My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F & J

[boomy]

My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

Nice TR!
Reminds me of my GUM trip in September where I also managed to squeeze 9 flights in (but not NRT-ICN F, well done!).
We had lunch at Din Tai Fung Taipe 101 restaurant where you can sign-up , select the food and go do some shopping for an hour until your seat is ready.

 

[trentusjuventus]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

We had lunch at Din Tai Fung Taipe 101 restaurant where you can sign-up , select the food and go do some shopping for an hour until your seat is ready.

There's also one hidden in the basement of the SOGO at Zhongxiao Fuxing, not sure if they offer this order ahead service however.

 

[snabbu]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

What an epic trip smit0847! If for whatever reason your mate isn't up for the next trip you book like this gimme a yell

 

[smit0847]

My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

After 101 we managed to work out the somewhat confusing public bus service to head to National Martyrs Shrine which is near the river which is near the Taipei Shongshan (TSA) airport which if you fly into instead of Taoyuan (TPE) is MUCH closer to the city (much like HND vs NRT This was an oasis of calm and yet another well located, well maintained, well-signed free tourist attraction.





Another thing I loved about Taipei was the abundance of clean, free, well-signed, well-located public toilets. They were everywhere!

 

[LadyC]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Enjoying your TR so far - thanks for posting. That is definite a crazy trip you have planned!

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

By 6pm our energy was fading fast but we pushed on as we only had 1 more stop. I had read so much about the Shilin Night Markets so I wanted to check them out. We arrived as some of the outer stalls were just setting up so we dove in and get lost in hundreds and hundreds of different stalls, selling everything from shoes to pancakes to mobile phones. There are all sorts of weird and wonderful dishes for sale- we tried a few which were great. Unfortunately I didn't see anywhere selling alcohol so we couldn't stop for a drink. You could spend hours and hours in there and not get through it all! I'd put this and Chiang Kaishek at the top of your list if you're visiting Taipei.




Even though we didn't need to head back to the airport until about 8:30pm, by 7:30 we were so exhausted we made our way back to the main train station. We had been walking solidly for 9 hours and our feet were sore. We stumbled across Taipei's Time Square on the way back.

We both slept most of the bus trip back to the airport. 4:30am is a very early start and if I did this again id rather fly up the night before, sleep until 9am and then explore the city better rested.

I really enjoyed the ease of Taipei - it was cheap, and very manageable racing around for a day. I don't think you'd need longer than 2 or 3 days there though.

 

[jukebox333]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Really enjoying this TR - thanks for taking the time to post!

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

We had already collected our boarding passes in HKG that morning so headed straight for the Lounge. This was a peak time at the airport with BR and CIs European departures but the airport was still not busy.
I do quite like the black check-in counters- I had never seen that before. I had read that BR have a confusing 4 different Lounges in TPE, all next to each other, despite having no F class. I still don’t understand the need for all 4 but I understand 1 is for J pax, another for Star Alliance Gold and I guess another for credit card holders? What’s the fourth for? Anyway, we knew The Infinity Lounge was the ‘J class’ lounge so headed there.

It was a terrific lounge and continued our very good impression of BR. Very unusual psychedelic lighting design but plenty of good hot food options (the beef soup was delicious) and excellent showers rooms which were very, very welcome after a long day of racing around Taipei. Who doesn't like a freezer full of Movenpick for dessert?! Staff were also fantastic – there was an issue with my entry visa (I didn’t think I had one or needed it but they thought I needed one) so two lounge staff spent quite a bit of time with me very concerned and determined to sort this out in a very friendly and professional manner (it was soon resolved). We were exhausted, but comfortable. Boarding was eventually called and we headed to the gate.

 

[boomy]

My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

I see that you didn't try the stinky tofu in the markets, that's an experience I won't forget...
I agree that 2-3 days in Taipei is enough but there is much more to see in Taiwan then its capital city. We spent total 5 days and felt it wasn't enough to see all the highlights this county has to offer.
If only LM would open more availably to TPE.

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Flight #4
BR20 TPE-GUM
A330-200 Seat 7H Business Class (2 class plane)

As soon as we realised this would be a Hello Kitty flight we were really excited but ultimately it really wasn’t that special. We received a Hello Kitty boarding pass and walked past a Hello Kitty stall/display but that was about as exciting as it got. We boarded at a very generic gate onto an A330 with the same seating as the flight that morning. There were Hello Kitty branded head rests, pillows safety cards and videos but that was where the fun ended. I don’t even really know what Hello Kitty is (is it a toy? A cartoon character?). To be honest I was also pretty exhausted by this stage (I’d been up for almost 20 hours walking most of the day) so maybe I wasn’t in a particularly festive mood. It wasn't a bad flight but with an almost full J cabin I certainly enjoyed that mornings HKG-TPE flight much more. Everyone in the J cabin just seemed to want to sleep.
I was most surprised to see that safety demonstration was the standard EVA one and not a special Hello Kitty one.



