Airport, which is a conveniently placed hotel that you can rent out hours at a time instead of nights – so, perfect for Mom, who only needed it until noon so she could catch up on her sleep before I met her there around midday.

My own voyage to the hotel was fine – took the bus, then hopped a ludicrously expensive taxi which absolutely overcharged me, but I wasn’t aware of that at the time. Anyway, I found Mom no problem, there was much hugging and “I missed you!” “No, I missed you!”, etc. After that we proceeded on the train back to Seoul Station, where we attempted to walk to the hotel Ramada, discovered that it was insanely complex to get to, and ended up in a taxi. Most of our adventures ended that way, actually.

On Saturday, Mom was still pretty tired, so we just ended up going to the War Memorial. It’s a really neat place, full of dioramas and videos – even a miniature castle! But by closing time (6 p.m.), Mom decided that she was so exhausted from the jet lag that we just needed to go back to the hotel and go to bed. So we popped back to Seoul Station on the subway, then cabbed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we tried to go to the classy restaurant on the top floor, but they required reservations, so we went down to the basement and ate at a nice little Korean restaurant. I, being the adventurous soul that I am, ordered bulgogi, which was actually really perplexing because it was more of a soup than marinated beef, and it was quite difficult to eat. But Mom got bibimbop, which I’ve never ordered because, well, it sounds boring. It’s basically veggies and rice mixed up in a bowl. Still, she liked it, and I had a taste so that I can now say I’ve had bibimbop.

The next day we hit up Gyeongbokgung palace, which is a huge palace complex that takes up a good two or three city blocks. It’s absolutely massive, really well-preserved, and done in the traditional Korean style. And when we were exiting the subway, there was a free tour guide – a 13 year old girl named Michelle who volunteers as part of some Korean cultural group. She spoke fantastic English, and was very knowledgeable about the palace. My favourite part was the story of Queen Min, who was assassinated when the Japanese attacked, and then her body was carried up into the mountains to be burnt. It seems unnecessary to me that they carried her all the way up there, but there you go.

After that we wandered around the area for a bit, strolled down Insadong street, and I re-discovered Mom’s passion for tea. She literally cannot function without tea. So when she ran out halfway down Insadong street, we had to make a mad rush to the end, get on the subway, and get back to the hotel so she could have her tea fix.

The next morning we went back to Pyeongtaek, where mother amused herself during my work hours by wandering around Pyeongtaek and buying things. For example, she was unimpressed by my freezing cold bathroom – because the insulation is crap – so she bought a space heater to stick in the bathroom. She also got some face cloths, a surprisingly racist book about Korea, and various other odds and ends. On the first night we went out for Korean BBQ, which Mom loved, and the next day we got a seafood deluxe pizza, which had shrimp rolled in potato, and was... well, it was strange. I definitely won’t be ordering it again, unless another Canadian person comes out to Korea and wants to experience the odd pizza flavours here.

On Wednesday we hopped the train to Seoul Station, intending to take the express train to Incheon airport. But when we started to head down the multi-escalator path down to the train, we discovered that, so long as you’re flying Korean Air, you can check in at Seoul Station! They even take the bags for you. So we did that, and then showed up at the airport with hours to spare, which was amazing in that Incheon Airport is the most awesome airport I have ever set foot in. It’s huge, it’s new, it’s roomy, it’s got a sky garden... just phenomenal. I would live there if I could, but I doubt the airport personnel would take kindly to that.

Our trip to Bangkok was uneventful, although when we got there, the customs process took a stupidly long time. Eventually we realized that, if we went over to the furthest right line, the attendants were actually pulling foreigners out of line and letting them use the Thailand passport-holder booths. After that it took like five minutes. So if you ever go to Bangkok, stay to the right!

We took an incredibly civilized, lavender-scented taxi into Bangkok and over to the Shangri-La hotel. It’s actually more of a resort, complete with pool, multiple restaurants, a spa, etc. We didn’t partake of the pool, but the restaurants and spa were all wonderful. Well, more on the spa later, but it was certainly an interesting – and somewhat terrifying – experience.

Following an excellent night’s sleep, we woke up bright and early the next morning... and ordered room service. You see, Mom got her Hepatitis shots, but apparently they didn’t take. Like, at all. She got the shots, and then... nothing. No immunity. No trace of the shots at all lingering in her system. So we had to eat our meals at the hotel, because it was guaranteed not to contain contaminated water/food. Well, I snacked as we went, but Mom couldn’t, which she wasn’t too pleased about.

The first day we decided to do a walking tour of the area, which included various places like the Assumption cathedral, the old Customs house, the Bangkok museum... and other stuff. We had some mutton masala at a little back-alley restaurant – which Mom probably shouldn’t have eaten, now that I think about it. And we got lost in an incredibly sketchy part of town next to Haroon village, which featured mountains of spare car parts, garbage liberally strewn about, and assorted shady looking individuals.

We also ran into the traditional Bangkok tourist scammers, which involves friendly-looking invididuals approaching foreigners and offering to help them find their way. Once you’ve started to trust them, they call over a “tuk tuk” – a three-wheeled taxi – and then they try to get you to get into it. Lord only knows what happens to you once you get in. You probably get robbed. Anyway, when the tuk tuk pulled up we caught on to their scheme and beat a hasty departure.

That’s another thing about Bangkok. It’s obnoxious to be a tourist there. Tuk tuks are everywhere, and every single one pulls over and tries to talk you into taking a ride. Even if you’re going in the opposite direction. Or have just turned down the last three tuk tuks, who were like five feet down the road and therefore clearly visible to the new tuk tuk driver. Sigh.

Oh yes! We also went to the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which was one of the first luxury hotels in Bangkok, and is really famous for writers staying there and being inspired by... well, presumably Bangkok, although I understand there was a lot of drinking and prostitution involved as well. On Monday we had high tea there, but the first time we visited (Thursday), we just wandered around and then continued on our way.

After this we decided to find Chinatown, since it was Lunar New Year, and we figured there would be some sort of celebration. Sure enough, the place was packed – red lanterns overhead, people swarming the streets, food carts rolling around, people wandering around selling dragon toys, etc. The cops were also trying to clear the streets, which we thought was due to an imminent parade, but was actually for a quite different reason. After we waited around for about ninety minutes, a car with police escort drove down the road. That was it. It turns out the princess of Thailand was in the car, and that was what everyone was waiting for. Yay?

We wandered around a bit more, saw the various New Year entertainments – dragon dances, a phenomenal Chinese acrobat, not to mention the temple of the Golden Buddha. And then we went back to the hotel, exhausted but happy, ate at the Thai restaurant in the hotel – which was actually really cool, as they had Thai dancers come out and entertain us – and then back to the room for sleeping.

And now my fingers – and, for some reason, wrists – are hurting from all this typing, so I’m going to end this entry here and pick up later. Perhaps tomorrow. I’ve just recently come down with a cold/sore throat, so I’m feeling pretty blah. Fingers crossed that I recover before the excessive nose blowing sets in, because that’s just not pretty for anyone involved.

Fin.