I’ve been totally neglecting this blog since I created it but with good reason. I’ve been working so much this past year that I’ve hardly had anytime to do anything fun for extended amounts of time. So when my girlfriend and her uncle invited me to go to South Korea, I totally jumped at the chance! Let’s see how long I can keep this blog up to date starting with some travel logs. 
Day 1 – Prequel
My 2 week vacation started out on Thursday evening, June 26, 2008 right after work. I had a buddy drop me off @ John Wayne Airport for a 7:40pm flight up to Oakland. The plan was to fly up there, spend the night @ my girlfriend’s and then along with her uncle, fly out of San Francisco International to Incheon, South Korea. There was a slight delay out of SNA and I ended up landing about an hour late in Oakland but other than that, I was stoked. This was about to be my first time out of the U.S. + prior to this the farthest away from home I’ve been was Seattle, WA for a business trip!
We got to SFO around 10am the next morning for a 1pm flight via United.
We were able to get through the ticket lines pretty quickly and ended up having about 2 hours to spare so we grabbed some breakfast at a Chinese place called Fung Lum Chinese Cuisine and Noodle in the international terminal. I didn’t read all the Yelp reviews for but I thought that was one of the best Chinese food places I could ever imagine at an airport food court. Sure beats Sbarro, Quizno’s and the like!
The plane we were on was a Boeing 747-200 and I was totally amazed at how everything was laid out and crammed into tight places like the TV’s and tray tables that folded into the arm rests, and the I never would’ve thought restroom layouts. The flight attendants were also quite awesome in serving us 3 full meals and a couple of snacks I believe. So about 12 hours later, we landed @ ICN @ around 5pm the next day.
Day 1 – From the airport
I think Incheon International has got to be one of the most awesomely designed airports in the world. Well, I guess I can’t really say that since I haven’t been to any other major gateways but let me tell you, the use of wood panels and natural colors made the whole place look very warm and inviting. Kind of like a really big modern day log cabin/mall with lots of technology and neon-green vested people helping you to find your way. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures but I’ll try to snap some on my way out.
From there we hopped on to a bus that cost us about $8.50/person to a city called Suji where we’re staying. The bus ride was quite interesting. Instead of the usual coach busses we have in the US, ours had 3 seats per row, with the aisle separating them into into a 2+1 configuration. They were pretty damn comfortable too, with full back and leg reclining capabilities.
Another peculiar thing I noticed a lot on the way out of the airport were weird looking gizmos sticking out of the top portion of the rear windshields of cars, mainly SUVs. They look like the those tight little rubber band pony tails that were found on a lot of black guys in the early 90’s. Well, I later found out that due to South Korea’s crazy amount of cars and abundance of tight parking spaces, they use these convex mirrors to help with backing up their cars into tight spaces. It actually works really well after seeing it in action. Too bad it looks so ugly.
If you’ve been in Southern California for any amount of time, you’ve probably seen some Hispanic fruit vendors stationed along freeway exits and street medians throughout major cities. They typically sell bags of oranges or flowers. Well, here in South Korea the freeway vendors literally stand in the middle of the freeway hawking their goods! Can you imagine going down the 405 and seeing feeble old men in between all lanes of the highway selling giant bags of popcorn? It was insane! Luckily for them traffic was only going at about 5-10mph.
Day 2 – E-Mart!
Our second day in South Korea was spent perusing the local E-Mart. This is not your typical Walmart. These are multi-storied department stores that have just about everything you could imagine all under one roof. From groceries to cell phones to clothing, they have everything here! They also have an amazing escalator and shopping cart system. The wheels are made so that you can only push them on flat ground, but as soon as you put them on uneven ground, the rubber/plastic pegs inhibits the cart from moving. So as soon as you push the cart on to the escalator, it just stops enabling you to go hands free. Thinking about it now, I’m still not sure how it works exactly…
E-Mart also has a pretty cool food court where I had my first authentic in Korea lunch. It was ok, I’ve had better katsu in the states.
Day 3 – Lunch, parks, and bungie jumping in Bundang!
Bundang is a pretty famous/highly populated city and is apparently a master planned city. We came over here to meet up with an old middle school/high school buddy of mines for lunch. The buffet we went to was pretty darn good for the price compared to similar places in the US. It was called Blue something… i forgot the name, anybody know? Lunch was under $20 for all you can eat sushi and a plethora of other stuff. I’m not sure what it all was but it sure was yummy!
After that we headed over to the Bundang Central Park for some sightseeing and pictures.
Then we headed over to Yuldong Park where I heard that there’s a bungee jumping tower! I had been wanting to do this forever and everyone was calling BS so I had to do it! Dude, that tower was pretty tall (45m/~150ft). Having it above a lake was kind of reassuring. So we trekked up to the bungee jumping building in the middle of the park and signed up.
All the paperwork was in Korean but fortunately I had my girlfriend’s uncle as a translator. The rules were basically you have to be between 15-50 years of age, don’t have any heart problems, and to do everything that the staff says. Unfortunately for me I didn’t know a lick of Korean .
I then proceeded to get suited up and tried to comprehend as many hand gestures as I could.
On the way up the elevator, there was another kid jumping also and I heard the staff guy mumbling something to him. By the time they finished their conversation the elevator door opened and the staff guy pointed to and said, “ok, you first.” Bastard!
I followed him out to the platform and damn that was high! He opened up a gate, clipped me onto the cord and told me that he was going to count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then I was to jump out as far as I could. I thought oh boy, this is pretty easy if not for that I’m overlooking a lake from 150 feet above with nothing but a cord strapped to my back.
Then he says, “ok, ready.”
I asked “are you sure?”
He says “perfect.”
5..
4..
3..
2..
1..
aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Wooooooooo!! That was the best rush I’ve ever felt. I was so stoked I was totally ready to do it again. I’m going to have to go back there before I leave. The price was a steal too, only $25!
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