I wasn’t particularly hungry but was interested to see whether the food would be special. There was an odd Hello Kitty shaped carrot but that was about it. The food was good and a pretty substantial meal for a 3.5 hour flight.



The dinner service was conducted quickly and I reclined my bed to get a few hours sleep before landing. Angled-flats are fine for this purpose. This was always going to be a difficult flight – not really long enough to get a proper sleep and arriving too early into Guam (04:40) to start the day- a proper red-eye. We landed in Guam on time to find it still dark, and raining (no surprises there!) and quickly made it through immigration and customs. Our bags were the first off the carousel and we were into a cab and at our hotel at Tauming before 05:30 to crash into bed and catch up on some sleep.

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/O...

It's bringing back fond memories of our TG F trip last year. I too drank the Vodka with the caviar - just because

Keep it going.

Thanks - TG cops a lot of flack for its outdated products and methods but I still think their F class is pretty good - not every airline offers proper F these days!

Nice report and it's making me reminisce of my handful of flights on TG F I have taken over the past five years. We just completed HKG-BKK-SYD just two days ago so the experience is still quite fresh in my mind. Our HKG-BKK sector starred the A380 and for such a small afternoon sector, there was no amenity bag or PJ's being offered. I flew the exact same sectors eight months earlier and I am sure both amenity bags and PJ's were offered. Both my BKK-SYD legs this year we had older 10 seat F cabins, though we did fly to LON last August with the rejuvenated 9 seat F cabins, and came back on the A380 via FRA. Both 9 seat F and A380 are great. I have two booked TG F flights for 2015, one in April and then in August, so again looking forward to being up front. That said, our July/August trip where we will be eloping to LAS, we will be flying SQ Suites (SYD-SIN-NRT-LAX) and (waiting to book) EK A380 F (JFK-DXB-BKK) and TG F BKK-SYD. After experiencing SQ and EK, I am sure TG F will like I've stepped down five levels

We were disappointed not to get an A380 on one of the HKG sectors but VERY glad we got new F on the longest day-time flight. I think SQ R will trump TG F on every level except hub ground service!

Nice TR!
Reminds me of my GUM trip in September where I also managed to squeeze 9 flights in (but not NRT-ICN F, well done!).
We had lunch at Din Tai Fung Taipe 101 restaurant where you can sign-up , select the food and go do some shopping for an hour until your seat is ready.

I probably could have pushed for 10 and tried to race around PVG but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't. The OZ F sector didn't work out exactly as planned as you will see.

Oh I didn't know there was a DTF there?! The place we went (literally three doors behind TDF) was great - well prices and we got a table straight away.

What an epic trip smit0847! If for whatever reason your mate isn't up for the next trip you book like this gimme a yell

Haha - I'll keep that in mind although I think my cousin has already taken that spot! After seeing some of these photos he has said to me 'Whatever you can book next time, I want to come'

Enjoying your TR so far - thanks for posting. That is definite a crazy trip you have planned!

It was - it would have been nicer if we could have spread it over a few more days but USDM does have some rules they actually enforce.

Really enjoying this TR - thanks for taking the time to post!

You're welcome - I've enjoyed reflecting on it.

I see that you didn't try the stinky tofu in the markets, that's an experience I won't forget...
I agree that 2-3 days in Taipei is enough but there is much more to see in Taiwan then its capital city. We spent total 5 days and felt it wasn't enough to see all the highlights this county has to offer.
If only LM would open more availably to TPE.

I'd happily go back to TPE but my sister spent a week there for a wedding last year and said a week was too long. Its an extremely easy city to get around compared with some places I have been. I'm hoping the current LMs glitch will be fixed soon!

 

[trentusjuventus]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Unfortunately I didn't see anywhere selling alcohol so we couldn't stop for a drink.

Bars are hard to come by, especially in that area, however any 7-11 or family mart can serve as a makeshift bar if you're thirsty!

We stumbled across Taipei's Time Square on the way back.

Ximending, where all the cool kids shop

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

On my last visit to Guam I stayed for 5 nights. This was too long especially as it rained for half the time and there is very little to do when it is raining. This time we scheduled in 26 hours and hoped for good weather. This turned out to be a much better amount of time. We woke up around 11am feeling much better and nervously peeked outside to find blue skies and warm, dry weather. Perfect.

We had wanted to go parasailing the previous trip to Guam but being disorganised we were unable to book a spot before we had to leave. We knew the Onward Beach Resort organised their own parasailing so that was the main reason for booking this hotel. With our fingers crossed we rang reception asking if there was a spot that day (as we were leaving the following morning). They said they had a spot in 1 hours time. Perfect. We quickly dressed and headed down to the pick up point. They drove us to a nearby marina where we boarded a small speed boat with 2 Japanese tourists. Parasailing was really fun – you go really really high and the boat driver was good fun dunking us into the ocean several times.


We got back to the hotel and headed to the hotel buffet for lunch as without a car we couldn’t really be bothered going anywhere else to eat. We were most surprised to find that the lunch buffet ran from 11:30-1:30 only! We arrived at 1:32 to be told we couldn’t possibly eat, like we had asked them if they could serve us cereal for dinner or something. Who eats lunch at 11:30, especially when the breakfast buffet didn’t close until 10am?! Dejected we headed to Shirleys down the road which was an enormous coffee house with huge serves and low prices (typical American diner fare). We spent the afternoon investigating the Hotel’s ‘water park’ which was like a very small Wet’n’Wild theme park. It wasn’t bad and considering it was free as part of our accommodation I can’t complain – it was fun for a few hours. Guams never going to have stunning tourist attractions. We spent longer just lazing by the pool reading books and watching things on our tablets. Weather was perfect and it was nice to have a day doing nothing to recharge the batteries.


After a fairly quick dinner at the hotels Italian restaurant (and a bottle of red which was really nice to have) we packed and had an early night. I enjoyed Guam much more this time. Long enough to really relax and recharge a bit with the excellent weather and cheap attractions, short enough that we didn’t get bored. Yes Guam is a bit of a dump but its incredibly cheap and very easy to visit.

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Flight #5
UA828 GUM-NRT B777-200
Seat 1A - Business Class (2 class plane)

The alarm went off at 4:30am again and we headed to the airport in a cab. Cabs are the only thing about Guam that are very expensive – more than a dollar per minute. We headed to UA check-in where there was yet another problem with our itinerary. I held my breath while they explained that it was just a problem with having too many sectors on the baggage through multiple airlines but I explained that I just wanted to check the bags through to ICN via NRT and that was fine. We headed through security to the dreadful United Club. After the brilliant SQ, TG, VS and BR lounges this trip it was a bit of a shock to the system. The breakfast ‘spread’ consisted of yoghurt, donuts and orange ‘drink’. We only nibbled at the food. The United Club does have good views and a rather grandiose staircase but that’s about all its got going for it.

UA in GUM have this strange process of boarding flights really, really early. Even 737 flights are boarded T-45 minutes with a urgent last call at about T-40 (we got to the gate at T-30 last time and we barely made the flight - they were ready to send out the National Guard to search for us). Sure enough, at T-45 on the dot the flight was called for boarding. We had to fly to NRT from GUM in order to pick up the OZ F flight but the added benefit of this route is that while UA fly to most of the major Japanese airports from GUM, GUM-NRT is the only Japanese route they use a wide-body on. Historically this route has been the hardest Guam-Japan route to find premium award seats on (I guess because it was a more popular business route). After doing 2 737 UA legs on my previous trip to GUM I was excited to be on a UA widebody. We boarded to enter a cabin as expected – big plush recliners in a 2-3-2 configuration. Row 1 centre is definitely the row to go for – it has masses of leg room.


The crew on this flight were vastly different to our 737 UA crew from the previous trip – they were almost exclusively Japanese. The J cabin was about 40% full. Prior to take off the crew walked around with a single laminated menu which they handed to us for us to then immediately choose what we wanted. It was very tacky. The choices for breakfast were raisin French toast with bacon or some sort of Asian fried rice. I went for the French toast. We took off as the sun was just fully risen and had a good view over Guam. I really did enjoy my 26 hours there this time – a much more appropriate length of time and a great way to recharge mid-trip.

To be honest I don’t really remember much about this flight other than the meal. This is what was served to me:

While it was substantial the taste was very average. The ‘bacon’ was a ham steak – I hadn’t had one of these for about 15 years. The French toast itself had almost no flavour so I drowned it in the sickly sweet maple sauce. You really notice the difference between US and Asian carriers when you are actually flying both in Asia!
I reclined the seat as much as I could and managed about an hours sleep – the seat was fairly comfortable and much better for napping than the 737 UA seats as the leg and footrest expand right out.

Always interesting spotting at NRT!

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

We landed at NRT on time and headed for the nearest NH lounge. We still didn’t know whether we would be in F or J for the next flight. When we found the NH lounge is instructed us to take the lift up the F Lounge or down to the J Lounge. We tried our luck at the F lounge counter explaining that we had originally booked F but didn’t know if the aircraft had changed. UA had given us a UA stock boarding pass for the OZ flight which had our original F seat assignment or 2K and 3K but said the class was ‘premier access’ (whatever that means). The F lounge staff very politely informed us that our lounge was downstairs (ie the J lounge) so we headed down there. The J lounge was packed when we first arrived but eventually emptied right out after about an hour. Being there in the morning we didn’t hit the booze. There was a reasonable spread of food including a noodle station where we ordered noodles. The chef oddly didn’t speak a word of English which made it quite difficult to order! Weird given how international the pax were.

The J lounge had a BIG business centre which my mate used to call USDM to book another (separate) trip hahaha, and it also had these cool slumber chairs in a dark and quiet curtained off corner.

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Flight #6
OZ101 NRT-ICN B747
Seat 2K - First Class Seat, Business Class Service

When boarding for our OZ flight was called we headed to the gate unsure of exactly what the next few hours would entail. First positive sign was the giant nose of an OZ 747 at our gate. I knew these had F seats and we were armed with boarding passes for those seats. We handed over our UA stock boarding passes to the gate agent who instructed us to head to the desk, I assumed because they wanted to give us a OZ stock boarding pass (fair enough). We handed over our boarding pass and they furiously typed away at their computer and I saw them printing out OZ boarding passes. I happened to glance at the seat numbers on them and saw ‘14A and 14C’. Thinking extremely quickly I immediately pointed out that we had already selected our seats and did not want to move (fearing Row 14 would be the J seats upstairs). The gate agent assured us our seats had not changed but that she was printing out tomorrows TG ICN-HKG boarding passes. I still don’t know why they did this – we hadn’t checked our baggage through to HKG (nor did we want to) and would need to check in in ICN tomorrow anyway (and the next flight wasn’t even operated by OZ!). Anyway, she handed us back our original UA boarding passes for this OZ flight together with our new boarding passes for tomorrows flight we hadn’t even checked in for! Oh well, I guess on a complex itinerary that its better to have boarding passes you don’t need than be unable to get the boarding passes you do need!

We boarded through the front aerobridge into a proper F cabin. First impressions were very nice. Very open (i.e. not private) similar to the TG old F but the seats seems shorter but wider (more ‘squat’). Not quite as spacious as TG old F but it certainly looks newer and more luxurious. We took our seats once again patting ourselves on the back for how this had all worked out. Unsurprisingly the F cabin was completely full, I’m guessing with pax who had either booked in F like us and been downgraded and those in J who were lucky in either savvy seat assignment, or perhaps were high status pax who had been seated in F seats, much like QF will do when they run a 3-class A380 to HKG.




We were handed menus for this short flight and I was very happy to see Bimimbap on the menu. I had seen many photos of this being served on Korean flights but never tried it myself. We were offered champagne (I can’t remember what it was but it wasn’t the top shelf stuff) and our orders were taken. After take-off the crew moved into gear pretty quickly as it was a short flight (about the same length as BKK-HKG). The Bibimbap was a one-tray affair but it was beautifully presented and tasted great. Thankfully the menu had instructions on how to eat it as I would have had no idea otherwise (I thought the soup was supposed to be poured on top to make a stew).


After lunch I reclined the seat slightly – I really like how they angle towards the window – even though there’s far less room than the TG old F seats around the feet area they are quite private as you are not facing anyone else. They're very cosy.

Old mate in front of me was a bit annoying:

(Ummm that's my TV)

Apart from I guess the vintage of the champagne and the main course, this felt like an F class flight and was a lot better than our TG F BKK-HKG flight a week earlier. We landed on time in the massive ICN airport and headed into the CBD.

 

[boomy]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

Looking at the photos the OZ F cabin appears to be similar to the old TG F but I'm glad to read that you found better. I'm booked in the exact same seat for my flight to FRA next week

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

My goodness Seoul was cold! I didn't realise how far North it was. We caught the airport train to Seoul station and then tried to find our hotel which was right near the station. Seoul station is enormous and this took quite some time.

We visited a Jimjibang which again was night near the station/hotel but again took quite some time to find. This was a very unusual experience, but very Korean. Like a Japanese onsen but more extreme. It's certainly odd to walk around completely naked with complete strangers (not even a modesty towel). There are a lot of rules and procedures and the staff didn't speak much English so I would recommend reading up on the process before going. It was enjoyable but I did like the Japanese onsens better as they seemed a bit more relaxed. We were the only non-Koreans there despite it being marketed in English (with some English signage)


We then had to catch the subway to our night food tour. Again, this took quite some time. I found the enormous seoul transport system confusing and inefficient compared to the Taipei one- it took a long time to get anywhere (and we were only going a few stops)

(Now which station are we going to?)

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

With only one night in Seoul, and without the benefit of a full day there like in Taipei, I wanted to focus on just a few key activities in Seoul, rather than trying to race around and see everything. When looking on trip advisor, along with the iconic Jimjibang (see previous post) the On’go night food tour was a standout as arguably the best rated activity/attraction in Seoul. I had booked the tour months in advance (as we only had 1 night in Seoul). The tour kicked off at 6pm but the instructions asked us to arrive by 5:45 to arrange the group (which could be up to 10 people). We seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to get even a few stops on the subway and literally ran from the train station to the On’go office arriving extremely late at 6:15. We were very frustrated, expecting the tour to have left without us and hoping at least that they hadn’t gone too far and someone at the office could write down where they were on a piece of paper and we could jump in a cab and catch them up.

We arrived at the On’go office completely out of breath managing to tell them why we were there in amongst gasps and apologising profusely. It’s fair to say that although we had some bad luck with a few things on this trip (like the downgrade of OZ101 etc) overall we were very lucky. We were lucky to have even been able to book this trip, lucky that schedule changes didn’t cause any misconnects and cancel everything, lucky that we didn’t get sick or injured. So perhaps we should have been more relaxed and just trusted things would work out when the guy at the desk said ‘don’t worry – you are the only two people on the tour tonight. I’m your personal guide and we can leave whenever you are ready. Would you like some water?’. We just looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief. Not wanting to waste any more of his time we apologised again and assured him we were ready to go when he was.

Our guide Robert was fantastic – he was studying law at University (I’m a lawyer) and was very keen to practice his (already excellent) English and was very genuinely interested in Australia so we had plenty to talk about. He walked us down some back alleys to an outdoor BBQ stall/café that we would never have found by ourselves. They were expecting him and we sat around a BBQ grill while they brought out various meats, vegetables and accompaniments. They also brought out various drinks and by this stage we were VERY ready for a drink! The last 4 hours since landing at ICN had been pretty stressful. Robert cooked all sorts of things on the grill and we played drinking games all the while telling us about Korean culture, food, rituals etc. The conversation flowed easily as did the drinks. The food was delicious (hint – try BBQing kimchi – it completely changes the flavour of it).



After the BBQ we walked to another back alley restaurant, sitting inside this time. Robert ordered us a hot pot and more drinks. I was most interested to learn that in Korean culture you ‘cheers’ each other in a similar way to Australia, but look away when you actually drink which is completely different to Australia. By this stage we were feeling much better – far more relaxed and really enjoying it. Into the hot pot went a rather strange cheesy-pasta sort of dish which I thought was odd as I know most Asians are lactose intolerant. It still tasted pretty good.

 

[smit0847]

Re: My Best Redemption Yet! (SYD-BKK-HKG-TPE-GUM-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SYD) TG/ BR/UA/OZ F

After this stop we headed to a very strange sort of lean-to tent restaurant. Here we had freshly grilled mackerel, an omelette and Korean beer.


We then headed to what was probably by favourite stop, a heaving night market. This was not huge but jam-packed full of people and every stall seemed to be selling the same thing – a sort of tempura meat and vegetable. Robert took us into one of the markets restaurants and upstairs which was packed with locals having a very good time (lots of red-flushed faces and raucous laughter). Here we had more drinks and our own plate of this freshly fried tempura style meat and vegetables. It was sort of like Korean fish and chips and perfect to soak up all the drinks. We could hardly hear ourselves think in there but the atmosphere was brilliant – we would never have experienced something like this if we had tried to do it on our own!




At about 9:30 the tour concluded. We thanked Robert for a brilliant tour and apologised again for being so late. I would highly recommend this night food tour to anyone visiting Seoul – it was one of the best experiences of the whole trip. If you are in Seoul for an extended period definitely do it on your first night to get your bearings. We did attempt to experience Seoul’s nightlife as we were rather ‘merry’ by this stage but it being a Thursday night, while many venues were often, all of them were almost deserted and the staff inside told us we really needed to be there on a weekend to experience it properly. Oh well, next time.